Internal Cultivation

Some time had passed. Luo Zhiyuan had no idea how long it had been; after all, he was currently inside Xu Xin's womb, hidden from the light of day, making it impossible to track time. He began to feel a bit bored.

During this period, Luo Zhiyuan had fallen into a dormant state several times. He couldn't just sit around doing nothing, and his energy was limited. Occasionally hearing sounds from the outside world would eventually lead to fatigue, and with his soul having nothing to do, sleeping was the natural choice.

Now, Luo Zhiyuan didn't want to sleep. Recently, he had been reminiscing about the exciting plot points of Swallowed Star. From time to time, he would find himself becoming hot-blooded, only to awkwardly realize that this excitement affected the fetus he was possessing. He had made a few slight movements that in turn affected Xu Xin, so he didn't dare to cause any major disturbances anymore.

This time, a sudden thought occurred to Luo Zhiyuan: this was a genuine high-martial arts world where every race had its own way of cultivating, and the human race was one of the peak powers. Could he consider cultivating himself?

If he could absorb cosmic energy in advance, perhaps he could raise his own threshold for cultivation. After all, the Earthling lineage was a relatively weak race, and he didn't have the heaven-defying conditions that Luo Feng had. Was he really going to just be a "second-generation martial artist"? He wasn't willing to accept that.

Luo Zhiyuan began to recall the contents of Swallowed Star. He remembered that in the first few chapters, there was a method for absorbing cosmic energy. He could try to see if he could cultivate. Yes, that was exactly what he would do!

First, what was it again? Right, he needed to sense the cosmic energy first, then absorb it into his body so that his cells could take it in. That would cause the cells to divide and evolve—that was cultivation. Let's give it a try.

Luo Zhiyuan ignored the requirement of the "five hearts toward the sky" posture. After all, he didn't even know how developed the fetus he was possessing was; for all he knew, his limbs weren't even fully formed yet. Where would he find a way to perform the "five hearts toward the sky"? So, he simply ignored it and focused on calming himself down.

As it turned out, not long after, a fluctuation came from the soul beside him, instantly making it impossible for Luo Zhiyuan to remain calm.

He had forgotten that he wasn't alone. There was another soul within the body he was possessing, and even another soul nearby. Although these were two newborn souls, they would occasionally emit waves of soul fluctuations. Even though he didn't understand what they meant, it prevented him from achieving the complete stillness required to sense the so-called cosmic energy. What was he to do?

Luo Zhiyuan had no choice but to send out signals that could calm the mind to these two souls. Don't ask him how he did it; he just thought about it and it happened naturally. Perhaps it was because he was currently a soul entity—who knew?

After quite a while, he finally pacified the two newborn souls, ensuring they no longer emitted fluctuations that disturbed him. Only then did he have the chance to attempt sensing the cosmic energy again.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but Luo Zhiyuan still hadn't sensed any cosmic energy. He grew irritable. At that moment, the soul beside him, perhaps sensing his frustration, once again emitted an unintelligible soul fluctuation. Now, Luo Zhiyuan couldn't remain calm either and had to continue pacifying the young soul.

After repeating this many times, Luo Zhiyuan still hadn't sensed any cosmic energy. This made him start to worry: could it be that he wasn't a person of this world and couldn't cultivate? That would be a huge problem. Forget it, he would try for a bit longer.

Thus, Luo Zhiyuan continued to cycle through calming down, sensing, being interrupted, pacifying, and returning to a state of calm to sense again.

During this time, he would occasionally sense Xu Xin's emotional fluctuations—sometimes sadness, sometimes sweetness, sometimes hesitation, and other times emotions he couldn't understand. All of this left his attempts fruitless.

Well, not entirely fruitless. He had gained something. Luo Zhiyuan could now multitask; he could try to sense cosmic energy while simultaneously pacifying the two little souls. Yes, two souls.

This meant he could now handle at least three things at once. Not bad, he supposed. He felt that if he had a body to use, drawing a square with his left hand and a circle with his right would be a piece of cake, and he could even sing at the same time. Heh.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, Luo Zhiyuan suddenly felt something different.

He sensed some drifting points of light. Those drifting points seemed to exist between illusion and reality. They could pass through Xu Xin's body and the amniotic fluid surrounding him and the twins without any resistance—yes, the amniotic fluid—moving freely through it. Luo Zhiyuan guessed that these points of light might be cosmic energy, so he tried to capture them.

After another long period—at least that's what Luo Zhiyuan thought, as he was about to give up—a point of light was attracted to him. It touched him and then vanished. Luo Zhiyuan was startled. Did this count as absorbing cosmic energy?

