Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

Only three days remain before the Protoss's three elite armies arrive at Abandoned Star Island.

The invisible smoke of war had already suffocated the entire island. On the last night before the battle, Jiang Yining hosted a high-profile banquet in the main hall of the Xuan Yin Palace to reward the entire army.

The main hall was brightly lit, and the tables were laden with delicacies prepared with various 100,000-year-old sea spirit herbs, the rich spiritual energy almost condensed into droplets. However, the atmosphere inside the hall was so eerie that even a pin dropping on the floor could be heard echoing.

This was the most bizarre dinner ever eaten on Abandoned Star Island.

Jiang Yining sat regally in the main seat, her purple-gold soft robe subtly radiating the pressure of a Profound Light Realm expert. At the large square table below her, four men sat on all four sides, surrounding her at the very center.

Gu Qinghan sat to her left, dressed in white, cold as ice, with the jade chopsticks in front of him arranged neatly, even the curves were perfect; Yu Luofeng sat to her right, his pale fingertips casually turning a black jade wine cup, extremely yin ghostly energy surging under his feet; Ao Lin sat at the end of the table with an imposing air, his arrogant dragon might undiminished even after his cultivation level had dropped; while Su Chenzhou sat quietly in the darkest shadow in the corner like a ghost.

Without exchanging a word, the gazes of the four men simultaneously crossed the table and focused intently on Jiang Yining, who was seated at the head of the table.

Four extremely aggressive and possessive gazes collided wildly in mid-air, sparking silent yet deadly flames. The puppet servants surrounding them froze, terrified of triggering this chaotic battlefield that could explode at any moment.

The banquet was in its middle stages.

Ao Lin finally couldn't hold back any longer. He slammed his hand on the edge of the table and stood up abruptly. He picked up a pot of top-grade spiritual wine made from a thousand-year-old fire lotus and strode over to Jiang Yining.

"Ning'er." Ao Lin ignored the presence of the other three men, his dark golden vertical pupils fixed on her, his tone domineering yet with a hint of flattery, "This Fire Lotus Wine can warm the body, I will personally pour you a cup."

As he spoke, he tilted the wine pot slightly, and the crystal-clear red wine was about to flow out from the spout.

"Smack."

A long, pale hand, exuding an extremely chilling, pure yang energy, reached out without warning and precisely blocked the spout of the wine pot.

Gu Qinghan remained seated, not moving an inch. His fingers were as steady as a mountain, and his pure Yang True Essence directly froze the drop of wine overflowing from the spout into a red ice bead, which landed on the table with a crisp sound.

"She's pregnant and can't drink alcohol." Gu Qinghan's voice was completely flat and extremely cold.

Ao Lin's hand holding the wine pot suddenly stiffened.

He froze on the spot, his arrogant expression momentarily blank. He subconsciously looked down at Jiang Yining's flat stomach, which showed no signs of pregnancy, then suddenly raised his head, his gaze meeting Gu Qinghan's deep, cold eyes.

Gu Qinghan did not withdraw her hand, meeting Ao Lin's murderous gaze with undisguised contempt and mockery.

The two exchanged a silent battle in the air. Gu Qinghan's subtext was as clear as a slap in Ao Lin's face: You don't even know that she can't touch this strong fire lotus wine while she's pregnant. What gives you the right to stand here as the male head of the household?

Ao Lin's face instantly turned purplish-blue, and the veins on the back of his hand holding the wine pot bulged, but he was so frustrated that he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal. He could only slam the wine pot heavily on the table.

In contrast to the tense atmosphere on this side, Yu Luofeng, sitting on the right, did not participate in any interaction from beginning to end.

He was like a lifeless, exquisitely beautiful corpse, leaning lazily against the back of his chair, his fingertips still casually toying with the black jade wine cup. But his scarlet, half-saintly ghostly eyes were like an extremely precise detector, relentlessly tracking every micro-expression on Jiang Yining's face.

He was observing.

When Jiang Yining's gaze swept over Gu Qinghan's hand blocking the wine pot, did the corner of her mouth curve up slightly or down a little? When she looked at the humiliated Ao Lin, was the complex emotion that flashed in her eyes pity or annoyance? And when she inadvertently glanced at Su Chenzhou in the corner, there was a hint of wariness and calculation in her eyes.

