Chapter 54: Human Training
“What is the store manager doing? Why hasn’t she come out all night?” Zhong Huihui peered through the window of the recovery room, watching Su Wudeng as she kept her silent vigil by Qingqing’s side.
Although the Saker Falcon was sleeping soundly under the effects of the sedation, Huihui didn’t dare step inside to ask. The terror from the previous day’s surprise attack still cast a heavy shadow over her heart.
“Sister Huihui—”
Su Yulan’s voice drifted over from behind. “How is Baiyun doing? Is he okay?”
Zhong Huihui turned around and saw Su Yulan holding a few warm buns and a small plate of side dishes. She knew immediately that this had to be the breakfast prepared for the store manager.
“Baiyun is fine,” Huihui said, gently rubbing her arm. “I just bruised my shoulder a bit yesterday when I fell, but nothing is broken.”
Thinking about how Su Wudeng had casually dozed off right next to the massive raptor, Huihui couldn’t help but marvel. “The manager truly has nerves of steel. Isn’t she worried the Saker Falcon might wake up and lose control again?”
Just yesterday, that beak had almost taken her life!
Su Yulan felt a wave of guilt wash over her. “I’m really sorry, Sister Huihui. It’s my fault you were frightened yesterday.”
Zhong Huihui waved her hands quickly. “Don’t say that, it’s fine. I don’t blame her at all.”
She let out a soft sigh. “The manager explained to me afterward that Qingqing’s brain injury was incredibly severe—she had actually completely forgotten about her own chicks yesterday. It’s heartbreaking. Who knows what kind of trauma she had to survive out there?”
It was difficult to comprehend how such a magnificent, powerful creature could have been brought so low. Her body was a roadmap of fractures, and her mind was entirely scattered.
Huihui looked back into the recovery room, her tone shifting to one of quiet reverence. “Honestly, it’s a miracle she crossed paths with the manager. I saw the falcon chicks we brought back yesterday; they were so weak and hollowed out. If we had arrived even an hour later, I don’t think they would have made it.”
And with their mother’s mind fractured, whether she would have ever remembered them was a terrifying question.
“Yeah,” Su Yulan agreed, her eyes tracking the slender silhouette of her sister sitting by the bedside. A pang of distress hit her chest. “But sister can’t just ignore her own health like this. She’s been standing guard for an entire night without a single minute of sleep. She needs to eat.”
“Sister Huihui, you should head over to the training bays. I have a clear schedule this morning anyway, so I’ll go in and swap places with her.”
She carefully eased the door open, Lufeng padding in obediently right behind her heels.
Watching the door glide shut, Zhong Huihui took a small step back and murmured under her breath, “These two sisters… neither of them knows the meaning of fear.”
“What do you mean by fear?” Shu Can and the rest of the cohort strolled into the corridor after finishing their breakfast, catching the tail end of her whisper.
Zhong Huihui pointed a finger toward the glass pane. “See for yourselves. I walked in there yesterday assuming the Saker Falcon was completely incapacitated, and the second I turned my back, she almost took my head off.”
Yet Su Yulan had just walked straight into the room without a single second of hesitation!
“It’s definitely high-risk. We’re dealing with a fully matured, Commander-tier familiar,” Uncle Lan noted, his brow furrowing slightly. “But with Aihua and Amber stationed inside the room, it should be manageable, right? Plus, Yingying is hovering nearby, which provides a solid defensive buffer.”
Surely three elite, war-forged familiars could contain a single, heavily sedated patient?
Zhong Huihui shook her head firmly. “No, you didn’t experience the raw spiritual pressure that bird radiates. She didn’t even need to consciously target me; the residual shockwave from her moving her wings was enough to break an ice shield. Have you ever heard the saying: ‘When the gods wage war, it’s the mortals who bleed’? If a real conflict erupts in a small room like that, even the stray elemental damage would be lethal.”
Compared to these mythic beasts, human biology was simply too fragile—utterly defenseless! Especially within the locked geometry of an intensive care suite where there was nowhere to seek cover.
Xia Xiyao’s expression turned solemn as she listened to the analysis. “Huihui’s logic is sound. It is incredibly risky for the manager to remain within arms-reach of a wild Commander-tier predator without active armor plating or field barriers.”
