Interstellar Farming: I Make Potions and Climb to the Top

"Don’t send me away. I’ll be good," Di Youlin said, looking at Ning Xuan with a desolate expression. Despite all his ordeals, he was still only eighteen. Five years of slaughter on the battlefield and three years of imprisonment underground had filled his life with nothing but blood, pain, and endless loneliness.

"Go find Housekeeper Yan right now. Have Yan Fuzhen explain the rules of living here. Your treatment will be the same as Nine-tailed and the others. If you’re unwilling to comply, then you can go back to where you came from." Ning Xuan felt a degree of sympathy for Di Youlin’s plight and was willing to spare a few extra glances for his striking looks. However, even if his identity was special and he was pitiable, she would not allow him to disrupt the normal order of her life.

"Can my treatment be the same as his?" Di Youlin asked, pointing a finger at Lin Mo.

"I don’t care what your status was before. Here, you’re just an ordinary half-beastman who needs my spiritual power to survive."

"Don’t try to bargain with me. Break the rules, and you’ll get a beating. If you behave, I’ll find a way to heal your internal injuries. Now, go find Housekeeper Yan on your own." Ning Xuan helped up Lin Mo, who Di Youlin had pushed aside, and patted him reassuringly.

Di Youlin watched Lin Mo with envy and jealousy. He wanted Ning Xuan to pat him like that, too.

Under Ning Xuan’s piercing gaze, Di Youlin dejectedly and reluctantly shuffled out. Ning Xuan entrusted the task of teaching Di Youlin the house rules to Yan Fuzhen. After receiving Ning Xuan’s letter, which was filled with all sorts of requirements, Yan Fuzhen looked at the young god of death sitting before him, eyes brimming with killing intent. Bracing himself, he began with a self-introduction.

The next day, Ning Xuan went to class as usual. The previous night, she had refined a batch of Inhibitors and given them to Lin Mo. He had sent the medicine to the Second Legion via military channels early that morning. Since Lin Mo was busy, Chen Nan was the one accompanying Ning Xuan to her classes today.

Although Ning Xuan had become famous due to the Alchemist competition, her face had been altered during the Star Network broadcast for her protection. Consequently, the vast majority of people didn’t actually recognize her.

It was only Ning Xuan’s second day at the school, and since she hadn’t grown up on Central Star, she was an unfamiliar face to most.

Thus, as Ning Xuan was walking toward the Alchemy Department, she was blocked by a dozen or so flashily dressed male students. "Hey there, little beauty. We haven’t seen you around. You must be a new student, right? Why don’t you let us big brothers show you around and help you get familiar with the campus?"

These dozen or so boys had all grown up on Central Star. Most of them were the spoiled, untalented children of powerful families. Their "poor talent" stemmed from inheriting weak Bloodline Power, meaning they had no real prospects no matter how much they cultivated. Their "spoiled" status, however, came from the exceptional strength or influence of their direct lineage relatives, which allowed them to enjoy an abundance of family resources.

They could never hold any real power in their families, nor did they have to bear any responsibility. The discipline from their elders and ancestors was lax, so they acted with impunity on a daily basis. Upon seeing an unfamiliar face like Ning Xuan today, they asked around among their group, and no one recognized her. And that was significant—between the dozen of them, they covered nearly every prominent family on Central Star. There wasn’t a single prodigy from any major house they didn’t know.

Since she wasn’t from a major family, they concluded she must be a talented individual who had just been scouted from some Low-class Star.

And that led to the current scene of them blocking Ning Xuan’s path.

"It’s Lin Zhou and his gang, harassing another student. Let’s get out of here, quick! We can’t let them see us, or we’ll be asking for trouble." Not far off, a student who had been about to pass by grabbed their companion, ready to turn and take a detour.

"Wait. That girl has an extraordinary air about her. She might have some connections. Don’t pull me away, I want to see what happens," the companion protested.

"Watch what? Have you forgotten what happened to Zhang Hua a while ago? He stumbled upon Lin Zhou’s group bullying someone and was dragged in as a witness. Zhang Hua felt sorry for the student being bullied and couldn’t help but tell the truth. And what was the result? A few days later, he was matched to a Contractor with a tyrannical nature. Now his life is worse than death. Let’s go! If you have time to be this curious, you’d be better off running a few more experiments." From a distance, seeing it was Lin Zhou’s group, many students who were about to pass by chose to take a different route.

However, a group of girls was walking toward them. One of them spoke in an incredibly envious tone, "Xinyue, I’m so jealous! You’ve cultivated an Ancient Martial Arts technique and your constitution has broken through to B-level! At your current cultivation speed, it won’t be long before you break through to A-level, right? Then you can ask the family elders to break your spiritual power seal, and you’ll become a true High-level Controller!"

"Xinyue, you know my older brother has been waiting for you for years," another girl chimed in. "He’s run away from two arranged marriages for your sake and was nearly beaten to death by my mother. He’s still hiding out somewhere, too afraid to come home. You always used to say your health was poor and you didn’t want to be a burden to him. Now that you’re well, you can’t keep brushing him off, can you?"

"I deleted his contact information a while ago," Huangfu Xinyue promised, her face beaming. "If you can get in touch with him, tell him that if he’s still willing, I’ll ask my family elders to make the arrangements for me to formally present the betrothal gifts at your house."

"Really? Xinyue, you have to keep your word! Girls, you all have to be my witnesses!" the girl exclaimed, laughing with joy.

"We’ll be witnesses! We can all be witnesses! Haha, who couldn’t tell that Xinyue likes your older brother too?"

"Oh, by the way, Xinyue, your health used to be so poor. We all thought you were... uh, well..." The girl nearly blurted out, "we all thought you were going to die," but she swallowed the words, unsure of how to phrase it.

"What ’well’?" another girl jumped in. "You just want to ask how Xinyue made such a sudden and complete transformation, don’t you? Go on, Xinyue, tell us! We all want to know."

Seeing all her friends looking at her expectantly, Huangfu Xinyue gave a radiant smile. "It’s all thanks to my brother. You all know I could never cultivate Ancient Martial Arts before. But he found me a miracle doctor who is an expert in the Ancient Acupuncture Skill. She gave me just one treatment, and it cleared my meridians and acupoints. After that, I was able to cultivate Ancient Martial Arts."

As Huangfu Xinyue and her friends were chatting and laughing on their way over, Chen Nan and Ning Xuan were already locked in a two-against-eleven brawl, fighting against the good-for-nothings from the great families.

Although these good-for-nothings from the great families had average talent, this was more than offset by their families’ immense power and the heaven-defying resources allocated to them. Even without any battlefield experience, their spiritual power and Comprehensive Combat Power were both at the S-level. As it happened, Ning Xuan was looking for an opportunity to practice her hand-to-hand combat, so she used neither her Ghost-faced Red Vine nor her Vermilion Bird Fire, engaging them fist-for-fist and foot-for-foot.