285: Chapter 285 You're going to pay the bill with your daughter? Lin Yuan refuses.

The first row of sprouts had just poked through the soil when the space gate closed by more than half.

The purified water pipe that had been transported to the entrance was severed by the edge.

Half the pipe fell onto the wasteland, and the nutrient solution flowed into the soil trench. The cultivation rack was stuck outside the door, its wheels still spinning.

Wang Xue stood beside the entrance, her palm gripping the edge of the space.

"Phase two expansion is paused."

"All equipment and construction personnel, get out."

Su Xiaonuan raised her tablet.

The construction permission turned red.

The engineering team, who were laying geothermal pipes, stopped their work, packed up their tools, and retreated along the ridges toward the entrance.

In the center of the wasteland, Ma Chao twisted his shoulders.

His roots had already crawled across three ridges. He didn't dare to pull them out, nor did he dare to ask; he simply retracted his vines back near the nutrient trough.

Lin Yuan remained inside the gate.

"Reason."

Wang Xue looked toward the farmland.

"The entrance is connected to my mental sea."

"Every time equipment enters or exits, I have to maintain the coordinates. Ma Chao's root system, the irrigation pipes, and the seed bank are all occupying spatial capacity."

She raised her hand.

The space gate shrank until it was only wide enough for one person to pass through sideways.

The irrigation pipe at the edge of the field disconnected accordingly, and the water flow stopped before the third row of crops.

"If you want to use this place long-term, you must give me a guarantee."

Lin Yuan waited for her to finish speaking.

Wang Xue pushed a file of military merits in front of Su Xiaonuan.

Purifying corpse poison at the corpse incineration site.

Capturing a Wan City spy.

Piloting feilong no. 3 to destroy a Holy Court node.

All three records bore Jiang Yun's name.

"She has risked her life for Cloud Top Palace."

"I want you to give her a Lin family identity and let her enter the core list."

"I don't care if you take her as a sister or as your woman."

"I want her to receive the best treatment."

Su Xiaonuan did not respond.

She pulled up the data following the water stoppage and projected it onto a temporary screen beside the entrance.

[Experimental field water supply interrupted.]

[Leaf water content dropping.]

[Growth expected to stop in thirty-seven minutes.]

Wang Xue glanced at the screen.

"Today you need me."

"When the power dynamic changes one day, how much of these things will still be left?"

Lin Yuan raised his eyes.

"Jiang Yun is a person."

"Whose room she wants to enter, what status she wants to have—it is up to her to decide."

"The usage rights of the Small World can be negotiated, but don't use her to settle the bill."

The space gate narrowed by another half foot.

The sprouts that had just raised their leaves were pressed toward the soil surface.

Wang Xue's hand remained gripped on the door frame.

"I am her mother."

"I have owed her for over a decade."

Lin Yuan walked to the entrance.

"The debt you owe, you settle yourself."

"Marriage is one account. Identity is another. Space rental is the third."

"If you mix them together, I won't acknowledge any of them."

Outside in the corridor.

Jiang Yun, holding the battle damage report for feilong no. 3, stopped by the wall.

The repair list was filled with broken parts.

The chest armor was scrapped, the power spine was burned out, but the universal core could still be salvaged.

She had originally intended to come here to report the expenses to Su Xiaonuan.

She gripped her permission card.

The corner of the card dug into her palm, leaving a red mark.

Inside, Wang Xue lowered her voice.

"Is it wrong for me to secure guarantees for her?"

"Choosing her path for her—that is wrong."

Lin Yuan turned to Tang Qiqi.

"Connect the feed."

Tang Qiqi bit into her lollipop and dragged the remote access permission onto the main screen.

The three retrofitted greenhouses in the outer ring were powered on simultaneously.

Geothermal pipes were buried in the soil, and the temperature rose from minus nineteen degrees to twelve degrees.

Insulation Materials cut from the Titan production line covered the walls, and the overhead grow lights lit up row by row.

The mechanical seeding racks moved along the tracks, and the first batch of cold-resistant seeds entered the seedling trays.

[Greenhouse No. 1 power supply stable.]

[Greenhouse No. 2 soil heating complete.]

[Greenhouse No. 3 entering seeding procedure.]

Tang Qiqi tapped the screen.

"All the scraps left over from the heavy mechs are stuck on the walls."

