Chapter 148
If someone handed Lu Chuan a bag of sunflower seeds now, he might as well be watching a movie.
He watched Cang Jiu and the octopus creatures brawling, while picking up a few combat tips.
He’d seen Cang Jiu’s true body fight before — with a sword. But their power gap was so wide that Lu Chuan only ever caught flashes of sword light. Now, forced to use the servitor body without showing true strength, Cang Jiu fought purely with this vessel’s own power.
For a battle noob like Lu Chuan, it was excellent live training.
“Not bad, not bad. System, look at those techniques — flawless! And he can give me five hundred pounds of gold. Admit it, I had good taste.” Lu Chuan chatted with #888 in his mind. “I knew at a glance! If I could buy him from the Main God System, it’d be a bargain.”
Too bad Cang Jiu was the [God of Desire] and couldn’t be sold. Otherwise, Lu Chuan would at least ask what his “selling price” was — he had the money, after all.
[Host, perhaps you should actually learn something?] #888 tried to divert Lu Chuan’s attention. [Those techniques are exceptional. Even that Blood King you saw before was formidable — not just him.]
Cang Jiu could captivate the host with only a few words — a truly dangerous rival.
#888 decided he needed to upgrade his language module, or he’d never win Lu Chuan’s focus.
Lu Chuan was the type who responded to persuasion, not force.
If you went hard on him, he might yield temporarily, but afterward he’d repay it ten- or a hundredfold.
“Learn? What’s there to learn — I’ve got a live demonstration!” Lu Chuan yawned. “Have you ever seen a big boss personally brawl with anyone? I’d rather use the time to find my money tree. System, run a thorough scan. I’ve given you so many points to level up — don’t waste them. If there’s a money tree, there must be a treasure basin. Find them! If someone else gets those treasures, I won’t be able to rest in peace!”
No need to jinx himself like that.
#888 wept thick noodle-shaped tears in his heart.
The good news: the host had found a new goal and renewed fighting spirit.
The bad news: that goal and spirit didn’t come from him.
Sigh.
While Lu Chuan and #888 were talking, Cang Jiu had already beaten all the octopus people into the ground.
He stomped on the leader’s tentacle, crushing it into mush. Slimy, viscous fluids spilled across the floor, nauseating to look at.
But even so, no one reacted.
The other divine attendants, even if they saw from a distance, only watched the spectacle without interfering.
To them, fights between divine attendants were perfectly normal—competing for hosts was only natural.
Cang Jiu walked up to Lu Chuan. With the other divine attendants watching, it wasn’t convenient to write messages, so he could only signal with his eyes for Lu Chuan to speak.
Lu Chuan coughed, gave an “OK” gesture, then stepped forward and shouted, “Since my Lord Divine Attendant has won, then by the rules, once you return you must immediately deliver all your hosts to serve our Lord Divine Attendant. Also, bring every bit of your wealth—whatever it may be. If we find out you’re hiding anything, we’ll roast you into grilled octopus!”
The octopus people, utterly defeated, had no way to resist. They could only swallow the humiliation and bide their time for revenge.
“What are you waiting for? Go fetch your people and property! Or do you want our Lord Divine Attendant to slaughter you all first?” Lu Chuan added, giving a defeated octopus man a kick.
The octopus people scrambled away in terror.
“And you lot—what are you staring at? Show’s over, and the next look costs money.” Lu Chuan glared at the divine attendants lingering nearby. “Go back to your own places. My Lord Divine Attendant and I have things to do.”
The others exchanged knowing looks, but eventually dispersed.
With a slam, Lu Chuan shut the door and turned to Cang Jiu.
“Not bad, right? Cleared them all out. Soon they’ll bring their hosts and property here, and we’ll hold the upper hand.” He lifted his chin proudly. “Those hosts usually follow the attendants around—they’ll know plenty. Much faster than us asking around.”
Cang Jiu gave him a quiet look, and for once felt a touch of helplessness.
He squatted, scribbled a few words:
“I meant for you to find someone to clean the room.”
Then he swept his gaze around, urging Lu Chuan to look properly.
Their battle had left the room pockmarked and filthy, smeared with octopus slime—utterly disgusting.
Cang Jiu wasn’t overly fussy, but this was unbearable.
“You could get the logistics people. Maybe one of your teammates is there.” With no clean floor left to write on, Cang Jiu grabbed Lu Chuan’s hand and traced words on his palm.
The ticklish strokes made it impossible for Lu Chuan to focus.
“Oh, that’s what you meant,” Lu Chuan said sheepishly. “Alright, I’ll go find someone. Just stick close.”
Cang Jiu nodded.
Lu Chuan threw the door open again.
“Hey! This room’s a mess, and no one’s come to clean it? You expect our exalted Divine Attendant to live like this?” he barked, picking fights left and right.
Cang Jiu followed silently as Lu Chuan kicked open room after room.
Some divine attendants hadn’t even processed what was happening before Lu Chuan was berating them.
“From now on, our Divine Attendant is the boss of this area. All of you had better submit!” Lu Chuan declared, deciding to recruit underlings along the way.
