Gu Weilan finished checking her Light Brain. She felt that if she ever encountered her matched Beast Husbands again, even if they were in their Beast Forms, she absolutely wouldn’t make such a ridiculous blunder again!
Finally full, Gu Weilan looked down and spotted a pair of reflective eyes in the corner, which startled her so much she shuddered!
She patted her chest to soothe herself. "What are you doing? You scared me to death, you know that?"
The red Little Qilin let out a soft snort from his nose, turned around, and headed upstairs.
Frowning, Gu Weilan instructed the robot to clear the dishes, then prepared to test her superpower. It was one of her lifesaving trump cards in the Apocalypse, now brought back by the system. However, she had absolutely no idea how it might have changed after transforming into a Beast Rank.
Always having a means of self-preservation, no matter where she was, was an instinct Gu Weilan had honed during the Apocalypse.
Gu Weilan walked to the villa’s backyard, placed her hand on a tree, and unleashed Devouring Vitality.
Within a minute, the tree’s vitality had been mostly drained by Gu Weilan!
Not wanting others to notice anything unusual, she withdrew her hand. However, she opened the auxiliary tool provided by the system and saw: Light Element Fifth Rank: 3/6000, awakened sunlight absorption, Light Burst. Wood Second Rank: 13/100, awakened Devouring Vitality.
Wanting to test out Light Burst, Gu Weilan shielded her eyes with her arm and released Light Element Energy from her right hand.
At that exact moment, Zhan Ci happened to come looking for her. Upstairs, Zhan Heng was also looking down from the floor-to-ceiling windows, while Xie Jing peeked through a gap in the curtains.
Suddenly, everything within a thirty-meter radius of Gu Weilan lit up as bright as day—no, as blindingly bright as the core of a welding arc!
Zhan Ci instinctively closed his eyes, but it was practically useless; his vision was temporarily filled with blinding white afterimages.
Zhan Heng and Xie Jing fared no better. Even closing their eyes in their Beast Forms offered no protection, leaving their world entirely washed out in pure white.
Gu Weilan, on the other hand, experienced something entirely different. The world before her eyes was red. She felt as though the light had pierced straight through her skin, flesh, and blood, allowing her to see her entire arm glowing red with a slender, pinkish-white bone running down the center...
She asked inwardly, "Pomegranate Seed, what’s the use of this awakened talent? It even affects me! If I use this Talent Skill, doesn’t it mean I’ll have to wear something like a welding mask too?"
"Umm, yes," the system replied in her mind. "Host, you can buy the kind of welding goggles that mechanics students use. The frames come in many different styles!"
"Brill—iant!" she thought sarcastically.
Zhan Ci had already recovered. Seeing Gu Weilan reaching out with both hands as if groping her way forward, he hurried to her side, but he distinctly sensed her wariness.
He paused for a moment in surprise.
According to their investigation, the female Gu Weilan was an orphan from another planet who had come to the Central Star to study.
Did the current cub orphanages engage in illegal and non-compliant practices? Or... was the female Gu Weilan’s identity fake?
His expression remained unchanged as he said softly, "I am the butler for the male Zhan Heng and the male Xie Jing. You can hold onto my arm, and I will guide you back to the villa."
What else could Gu Weilan do? She could only grip Zhan Ci’s raised forearm and let him verbally guide her back to the villa.
Her vision finally recovered!
As she rubbed her eyes, she heard Zhan Ci congratulate her. "Congratulations to the female Gu Weilan on awakening a Talent Skill upon breaking through to the Fifth Rank in Beast Rank."
This proved that the female Gu Weilan’s talent was exceptionally good. Unfortunately, the female Gu Weilan’s Fertility... had dropped again!
While Gu Weilan had been unconscious earlier, Zhan Ci had the robot butler help examine the female’s body.
All her indicators were fine, apart from slight anemia. Unfortunately, they discovered that the female Gu Weilan’s Fertility had dropped once again—this time to 0.3!
Zhan Ci had immediately wanted to persuade Zhan Heng to break off his match with the female Gu Weilan as well. However, Zhan Heng had only given him a single glance, and he instantly knew that his new Lord of the Qilin Clan had no intention of severing the match.
He was truly worried!
