Chapter 48: Lingna Deer’s GambleÂ
Xia Xiyao had run away from home in a hurry, so she didn’t have much money to her name. Between her starliner ticket and the adoption fee she had paid for Habao, she was down to her last pennies.
She looked at Su Wudeng anxiously. “Governor, is your shop still hiring? I’d like to apply!” She figured she could use her earnings to pay for using the training facility. “And…” She looked at the governor with a fierce, determined gaze. “I want to officially register as a resident on this Tier 4 planet!”
Before, her only motivation for staying was to keep Habao in a familiar environment. But after witnessing Su Wudeng’s terrifying hidden strength today, she was absolutely convinced this planet had a massive future. She wanted to plant her roots here.
Shu Can jumped in immediately. “Governor, count me in too! I want to stay!” He patted his husky’s head. “I’ve never been happier than I have during this past month taking care of Hashuai. Plus, he has so many friends here now. I can’t imagine how heartbroken he’d be if I dragged him away.”
Chu Yansen turned his gaze to Su Wudeng as well. He had actually formulated this strategy weeks ago and had already executed the paperwork. “The corporate registration for my new pet-supply company is already anchored to this coordinate. As the principal officer in charge, I assume the governor won’t turn me away?”
Su Wudeng looked at the three of them essentially performing a rehearsed routine and burst out laughing. It turned out they had planned this all along! The moment they resolved to sign contracts with the pups, they had chosen to bind their futures to this world—even though, in their eyes, it was just a desolate Tier 4 rock. But because of the Pet Home and the miraculous animals here, this coordinate had become a sanctuary.
Uncle Lan and Keke were native citizens. Zhong Huihui had made her decision long ago. But for Xia Xiyao, Shu Can, and Chu Yansen, who had access to premium core worlds, choosing to settle here was an incredible leap of faith. They wanted to grow alongside this planet.
“Well, you definitely won’t regret it,” Su Wudeng said with a bright smile. “The facility is understaffed, and the planet is severely short on citizens. With a wave of my hand, your residency applications are officially approved! Let’s build a future together.”
Xia Xiyao beamed. “I knew I could trust the governor!”
Zhong Huihui grinned and threw an arm around Xia Xiyao’s shoulders, passing down her seniority. “You made the absolute right choice. I know the immigration and settlement registry inside out. I’ll take you down to clear the official paperwork later!”
Little Keke clapped her hands, jumping up and down. “Yay! Big brothers and big sisters are all staying! Keke can play with everyone forever now!”
Though Su Wudeng kept her composure, she was deeply moved. The planet was in its critical, foundational development phase and desperately needed structural human capital. Their willingness to stay solved her most urgent operational bottleneck. Many of her grand blueprints could finally move from data files to actual field execution! She had people she could trust to run them.
“By the way, Governor,” Xia Xiyao said, already pivoting into her role as a stakeholder of the planet. “The most critical structural vulnerability I identified during my transit here is our lack of interstellar flight corridors.”
She broke down the logistics mapping. “Currently, our system only hosts a single, active commercial route connecting us directly to a Tier 3 star called Silver Moon. Just one. Every single quantum communication packet or physical transport connecting us to the wider Scott Galaxy must route through the Silver Moon transit hub first. Brother Chu and Brother Shu understand the implications of this—it means our entire planetary supply chain is at the absolute mercy of Silver Moon’s regulatory board.”
She leaned forward. “More importantly, the sheer lack of transportation convenience actively deters high-tier human capital from immigrating here. The complex transfer requirements only reinforce the public perception that this coordinate is a primitive, backwards wasteland where no sensible citizen should gamble their career.”
It was a structural vice grip that kept the planet stagnant, and it was the most pressing bottleneck threatening their survival.
Chu Yansen’s brow furrowed slightly as he listened to her analysis. “That is an accurate evaluation. In fact, I’ve secretly leveraged my personal networks back home to request the opening of independent regional routes to this sector. I even offered to fully subsidize the initial infrastructure and operational deficits myself.” He sighed, shaking his head. “But the administrators at Silver Moon completely stonewalled the applications. The reality of the situation is that this issue cannot be bypassed with raw liquidity. It’s a regulatory blockade.”
