Volume Five: Emerging Brilliance - Chapter Four: Becoming a Father

"Could it really be like this?" Gu Linglong asked in a panic. The child was connected by flesh and blood within Xiaoying's womb; if the baby truly acted like a bottomless abyss, then Xiaoying's life would hang by a thread.

"I don't know." Li Chengzhu steadied his nervous emotions and once again extended his primordial spirit deep into Xiaoying's abdomen.

Under the perspective of his primordial spirit, Li Chengzhu was shocked to find that the child's nascent soul was crazily growing, shrinking, growing again, and shrinking once more in an endless cycle. With every cycle, a massive amount of spiritual energy surged in and vanished without a trace.

Suddenly, Li Chengzhu saw the child's nascent soul open its eyes, flash a faint smile at him, and at the same time, a searing pain struck his head. Li Chengzhu was sent flying backward, crashing into several objects before his body came to a halt.

"Damn it." The great Boss Li wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and cursed bitterly.

"Zhu Zi." Gu Linglong anxiously flew over to Li Chengzhu, reached out to help him up, and asked, "How is it?"

At this moment, Gu Linglong was truly like a little girl who had lost her own judgment, her mind in complete turmoil, relying entirely on her man to give her a reasonable explanation.

"Primordial spirit attack." Boss Li gritted his teeth and said, "That damn little beast actually launched a primordial spirit attack on me."

"What?" Gu Linglong had suffered far too many shocks today. Although her mind somewhat understood Li Chengzhu's words, she refused to accept them. "Who launched a primordial spirit attack on you?"

"The child in Xiaoying's belly." Li Chengzhu looked at Xiaoying's abdomen, a fierce glint in his eyes while his body trembled.

Gu Linglong felt a splitting headache. The child in Xiaoying's womb hadn't even been born yet, and it could already use a primordial spirit attack? And it targeted its own father, who was at the Integration Stage? Catching sight of Li Chengzhu's gaze, Gu Linglong shivered, her upper teeth chattering against the lower ones. Clenching her fists, she asked, "Zhu Zi, you surely don't intend to..."

Li Chengzhu took a deep breath, dashed quickly to Xiaoying's side, and while channeling spiritual energy into her, began to weigh his options.

If he truly had to do that, he had to act fast. The spiritual energy within Xiaoying's body had already been half-absorbed in the blink of an eye. If he delayed any further, Xiaoying might actually be drained dry. What kind of freakish monster was this child? Could it be that they had provided too much nourishment? Legend has it that Lady Li, wife of Li Jing, was pregnant with Nezha for three years and six months, but his own child was already absorbing its birth mother and attacking its birth father before even being born! Although one could argue it was an act of self-protection, still...

For the first time, Li Chengzhu cursed himself for acting arbitrarily by using two pieces of Wood Essence to replace the top-grade Heavenly Mystery spirit stones.

Keba had said that those two items were already spirit-infused. If something went wrong, the problem definitely lay with them.

"Xiaoying, she..." Gu Linglong was also squatting in front of Xiaoying now, suddenly lowering her head to point at the floor with an expression of utter shock.

Li Chengzhu's thoughts were interrupted. He looked down, and his heart instantly turned half cold. Damn it, her water had broken. If they didn't take action now... Fuck it, the great Boss Li made a ruthless decision in his heart, silently thinking: My daughter, do not blame your father for being cruel. If I let you run wild like this, your mother will die a violent death.

A trace of guilt welled up in Boss Li's heart toward this yet-unseen daughter, and the corners of his eyes began to grow moist.

Turning to look at Gu Linglong, he said in a deep voice, "Linglong, you must make a move and ensure a fatal strike. I will handle the rest."

At this point, they could only eliminate the unborn child. Li Chengzhu's tears flowed uncontrollably, and Gu Linglong stared at him in a daze, her lips trembling.

For cultivators, such a small matter was simply not worth mentioning. As long as they shattered the child's nascent soul—the source of its spiritual energy absorption—it would be enough to guarantee Xiaoying's safety. However, although the child's cultivation realm could not surpass Li Chengzhu's, it was not far off, which was why Boss Li asked Gu Linglong to strike.

