Chapter 201
“Do you think Uncle Mo remembered to water the grass?”
On the spaceship, the wolf cub lay by the glass window, gazing outside with a worried expression. They had left in such a hurry that there hadn’t been time to check on the seedlings before being bundled onto the spaceship.
“If you’re worried, you can call him,” Li Sinian suggested.
Lang Ze’s eyes lit up.
Oh, right! He had a communicator now!
Still unused to having an instant communication device, Lang Ze quickly dialed a video call to Mo Lin, prompted by Li Sinian’s reminder.
The call connected almost immediately, and Mo Lin’s image appeared on the screen.
He hadn’t turned on privacy mode, so Lang Ze could clearly see the busy figures working behind him. The tools and instruments in their hands looked oddly familiar to Lang Ze.
“Uncle Mo, what are you all doing?” Lang Ze asked curiously.
Mo Lin’s expression was complicated, but he still answered the wolf cub’s question. “We’re removing the metal protective panels from the ground.”
He turned, showing Lang Ze the workers behind him. Also visible in the frame were clusters of lush, vibrant green grass, growing robustly and thriving in the courtyard.
In just one day and night, these spiritual grasses had grown unchecked in the previously unnoticed corners of the courtyard. They had consumed all the blood mist in the area, filling the pits in the ground with dense greenery.
Astonished, Mo Lin had immediately contacted the plantation team to inspect the scene and called in repair crews to remove all metal panels except for the main pathways.
“Wow, that’s amazing!”
Lang Ze exclaimed with delight. “By the time we get back, the whole area will probably be covered in green grass!”
Hearing this, Ran Lie, who was sitting nearby, couldn’t help but lean over to look.
Mo Lin smiled and nodded. “If they keep growing at this rate, it might really happen.”
It was incredible. Mo Lin had witnessed the younglings planting the grass—they had simply dug holes, placed the seedlings, covered them with soil, and watered them. It couldn’t have been more straightforward.
The key clearly lay in these seedlings.
Could they be a type of mutated plant? Or perhaps… a mutated plant capable of purifying blood mist?
Mo Lin’s heart raced as he considered the possibility.
He thought of the bag of seeds that Su Ci had sent to Base 26. If those seeds grew as quickly as these grasses, it wouldn’t just be possible to create a 10,000-square-meter green space within a month—it would be effortless!
In fact, they wouldn’t stop at 10,000 square meters. He was determined to plant these grasses on every available piece of land surrounding the base, with or without the plantation team’s recommendation.
After all, anything that could dispel the blood mist around the base was undeniably beneficial.
However, Mo Lin refrained from asking the younglings too many questions. Knowing they were en route to a battle, he didn’t want to distract them.
Instead, he simply asked, “Is there anything special I need to do to care for these plants?”
Lang Ze was momentarily stumped by the question and instinctively looked toward the little black cat. “Xing Xing, do they just need water?”
“Mm.” Zheng Xing nodded softly.
These grasses didn’t need fertilizer—just water and blood mist to thrive.
“Got it. Thanks.” Mo Lin nodded his thanks and ended the call.
As the screen went dark, Lang Ze muttered, “If I called Su Su or Brother A-Yan, do you think they’d answer?”
After two or three days away from the nursery, the initial excitement had worn off, and he was starting to miss everything about it.
Li Sinian noticed this and smiled gently. He missed Yan Ya and the children too. “They probably would. Want to call them now?”
But Lang Ze shook his head.
“If Su Su’s asleep, it wouldn’t be good to wake him up.”
Hearing this, Ran Lie, who had been tempted to call as well, subconsciously withdrew his gaze. Even the little black cat, whose ears had perked up, stiffened slightly.
Oh well—just a few more days, and they’d be back.
Lang Ze put away his communicator and joined Ran Lie and the others in training.
After using his sound illusion techniques frequently over the past two days, Lang Ze felt like he’d had a breakthrough. By the time they returned to the nursery in a week, he was sure he’d be able to surprise Su Su!
Time ticked by as the younglings trained diligently, and the spaceship steadily closed the distance to Base 21.
*
Base 21
At that moment, the base’s defenders were still locked in battle. Like Base 26, they had faced several waves of monster invasions in a short span of time and were now barely holding on.
“Base 26 has accepted our request for aid. The younglings are on their way. Hold the line!”
Hearing the commander’s announcement over the communications channel, the soldiers froze for a moment in disbelief.
It was clear that amidst the chaos of the intense battle, not all soldiers had seen the updates in the group chats, nor was everyone aware of the existence of the “Younglings Team.”
“The commander said younglings. Does he mean… the kind of younglings I’m thinking of?”
On one of the battlefronts, a soldier repelled a humanoid monster in front of him and turned to ask his teammate.
The monsters they were fighting were particularly troublesome due to their cloning ability. Each one could split into thousands of copies, each with unique abilities, and all possessing considerable strength.
These clones either acted in groups or scattered throughout the base, aiding other blood mist monsters and dragging what had been a relatively stable situation at Base 21 into a grueling struggle.
“What do you mean by ‘the kind of younglings you’re thinking of?’” his teammate, clearly exhausted, asked mechanically as he blocked the attacks of another clone.
“Well, I mean—”
Whoosh!
A tiny crimson flame suddenly appeared and landed on the monster clone they were fighting.
The flame, no larger than a thumb, quickly spread upon contact, and in the blink of an eye, the humanoid monster was engulfed in fire and reduced to ash.