Had this been a sector near the capital star, he could have pulled strings, but this coordinate was simply too far removed from his family’s sphere of influence. A powerful dragon cannot crush a localized serpent—he had hit a political wall. He had chosen to keep the matter hidden from Governor Su because he didn’t want to burden her with a macro-political problem that seemed entirely impossible to solve.
Su Wudeng hadn’t anticipated that Chu Yansen had quietly exerted so much effort on her behalf. But since they were all officially on the same team now, she didn’t see any reason to keep them in the dark about her counter-strategy.
“Brother Chu, you’re exceptionally sharp, so I’m sure you’ve already deduced the underlying motive,” she explained calmly to the group. “The Pet Home’s growth trajectory has completely bypassed standard market models, and the core-world aristocracy cannot monopolize our output. Since they can’t control us, their tactical response is to pin us to a single coordinate and choke our logistics until we suffocate.”
It always came down to capital and resource control, but these aristocrats were far more calculated than the aggressive mechanical pet merchants. A colony world cannot build an economy without trade routes; it was the most foundational law of civilization. They didn’t need to engage in open hostility—as long as they locked down the transit corridors, they could trap this planet in permanent stagnation.
“But do not let it stress you. We are on the verge of a definitive breakthrough on this front.” Su Wudeng smiled, a cold, confident light in her eyes. “Leave the logistics blockade to me. I will dismantle it personally.”
The tactical solution was elegantly simple: force the supreme commanders of the Northern District to yield. And her leverage was the flawless Ghost Moon Flower cradled in her storage array. Right now, she was only offering to preserve the neural pathways of the Mo family’s second heir, but who could guarantee those wealthy dynasties wouldn’t suffer a catastrophic pet casualty tomorrow? If they pushed her into an absolute confrontation, there wouldn’t be a second chance for a cure.
The group exchanged glances of silent astonishment. The governor can actually force a resolution on a galactic transit blockade? By this point, they didn’t harbor a single shred of doubt regarding her capabilities.
Xia Xiyao assumed Su Wudeng must be liquidating an unimaginable personal asset behind the scenes. After all, if Chu Yansen’s infinite corporate capital couldn’t buy a single permit from those administrators, the governor’s leverage had to be terrifyingly absolute.
Uncle Lan and little Keke were deeply moved. Nobody understood the systemic neglect this planet had suffered better than them. It was a bleak, forgotten rock; citizens migrated away every single quarter, and their economic performance indicators consistently ranked dead last in the galaxy. Su Wudeng could have easily abandoned this coordinate to build a multi-trillion-credit pet empire on a luxury main world, but she had stayed, silently absorbing the structural burdens and never wavering in her duty as their sovereign. They were incredibly fortunate to have her. If they had a viable future here, who would ever willingly abandon their homeland?
Chu Yansen and Shu Can looked at each other, the shock evident in their eyes. She can actually break a core-world political blockade?
There had to be a terrifyingly ancient, monolithic shadow organization backing the governor. Only an elite syndicate of that tier could wield enough leverage to make core world nobles bend the knee.
Sensing the shift in momentum, Chu Yansen probed cautiously, “Governor Su, if the logistics bottleneck is resolved, what is your long-term industrial roadmap for this planet? Currently, the primary developmental chasm between our territory and a Premier Tier 1 world like Athens, or even a Tier 3 world like Silver Moon, is the total absence of a core pillar industry.”
He laid out the economic metrics. “Silver Moon’s economy is entirely sustained by their high-yield lunar ore refineries, and Athens commands a absolute monopoly over galactic cultural institutions and high-end tourism. Securing interstellar routes is merely the opening move; the real test is defining our core export.”
Their colony world was simply too hostile. Ninety-eight percent of the surface area was classified as toxic wasteland, leaving a pathetic two percent capable of maintaining baseline life-support parameters for human habitation. Trying to copy Athens’ high-end cultural tourism model was a pipe dream—nobody was going to pay starliner fares just to stare at miles of gray dust. And as for rich mineral deposits like Silver Moon? The geological scans returned zero assets, which was precisely why the planet had been condemned to a Tier 4 rating in the first place.
Although the Pet Home’s digital traffic and viral clips were breaking galactic records and the public was obsessed with the animals, that digital attention hadn’t been anchored to a physical industrial chain. The traffic wasn’t driving permanent consumer spending to the planet’s internal market. Chu Yansen had established his supply corporation here precisely to inject some industrial variety into the planet’s GDP, but a single private enterprise was a temporary band-aid, not a systemic solution. He had brainstormed dozens of economic pivots, but every single model hit a dead end due to the raw hostility of the environment.
