Gu Weilan raised an eyebrow. Her finger hovered over the ’cancel match’ option for a moment. Clicking it left her feeling disgruntled, as if a breath of foul air was trapped in her chest, disrupting her inner peace. Yet, ignoring it and leaving the match intact left a bad taste in her mouth. In the end, she simply didn’t reply to Xuanshuo’s message.
She planned to get some good rest and use her days off to properly upgrade her Beast Rank. After all, at the end of the month, the Pharmacy and Material Science majors had a joint assessment mission to gather supplies on a Deserted Star. Although the professor had promised that there were only First to Fourth Rank Star Beasts on the Deserted Star, Gu Weilan remained on high alert.
Back in the Apocalypse, she hadn’t always fought alone. She had also taken on missions from the safe zone to clear out zombies and mutated flora and fauna. Out of ten missions that supposedly only involved low-level zombies and mutants, at least five would end up with unforeseen accidents.
But back then, she had been a powerhouse with Wood Element, Ice Element, Space Element, and Speed System superpowers! What did she have now? Her Light Element and Wood Beast Ranks were nowhere near as offensively powerful as her original Ice Ability and Space Ability! Right now, even if she squeezed out every ounce of her Wood Beast Rank’s strength, she could only force a seed to sprout a seedling the height of a finger... It was incredibly frustrating!
Her current Light Element and Wood Element Beast Ranks truly lacked any attacking power. The Talent Skill, Light Burst, which awakened at Light Element Fifth Rank, could only be considered a supportive blinding trick. And even then, she had to tell her allies to wear heavy-duty goggles! Otherwise, it was an indiscriminate area-of-effect support skill that hit everyone!
When attacking, would she have to yell, "Hey! I’m using my ultimate!"? Otherwise, if her Light Burst blinded them, her teammates might panic and start attacking each other. Just thinking about that scene made Gu Weilan want to close her eyes and never wake up.
And what about Devouring Vitality, the Talent Skill from her Wood Element First Rank Awakening? Since she was only at the strength of a Third Rank breaking through to the Fourth Rank, the energy she could devour was limited. She couldn’t exactly wait for a Star Beast to lunge at her, baring its fangs and gaping its maw, just to shout, "Hold on a second!" Then, she would place her hand on its head, start Devouring Vitality until she couldn’t absorb anymore, and finally say, "Hello, we can start brawling now." Did that make any sense?
Star Beasts weren’t wooden logs; they wouldn’t just let Beastmen do as they pleased. Even if she used Light Burst first and followed up with Devouring Vitality, it would be useless. Gu Weilan had no idea if the Devouring Vitality of her Third Rank Wood Element could even drain a First Rank Star Beast to death. If she couldn’t even drain the vitality of a First Rank Star Beast, what was the point? Furthermore, she had a nagging feeling that she shouldn’t use this Devouring Vitality Talent Skill too recklessly.
She had checked the Star Network and found that Beastmen with devouring-type Talent Skills faced a high risk of severely polluting their Spiritual Sea! Since she had never used her Wood Element’s Devouring Vitality on a Star Beast, she naturally had no idea if absorbing their energy would pollute her Spiritual Sea as well.
In the interstellar beast world, male Beastmen inherently had belligerent and berserk factors in their Spiritual Seas, making them much more susceptible to being infected by Star Beasts. Although females were naturally more peaceful and possessed soothing Spiritual Seas, it didn’t mean they were completely immune to infection and pollution.
For example, was the reason Gu Weilan could only soothe Xie Jing’s Spiritual Sea once a day because it took a whole day to recover? That wasn’t the case. The fatigue actually faded after an hour or two! However, she could clearly feel that after soothing Xie Jing, a wisp of black mist would be brought back into her own Spiritual Sea. A good day of rest would clear this black mist completely. Because of this, she also wanted to use this joint assessment mission as an opportunity to test her Talent Skill.
"It’s fine, Host. Your Talent Skill won’t absorb any pollution! You can rest assured on that front!"
