Whoosh...
A mountain breeze drifted gently past Motian Cliff, barred from entering.
Birds beat their wings against the unseen boundary, tumbling out of the high sky.
All of this was due to the sudden emergence of an array's radiant barrier, which severed the interior from the outside world.
Quite a few Golden Core cultivators in the Luotian Sect took notice of the commotion.
Though startled at first, they recognized the direction where the array had been activated, calculated the time, and immediately understood.
Filled with an inexplicable thrill and anticipation, figures flew toward Motian Cliff one after another.
Even if they could not enter, it would be wonderful just to catch a glimpse of the "Young Master" after the birth.
Gu Caiyi, Li Yingzhang, Min Longyu, Zeng Yilong, Qin Yuanjiang, Yang Pingdu, and Meng Qin'er all arrived; even Fairy Jueqing came along, bringing Shi Lan.
In the shadows, a dark silhouette flickered.
Bai Meiling settled on a mountain crest, gazing into the distance at the cloud-piercing Motian Cliff, her eyes brimming with eager hope.
"Master is about to have an heir!"
...
Inside the palace halfway up Motian Cliff.
Several figures were bustling to and fro.
Leading them was an old woman with graying hair. Her cultivation was merely at the late Foundation Establishment stage, but her age had long surpassed the lifespan limit of Foundation Establishment—she was already two hundred and seventy years old!
Her name was Su'e, the eldest disciple of Sun Sifang, the sacred hand of medicine who had joined the Luotian Sect in earlier years.
Though she lacked the aptitude to break through to the Golden Core stage, she was more or less versed in longevity arts, miraculously surviving to the ripe age of two hundred and seventy.
Two years ago, sensing that her end was nigh, she had already begun putting her affairs in order.
Yet upon hearing that the Luotian Sect would wage an opening war to secure a lasting foundation for the sect, she had gritted her teeth, using her medical arts to stimulate her life force and hold on until the Luotian Sect established its supremacy over the great domain.
By that point, even if her lifespan ran out and she passed away, she could have smiled in the Netherworld.
Yet she had never expected to hear that the founding sect master, Sima Huiniang, was pregnant!
This was the Supreme Elder's child!
If she could personally deliver the child before passing away, her life would truly come full circle.
To this end, Su'e had sealed her meridians and dispersed all the spiritual power in her dantian to nourish her withered body, enduring constant pain every day just to hold out until now.
"Torturing myself like this, clinging to life without letting go... I fear I'll descend to the underworld after death,"
Su'e thought, feeling rather self-deprecating.
When most cultivators felt their lifespan drawing to a close and their end approaching, they usually accepted reality.
Subjecting herself to every kind of agony just to eke out a wretched existence was a cruel ordeal, both to herself and to the friends and family around her.
Yet when Su'e heard Sima Huiniang's pained cries, she felt that every bit of it had been worthwhile.
"How could childbirth for a female cultivator be this difficult?"
"If an ordinary person were to deliver the child, even if they succeeded, the mother's vitality would be gravely wounded, and her cultivation realm would plunge by more than half."
"Fortunately, I am still here!"
Su'e could not bear to stand by and watch Sima Huiniang, who had been kind to her, suffer so intensely, nor could she let the future hope of the sect die in the womb.
Silver needles rose and fell, chaining major meridians.
Spiritual power circulated, shoring up the sea of qi.
Supplemented by finger techniques, she stimulated vital acupoints across Sima Huiniang's body.
At the same time, she continually offered soothing words, urging the woman to relax.
Time ticked away, stretching from midnight into morning.
The confidence that had once filled Su'e's heart gradually gave way to mounting panic.
Why was this little fellow so difficult to deliver?
Could even her medical arts fail to guide Sima Huiniang through a natural birth?
Seeing the woman's pale face and unfocused eyes, Su'e drew a deep breath. "A natural birth is too difficult. We must cut her open!"
The disciples beside her had already anticipated this and began preparing the corresponding magical instruments.
Right then, a figure appeared by their side.
"No cutting. It must be a natural birth!"
Su'e froze and looked up at the tall young man.
"B-but..."
Without looking back, Luo Chen waved a hand dismissively behind him. "All of you, step down!"
The low-ranking disciples of Su'e's lineage bowed to Luo Chen and respectfully withdrew.
Su'e watched with bewilderment.
Then she saw the Supreme Elder slowly reach out, stroking Sima Huiniang's belly while whispering softly,
"Huiniang, Huiniang..."
Gradually, Sima Huiniang's slack eyes seemed to reawaken, light returning to her gaze and strength to her body.
Su'e instinctively covered her mouth.
If it had only been this, she would not have lost her composure.
What shocked her was that where Luo Chen's palm rested, intricate patterns were spreading outward.
Streaks of bloody light converged from across Sima Huiniang's entire body like earthworms, surging toward her lower abdomen.
