Chapter 43: A New Cat Scratching Post

Seedlings weighing millions of tons—Delphi might dare to buy them, but no one would dare to sell that much.

First off, there simply weren’t that many seeds in storage. In the current environment, fruits and vegetables had a hard time surviving. For most people, eating was just about filling the stomach, and nutrient fluid was far more efficient in that regard. Thus, across the entire interstellar domain, very few individuals still bothered growing their own produce. Aside from that group in Delphi whose crystallization had reached the late stages—those idle elderly, weak, and sick who had nothing better to do—who else would?

Second, the Federation had always treated Delphi’s actions like a flood or a fierce beast. Seeing them suddenly place such a massive order would raise alarms from any angle.

But money delivered to your door? Why not take it? They wanted seeds, but didn’t specify live or dead ones. Those profit-obsessed Federation rulers were cunning; with a slap to the forehead, they grinningly traded a batch of half-dead ones. After all, on today’s land, even live seeds would die once planted—no real difference.

[Did you guys see the news?]

[What? Another person died from Doom disease flare-up? What’s going on lately? I’ve seen several young ones go like that…]

[No, it’s that Delphi suddenly bought a massive batch of seeds online.]

[What for? Are they planning to terraform a planet just for farming too?] There were big commercial companies in the interstellar that did this kind of thing—time-consuming and laborious soil transformation, plus hiring mercenaries or armies to fend off bugs so plants could survive. The planting costs were staggeringly high, which was the main reason interstellar civilians couldn’t afford fresh produce.

[Don’t tell me it’s for His Little Highness the Cat?] Someone who’d been following the little cat’s streams asked: [By the way, ever since the league’s cultural exam ended, His Little Highness the Cat hasn’t shown up. The monitors stopped too, no more streams on Star Network. Is he still on the barren star?]

Of course he was. The little cat was carrying a small bucket, demonstrating to people on Aiai’ang’ang how to plant vegetables.

“We gotta plow the ground first, then scatter the seeds, water them, and done.” His planting process was crude and simplistic with zero reference value, but that didn’t stop Delphi’s people from fan-filtering it to perfection.

“Teacher Little Cat is too awesome!”

“How is he so good at farming?”

“Our Highness is the best! Look, the seeds sprouted right after he scattered them!”

Fully automatic seductive sanity-draining seeds that not only sprouted but even wiggled to reposition themselves.

Delphi’s people blindly lavished praise with wide eyes, flattering the cat until his eyes sparkled brightly. He bashfully lowered his head and scattered madly. “Next is watering.” With a swish, he upended the little bucket. The sprouted seeds wiggled their leaves, welcoming the little cat’s sweet rain.

The water surface rippled slightly, floating up tender green tea buds. Steam carrying tea fragrance wafted up, condensing on the cup rim right as it was caught by a slender finger.

“Does the little one still cry?” The blond emperor took a sip, his voice faint yet laced with the laziness soaked in warm breath.

Shen Que stood behind the chair, fingertips lightly twisting a lock of blond hair, slowly gathering it along the silky strands, knuckles slightly flexing to neatly bundle the emperor’s casually scattered locks.

“Brenna said he hasn’t cried since you left.” The deep purple eyes were profound and pure, fully reflecting the monarch’s figure. “He’s busy every day—taking Delphi’s people to farm on Aiai’ang’ang during the day, studying at night, not a moment to rest.”

Isiris seemed to recall the little cat’s busy figure, fingertip lightly touching the cup rim. When he set down the teacup, the residual heat scalded his knuckle, but he casually licked it and said indifferently, “As long as he has things to do, it’s fine. Tell them to praise him more, respond to him more.”

That little guy had an outgoing and optimistic personality, but due to past experiences, he still harbored a thread of sensitivity deep down. He liked transactions—in a sense, it was his craving to be “useful,” to be needed by others. This clear-cut demand relationship, or rather environment, was what made him feel secure and reliable.

