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

The sky was just beginning to lighten.

Jiang Yining sat on the edge of the bed, placing three fingertips on the pulse point of her left wrist.

This is the sixth time tonight.

The smooth, bead-like pulse was slightly clearer than at night. The purple-gold essence of the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree gently enveloped her lower abdomen, completely concealing the nascent, desolate aura.

She loosened her pulse points, took out a wide waistband from her storage bag, wrapped it around her waist twice, and tied it tightly.

He pressed his palm against the fabric to make sure it was flat and normal before standing up to change his clothes.

knock knock knock.

Three light taps landed on the door.

"The sun's practically shining on the back of your head, and you're still dawdling?" Xie Wuwang's voice, hoarse from not having woken up yet, muffledly drifted in through the door.

Jiang Yining fastened the last button on her collar and opened the door.

Xie Wuwang leaned against the door frame, his black robe loosely tied, the half-open collar revealing his well-defined collarbone, and the white jade wine pot at his waist swaying empty.

A pair of narrow, dark purple eyes paused for a moment the instant they saw her clearly.

Today she wore a light blue turtleneck outfit with silver thread cuffs, and the collar was half an inch higher than yesterday.

"Is the collar tied so tightly?" His gaze slowly slid down her neck.

"Afraid of the wind."

"You said you weren't cold last night."

"Things have changed today."

Xie Wuwang opened his mouth, but was silenced by a lukewarm look from her. He clicked his tongue, turned around, and went downstairs.

He turned back halfway, pulled a paper package from his pocket, and shoved it into her hand.

Have you eaten?

I'm not hungry.

"Even if you're not hungry, you have to eat; you can chew on the way."

Two dry spirit cakes lay inside the oiled paper, still warm from being handled.

When did you buy it?

I picked it up with me when I went out last night.

"Didn't you come to deliver plum juice last night?"

"On the way."

He strode forward, carrying the wine jug, his back to her. "Enough talk, let's go."

The two left the inn and stepped onto the gray-black Gobi Desert of Shattered Star Abyss.

Jiang Yining took out the animal hide star map she had bought yesterday and unfolded it in her hand, tracing the path marked by the ink lines with her fingertips.

"Head southwest from Shattered Star Abyss, cross the Endless Gobi Desert, and it will take seven days to reach Tianyan City."

"Tianyan City?" Xie Wuwang leaned closer and glanced at her, then stretched out his body, his chin almost resting on her shoulder.

Jiang Yining didn't stop walking, but turned to the side and opened up a half-step distance.

"The largest trading hub in the Xuan Tian Realm, you can buy anything from spirit stones and array materials to information."

"What are you going there for?"

"make money."

"What money are we making?" Xie Wuwang shook the empty wine jug dismissively. "The Star Map was all paid for by me."

"You dare call that secondhand stuff you bought with those two low-grade spirit stones 'paying out of your own pocket'?"

"What I use is my aura."

"You can't afford to waste your momentum." Jiang Yining put away the star map. "The poison in your body needs to be suppressed for a long time. Spirit medicines are expensive, and you'll need spirit stones everywhere to establish yourself in the Xuan Tian Realm."

"You need not worry about my poison."

"I'm the one who hired you. Whether your drugs are under my control or not is not up to you."

Xie Wuwang stared at her nimble back for a couple of moments, then finally let out a cold snort and strode after her.

"Seven days? You can walk for seven days?"

"You think I came back to life lying down in the lower realm?"

"In the lower realm, you'll have other men by your side to help you with your problems."

He froze for a moment as soon as he said it, his lips twitching. "What I mean is, you only have one thug by your side right now."

"One is enough." Jiang Yining said without turning her head.

Xie Wuwang paused for a moment, then quickly caught up, snorted, and said nothing more.

The afternoon of the third day.

The world has changed.

The originally gray dome suddenly lowered without warning, and large swaths of dark purple thunderclouds surged in from all directions, piling up into thick walls of clouds that swallowed up all the light overhead.