The group fell into a grim, contemplative silence. A moment ago, they had been riding an emotional high, fantasizing about transforming the entire planet into the largest ecological pet sanctuary in the galaxy. Now, the harsh reality of macroeconomics had completely derailed their enthusiasm.
Everything required capital.
“Who says dead soil can’t generate capital?” Su Wudeng smiled, stepping toward the exit. She gestured for the cohort to follow her directly to the shuttle pad. “Come on. Let me show you the literal molecular revolution currently taking place on our planet.”
“We are converting dead wasteland into premium grasslands!”
Chu Yansen, Shu Can, Uncle Lan, and Xia Xiyao stared at her. “What?”
Converting toxic wasteland into viable grassland?
By definition, a planetary wasteland classification meant the soil chemistry had suffered an irreversible breakdown, rendering it completely incapable of sustaining organic cellular life. It was a permanent, dead state. More importantly, even if you somehow fixed the soil pH, establishing a grassland required a colossal volume of foundational seeds! Where on earth was she supposed to source agricultural cargo of that scale?
Following the great ecological collapses, organic botanical seeds were classified as restricted strategic assets, preserved under extreme security deep within the vaults of elite agricultural worlds. How could a Tier 4 governor lay hands on an entire freighter’s worth of seeds?
Then, a sudden realization struck them. Standard science couldn’t achieve this, but Governor Su didn’t operate on standard mechanics. She possessed a legendary secret realm!
Only Zhong Huihui knew the true parameters of the operation. She offered a knowing grin to the stunned newcomers. “Don’t break your brains just yet. Save your energy for the actual field demo.”
Just hearing the concept was enough to break their understanding of botany. If they saw a wild Lingnai Deer casually using accelerated growth magic to carpet miles of gray dirt in vibrant Greenwind Grass with their own eyes, they’d probably pass out. Zhong Huihui let out a soft sigh. That is a true miracle.
Luming Valley.
The Lingnai stag, Lufeng, stood perched on a high ridge, his sharp eyes scanning the sweeping forest canopy in the distance.
A few days ago, he had witnessed a magnificent, colossal eagle descend through the sheets of rain. It was the very first time in his life he had observed a high-tier aerial creature of that caliber up close. He remembered how his heart had hammered against his ribs at that exact moment, a wild, soaring sensation taking hold of his spirit.
But reality was a cruel master—he was merely a deer. He couldn’t fly, and he couldn’t wage war. He sat firmly at the absolute bottom of the forest food chain, condemned to spend his life chewing on raw vegetation. Even his innate genetic skills were strictly limited to cellular cellular regeneration and manipulating vine growth—zero offensive capability, zero lethality.
But Lufeng was exceptionally intelligent, far outclassing his herd in analytical thinking. He knew the exact geometric stress points to apply his magic to force vines to erupt at triple their natural velocity. When executing cellular healing on a wounded animal, he didn’t blindly flood the target with raw spiritual energy like the rest of his kind; he systematically mapped out the root cause of the pathology, allowing the biological system to efficiently repair itself.
Yet, all his intellect was functionally useless in the wild. He was still forced to hide deep within this isolated valley just to avoid being torn apart by predators.
“Lufeng! Nana has completely lost her mind!”
A panicked cry interrupted his thoughts. Another young stag, Luqing, came scrambling up the ridge.
He barked in utter bewilderment, “She’s actively lobbying the entire herd to abandon the safety of Luming Valley and march straight into a human encampment! The outside world is crawling with predators and hunters, how can she even suggest such insanity?”
“Our only hope of survival is to stay deep in hiding right here.”
“I am certain Nana has been completely brainwashed by that human’s psychological tricks! She’s actually claiming the human settlement is a paradise of absolute safety. Has that idiot completely forgotten she was nearly turned into a leather trophy by poachers last week?!”
The young stag continued his furious rant, but Lufeng’s expression shifted, his gaze turning reflective. He had closely analyzed the data surrounding Nana’s return. The human who had extracted the projectile from her bone resided down by the river basin. Even the hyper-cautious squirrel scouts had verified that this particular human possessed an anomaly high affinity for pets.