Shu Can’t features knotted with anxiety as he stared through the glass. “What if a relapse triggers a sudden combat state and the manager takes a direct hit? No, this is unhinged. I’m stressed.”
Initially, the cohort had planned to transition straight to the training simulators after breakfast, but now the entire group was anchored to the corridor, terrified that a single anomaly inside the ward might compromise their manager’s life.
Inside the recovery room, Su Yulan stepped quietly up to the bedside table, setting down the warm buns and side dishes with extreme care.
Despite her absolute caution, the faint click of the ceramic plate against the metal surface immediately broke through Su Wudeng’s light sleep.
The moment her eyelids fluttered open, the rich, savory aroma of the fresh buns assaulted her senses, causing her stomach to let out an instantaneous, loud rumble.
Su Wudeng’s features lit up with instant joy. “What an incredible scent!”
“Yulan! You brought your sister breakfast!”
“My little sister truly is the absolute best, she knows exactly how to spoil me!”
Su Yulan’s cheeks flushed slightly, her dimples flashing as she looked at her tired sister with deep affection. “Sister, step away from the station and rest. Take your time with the breakfast; I’ll monitor Qingqing’s telemetry for a shift.”
Su Wudeng stood up, rolling her shoulders to stretch her stiff muscles before taking a massive, enthusiastic bite of a bun. The savory flavor exploded across her tongue. “I’m perfectly fine, don’t worry.”
Her eyes drifted down to Lufeng, who had quietly positioned himself at his sister’s side, his large brown eyes tracking the sleeping falcon with an intense, unreadable analytical focus.
Seeing his posture, Su Yulan turned back to her sister. “Lufeng’s spiritual reservoirs have completely replenished after his rest. Do you want him to initialize a secondary cellular healing cycle over the falcon?”
“But… I have some reservations. What if the magical stimulation triggers a neural relapse when she wakes up? What if she lashes out and fractures your position?”
“Should we perhaps wait for the anesthesia to clear naturally?”
Su Wudeng shook her head firmly, swallowing her food. “Negative. Keeping a familiar under deep chemical anesthesia for an extended duration causes systemic toxicity. Furthermore, I have Yingying, Aihua, and Amber managing the room’s defensive lines; a relapse won’t catch us off guard.”
“But as for you—clear the room immediately before Lufeng initializes his magic.”
She refused to permit her little sister to remain within the blast radius of a potential elemental flare.
Su Yulan tightly gripped Su Wudeng’s arm, her stance unyielding. “I’m not leaving. I am an official scion of the Kyoto Beastmaster Academy, Sister; I possess the baseline kinetic training to protect myself.”
“And Amber’s squad is right here to act as a shield. I refuse to abandon you in this room alone.”
Without giving her sister room to argue, she shot a sharp wink at the stag. “Lufeng, activate the cellular restoration matrix. Now.”
If she didn’t force the timeline, her stubborn sister would literally throw her out of the room, which was entirely unacceptable.
Su Wudeng let out a helpless chuckle. Since Lufeng’s antlers were already beginning to glow with soft green light, she dropped the argument, focusing her entire attention on the monitors tracking the falcon’s physiological indicators.
As the sedation began to clear and Lufeng’s gentle, restorative magic began to circulate through her tissues, Qingqing’s eyelids flinched.
“Qingqing? Can you hear my voice, girl?” Su Wudeng called out, her tone dropping into a soft, comforting melody.
Slowly, the Saker Falcon’s amber pupils uncoiled.
Her gaze was cloudy and vacant, her processors sluggish from the heavy sedation, her mind struggling to reconstruct its orientation. Hearing her designation called through the link, she turned her massive head toward the sound.
Su Yulan clenched her fists, her posture rigid as she stared into the falcon’s eyes, her muscles primed to pull her sister back at the first sign of a hostile flare.
Outside the viewing window, the atmosphere in the corridor grew incredibly tense.
“The manager forced her into a hard chemical sleep when she panicked yesterday. Is she going to remember that as an act of hostility?”
