Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

She originally only wanted fifty yuan. The cost of this thing was practically zero, and she felt that even five yuan was too much. Then, without saying a word, Colonel Lu transferred five hundred thousand yuan to her.

But she mentally prepared herself in a fraction of a second—she was an adult repeatedly beaten down by reality in the 21st century; not making money when you can is foolish, and she wasn't stupid enough to empathize with capitalists. Besides, Lu Yu was spending the empire's money, not his own.

"Alright, Colonel Lu is very straightforward," she said, withdrawing her hand without changing her expression. "Wait a moment, I'll go inside and get it for you."

She turned and walked into the small detached house, closing the door behind her. The moment she entered the space, her calm facade shattered. She jumped up and spun around three times, silently throwing a series of punches at the sky, her mouth forming a huge "O" shape as she repeatedly screamed silently.

Five hundred thousand! Five hundred thousand star coins! She thought she had hit the jackpot when her monthly salary increased from 30,000 to 50,000, but she made five hundred thousand just by selling a pot of grass. She planted a whole spiritual field of catnip. According to this price, she is the richest person in the beast world.

She took several deep breaths in the spirit field before managing to suppress a smile, then squatted down to dig up catnip. Instead of just pulling up any plant, she carefully selected the strongest one, carefully digging it out with a small shovel, roots and all. The roots were still covered in a large clump of moist soil. She then placed it in a white plastic basin, compacted the soil, and sprayed some well water on the leaves. It was a vibrant green and looked incredibly appealing.

This white plastic basin was originally the packaging box she brought with her when she bought strawberries at the supermarket in her previous life. Now, it looks a little cheap and shabby, but there's nothing she can do about it; she simply can't find a more decent flowerpot in her space.

She carried the plastic basin out of the room and handed it to Lu Yu with both hands: "Here, it's the whole plant, the roots and soil are still there. Just water it when you get back and it will survive."

Lu Yu looked at the white plastic basin, a hint of confusion in his eyes. His gaze swept back and forth between the catnip and wild crabapple plants twice—for a transaction of 500,000 star coins, she wouldn't even give him a decent flowerpot? Just this one… He really didn't know how to describe the material; it was light, white, and cheap, with an uneven, wavy edge.

But Ye Tang's expression was completely open and honest, as if in this little female's eyes, using such a container to hold a priceless treasure was perfectly normal. He didn't ask any questions, and the way he took the plastic basin was like catching an energy bomb about to explode, holding it steadily in both hands, as if afraid of losing a single leaf.

"Pleasure doing business with you." With those four words, Lu Yu turned and walked away. His gait was so fast it was almost like a race—his flaxen hair billowed in the wind, revealing the fine down at the base of his antlers, the hem of his military jacket fluttering in the breeze, and he clutched the catnip tightly to his chest. A dignified Imperial Colonel, carrying a bowl of strawberries, moved with lightning speed through the corridors of Prison Zero.

Ghost Hunter lay beneath the tree, witnessing the entire transaction from beginning to end. His grey-blue eyes were half-closed, his tail slowly sweeping the ground, a surge of inexplicable resentment welling up inside him. That black-hearted deer, Deer Feather.

A single catnip plant costs 500,000 star coins—it sounds like an astronomical price, but it's catnip. It's a magical plant that can pull an SS-level orc with a mental breakdown value as high as 95 back from the point of no return.

The Imperial Research Institute's Brilliant Repair Fluid costs as much as the entire budget of a town, and it can only temporarily suppress the collapse value, treating the symptoms but not the root cause. The plant in Ye Tang's hands, however, has already surpassed the combined effects of the Brilliant Repair Fluid and an S-rank healer in just two days.

This level of strategic resource wouldn't even buy a single leaf on the black market for 500,000 star coins. For Lu Yu to buy an entire plant, roots and soil included, for 500,000 is practically robbery.

Ghost Hunter watched Deer Feather's figure disappear at the end of the corridor, letting out a low, suppressed growl. He was determined to find a chance to teach that long-antlered creature a lesson. The little female was too young and inexperienced! He'd remembered that.

The Ghost Hunter lay under the shade of a tree, its front paws neatly crossed, its large tail slowly sweeping across the grass, its gray-blue eyes always following the little female in the yard who was grinning foolishly at the personal computer screen.

Wild Tang sat cross-legged on the old tree root, the virtual screen of her personal terminal floating in front of her. She counted the string of numbers in her account balance with her finger at least five times. With each count, the corners of her mouth stretched wider towards her ears. Five hundred thousand star coins. In her previous life, she had toiled away writing code for seven years, working her way up from intern to senior engineer, working overtime every day until she went bald, and the money she saved was barely enough to pay off a 35-square-meter studio apartment in the suburbs. On her third day in the Beast World, she sold a pot of grass and earned five hundred thousand.

She turned off her personal terminal, cupped her face in her hands, and chuckled at the treetops above her.

