After Becoming a Zerg Larva - Chapter 6

Li Xi did not withdraw his gaze until the figure at the end of the long corridor disappeared. His eyes fell upon the lush greenery on the windowsill; the leaves were coated in a faint wisp of mental power. Li Xi was not unfamiliar with this energy, it belonged exclusively to Kale.

When he wandered back to the hospital room, Kale was leaning against the window looking down. Hearing the door open, he retracted his gaze, turned around, and said with slight dissatisfaction, “Running off again?”

Li Xi closed the door as if nothing had happened. Only Ren had carried him to the hospital while Kale was nowhere to be found, yet now the Zerg had appeared in the room and immediately used mental power to lock onto his location. He was rather elusive.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you take the initiative to contact another Zerg, and a female cub at that,” Kale stroked his chin, dying of curiosity. “When did you meet? Where? Are you interested in him?”

The incessant voice paused for a second, then blurted out a sudden whim:

“Do you want to bring him home? ”

“…” Li Xi, who was mid-gulp while drinking water, nearly choked.

The cub didn’t respond, but Kale didn’t get angry either. He muttered to himself for a while before his attention returned outside. He stared at a certain point beyond the window, deep in thought. “Your Female Father is busy every day to the point his feet barely touch the ground, yet his military merits haven’t increased at all, and his rank hasn’t risen.”

“I wonder what he’s actually doing at the Military Department?”

The last sentence was very soft, as if he were deciding something internally. Li Xi, who wasn’t far away, flicked his eyelids at the comment.

Kale’s fingertips tapped rhythmically against the windowpane, the sound echoing in the silent room. Outside, the warm sun shone brightly, yet Kale, bathed in it, seemed ice-cold and increasingly unpredictable.

A female Zerg’s future path often rested on a single whim of a male Zerg.

After watching for a long time, Kale turned to look at his cub and asked casually, “Cub, do you want your Female Father to spend more time with you?”

Li Xi finally broke his silence. Perhaps he understood Kale’s subtle implication. Kale could use any excuse to clip Ren’s wings and keep him trapped by his side. But Li Xi did not want to be the tether used for that purpose. Without even looking at Kale, he said, “No.”

“Alright then.” Kale shrugged, dropping the idea.

The thought of making Ren resign to stay by his side came and went quickly. Kale was of noble status and had never suffered a grievance since childhood. The only one who dared to go against him happened to be the very cub who gave him the biggest headache!

He could only find excuses for himself.

“Forget it. Looking at his passion for the Military Department, that won’t fade anytime soon.” Kale glanced down once more at his “Female Monarch” being intercepted by subordinates downstairs, then left the window to sit across from the cub. “Tell me, besides the Military Department, what else does your Female Father like?”

Li Xi returned to his silence.

“Impolite!” Kale poked the cub’s forehead in dissatisfaction. The small blue head tilted to the side, and as soon as it righted itself, it was poked again…

Li Xi’s head was never straight for more than a second.

“Hmm?”

Li Xi didn’t want to answer at all, but unable to withstand Kale’s repeated questioning and his wobbling head, he spoke up helplessly: “Me.”

Kale didn’t want to hear that and continued poking. “And?”

Li Xi: “Military Department.”

“And then?” Kale refused to give up, still poking.

His head was getting tired of moving, so Li Xi propped his chin up and thought very seriously for a moment. Under Kale’s expectant gaze, he let out a single word: “You…”

Kale instinctively leaned forward: “…!”

Was it what he wanted to hear?

“You,” Li Xi slowly completed the sentence, “…Female Monarch.”

“…” Kale’s gaze froze. The heart that was about to pound wildly was thoroughly doused in cold water.

Was he just being mocked?!

Kale felt a lump in his throat; he couldn’t hit the boy and couldn’t scold him. For the first time, he was at a total loss for words, his lips moving several times without a sound.

Li Xi couldn’t be bothered with Kale’s current mood. Though they hadn’t had much contact over the years, Kale had left him with an image of being extremely unreliable.

