Chen Wuya traced the character "child" on the ground with his finger, his fingertip smeared with blood, the mark crooked and slanted. Bai Zhi was just about to speak when her legs gave out, and she pitched forward.
Her knees struck the gravel, drawing a muffled groan from her. Both hands immediately shielded her abdomen. Cold sweat slid down her forehead and dripped from her chin.
"The child..." Her voice trembled, her teeth clenched tight.
Chen Wuya suddenly looked up, the haze in his eyes vanishing in an instant. He braced himself against the ground and tried to rise, but his limbs felt as though their tendons had been ripped out. He had barely lifted half his body before collapsing again. The wounds in his skin split open, blood streaming down along his ribs.
Ignoring it all, he crawled forward on hands and feet, his nails digging into the cracks between the stones as he forcibly dragged himself to Bai Zhi's side.
"Don't move," he said, his voice so hoarse it was nearly inaudible.
He pressed his hand against her lower abdomen, his palm burning hot. The meridians within him were dry as wasteland, his misaligned force flickering on and off like a flame about to die.
He closed his eyes and forcibly drove the remnants of his true qi.
His mind buzzed, and the system suddenly sounded.
[Danger detected to the fetus. Initiating protection mode—Misaligned Force Membrane Transformation!]
A faint golden light spilled from his palm, fine as spider silk, winding around Bai Zhi's abdomen. More and more strands of light gathered, weaving into a thin yet resilient membrane that clung to the outside of her clothes and glimmered faintly.
Bai Zhi's breathing caught, then gradually eased. The tearing pain in her abdomen slowly subsided, and the