Lufeng hadn’t fully bought into the rumors initially, but the irrefutable data was standing right in their valley—Nana had returned completely healed, healthy, and full of energy.
“I intend to conduct a personal field evaluation,” Lufeng announced calmly.
Luqing’s jaw dropped, staring at him in utter horror. “Are you losing your mind too?!”
But Lufeng had already pivoted, stepping down the ridge with calculated, purposeful strides.
“I refuse to spend the rest of my existence hiding in a ditch,” he stated coldly over his shoulder.
Why was his species eternally condemned to a life of fear and concealment? He wanted to evolve. He wanted to unlock the true limits of his genetic potential. He wanted to become strong enough to command his own destiny—strong enough to walk under the sun without needing a place to hide!
Nana stood proudly before the three deer who had stepped out of the herd to join her line:
Doudou—her childhood best friend. Doudou’s mother, Luling—her own mother’s closest companion within the herd.
She could logically comprehend why these two were willing to trust her and brave the valley exit. But her gaze drifted to the final volunteer, and she blinked in surprise. Lufeng, the undisputed intellectual leader of the younger generation, was standing calmly at the rear.
“Lufeng, you… you actually believe me?”
The stag gave a concise nod. “Commence the transit immediately.”
Nana felt a surge of pure elation. The smartest stag in the entire valley was backing her! The intense frustration she had felt when the rest of the elders dismissed her claims evaporated in an instant.
“Let’s… let’s move!”
Nana bounded over to Lufeng’s side excitedly, playfully nudging his velvet antlers with her nose. “Lufeng, your analytical skills truly are unparalleled! I swear on my life I am not running a scam. Every single metric I described is completely real. Rest assured, your data model will not return a error on this choice!”
“Sister Su is an incredible person. As long as we complete a single growth cycle shift per day, she guarantees full luxury catering, premium stabling, and absolute military-grade security!”
“By the way, what is your primary nutritional preference? Are you leaning toward dry-roasted pine nuts or caramelized chestnuts?”
Lufeng: “……?”
His brilliant mind hit a brief processing lag. Why on earth was she forcing a deer to choose between two varieties of forest confectionery?
Regardless, Lufeng maintained his polite, composed demeanor. “Either profile is acceptable for my metabolism.”
Hearing this, Nana’s excitement hit redline. “Me too! But Doudou’s tastebuds favor the roasted pine nuts, while Big Sister Amber prefers the sweet chestnuts.”
Lufeng’s ears flicked up, a hint of suspicion entering his eyes. “Amber?”
Nana began rattling off data like a broken terminal. “Oh yeah! She’s a Sword-Heart Husky, Sister Su’s foundational contracted familiar. Her raw combat power is absolutely terrifying! Honestly, my long-term goal is to sign a contract with Sister Su myself, hehe~”
“Oh, and she hosts another contracted beast under her roof. Your brain is going to short-circuit when you see her—it’s a Frost-Blade Snow Leopard! The undisputed Empress of the Arctic Peaks! Her aura is incredibly majestic, it’s insane!”
Lufeng froze mid-stride. To command familiars of that tier simultaneously…
This “Sister Su” was clearly a high-ranking, reality-warping entity. More importantly, she clearly treated her animals with total respect. A profound curiosity sparked within Lufeng’s brilliant mind. He looked down at the simple-minded, cheering fawn beside him and solidified his resolve.
Soon, the silhouettes of five Lingnai Deer slipped past the boundaries of Luming Valley.
Just beyond the perimeter, Amber was currently balancing on his hind legs, snapping lazily at passing butterflies out of absolute boredom. The moment the deer cleared the brush, his sharp ears pinned forward and he locked eyes with the group.
Recognizing Nana, the husky threw his head back and let out a booming howl into the canopy: “You finally managed to recruit a crew!”
Lufeng’s muscles locked, his tactical instincts instantly firing. What an extraordinarily sharp kinetic response!
Doudou and her mother instinctively retreated a step, their hearts hammering. That was a pureblood Sword-Heart Husky—an apex combat breed capable of vaporizing their entire group in a single strike!