The flower of blood was about to bloom; the fruit was about to fall.
At that moment, Luo Chen turned his head, looking coldly at Su'e.
"What are you waiting for?"
Su'e shuddered, bowed her head, and set to work.
Strangely enough, the delivery, which had shown no progress whatsoever earlier, went remarkably smooth once Luo Chen intervened.
She saw the feet!
"No wonder it was so difficult before—it's a breech birth!" Su'e realized with a start.
Next came the tiny body, slick with fluid.
Throughout the process, Sima Huiniang's screams grew louder, as though they could pierce the very heavens.
"It hurts—!"
With one final shriek from Sima Huiniang, all fell silent.
Su'e severed the umbilical cord, washed the newborn with warm water, and with trembling hands presented the baby before Luo Chen.
"C-congratulations, Supreme Elder... it is a... a boy."
A red glow suffused the white swaddling cloth, dazzling and mesmerizing the eye.
Such a phenomenon would naturally bring to mind the reincarnation of an almighty being or some sacred legend.
Yet that red glow was so sinister, as though it could corrode the human mind.
Within the swaddling clothes, the infant's eyelids were shut tight, his mouth firmly closed, completely silent like a stillborn child.
Luo Chen accepted the bundle. His first glance was not at the baby, but at the old woman.
"Su'e, how old are you this year?"
Su'e hunched her back. "This disciple is two hundred and seventy-one years old."
With a single look, Luo Chen saw through the agony she was enduring. He nodded. "You have suffered. Go now. May you be a disciple of my Luotian Sect in your next life as well."
Luo Chen extended a finger, sending a wisp of cyan light sinking into Su'e's body.
The physical pain that had tormented her for two years vanished instantly upon the cyan light's arrival.
Su'e felt an overwhelming lightness throughout her body, as though she had returned to her maiden years, brimming with vigor.
If she passed away in such a state, perhaps her journey down the Yellow Springs would be far smoother?
Su'e thought to herself.
Into her ears came Luo Chen's calm voice.
"Not a word of today's matters is to be spoken to anyone."
Su'e prostrated herself, offering Luo Chen a formal, deeply reverent kowtow.
Then she rose and walked out of the hall.
Female disciples asked whether the delivery had gone smoothly, but she merely smiled without answering.
Gu Caiyi, Li Yingzhang, and the other Golden Core cultivators waiting outside urgently inquired whether it was a boy or a girl, but she only said that the specific circumstances would be announced by the Supreme Elder shortly.
Afterward, accompanied by her disciples, she returned to her cave abode.
Recalling the young master's plump face and the ominous red glow born with him, she sighed.
The arrangements for her passing had already been set two years ago.
As for now?
Su'e sat cross-legged, her aged hands forming a seal, quietly awaiting the arrival of death.
The grand array over Motian Cliff remained active.
As they waited, the excitement and anticipation among Gu Caiyi and the others began to shift, and many unsettling conjectures rose in their minds.
Could something have gone wrong?
This delivery had dragged on from midnight into daylight.
For formidable Golden Core cultivators, this was simply unheard of.
Back then, Yao Mingyue's parents had been mere Qi Refining cultivators, yet in the sudden chaos of battle at Crescent Moon Valley, they had delivered Yao Mingyue in just a few breaths.
Sima Huiniang's cultivation realm was extraordinary, so why would it take so long?
Coupled with Su'e's evasive words, it was impossible for them not to let their imaginations run wild.
Yet barred by the grand array, even Min Longyu was at his wit's end.
It was also at this moment that Min Longyu suddenly realized that the Supreme Elder's mastery of the Dao of arrays had reached such profound heights that even he could not hope to match him.
Inside the bedchamber.
Luo Chen silently regarded the little figure in the swaddling clothes, his expression showing neither sorrow nor joy.
Unlike an ordinary newborn who was wrinkled and ugly, the baby in his arms was like a freshly steamed bun—plump, pale, smooth, and round-faced.
It was as though he had received ample nourishment and fully developed within the womb.
Under his gaze, the sinister red glow seemed terrified of Luo Chen, shrinking back and sinking into the tiny body.
"Are you afraid of me?"
"Well, you did not only come out of Huiniang; you came out of me as well."
"Now that your host is so weak, you truly ought to fear me."
Luo Chen slowly raised his right hand, reaching down to cover the infant's face, his expression cold as iron.
This child was indeed his.
Yet from the very beginning, he had never intended for the child to survive.
The boy was meant only as a transitional vessel so that Sima Huiniang could cast off the burden of the Demonic Heart Gu.
And what if he lived?
The Demonic Heart Gu was utterly bound to him. He would never be able to cultivate in the future, and would even grow frail from the Gu devouring his blood and qi.
Even with a mortal body, it would be difficult to live past a century.