Gu Weilan jumped in fright. "Oh? You’re actually alive, Seeding?" she replied sarcastically.
"The magnetic field of the interstellar beast world clashes with my frequency. I didn’t mean to ignore you, Host, SOB SOB!" Pomegranate Seed hastily explained.
Gu Weilan didn’t understand anything about magnetic fields or frequencies. She just hurried to ask her pressing question. "Can you bring my Ice Ability and Space Ability over to me as well? I noticed that the Central Beastman Academy has a ton of off-campus combat missions for credits! I panic when I don’t have an offensive Beast Rank!"
"BZZT BZZT. Well, Host, that’s why I’ve been telling you to hurry up—BZZT BZZT... find a Beast Husband, and have some cubs! It takes males three years of recovery after using an Incubation Pod before they can have another cub!" Pomegranate Seed preached, sounding exactly like a nagging elder as soon as it spoke.
Gu Weilan frowned. "Are you saying that if I have my Beast Husbands use Incubation Pods to breed cubs, my Ice Ability and Space Element can turn into Beast Ranks and manifest in this body?"
"Correct. The reason you can’t right now—BZZT BZZT... is because your current body can’t handle the massive energy of your previous superpowers... BZZT BZZT."
Relying on a mix of guessing and listening, Gu Weilan more or less understood. Females could soothe males in two ways: through the Spiritual Sea, or through the harmonization of Yin and Yang, which the Beast World referred to as mating. This kind of deep soothing benefited both male and female Beastmen, much like the dual cultivation described in cultivation novels.
When a male’s pollution level dropped, his Spiritual Sea would release a surge of euphoric energy, which the female Beastman could absorb as feedback to strengthen herself. The reason females never tired of taking in numerous Beast Husbands was precisely because they could use this energy to rapidly upgrade their own Beast Ranks! This was a natural law derived from the world’s evolution, designed to prevent the Spiritual Seas of the heavily male-dominated Beastman World from constantly collapsing.
However, Gu Weilan was still full of misgivings. "I checked online. Cubs bred in Incubation Pods all have genetic defects, and they’re almost entirely male. Once they grow up, their unstable genetic sequences ensure they get thrown straight to the frontlines of the legion to serve as cannon fodder."
She furrowed her brows, her tone turning somber. "Setting aside the fact that those Beast Husbands would invest such a massive sunk cost into using the Incubation Pods—there’s no way they’d be willing to watch their children grow up just to die. Even if I’m merely their biological mother in name, I wouldn’t be able to get past that mental hurdle."
These words agitated Pomegranate Seed so much that its speech cleared up instantly. "Host! I would absolutely never harm you!" it defended frantically. "I will teach you how to plant specific flora. They are the core raw materials for refining the cub-breeding fluid used in Incubation Pods. Cubs bred using them won’t have any genetic defects whatsoever!
"Furthermore, the plants grown using your Wood Beast Rank can benefit even more Beastmen. It will allow you to achieve financial freedom and reach the pinnacle of life.
"I brought you here so that you could give birth to rare, atavistic bloodlines for this world! If it was just to produce cannon fodder cubs, there are plenty of same-sex Beastman couples using Incubation Pods. The cubs they produce are already more than enough for the frontlines. It wouldn’t be your turn at all!
"I expended a massive amount of energy to bring you here. I genuinely did it so the Beastman World could see the return of atavistic bloodlines and gradually improve its environment! If you don’t believe me, Host, wait until you use your Wood Beast Rank to grow a batch of plants. You’ll understand exactly why I chose you of all people.
"Your Wood Ability is incredibly special. I brought all of your superpower energy with you; it’s just that your current body can’t withstand such terrifying power yet."
Listening to all this, Gu Weilan felt that it actually made a lot of sense! She finally felt relieved. "Alright, alright, don’t panic. As for my current Beast Husbands... their current physical conditions wouldn’t allow it anyway!"