But Nana merely chirped happily, sprinting straight toward the massive dog. “Big sister Amber, I’ve returned!” She shifted her hooves sheepishly. “Though… I only managed to clear three recruits for this cycle…”
Amber extended a heavy, velvet paw, giving the fawn a reassuring tap on her shoulder. “You did an excellent job, kid!” He recalled his master’s strict disciplinary orders: no matter how pathetic Nana’s recruitment numbers were, he was forbidden from bruising the fawn’s ego.
“Master is going to be ecstatic when she reviews the onboarding data. Let’s move out!”
Nana’s eyes sparkled with pure joy. The legendary combat husky just validated my performance!
Doudou and her mother were practically hyperventilating with anxiety. They had spent their entire lives encapsulated within the safe geometry of Luming Valley; stepping into unmapped territory was terrifying.
Before long, they reached the crystal stream at the base of the ridge, where the human governor was waiting for them.
“Welcome, everyone!” Su Wudeng offered a warm, radiant smile, keeping her stance completely non-threatening. “Thank you so much for trusting Nana and volunteering to assist with our operations.”
“My name is Su Wudeng. You can call me Governor Su, or just Sister Su if you prefer.”
Doudou and her mother exchanged a stunned glance. This human’s spiritual frequency is incredibly warm and non-predatory!
Lufeng analyzed her aura and felt his conclusion solidify. This is an undeniable turning point—a definitive window for my species to reclaim control over our biological destiny.
Su Wudeng gently stroked the fawn’s neck. “Shall we proceed to the workspace?”
The deer nodded in unison. Since they had taken the gamble, they were eager to benchmark the actual scale of the dead zone Nana and Nuannuan had raved about.
In a fraction of a millisecond, the physical parameters of the environment dissolved around them. They suddenly materialized in an entirely different sector.
Chu Feng and Lin Yue had already prepared the high-capacity transport shuttle outside the pet center, having temporarily cleared all civilian traffic from the area to avoid startling the animals.
It wasn’t until the shuttle doors glided open at Experimental Zone 001 that Doudou and her mother finally relaxed their defense mechanisms. The humans in this sector truly harbored zero predatory intent; in fact, they were staring at the herd with expressions of pure, fanatical adoration.
“They don’t match a single data point regarding the brutal poachers from the legends,” Doudou whispered softly to her mother. “Mom, my sensory arrays are returning pure positive feedback. They don’t have a single drop of malice toward us!”
“Nana’s evaluation was completely accurate!”
“It looks like they find our species incredibly appealing!”
The way these humans were tracking her every movement reminded her of the way she secretly stalked the cute little field mice back in the valley. I love mice, so that means these humans love me? The realization filled Doudou with a sudden, delightful sense of security.
Her mother, Luling, was equally moved. She locked eyes with Nana’s mother, Nuannuan, seeing the profound, shared relief reflecting in her gaze. These humans were an entirely different species compared to the cruel syndicates that poached the rim.
This sector was safe. It was infinitely safer than Luming Valley.
Stepping onto the gray dirt of the wasteland, the five deer instantly detected the microscopic spiritual resonance of the buried Greenwind Grass seeds. A deep, ancestral sense of kinship exploded within their consciousness. Back in the primeval forest, their unique growth-acceleration magic had been structurally redundant, leaving them with no purpose beyond basic survival. But now, feeling the desperate, muted prayers of these buried seeds, something ancient and powerful woke up within their genetic code.
The five young deer systematically organized themselves, each claiming a specific coordinate block. The mature mother deer anchored the largest sectors, the fawns handled the micro-plots, and Lufeng claimed the central baseline. His domain was significantly larger than Nana’s or Doudou’s, his posture projecting an absolute, masterful command over his elemental magic.
Almost simultaneously, the herd locked into the grid and channeled their spiritual energy downward.
The Greenwind Grass seeds were instantly saturated with raw biological vitality. Tender green shoots fractured the dense, gray crust of the dead soil, surging toward the sunlight at an impossible velocity.
The observers standing outside the perimeter fencing watched the phenomenon in absolute, breathless silence. They felt as though they were watching the literal genesis of a miracle.
It took several minutes after the vibrant green carpet settled in the wind for their brains to fully accept reality.
Xia Xiyao stared at the lush oasis, her breath catching in her throat. “The Lingnai Deer… the legendary sacred beasts of agriculture! I am actually witnessing an active terraforming cycle with my own eyes!”