Rather than a lifetime of agony, it was better to grant him release early.
As for killing his own child—with a resolve as steadfast as Luo Chen's, he was capable of it!
Just as Luo Chen's hand touched the infant's smooth skin, Sima Huiniang's weak voice drifted from nearby.
"Husband, our child..."
"Waaah!"
A resonant cry rang out, instantly echoing through the spacious bedchamber.
The cold chamber seemed to gain a touch of warmth from that single cry.
Luo Chen's hand froze.
His iron visage wavered in that moment, hesitation flickering in his eyes.
"Husband?"
Looking as though she had just survived a grave illness, Sima Huiniang struggled to lift her neck, peering over at Luo Chen.
From her angle, she could only see Luo Chen stroking the infant in the swaddling cloth.
Prompted by that cry, she grew anxious.
"The child... the child!"
Luo Chen hesitated.
In more than three hundred years of cultivation, some said he had changed, while others said he had not.
He knew that his external conduct had grown ever more decisive and ruthless, his mind shrewd as a fox, yet he treated those close to him just as he always had.
He could show kindness even toward old acquaintances; how could he do less for his own flesh and blood?
Looking down again, he saw that the little fellow had opened his eyes at some point. A pair of unnaturally large, glossy black eyes stared up at him, his mouth still wailing loudly.
"Husband, I want to see our child!"
Beside him, the woman's voice grew increasingly frantic.
Luo Chen pursed his lips, clenching his teeth so tightly that his cheeks hardened.
"Sigh..."
He let out an inexplicable sigh, yet it also carried a sense of relief.
Luo Chen finally brought the infant to the bedside, lifted Sima Huiniang's limp, gentle arm, and placed the child into her embrace.
In that instant, Sima Huiniang's brows curved into a smile, radiating heartfelt joy.
"It's a son!"
Luo Chen nodded. "Yes, a son."
He, Luo Chen, having lived across two lifetimes, finally had a son of his own.
A sensation of shared bloodline finally bypassed his earlier obsession and reached deep into his heart.
He was merely an innocent babe!
Even if he bore a demonic Gu, even if he could not cultivate, even if he had only a century to live—Luo Chen was a Nascent Soul True Person, an Alchemy Grandmaster of his generation!
Under his protection, even a mortal could live a magnificent life.
How could he extinguish all the child's possibilities before he had even opened his eyes, merely out of concern for future pain?
Luo Chen touched his face, realizing that a fine sheen of cold sweat had formed at some point.
A single errant thought—had it been a demonic delusion?
A lingering dread surged in Luo Chen's heart.
He dared not imagine what would have happened had he truly struck the lethal blow.
Would it have been Sima Huiniang's lifelong hatred, future chaotic power struggles within the Luotian Sect, or endless guilt haunting his midnight dreams?
If one day he attempted to break through to the God Transformation realm, would the vengeful spirit of his child demanding his life become the final straw that broke him?
In the end, he had come to his senses.
At this moment, Luo Chen felt his thoughts flow far more smoothly and vividly.
Sima Huiniang teased the baby in her arms with delight, then looked up at the contemplative Luo Chen.
"Husband, when I asked you before what to name the child, you said it was hard to choose without knowing the gender. Now that you know, do you have any ideas?"
Luo Chen smiled wryly. Caught in his delusion earlier, he had never even considered the matter.
Thinking of a name for a child meant to die—would that not have been borrowing trouble?
Now that he had awakened, it was somewhat awkward.
Facing Sima Huiniang's expectant gaze, an inspiration struck Luo Chen, and he blurted out,
"Let us call him Lingxi!"
Sima Huiniang paused, then smiled tenderly.
What a wonderful name!
Back then, had it not been because they were implanted with the Consonance Gu that she had endured long enough to await Luo Chen's return?
Luo Chen looked tenderly at mother and child, sighing inwardly.
He only hoped this child would possess a heart of mutual consonance and never succumb to demonic barriers!
"Rest for a while. I will inform the others and arrange for disciples to look after you both."
"Mm, go ahead, Husband!" Sima Huiniang replied sweetly, looking down again at the baby who had stopped crying. "Lingxi, Lingxi, from now on your name is Luo Lingxi!"
Luo Chen lingered no longer and hurried away,
as though he were somewhat afraid to face mother and child.
Stepping outside the palace, he waved a hand, and the towering array that blotted out the sky dissolved into nothingness.
As if receiving a summons, figure after figure flew in together.
Meeting their eager gazes, Luo Chen smiled faintly.
"Mother and son are safe."
Instantly, cheers erupted from the seasoned Golden Core cultivators.
Luo Chen shook his head with a smile and prepared to assign disciples to attend to mother and child.
Yet just as he was about to move, his brow furrowed.
Reaching into his robes, he withdrew a jade slip, its spiritual light flashing incessantly with extreme urgency.
Chapter 877