Returning X The Fetus's Differences

Small Town.

"Dad!"

After a shout, a figure rushed over and leaped into the air.

Kevin watched this scene, then with one hand, he caught the Three-Tails fox that had jumped over.

He grabbed the other person by the back of the collar, pulled him up in front of him, and stared at him, like a kitten being grabbed by the scruff of its neck.

The Three-Tails creature drooped its limbs, stared at him with wide eyes, and looked on with a pitiful expression.

Kevin just stared at her, then smiled and placed her on his back.

The Three-Tails immediately laughed, climbed onto his shoulders, and hugged his head.

"I miss you."

You'd better really miss me.

With that, Kevin walked forward and embraced Melusina.

Melusina looked at Kevin and pinched his cheek.

"You seem to be having a great time lately, you even look like you've gained a little weight?"

"Real?"

Kevin was somewhat surprised. A mirror made of scales appeared in his hand, creating a reflective structure, which he then used to look at himself.

"I didn't realize that."

"I can tell."

Kevin simply smiled, then looked Melusina up and down.

"It seems you've reached a bottleneck too. To be honest, I never imagined it would be so difficult for you to reach the Lord."

Melusina rolled her eyes at him for this, their hands clasped together, their rings touched, and the borrowed power was returned to Kevin.

"No?"

"No need. If you want to cross this final hurdle, you can only rely on yourself."

"It seems you've gained quite a bit of insight during this time."

As he spoke, Kevin looked at Gon and Qima who were slowly walking over.

The two haven't changed much in height or build, after all, they're adults now.

The improvement of their strength seems to have reached a certain bottleneck.

"Age?"

From a human perspective, Gon and Qishou can be considered fully adults, but perhaps in terms of their life state, they haven't yet reached absolute maturity.

Maturity here refers not only to physical strength, but also to mindset and willpower.

All that's holding these two back is their sheer age.

"Looking at the two of you, I can perhaps foresee the limits of growth for the children who will be born on the Dark Continent in the future."

O

Biscuit, who had followed, looked at her two apprentices and said...

They are born with a higher starting point.

Melusina Biscuit, asked, "How much longer? I'm not too late, am I?"

"Don't worry, it's not too late," Biscuit winked and said with a smile.

The two then walked into the Small Town.

Seeing this, the Three-Tails jumped off Kevin's neck and followed him.

We arrived at the hospital.

After walking a few steps inside, everyone saw Shalnark lying on the bed in a ward.

Pairo was standing nearby, and Rosana was sitting beside Shalnark's bedside.

Qiduo is conducting an inspection using the equipment.

"Sister Melusina."

Pairo looked at Melusina, nodded in greeting, and made way for her.

Rosana also stood up with a smile, knowing that Melusina was currently curious.

As soon as she sat down, Melusina took Shalnark's hand and asked her all sorts of questions, her gaze fixed on Shalnark's already swollen belly.

She could clearly feel the life growing within it, a fetus about to be born.

She could even clearly sense the other's nascent consciousness, its fledgling soul.

"Do you feel uncomfortable?"

Melusina looked at Shalnark and couldn't help but ask.

Upon hearing this, Shalnark smiled faintly, reached out and touched her belly, feeling her baby.

Most of the time, she had a calm, even blank, expression, but her face radiated maternal warmth.

"A little, but—it's not uncomfortable. She's waving at me."

Melusina stared at the radiance on Shalnark's face, momentarily stunned, finding it hard to believe that this was an expression on Shalnark's face.

Becoming a mother has really changed me a lot.

Standing at the back, Biscuit sighed again; this wasn't the first time she'd sighed like this.

After all, the contrast between the Shalnark is quite striking.

Hearing this, Pairo looked down at Biscuit, opened his mouth as if to say something, but was then glared at fiercely by Biscuit.

Seeing this warning, Pairo held back and swallowed the words he wanted to say.

Don't force me to slap you twice when I'm in a good mood.

"Cough cough."

Rosana couldn't help but laugh, then looked at Pairo and slapped him.

"You'll be a father soon, set a good example."

"Yes."

Just then...

Qiduo finished her inspection from the side.

She looked at the data in her hand, her brow furrowed.

This expression immediately made everyone around him hold their breath.

After carefully examining the data in her hand, Qiduo looked up and, seeing everyone's expressions, realized the problem and quickly smiled.