Chu Yansen’s eyes were wide with pure, unadulterated shock. He swallowed hard, his throat feeling completely dry. “Governor… you really know how to deliver a structural surprise. Every single time I conclude your operation has hit its peak metric, you pull a massive miracle out of your sleeve.”
“With a breeding population of Lingnai Deer on the payroll, these dead zones are going to convert into premier grasslands within a single quarter!”
“Who gives a damn about rare minerals or cultural museums? Those metrics are completely irrelevant now!”
Professor Yang stood at his flank, his entire body trembling with academic euphoria. He had finally verified the species with his own eyes, documenting the exact mechanics of their terraforming miracle! He frantically opened his terminal, his fingers shaking as he fired a message to his colleague, Professor Chen.
“Have you still not cleared your notification queue?!”Â
“Abandon your current site and hyper-jump to my coordinates immediately!”Â
“We have a live breeding herd of Lingnai Deer executing soil restoration right in front of me!”
Professor Chen had just concluded a exhausting, depressing soil-density evaluation on a dying radioactive planet. He had just climbed into his exploration module and stripped off his grimy gear when his terminal flared with a relentless string of high-priority alerts.
“Old Yang?” Chen muttered, grabbing a sterile towel to wipe the dust from his forehead as he opened the voice packet. He grumbled to himself, “Is that old fool still wasting his tenure on that Tier 4 rock?”
He had assumed Yang was just hyping up another basic rescue, having just finalized his own bleak dataset on environmental decay. But the instant the text stream rendered across his display, Chen’s eyes practically snapped out of his head.
“What?! Lingnai Deer?!”
“That is statistically impossible!”
He immediately fired back an aggressive voice note: “Have you completely lost your academic sanity?! How can a pureblood Lingnai strain surface in this era?!”
Rather than engaging in a verbal argument, Yang simply dropped a high-resolution media file into the chat link.
[Attachment: Greenwind_Grass_Genesis_Telemetry.jpg]
The towel slipped out of Chen’s hand, hitting the deck with a soft smack. He stared blankly at the vibrant, emerald-green meadow stretching across the screen, a magnificent brown stag with sculpted antlers standing proudly at its center.
Before his brain could even process the file, a video clip followed.
[Attachment: Live_Terraforming_Cycle_Data.mp4]
His fingers trembled violently as he tapped the play icon. On the screen, a desolate expanse of barren, gray earth was violently shattered as millions of Greenwind Grass shoots erupted simultaneously, surging into maturity within seconds. And right at the focal point of the miracle stood the Lingnai Deer, its eyes closed in serene, godlike command over the landscape.
“This… this…”
“This is an absolute, textbook match for a Lingnai Deer!”
Chen’s voice cracked, his decades of field experience confirming the metadata. It was real!
Another voice note from Yang popped up: “I’ve already cleared your security profile with Governor Su. She has formally extended an open invitation for your arrival! Stop calculating metrics and get your butt on a transport shuttle immediately!”
Chen didn’t waste another second, frantically programming the jump vectors into his navigation console, priming the thrusters for an immediate launch to the coordinate.
He managed to broadcast one final, urgent request: “Old Yang! Ensure you run a comprehensive molecular soil-density diagnostic immediately! I need the exact comparative values before and after the magical output!” He was dying to review the biochemical data.
Before long, the accelerated growth cycle concluded.
The deer slowly opened their eyes, gazing upon the sea of vibrant Greenwind Grass swaying elegantly in the wind, listening to the soft, collective whispers of gratitude echoing from the roots into their sensory arrays. Though their physical stamina was entirely depleted, a profound, soul-deep happiness enveloped the herd.
Their genetic gifts had finally found a purpose! It was an unimaginably beautiful sensation to receive the unadulterated gratitude of the flora they had rescued.
Lufeng opened his eyes as well, but his gaze immediately swerved away from the grass, locking onto the human cohort standing near the shuttle pad. Three of the humans had Sword-Heart Husky pups resting happily at their feet, while the other three were cradling pristine Snow Crystal kittens in their arms.
They’ve successfully finalized their life-contracts, the stag deduced logically.
But as his eyes scanned the line, he noticed a young human girl standing slightly apart from the rest. She didn’t have a single familiar resting near her aura.
Lufeng’s brilliant mind re-engaged. Suppressing his natural biological anxiety, he trotted over to Amber’s side, keeping his voice low. “Big sister Amber, what is the classification of that specific human?”