I’m useful, so don’t abandon me.

“Find some small tasks for him to help with, then reward him.”

Shen Que didn’t think too deeply, assuming the emperor planned a completely different encouraging education for the little cat than before. His violet eyes curved slightly. “If Highness Zane saw you like this, he’d probably dramatically recite a few poems again.”

Zane Regalis was a flamboyant playboy, full of sweet nothings for anyone, but especially gushing toward his revered older brother.

“Oh, my brother~” Shen Que drawled, mimicking Zane’s ornate exaggerated tone: “Your education of the little cat is so gentle, yet toward me it’s all barbs and sticks. Oh, my dear brother, how cruel you are~”

Isiris’s fingertip rubbed the cup rim, recalling how his education of his younger siblings had indeed been rough and direct. Little lions needed to be tough and resilient, sure—but the little cat was so small; how could it be the same?

“Delphi’s people are going to the moon to farm too?” Isiris remembered the dangerous plants the little cat had planted. “Won’t they get bitten?”

“The research institute found a solution.” Shen Que took out a ribbon, wrist flicking to deftly tie up the blond hair. “They discovered that storing the little cat’s released spiritual power in a special container to carry around makes the plants sense his aura and not attack. The container is very cute—it’s a—”

“Sun!” Shen Que’s words were cut off by a sudden report.

A messenger hurried forward, bowed, tone urgent: “Anomaly detected ahead—a new type of A-Rank Xenoid appeared, and also…”

“And what?” The blond emperor rose, his knight boots hitting the ground with a thud, his high ponytail neatly tied.

The messenger’s face was ugly. “Beside that Xenoid… there’s a commander.”

“Mantis Monster No. 1!” The little cat planted hands on hips, tail held high, tone gravely adult-like. “You can’t bite people!”

Mantis Monster No. 1 tilted its head slightly, compound eyes flashing cold light, mouthparts cracking open, restlessly fixated on the distant crowd. Its sharp forelimbs continuously scraped the sand—it could barely hold back.

“Your Highness.” The scruffy old man shouldered his hoe, gaze steady and wary, voice low. “Please come to our side.”

These Delphi old soldiers who came to till the fields had fought Xenoids for most of their lives. They couldn’t drop even a sliver of vigilance toward these monsters that had devoured countless comrades.

They’d only come to help plow for the little Highness, to play with the newbie cub—who’d have thought they’d encounter a Xenoid here? Even after explanations of these Xenoids’ peculiarities, rationally knowing they differed from the cold-blooded killers on the battlefield, their instincts still kept them taut.

Li Ao, however, shuffled his feet awkwardly without moving to the humans’ side. For him, the Xenoids he’d spent long time with felt more familiar.

“Don’t raise your weapons…” The little cat’s ears drooped slightly. “They’re not bad things.”

The mantis monster and cow monster were different from those bad ones. He could communicate with them, they had transactions, they wouldn’t hurt him, and he’d told them not to hurt humans.

A tall auntie tugged the scruffy old man, then cooed at the little cat, “We’re not raising weapons, we’re digging the soil.” Then she whispered like a mosquito hum: “What are you doing? Those are bugs raised by the little Highness. Acting like this is no different from irresponsible parents who won’t let kids keep pets and kill them off.”

Hearing that, the scruffy old man felt it wasn’t right. He scratched his head, suppressed his urge to exterminate bugs, and slammed his hoe into the ground, sullenly turning soil.

The humans quieted. The little cat sighed in relief, finding time to pet the restless Mantis Monster No. 1. “What’s wrong with you?” The little cat was puzzled; since they met, he’d never seen it like this. “No eating people, okay? These are good people, here to help us farm.”

The low-level Xenoid gradually calmed under the little cat’s soothing but hissed something.

Li Ao froze, then his eyes lit up brightly. “You’re gonna give birth to baby mantis monsters?!” The little cat danced with joy. “So you’re a girl? Wow—you’re having little babies?!”