"It's fine, very safe, very healthy, you could even say overly healthy."

"What's the meaning?"

"I can't help but ask, "Pairo asked.

Qiduo thought for a moment and organized her thoughts.

"As I mentioned before, obtaining nutrition in the Dark Continent is extremely easy. Coupled with the mother's own immense strength, which increases her nutrient intake, it's difficult to directly determine what's appropriate for a pregnant woman."

The nutrition obtained is relatively healthy.

This has always been their primary focus in the early stages.

"During previous checkups, I felt that the fetus might be developing a little too fast, and its size was also slightly too large."

"After readjusting the nutritional structure, the change wasn't significant. The mother's body easily began to regulate its own nutrition, reducing the amount of nutrients she received and allocating more to the fetus."

This is not difficult.

The main reason lies in the strength of the mother body.

In addition to the nutrition they receive regularly, their nutritional levels already far exceed those of the average person.

Therefore, the fetus can directly benefit from just a small amount of nutrients.

"Shalnark is now in her late pregnancy, but the baby in her womb is almost mature enough to be born."

Under normal circumstances, a fetus is considered full-term when it develops to 37 to 40 weeks, and babies born at this time are in good health.

However, the baby in Shalnark's womb is only 33 weeks old, but it is already showing signs of being full-term and healthy.

It even looks a bit like it was produced and has been growing for a while.

"Moreover, her Life Force is very strong. Although female Nen user had already shown some signs of this during pregnancy, Shalnark's signs are too obvious."

"I even suspect that this child might be born with the ability to control his breath and freely open his Aura Nodes."

At this point, she brought up some data samples that existed in human society in the past.

"According to data tracking by the Hunter Association, if both parents are Nen user, the child is likely to show corresponding talent in early childhood and may be born with Nen ability."

"This doesn't mean they're more talented than ordinary people; it just means the process of becoming Nen user is easier for them. Once you enter the Nen ability, talent tends to be more average."

To put it simply...

If we consider Nen ability as a learning course, children conceived by parents who both possess Nen user will find it easier to learn.

Children who lack this attribute will find it even more difficult to get started.

However, once you get the hang of it, the learning progress of the two will not be much different.

This is mainly reflected in the talent within the initial stage, a characteristic possessed by children born to Nen user.

If the parents learn the Nen ability after the child is born, then this characteristic is not present.

If only one relative possesses the characteristics of Nen user, it is unlikely that the child will also possess such characteristics.

This characteristic is only very obvious when both parents are Nen user.

"But Shalnark's strength is too great, can you understand that?"

"Prior to this, the Hunter Association had almost no relevant data, because no powerful female Nen user had ever undergone similar examinations during pregnancy."

"Or rather, even during a relatively perfect pregnancy, most women cannot reach an extremely high level of strength. Most Nen user enter a period of rapid strength improvement after the age of thirty, reaching their peak in their forties or fifties."

Biscuit, for example.

In human society, her peak strength was probably after the age of forty.

The ideal time to conceive is before the age of 35.

"However, this child may be born Nen user, specifically in terms of ki control."

Nen user and using ki are two different things.

"But what exactly caused this effect is unknown. Was it due to the strength of both parents, the excess nutrition of the Dark Continent, or the external environmental factors brought about by the Dark Continent?"

These are all possibilities; there's no way to determine them.

Science requires a sufficient amount of data, and with only one case so far, any more can only be considered isolated cases.

As she spoke, Qiduo shared some of her speculations and opinions.

"Perhaps it was a transmission of will. In any case, the child was very quiet in the womb. It's not that there was anything wrong with her, but rather that she seemed to be able to sense her mother's emotions."

"Especially when her mother is resting, she will be very quiet and will not move around randomly. She can even respond to external sounds and expressions."

As she spoke, Qiduo placed a floating device on Shalnark's stomach, and then showed a panel to everyone.

With this device, they were able to see the outline of the baby inside their womb very clearly.

"Call her name."

Shalnark looked at the panel, reached out and touched her belly, and murmured something.

"Baby, it's Mommy."

In the image, the outline of a baby's hand is visible; it opens from a curled-up position and reaches upwards.

Shalnark could clearly feel the baby's reaction inside her belly and couldn't help but smile.

She had already noticed this, but she thought it was normal.

"They already exhibited grasping reflexes and free control even before birth."