But he was only a butler. He could only count his blessings that the former Lord’s bloodline could still be passed on through Xie Jing.
It seemed the Beast God System had prioritized soothing the Spiritual Sea when assigning a match for his master this time. He could only hope that when the Beast God System matched Xie Jing next time, it would prioritize Fertility!
"Did you need me for something?" Gu Weilan asked, looking at Zhan Ci after she had fully recovered.
Noticing her slight awkwardness, Zhan Ci said, "The female Gu Weilan can call me ’Butler,’ just as my masters do. After all, once the female Gu Weilan forms a Contract Seal with my master, we will be a family."
Seeing Gu Weilan nod, Zhan Ci continued, "I came to ask the female Gu Weilan if you need the remaining Fifth-rank Star Cores exchanged for Sixth-rank Light Element Star Cores.
"Also, do you need them exchanged for some Wood Element Star Cores? While you were unconscious, we had the robot butler examine your body and discovered that you have awakened a second attribute.
"My master, the male Zhan Heng, also has the Wood Element as his second attribute. However, he is currently recuperating from his injuries and can only revert to his Beastman Form for about ten minutes each day.
"Because of this, he is unable to attend to the female Gu Weilan’s every need personally. If the female Gu Weilan has any requests, you can make them directly to me."
Gu Weilan knew that Beastmen from some major families possessed two or three Beast Rank attributes. However, public records for all Beastmen only ever listed their primary attribute.
This was primarily to prevent others from targeting their weaknesses.
Hearing Zhan Ci’s words, Gu Weilan nodded hastily. "I still have over sixty Light Element Fifth-rank Star Cores left. Please help me exchange them all for Sixth-rank Star Cores. Next time you pay me for the male Xie Jing’s treatment fees, you can just settle the payment with Sixth-rank Star Cores as well."
Zhan Ci nodded and noted her request, then reminded her, "By the way, during the half-hour or so when the female Gu Weilan was unconscious today, your Light Brain kept ringing. It must have been an urgent call request. Have you checked it yet?"
Gu Weilan was puzzled. She had canceled her identity as Gu Weiran, and she hadn’t made any friends under her newly purchased identity! Who could be calling her Light Brain?
After thanking Zhan Ci, she opened her Light Brain to take a look. It was an unknown number!
She dialed back, only to hear: "The Light Brain signal you have dialed is out of the service area..."
Meanwhile, the intended recipient of Gu Weilan’s Light Brain call was currently on a Deserted Star. The area was completely barren, littered with dead branches and rotting leaves that had been corrupted by pollution. Shen Mianzhou was wearing a silver-gray combat suit made of a special material, along with a fully enclosed helmet of the same make. As he led his team, his expression was incredibly anxious.
Shen Mianzhou was leading his team to hunt Eighth Rank and Ninth Rank Star Beasts.
However, despite searching for more than half a month and nearly driving all the low level small Star Beasts in their path to extinction, they still hadn’t encountered a single Eighth Rank or Ninth Rank Star Beast!
A massive battle had once taken place in this godforsaken wasteland, leaving behind heavy amounts of corrosive radiation and pollutants. As a result, it was extremely difficult for Light Brains to receive a signal here.
Earlier, the moment Shen Mianzhou had received the signal from the Beast God System’s matching center, he had immediately called the Female Master matched to him.
Unfortunately... the Female Master hadn’t answered!
Upon closer inspection, Shen Mianzhou realized he was supposed to have received his match notification ages ago!
Since so many days had already passed before he finally called his Female Master, she definitely hated him by now!
He belonged to the Dream-Eating Tapir Clan. Furthermore, his Beastman Form was a light teal color and resembled a deer—an appearance that looked inherently weak.
The vast majority of female Beastmen preferred strong and imposing male Beastmen.
Therefore, weak-looking male Beastmen like him were only favored by the small fraction of females who specifically preferred herbivore Beastmen.
After several of his Light Brain call requests had been "ignored," Shen Mianzhou made a decision. "We will immediately find a place where we can launch the airship and prepare for our return trip."
But just as Shen Mianzhou spotted an area where the pollution wasn’t quite as severe, the deep, thunderous roar of a Star Beast erupted from behind their group of Beastmen!