“The manager did it to preserve her neural pathways! Based on yesterday’s cranial trauma values, if she had kept thrashing, her brain would have suffered permanent, catastrophic failure.”
“But a wild bird doesn’t understand medical logistics. All her short-term memory registers is that the human knocked her unconscious a second time.”
“So… she’s going to initialize an immediate alpha-strike, isn’t she?”
“The governor is standing entirely too close to her beak!”
“An unhinged, amnesiac mother who has lost her offspring, paired with a Commander-tier raptor commanding explosive lightning damage… Talk about the ultimate recipe for a disaster!”
But right as the cohort braced for an explosion, the Saker Falcon let out a soft, plaintive chirp through the link: Sister Su?
What is the meaning of this layout?
She looked around the room, her large eyes full of innocent confusion. Why were all the humans and familiars in the room locked in a rigid defensive posture against her?
…Are they terrified of my presence? Why?
Before she could delve deeper into the puzzle, Su Wudeng’s warm hand gently touched her crown, smoothing down her feathers with a soft, rhythmically soothing touch. Qingqing’s attention was instantly hijacked by the comforting sensation.
She leaned her head into the touch, looking up at Su Wudeng with an expression of pure, vulnerable bewilderment.
A deep sense of security settled into the falcon’s soul. She shifted her massive bulk slightly closer to the human, feeling a tiny wave of childish grievance. Why was everyone staring at her like she was a monster?
Su Wudeng’s voice remained incredibly gentle. “How are the processors feeling, Qingqing?”
“Is there any lingering pain across your bone structure?”
Qingqing processed the input for a moment before offering a slow shake of her head. The fire in my cells has cleared, Sister. I feel remarkably stable.
I can detect a warm, soothing current circulating through my tissue layers.
Her gaze drifted to the side of the bed, locking onto Lufeng.
The soft emerald hide, the beautifully sculpted antlers, and that unique, earthy scent profile—a memory fragment surfaced in her mind. Wasn’t this the reclusive Lingnai Deer clan celebrated for their high-tier clinical restoration magic? Was he the source of the healing current?
Qingqing hesitated for a split second before projecting a respectful frequency: I extend my gratitude for your intervention.
Hearing the legendary Sovereign of the Skies address him with formal respect, Lufeng’s entire body gave an involuntary shudder. He desperately fought to maintain his calm, masterful posture, but his internal processors were practically screaming in terror: An absolute apex aerial titan is literally thanking me for my service!
Forcing his breathing to remain level, he responded in a slightly trembling tone: The… the gesture is entirely unnecessary. Focus your energy on data stabilization and cellular recovery; that represents the ultimate compensation for my craft.
Qingqing gave an obedient nod, her focus drifting inward. She wanted to recover her full strength, she needed to…
What exactly was my primary objective again?
The files inside her mind felt blurred and fragmented; she couldn’t lock onto the core purpose.
Outside the viewing pane, the cohort felt their chests tighten as they watched her head drop.
“She’s completely calm. Does this mean… she’s deleted the files regarding her chicks all over again?”
“Just watching her look that lost is breaking my heart.”
“It’s entirely too cruel. She clearly loves her children with every molecule of her being, yet her own mind keeps betraying her.”
“The cranial lesion values are too high; it’s a physical injury, not a choice.”
“At this rate, if the cell decay continues, she’ll eventually suffer total cognitive collapse and forget her own identity.”
“No, I have absolute faith the store manager won’t let it reach that threshold.”
“She literally broke into a sealed mountain vault to bring those chicks back alive. The second Qingqing sees her babies, her brain will clear.”
“But… what if the amnesia is absolute? What if she doesn’t recognize their genetic signatures?”
“That…”
Inside the ward, Su Wudeng gently wrapped her arms around the falcon’s neck. “You’re doing so well, Qingqing. Sister has prepared a spectacular surprise for you, want to see it?”
A surprise?
With her curiosity instantly piqued, the massive bird leaned her chest against Su Wudeng, letting out a soft, affectionate chirp.
Yes! What asset did you secure?
Su Wudeng flashed a bright smile, casting a meaningful look at Aihua.
The giant panda gave an intelligent nod, shifting her massive upper arms to reveal the contents cradled against her chest armor. She used a single, velvet claw to gently nudge the small, downy white fluff-balls nestled inside her embrace.