The squad was stunned by this sudden development.
Along with the flame came a small, red-haired figure—seemingly a boy of about ten years old. He stood on a hovering disc, glanced briefly at them, and then flew off.
The soldier who had just been questioned pointed in the boy’s direction, dumbfounded. “Is that… the kind of youngling you were talking about?”
Ran Lie flew on his disc, swiftly weaving through the base’s buildings.
Their spaceship had stopped at the base’s perimeter, and they were now using the disc to move quickly through the base itself.
Having accumulated six battles’ worth of experience, the younglings were growing rapidly. Compared to their first arrival at Base 26, their abilities in every aspect had improved significantly.
On Ran Lie’s shoulder, a small metallic orb floated, emitting an electronic, synthesized voice.
“I’ve found the monster’s weak point. Ignore the smaller clones along the way.”
Ran Lie responded with a curt acknowledgment and indeed stopped paying attention to the minor clones. Guided by Zheng Xing, who controlled the disc, they sped in a specific direction.
They soon arrived at a group of monster clones locked in combat with a human defense team. The human soldiers were clearly losing ground.
A laser beam shot out from the metallic orb on Ran Lie’s shoulder, landing on one of the clones within the group.
“That’s the monster’s main body. Destroy it, and the rest will vanish.”
“Got it,” Ran Lie replied.
As the two exchanged words, the disc under Ran Lie’s feet didn’t slow down. Instead, it charged directly toward the group of monsters.
One of the defending soldiers noticed him.
Could this be the youngling the commander mentioned? Why isn’t he stopping? He’s about to collide with the monsters!
Even the group of monster clones hesitated for a moment at this unexpected development. Then, the marked main body of the monster suddenly tried to flee in a panic.
But at this point, the boy on the disc was already less than five meters away from the group of monsters.
With a roar, a burst of crimson flame shot from the boy’s mouth, engulfing the group of humanoid monsters entirely. The main body of the monster, though quick to flee, was still grazed by a flicker of flame.
But that was enough.
The small spark clung to the monster’s main body, and no matter how much it struggled, it couldn’t extinguish the fire.
As the crimson flames grew stronger, within less than a minute, the defenders of Base 21 realized that all the thousands of monster clones scattered throughout the base had vanished!
The soldiers who witnessed this couldn’t even ask the red-haired boy who he was before he disappeared from view.
Ran Lie had already left, moving on to the next battlefield.
Meanwhile, the cheerful sound of a flute began to echo through Base 21.
Within an hour of the younglings’ arrival, the battle that had dragged on for nearly three days was brought to a swift conclusion.
The highest-ranking officer of Base 21 stared at the compiled data from all fronts, feeling as though he were still dreaming.
Initially, the conditions he’d negotiated with Base 24 had felt painful to accept. If the base hadn’t been on the brink of collapse, he never would have agreed to them.
But now, he realized—This deal was totally worth it!
How could these younglings be so powerful?
Coming back to his senses, he leapt to his feet. “Where are the younglings? Get the ship ready—I’m going to greet them personally!”
Such strength—he had to forge a connection with them!
However, a sigh came through his communicator.
“The younglings have already boarded their ship and are on their way to Base 16. Before they left, they asked me to remind you not to forget about the 10,000-square-meter green space.”
Already? They didn’t even take a break?
That thought flashed through his mind, but it was quickly replaced by a new worry.
Oh no, he had promised to create 10,000 square meters of green space within a month—how was he supposed to pull that off?
*
Base 24, Nursery
Su Ci handed a new batch of spiritual grass seeds to Zhuang Shisong and Wei Ming.
Watching them leave with excited expressions, he allowed a faint smile to curl his lips. He trusted that, once they understood the properties of the spiritual grass, they would figure out how to fully utilize these seeds.
Then, Su Ci reclined comfortably on his lounge chair, feeling his strength recover slowly but steadily.
Originally, he had thought it would take hundreds or even thousands of years to restore the planet’s vitality. But now, it seemed it wouldn’t take nearly as long.
At that moment, a small figure approached him slowly.
Looking up, Su Ci saw the little white deer, having just finished his training. He clutched a flute in his hands and lowered his head as he shuffled toward him, his demeanor sullen and dejected.
He watched as the child sat down beside his chair, hugging his knees. Unlike usual, the boy didn’t bombard him with questions or summon Xiao Zhi for lessons. Su Ci raised an eyebrow slightly.
“What’s wrong?” he finally asked.
Lu Jiao looked up, his dark blue eyes slightly red. He asked, “Su Su, when will Lang Ze, Xing Xing, and Lie Lie come back?”
Of all the younglings, the little white deer seemed to feel their absence the most.
When they were all together, he hadn’t noticed how much he depended on their presence—sometimes, he’d even find Lang Ze’s chatter annoying. But now that the little wolf’s lively voice was gone, the nursery suddenly felt so quiet.
And then there were Xing Xing, so shy and sweet, and Lie Lie, always stubbornly pretending not to care…
Whenever Lu Jiao came out of his studies and realized they weren’t there, a feeling he’d never experienced before welled up in his chest.
Xiao Zhi had told him that the uncomfortable feeling was called missing someone.
“Su Su, I… I miss them so much,” Lu Jiao sniffled, his effort to hold back tears making him look both pitiful and endearing.
? Lu Jiao babyy