"Housekeeper Zhan, the fact that the female Gu Weilan was able to awaken a Wood Beast Rank as a Hidden Beast Rank while at a Fifth Rank Beast Rank level proves her aptitude is extraordinarily powerful.
"Furthermore, females with a special Wood Beast Rank have higher Fertility. The latent genetic diseases carried in their DNA strands will also diminish as their Wood Beast Rank increases.
"Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the other day that the female Gu Weilan’s Wood Beast Rank was completely different from a standard Wood Beast Rank."
Beastmen’s Beast Ranks all possessed preferred elemental attributes. The most commonly seen were metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, darkness, light, lightning, and ice, alongside the spatial attribute—which could only be awakened by females with the potential to become Female Emperors. Currently, the Beast Rank level of interstellar beastmen generally ranged from the Fifth Rank to the Seventh Rank. Anything above the Seventh Rank required overcoming a massive resource barrier to cultivate.
For a modestly wealthy family to raise a beastman who reached the Fifth Rank right at adulthood, they would inevitably have to spare no effort. This was because they first needed to guarantee their own resource supply before providing any remaining resources to their cubs, resulting in an astronomical expense.
If a beastman under fifty years old reached the Twelfth Rank, they would be renowned across the interstellar space. Reaching the Fifteenth Rank before the age of a hundred and fifty would make them a household name among beastmen. A beastman’s average lifespan was three hundred years. Those over two hundred were considered elderly. The higher a beastman’s Beast Rank, the more hidden injuries they accumulated; very few actually lived to see three hundred.
Therefore, if a female awakened a Beast Rank Talent Skill right at adulthood and subsequently awakened a Hidden Beast Rank, it was generally impossible for her to then awaken an additional Talent Skill for that Hidden Beast Rank. Yet Gu Weilan was a female who had actually awakened a Wood Beast Rank. The moment she mobilized Wood Element Energy from plants, they instantly recognized her uniqueness! It wasn’t hard to deduce that upon awakening her Wood Beast Rank, she had also awakened a Talent Skill.
After all, Beast Rank Talent Skills were not something just anyone could awaken! At the First Rank, there was a chance to awaken a Talent Skill. Some cubs with exceptional bloodline genes could awaken their Beast Rank as early as three years old, but the probability of simultaneously getting an Awakened Talent Technique was only forty-three percent. Those who failed to get an Awakened Talent Technique at the First Rank had another chance at the Fifth Rank, but the probability was even lower—only around thirty-seven percent. However, upon reaching the Tenth Rank, the probability of getting an Awakened Talent Technique would jump to approximately seventy-two percent.
Yet, while this statistic seemed fascinating, there was a catch: ninety percent of interstellar beastmen never reached the Tenth Rank in their lifetime! Thus, calculating the awakening probability solely from the pool of beastmen who had already reached the Tenth Rank naturally made the chances appear drastically higher.
Once a Talent Skill was awakened, it granted special attributes to a beastman’s attacks or defenses, effectively adding another bargaining chip when they faced the Insect Clan and Star Beasts. Moreover, these premium genes capable of producing an Awakened Talent Technique were highly likely to be inherited by their offspring! The only regrettable aspect was that Gu Weilan’s Fertility was abysmally low. But so what?
If worse came to worst, they could rely on technology; using an Incubation Pod to solve the issue was entirely viable! The Interstellar Federation governed seventeen habitable planets and 4,733 Resource Stars. To bolster the beastman population, they even allowed males to register and form a bond with other males, extracting genetic sequences from both to synthesize cubs. Why wouldn’t they be able to solve the problem of a female’s low Fertility? From any perspective, Xie Jing deeply regretted proposing the cancellation of their match so hastily!
While Xie Jing and Zhan Ci were discussing Gu Weilan, the Gu family was doing exactly the same!
Gu Yaoqing tapped on his Light Brain and forwarded the information he had dug up on Gu Weilan to the Gu family’s private group chat.
"Mother, Gu Weilan is also from the Mole Clan, but she has a Light Element Beast Rank. And she’s already at the Fifth Rank.
"But she looks so much like Sister.