“Squeak! Squeak!”
“Mommy!”
Qingqing’s entire body went rigid as if struck by a kinetic charge, her amber pupils dilating to absolute maximum as she stared at the cluster of tiny chicks in Aihua’s arms.
This is—
“Mommy!”
“Mommy’s here!”
The Saker Falcon chicks hadn’t processed their mother’s scent matrix in over forty-eight hours. Now that the proximity was clear, they were practically vibrating with intense, joyous excitement.
Aihua stepped closer to the bed, and Su Wudeng carefully guided the container directly before the falcon’s chest. “Do the files map now, Qingqing?”
“These are your most precious, beloved babies—the very infants you sacrificed your entire lifespan and fractured your own bones to shield from the storm.”
“They’ve missed their mama so incredibly much!”
Staring at the nest of squirming, chirping chicks resting mere inches from her beak, Qingqing’s entire frame began to shake violently. An absolute, primal realization shattered the block in her mind.
She tentatively extended her massive, bandaged wings, unfolding them with extreme care to drape them like an armored canopy over her children.
Her razor-sharp beak moved from one chick to another, planting a dozen soft, frantic kisses against their downy heads, her vision turning into a blur as hot tears spilled over her feathers.
My babies…
My beautiful, precious babies…
I’m so sorry… Mama is so sorry… My mind broke and I forgot your faces again.
Please forgive Mommy…
Su Wudeng’s eyes burned, a heavy lump forming in her throat. Forcing back her own tears, she offered words of firm validation through the link: “You are the most magnificent, fierce mother in the galaxy, Qingqing! You didn’t fail them! You preserved every single one of your children!”
“Look at how lively, healthy, and pristine your chicks are~ Every single one of them owes their life to your bravery, right?”
“Your babies adore you more than anything in the universe!”
“Squeak! Squeak!”
“Mommy is the best! We love Mommy!”
Qingqing’s tears continued to spill onto the mattress. Mama loves you more than my own life force. I love my beautiful children.
Her pristine black plumage was soaked with tears, yet she held her broad wings locked in an unyielding, protective circle around her nest, exactly as she had done countless times across the wild ridges.
Su Wudeng looked down at the brutal, jagged scars scoring the flesh beneath her feathers—every single mark a testament to the apocalyptic violence she had endured to keep them safe.
“Qingqing…” her voice cracked with deep emotion. “You are the bravest mother I have ever known!”
She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around the falcon and the entire cluster of chicks, holding them tight against her chest. “The darkness is over. Everything is going to be perfect from now on!”
Qingqing leaned into the embrace, a soft frequency rippling through the link. Thank you…
Sister Su… thank you for saving my family…
Watching the reunion unfold, Su Yulan felt the tears spill over her cheeks. She turned her head away, burying her face into Lufeng’s soft, green-tinted neck fur, her voice thick with a ragged sob. “Wuwuwu… Lufeng, I’ve entirely lost control over my optical ducts.”
Lufeng slowly closed his eyes as the emotional weight of the link washed over his consciousness. The journey had been entirely too bitter; this Saker Falcon had endured a level of suffering that defied imagination. But seeing that her infants were completely pristine and her mind had successfully anchored, the worst of the crisis was cleared. This was the absolute premier outcome.
Outside the viewing glass, the cohort turned their heads away one by one, discreetly wiping the moisture from their eyes.
“The psychological toll must be immense. She couldn’t even access the files until her children were physically placed before her eyes.”
“Wuwuwu… the chicks loved her so intensely, yet her own brain had wiped their data. That baseline disconnect is too heartbreaking.”
“It’s going to turn around now. The path is clear!”
“The infants are still so young; they wouldn’t survive a single winter cycle without her protection. Qingqing, you must redline your recovery metrics and survive for them!”
“I was losing my mind with anxiety thinking she was going to initialize a combat state upon waking, but looking at her reality… if my family was erased and my mind broke like that, going crazy would be an absolute mercy!”
“Such a tragic story…”
Inside the suite, Aihua and Yingying moved closer to the bed, their own maternal instincts deeply triggered by the display. They, too, were mothers who had been pulled back from the precipice of absolute destruction by Su Wudeng’s intervention.
