Ch 6: Interplanetary Planting Master

History

The phrase “paying back” has a magical power; no matter the time or place, it can quickly turn enemies into friends, melting away frost into warm spring. Li Zhendao’s hand, which was about to turn off the screen, stopped mid-air. He skillfully put on a loving expression and scratched his ear, “Did I hear that right? You brats are going to pay back?”

The suspicion in his eyes contrasted sharply with the loving expression on his face as he slowly scanned the people on the screen. Lu Li’s subordinates took a uniform step back, eagerly avoiding the screen as if it were something terrifying. Being looked at by the old man on the other side made them shudder.

Li Zhendao: “… What are you hiding for? Don’t think I can’t see you from a distance. I’m a high-level sentinel.”

He angrily opened the notepad on the terminal, showing a densely packed record of loans to the First Combat Unit. “A total of 213,513 points. Without interest, just repay 220,000,” the old man generously waved his hand, wearing an expression that suggested the brats were getting a good deal.

After he finished speaking, Lu Li turned the screen towards the sleeping Galactic Treeman. “We don’t have the money, so we’ll use this to pay off the debt. According to the black market, a Galactic Treeman is worth 30 million credits. Considering our relationship, let’s say 95% of that. You owe us 28,266,487 credits.”

Li Zhendao stared at Lu Li, trying to find the words “shameless” on his face. But Lu Li’s expression was too serious, forcing the old man to admit that Lu Li probably didn’t have those words in his dictionary. After holding back for a long time, he finally spat out, “… Get lost!”

The sentinels obediently left the room, with Jiang Bo and Liao Kai guarding the door on either side, leaving only Lu Li inside. Li Zhendao, having calmed down, grumpily asked, “Where did this come from?”

Lu Li did not hide anything, concisely recounting the previous events. Upon hearing that the Lin family’s private soldiers disguised themselves as star pirates, Li Zhendao frowned, “That doesn’t seem like Lin Jin’s style.”

Lin Jin was the head of the Lin family and one of the Federation’s seven admirals, the commander of the Second Corps. It made sense for the Lin family to disguise themselves to avoid revealing the presence of the Galactic Treeman. But sending only a B-class Dreadnought with fewer than a hundred sentinels was a bit too careless.

Lu Li nodded. This was precisely his doubt. While he was confident in the combat abilities of the First Combat Unit, their victory seemed unusually easy.

Li Zhendao thought for a moment before impatiently waving his hand, “Forget about the Lin family. The Galactic Treeman is ours now. They wouldn’t dare try to take it back. So, what’s your plan for the Treeman?”

Lu Li shrugged, playing dumb, “Didn’t we agree to use the Galactic Treeman to pay off the debt?”

“Pay off the debt my foot! Do you think I’m some rich fool who can afford to maintain a Galactic Treeman? You brats either cause trouble or borrow money from me, squandering all the savings I’ve painstakingly accumulated. Isn’t Zhuang the elder on the Iris? He’s loaded with several energy planets under his belt. Ask him if he wants it.”

“Really? Is Admiral Zhuang that rich? I’ll go ask,” Lu Li said, turning to leave.

Li Zhendao: “…”

He was almost furious. “You idiot! That was a sarcastic remark! Do you not understand sarcasm? The Galactic Treeman is such a precious thing, and you want to give it to Zhuang the elder? Are you trying to piss me off?”

Lu Li, with a sincere expression, said honestly, “We can’t afford it.”

Li Zhendao grumbled, then tapped on his terminal. Lu Li soon received a notification of 200,000 credits being transferred to his personal account. “Buy some energy stones and wake the Galactic Treeman. I’ll figure out how to get more credits when you return. I must have owed you brats in a past life.”

Unlike humans, who need starships for interstellar travel, Galactic Treemen can live in space unaided. They travel across the stars, searching for energy stones. Sometimes, to conserve energy when crossing galaxies, Galactic Treemen fall into a deep sleep, only to be awakened by large amounts of energy stones. It’s said that Galactic Treemen have a unique sensing system for energy stones, awakening when they detect them.

On the screen, Li Zhendao was fuming, his little bear hat on the verge of falling off. Lu Li smiled slightly, dropping his earlier nonchalance, and said warmly, “Next month is your birthday, General. This Galactic Treeman is a gift from the First Combat Unit. The 200,000 credits just transferred are a donation to the Iris fund. And don’t forget to write off our previous debts.”

“… Get lost!”

Li Zhendao cursed with a smile before disconnecting, already thinking about sending someone to investigate the Lin family’s actions and informing Zhuang the elder to clean up after Lu Li. He preferred the Galactic Treeman to stay on the Iris, but Lu Li wasn’t wrong—they couldn’t afford it. He also needed to be careful not to show too much favoritism. With Lu Li presenting it as a gift, he could temporarily take care of the Treeman, eventually using it to request more military funding from the central government. The last point was most important; the old man immediately noted it down in his terminal.

Satisfied with his plan, the old man remembered something else. While Lu Li was capable, his skin was getting thicker. Li Zhendao recalled that Lu Li wasn’t always like this. Who had he taken after? As he pondered this, he multiplied the requested military funding amount by two. How could a small amount suffice for maintaining a Galactic Treeman? Maybe even three times. But who did Lu Li take after?

With this question in mind, Li Zhendao obediently followed his doctor’s advice and went to bed before ten. Everyone thought he wouldn’t last many more years, and the Lin family hoped for his early death. He was determined to live a long life, waking early and eating well, just to spite them.

