Chapter 100

Chapter 100: You Treat Me Like a Hypnosis Track—You Say You’ll Sleep and You Do, Right in Front of Me

The moment Jiang Tea Tea finished speaking, a few heavy thuds sounded behind her.

She didn’t even need to turn around to know what happened. Someone on the training field had been eavesdropping—and couldn’t hold it together. They’d literally toppled over.

Several bodyguards cursed their sharp ears and weak legs. They were genuinely impressed that Jiang Tea Tea could be that bold and still keep a perfectly straight face. Now they were face-down on the ground, praying the Commander-in-Chief hadn’t noticed.

The cadets sparring with those fallen bodyguards saw an opening and surged in, hoping to flip the situation.

They miscalculated.

Even sprawled on the ground, the bodyguards were still as quick as sea dragons. The cadets hadn’t finished raising their fists before the bodyguards had already “predicted their prediction,” slipped every strike, and returned a savage beatdown.

Chong Ming glanced at the chaos, his expression unchanged—like Jiang Tea Tea hadn’t been talking about him at all.

“Why would I suppress my heat? I’m of the Dragon Clan. Two or three heat cycles a year is perfectly normal.”

“I haven’t used my status to bully any female, and my private life isn’t a mess. This is a normal physiological phenomenon. I don’t find it shameful, and I don’t need to forcibly suppress it.”

Jiang Tea Tea froze mid-sip, eyes widening.

“Wait. Your Dragon Clan goes into heat two or three times a year, and that’s normal? It’s not… a disease?”

Her grandmother had told her that in ancient times, dragons were the greatest of all scaled creatures. Later, they were subdued by the Heaven Realm, took posts within it, and became lofty Dragon Gods.

Her grandmother had also warned her—very seriously—about Dragon Clan boyfriends. Dragons only went into heat once every three to five years, and when it happened it lasted for months. If a dragon went into heat every year or two, that meant he was sick—weak, soft, unhealthy.

So what was this?

This Old Loach was saying two or three times a year was normal. Did dragons here run on different instincts? Different settings? Or was she the ignorant one, making a big deal out of nothing?

Chong Ming nodded.

“Yes. Two to three times a year is normal. Three to five is also normal—just like how your Human Race has twelve months, three hundred sixty-five days, and can go into heat anytime, anywhere.”

Heavens. Earth. Everything in between.

This dragon was one hundred and fifty years old. He was shamelessly wild—and she was a great demon.

How could he say something like that so calmly? Not a flicker of embarrassment. Not even a hint of a smile.

Jiang Tea Tea choked on her milk, coughing so hard she nearly blacked out.

She really wanted to tell him she wasn’t Human Race.

She was a demon.

A demon who could control herself—who could keep herself from blooming, from pollinating—no, to hell with that. She’d already capsized in a ditch. She’d slept with one dragon, and now she had more than one cub growing in her belly.

It was enough to make a demon furious.

Chong Ming watched her coughing fit with cool detachment.

“You exposed your plant-type ability to prove your body isn’t defective.”

“Fine. I believe your body is fine. But your basic common sense is severely lacking. Do you want me to find someone to teach you?”

Jiang Tea Tea finally caught her breath and took a big swallow of milk to steady herself.

“Thank you for your kindness. I appreciate it, but no. Don’t waste your time tutoring me. I embarrass myself every day. I’m used to it. Honestly, if I went a full day without losing face, I’d probably feel uneasy.”

Yeah. Sure. Like she couldn’t hear the faint bite under his words.

Chong Ming lifted an eyebrow.

“You really don’t need anyone? I’ll cover the fees. You won’t have to spend anything.”

“Even if you paid me, I don’t have time,” Jiang Tea Tea snapped. “Fine—maybe your heat isn’t a problem. But your mental power is more clogged than your Deputy General’s. Why don’t you find a healer?”

Chong Ming answered flatly, like a stone slab.

“The Zhen Lin Empire doesn’t have any plant-type ability users above 3S rank.”

“My mental power level is too high. Anyone below 2S—or even other pharmacists—can’t untangle it.”

“I can only take medicine to suppress the backlash and rely on my own will to keep it in check. You saw how close I was to losing control, but I can still suppress it. It’s not a major problem.”

Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes lit up. She scooted closer, voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper.

“Ten bottles of dragon blood, and I’ll untangle you once?”

Chong Ming shot back without missing a beat. “Should I carve off a few pounds of my flesh while I’m at it?”

Jiang Tea Tea gave a dry laugh. “You’re hilarious.”

So stingy. And what was with the sarcasm?

She scowled at him.

Chong Ming returned the look. “You started it.”

Jiang Tea Tea rolled her eyes. “Release a little mental pressure. Let me feel it again. I want to see if I’m immune to you.”

His voice dropped. “I already am.”

Jiang Tea Tea blinked. “Huh? Then why don’t I feel anything?”

Chong Ming summed it up. “Maybe you’re immune again.”

So she was immune one moment and not the next?

Was she really that moody?

What a joke.

She was a good demon.