Yu Luofeng was using his terrifying, Ghost King-level perception to precisely measure the extremely subtle emotional intensity of Jiang Yining's feelings for each man. He was frantically collecting data in a dark corner, accumulating deadly ammunition for the next "punishment" of completely possessing her.

The extremely oppressive banquet finally came to an end.

The night was deep. Jiang Yining carried the twins, who had already eaten, from the side hall back to her own bedchamber with light steps.

The bedchamber was filled with calming incense. Jiang Yining carefully placed the two children in the huge white jade crib, and had just covered them with a thin blanket, not even having had time to sit up.

Outside the door, three distinct footsteps suddenly sounded simultaneously.

"Tap, tap." These were Gu Qinghan's footsteps, steady and cold, like jade striking ice, carrying an unyielding rhythm.

"Shh, shh." These were Yu Luofeng's footsteps, extremely light, like weightless ghosts brushing against the floor tiles, exuding both eeriness and lingering tenderness.

"Bang, bang!" These were Ao Lin's footsteps, heavy and impatient, each step like the beating of a war drum, carrying brute force with nowhere to vent.

Three different footsteps converged from three different directions in the corridor, and finally, eerily, they stopped simultaneously outside the carved wooden door of the sleeping quarters.

A deathly silence fell outside the door for ten breaths.

Three top-tier figures in the Canglan Realm, who could turn mountains and rivers upside down with a mere stomp of their feet, were now staring at each other like three bewildered young boys, separated by a wooden door.

Gu Qinghan's face was cold, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword; Yu Luofeng wore a chilling smirk; Ao Lin's pupils were wide, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked. Neither was willing to knock first, neither was willing to back down even a step; the scene was utterly absurd.

"Squeak—"

The wooden door was pulled open from the inside through a very narrow gap.

Jiang Yining's stunningly beautiful face appeared through the crack in the door. She glanced at the three men locked in a tense standoff outside, a hint of helplessness flashing in her eyes, before coldly uttering only one sentence:

"Tonight, whoever can get the child to sleep the fastest will stay up to keep watch."

Before he finished speaking, the three men outside the door seemed to have received some kind of absolute pardon.

"Whoosh!"

Three afterimages crashed through the wooden door almost simultaneously and rushed into the bedroom.

Half an hour later, the scene inside the bedchamber became extremely comical.

Gu Qinghan sat upright on the soft stool to the left of the crib. His long, cold fingers, usually used to grip a sword, were now tightly held in the baby boy's chubby little hands. The baby even drooled on Gu Qinghan's knuckles, refusing to let go. Gu Qinghan was as stiff as a stone, afraid to move, lest he wake the little one who had just closed his eyes.

On the right side of the crib, Yu Luofeng was much more skilled. He completely suppressed his extremely yin ghostly energy, leaving only the gentlest coolness. The baby girl, nestled against his chest, seemed to really enjoy the touch of this soothing wood, and was already fast asleep, even snoring softly.

The worst off was Ao Lin.

He crouched in the corner at the bottom of the crib, his large, strong body curled up in a ball, feeling extremely frustrated. He frantically tried to pat the baby boy's back to comfort him, but his hand had barely reached out when...

The baby boy's eyes were still closed when he suddenly waved his chubby little hand.

"Buzz!"

A faint ripple containing the innate laws of the Cycle of Reincarnation exploded directly in the air.

With a muffled thud, Ao Lin's tall body was forcefully thrown three feet away by this unreasonable force of law, and he fell to the ground with a thud, his face full of bewilderment and disbelief.

Jiang Yining stood by the screen not far away, quietly watching this scene.

Seeing the three arrogant men's clumsy and awkward attempts to soothe the child, a faint, almost imperceptible smile uncontrollably appeared in her usually icy eyes for the first time in front of these four men.

After everyone left, Jiang Yining closed the door and leaned against it, looking down and touching her lower abdomen—the dark crack had spread to her ribs, and the sealing roots of the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree began to turn an ominous purplish-black; while deep in her dantian, the dragon fetus's heartbeat suddenly became rapid and heavy, as if urging some terrible transformation that was about to occur.