Lan Lingdu shivered slightly at the thought.
In this beast world where men far outnumbered women, even a man who looked imposing and stern on the outside was apparently a closet pervert. He probably went home and wore pink thongs just to please his wife.
Terrifying!
Though Lan Lingdu’s mind was running wild with these images, her hands didn’t stop for a second as she rifled through everything in the Space Ring. There was a pile of daily necessities, several vehicles, and a vast amount of fuel and energy cells. The vehicles and energy were the most valuable items—worth hundreds of millions of Interstellar Credits combined!
"Honest labor doesn't pay as well as an occasional windfall, and an occasional windfall doesn't pay as well as a clean heist. Our ancestors really knew what they were talking about!"
After finishing her inventory, Lan Lingdu let out a sigh of relief. She had been worried there might be some classified military intel inside. As it stood, her life was safe for the moment; the "big brother" she’d robbed likely wouldn’t be in such a rush to scour the world just to hunt her down. Even if he did want to settle the score, he should start with her wicked stepmother. She wondered what that man in military uniform had done to her stepmother—who had been waiting outside the door—after he woke up from the ambush.
Many chaotic thoughts swirled in Lan Lingdu’s mind, but she kept working. She pulled a handful of medicinal herb seeds from the Space Ring, scattered them onto the ground, and activated All Things Flourish. Within seconds, the seeds began to sprout at a visible rate, pushing out pale yellow leaves and growing into tiny seedlings. By the time she finished her second bottle of mental energy potion, the seeds she had sown just minutes ago were already knee-high.
Lan Lingdu rubbed her temples. "Looks like I really need to keep upgrading this ability. My mana bar is too small; it’s slowing down my farming."
She stared at the seedlings in the herb patch, the information regarding the plants instantly flashing through her mind.
*Golden Flame Pistil: A medicinal herb. The extract can dispel negative status effects from a person’s body...*
The Golden Flame Pistil was a popular herb in the Interstellar era, the primary ingredient used by high-level pharmacists to research anti-beastification serums! Lan Lingdu planned to cultivate them in bulk, sell the medicine as quickly as possible, and use the funds to buy her way out of her second Beast Husband arrangement.
Three days flew by. The land surrounding Lan Lingdu’s small wooden cabin had expanded to several dozen acres. Under the nourishment of her ability, the carefully tended herb field was thriving. The Golden Flame Pistils, once knee-high, had reached her waist, their branches heavy with flower buds waiting to bloom.
Lan Lingdu hadn’t been idle during these few days. While the farming robots cleared the land and she tended the fields, she spent her time on StarNet aggressively learning everything she could about pharmacy. Since her homestead planning was mostly settled, it was time to take a stroll on Planet M. That Beast Husband remained a thorn in her side.
Speaking of Beast Husbands, it was a sore spot for her. It was one thing that the first Beast Husband had rejected her, but the identity information for the second one was also hidden. While she had zero interest in the men the Federation government kept shoving onto her, their lack of effort and dismissiveness felt insulting.
She was especially terrified that the next matched husband would turn out to be a massive brute with a face like a slab of meat, standing two-point-eight meters tall, bulging with muscle, and wearing nothing but pink briefs, kneeling before her and saying, "Madam, I am here to serve you..."
The mere thought made Lan Lingdu shudder. "No way! I have to shed this burden."
A female *could* have many Beast Husbands, treating them like slaves to make money and hand over the wealth. However, Lan Lingdu was sober enough to know that every gain came with a price, a price she wasn't currently willing to pay.
...Or perhaps she wasn't even qualified to pay it. She was infertile! How could she expect to take on eight or ten Beast Husbands when she couldn't even have children? In her dreams!
*Cough!* Since she had the power to be a woman as sharp and independent as an eagle, why choose to be a little rabbit bred only for offspring? And so, the eagle-like woman went off to rob another resident of Planet M.
*
Just as Lan Lingdu was staring at a stack of someone’s briefs inside a Space Ring, a man with an imposing presence, his handsome face dark with fury, was on his way to the Lan family estate on Planet M.
"..."
"General, we will arrive at the Lan estate in ten minutes. According to our three-day surveillance, the eldest daughter of the Lan family does not appear to be home."
The Governor of Planet M shifted in his seat. Sharing a transport vehicle with Lu Yuanxiu had been the most agonizing experience of his life. The man’s aura was simply too oppressive, making him feel entirely on edge.
Lu Yuanxiu didn't even spare him a glance, his dark eyes fixed straight ahead toward the Lan estate. His mind flashed back to the information he had received earlier about the female who had ambushed and robbed him.
*Lan Lingdu, eldest daughter of the Lan family. Mother died in an accident when she was three. No partners. A total airhead, morally lax, a vicious female who bullied her younger sister at home. Reputation in tatters. A video of her being rejected after confessing to a male beastman was still trending on StarNet.*
According to the latest reports from the Lan family, the primary reason Lan Lingdu—despite being a rare female—had been ignored for eighteen years was her abysmal fertility rate. She was sterile. In this day and age, no fool was going to spend vast amounts of credits to raise a delicate, helpless female who couldn't even bear children. To a male, an infertile female was worthless. What’s that? You want to satisfy your physical needs? They’d tell you that a companion robot or a transgender individual offered much better value!
In a wealthy family like the Lans, being the eldest daughter meant being infertile wasn't necessarily a dealbreaker. If she had enough ability, she could still control the Lan estate. Unfortunately, the girl wasn't very bright and had been ruined by her stepmother.
Since Lu Yuanxiu had been attacked at the Junlin Grand Hotel and the culprit was a female connected to the energy tycoon Lan family, he couldn't just barge in to settle the score the moment he found out she was a Lan.
Lu Yuanxiu snapped out of his contemplation. "We’ll find out once we ask."
He didn't have the clearance to look up a female's travel records. But her guardian did. Thinking of the complex dynamics of the Lan family, he asked his adjutant in the back seat without hesitation, "I told you to keep a close eye on Lan Lingdu’s stepmother. Have they done anything unusual these past two days?"
The adjutant, who was busy adjusting the buttons on his uniform, replied, "The mother called her own daughter back from her filming set in the entertainment industry. There hasn't been any strange activity."
Lu Yuanxiu’s gaze darkened for a moment. He remembered the withered plant he had seen in the hotel after he woke up, and a fleeting, deeply cynical smile crossed his cold face.
*The Lan Estate.*
By the edge of a massive swimming pool, a mother and daughter were lounging on massage chairs, enjoying a sunbath. The famous starlet Lan Nuannuan was wearing a facial mask, while two maids were busily kneading her shoulders and back.
Unlike the aloof, "pure goddess" persona she maintained in the entertainment industry, Lan Nuannuan lay lazily by the pool, her skin as white as jade and her figure shapely. With her languid expression, she exuded a seductive charm.
As she enjoyed the robot’s facial massage, her real voice—crisp and soft—spoke up: "Mom! Do you think that waste of space can actually serve the Snake Clan leader well? I just hope she doesn't end up offending him instead of sucking up to him."