Aihua recalled the grim memories of her own past, a low rumble vibrating in her chest. Had my sister not intercepted my trajectory in the wild, my own infants would have been reduced to dust weeks ago.
She stepped forward, wrapping her massive, plush arms around Su Wudeng and the falcon. Dry your eyes, Qingqing!
Now that you’ve cleared entry into my sister’s domain, your future safety parameters are absolute!
Yingying padded over as well, coiling her massive, dense white tail around the entire gathering, drawing them into a singular, warm embrace.
Her silver eyes blinked softly as her memory units pulled up the archival files of her own rescue. She remembered the blinding, freezing wind of the snow peaks that day—how her life force had been flatlining, until her sister’s warm, unconditional embrace had dissolved the frost from her soul.
Yes. The darkness is entirely cleared.
Just like her own moment of absolute despair, the human sister had materialized at her side, bringing a brilliant, unyielding hope into her world. Now, she could watch her own cubs grow up day by day under the sun, completely safe, carefree, and full of joy.
With her chicks securely nested by her side, Qingqing’s physiological recovery metrics experienced an immediate, massive surge.
The baseline power of maternal devotion was a infinite resource. The falcon appeared to have unlocked a completely renewed spiritual vitality; she not only cooperated meticulously with every diagnostic check and medical application, but her nutritional intake metrics doubled overnight.
Lufeng was formally designated as her exclusive attending physician.
“Your cellular data is spectacular, Qingqing. The stabilization curve is breaking records today!”
Su Wudeng leaned down, planting a soft, celebratory kiss against the bird’s crown. “Maintain this level of compliance through the evening. Tomorrow morning, I’ll clear the restrictions and we can take the babies out for their very first flight exercises, how does that sound?”
The falcon’s amber irises ignited with an intense light. Flight?
Yes!
I will personally instruct my children on how to master the upper thermal currents!
Qingqing was already vibrating with immense anticipation, happily closing her eyes as she wished she could fast-forward the space-time continuum directly to the next dawn.
Once Su Wudeng verified the stabilization data, she clicked off the automated medical lamps, stepped out of the intensive care unit, and gently secured the door.
The exact second she turned around, she found herself face-to-face with General Chu. “General? Is there an administrative issue you need to brief me on?”
Chu Tianhe gave a concise nod, gesturing toward the viewing glass of Qingqing’s ward. “Her psychological and physical profiles have dramatically improved over the last few cycles, haven’t they?”
“Affirmative,” Su Wudeng agreed, leading the way toward the plush leather sofas in the reception area. “Her cognitive clarity has fully re-anchored, and the deep lacerations across her wings have cleanly closed.”
“Lufeng has been managing her cellular conditioning sessions around the clock, and the treatment efficiency is remarkable.”
“At this specific velocity, her tissue restoration will be fully executed within a few days.”
Most importantly, her neural pathways would be completely repaired.
“But, General Chu… does your presence here signify that your division’s deployment window has concluded?”
The commander let out a smooth, polished chuckle. “As expected of our planetary governor, your analytical deduction is instantaneous.”
“Our departure has been bottlenecked for several days already, and my command staff cannot delay our return any further. I am legally required to transport Aihua back to the eastern theater vanguard tomorrow morning.”
“Moving forward, the facility’s security line will rely entirely on Yingying and Amber. Which brings me to my core concern… what is your contingency plan if Qingqing experiences a hard psychological relapse?”
Su Wudeng’s brow furrowed, her eyes narrowing. “General, what is the meaning behind that query? Did your deep-space reconnaissance drones log an anomaly?”
General Chu let out a heavy sigh, his posture relaxing against the sofa. “If my memory units are functioning correctly, Qingqing’s amnesia was triggered by a blood feud against a confirmed Monarch-tier sovereign, correct?”
“You personally benchmarked the absolute physical destruction inflicted upon her frame when you extracted her from the ridge. Do you honestly believe an apex raptor of her caliber will simply abandon her desire for blood vengeance once her memory banks fully restore?”
Su Wudeng fell into a heavy, absolute silence.