A bolt of lightning as thick as a water vat tore through the sky and struck the Gobi Desert dozens of feet away, sending rocks flying and scorching waves of heat crashing down.

"Void Thunderstorm." Xie Wuwang grabbed Jiang Yining's wrist and pulled her to his side. "The spatial laws in this area are unstable. If you try to go through it, you'll get caught in the turbulence. Let's find somewhere to take shelter first."

Purple lightning bolts exploded one after another, each one more violent than the last, as if something in the sky had gone mad.

Jiang Yining's dormant lightning spiritual root was suddenly stirred by the external lightning.

The source of the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree, protected in the lower abdomen, was stirred by the thunderous energy and collided head-on with that nascent, silent embryonic breath.

A wave of nausea surged from my stomach to my throat.

She paused, placed one hand on her knee, and turned her head to gag.

He was still holding the oil paper package in his hand, and hadn't touched the spirit cakes.

"What's wrong?" Xie Wuwang immediately put his arm around her back.

"It's okay." She gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, and forced down the surging blood in her veins. "Let's find a place first."

Xie Wuwang stopped talking nonsense. A layer of destructive barrier lit up on the dark purple pattern on his left arm, withstanding the purple lightning falling from the sky, and carrying her towards the weathered cliff a hundred feet away.

Below the cliff is an old cave that has collapsed halfway, with a large piece of the stone door broken off, and it is dark and gloomy inside.

Xie Wuwang shattered the rubble with a palm strike, stepped aside to let her in, and then placed three layers of restrictions at the cave entrance.

The cave was cold and damp, with a musty smell that had lingered for a thousand years.

Jiang Yining leaned against the nearest stone wall, pressing one hand to her chest, a fine layer of cold sweat appearing on her forehead.

Lei Linggen was still being drawn by the heavenly lightning outside the cave, and each collision within his meridians brought a new round of nausea.

The divine tree's essence desperately protected its lower abdomen, and the wisp of dormant fetal energy, like a frightened young beast, turned around and desperately sought the same source of energy.

"Your face is pale again." Xie Wuwang squatted down in front of her. His handsome face, which was usually full of laziness, no longer showed any trace of his usual frivolity. He reached out to check her pulse.

Jiang Yining tilted her wrist slightly.

"Need not."

"Jiang Yining".

"Your immortal power is shrouded in the Law of Annihilation; bringing it in will only create more chaos."

"Your internal energy and blood are clearly not right. Don't try to fool me with old injuries."

"It's an old injury."

"You vomited like this because of an old injury? You've vomited three times now."

"You studied medicine?"

"I haven't learned it, but I have eyes."

"Then close your eyes."

Before she could finish speaking, another bout of violent retching interrupted her.

This time, even her stomach acid flared up, and she curled up in a ball, her face drained of all color.

Xie Wuwang's patience ran out at this moment.

He gripped her shoulders and pressed her back against the stone wall, his right palm pressing firmly against her brow.

The primordial immortal power of the peak True Immortal Realm, wrapped in a wisp of the law of annihilation, poured into her meridians.

The disordered Qi and blood began to gradually calm down under the influence of this powerful force.

Then, something unexpected happened.

After sensing the same principle of annihilation, the fetal energy in the womb was like seedlings that had been parched for three years receiving a thorough rain.

The nascent aura of annihilation relentlessly devoured the surging immortal power, intertwining with the vitality of the divine tree to form a scalding current that flowed back into Xie Wuwang's palm along his blood vessels.

A burning impulse, almost scorching through reason, exploded where the two were touching.

Jiang Yining gasped for breath and raised her hand to push his shoulder.

"Stop, don't cross anymore."

Xie Wuwang's hand froze on her brow.

Blood vessels spread through his dark purple pupils at an alarming rate, and his breathing became heavy and disordered.

The things that had been suppressed in the Lost Secret Realm cave were brought back up completely thanks to the combined resonance of the cultivation technique and bloodline.

"Let's go." His voice was hoarse and out of tune, each word sounding like it was being forced out of his throat, "while I can still control myself."