Before he could figure it out, he felt a desire from the depths of his soul, urging him to try and attract more points of light.

Luo Zhiyuan didn't hesitate at all and went to attract other points. Perhaps because he had experience now, it was extremely simple to attract them; in fact, several points came over at once, making him feel so comfortable he wanted to scream out loud. Unfortunately, he didn't have a mouth.

Just as Luo Zhiyuan was becoming addicted to absorbing these points of light, something he never expected happened.

These points of light were indeed cosmic energy, and Luo Zhiyuan had truly succeeded in absorbing it, but he had forgotten one extremely important thing. That is, humans generally only begin to absorb cosmic energy after their physical condition reaches that of a quasi-martial artist; ordinary people cannot absorb cosmic energy.

What were the physical conditions of a quasi-martial artist? A punch force of 900 kilograms, a speed of 25 meters per second, and excellent nerve reaction speed. Only when these three hard physical indicators were met could one begin to cultivate cosmic energy. Otherwise, the human body could not withstand the tempering of the energy and would be blown apart by it.

And what was Luo Zhiyuan's situation? He was possessing a fetus. A fetus! Never mind the physical conditions of a quasi-martial artist; he hadn't even finished developing into a normal human body yet.

Starting to cultivate so rashly, without any protective measures, directly caused the physical body of the fetus he was possessing to collapse. The fetus's newborn soul emitted an exceptionally terrified soul fluctuation, and even the other fetus nearby was affected, its body also beginning to collapse. The young soul was left with nothing but terror and panic.

Luo Zhiyuan was instantly ripped from the pleasure of absorbing energy. He immediately sensed this dire situation and was completely terrified. He realized in an instant what kind of mistake he had made. He told himself: don't panic, don't lose your head, you must find a way to remedy this!

Luo Zhiyuan began to actively take charge of the two fetal souls, protecting the two young souls within his own soul, and then tried his best to split off a strand of soul energy to wrap around the physical bodies of the two fetuses.

He didn't know if he could do it, nor did he know if it would be useful, but he acted instinctively because this was a problem he had caused, and he had to find a way to solve it.

Soon, Luo Zhiyuan felt a wave of fatigue—a fatigue originating from the depths of his soul. He began to fear that his soul would collapse, because he sensed in the dark that if his soul collapsed this time, he would disappear from the world entirely, leaving no trace behind.

At this moment, Xu Xin suddenly felt a pain in her abdomen as if her intestines were being twisted. She let out a weak groan in agony and completely lost consciousness. The Luo family fell into total chaos. They rushed Xu Xin to emergency care, not knowing what had happened. Luo Hua even took out a precious Spirit of Vegetation; if needed, he would use it on Xu Xin without hesitation.

At this time, Luo Zhiyuan was already in a near-dazed state. He suddenly thought of a peculiar method: since the fetus's physical body was not enough to support the transformation of cosmic energy, he just needed to increase the strength of the fetal body.

The umbilical cord—the umbilical cord was the only channel for supplying the nutrients needed for fetal growth. If he could let the cosmic energy enter the umbilical cord and transform it, perhaps it could rapidly transport nutrients to the fetus, accelerating the development of the fetal body. Even if the fetus's body collapsed, this could stimulate the cells to divide and grow in time. It should, perhaps, solve the problem at hand.

As for Xu Xin, although she was not a martial artist, if her body had problems, the Luo family would definitely take out a Spirit of Vegetation to save her. Luo Zhiyuan remembered that the Luo family still possessed a Spirit of Vegetation at this time. The energy of the Spirit of Vegetation was relatively gentle and would certainly be able to restore and treat Xu Xin's body.

Yes, that's what he would do!

Luo Zhiyuan used his remaining limited energy to first sense the position of the umbilical cord, then attracted several points of cosmic energy, pushing them into the umbilical cord. After feeling the umbilical cord begin to evolve, Luo Zhiyuan had no energy left. He was left with only one thought: desperately wrap the fetal bodies and souls, and leave the rest to fate.

While the umbilical cord inside Xu Xin was evolving, she had already been pushed into the emergency room. A dozen doctors were crowded into the room, all busily operating various instruments for testing, occasionally asking each other questions and discussing the situation.

Outside the emergency room, it was also packed. In the innermost circle were members of the Luo and Xu families, and right next to them were people from the HR Alliance and Commander Li, a newly promoted planetary-level powerhouse from the Huaxia Military.

The former top powerhouse of the Huaxia Military, Jia Yi, had been promoted by this Commander Li using a precious treasure, the Muya Crystal, after he sacrificed his life for Luo Feng. Commander Li was also a spirit reader. He was currently using his spiritual power to carefully probe Xu Xin's body to see if there were any artificial factors causing harm, but suddenly, his brow furrowed.