"I think she is Sister! She has the exact same tear mole under the corner of her eye!"
Gu Mother frowned. After reviewing the documents, she replied in the chat, "Gu Weiran’s body was indeed never found. That day, we hired a beastman from the Weasel Clan to implant viruses into all the surrounding surveillance cameras. It’s incredibly difficult now to trace where that wretched brat went!
"If you get the chance, get some of Gu Weilan’s hair. If we confirm she is Gu Weiran, we can perform the operation for you again.
"The Beast God System won’t match a female without Fertility with any valuable Beast Husbands.
"So her only value is providing you with her lifeblood to boost your aptitude and Beast Rank."
Gu Yaoqing was absolutely thrilled! He had currently upgraded to the Fourth Rank, and it would be another year until his coming-of-age birthday. If Gu Weilan was truly his sister, using her lifeblood to concoct another potion could further elevate his Beast Rank and talent. He might even break through to the Fifth Rank! If that happened, countless females would undoubtedly favor him! With a staggering Fertility score of six, he would definitely marry an outstanding female!
Beastmen’s fundamental genes worshiped the strong. In the eyes of the Gu family, Gu Weiran’s meager Fertility of 0.1 made her no different from a useless, low-level male beastman. Of course, Gu Mother had considered that since Gu Weiran had worked so hard to reach the Fourth Rank, keeping her around to serve on the frontlines and earn military merits like a male beastman wasn’t a terrible idea.
However, Gu Yaoqing’s father kept constantly nagging his Female Master about it. If once wasn’t enough, he said it twice; if twice fell on deaf ears, he said it three times. Gradually, Gu Mother came to believe that Gu Yaoqing’s father was right. Rather than letting both children fade into obscurity, it would be better to extract Gu Weiran’s talent by using her lifeblood as medicine. This would allow Gu Yaoqing, whose Fertility was a solid six, to raise his Beast Rank. That way, he could marry a powerful Female Master and leverage the connections of her other Beast Husbands to shelter the Gu family!
Gu Mother was opposed to the idea at first, but after hearing it for so long, she started to feel it made perfect sense. Thus, Gu Weiran became the one who was abandoned.
Gu Weilan had no idea that the Gu family could be so utterly shameless as to plot against her body once again.
At this moment, she received a message on her Light Brain from Zhan Ci, asking if she wanted a late-night snack; he had prepared a lavish midnight meal. Seeing the picture Zhan Ci sent, Gu Weilan’s stomach immediately let out an embarrassing GRUMBLE! Leaving Zhan Heng stranded on the bed, she turned and walked right out of the room.
In his Mo Qilin cub Beast Form, Zhan Heng lay belly-up with all four paws sprawled out. Looking like a depressed, boneless puddle of a cat with nothing to live for, he stared at the ceiling with his crimson eyes. However, his tail seemed to have a mind of its own. It swished side to side across the bed—SWISH SWISH SWISH—constantly rubbing against the sheets and producing a soft rustling sound.
Gu Weilan happily made her way downstairs. The moment she entered the open-plan kitchen, she saw a crimson Xie Jing sitting upright next to a long dining table capable of seating over a dozen people. The chairs here were perfectly designed for beastman ergonomics; at the ninety-degree angle where the backrest met the seat, there was a specially crafted hole. From the moment he saw Gu Weilan, Xie Jing’s tail wagged back and forth incessantly like a metronome. The long tail was covered in red scales, ending in a tuft of hair just like a lion’s mane.
Gu Weilan had never seen Zhan Heng eat with her before. She had even curiously looked up whether beastmen whose Spiritual Sea was severely traumatized—or so heavily polluted that they could only maintain their Beast Form—could still eat normal meals. In reality, this was a matter of common knowledge among interstellar beastmen. Much like when humans fell ill, there were dietary restrictions, but they still needed to eat! It was just that Zhan Heng was so aloof and proud; he likely found eating in his Beast Form to be undignified, so he deliberately avoided dining whenever Gu Weilan was present.
In the past, Xie Jing had acted the same way. She wondered what had gotten into him today.
Just as Gu Weilan cast a suspicious glance at Xie Jing, the notification chime on her Light Brain chimed twice.