Su Duan's order to the system to buy spinach was cut off halfway as he stared blankly at the rapidly growing Viji in front of him.

The time it took to transition from a half-grown cub to an adult was frighteningly short. Years of time spanned in less than ten seconds. In just a moment of distraction, the Luota cub that was only half the length of Su Duan's arm had turned into a giant beast more than four or five times Su Duan's height.

The giant beast's body structure had also undergone undeniable changes. Its originally short limbs were elongated, stepping on the ground with stability and strength. The exposed claws gleamed with a dark chill. Its body shape had also become slightly slender. The originally thin tail had become incredibly thick, easily able to dig a deep groove in the ground when it fell. Each hair tip was imbued with an icy aura, accidentally scratching a thin blood mark on Su Duan's cheek as it brushed past his face.

...Although the overall appearance was still that of a big cat, both its size and the aura emanating from its body were completely different from before.

Su Duan looked up at the giant beast blocking his way like a small mountain, his eyes gradually becoming sore.

Because of the rapid changes, he seemed to hear the painful groans from the bones in Viji's body colliding and compressing against each other—

And more obvious than that was that the giant beast's body was already oozing blood, especially at the joints, where dark red traces had completely stained the black fur. The pungent smell kept rushing into Su Duan's nostrils, making his already unclear mind even more dizzy.

This planet was also in winter now. Snow had quietly fallen at some point and was getting heavier, quickly accumulating into a layer of white sand on the barren ground.

Although these white particles were isolated outside the energy shield, the icy aura seemed to seep in without reservation, condensing on the tip of Su Duan's nose.

The Spinosaurus opposite had already sensed something was wrong when Viji's body began to mutate, its face darkening as it transformed into its beast form at top speed, but it still wasn't faster than the Luota cub opposite.

—To be precise, it should now be an adult.

When the Spinosaurus let out its first threatening growl from its throat, the cold oppression belonging to an apex predator had already completely enveloped it.

Even if this Luota opposite had obviously forcibly matured through some unknown means and theoretically its strength should be inferior to a normal adult, it still made the Spinosaurus feel an unprecedented pressure.

That pressure seeped in from all directions, as if penetrating through its fur and flesh, directly crushing its internal organs and bones.

Those icy blue beast eyes also seemed to condense a thousand years of ice and snow, making all the muscles in its body tense up the moment they met.

Fear.

To be precise, it was a kind of subservience to the strong rooted in racial instinct.

Since the Late Cretaceous, when the first Spinosaurus was born on ancient Earth, they had always occupied the position of kings. Their ferocity surpassed the notorious Tyrannosaurus Rex. For a considerable length of time, they were unmatched. Even when interstellar immigration later became rampant and various powerful races emerged, the Spinosaurus beastmen still held an absolute advantage in the universe.

But this situation came to an end the moment the Luota race appeared. Although this race looked like harmless house cats, their teeth that could easily crush the hardest alloys, their claws no less fragile than their teeth, and their tails known as "mobile lethal weapons", all allowed them to easily replace the Spinosauruss and become the unshakable kings of the universe.

And in the thousands of years that followed, they never fell from the throne.

Of course, all of this was what this Spinosaurus had heard its elders talk about when it was young. The universe had long entered an era of peace with the royal family and parliament balancing each other. There had been no wars between races for hundreds of years, so it had no chance to see a Luota in beast form.

When it was young, it would be scared by the elders' accounts, but as it grew older and its ambition swelled, the deterrence that only existed in the stories gradually faded, and what grew in its place was another kind of arrogance and disdain.

"The Luota race? — Just a group of senile old fools trapped by the imperial throne." It still remembered that not long ago, when chatting with its fellow tribesmen, this was how it had described them.

No matter how glorious they were before, so what? After experiencing that catastrophic near-extinction disaster, the total number of Luota beasts had now dwindled to single digits, not even forming a tribe anymore. It was only by relying on long-standing tradition that they still held high positions in the royal family.

Sooner or later, someone would discover the truth of their decline and then push those Luotas off the pedestal.

At that time, the response of its fellow tribesman made it directly snort with laughter.

The unambitious tribesman frowned and said, "...You will understand. When the gap between one race and other races is too great, their position in the universe will not change due to the changes in the races. If you had fought an adult Luota beast... No—if you had just faced one head-on once, you wouldn't say such things."

At that time, the Spinosaurus only felt that the other party had been brainwashed by the long-standing educational concepts in the family to say such words that extinguished its own ambition.

But until today, until just a moment ago, it was startled to realize that perhaps its fellow tribesman had not exaggerated back then. It was arrogance that had blinded its eyes and made it make the wrong judgment—

A newly matured Luota, without even having to swing its claws at it, had already made it have thoughts of retreating just by its scent alone.

Perhaps the other party was indeed something it could toy with during its cub stage, but when they decided to grow up, tearing apart its body seemed to be just a matter of waving their paws.

In a matter of seconds, this Spinosaurus assessed that its current situation was a bit precarious and prepared to immediately withdraw.

As long as it had ten seconds to transform into human form and board the mech—

However, when it had just turned its head and less than a tenth of the ten seconds had passed, an aura as cold as ice and snow had already approached its neck.

The tough flesh was easily cut open by the newly grown fangs, and in the blink of an eye, a chunk of flesh was torn off!

It let out an almost reflexive howl of pain and called for help, trying to bring in reinforcements—

However, these sounds were isolated by the energy shield it released, not a bit was transmitted outside.

......

"Crack."

After a slight sound of the energy shield shattering half a minute later, snow as light as goose down fell on the dark red liquid, quickly covering the mess.

Only the faint bloody smell floating in the air vaguely proved that an unpleasant fight had just taken place here.

