Shu Qingyi did not want to be entangled with anyone, but his thoughts quickly shifted several times.
It was his first time in this secret realm as well. In just a few short days, he had encountered numerous traps and mechanisms. Relying on his caution and good luck, he had not lost his life; instead, he had taken advantage of the struggles between others to snatch quite a few treasures.
If there was someone who could serve as a meat shield for him at a critical moment, that wouldn't be bad.
If this woman was telling the truth from beginning to end, he wouldn't mind doing her a favor and gaining some benefits from that so-called Black-clad Venerable.
Shu Qingyi said gently, Madam is inconvenienced and all alone. It makes absolutely no sense for me to leave you behind to face danger by yourself. If Madam does not mind, please travel with me for the time being.
Mu Ran smiled. Alright.
Looking at her bright smile, Shu Qingyi suddenly had the illusion that he had just walked right into her trap.
The Void Secret Realm opened once every two hundred years. Every time it opened, it would inevitably attract many cultivators. During the month that the secret realm was open, it could be said that every day and night was a storm of blood and gore.
Shu Qingyi had been stuck at the Nascent Soul stage for a long time. His main goal this time was to find a type of spirit herb called the Poluo Flower. Pills refined from this flower could allow his cultivation to grow much faster, and perhaps he would finally have hope of breaking through to the next realm.
The Poluo Flower preferred the shade and would only grow deep within cold, damp caves. Therefore, Shu Qingyi only walked toward places where the sunlight could not reach.
However, he felt a bit of regret again. He shouldn't have brought Mu Ran along.
She walked slowly, truly in no rush. Shu Qingyi looked back at her several times, wanting to remind her to walk faster. But seeing her protruding belly, he felt that if he urged her, it might not fit the image he was pretending to have in front of her.
Shu Qingyi frowned slightly, but quickly had another thought.
His breakthrough was a major matter. No matter how precious the child in her belly was, it had nothing to do with him. Why should he delay his own important affairs just to accommodate her?
Shu Qingyi turned his head again, only to meet Mu Ran's smiling eyes.
The words that were about to blurt out were inexplicably swallowed back. He withdrew his gaze once more, falling into a silent irritation.
Mu Ran, however, suddenly said, We should walk a little faster.
Shu Qingyi was slightly startled. He then looked at her again and said in a gentle tone, Madam is heavy with child. It is fine to travel slowly. We wouldn't want to harm the child in your belly.
Mu Ran raised her hand and placed it gently on her lower abdomen, her tone exceptionally brisk. It's fine. This child is very strong and will be alright.
Shu Qingyi secretly thought to himself, who didn't know that the higher one's cultivation realm, the more difficult it was to have offspring?
If everything she said was true, and her husband was an expert at the Void Piercing stage, then this child must have been hard to come by. If something happened to this hard-won child, that so-called Black-clad Venerable would probably hunt him down to the ends of the earth.
It was only this foolish woman who could be so careless.
Mu Ran felt somewhat innocent in this regard.
She had indeed lied. The father of the child in her belly was not at the Void Piercing stage, but at the peak realm that millions upon millions of cultivators dreamed of reaching.
Every time she dual-cultivated with Cangshu Bai, it could last as long as a year, or as short as ten days to half a month. The feedback of his power was intense, and her cultivation level skyrocketed along with it. Unknowingly, she had also become an expert in the eyes of others.
And this child, which took two hundred years of effort to conceive, had parents with profound cultivation. Naturally, the child was much stronger than ordinary children.
Even if Mu Ran went and jumped off a cliff right now, nothing would happen to this child.
But Mu Ran's appearance was very deceptive.
She originally had a slim and frail figure. Wrapped in soft satin clothing around her waist, her belly was made to look exceptionally prominent. The protruding curve actually looked a bit more pronounced than that of an ordinary pregnant woman at the same month, making her pregnancy obvious at a glance.
No matter how high her cultivation was, she was probably still prone to accidents during pregnancy.
Since Shu Qingyi had decided to travel with her, he absolutely would not allow her to collapse before he had squeezed all the use-value out of her.
He released his spiritual sense to scout the surroundings, and finally said, There is a cave over there. Let's go there to rest for a moment.
Mu Ran blinked. Oh.
After entering the cave, Shu Qingyi specifically stood at the entrance, cast an undetectable array, added three layers of restrictive seals, and finally covered the entrance with vines. Only then did he relax his body slightly.
As he turned around, he happened to meet Mu Ran's gaze.
She was sitting quietly on the ground. Her embroidered shoes were stained with some dirt and mud, but she didn't look the least bit disheveled.
It was just that those clear eyes looking at him still seemed to hold a smile, yet faintly gleamed with an emotion that felt unfamiliar to him.