“You’re just a little host—” one divine attendant began angrily, until he saw Cang Jiu behind Lu Chuan. Remembering how this one had fought multiple opponents alone earlier, he swallowed his words. “So what if he’s the boss?”
“Since our Lord Divine Attendant is boss, any host you’re matched with must come to us first. And any gifts from the Mother must be delivered here. Outside, we’re all Divine Attendants, and we won’t pick on you for calling us equals. But in here, when you see our Lord Divine Attendant, you’d better call him Boss. Got it?”
These divine attendants had no real concept of wealth.
They only cared about clinging together, snatching hosts, and competing for the Mother’s favor. Beyond that, their minds were blank.
But that was fine.
No concept? Then just give them one.
Every intelligent lifeform had blood-deep instincts of greed and desire. A single spark could ignite it all.
With one “God of Desire” and one “God of Wealth” candidate at work, how could these petty attendants resist?
Inevitably, they’d fall into chaos, far too late for the Mother of Fertility to stop it. And if she investigated? Well, all of this arose “naturally,” didn’t it?
Cang Jiu watched appreciatively as Lu Chuan barged into rooms, while he himself delivered a single punch to anyone who resisted—silencing them completely.
Since they’d started a fight, might as well finish it thoroughly.
Gradually, more and more divine attendants submitted.
And instead of despairing after defeat, some even looked on with awe and admiration.
Cang Jiu knew their hearts were already aflame with “desire.”
Even if this was only a fragment of awareness, he could sense that Lu Chuan’s embodiment of Desire was shining brilliantly.
If Lu Chuan weren’t a candidate for God of Wealth, he’d surely be a perfect candidate for God of Desire.
The uproar reached the logistics department.
Besides the birthing center, they served the divine attendants most of all—handling the messes their chaos created.
Shen Li, too, heard the rumors.
A powerful divine attendant had been matched with the best host. Other attendants picked a fight, but were crushed instead. Now that divine attendant was subjugating others, perhaps becoming a leader among them.
“I heard he was originally mild-tempered. But now he’s so violent, all because of that host’s instigation.”
“Yeah, I heard that too. The divine attendant can’t speak—the host speaks for him.”
“That host is so arrogant?”
“Isn’t it? And apparently his fertility is top-tier. He might even become a priest of the Mother someday.”
“Then we’d better be careful.”
The logistics workers—mostly older, past childbearing, or unable to bear children—valued their lives and experience too much to risk offending anyone.
They kept Shen Li tightly restricted.
He had tried several times to slip away and find his teammates, but was always caught. To avoid alerting suspicion, he had to behave.
Now, hearing the news, Shen Li instantly knew it must be his teammates causing the commotion.
Such chaos could only come from Lu Chuan or Lilus.
Those two were always troublemakers. Cynthia was calm and composed—she wouldn’t do something like this.
But either way, it was better than him fighting alone.
Hope swelled in Shen Li—his teammates must be close.
Meanwhile, the news reached the cub nursery.
Lilus’s face darkened.
He’d wanted to pull something like that too, but the Mother of Fertility valued cub-rearing too much. And because his left hand was unusual, he’d been assigned to the alien cubs section. The other aliens were all tough fighters, so becoming boss there was… difficult.
His hesitation had cost him the chance, and now someone else had stolen the spotlight.
Of course it had to be Lu Chuan.
But Lilus couldn’t understand—Lu Chuan wasn’t much of a fighter. How did he convince a divine attendant to fight for him? Could it be that even the Mother’s divine attendants… loved money?
No matter how he turned it over in his mind, he couldn’t figure it out.
The news also reached the laboratories, where Cynthia swiftly suppressed it under another pretext.
“The most important thing now is the embryos’ development. The god-servants are none of our concern.” Cynthia definitely wouldn’t allow the lab staff to interfere. Their way of thinking was far too crude—whoever stuck out their head got it cut off—which would only create trouble for their own clearance.
“The stronger the god-servant, the stronger the child.” Cynthia said calmly, “Even if that powerful one seizes all the mother-hosts for breeding, that’s his ability. Out of a hundred offspring, only one or two will be usable anyway. Better to let the strongest genes pass on than waste resources on trash.”
That did sound somewhat reasonable.
The lab staff thought Cynthia had a point, so they temporarily set aside the idea of eliminating that particular god-servant and refocused on their experiments.
Meanwhile, after Lu Chuan and Cang Jiu had defeated the other god-servants, they occupied the adjacent rooms that night, knocking down the walls to make one larger chamber.
As ordered, the god-servants turned over their mother-hosts.
In an instant, Lu Chuan and Cang Jiu’s room was filled with excellent mother host sent by the others.
Men and women, humans and aliens, some pregnant, some not.
Beautiful, ugly, robust, or ordinary—every type was present.
When Lu Chuan and Cang Jiu appeared together, all the mother-hosts’ gazes locked onto Cang Jiu.
Their eyes burned with the hunger for strong genes.
So direct, so fervent—Lu Chuan and Cang Jiu both froze for a moment.
It felt like they were about to pounce and devour Cang Jiu alive.
Ahem.
Even though Lu Chuan had expected this—after all, this was the [Mother of Fertility]’s stronghold—he still felt vaguely uncomfortable.