Amber tracked the direction of his gaze. “Oh, you mean Su Yulan? She’s Master’s little sister.”
The governor’s sibling?
“Does she currently lack an anchored familiar contract?” Lufeng inquired.
Amber nodded vigorously. “Yeah! Master has been scouring the networks to find a premium, high-tier match for her, but she haven’t cleared a specimen that meets her criteria yet!”
“I see…”
Lufeng turned his head, watching Nana skip cheerfully over to Governor Su’s side, unashamedly rubbing her head against the human’s hip to demand affection.
Su Wudeng laughed, kneeling down to scoop the fawn into a warm embrace. “Nana, you are officially our MVP today! Look at you go. Your magical output metrics have improved dramatically; look at how much grass you stabilized~”
Receiving the validation, Nana let out a series of joyful bleats, her tail wagging furiously. Nana is going to work ten times harder tomorrow!
But Su Wudeng merely kissed the top of her nose, her tone full of protective warmth. “You will work strictly within your safe physiological limits, understand? I refuse to let you strain your reserves!”
Lufeng analyzed the interaction with sharp precision. Nana adored the governor, and the governor reciprocated with absolute protection and care.
Fascinating, the stag thought. So executing submissive, endearing behavioral patterns is a viable mechanism to secure premium resource allocation and emotional capital from a human? This hypothesis requires further field testing.
Su Wudeng clapped her hands together, drawing the herd’s attention. “Alright, our magnificent deer team crushed their objectives today! It’s time for the banquet! Come and get it!”
A powerful, sweet, intoxicating aroma immediately hit Lufeng’s olfactory sensors.
Doudou and her mother’s eyes snapped wide open. Nana didn’t even wait for an invitation, sprinting directly to her designated wooden platter of dry-roasted pine nuts and shoving her face into the food. This is incredible! So delicious! Dig in, everyone!
Doudou and her mother abandoned all decorum, racing to their respective platters and eating voraciously. They had sampled the small “trial package” Nana had brought back to the valley yesterday, and that singular taste profile had entirely redefined their understanding of nutrition. It was a flavor experience their species hadn’t encountered in generations. Half the reason they had agreed to leave the valley today was their desperate craving to experience that taste again! If a deer lived its entire life without tasting roasted confectionery, its existence was entirely incomplete!
Smelling the sweet fragrance, Lufeng slowly approached the line of tables. He looked down at the platter of golden-brown, split chestnuts, his analytical mind spinning. Do humans truly feed their workers premium confectionery instead of raw forage?
But seeing how ecstatically the other four deer were devouring their portions, he tentatively used his tongue to scoop a single chestnut into his mouth.
A profound, sugary warmth exploded across his palate, shooting straight to his brain. His eyes lit up instantly.
The flavor density is spectacular!
Wired into the same catering grid, Zhong Huihui and the incoming masters were also enjoying fresh plates of roasted treats. They hadn’t anticipated the governor would provide a gourmet spread for the human staff as well.
“Governor Su, your culinary engineering is honestly divine!”
“Wow, my quality of life has skyrocketed since joining this planet!”
“I was literally drooling over my terminal during yesterday’s stream, and now I’m actually eating them!”
“Hehe, we owe this entire feast to our magnificent deer team!”
Nuannuan polished off her portion with incredible speed. Su Wudeng walked over, settling beside the beautiful mother deer. “Nuannuan, could I request a specific logistical favor from you?”
“My operations require a massive volume of medical and healing flora—standard low-to-mid-tier varieties will suffice, but I need them in bulk cargo quantities. Do you think you could oversee a harvest and bring them out of the valley for me?”
“And please, outline whatever assets you want in exchange. Gourmet catering, luxury stabling, core world tech—name your price!”
Nuannuan affectionately nuzzled Su Wudeng’s cheek. “They’re just standard healing weeds, there’s no need for formal contracts between us.”
“To be completely honest, I should be the one thanking you. If it weren’t for your intervention, I would have spent the rest of my existence rotting away in that valley, hiding in the shadows without a purpose.”
“Today, watching my magic reawaken the dead soil, I experienced a level of profound fulfillment I haven’t felt in centuries. It’s an unimaginable joy to watch life return to a wasteland because of my actions.”