After a moment of realization, Kale’s eyes narrowed slightly, releasing a dangerous aura of mental power. His voice was no longer breezy: “Li He, are you intentionally making things difficult for me?”

Calling him by his full name showed Kale’s anger. Mental power silently flooded every corner of the room with a clear purpose, crawling inch by inch toward where Li Xi sat. S-rank mental power carried a sense of warning, threat, and expulsion; even a small leak was enough to intimidate the masses.

Yet Li Xi sat steadily, his dark pupils staring at the mental power already coiled around his ankles. They remained in a mutual silence.

“…” Seeing no reaction from the cub, Kale felt a bit defiant. He carefully controlled the pressure, testing his cub’s endurance bit by bit.

The previously peaceful atmosphere turned heavy. The female Zerg guarding the door ducked their heads, not daring to speak; upon closer inspection, every one of them was trembling slightly. Inside, the tension was even worse—the glass cup on the table made a slight noise as spiderweb-like cracks spread across it.

Li Xi: “…”

As time passed, the mental power became increasingly brazen, and glass items began to shatter on the floor. Li Xi felt quite helpless; Kale was old enough to be a father, yet he was still competing for dominance with his own cub.

Li Xi had deep mental power himself, but since this wasn’t his original body, a slight sense of discomfort inevitably welled up. He pondered: Should I give in?

Before he could speak, the surrounding mental power receded like a tide. In its place, his face was grabbed by a certain Zerg, and his cheeks were squeezed until they puffed out.

“Wu~”

Li Xi: “???”

The change was so sudden that Li Xi was ruffled into a mess from head to toe especially his faux beast ears, which were now completely disheveled. He looked up at the hands to find Kale’s eyes curved in a smile, his fingertips kneading his cheeks at will.

Kale laughed mischievously and said, “Do you want to cry?”

Li Xi couldn’t keep up with the jump in logic.

Kale spoke while reminiscing: “You and the ‘Little Ball’ seem to have never cried since you were small. Look at the male cubs of other families, which one doesn’t cry and act spoiled toward their Male Father?”

…Act spoiled?

Li Xi certainly didn’t need such tricks to get what he wanted.

“Sigh, in all these years I haven’t experienced the joy of being a Male Father for a single second,” Kale shook his head in tragic regret. “A soft cub acting spoiled in their father’s arms—what a wonderful joy that must be.”

Kale looked longing: “But you definitely can’t do that. My standards aren’t high. You just need to cry, no need to act spoiled. Just let me coax you…”

A sick sense of humor?

Forget childhood; Li Xi hadn’t cried once in his previous life either. He spoke up in refusal: “No…”

“Wu—”

The moment he uttered a word, his cheeks were pinched together by the wicked male Zerg’s thumb and forefinger, leaving only the whimpering sound of a young animal from his throat.

“Hmm?” Kale was having an exceptionally good time. Opportunities to tease his cub were rare, and he certainly wasn’t going to let this one pass. “Cry once, and I won’t hold your mocking me earlier against you.”

Kale bargained in an extremely pleasant tone: “How about it?”

Li Xi used his eyes to ask: Do I even have the right to disagree?

Kale smiled.

A child’s skin is delicate and fragile; under Kale’s “torment,” his cheeks were now bright red. Having escaped the “clutches,” Li Xi sat huddled in a corner of the sofa with his head down. His bangs covered his eyes, and his expression was unreadable in the shadows.

Kale sipped his water leisurely, his eyes full of mirth. “Hurry up. You promised.”

“Coercion,” Li Xi said, his voice muffled.

Kale wouldn’t admit it. “Did I hit you? Did I scold you? This is just a friendly exchange.”

Li Xi had no strength to argue. He was currently Kale’s cub, living under his roof and completely powerless to resist. Since the fever started, the “Little Ball’s” consciousness had been groggy; after explaining the ear situation, it had gone back to sleep. No one could help him.

“Crying or not?” Kale urged.

Li Xi pursed his lips in silence. He glanced at the door out of the corner of his eye, and feeling the timing was right, he sniffled and rubbed his eyes to conjure tears. It was difficult, but not impossible.

