Chapter Forty: Little Darling

"That's different," Ye Han said calmly, waving his hand. "Enchanting allows spiritual energy to be evenly attached, whereas spirit stones are a simple and crude mixture."

"In essence, it's no different," Luan Shuangyu replied.

Although she said this, Ye Han's words did give her a reminder.

The biggest difference between the technological side and the mystical side was the issue of spiritual energy. The planetary transformation package could forcibly lock spiritual energy onto the planet, preventing it from dissipating into the universe. If one could perfectly fuse spiritual energy with the genetic serum, that would also be a solution.

"It's worth a try," Luan Shuangyu said, walking over to Ye Han. After a moment's hesitation, she spoke. "You enchant the petri dish, and I'll handle the raw materials."

"Oh?" Ye Han looked up in surprise.

No matter how good the serum, it always depended on various raw materials. Luan Shuangyu's idea of starting from the source rather than the finished product was indeed feasible.

"I want to eat roasted meat," Ye Han said, instead of agreeing directly, putting forth his own condition.

"Fine," Luan Shuangyu agreed without a second thought. But as soon as the words left her mouth, she quickly added, "But you're not allowed to eat here!"

"Then where should I eat?" Ye Han glanced at the hotpot equipment in the corner, spreading his hands in feigned grievance.

"I don't care where, just not here. The smell is too strong," Luan Shuangyu said coldly, turning away.

Every time this guy ate, it distracted her so much she couldn't concentrate at all. If not for him, the development cycle for the genetic serum wouldn't have been delayed for so long.

"Alright," Ye Han nodded helplessly.

They always said this, but in the end, didn't they end up eating together anyway?

Ye Han felt he should at least save her some face.

He relayed the list of enchanting equipment Luan Shuangyu needed to the Hanlan team via inscription, then ignored everything else and motioned to Luan Shuangyu.

She grudgingly reached out and dragged the soft couch Ye Han was sitting on over to the doorway, man and all.

Ye Han did not stand on ceremony, instructing the guards at the door to prepare the necessary ingredients and equipment as requested.

Mainly, though, it was about the ingredients. For equipment, any flat iron plate would do.

Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion. In the end, Luan Shuangyu could not resist the temptation of the aroma. At Ye Han's invitation, she sat beside him, her mouth protesting but her body honest.

Compared to the other candidates, Ye Han sometimes wondered if he was on vacation or taking an exam. Every day, he did nothing but eat, drink, and bask in the sun; he couldn't help with anything else.

At Jiatong Pass, under the think tank's guidance, Xu Hao had managed to complete the initial reorganization. Chen Xu continued spreading his ideology, and Yang Qi, along with the local slave masters of his faction, had reached other kingdoms and was gathering intelligence there.

The other native candidates, aided by the think tank, were all developing in a positive direction.

Meanwhile, in the Liyang Star Domain, Sector 07—

Three million light-years from Hanlan Star, a massive wormhole quietly opened.

Three colossal war fortresses, each the size of a planet, emerged silently from the wormhole.

"Planet coordinates confirmed... Course deviation adjusting... Adjustment complete. Initiate warp?"

"Initiate," a cold, mechanical voice ordered from the highest command center of the fortress.

With that command, the space engines on the fortresses began to charge.

A day later, charging was complete.

The three fortresses vanished from local space, one after another.

...

On an unnamed island somewhere on Hanlan Star, Fat Xu stared at the petri dish before him, his face flushed with excitement.

"Perfect! Truly worthy of being my carefully cultivated little treasure!" he exclaimed, nearly jumping for joy as he observed the wriggling organisms inside.

The creatures in the dish were less than a nanometer in size. In the palm-sized space, they swarmed densely.

"Brother Han's Bonded Star is now useless. He's probably been eliminated."

A trace of sadness flickered in Fat Xu's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a grim, iron-blooded grin. "In that case, I'll destroy this planet!"

As the nutrients in the petri dish were exhausted, the minuscule creatures shifted their attention. Upon closer inspection, one could see they had begun to gnaw at the petri dish itself.

Like snow melting, the edge of the dish was devoured within mere seconds.

The creatures' numbers multiplied exponentially.

Fat Xu watched as his creations rapidly spread, making no attempt to restrain them.

In just half an hour, they had chewed out a crater a hundred meters wide. Even Fat Xu himself couldn't count their numbers.

Nothing was left in their wake—not a blade of grass, not even a speck of soil.

"Truly the product of the Zerg Empress's genes. With my innate ability for infinite division, this planet will be devoured sooner or later!"

Fat Xu lay down in the center of the crater, grinning up at the sky.

To instill his gift into these organisms, he had cut a piece of flesh from his own body as the base for cultivation, then mixed in the Zerg Empress's genes.

Thus, the first generation of creatures received his gift, exhausting his own essence in the process.

But once the transfer succeeded, the results were obvious.

Each split organism was equivalent to a miniature Zerg mother. Because it was division, not nurturing, Fat Xu's gift was used to its fullest. The rate at which they split defied comprehension.

"Although I don't have the strength to confront Luan Shuangyu directly in the 07 Star Domain, and for the sake of my native life, I dare not face her head-on, here on the College Entrance Exam battlefield, where there are no taboos, I swear I will annihilate Luan Shuangyu and trap her spirit forever on her homeworld.

That way, in the 07 Star Domain, you'll have someone to keep you company!"

Fat Xu bowed his head in sorrow, muttering to himself. The way he looked, if there had been incense nearby, he might have lit some and offered several sticks to Ye Han on the spot.

As time passed, Fat Xu lay at the bottom of the crater, gradually drifting into sleep.

On the surface, aside from the initial hundred-meter crater, there was no further expansion. Instead, the infestation shifted underground.

Like ants building nests, or spiders spinning webs, countless organisms spread beneath the surface at unimaginable speed.

At this rate, in half a year, these creatures would cover the globe.

By the end of the entrance exam, half of Xiyuan Star might have been devoured.

Yes, from the surface down.

In planetary terms, they could chew through the crust and upper mantle.

As for the lower mantle and core, that would depend on whether these creatures could evolve to survive such conditions.

If they could adapt, then there would be no problem.

As long as even one of these organisms survived, the eventual consumption of Xiyuan Star was inevitable.