"Hurry up, what are you standing there for?" Li Chengzhu roared, losing his temper at Gu Linglong for the first time since their marriage. The spiritual energy all over his body was also being frantically sucked in. Under his primordial spirit's scrutiny, Xiaoying's nascent soul was visibly withering away.

"I... I can't." Gu Linglong's eyes were misty with tears as she shook her head firmly. She glanced at Xiaoying, then placed her hand over Li Chengzhu's palm while channeling her own immortal spiritual energy into him. "If I were Xiaoying, I would never agree to you doing this." With that, she turned back to Li Chengzhu with a tear-streaked smile.

"A woman's misplaced benevolence!" Li Chengzhu spat furiously, completely shedding his usual cultured and refined demeanor. He wished he could go up himself and nip the child in the bud. But weighing his own strength, he realized he had no way to guarantee he could shatter the child's nascent soul while ensuring Xiaoying's safety.

Gu Linglong reached out to wipe the tears streaming down her face and said, "Husband, if you really kill the child... Xiaoying will hate you for the rest of her life."

"If the child is gone, we can always have another. If the mother is gone, everything is lost. Are you going to act or not?" Li Chengzhu raised his voice once more. Xiaoying's condition was growing worse by the minute. Although Gu Linglong was supplying a massive amount of spiritual energy, the child seemed to reject Gu Linglong's power; instead, it was frantically devouring the spiritual energy of both Li Chengzhu and Xiaoying.

The moment Li Chengzhu finished shouting, a rapid succession of crisp snapping sounds echoed around them. The two of them turned their heads simultaneously to see forty-eight Heavenly Mystery spirit stones instantly shatter into powder, transforming into boundless spiritual energy that swirled around the two pieces of Wood Essence before rushing furiously into Xiaoying's body.

Li Chengzhu instantly felt his body grow lighter, but the very next second, he realized that the final, critical moment had arrived. Even if Gu Linglong struck now, it was already too late.

"Damn her mother, wait until you're out and I'll paddle your bottom," Li Chengzhu cursed fiercely at Xiaoying's belly.

Amidst her agony, the corners of Xiaoying's mouth curved slightly upward. She slowly opened her eyes, a faint smile hanging on her pale face as she responded weakly, "Alright... you... ah!"

"Xiaoying!" the two of them cried out in alarm simultaneously, hastily laying Xiaoying flat on the bed and quickly stripping off her clothes.

By now, Gu Linglong had also shaken off her panic. She walked to Xiaoying's crotch, parted her thighs, and looked closely. The frantic situation made Gu Linglong forget all about bashfulness. With that single glance, she cried out in sudden joy, "I see her head."

"Really?" Li Chengzhu asked with pleasant surprise, but his hands dared not leave Xiaoying's dantian, forcing him to crane his neck toward the foot of the bed instead.

Gu Linglong cast a reproachful glare at him and pushed against his forehead, shoving his lewd gaze away. Then she muttered shyly, "It doesn't seem to be... it's just Xiaoying's... hair."

"Damn it," Li Chengzhu cursed inwardly.

Xiaoying's heart-wrenching screams continued. The massive loss of spiritual energy forced her to endure the agony of childbirth with her physical body alone, and because the child was absorbing spiritual energy without a single moment of rest, she dared not use her own spiritual energy to alleviate the pain. She knew that every bit she used meant one bit less for the child.

Though first-time mother Xiaoying was beginning to lose consciousness, she relied on maternal instinct to make this final effort for her child.

"This time it really is her head!" Gu Linglong suddenly shouted in excitement, her hands hovering in mid-air, wanting to grab hold yet not daring to, retreating several times over while biting her lips until they were bright red.

"Set up the Great Spirit-Gathering Array!" Li Chengzhu gritted his teeth and roared at Gu Linglong. The rate of spiritual energy loss was far beyond his imagination; the reserves stored within his spiritual meridians could no longer offset this consumption, forcing him to tap into the immortal spiritual energy within his nascent soul ahead of time. "Add those two items in," Li Chengzhu instructed after a moment of thought.