Disguise was also a mandatory skill.

Li Xi waited for something. When he looked up again, his eyes were bloodshot, and moisture rose from his pupils. Calculating the time, pea-sized tears began to fall. Without a word, he gazed damply at the Zerg who had bullied him into crying.

However, once he actually saw the crying cub, Kale lost his playful mood. He had seen male cubs cry in their fathers’ arms for comfort before; at the time, he only found it noisy, though he couldn’t deny a trace of inexplicable envy. Li He had never shed a tear in front of him.

Perhaps blood is thicker than water; seeing it now only made his heart ache. He rushed to Li Xi’s side, coaxing him clumsily, “Cub, baby, Male Father was just joking with you. It’s okay if you don’t cry, please don’t cry, don’t cry…”

Li Xi looked down and stopped looking at him, but the tears continued to fall. A tear landed on the back of Kale’s hand, so hot it made him flinch. Seeing this made him feel even worse, and his voice became unprecedentedly gentle: “Baby, Male Father apologizes to you, okay? I’ll give you anything you want.”

Li Xi was focused on crying, and Kale was focused on coaxing; neither noticed a figure appear at the door.

The moment Ren opened the door, he was met with this chaotic scene. He was still holding the breakfast he’d bought, standing at the door as stiff as a statue, an unprecedented confusion spreading through his body. His cub’s life was already hard enough; he truly could not accept any mishaps in the cub’s future. The cub was his only weakness; no one was allowed to touch him.

Ren’s logic quickly returned. He stepped forward to pull the silently weeping cub into his arms. In a place where Li Xi couldn’t see, he knelt on one knee on the floor to plead for forgiveness from his Male Master. His voice and eyes were terrifyingly calm: “Male Master, Li He is young. If he has displeased you, please be lenient, or you may punish me directly.”

Kale snapped out of it at such a cold attitude. Seeing the cub buried in Ren’s arms and unable to see them, he also grew cold, suppressing his anger. “Is that how you think of me?”

Regarding anything to do with the cub, Ren would not yield a single step. He said softly, “I cannot gamble.”

He could not use the cub as a stake.

Li Xi was carried away by Ren, leaving Kale standing alone among the shattered glass in the ward. Kale stared at the back of his hand for a long time. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was off, and he suddenly burst into laughter.

“How embarrassing,” he muttered, rubbing the spot where the tear had landed. “I actually got played by my own cub.”

However, he wasn’t angry; he even felt a bit of morbid pleasure. Looking at it from another angle, it was a good thing. Having a bit of a scheme was better than being naive; at least he wouldn’t have to worry about the cub being bullied.

Half a month had passed since they returned from the hospital.

Li Xi had a habit of walking after dinner to help with digestion. He walked by the river, his small figure blending into the night. As the evening breeze picked up, his bangs fluttered, and his deep, quiet eyes reflected the distant starlight.

The main residence in the distance was not as solemn as usual; it was decorated with soft, colorful lights and was exceptionally lively, filled with the noise of people and moving shadows. This had nothing to do with Li Xi. He walked along the riverbank with a small, finger-thick green snake wrapped around his wrist.

Li Xi was so engrossed in watching the glowing blue fish in the water that he inadvertently walked too far. The fish disappeared into the depths, and only then did he look up, stunned by the unfamiliar surroundings.

He intended to head back, but then a very familiar voice came from the bushes. It sounded like the child from the hospital. They had separated in a hurry at the hospital, and he hadn’t given the child the salve yet.

Li Xi rounded the bushes and saw the child being cornered by the river. They seemed to be fighting over something. By the silvery moonlight, he could just barely recognize a crystal being tossed in the air.

…A green light? Is that mine?

Li Xi drew closer. The group of children was too preoccupied to notice a Zerg shadow appearing on the periphery. He heard the voice of the blonde male cub tossing the crystal: “It’s just a crystal. Why can’t you just give it to me?”

“I can’t.” Yun, blocked by the female cubs following the boy, could only refuse helplessly. “This thing isn’t mine. I don’t have the final say.”