She lacked the diagnostic data to predict the falcon’s future behavioral choices, but if an enemy had systematically hunted her across star systems, destroyed her family, and forced her to entomb her own infants inside a rock face just to survive, she would personally redline her parameters to exact a bloody revenge.
“General Chu… are you predicting that the exact second her wings clear the medical restrictions, she will abandon our sanctuary to launch a suicidal counter-strike?”
“But given her current evolutionary gap, challenging a Monarch-tier entity is pure suicide. And what about her chicks? They’re still fragile newborns…”
General Chu didn’t offer a verbal counter, simply leveling a calm, steady gaze at the governor.
He understood that Su Wudeng wasn’t a simpleton; she decoded the internal psychology of her animals far better than any military analyst.
After a long pause, the light in Su Wudeng’s eyes dimmed, her shoulders dropping under a wave of administrative fatigue.
“You’re right,” she whispered softly. “If I were trapped in her reality, I would pursue vengeance regardless of the statistical survival rate.”
“Qingqing explicitly stated that the monster was responsible for the total annihilation of her lineage, but her memory block prevented her from detailing the exact species profile.”
“Perhaps… perhaps her subconscious has already begun programming the deployment vector.”
Su Wudeng pressed her palms against her face. “She was entirely too compliant when I brought the chicks back. Her submissive behavior was a calculated handoff—she knew for a fact that if she left her children under my care, my center would raise them with absolute protection and premium nutrition.”
“While she… she intends to march straight into her execution to take her enemy down with her.”
“If only my personal system could provide her with an evolutionary leap, identical to the hardware upgrade I authorized for Yingying…”
She could easily broker a vengeance template for Yingying against local poachers, but providing an immediate counter against a cataclysmic, Monarch-tier cosmic predator was far beyond her current territory level.
“Ah,” General Chu sighed, reaching out to pat her arm gently. “Governor Su, do not shoulder this as an administrative failure on your part.”
“Your current tier simply limits your enforcement capabilities. Who can predict what evolutionary assets your store will command in the upcoming cycles?”
“No!” Su Wudeng snapped her head up, her features carved from pure, unyielding determination. “I refuse to let Qingqing march out of my facility just to throw her life away. There has to be a tactical bridge.”
“Hope,” General Chu stated clearly, his voice carrying the weight of a seasoned commander. “You must inject a definitive, measurable hope into her calculations. If she perceives a mathematically viable path to absolute victory, her strategic logic will force her to delay her deployment.”
As he spoke, he retrieved a sleek, metallic document case from his uniform pocket, sliding an elegant invitation across the table toward Su Wudeng.
“The Command Staff of the Scott Galaxy is hosting the Supreme Military Alliance Summit next month. The conference agenda includes not only high-end cybernetic and mechanical familiar exhibitions but an exclusive competitive arena for biological familiars. It’s formally classified as an intellectual exchange, but it is effectively a raw evaluation of tactical strength.”
“This summit will determine the regulatory jurisdictions and resource allocation templates across the entire Scott Galaxy for the next century. If your administrative schedule permits, I highly recommend you attend and evaluate the metrics.”
Su Wudeng accepted the invitation, her eyes skimming the glowing text. “A direct competitive evaluation for biological familiars?”
Chu Tianhe nodded. “The Xia Clan, which Xia Xiyao belongs to, is registered as one of the few remaining traditional Emerald Serpent lineages commanding real influence in the cluster. Similarly, several other ancient beastmaster dynasties will be deploying their scions.”
“But as the fiscal cycles advance, traditional houses are being systematically starved out by corporate capital. My data indicates there are barely three prominent biological lineages remaining on the active registry, and their political voice is flatlining. According to my intelligence briefs, the corporate Mechanical Pet Conglomerate has finalized a total strategy to completely suppress and bankrupt the traditional houses during this specific summit.”
“If their corporate lobby secures a total victory, the downstream consequences will be catastrophic. The entire galaxy’s familiar ecosystem will fall under the absolute monopoly of the cybernetic syndicates. At that point, the legal and physical space for biological familiars to exist will be entirely erased from the universe.”