Seeing her like this, the hunter unconsciously increased the frequency of its tail sweeping. Little money-grubber, she's been sold out but still thinks she's made a profit, counting money until her eyes are practically turning into star coins.

These past few days he's been eating and drinking with Ye Tang—barbecue, steamed buns, roasted chicken wings, catnip, catnip, and this morning she secretly slipped him half a roasted corn.

He joined the army at the age of twelve and always ate nutritional supplements and marching rations, or meat that was roasted and sprinkled with coarse salt. He never knew that "eating" could be such an experience.

What silenced him even more was his mental breakdown value—from 82 three months ago, to 84 when he met Ye Tang a few days ago, and now it's 68.

Sixteen points.

He was stationed in the North for six years. The Imperial Military assigned him an A-level pacification officer who would come twice a year to conduct a comprehensive review. Each time, he was so exhausted that his mental energy was depleted, and the most he could manage to reduce the score by was five points.

Ye Tang only fed him a few meals, petted his fur a few times, and stuffed a few bundles of fresh catnip he had just picked from the ground into his mouth, and his mental breakdown value dropped to 68.

According to the Imperial Military's training standards, orcs with a mental breakdown value below 70 are considered to be in a "combat-ready state" and can perform combat missions normally.

In other words, he can pack his things now and return to the Northern Frontier to continue being a Major General in the Third Army Corps and the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Frontier.

He turned his head and glanced at the northern sky. On the northern border, his cunning and resourceful older brother, Youming, was still holding the line for him.

Thinking of this, Youlie's wolf-like mouth twitched slightly, revealing a rather unkind smile. Youming, his elder brother from the same mother and father, was the commander-in-chief of the Third Legion, and his name truly reflected his character—utterly cunning.

When he was twelve years old, he had just been able to transform into beast form. Youming tricked him by saying he would take him to catch rabbits. He was so excited that he couldn't sleep all night, and before dawn, he followed his brother into the forest.

When they arrived, Youming pushed him onto an open space, jumped onto a large rock, raised his chin at a low-level ferocious beast that had somehow been attracted to the other side of the open space, and said with a smile the famous line that Youlie had remembered for thirteen years: "Since we're here, let's have a fight before we leave."

At twelve years old, he transformed into his beast form for the first time, his teeth not even fully grown, and was used as bait by his own brother. But this doesn't mean Youming didn't love him. On the contrary, everyone in the Canglang clan knew that Youming was famously protective of his younger brother—no one else could bully Youlie, because if anyone did, he would make them kneel down and call him grandpa.

But he was ruthless when it came to bullying others, claiming that "real combat is the best teacher." When he sent his younger brother to the battlefield, he told his family, "I'll watch over him, he won't die," but then he threw twelve-year-old Youlie into the front-line assault team.

Thinking of this, Youlie withdrew his gaze and glanced again at Yetang, who was still counting money. With Youming in charge of the Northern Border, no major trouble would arise.

His adjutant had served him for seven years and was impeccably competent. Add to that his father, a man in his prime—the previous chieftain of the Canglang tribe—who was so robust he could tear apart an armored vehicle with his bare hands, and in a desperate situation, he could certainly don armor and go into battle. But this little female only had him.

She was kicked out of her home by a bastard, penniless, physically weak so much she would pant after a few steps, and with a mental strength of only F, she couldn't even protect herself. Yet, she was assigned to manage a prison holding the five empires' strongest warriors. She thought she'd gotten a great deal, happily raising cats and dogs, growing vegetables, and grilling skewers, completely unaware that she was constantly teetering on the edge of danger. He was all she had left.

Ghost Hunter rested his chin on his front paws, his tail lightly brushing the grass as he made his decision. The North wouldn't miss him, but here, missing him wouldn't do.

Just as Ye Tang turned off her personal terminal and stood up, she was in such a good mood that she felt like she could take off on the spot. She walked up to You Lie, squatted down, and cupped his big wolf face in her hands, giving it a good rub.

The flesh on Youlie's face was squeezed from her cheeks towards the middle, forcing her gray-blue eyes to squint into slits. Paired with her upright wolf ears, she looked both helpless and cooperative.

"Doggy, we're rich now!" Ye Tang excitedly shared as she rubbed him. "Tomorrow I'll roast you a whole leg of lamb, no, two legs, one for you and one for me. We don't have to be frugal anymore. You don't know, the first night I arrived, I didn't have a single penny in my pocket, I even had to drink water from the well. Now it's great, we're rich, and you're a rich man's dog, aren't you happy?"

Youlie let out a muffled "woof" from its squeezed, deformed wolf mouth, its tail thumping three times on the ground. To Ye Tang, that "woof" sounded like a whimper, but in Youlie's mind, it meant something else entirely—"Silly female, I'm not a dog. And, your money is what you earned yourself, not what Lu Yu gave you; what he gave you is far from enough."