"Strange, how is there cosmic energy entering Xu Xin's body? She isn't a martial artist yet; she can't cultivate." When Commander Li saw the specific part where the cosmic energy was transforming and evolving Xu Xin's body, he was even more surprised: "Eh? The umbilical cord is actually evolving? Could this be the reason for Xu Xin's abdominal pain? But why can't I detect the condition of the fetus? The fetus seems to be wrapped in something."

Just as Commander Li was still probing the situation inside Xu Xin's body, her body underwent new changes. Because only a small amount of cosmic energy had entered the umbilical cord, this energy was not enough to make the umbilical cord evolve perfectly, and the reorganization and recovery of the fetal bodies required a lot of energy. Therefore, the energy inside Xu Xin's body was continuously drawn toward the fetuses, and Xu Xin's body began to show signs of decay.

"Not good! Xu Xin's body now needs a lot of energy to recover. Luo Hua, quickly give the Spirit of Vegetation you brought to Xu Xin! If we are late, I'm afraid there will be big trouble!"

Upon hearing this, Luo Hua didn't say a word and took out the Spirit of Vegetation, handing it to Commander Li. Commander Li took it, processed it quickly, opened the door to the emergency room, and sent it in, having it all administered to Xu Xin.

After Xu Xin took the Spirit of Vegetation, the energy in her body was replenished, and the fetuses in her womb received a large amount of energy from the umbilical cord, finally alleviating the collapse of their physical bodies.

However, at this moment, Luo Zhiyuan had completely lost consciousness. He was only instinctively wrapping the fetal bodies and souls, continuing to wrap them. Even though the fetuses received energy to replenish their bodies, he could no longer take any further action.

The twins' bodies, which had already collapsed, began to divide and repair after the cells received the energy, but because they were wrapped together by Luo Zhiyuan's soul, they actually began to fuse with each other.

Slowly, the two fetuses fused into one, forming a new body, and Luo Zhiyuan and the two young souls were all attached within this new body.

It should be said that it was fortunate they were still in the early stages of fetal development, and the twins had not yet developed complete limb structures; otherwise, after this fusion, there might have been a conjoined twin with four arms and two heads.

However, the matter was not yet over. Without any of these Earthlings noticing, a will filled with mystery and majesty descended. This was the Origin Will of the universe; it lingered for a moment on the newborn fetus, seemingly sensing something, and after a brief pause, it left behind some mysterious patterns before vanishing without a trace.

No one knew of this, not even Luo Zhiyuan, who had possessed the new body and had already fallen into complete silence. Only those two young souls occasionally emitted fluctuations of unclear meaning, but there was no one left to soothe them.

At this moment, Xu Xin finally regained consciousness. She asked the doctors weakly, "How are my children? How are they doing now? I beg you, you must save my children; they are the only hope Luo Feng left for me!"

The doctors looked at each other, nudging one another, until the oldest among them said hesitantly, "Mrs. Luo, this is the first time we have encountered such a situation. Your children initially showed severe signs of a threatened miscarriage, but after you took the Spirit of Vegetation, it is possible that the energy from the Spirit of Vegetation alleviated and repaired the damage to the fetuses, allowing them to be preserved, but..."

"But what? You don't need to have any reservations; any result is better than losing my children!"

"Well, it is like this: our recent ultrasound scan discovered that although the fetuses are now unharmed, they have gone from being twins to a single fetus. We have never encountered this situation before and can only guess that the energy of the Spirit of Vegetation was only enough to restore one fetus, while the other must have died and dissolved. Being able to save one fetus is already a stroke of great fortune, Mrs. Luo, you..."

"I understand." After a moment of silence, Xu Xin said softly, "Thank you for saving my child, thank you so much!"

"Mrs. Luo, please don't say that. We didn't actually do much; it was mainly the Spirit of Vegetation that played a significant role."

At this time, Commander Li spoke up: "Alright, since Mrs. Luo and the child are now safe, let Mrs. Luo rest and recover properly. Mrs. Luo, you must take care of yourself. This time was extremely dangerous; if the Spirit of Vegetation hadn't been administered in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable."

"I understand, thank you for your concern, Commander Li. Dad, Mom, Luo Hua, let's go home."

However, everyone, including Commander Li, failed to notice that the fetus inside Xu Xin's womb was now automatically attracting cosmic energy. The fetal cells were being constantly remodeled and evolved by the cosmic energy, yet there was no longer any phenomenon of physical damage or collapse.