The Delphi people digging around all straightened up; even the peacemaking auntie looked solemn. “What did His Little Highness say?”

“He said that Crex is about to lay eggs.” The smoking old man stubbed out his cigarette. “Is this normal?”

Of course it wasn’t.

From the Zerg’s birth until now, they’d never been heard to reproduce away from the Abyss. No matter where they rampaged in the interstellar, when breeding season hit, they’d definitely return to the Abyss.

Under the laws’ balance, they were powerful but had this fatal reproductive flaw.

The little cat was so excited he didn’t know what to do—stopping No. 1 from working, picking tomatoes for it to eat, tail wagging like it might fly off. Suddenly, he turned serious. “Who’s the daddy of the little babies?”

Who else? Naturally—Mantis Monster No. 2, currently half-entangled by grass sprouts and unable to move, but still sneakily extending its mouthparts to steal water.

Fierce Cat’s bugs were having baby bugs! Li Ao bounced in place excitedly, “happy” flashing nonstop on his forehead.

“Go rest quick.” The little cat directed No. 1 to a nearby sand burrow. “I need to find Machine—yeah, find Machine and ask the bug mama how to take care of it.”

Fierce Cat, his mind full of thoughts about finding the robot, settled the mantis monster properly before dashing off on all fours toward the distant base.

“Take advantage of this now!” The sloppy old man watched the little cat car chug away, grabbed his hoe, and gritted his teeth. “I’ll go kill that xenoid!”

The tall auntie’s fan-sized palm slapped over to block his path. “You’ve had enough! I’ll report to the superiors.” She turned to the old soldiers who’d come with them. “Keep an eye on him. Don’t let him actually kill it. Just look at how thrilled the little cat was earlier—if these bugs die, he’ll be heartbroken.”

Fierce Cat charged excitedly through the base gates, running and shouting the whole way, “Xun! Machine! Where are you guys?!”

The little dog and the robot had been attending some human anatomy class this whole time. Li Ao hadn’t seen Xun all morning.

“Xun?” There was no response from inside the base—just dead silence.

Li Ao’s excitement slowly ebbed away. He subconsciously flattened his ears, and his tail stopped perking up. He lowered his body slightly, eyes vigilantly fixed on what lay ahead.

There, a blurry figure—

Shadowy and indistinct, as if half-swallowed by the dim light, its outline unclear.

A pair of fair, slender legs slowly came into view…

Li Ao’s heart skipped a beat. His tail quietly curled up as he tiptoed backward.

The footsteps drew slowly closer, unhurried. The shirt hem swayed gently with each step, like white waves flowing in the night sea. As light and shadow intertwined, the figure grew ever clearer—

Reversing and reversing, Ground-hugging Supercar suddenly stopped. He gaped at the figure, cat face full of suspicion. “…Xun?”

The man’s figure was tall and slender. Black hair cascaded like silk, accentuating skin so pale it was almost coldly alluring. Crimson eyes curved into a beautiful arc as he tilted his head, softly calling the little cat’s name. “Li Ao.”

It really was Xun!

The little cat was stunned. He couldn’t figure out how, in just that short time, his little coal-ball-like puppy had turned into…

The little cat looked down, then up, gauging the height. “Y-You’re so tall! And…” The little cat was baffled. “Why do you look just like Xixi?”

Xun’s lower body was bare—no pants—just a loose shirt draped over his upper half like a smock. He tugged at the hem. His body was huge now, but his mind clearly hadn’t caught up yet. “Li Ao likes it, so Xun will grow like this.”

The little cat did love Isiris’s looks. Every time he saw the man, he wanted to scamper all over him.

“Like this!” Li Ao’s little ears perked up bit by bit, his eyes sparkling. He dashed to Xun’s side, reared up, and pawed at the leg—

What was this? A two-meter-tall little dog? Cat claws, scratch!