Zi Ye pointed to the little sprout's belly. "There's a small issue inside, and I want to get an image of what's going on in there."

Seeing that there weren't many customers at the moment, the young nurse's expression softened. "Swipe your card to register, line up over here. There are three pets ahead of you."

Zi Ye nodded and sat down in the pet owners' rest area. On one side of the area, there were many adorable pets wandering around as they pleased, yet they never disturbed the medical staff, blocked the pathways, or jumped on the guests. In short: they were exceptionally well-behaved.

Zi Ye had always loved animals, feeling they possessed a certain spirit. However, given that she couldn't even keep herself alive properly, she never dared to own one—though another reason was that she already had Little Sprout, her 'pet.'

Zi Ye asked, "Douzi, how about I buy you another pet to play with?" That way, even if she was occasionally busy, Little Sprout wouldn't be too lonely.

Little Sprout, nestled in her arm, watched the pets prance by as if on a runway, then snorted and turned its face away. "Hmph. I don't like a single one of them."

Zi Ye inquired, "What kind of pet do you like?"

Little Sprout declared loudly, "Something furry, round, soft, and warm."

Zi Ye chuckled softly, just about to speak, when it was their turn.

She carried Little Sprout into the ultrasound room and placed it in the designated spot on the machine. For some reason, Little Sprout became very nervous, looking at Zi Ye with pitiful eyes, sending a thought into her mind: Zi Ye Mama, what if it’s actually pregnant?

Zi Ye couldn't help but laugh. "Then we’ll let it be born."

The nurse couldn't hear Little Sprout, but she found its gaze particularly gentle and smiled, "Your doll is truly magical."

Zi Ye smiled faintly. "Yes, very good."

Just as she finished speaking, she saw Little Sprout glare at her sideways.

The ultrasound machine scanned inside Little Sprout, and Zi Ye stared intently at the virtual screen of the display. To her and the nurse's astonishment, the screen was pitch black, showing nothing at all.

The nurse looked surprised. "Is the machine broken? It was working fine this morning." She checked the indicator lights and the power source—everything was fine.

Zi Ye also found it strange. If the machine wasn't faulty, then Little Sprout must be the problem. She knew it wasn't an ordinary optical computer, but she hadn't expected it to be so special that even an ultrasound machine couldn't penetrate it.

She asked mentally, "Little Sprout, did you engage the shielding device?"

Little Sprout scoffed in reply, "Does this great one need to bother? I have self-protection functions. These scraps think they can photograph my inner workings? Laughable!"

Zi Ye smiled. "Then why were you so nervous just now?"

Little Sprout whined, "I was worried it might actually show a tiny embryo."

Zi Ye shrugged, about to give up, when the nurse suddenly cried out, "There is one! It really is pregnant!"

Zi Ye looked and was stunned!

The ultrasound machine couldn't capture what was inside Little Sprout, but it had scanned outside of it. Beneath the fuzzy outer layer of its belly, a minuscule embryo was indeed developing.

The nurse activated the instrument, magnifying the pixels tenfold, and finally saw a clear, complete embryo.

"Congratulations, congratulations," the nurse said habitually, though she didn't understand the situation. "We can't determine the sex yet, but it’s definitely an embryo, and its condition is excellent, developing normally."

Zi Ye was dumbfounded.

Who could tell her why there was an embryo hidden beneath Little Sprout’s fluff?

From the nurse's scan just now, she realized the embryo wasn't inside Little Sprout's body, but external to it, developing within the layer of fluff.

Where did it go to pick up an embryo?

All this month, she had been preparing for the duel with Mei Jing. Little Sprout was with her every day and hadn't been anywhere else! What was wrong with this picture?

Zi Ye pondered, "Excuse me, what kind of animal embryo is this?"

The nurse examined it for a long time but couldn't identify the species. "We'll need to run tests. Please complete the necessary paperwork."

And so, Zi Ye carried Little Sprout through the first procedure for pregnant pets, undergoing various tests. After dozens of steps, it was more complicated than building a mecha.

Just as Zi Ye was losing patience, the pet hospital finally reached a conclusion: "We cannot temporarily determine the species of the embryo, only that it is mammalian and developed from a fertilized egg. It has been developing inside the doll for two months, and the sex is male."

Zi Ye and Little Sprout were speechless, looking at each other.

Unable to confirm the embryo's species?

How was this getting any weirder?

Zi Ye held the test results, still slightly dazed.

The nurse, while writing prescriptions, said, "Although this species develops relatively slowly, its confined location inside means development is limited. We recommend carefully cutting open the doll, extracting the embryo, and placing it in an embryogenesis incubator for cultivation."

Zi Ye looked at Little Sprout for guidance.

Little Sprout was still in shock. It believed it was pregnant, yes, but that didn't mean it could accept being pregnant, especially with some inexplicable species! This wasn't scientific!