"Okay." Gu Linglong nodded, her hands waving as she incorporated the two pieces of Wood Essence into the Great Spirit-Gathering Array.

The room had already been rich in spiritual energy, and after months of nourishment—combined with the barriers of the room's boundary array—the spiritual energy from the Heavenly Mystery spirit stones had nowhere to escape. The moment the Great Spirit-Gathering Array was fully established, Li Chengzhu immediately felt the surging spiritual energy of the outside world flood into his body, allowing him to catch his breath.

The suffering of Xiaoying and Li Chengzhu continued. The only one in the room who appeared somewhat at leisure was Gu Linglong, purely because her immortal spiritual energy was being repelled by the child. Yet at this moment, she felt not a shred of ease, her anxious heart rising and falling with every cry from Xiaoying. She steeled her heart, pressed her hands onto Xiaoying's bulging lower region, and released her immortal spiritual energy, striving to widen that narrow passage.

Inside the room, blood, amniotic fluid, and sweat blended together to create a strange odor, but no one paid any attention to these trivial matters. The paramount concern right now was waiting for the birth of the child and Xiaoying's painstaking effort.

How could Gu Linglong have ever experienced such a scene? Even Li Chengzhu had only ever seen things like this on television, frantically trying to recall what doctors were supposed to do during childbirth. Sterilization? That wasn't necessary; a cultivator's body was entirely free of grime. Hemostasis? Unnecessary either; a cultivator's regenerative capacity was first-rate, and Xiaoying wasn't losing an excessive amount of blood.

Boss Li pondered for a long time, only to realize that the only thing he could actually do was channel spiritual energy into Xiaoying and stay by her side.

"Damn your mother!" Li Chengzhu yelled up at the ceiling, realizing for the first time that he could be so utterly useless. His woman was giving birth, and he was completely powerless to help.

If his strength had been greater, he could have nipped the child in the bud earlier, and Xiaoying wouldn't have had to endure such immense suffering and life-threatening danger.

Xiaoying's nascent soul was still shrinking; the loss of spiritual energy was so severe that Li Chengzhu felt entirely helpless.

A flustered Gu Linglong kept reporting the child's progress from the side.

Fortunately, this was a natural birth, and perhaps the child didn't want to cause too much trouble either, as the little head poked out first.

The scene of childbirth was like a battlefield, with the three of them busy to their limits.

While monitoring Xiaoying's physical condition, Li Chengzhu kept a close eye on the baby's movements. To his slight relief, the boundary array had prevented the escape of spiritual energy; once the Great Spirit-Gathering Array was set up, the drain on Xiaoying's spiritual energy drastically decreased, eliminating the immediate threat to her life.

After a long while, just when Li Chengzhu felt he had reached the limit of exhaustion, Gu Linglong let out a joyful cheer: "It's out, it's out!" She then bent down to pick up the bloody bundle. Though the blood stained her white dress, she didn't care in the least.

Li Chengzhu's mind relaxed as he turned his gaze toward Xiaoying.

The young woman's face had lost all trace of color at this moment, her hands clenched so tightly into fists that her nails had dug deep into her flesh without her even noticing. Yet Gu Linglong's shout pulled her back from the haze of pain, and she called out weakly, "Bring her here so I can see."

Gu Linglong's hands were trembling with excitement as she shamelessly raised one arm to wipe the tears from the corner of her eye with her shoulder, then glanced at Li Chengzhu.

Boss Li pressed one hand against Xiaoying's dantian while forming his other hand into a blade, channeling his spiritual energy to chop downward with a decisive strike, severing the connection between child and mother. Only then did he allow Gu Linglong to bring the baby before Xiaoying.

Though the birth was successful, a drum was still beating in Li Chengzhu's heart. He had heard that a newborn baby would inevitably cry upon taking its first breath of air, so why was this child making no sound at all?

When Gu Linglong finally carried the baby over, Li Chengzhu inspected her closely. It was a wrinkled mass of flesh, looking rather like the face of a decrepit old man. Do all newborn babies look like this? Boss Li wondered, full of doubt.