It seemed that a long, long time ago, in the eyes of the parents whose faces he had long forgotten, the same emotion had also appeared.
He thought for a long time, and then remembered that it was when he fell to the ground as a child, scraping his knee and bleeding, that his parents would have such a look in their eyes.
Shu Qingyi's throat felt slightly tight. He subconsciously averted his gaze, keeping his distance from her. He sat opposite her and started a fire, instantly adding a bit of warmth to the cold and damp cave.
Then, he slowly realized that his behavior in front of Mu Ran just now was a bit off. He couldn't help but feel a little annoyed; he couldn't let her see that something was wrong.
Shu Qingyi lowered his eyes, staring at the wooden stick in his hand used to poke the fire, and said lightly, Most of the people here deceive and scheme against each other. Whenever I stop to rest at a place, I set up array after array because...
Because you want to protect yourself, not because you are deeply scheming.
Shu Qingyi's words were interrupted. He raised his eyes to look at her, his dark pupils murky and unreadable.
Mu Ran rested her chin in her hands, the firelight in her eyes resembling burning stars. She smiled sweetly, I don't think it's a mistake for a person to be shrewd. When you have no way out, you can only think of ways to protect yourself at all costs.
She paused and looked at him. I just can't help but wonder how many hardships and tribulations you have experienced in the past, and how many people have failed and betrayed you, for you to need to lay down layers of arrays just to find a moment of peace and dare to relax even a little.
Shu Qingyi's hand holding the wooden stick suddenly tightened, his knuckles turning pale.
The firelight in the cave flickered on his face, clearly illuminating the black-haired youth's momentary stiffness and bewilderment.
Soon, he gave a faint smile as if nothing had happened. Madam must be joking.
She said softly, My husband was once lonely and miserable for thousands of years. He carved out a bloody path through slaughter, every step fraught with peril. Only he knows the suffering involved. I once tried to ask him about his past, but he never told me about the dangers and pain within. Seeing you now, I can finally imagine what he was like in the past.
The sentence floated down lightly, but it struck Shu Qingyi's chest with a heavy thud.
That slight bitterness of having his weak spot poked, that little bit of bewilderment after being seen through, suddenly solidified and turned cold at this moment.
It turned out that she only saw the shadow of her husband in him.
His displeasure and annoyance arose in an even more absurd manner.
He lowered his eyes, and the faint smile he had barely managed to maintain at the corners of his lips vanished without a trace. When he spoke again, even his tone carried a touch of hardened distance.
"I am but an ordinary, lowly cultivator. I am not on the same path as a great figure like your husband. Madam, please do not compare me to him. I, Shu Qingyi, am not worthy."
Mu Ran belatedly realized that she had said the wrong thing.
The teenage version of Cangshu Bai was not as mature as he would be a thousand years later. Although he was equally petty in any era, when he held a grudge now, he wasn't nearly as good at pretending to be calm and collected as his future self.
She stared at the youth's face for a long while, pondering how she could coax him.
Then, an idea struck her, and her eyes darted around.
With a sudden cry of pain, Mu Ran clutched her stomach and leaned heavily against the stone wall.
Shu Qingyi raised his eyes. "What is wrong with you?"
"I do not know, my stomach hurts so much..." Her small face crumpled, looking as if she were about to burst into tears. "Young Master, please help me! Nothing can happen to my child!"
Shu Qingyi pursed his lips slightly but still stood up and walked over. In his heart, he had already made a rather stingy decision.
If there really was a problem with the child and ordinary medicinal pills could solve it, he would reluctantly spare a few to help her.
But if it required his treasured, high-grade spiritual elixirs, he absolutely would not take out a single one.
After all, this child was not his.
Just as he crouched down, about to ask where exactly she felt unwell, his wrist was suddenly and gently caught by Mu Ran.
Before he could react, her warm palm guided his hand and pressed it firmly against the swell of her lower abdomen.
A soft heat transmitted through the layers of fabric, carrying a faint warmth and an extremely subtle, feather-light flutter. However, to a cultivator adept at catching the most minute of movements, no matter how small this flutter was, it felt like a clap of thunder exploding against the palm of his hand.
Shu Qingyi snapped back to his senses and immediately tried to pull his hand away.
"Do not move." Mu Ran held his hand in place, her voice filled with both surprise and joy. "It is a kick. The baby is moving."
The voice that landed by the youth's ear was very soft, as if she were afraid of disturbing the little life inside her womb.
The youth's ears grew inexplicably hot.
She looked up at him, her eyes shining as brightly as scattered starlight. "Besides me, the mother, you are the very first person to feel our child move."
In that instant, his entire body stiffened, and he completely forgot to pull back the hand that was still feeling the delicate tremors of life.