Su Wudeng’s brow furrowed in deep confusion. “But aren’t pureblood biological pets classified as priceless, protected strategic assets across known space? Why would the planetary council authorize their erasure?”
“Priceless?” General Chu shook his head, a wry, cynical smile touching his lips. “An animal commanding apocalyptic combat metrics like an Iron-Eating Beast, a Frost-Blade Leopard, or a Sword-Heart Husky is undeniably priceless to the military brass.”
“Similarly, companion animals like the Snow Crystal Cat or the calico princess who can successfully de-escalate human psychological stress and stabilize mental health carry extreme market value.”
“At the end of the fiscal day, value is determined by utility. An asset is only precious if it fulfills human resource demands or generates capital for the syndicates.”
“But the biological lines cultivated by these decaying beastmaster dynasties? Their physical output fails to match corporate mechanical models, they cannot fulfill the emotional needs of the civilian consumer base, and their bloodlines are fiercely hoarded within family vaults, completely blocked from public market circulation. What actual value do they bring to modern society?”
“Furthermore, the public Preservation Institutes that constantly broadcast animal welfare campaigns have zero legislative teeth. Look at Professor Yang—he operates as the supreme director of the entire Planetary Ecological Institute, yet his personal clearance level couldn’t even secure a baseline biological pet for his own office before he arrived here. That should give you an accurate map of their actual societal standing.”
General Chu stood up, smoothing down his white uniform jacket. “The harsh reality is that the era evolved past them a long time ago.”
Su Wudeng fell into a long, quiet contemplation, her fingers tracing the edge of the metallic invite. “If the structural reality is truly that bleak, I am definitely attending this summit. I want to personally evaluate how magnificent this corporate-engineered era of cybernetics truly is.”
An era so magnificent that it systematically purges nature until only humans remain? No organic life, no wild ecosystems—nothing but humans and the metallic machines they synthesize? The concept sounds completely dystopian.
Yet, her diagnostic data confirmed that this absurd corporate erasure was actively executing across the major star systems of the Scott Galaxy.
“My deepest thanks for the intelligence brief, General Chu,” she said, her tone full of sincere gratitude. “I will be at that summit.”
With her strategic objectives defined, Su Wudeng quickly engineered a psychological counter-measure regarding Qingqing’s vengeance loop.
General Chu’s brief had clarified her tactical bottleneck: while she lacked the raw firepower to neutralize a Monarch-tier entity today, it didn’t mean her store wouldn’t command that asset capacity tomorrow. She simply needed to buy time.
She immediately made a course for Yingying’s enclosure.
“Yingying, I require your assistance to execute a psychological conditioning shift.”
“I need you to sit down with Qingqing and give her a detailed, first-person narrative regarding how you systematically executed your vengeance against those two Frost-Blade Warlords, alright?”
Yingying tilted her head, her silver eyes blinking with intelligent amusement. Does your script require me to include the specific variable regarding your logistical intervention?
If you hadn’t materialized that customized tactical armor set over my frame, crushing those two wouldn’t have been such an effortless execution!
Su Wudeng wrapped her arms around the leopard’s thick neck, laughing. “Our brilliant Yingying handles data analytics flawlessly! Yes, you must absolutely place heavy emphasis on that specific variable!”
“Analyze this raw media clip, I’ve pre-rendered the highlights of your combat sequence for your presentation—”
Yingying skimmed the holographic playback, watching her own majestic, armored form unleashing a cataclysmic ice storm to shatter her enemies. Her silver eyes instantly ignited with pure, narcissistic pride!
“Qingqing is locked in an identical vengeance loop, Yingying, but the entity she’s targeting commands an apocalyptic Monarch-tier power curve. If she deploys today, she’ll be neutralized instantly. I refuse to let a mother bird march into her own execution, so I need your help to reshape her calculations. Convince her that as long as she anchors her residency here and redlines her training metrics under our facility’s guidance, absolute victory is a mathematical certainty!”
“Can you manage that pitch for me?”
Yingying proudly surged onto her front paws, her tail held high as she accepted the mission. Consider the parameters secured, Master! My authority over this specific emotional frequency is absolute!
Leave it to me! I will completely reconstruct her strategic roadmap!