Thousands of light-years away, Lu Li disconnected. In this short time, the thirty-plus boarding party members had stripped the starship clean. From weapons to tools, energy stones to the eco-compartment’s nascent cabbages, the starship was left an empty shell. If dragging the starship to Broken Star’s black market wasn’t so conspicuous, Jiang Bo would have done it.

Rubbing the starship’s dull metal walls, Jiang Bo lamented, “If we could dismantle this starship, that would be great. This is H-3 energy alloy, unique to Morton. Selling it as scrap would fetch quite a few credits.”

The group of broke soldiers eagerly agreed, but Wei Na lost patience and kicked them off the starship one by one.

Lu Li finally returned to the Iris with the Galactic Treeman. He casually placed the sleeping Treeman in a storage box and set it aside. The energy stones taken from the Lin family’s starship totaled 30,000 A-class standard stones, the most any of them had ever seen.

“We’ve hit the jackpot,” everyone thought. Even Lu Li couldn’t help but feel pleased. They eagerly set their sights on Broken Star’s coordinates, where another cache of energy stones awaited them. Though 2,000 stones seemed modest after seeing 30,000, Lu Li’s long-standing teachings instilled in them that even small gains were valuable, and fortunes were built bit by bit.

“To Broken Star, let’s go.”

…

At 6 a.m. Earth standard time, in the sky above Broken Star, one large and one small celestial body slowly climbed out of the northern hemisphere, casting their pale light over the desolate land.

Su He sat on a balcony in the ruins, legs dangling, attentively watching the virtual screen of his terminal. Initially, he was just exploring the terminal’s functions and discovered it could connect to the internet. Although Federation law didn’t reach Broken Star, the Federation’s SkyNet treated it the same as any other planet.

Su He searched for the Federation’s history online, confirming his suspicions. He was not only far from Earth in distance but also far from his era, arriving a thousand years into the future. SkyNet provided detailed historical accounts, but Su He found it all summed up in one word: war.

From the appearance of dark beasts on Earth in 2014 to the establishment of the Galactic Federation in 2024 and the adoption of the star calendar, to the present year 1021, humanity had been in a continuous war with the dark beasts for over a thousand years. Initially, humanity was fragmented, each nation fighting on its own. Later, a global federation government was formed to combat the dark beasts collectively. Under immense pressure, Earth’s technology advanced at a dazzling pace. Countless geniuses’ ideas sparked, turning everything once seen in science fiction into reality.

Some Earth historians lamented that war was a catalyst for technological advancement, especially under the threat of extinction. No one would have imagined that humanity, once struggling to land on the moon, would withstand the dark beasts’ invasion and gradually expand into space, spreading across the Milky Way. Over a thousand years, humanity had spread to half of the Milky Way, reaching a balance of power with the dark beasts.

Throughout this history, Su He frequently saw mentions of sentinels and guides. Out

of curiosity, he clicked on the related introduction. He was surprised to learn that the first sentinels appeared in China. At a time when humanity was on the brink of extinction, only China, with its large population base, retained some combat capability. In a particular battle against the dark beasts, a small number of people awakened with extraordinary powers, becoming the first generation of sentinels.

According to then-contemporary anthropologists, these powers were akin to atavism. Before the emergence of human technological civilization, tribal history on Earth included individuals with keen senses and great strength, known as “sentinels.” Sentinels were the guardians of tribes, essential for their survival. They protected the tribe and kept enemies at bay. As history progressed and evolution occurred, these powers gradually lay dormant within humans until the dark beast crisis reawakened them.

The emergence of sentinels saved humanity. Their powers, combined with modern weapons, gave humans their first glimpse of victory. However, as sentinel powers were developed, various side effects began to manifest—wanderlust, berserk states, the death of spirit animals, and more. Sentinels were dying painfully every day. Just as humanity was about to despair again, researchers discovered that in prehistoric tribal cultures, every sentinel was accompanied by a guide, and some tribes even went to war over guides. Previously, researchers had not paid much attention to the existence of guides, but now they realized their mistake—guides were crucial to sentinels.

Soon, the first guide was discovered. He appeared to be an ordinary person but possessed powerful mental abilities. These abilities could effectively soothe and comfort sentinels, alleviating their pain. The importance of guides was recognized, and each guide was strictly protected. Initially, people joked about guides being “princesses in towers,” and as the joke spread, “towers” became synonymous with the residences of guides, a term still used today.

The introduction of sentinels and guides covered various aspects, and after reading it, Su He turned off his terminal and looked into the distance.

He still doubted his identity as a guide and had not considered finding a sentinel. Perhaps the owner of that mountain cat had left too negative an impression on him, giving him a poor first impression of sentinels. Even though SkyNet repeatedly stated that guides would be attracted to sentinels with high compatibility, just as sentinels were drawn to guides, Su He did not believe he would seek out a sentinel. If the compatibility was 100%, this attraction would be irresistible, but Su He couldn’t imagine himself finding a sentinel.

Moreover, regardless of how much the Federation emphasized the importance of guides, how sentinels protected guides, and how natural their union seemed, the status of sentinels and guides was inherently unequal. From the moment a guide awakened to their union with a sentinel, the guide’s existence seemed solely for the sentinel. Su He found that guides rarely had their own pursuits; their lives revolved around their sentinels, making them somewhat like the sentinels’ dependents. This kind of life was unimaginable for him. The thought of following behind a female or male sentinel in the future gave Su He chills.

He hoped he wouldn’t be so unlucky…

xxx

Thingyan: Honey, you’ll be alright. Your husband is super nice, trust this translator 😌

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