The snow was heavy, but not even a single snowflake fell on Su Duan's head.

Because the moment the energy shield shattered, a huge creature moved to his side, using its body to shield him from the fluttering heavy snow.

Su Duan sniffed and looked up at the black giant beast that was using its body to block the wind and snow for him.

It lowered its head deeply, so close that its whiskers lightly touched Su Duan's face, but it seemed to be wary of something and hesitated to touch him for a long time. Those ice-blue eyes that had enlarged more than a dozen times were staring at him without blinking. Su Duan could see his own pale reflection in them.

The planet with falling snow was cold, but Su Duan's body was very hot. The adult Luota beast used the softest and warmest fur on its belly to lean against his body, blocking out all the cold air outside for him.

After quietly staring at each other like this for a while, Su Duan suddenly reached out his hand and took the initiative to touch the soft fur at the corner of the adult Luota beast's mouth.

The adult Luota beast was stunned, the muscles at the corner of its mouth twitched slightly, and then it began to carefully rub its head, which was many times larger than before, against Su Duan's palm, rubbing while making meowing sounds.

Just like when it was young and acting coquettishly with the little prey in front of it.

Its little prey's body was so cold, and his breath was so weak that it didn't dare to take the initiative to touch him.

...It was so big now, what if it broke the little prey by touching him?

Su Duan raised his hand and quietly let his family's cub, which had grown up, act coquettishly with him. When he spoke again, a sour meaning passed through his throat: "...You've lost a lot of blood."

The blood of the Spinosaurus stained on the fur was actually a minority. Most of that dark blood seeped out from the inside due to the rapid growth of the cub's body.

Growing so rapidly without any sequelae would be abnormal.

The Luota clan, whose mental development had rapidly developed after adulthood and could now fully understand adult speech, let out a gentle chirp and licked his palm with the tip of its tongue, as if saying that the blood didn't matter.

The Luota clan was a race with a high tolerance for pain, and compared to being able to protect its own little prey, the pain seemed trivial.

"Open your mouth." Su Duan took out the "pill" that he hadn't had time to use, and gently handed it to the mouth of the adult Luota clan.

The black giant beast, accustomed to being fed, opened its mouth without any hesitation, habitually rolling up with its tongue and swallowing what Su Duan had given it. Only when it felt the pain in its body begin to ease and the torn tissues and bones begin to heal automatically did it realize that something was wrong.

Although the origin was unknown, this was undoubtedly a pill that could repair the body—

It should have let its little prey eat it.

The little prey in front of it was so weak that it could fall down at any time. The delicious blood flowing from the corner of the little prey's mouth inevitably aroused its appetite, but at the same time, it also made its heart tighten again and again.

Why didn't it keep such an important thing for itself to eat—

It opened its mouth in vain, making a hacking sound, trying to spit out what it had just eaten, but when it ate it just now, it didn't hesitate. The pill melted as soon as it entered its mouth, and now there was only some bitter aftertaste left on its tongue.

Seeing its anxious appearance, Su Duan softly comforted: "Don't worry—" I still have some here.

However, the adult Luota clan, which had already fallen into a frenzy, had obviously lost all patience. He had only said two words when the black giant beast in front of his eyes disappeared in an instant, replaced by a black-haired youth who was half a head taller than Su Duan.

He had completely Western features. Deep-set eye sockets made his sword eyebrows look particularly sharp. The ice-blue eyes under the pure black hair were like glaciers in the polar regions that never melted all year round. His eyelashes were very curly, clearly drooping one by one. Probably because he had just become an adult, there was still a hint of immaturity between his eyebrows and eyes, and Su Duan's face was clearly reflected in the bottom of his eyes.

He looked exactly like— a black-haired teenage version of Audrose.

The secret desire to touch the young body of the old partner that had appeared a long time ago suddenly became a reality in front of him. Su Duan couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

Although it wasn't the childhood version, the teenage version was indeed very cute, and there seemed to be some baby fat on his cheeks...

So the unfinished words in his mouth suddenly got stuck under the attack of beauty, and Su Duan let out a gentle "uh" sound.

Then in the next second, he was pressed on the shoulders by the black-haired youth in front of him, and his lips were rashly touched by another pair of hot lips, and a tongue was even rudely stuck in.

"..." It's so fast, Su Duan thought dizzily, his cheeks uncontrollably starting to burn. Even the cold snowflakes falling on his hair and shoulders still couldn't extinguish that heat.

However, in fact, the youth didn't have that kind of amorous thoughts, he just wanted to simply pass the medicine to him.

There was still some taste of that pill left in his mouth, which should have some effect... probably.

The adult Luota clan, who couldn't think of a more suitable method for the time being, worked tirelessly to save its little prey.

However, the Luota clan, who had just crossed from childhood to adulthood, had no relevant experience in kissing at all. Wanting to pass all the taste in its mouth over in one go, it wasn't long before Su Duan began to... suffocate.

...Then he fainted as expected.

Before fainting, Su Duan only had time to hurriedly instruct the system to buy a pill and feed it to him before his health value dropped to a critical point.

Three seconds later, the adult Luota clan, who realized that something was wrong with the soft body in his arms, hesitantly let go of the little prey's lips.

Blankly holding the little prey who had fainted, the newly adult Luota clan fell into great panic and bewilderment.

Just as he desperately raised his arm, ready to bite his wrist and use blood to feed the little prey, some strange movements suddenly came from the air—

He looked up vigilantly, only to see countless silver, cold starships had already descended to this planet at some unknown time. They were closely and neatly arranged, like the gloomy clouds on the horizon, completely enveloping the two in the snowy ground.