Su Wudeng’s psychological angle was elegantly simple: Qingqing lacked the raw output to challenge a Monarch-tier predator today, but she could easily register her residency within the human facility to undergo an advanced evolutionary curriculum!
She simply needed Qingqing to realize that by leveraging human technology and advanced training infrastructure, her path to ultimate strength was guaranteed, drastically mitigating her risk of a futile death. She needed to teach her the value of strategic delay—to endure temporary limitation, build her assets, and eventually execute her vengeance with absolute certainty, rather than throwing her life away for nothing!
But… a secondary operational challenge hit Su Wudeng’s mind: How exactly do I facilitate a Commander-class training regimen for a Saker Falcon?
While her newly installed facility was a state-of-the-art asset, its current simulation matrices were optimized primarily for juvenile growth cycles. In terms of live-combat sparring partners, the facility’s highest benchmarks were strictly limited to Amber and Yingying.
But the cold, unyielding hatred burning within Qingqing’s soul was a massive variable. A standard, simulated progression curve would be entirely too slow to satisfy her psychological demand for strength, failing to suppress her frantic urge to march across the border.
To achieve maximum growth velocity, she needed to deploy the falcon into an environment of absolute, high-intensity live-combat pressure. In the mechanics of familiar cultivation, nothing compressed the evolutionary timeline faster than an immediate, life-or-death survival crisis.
The front lines of an active war zone would be the perfect training crucible. But the only military officer she trusted with an asset of this tier was General Chu—and his command was already fully redlined managing Aihua’s vanguard deployment.
Suddenly, a mental profile flashed through Su Wudeng’s thoughts: Su Yulan.
The Kyoto Elite Beastmaster Academy was the uncontested pinnacle of human educational infrastructure, the centralized crucible where the galaxy’s most terrifying young geniuses were forged.
That institution didn’t just host the absolute pinnacle of corporate cybernetic engineering; it commanded the backing of the supreme biological beastmaster dynasties. If an asset required rapid, unrestricted developmental optimization, there wasn’t a single coordinate in known space that could out-scale the academy’s simulators.
More importantly, entering that curriculum would allow Qingqing to systematically master human combat tactics and integrate advanced cybernetic weapons into her elemental lightning profile—an asset combo that would perfectly fulfill her strategic demands.
“The only question is… will Yulan be open to the arrangement?”
Su Wudeng knew her little sister’s psychological link had anchored heavily onto Lufeng over the past few shifts. She genuinely lacked the data to know if the girl harbored any affinity for a fierce, battle-scarred raptor like the Saker Falcon.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the intensive care sector, Yingying was actively executing her presentation before Qingqing’s pod.
The Saker Falcon’s amber pupils dilated in absolute, unadulterated awe as the telepathic narrative uncoiled—
What?! A synchronized one-versus-two engagement?! And your tactical output achieved a clean double-kill?!
Oh, Qingqing’s eyes sparkled with a profound, intense light through the glass. Your operational efficiency is magnificent!
Yingying gave her massive paw a modest, casual swipe against the deck, though her long tail wagged with extreme pride. The credit doesn’t originate solely from my genetic baseline, sister. Had the human manager not intervened to equip my frame with custom tactical armor, the combat metrics would have been significantly more grueling.
She leaned her heavy head closer to the ventilation seal, her fluffy white tail brushing against the glass as she dropped her telepathic voice into a secretive whisper. Let me leak a confidential data point to your core: human cybernetic military hardware is an absolute cheat code!
The exact second you integrate their technology onto your elemental profile, your combat efficiency against your own species becomes completely invincible!
Qingqing, your premier strategic move is to register your residency within this facility to clear an advanced evolutionary curriculum!
Furthermore, my sensors indicate the manager is preparing to deploy to a massive supreme familiar summit next month. The arena will be packed with the most terrifying, elite beasts in the cluster. If you join her detachment, your tactical database will capture an infinite volume of high-tier combat metrics!
Qingqing’s amber irises ignited with a brilliant, blinding light. Is that data verified?
She wanted to go. Every single fiber of her being screamed to join that deployment!
To study human technology…
Qingqing felt as though a glorious, uncontested path to ultimate power had just cracked open before her eyes!