The mother deer paused, thinking through a strategy. “I will manage the medical harvest for you tomorrow. But have you considered a more permanent solution? What if we source the raw seeds for these healing herbs and cultivate them directly within these restored plots?”
“Based on my personal magical baseline, my growth-acceleration magic should yield identical optimization metrics when applied to low-tier medical flora as it does to the Greenwind Grass.” After all, her genetic matrix was hyper-optimized for restoration and cellular healing, granting her a massive passive bonus when cultivating therapeutic vegetation.
Su Wudeng’s eyes blazed. “That is a brilliant corporate strategy!”
“Nuannuan, please prioritize harvesting healing seeds during your run tomorrow!”
She wrapped her arms around the mother deer’s neck, planting a giant kiss on her forehead. “Nuannuan, your logistical intellect is unparalleled! You are an absolute angel! Thank you so much!”
The elegant deer shifted her hooves, looking slightly bashful. “It’s a shame the rest of our herd is too paralyzed by ancestral fear to trust our data. They flatly refused to leave the valley boundaries.” She let out a soft, defeated sigh. “I don’t know how to break through their stubbornness.”
“Hehe,” Su Wudeng offered a mischievous grin. “Don’t let it stress you. I’ve already captured the entire terraforming cycle on a high-definition media file. You can take the playback terminal back to the herd and project it for them!”
“The second those reclusive deer see absolute, unedited visual proof of a desolate gray wasteland transforming into a paradise of vibrant green wind grass under our magic, their biological instincts won’t let them resist the temptation!”
Nuannuan’s ears perked up. Of course!
The drive to cultivate and restore was hardcoded directly into their genetic blueprint! Back in Luming Valley, the soil was already saturated with life, leaving their magic with zero structural purpose. But out here in the dead zones? The land was screaming for their power. There wasn’t a single Lingnai Deer in existence who could resist the call of a blank canvas!
On the opposite side of the clearing, Su Yulan was sitting on a wooden crate, watching Lufeng finish his final chestnut with a look of quiet satisfaction. She carefully reached her hand out, gently smoothing down the velvet fur on the stag’s forehead, tracing the elegant, sculpted contours of his antlers.
She let out a soft, breathy whisper. “What a truly magnificent, beautiful little deer…”
Scott Galaxy, Outlying Meteorite Belt.
A cluster of massive, terrifying Zerg bio-vessels abruptly materialized through a localized slipspace rupture. Their gargantuan chitinous hulls drifted through the void, their massive mandibles crushing and devouring the stray meteorites that drifted into their trajectory.
A low, sub-vocal psychic frequency rippled through the swarm:
“An extraordinarily potent biological fragrance… do you sample it?”Â
“Identify the coordinate! Identify the coordinates!”Â
“Directly ahead! Directly ahead!”Â
“Accelerate the swarm. We consume the anomaly and execute an immediate warp before the human fleets intercept our signature!”
A few minutes after the Zerg vanguard vanished back into slipspace, a heavy human dreadnought dropped out of warp at the exact same coordinates.
Within the primary command deck, automated tracking systems were frantically aggregating atmospheric and quantum data, rendering the localized tracking metrics across a massive central holographic display.
Standing before the screen, Commander Chu Tianhe stared at the fluctuating tactical values, his brow furrowed into a deep, icy scowl.
“The behavior matrix is entirely anomalous. These Zerg aren’t executing standard random raiding vectors—they are maintaining a razor-sharp, linear trajectory toward a specific sector!”
He turned his head toward the imposing shadow standing at his flank. “Aihua, can your sensory arrays still lock onto their residual biological signature?”
The panda familiar, armored in a heavy suit of customized tactical silver alloy and fully outfitted with frontline ordnance, suddenly stiffened. Her dark eyes locked onto a precise coordinate point in the deep mapping of the galaxy, her cute features twisting into an expression of absolute, terrifying fury.
“ROAR!”
These bug bastards… truly have a death wish! They actually dare to point their swarm toward her home!
Chu Tianhe stared at Aihua. In all their years campaigning together on the front lines, he had never observed his familiar radiate a bloodlust this absolute. A sudden, horrifying realization struck his brilliant mind.
The color drained from his face as he stared at the trajectory line on the map. “Could it be…”
No way in hell… they’re targeting Governor Su’s planet!