Zi Ye stroked its head. "We’ll cut off the fuzzy clothing, take out the embryo, and put it in the incubator to raise."

Little Sprout nodded tearfully.

The pet hospital acted swiftly, clipping away the fluff in moments, extracting the embryo, and placing it in the incubator. Without its clothing, the mortified Little Sprout burrowed into Zi Ye's bag, not daring to show its head.

Zi Ye thought, the Angel Domain is so far away. Did she need to ask An Junlie to express-ship a few outfits for Little Sprout? Wait, the seamless clothing was generated directly on its body using rapid growth methods.

Did she need to ask An Junlie to send over a bio-cultivation expert instead?

At this moment, she intensely missed the pervert. If he were here, he would surely be delighted to cultivate a white rose for Little Sprout or change its outer layer to roses, wrapping its round body in beautiful petals to make it look like a hydrangea bloom...

When the medical staff finished processing the embryo, wrote the instructions, and handed them over, she picked up the box and headed for the doll clothing market. There was no choice; she had to buy a few dresses for Little Sprout as an emergency measure.

Little Sprout almost cried.

This was pushing it to the limit!

Back at the villa, Little Sprout adopted a policy of non-violent non-cooperation, hiding itself inside Zi Ye's pillow, only poking out a tiny sprout tip to secretly touch the incubator.

The mere thought that it had nurtured a small life for two full months gave it a burst of accomplishment. Only this thought made it slightly happier.

Zi Ye let it fuss, resting her chin on her hand as she watched the small embryo in the transparent incubator, asking, "Little Dou, where did you go two months ago?" What kind of magical place could allow it to bring back an unknown species!

Little Sprout concentrated hard on recalling the past, and suddenly its eyes lit up. "Two months ago, I was with aliens."

Zi Ye blurted out, "Is it his?"

An Junlie's work was mostly external; he mostly interacted with legion leaders. How could he have picked up a fertilized egg? It was truly bizarre.

Little Sprout suddenly remembered something and hopped up. "I recall! Fuzz Beasts! It must be a Fuzz Beast embryo!"

Zi Ye asked for an explanation.

Little Sprout hesitated for a long time before explaining that it had accompanied An Junlie to inspect the disturbance caused by Fuzz Beasts near the edge of the star field in the ZZ-9 space station on the western side of the Angel Domain. While An Junlie was inspecting, it had secretly slipped out of the mecha and wandered for about two minutes—that must have been when it picked it up.

Furthermore, it added a special note: "All those Fuzz Beasts were mutated."

Zi Ye couldn't help but furrow her brow. Should she ask An Junlie to mail her some Fuzz Beast DNA or cell samples? But she knew nothing about biology and had no contacts in that field; she still needed to find a professional institution for testing.

Or perhaps, send this small embryo to the Angel Domain for examination?

Such a long journey felt too taxing...

Zi Ye finally made up her mind. What was it, after all? Just a small embryo. Whatever species it grew up to be, that’s what it would be. Why bother digging into it so much? As long as it fell within an acceptable range, it was fine.

She calmed down and resumed cramming the courses she had fallen behind on.

The semester passed too quickly; she felt like she hadn't even started before more than half of it was over. When she received the final exam schedule, she was still somewhat slow to react.

Fortunately, there was still a month left for review; otherwise, she wouldn't even know how she was going to fail.

Tang Wen was easier; he simply assigned her a topic. Once completed and taught, it counted as the final exam. Zi Ye sighed in relief upon seeing the topic: An analysis of the advantages, disadvantages, and potential improvements of Disaster-Type Armor construction.

This topic wasn't difficult. She had always used Disaster-Type armor at the research institute and understood it well. She could easily list several pros and cons, and improving it would just take some dedicated research time.

Zi Ye rubbed her hands together, planning to finish the assignment first, but the requirement made her nearly faint: twenty thousand words!

Twenty thousand words!

This was going to kill her!

Zi Ye had many shortcomings, the most prominent being her lack of ability to write prose. She could list tons of data without issue, but asking her to describe it in concise, easily understandable language was worse than death!

Ah well, she'd start with the metal analysis.

While she struggled with her writing, Little Sprout was also struggling.

Little Sprout was worried about the small life in the incubator.

The thought that it had unknowingly nourished a small life filled it with a sense of accomplishment. Thankfully, it usually slept on its back, which prevented it from crushing the little life.

A sense of fatherly pride swelled within it as it stared intently at the small embryo in the incubator. The embryo was a yellowish-cream color, possessing a strange translucence.

The medical order stated that this embryo required nutrient solution with a slightly higher concentration of metal. It turned to look at Zi Ye and saw her conducting the metal analysis for the Disaster-Type. A drop of metal, liquefied, dripped from the dropper. With lightning-fast reflexes, the little sprout elongated, darting beneath the dropper with a whoosh, catching the metal fluid. It gently opened the incubator, deposited the metal liquid into the embryo's culture dish...