"It won't stop Michael, but it's enough to block the cold."

Another image unfolded.

A silver-gray device stood in the B2 test area.

Four positioning pillars surrounded a supply crate.

Tang Qiqi input the Small World entrance coordinates, and the energy ring finished charging.

The supply crate vanished from the test platform.

Two seconds later, it landed on the wasteland behind Wang Xue.

The crate was off-target by eight yards, but the seal was intact.

[Spatial anchoring device no-load test complete.]

[Estimated reduction in entrance maintenance time: 71%.]

[Mental load reduction: 64%.]

Wang Xue turned her head to look at the supply crate.

Her hand gripping the space gate stopped.

Tang Qiqi used her lollipop to poke at her cheek.

"The precision is still a bit off."

"It's enough for transporting water pipes."

"If used to transport people, an eight-yard deviation might get them stuck in Ma Chao's branches."

Ma Chao immediately tightened his vines.

"Don't transport people; it's not convenient here."

No one paid him any mind.

Su Xiaonuan placed two plans on the table.

"Plan one: The Small World retains the seed bank and the first experimental field. The spatial anchoring device will handle material transport, and no permanent maintenance personnel will be stationed here."

"Plan two: Suspend use of the Small World. Transfer equipment within seven days. The three external greenhouses will handle basic breeding, and Shanghai and Zhe City will increase geothermal farming areas."

The engineering personnel opened the evacuation list.

Some calculated the loss of pipelines, while others registered the number of cultivation racks.

The people who had been waiting outside the entrance began to dismantle the securing clips.

Wang Xue looked at those numbers.

Closing the Small World would cost Cloud Top Palace production, but it wouldn't lose its food source.

The space she held could raise the ceiling, but it couldn't block Lin Yuan's path to survival.

Lin Yuan pushed the two plans toward her.

"The place is yours; whether to open it or not is up to you."

"Jiang Yun's path, she chooses herself."

"If Cloud Top Palace lacks food, we can reduce production or transfer resources from the three regions."

He tapped on Jiang Yun's military merit file.

"No one is allowed to use my people as bargaining chips."

The door was pushed open.

Jiang Yun walked onto the wasteland and placed the battle damage report for feilong no. 3 on the table.

"Core recovery complete. Applying for repair Materials according to the battle damage regulations."

She turned to Wang Xue.

"Mom."

Wang Xue's lips moved twice.

Jiang Yun didn't wait for her to speak.

"I am your daughter."

"My military merits, my status, and whose room I enter in the future—all of that is decided by me."

She pushed the report toward Su Xiaonuan.

"Give exactly as much contribution value as is due."

Su Xiaonuan accepted the report.

"It won't be less."

Jiang Yun passed by Lin Yuan, looking up at him for two seconds.

Her back, pressed against the wall, was straight.

She clipped the permission card back onto her wristband, with the serial number of feilong no. 3 exposed on the outside.

Wang Xue lowered her head.

She reviewed the load of the anchoring device item by item, crossed out the permanent personnel, and wrote "twice daily" after the entrance opening time.

The space gate expanded back to the width required for equipment passage.

The disconnected irrigation pipes were reconnected.

"Run it according to the low-load plan for now."

"Jiang Yun... Mom was just... I understand."

Su Xiaonuan paused the phase two expansion and sealed the new equipment.

The first farming area entered the observation phase.

Lin Yuan inspected the crops along the ridges.

Ma Chao's roots buried under the soil were still extending, and the first batch of sprouts had already unfurled their leaves.

Walking to the nutrient trough, Lin Yuan stopped.

A black spot was clinging to the surface of the roots.

The black spot crawled outward along the veins for half a meter, and wherever it passed, the root skin cracked.

Rows of leaves folded up; the newly restored water supply couldn't support the production curve.

[Experimental farming area activity dropping.]

[Germination rate: 93%.]

[74%.]

[42%.]

Ma Chao looked down at his roots.

"This thing is not mine."

Su Muxue put on isolation gloves, cut off a section of the diseased root, and sealed it in a container.

Xia Qingqiu turned off the growth-promoting equipment.

A channel of Green Lotus Fire rose up, enclosing the first farming area.

The black spot crawled to the line of fire and stopped for less than a second.

The next moment, it crossed the Green Lotus Fire and burrowed into the soil of the Small World.