As he spoke, he suddenly tried to dart past the female cubs to get the crystal back. The movement was so unexpected that the female Zerg blocking him couldn’t react before Yun bypassed their first line of defense. They snapped out of it a beat late and turned to catch the agile figure.

Just as Yun was about to reach the crystal, an invisible force of mental power tripped his feet. He quickly braced himself with his hands against the ground to keep his whole body from slamming into the dirt.

“I say, Aian,” an impatient voice rang out, dispersing the mental power coiled around Yun’s legs. “You made me run all this way from the main house just to watch you steal his stuff?”

“And if I did? The banquet is so boring. What’s wrong with finding a bit of fun?” Aian wasn’t angry either, asking back with a grin. “Denier, don’t you find the banquet boring?” He pointed to the female cubs around them. “They say it’s boring, too.”

The female cubs pointed at nodded in agreement, though they were terrified inside. Earlier, their mistake had almost allowed someone to offend Little Lord Aian; seeing the male Zerg speaking to them with a smile made them sigh in relief.

Denier glanced at the tension on their faces and countered flatly, “It’s more boring than watching you bully him.”

There wasn’t even a streetlamp here, and something was making a noise nearby. It was eerie. At the thought, Denier couldn’t help but shiver. He hated the dark most of all; he couldn’t see anything. He wanted to find an excuse to go back.

Seeing that these two “noble” male Zerg were too busy to deal with him, Yun considered his next move. The mental power of a male Zerg of the same level was absolutely oppressive to a female Zerg, so even the youngest female Zerg wouldn’t be stupid enough to go head-to-head with a male. And before him were two A-rank male cubs who had just gone through their childhood awakening; there was even the possibility of their ranks rising during their adult awakening. Yun wasn’t brainless enough to offend them and bring trouble to his family.

Yun intended to avoid conflict and slip away. Just as he moved his feet, a powerful surge of mental power came crashing toward him at a speed too fast to react to. Ignoring his exquisite and expensive formal suit, he instinctively rolled, narrowly dodging the mental power that cut like a cold blade.

“Aian!” With one hand on the ground, he looked at the Zerg who had unleashed the sharp mental power in disbelief.

Fortunately, his brother often ruthlessly dragged him to the training room; under “inhumane” training, his reactions were much sharper than those of other female Zerg his age. Otherwise, today it wouldn’t be about him not looking for trouble. He might have died here!

Aian and he shared the same Male Father but different Female Fathers, and they lived in different places, so they didn’t meet often. Yun believed there was no irreconcilable conflict between them. Today’s clash was unnecessary; Aian had seen the deep green crystal in his hand at the banquet, found it beautiful, and wanted it. Usually, Yun wouldn’t care and would just give it away, but this crystal was precious and wasn’t his. Giving it away freely was not an option. He didn’t expect Aian to develop killing intent over a single crystal.

The previously idle Denier was shocked, not expecting Aian to suddenly attack.

…Thankfully the female Zerg didn’t suffer any fatal injuries. If his Male Father found out he was involved in this, he would die even more miserably than this female. Never mind that he had awakened A-rank mental power; in his father’s eyes, a blade of grass was more precious than he was.

He looked at the deep gouge in the ground, which still had traces of A-rank mental power on it. He reached out to tug at Aian, warning in a low voice: “What are you doing?! Are you trying to kill a Zerg?!!!”

Aian was pulled into a stumble, the shock in his eyes no less than theirs. “I… I didn’t—”

Before Aian could explain the loss of control over his mental power, he felt a sudden chill on his ankle. His voice stopped, and he instinctively looked down. After looking for a moment and recognizing what it was, he let out a piercing scream:

“AH—”

Denier couldn’t stand his friend’s shouting. What if he attracted his Male Father? He turned his head, intending to tell Aian to stop. “What are you shouting—AH!”

Before he could finish his sentence, he screamed along with him.

By the moonlight, he also saw clearly what it was—a snake! He finally knew what that “rustling” sound was!

The female cubs nearby hadn’t encountered such a situation and began to panic as well.