Give Birth to the 'Me' in Your Belly

A black eagle dove from the clouds ten thousand meters above, circling high in the sky several thousand meters overhead.

Rustle—

Dense canopies swayed in the mountain wind. From the black eagle's perspective, they resembled a rolling green sea, surging with the wild vitality unique to an ancient, untamed forest.

In this uninhabited region, there was not even a path fit for people to tread.

Danger lurked in every inch of shadow.

But none of that meant anything to Yuan Tianzong.

With Yang Chan on his back, he moved lightly between the giant trees as though walking on level ground.

Occasionally, great snakes lurking among the branches would raise their heads and flick their tongues, attempting to approach. Yet a flying pebble instantly blew apart their heads, not allowing the slightest disturbance to reach Yang Chan, much less upset her pregnancy.

After traveling through the deep mountains for about an hour, Yuan Tianzong finally stopped.

"We're here, Miss Yang."

"Rest here for a while. I'll go prepare dinner."

Dusk was approaching. The evening clouds spread shyly across the sky like a young maiden, meeting the endless forest below in a sight so beautiful it was intoxicating.

Yang Chan nodded gently. "All right."

Less than twenty minutes later, Yuan Tianzong returned.

When Yang Chan turned to look, her little mouth fell slightly open. "Mr. Yuan, this is..."

He casually tossed a massive mountain bear onto the ground. The earth trembled faintly beneath its weight, making its sheer mass obvious.

Yuan Tianzong patted the black bear's corpse and grinned. "This old bear has lived in these mountains for many years. Its meat is firm and delicious, and it's nutritious too. If it weren't for the rule against animals becoming spirits after the founding of the nation, I'd wager it would've been stealing Buddhist robes by now. Eat more later. It'll be good for the child."

"Mr. Yuan, you're quite humorous."

Dusk gradually faded, and night quietly descended.

A campfire burned silently within the forest.

A fragrant vegetable soup simmered in the pot, while beside it, bear meat roasted golden over the flames, its fat sizzling and its aroma filling the air.

"Here, eat."

"Thank you."

Whoosh, whoosh—

Yang Chan blew on the hot soup and took a gentle sip. Clear surprise appeared on her small face. "Mr. Yuan, your cooking is really good. This tastes wonderful."

"It's not that I'm a good cook. It's that you simply can't find Ingredients like these in the city."

"Mhm."

After eating and drinking her fill, Yang Chan gently patted her belly and looked at Yuan Tianzong, who sat cross-legged nearby, seeming to hesitate.

"Miss Yang has a strong thirst for knowledge," Yuan Tianzong said calmly.

Yang Chan admitted it openly. "Of course. If I lacked curiosity, I wouldn't have chosen scientific research as my profession. To be honest, Mr. Yuan, after everything we've gone through on this journey, I still don't understand why you brought me here."

Yuan Tianzong opened his eyes, picked up a small stick, and pushed the partially burned firewood around the campfire into the center of the flames.

"I want longevity."

"That... seems rather impossible." Yang Chan still held to her scientific understanding, but she phrased it tactfully. Adding "seems" was her way of showing Yuan Tianzong respect.

Yuan Tianzong did not argue. Instead, he asked, "Miss Yang, how do you understand the term 'forbidden zone'?"

"Literally—a region where entry is prohibited."

Yuan Tianzong nodded. "That's right, a region where entry is prohibited. But have you ever considered that life itself has forbidden zones? And who set those forbidden zones?"

As someone researching Longevity Research, Yang Chan answered without hesitation. "Life has forbidden zones. Those zones should be the optimal result of humanity's self-selection throughout the long process of evolution."

"This evolution toward advantage is the fundamental skill behind a group's survival."

Yuan Tianzong chuckled. "So you mean that long evolution has told all of us that a limited lifespan is best?"

Yang Chan opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when her gaze fell on Yuan Tianzong. She had nearly forgotten that the monster before her had remained unchanged in appearance for sixty years. His body had likely long surpassed that of an ordinary human. If only she could bring him back to the laboratory for dissection and study...

Yuan Tianzong stood and stretched. "Keep out of dangerous areas. Unauthorized personnel prohibited from entering staff-only passages. Life's forbidden zones, mental forbidden zones, cultivation forbidden zones... these forbidden zones have sealed off the space in which we can grow."

"In my view, the inevitable outcome of a long life is contemplation and research into all things in this world."

"And contemplation and research have been the fundamental elements for breaking through one forbidden zone after another since ancient times."

"All inventions, all progress, are born from advanced ideas that break through forbidden zones. Isn't that so?"

Yang Chan stared blankly at Yuan Tianzong, whose face was full of smiles beneath the moonlight. She felt that youthful face resembled her mentor, Zhang Xinju.

Taking a deep breath, Yang Chan could not help asking, "Mr. Yuan, whether your conclusion is correct is beyond my ability to judge. But compared with conjecture, practice is the only way to verify facts."

"You say you want longevity. How do you intend to achieve it?"

"To attain longevity, you must first die," Yuan Tianzong answered softly.

"Die? How can you live if you're dead?"

Yuan Tianzong shook his head. "The death I mean isn't the death you understand. It is disappearance."

"What kind of disappearance?"

"Miss Yang, can you think of any friends you have long forgotten, perhaps an elementary school classmate?"

Yang Chan nodded. "Certainly. There are many people whose faces I have already forgotten."

"Exactly. Is there any difference between those people being forgotten by you and being dead?"

Surprise appeared on Yang Chan's face. "The death you speak of is the erasure of one's traces?"

Yuan Tianzong snapped his fingers. "Correct~"

"How will you erase your own traces? More importantly, erase them for whom?"

Yang Chan asked.

The elementary school classmates she had forgotten had already 'died' as far as she was concerned.

Then, when Yuan Tianzong said that one had to 'die before attaining longevity,' which 'Yang Chan' was that death meant to make forget him?

Faced with this question, Yuan Tianzong merely smiled without answering. He raised his head to the sky, his profound gaze seeming to leap across the distance between heaven and earth and plunge into the vast universe.

A flash of understanding appeared in Yang Chan's eyes, and she blurted out, "You want to disappear from the Zoo Director's memory!"

Great Cosmic Silence, Zoo Theory.

Yuan Tianzong wanted to vanish from this Zoo Director's memory!

"Mr. Yuan, could this be why you brought me here?"

"With an idea this wildly fanciful, I truly don't know how I'm supposed to cooperate with you."

Yuan Tianzong lowered his gaze from the sky and looked at Yang Chan's belly. "The only way you need to cooperate is by eating and drinking well, then giving birth to the 'me' in your belly."

The 'you' in her belly?

As a scientific researcher, Yang Chan was utterly baffled upon hearing those words.

"Mr. Yuan, what do you mean by that? I'm your mother? Does that make any sense?"

"Hahaha!"

Yuan Tianzong burst into laughter.

"Miss Yang, you're quite humorous too. Don't worry. You'll soon learn the specific process."

"Of course, I won't harm the child in your belly. Rest assured."