Jiang Tea Tea sat down right on the floor. One hand held her milk carton while the other smacked the ground with a crisp slap.

“Come on. Sit here and release it slowly.”

Adjutant Ai nearly dropped his eyes straight onto the floor.

Jiang Tea Tea’s classmates were about to be disappointed again. The Commander-in-Chief never sat on the ground—

No. That wasn’t right. The Commander-in-Chief was mighty and domineering. He could fight the Insect Clan, invade other nations, and also—apparently—sit on the ground.

Chong Ming sat.

He left a gap about the size of one person between himself and Jiang Tea Tea. One long leg propped up, elbow resting on his knee, he looked out over the training field as his mental pressure began to pour outward.

This time, it wasn’t aimed only at Jiang Tea Tea.

It was aimed at everyone—more than two hundred people on the field.

The Empire’s strongest beastfolk released mental pressure like a thunderstorm. It crashed down over the entire ground.

Jiang Tea Tea sat there like nothing was happening. Inside her, the cubs grew more active, more lively, as if they’d been waiting for this.

Around them, more than two hundred people—especially the thirty-some cadets—couldn’t last even three minutes. They collapsed face-first, clutching themselves and rolling in agony.

As Chong Ming increased the pressure, heavier and heavier, blood began to seep from some cadets’ eyes, ears, and noses.

Minister Lu from the Medical Department arrived in time with a mental-power shielding device. He rushed the bleeding cadets away and dragged them straight back to the Medical Department.

Sui Xuan Chu was left behind. Teeth bared, he fought his uncle’s pressure with pure stubbornness. It felt like his organs were being torn apart, like hammers were pounding his bones, like his skull was about to split.

Meanwhile, Jiang Tea Tea felt better and better.

Like drinking sweet dew after a drought. Like standing in sunlight after rain, wind on her skin, every leaf and branch inside her finally unclenching.

Xia Wei Yi had just leveled up her ability, putting her among the highest-ranked in the group. Even so, under her own Commander-in-Chief’s high-level mental power, she ground her molars until her mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood and still refused to fall.

Da Ma Zi and the others leaned into one another, bracing together and drawing on their mental power to resist.

It helped.

Barely.

Their bodies still felt like invisible hands were ripping them apart from the inside, skin burning with tearing pain.

Jiang Tea Tea didn’t even finish her milk before she felt full—uncomfortably full. Only then did she finally understand what Cheng Lin Yue had meant when she’d said Jiang Tea Tea couldn’t eat enough, couldn’t drink enough. It wasn’t about hunger.

It was because of the cubs.

They lacked their father’s psychic soothing, so they kept trying to compensate by drawing from other sources.

Food. Her magic power. Those were their key nourishment. Luckily, her magic power kept growing. Otherwise, those little parasites would’ve died on her already.

The comfort was almost too much. Jiang Tea Tea yawned once… then twice… then three times. Her eyelids grew heavy as lead.

She turned her head toward Chong Ming. “Keep releasing it. I’m going to sleep for a bit. When the ship reaches the capital planet, wake me.”

Chong Ming’s brows knit. “You’re sleepy, and you’re treating my mental pressure like a hypnosis track?”

Jiang Tea Tea stretched out flat on the floor, head angled toward him, one hand resting on her belly.

“Pretty much. Keep going. Don’t stop.”

She’d already wrapped her belly in layers of magic power. Even if the cubs leaked the faintest hint of presence, her power would crush it down and hide it. Chong Ming wouldn’t sense a thing.

Chong Ming lowered his gaze, studying her.

Her face was no bigger than his palm, skin white as snow, pores nearly invisible. Fine baby hairs caught the light along her cheek.

Over three months of brutal competition, everyone else had either lost weight or darkened under the sun.

Only she looked unchanged—taking first place by a wide margin, dragging her team into the top eight, and earning squad first.

Chong Ming drew back the mental pressure he’d been aiming at everyone else.

The instant he did, the training field exploded with ragged relief. Two hundred people felt as if a mountain had been lifted off their heads. They collapsed like wet laundry, drenched in sweat—some panting hard, some retching blood.

Sui Xuan Chu swallowed blood with his saliva, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and stared at Jiang Tea Tea lying beside his uncle.

Jealousy. Pure jealousy.

Everyone else feared his uncle’s mental pressure. Jiang Tea Tea just lay down, closed her eyes, and went straight to sleep.

Who was the real golden dragon imperial clan here? Her. It had to be her. He was the one who’d been picked up off the side of the road.

Jiang Tea Tea slept deeply. When she finally woke, the vast training ground was empty.

Only Sui Xuan Chu remained.

He sat cross-legged in front of her, his disguised red-black eyes fixed on her with such resentment it looked like she’d dug up his family’s ancestral graves.

Jiang Tea Tea pushed herself up and found a thin blanket draped over her. Yawning, she stared back.

“What’s with that look?”

Sui Xuan Chu pulled his gaze away, then looked her up and down. “What kind of monster are you?”

Jiang Tea Tea’s heart clenched. For a second, guilt actually prickled at her.