Jiang Yining was deficient in qi and blood, and the force with which she pushed her palm against his shoulder was as light as a caress.

Xie Wuwang grabbed both of her wrists and pressed them against the stone wall above her head.

Its tall body pressed down.

His burning chest pressed tightly against me through two layers of thin clothing, the temperature so intense there was nowhere to hide.

The purple thunder roared again outside the cave, and the pale lightning shone into the cave entrance, illuminating his handsome face from above, making his features sharp and angular, with veins throbbing on his forehead and his jawline taut in a sharp arc.

In those dark purple eyes, the last shred of restraint they were barely maintaining was crumbling away.

"All the meridians in your body are pulling towards me, and you're still pretending?"

He pressed his forehead against hers, his voice so low it seemed to come from the depths of his chest.

Jiang Yining looked up.

His back was made of icy, cold stone, and his front was engulfed in scorching flames.

The restless fetal energy within her body gradually calmed down as he approached, replaced by an indescribable longing deep within her soul.

Her gaze slid from his bloodshot pupils, across his tense jaw, and landed on his constantly bobbing Adam's apple.

The fingers that had been pinned above his head slowly broke free, climbing up his neck and into the hair at the back of his head.

A gentle press with slightly cool fingertips.

Her eyelashes drooped.

A deluge of kisses rained down upon them.

No more testing, no more restraint, he pried open her teeth, greedy and impatient, his lips still carrying a faint taste of blood and the crisp smell of alcohol.

Her fingernails dug into his broad back, leaving varying depths of marks on his shoulder blades.

She didn't push him away.

In the darkness, he pulled off the jade belt from his waist with one hand, locking her completely between his arms and the stone wall, leaving no gap.

His hot breath sprayed against her ear, deep and hoarse.

"This time, don't try to fool me with the antidote again."

The thunderstorm outside the cave reached its peak in the third hour.

Purple lightning tore the heavens and earth to shreds, and violent flashes of lightning repeatedly shone into the cave entrance, illuminating the black robe and blue skirt scattered on the dry animal hides.

Two intertwined shadows were cast on the stone wall, flashing brightly and dimly in response to the lightning outside.

The suppressed sobs were drowned out by the thunder, and intermittent low weeping mixed with the man's hoarse coaxing echoed in the cramped stone cave.

Water droplets fell from the stalactites overhead, one after another.

After an unknown amount of time, the thunder subsided.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds, spreading a small patch of silvery white across the cave entrance.

Jiang Yining, wearing Xie Wuwang's large black robe, leaned against the stone wall.

Several red marks of varying depths were faintly visible on the collarbone in the dim light.

Xie Wuwang leaned against her side, his long arm lazily draped over her waist, his fingertips unconsciously stroking her waist.

He looked up at the dark stalactites on the cave ceiling, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

"Jiang Yining".

"Um."

"Can you please stop risking your life every time something happens in the future?"

"How dare you say that to me?" She turned her head to look at him, her voice slightly hoarse than usual. "Who was it that recklessly poured immortal power into it just now?"

Xie Wuwang was taken aback, turned his face away, and felt his ears burning slightly.

"That's different."

"How are they different?"

"I'm afraid you'll die in this hole, and if you do, there will be no one to treat the poison."

Jiang Yining looked at his profile as he stubbornly maintained his composure, and the corners of her lips curved slightly.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, her throat bobbed twice, but in the end nothing came out.

She leaned against the stone wall to stand up and looked down to smooth her tightly bound waistband.

"Let's go, it's almost dawn, there are still four days' journey to go."

Xie Wuwang looked up at her, his lips moved, but he swallowed back all the words that were stuck in his throat.

He picked up the jade belt from the ground, stood up, and walked to her.

His slender fingers picked up a strand of long hair that had slipped down her shoulder, twisted it twice, and then reluctantly let go.

"You've absorbed so much of my immortal power." His voice still had a lingering hoarseness, but his eyes revealed an indescribable seriousness. "You can't escape now."

Jiang Yining raised her eyes and met those dark purple eyes.

"When did I ever say I was going to run away?"