Many people knew that the City Lord liked to raise battle pets.
But very few knew that within the City Lord’s residence, there was an unusual “mini zoo.”
Su Su held Xiao Hei in her arms, standing in front of the underground passage of another villa.
He Heng had already walked down several flights of stairs when he noticed that the person behind him hadn’t followed. Puzzled, he turned his head and asked, “Why aren’t you coming?”
“This place feels strange.” Su Su spoke calmly. “Why are your battle pets kept in the basement?”
He Heng didn’t seem surprised by her question. Instead, he appeared somewhat troubled.
“How should I explain this to you?” He pondered for a few seconds, then smacked his palm in realization. “The battle pets I raise include ones that fly in the sky and ones that run underground. If I kept them outside, the hired caretakers wouldn’t be able to control them when I’m not home. So, I had no choice but to keep them locked in the basement and take them out only when they’re needed for battle.”
He made it sound nice, but in essence, it was still imprisoning animals.
Su Su’s expression was no longer calm; instead, it turned grave and rigid.
He Heng seemed to notice her resistance and spoke in a wounded tone. “Do you not understand me? I admit, keeping them in the basement lacks some consideration, but this is already the best compromise. If I set them free, these creatures, possessing abilities but lacking independent awareness, would bring immense harm to the base…”
Perhaps because she also owned a cold-blooded creature, Su Su felt an intense discomfort with the City Lord’s mindset.
She no longer wanted to listen and directly interrupted, “I understand. Let’s go.”
A smile immediately returned to He Heng’s face. “I knew you’d understand me.”
“Don’t worry about going down. I’m just a Tier 4 ability user—I won’t be able to hurt you. I genuinely just want to ask for your advice.”
Su Su lowered her head to look at Xiao Hei.
The latter had sniffed the chaotic, mixed stench of its kind and flicked its forked tongue toward the female.
“Hiss—”
This was its way of confirming—the ones locked below were indeed a group of animals.
Su Su felt relieved.
If people were locked down there instead, she wouldn’t dare to descend so defenselessly. But since it was only animals, even if He Heng released all of his battle pets at once, her ability could still control them, ensuring her safe retreat.
Zzzzt.
Her footsteps landed on the lowest floor. The fluorescent light above flickered for two seconds before stabilizing and shining brightly.
“We’re here.”
Under the bright illumination, Su Su saw a plaque hanging above the entrance to the basement.
It bore two large words—
“Private Zoo.”
Su Su’s gaze froze for several seconds.
She didn’t know how to describe the feeling those words evoked within her. It was an overwhelming sense of mockery—before the plaque stood two people, and behind it was a group of animals, waiting to be observed and stared at.
He Heng turned to her again. “What’s wrong?”
Su Su withdrew her gaze. “Nothing.”
She followed behind He Heng, fully stepping into his private forbidden territory.
The basement was damp, cramped, and dark. A humid, cold air—one that had not seen sunlight for years—lingered at the tip of her nose. Perhaps only cold-blooded creatures like Xiao Hei would enjoy this kind of environment… No, no animal would like it here!
Keeping half a meter of distance from He Heng, Su Su followed him into a long corridor.
On both sides of the low passage, dozens of narrow “prisons” were sectioned off, each containing a different kind of animal—peacocks, ostriches, black panthers, hyenas… They existed in only two states.
Either they lay weakly in their narrow cages, barely clinging to life, their eyes feebly following the figures of the two humans.
Or they had gone berserk, slamming themselves violently against the iron bars that confined them, their crimson eyes fixed upon the intruders. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time they had lost control. Their fur was already patchy and mangy, unevenly bald in places. It looked both pitiful and… chilling to the core.
Inside one of the ostrich cages, Su Su’s sharp eyes caught sight of a Grade 1 crystal, rolling amidst scattered feathers. It was inconspicuous—easily overlooked.
She took a deep breath.
She could see it—these animals’ bodies were riddled with residual crystal impurities, accumulating to a terrifying degree. If more were forced into them, they would eventually reach their limit, rupturing their organs, crushing their bones… until they exploded from within and died.
Even her abilities wouldn’t be able to save them at that point.
He Heng misunderstood her gaze and chuckled. “Don’t worry. These cages were built by a Tier 4 metal ability user, and they’re reinforced regularly. No matter how violently they ram against them, they won’t escape.”
Su Su pointed at the ostrich. “What’s its ability? What tier?”
“That one?”
He Heng glanced at it casually, taking over ten seconds before remembering. “Tier 2 speed ability. Makes for a decent mount.”
A battle pet that had already reached Tier 2, yet it was still being fed Grade 1 crystals.
Either He Heng was unaware of the side effects of excessive crystal consumption… or he simply didn’t care.
Suppressing the unrest in her heart, Su Su lowered her gaze and reached out to stroke Xiao Hei’s head.
“Hiss.”
The black snake curled in the human’s embrace, its vertical pupils sweeping across the fellow captives in the cages.
It shouldn’t have empathy—such things belonged to humans.
And yet, it did.
Having nearly exploded from within itself after consuming too many crystals, the black snake knew better than anyone else what these animals were experiencing.
They had acquired abilities—humanity’s greatest source of pride—but their strength was still far too insignificant to shake the dominion of the most intelligent species. In the end, they had become nothing more than test subjects.
“Hiss~”
The black snake flicked its tongue, brushing lightly against the female’s neck.
No one noticed the dark glint that flickered within those vertical pupils.
Except for Su Su.