“What monster? What are you talking about? Who’s a monster?”

Had her demon identity been exposed?

No way. She’d wrapped herself in layers of magic power protection.

Sui Xuan Chu snorted. “If you’re not a monster, then what are you? None of us could withstand my uncle’s mental pressure. You slept like a baby. That’s not normal. That’s way too not normal.”

Jiang Tea Tea let out a silent breath of relief. Then she reached out and flicked him on the forehead.

“Use your brain. I’m a 3S-rank plant-type psychic power user. I can untangle any ability’s mental field.”

“When your uncle’s mental pressure hit me, I released my plant-type psychic power and dissolved it—countered his mental power. So of course I was fine.”

Sui Xuan Chu tilted his head, skeptical. “Is that really how it works?”

Jiang Tea Tea nodded solemnly. “Of course. If you don’t believe me, ask your uncle.”

If something was wrong with her, his uncle would’ve said so.

The fact that she could say this so confidently meant she was fine.

Sui Xuan Chu finally relented. “Fine. I’ll believe you this once. Get up. My uncle invited us to eat in the canteen.”

Jiang Tea Tea blinked. “I slept that long? Five hours haven’t passed yet?”

Sui Xuan Chu shook his head. “No. About forty-five minutes left. We’ll eat on the ship, then we’ll reach the sixth star system—Hundred-Claw Star—right on time to drop off the squad that placed third.”

Jiang Tea Tea hummed, rolled off the floor, and bundled the thin blanket in a quick fold. She handed it to him.

“Here.”

Sui Xuan Chu shoved it back with one hand. “My uncle told Deputy General Xia to cover you. Don’t give it to me—return it to Deputy General Xia!”

Jiang Tea Tea shrugged. “Fine. Didn’t think your uncle could be that kind. Must’ve been hard for him.”

Sui Xuan Chu reached as if to sling an arm around her. “The more outstanding you are, the more you’ll see how kind my uncle can be.”

Jiang Tea Tea sidestepped and strode away. “Is that so? I remember your uncle said first place gets a one-million star credits reward. When do I get paid?”

Sui Xuan Chu hurried after her. “I’m starting to realize you’re not like other females. Shouldn’t you be thinking about how to impress my uncle even more?”

Jiang Tea Tea shot him a look full of contempt. “We really can’t talk. I won’t ask you. I’ll ask your uncle later.”

Sui Xuan Chu matched her pace. “I don’t know either. Besides the one million, there’s also a custom skeletal mecha. I’d guess the money arrives within a week. But the skeletal mecha… they need your full-body data to tailor it. That takes time.”

“Usually six to fifteen months. So you’ll get the mecha within a year.”

Jiang Tea Tea’s stomach dropped.

Good thing she asked early. If someone tried to trick her into handing over full-body data…

With her body full of branches and demon secrets, she wouldn’t be getting a “custom mecha.” She’d be getting strapped to an anatomy table.

A shiver crawled up her spine.

“But don’t worry,” Sui Xuan Chu said, mistaking her silence for excitement. “My uncle will have it made with military-grade standards. Just the base cost won’t be less than ten million star credits.”

Jiang Tea Tea asked flatly, “Can I sell the slot?”

Sui Xuan Chu’s pupils narrowed into slits. “Roommate, are you insane? Or just poor? You want to sell the slot?”

“That’s your honor. It goes on your record. You can’t sell it. Absolutely not.”

Jiang Tea Tea bared her teeth in a bright grin. “My stuff, my choice. If I say I can, I can. Hurry up. Let’s eat.”

Sui Xuan Chu sped up. “No, no, no—you can’t. Let’s negotiate. Don’t sell it. If you need money, I’ll lend you some.”

“I’m not short on money,” Jiang Tea Tea said. “I just don’t want it.”

“It’s honor! How can honor be sold?”

“I’ll have more honor later. I’m not missing this one.”

“I still object.”

“Objection denied.”

Sui Xuan Chu kept trying to talk her out of it. Jiang Tea Tea didn’t budge.

They bickered the whole way.

At the same time, Chong Ming headed to the canteen. He’d just stepped out of the command room when Minister Lu came rushing toward him with Xia Wei Yi’s full-body exam report, face lit with barely contained excitement.

“Reporting, Commander-in-Chief! Deputy General Xia’s exam results are out. Her ability rank has risen to 7S!”

Chong Ming took the report and skimmed it in a glance, then looked back at Minister Lu.

“Her reaching 7S isn’t enough to make you this happy. What else happened?”

Minister Lu jabbed at a section of the report.

“When I examined Deputy General Xia, I discovered the residual healing plant-type psychic power in her body is a mutant variant we’ve never seen before.”

“This mutant isn’t 3S. It could be 5S—maybe even 10S. Which means Jiang Tea Tea’s plant-type psychic power can completely untangle your mind sea and calm your ability backlash.”

“As long as she clears your blocked mind sea and suppresses the backlash, your ability rank will rise again. Your lifespan can break five hundred years—maybe even eight hundred. You’d become the oldest, longest-lived beastfolk in history!”