Interstellar Farming: I Make Potions and Climb to the Top

When Ning Xuan looked up and saw Ying Yaoshi, her breath hitched.

Standing against the light, the man’s shoulders were as straight as a sword’s edge. His crisp, dark military uniform starkly accentuated his eye-catching inverted-triangle physique: broad shoulders and a narrow waist.

A soaring serpent embroidered with gold thread coiled on his cuffs. Its scales glinted coldly in the light, and its vertical golden pupils were bloodthirsty and fierce, as if ready to devour someone.

Ying Yaoshi’s chiseled face had shed its casual air. Beneath his sharp brows, his eyes were cold and stern, the depths of his pupils seeming to hold shards of ice.

He raised a hand to adjust his cuff and looked over at Ning Xuan.

"Xuanyuan, I understand what you were saying. Just save me some face in front of others, and we can follow your rules the rest of the time. I have no objections." Ying Yaoshi reached for Ning Xuan’s hand.

Ning Xuan didn’t pull away, her gaze fixed on his neck.

The Imprisonment Ring Ning Xuan had just placed on Ying Yaoshi was partially visible beneath the collar of his military uniform, giving it a somewhat forbidden feel.

Feeling Ning Xuan’s gaze, Ying Yaoshi touched the Imprisonment Ring and leaned slightly toward her. "I have a meeting to attend, and I’d like to introduce you to a few people. Could you take this off for now?"

Ying Yaoshi asked, his tone humble.

"Alright." Ning Xuan pursed her lips and took the Imprisonment Ring off him.

Ning Xuan’s fingers touched Ying Yaoshi’s arm, and she could feel the coiled muscles beneath the fabric, brimming with explosive power. She couldn’t resist giving it a squeeze.

A silver clasp secured his collar above his bobbing Adam’s apple. A faint, irregular scar cut across his pale skin, the trace of an unidentifiable weapon.

Ning Xuan took Ying Yaoshi’s arm, and the two of them walked out of his quarters. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The CLACK of Ying Yaoshi’s military boots echoed on the floor. Soldiers lining the long corridor stood ramrod straight, saluting him as he passed. His profile, silhouetted against the light, was rimmed with gold. The shadow cast by the bridge of his nose split his face into light and dark, making him look like an unsheathed saber standing between heaven and earth.

As they walked, soldiers everywhere they passed greeted them with military salutes. In the stern, sharp atmosphere of the military camp, Ning Xuan found her own expression growing serious.

Ying Yaoshi was heading to a post-battle debriefing meeting. The agenda was to review the battlefield situation, the strategies employed, and whether a more optimal strategic plan could have been devised.

The meeting’s attendees were all mid- to high-ranking officers who had participated in the recent war. After the review, they tallied the personnel losses from the campaign.

"Shen Shiye’s Mutated Degree is out of control. He’s been sent to the field hospital, and the attending Doctor is trying to save him. A message just came in... they say he might not make it," an officer said, his expression sorrowful.

Expressions of grief appeared on the faces of the others as well.

Shen Shiye was a High Level officer with an SSS-level Spiritual Power Level and a brilliant military record. Those present had been his colleagues for many years, and none could hide their grief at the news.

"Xuanyuan, could you go take a look?" Ying Yaoshi suddenly asked.

Everyone else in the room turned to look at Ning Xuan.

"I can try," Ning Xuan nodded.

In reality, Ying Yaoshi had only asked because Ning Xuan had been persistently giving him looks. He had understood her intent and asked the question to play along.

"Let me introduce you all. This is my Contractor, Ning Xuan—Miss Ning. Yan Fuzhen went to her side a year ago."

"She awakened just a year ago and advanced to an SS-level Controller a few days ago." The people at the meeting were all Ying Yaoshi’s trusted subordinates, so he introduced her to them without reservation.

Upon hearing this, the other generals all rose to their feet and saluted Ning Xuan.

"The doctors at the field hospital are out of options. You can give it a try, but don’t feel too pressured," Ying Yaoshi said, managing expectations. "The lead treating doctors at the field hospital have high Spiritual Power Levels and extensive experience. If they say he can’t be treated, it most likely means there’s no hope."

Ning Xuan nodded and motioned for them to lead the way. The entire group then proceeded to the field hospital in a great procession.

The field hospital was a hive of activity. A battle had just ended, and with countless wounded, everyone was rushing about. The arrival of Ying Yaoshi’s group—all of them important figures one rarely saw—drew many stares along the way.

Ning Xuan had treated many Spirit Controllers whose spiritual power had gone rampant or whose Mutated Value had spun out of control. She had also volunteered at the Controller Protection Association, single-handedly managing an entire floor of patients. Still, the patient she was about to treat was a powerhouse with an SSS-level Spiritual Power Level. When it came to a Spirit Controller of that Level, she wasn’t very confident.

It was just that in the somber atmosphere of the moment, she had decided to give it a try without overthinking it.

After they explained their purpose to the hospital staff, they were led to the top floor, the third floor. Before they even got close, they heard a beast-like roar.

The sound was mournful and pained. The nurses’ faces filled with terror. Overhead, the corridor’s emergency lights SIZZLED, their blue-and-white glare making the claw marks on the blast-proof isolation door stand out with stark clarity.

Sensing the rampaging energy, Ying Yaoshi’s expression grew grave as he pulled Ning Xuan behind him. Shen Shiye’s condition was even more severe than the reports had indicated. ’Judging from the volatile energy in the air,’ he thought, ’he’s probably already completely mutated.’

"Xuanyuan, don’t bother." ’It’s probably pointless,’ Ying Yaoshi thought, not wanting to let her take the risk.

"Get back!" Ying Yaoshi grabbed Ning Xuan’s arm, stopping her from getting any closer.

Just then, a muffled THUD of a heavy impact came from behind the isolation door of the second room on the floor. The entire metal door visibly bulged outward.

Ning Xuan saw debris flaking from the edges of the metal door, along with claw marks gouged deep into the steel plate—they came in sets of three, the longest over twenty centimeters.

A piercing alarm blared. Amid a sound of screeching, tearing metal, a claw covered in cyan scales thrust out from within the door.

Ying Yaoshi’s body tensed as he took an attack stance. Ning Xuan patted him and released her spiritual power. Simultaneously, she activated the Vermilion Bird at the center of her brow. With a sharp cry, a fiery red Vermilion Bird flew out from within her, spitting flames at the creature behind the door.

The claw retracted as if it had been scalded by the fire.

Ning Xuan’s immense spiritual power penetrated the isolation door. She could sense a powerful and chaotic spiritual power, one that was shrouded and tightly enveloped in a dense, black substance.

Ning Xuan first used her spiritual power to soothe the entity. Then, she used vines to deliver the Spiritual Calming Potion and Dissociation Degree Clearing Medicine she had concocted, sending them through the isolation door and forcing the medicine down the man’s throat.

The mournful roars ceased, and the rampaging energy gradually subsided. The officers who had accompanied them stared nervously at the isolation door. Having known Shen Shiye for many years, they could sense that his condition seemed to be improving.