Everyone couldn't help but speak up and reach out to touch it.

Amidst the hustle and bustle, the baby reacted, and the reaction became increasingly intense.

The baby became very active.

"Are we doing something wrong?"

Rosana, watching from the side, couldn't help but ask, feeling that the fetus had suddenly become too excited.

"Baby, baby wants to come out."

Shalnark frowned, placed her hands on her stomach, and said.

These words immediately alarmed everyone.

Isn't the timing wrong? It's still a month short.

"Comfort her a bit."

Qiduo, standing to the side, seemed unfazed and spoke directly.

Shalnark gently touched her belly to soothe her, and everyone around her obediently shut their mouths.

The somewhat excited fetus gradually calmed down and returned to its previous state.

She seemed a little unhappy.

Shalnark couldn't help but say that she could feel the very simple emotions her child was conveying.

"I knew it! I just don't know if it's because you're too strong, or because your child is exceptionally talented."

Qiduo said with some helplessness, "There's simply no way to judge this situation."

The fetus did indeed exhibit behaviors far exceeding those of a normal fetus, but the problem is that the Shalnark is also powerful enough that it's difficult to say whether this emotional transmission was something the Shalnark itself picked up, something the fetus actively communicated, or something that was both.

If you bring Kevin over, he doesn't even need to do anything. Just standing there watching, he might understand the emotions the fetus is trying to express better than Shalnark.

He can even detect when the fetus doesn't show any intention to communicate.

But this is simply because Kevin is too powerful and has extremely keen senses.

The powerful nature of an individual makes it impossible to determine the specific reasons behind certain behaviors.

Even Shalnark herself couldn't explain it clearly.

After all, a normal fetus might naturally convey emotions in this way, but a normal mother simply cannot receive them.

But regardless, this fetus's development is indeed far beyond that of a normal child.

So when was he born?

"I can't speak," asked Pairo, who was standing nearby.

Qiduo adjusted her glasses and looked at the group.

"I'm not kidding, if you wanted to, you could give birth right now. You saw what just happened."

"But if you don't want to, you can just soothe her. The child can sense emotions and she will calm down. So even if you don't give birth for a year, as long as she is willing to be soothed, it's fine."

At this point, Qiduo thought for a moment and then gave a brief explanation.

"Normally, the sign that labor is about to begin is when the amniotic sac ruptures. This is a sign, but what specifically causes this landmark event?"

"There's no way to determine it; we can only say that this is how humans evolved and upgraded."

"But now the Shalnark are strong enough, and the signs of labor when the water breaks are essentially a risk warning, because after the water breaks, the risk of various infections begins to rise rapidly, and labor takes place at this time."

"But the Shalnark's powerful strength was enough to keep the amniotic fluid in place, preventing it from rupturing."

As she spoke, she showed everyone the panel she held in her hand, which displayed the image of the peaceful fetus.

"The normal time for amniotic fluid to rupture is in the late stages of pregnancy, when the fetus also matures; this is a mechanism."

"But now, the fetus is already mature, much more mature than a fetus born to a normal human, yet the amniotic fluid still hasn't broken."

"Do you understand? The time of birth is no longer determined by your bodies, but by your free will. I suspect that with some methods, or even if Kevin specially creates some drugs, you could conceive for one or two years without any problem."

The problem now falls directly on Pairo's shoulders.

When will it be produced?

Shalnark touched her belly and murmured.

"Let's wait another week or two. The baby seems quite impatient."

They decided to observe further.

After chatting for a while, Melusina obediently went outside and saw Kevin waiting for her.

"So, are you satisfied with your curiosity?"

"Wow, that's amazing."

As she spoke, she put her arm around Kevin's shoulder and began chattering about what had just happened.

After listening, Kevin looked at Melusina.

Even Shalnark is already like this.

Keep in mind that even now, Shalnark's strength has only just surpassed the limits of human capabilities.

If we had to give a precise figure, the general concept value would be around 550,000 to 600,000, indicating that the improvement in strength has essentially stagnated.

After Melusina, she will break through to the Lord.

That represents another leap in the form of life.

If it were conceived under those circumstances, it would be a completely different and unimaginable scene.

"Don't be anxious, this just means that with increased strength, you can control everything about yourself."

Kevin sensed the other person's emotions and offered words of comfort.