Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

After Bai Jianjia and Bai Jin disappeared from their sight, Ye Tang's gossip fire ignited.

She shoved the half-open shopping bag into Youlie's arms, leaned close to Chiheng, and her eyes shone as if she'd discovered some incredible news: "Little Firebird, is she really your biological mother?"

"Mm." Chi Heng was loved to death by his father Chi Yan. He had seen it all since he was a child. The look in his father's eyes whenever he mentioned his mother was something that couldn't be faked.

"That's not right. According to genetics, if she were your biological mother, you should have the same markings as that scrawny chicken."

Ye Tang tapped her chin with her finger, tilting her head to examine Chi Heng. Chi Heng's feathers were pure crimson, without a single blemish from root to tip, and the feather patterns were the standard ancient Vermilion Bird patterns.

Bai Jianjia is a white peacock, and Bai Jin's father is a phoenix, so it makes sense that Bai Jin has a head of red and white hair and a coat of gaudy mixed-color feathers. But if Chi Heng is also Bai Jianjia's biological son, why doesn't he have any peacock characteristics at all?

Based on her genetics studies on Earth, children born from two different races should at least resemble each other a little, right? And with interspecies marriage being so common in the Beast World, how is pureblood maintained through generations of crossbreeding?

"Huh? What genetics?" Chi Heng's brain raced, a layer of confusion piling up on his face. When did the Empire publish such a book?

"Uh, never mind." Ye Tang quickly cut off the topic. It would probably take her, a transmigrator, three days and three nights to explain genetics to the natives of the beast world.

"That scraggly chicken's father was a phoenix, and my father was a vermilion bird. Both were ancient mythical beasts, but his father's phoenix bloodline wasn't very strong."

After Chi Heng finished speaking, he himself felt a sudden jolt. Were they really the same? Both of them had the bloodline of ancient divine beasts, so why were they so different? He had never thought about this question before, because everyone had told him since he was a child that Bai Jianjia was his mother, and he had never doubted it.

"Perhaps." Ye Tang nodded, quickly convincing herself. This is the Beast World, not Earth. Mendel's laws of inheritance may not apply here. After all, this is a world where males can get pregnant and females can marry multiple beastmen. Applying Earth's biological knowledge to this world would only turn your brain into mush.

She temporarily set aside the topic and turned to walk towards the next shop. This shop was located on the second floor of the mall, at a corner. Warm yellow lights shone on the baby supplies displayed in the window, and even the air was filled with a faint scent of milk and talcum powder.

Ye Tang leaned against the glass window, looking at the dazzling array of little clothes, shoes, fluffy baby teething toys, and colorful baby food containers. Her heart, that of a girl from Earth, began to stir again. Although she wasn't buying it for herself, browsing a baby store was a kind of spiritual enjoyment in itself.

Just then, a couple from the Teng Snake clan walked out of the shop. The female Teng Snake was dressed in a neat, close-fitting outfit, with a short sword at her waist, and was looking down at the shopping list on her personal terminal.

The white serpent beast behind her wore a loose maternity robe, its swollen belly round and plump. One hand supported its waist, while the other held a can of newly purchased infant formula. Its long, silvery-white hair hung smoothly down its sides, and its face radiated a gentle glow that was difficult to discern as male or female.

Ye Tang's gaze fell on the white snake male's round belly, and her pupils suddenly dilated. She looked at the white snake male's belly, then at his flat chest, then at his belly again, and then at the lithe female Teng snake beside him. She froze on the spot as if a pause button had been pressed.

"This, this male beast can get pregnant? Is it hermaphroditic?" Ye Tang grabbed You Lie's sleeve and tugged at it several times.

"Tangtang," Youlie looked down at Yetang's fingers gripping his sleeve, suppressing a smile, "In most beastman races, the responsibility of bearing offspring falls on the one with weaker bloodline power. If the female's bloodline power is stronger than the male's, then the male is responsible for pregnancy and childbirth; otherwise, the female conceives. However, in same-race marriages, it is generally the male who bears the offspring, because the bloodline power of males within the same race is naturally weaker than that of females."

Ye Tang suddenly realized why the imperial laws favored females so much. Not only were females few in number, but their bloodline power was also generally stronger than that of male beasts. This meant that in most interspecies marriages, the male beast was the one who bore the responsibility and risk of reproduction.

The almost harsh protective clauses for female beasts in the Imperial Law were actually based on biological principles. On Earth, "being both father and mother" was just a metaphor for hardship; here, male beasts truly acted as both father and mother.

"Yes, yes," Chi Heng chimed in, "Little Warden, my grandpa said my father suffered terribly when he incubated me. He said that when my father was pregnant with me, I was restless and kicked him every day in the eggshell, keeping him awake all night and making him vomit even when he drank water. After the egg was laid, it still needed to be incubated. The incubation temperature for Vermilion Bird eggs is particularly high, and my father squatted under the egg's wings for several months, until his buttocks were almost numb. Finally, when it was almost time for it to hatch, I refused to come out, and the hatching date was almost half a month later than expected. My grandpa was so worried that he thought the egg was suffocating and almost came to smash the shell with a hammer—"

As Ye Tang listened to Chi Heng's animated account of how miserable his father was when he gave birth to him, she suddenly raised her hand and pressed her temple. She realized something was amiss.

The pair of Teng Snakes in that baby store earlier—the female was a Teng Snake and the male was a White Snake—were different species with different bloodline powers, so it's reasonable that the male became pregnant.

Chi Heng's father, Chi Yan, is a direct descendant of the Vermilion Bird, possessing pure divine beast bloodline, while Bai Jianjia is a peacock, lacking ancient divine beast bloodline. According to the rules You Lie just explained, Chi Yan has stronger bloodline power.

So the person who carried Chi Heng should have been the one with weaker bloodline power, which would be Bai Jianjia. But Chi Heng just said that his father carried him, vomited during the pregnancy, squatted until his legs went numb while incubating, and was almost hit in the shell with a hammer.

"Little Firebird, you just said that your father hatched you?"

"Can your mother's bloodline power surpass that of the Vermilion Bird?" Ye Tang pressed.

"No way..." Chi Heng blinked. How could the peacock possibly surpass the vermilion bird? Everyone on the continent knows that the bloodline of ancient divine beasts is the ceiling of combat power.

"Then why were you conceived by your father?"

"Because...because..." Chi Heng's mouth gaped open, but his mind was blank. Right, why? According to the rules of bloodline power, his father's bloodline power was stronger; it should have been his mother who was pregnant.

But from childhood to adulthood, all he heard from his grandfather was the bloody and tearful history of his father conceiving, giving birth to, and incubating him; he had never heard of Bai Jianjia ever being pregnant with him.

The belief that had never been questioned before in his heart suddenly cracked open like an eggshell being struck with a hammer. If Bai Jianjia wasn't his mother, then who was his father's rightful wife?