She knew—Xiao Hei not only understood what it saw but also what it heard. And suddenly, she regretted bringing it here.
He Heng gestured ahead. “But these are just defective ones. If you go a little further, you’ll see what I truly wanted Miss Su to see.”
They passed through the corridor and entered a spacious hexagonal chamber.
The six walls had been hollowed out to form large cages, inside which five animals were confined. Only one remained empty.
The tiger from that morning was among them.
It lay quietly on the ground. From its physique and fur, it was in its prime—at its strongest and most vigorous state. But mentally, it resembled an aged beast at the end of its years.
She hadn’t had time to observe it closely before, but now she could see—the energy impurities accumulated within its body were just as severe as those in the corridor animals. It had merely not yet reached the same critical point.
“It’s a Tier 4 fire-type, and also my most obedient battle pet,” He Heng said with a hint of pride. “The other four are all at peak Tier 3. Before long, they’ll reach Tier 4 as well. By then, even a Zombie King won’t be a match for me.”
At this, he sighed lightly.
“The premise is, of course, that I must tame them first.”
He Heng turned to look at Su Su. “Among these five battle pets, the other four attack people the moment they’re released. Even this most obedient tiger only follows me around on patrols. If it were to truly enter battle, I honestly suspect it wouldn’t go after zombies—it would turn and attack me instead.”
At least he had some self-awareness.
Su Su asked, “What exactly does the City Lord want to say? Did you invite me here just to show off your private zoo?”
There was a clear trace of mockery in her words, and He Heng naturally caught it.
Taking two steps forward, he smiled slightly. “I have shared my secrets with Miss Su without reservation. In return, shouldn’t Miss Su be honest with me as well—tell me how to tame a Tier 5 battle pet?”
Su Su countered, “You don’t believe what I just told you?”
“Miss Su, you must be joking. These are mere animals, without intelligence—how could ‘genuine sincerity’ mean anything to them?”
He Heng’s baby-faced features were incredibly deceptive. Just standing there, he looked as if he was genuinely complaining about her being unreasonable.
Su Su lowered her gaze. “If you don’t believe me, there’s nothing I can do.”
Her complete indifference left He Heng at a loss. He spread his hands helplessly. “Fine, then at least humor me. Tell me—how does one ‘exchange sincerity for sincerity’?”
“You really want to know?”
“Of course.”
“Let them go. Stop force-feeding them crystals. That’s the first step to success.”
He Heng’s smile gradually faded. “…Miss Su, you certainly see things with absolute clarity.”
“Releasing them is simple enough. I can build a large outdoor zoo for them, give them plenty of space to roam.” He paused, then added coldly, “But not feeding them crystals? Forgive me, but…”
Unknowingly, he had begun to close the distance. The gap shrank to just over ten centimeters—and was still decreasing.
At last, He Heng stepped into the black snake’s attack range.
He stood at 178 cm—not particularly tall, but his posture was refined enough to look down at Su Su.
“Miss Su, if you never fed this python any crystals, how did it advance to Tier 5?”
“Was it also through ‘sincerity in exchange for sincerity’?”
“Can your sincerity alone make it evolve out of thin air?”
A sudden oppressive force surged in He Heng’s gaze, forcing Su Su to tilt her head upward to meet his eyes.
“Miss Su, do you know what your answer sounds like to me?”
“It sounds like evasion. Like deception. Like deliberate mystification.”
The man gazed at her lotus-like beautiful face, a flicker of genuine admiration flashing through his eyes.
He raised his hand, attempting to brush against her slightly upturned, rosy lips.
Closer… even closer… Yet Su Su seemed utterly oblivious, allowing him to approach, allowing his hand to reach for her cheek.
“Su Su, what a name that is—so easy to take advantage of. Just saying it out loud makes one feel closer to you.”
He Heng gradually lowered his head, his voice as soft as a lover’s whisper. “Tell me, why did this python reach Tier 5 without exploding and dying? And how exactly did you tame it?”
Su Su murmured, “If I tell you…”
“Mhm, go on, tell me.”
“It’s…”
“What is it?”
Just as He Heng patiently coaxed her, Su Su abruptly raised her hand and shoved him away without mercy.
“It’s sincerity for sincerity. Why won’t you believe me?”
At the same time, the black snake spat out a vicious stream of blue flames.
“Hiss!!!”
It had endured for too long—suppressing the urge to attack. A mouthful of fire had been stuck in its throat, and if the female hadn’t warned it by tugging at its tail tip, it would have already gifted He Heng with a premature baldness package the moment he closed in.
He Heng dodged in a sorry state, but his hair was still singed by the onrushing flames.
The once neatly trimmed fringe instantly turned into a charred mess, looking like it had been given an impromptu tin-foil perm.
The blue flames, having missed their original target, blasted a hole through the ground.
Realizing something was amiss, He Heng instinctively reached up to touch his hair.
The moment his fingers grazed the burnt strands, his once-friendly baby face darkened ominously.
He glared at Su Su. “How did you break free from my ability?”
“The City Lord of the Southern Base is a psychic ability user. That wasn’t hard to guess, was it?”
No one had explicitly told her that the City Lord had psychic abilities. However, back in her previous life, when she was still struggling at the bottom, she had heard rumors that there was a psychic ability user among the high ranks of the Southern Base.
Since none of the people Brother Wang introduced had psychic abilities, it wasn’t hard to deduce—this man was the City Lord.
“I consumed two Grade 4 crystals. My strength surpasses yours, and I was on guard. Is it really so strange that I broke free?”