Saving a Life

The name Yueyu Forest had only been changed later.

"Really?"

"It's just a rumor. No idea if it's true. Anyway, we're only here to gather Moonlight Grass. Once we've dug it up, we'll leave."

The three of them carried baskets on their backs as they waited for midnight to arrive. Since they had nothing better to do, they chatted about all sorts of rumors and strange tales concerning Yueyu Forest. Just then, as the moon was about to climb to its highest point, Wen Xu suddenly heard a flurry of disorderly footsteps.

The wind also carried the scents of three people.

"Boss, are we really burying him here?"

"Yueyu Forest doesn't eat people. Hurry up. A man actually got pregnant—Jade Pavilion definitely won't take such an unlucky thing. If we don't bury him, are you planning to carry him around? Hurry up, did you hear me?!"

The three of them: !!! What had they just heard?! A man was pregnant?!

Saving a Life

Good heavens, had he somehow entered some trashy cultivation novel where men could give birth? No way, no way? Wasn't it supposed to be that cultivators cared little for lust and had no interest in romance? A man being pregnant was actually a thing?!

To be clear, he did not discriminate against men giving birth. Reproductive freedom and all that. But... fine, saving the man came first. Otherwise, it really would become one corpse, two lives.

Chen Zui blinked, opened the booklet in his hand, and pointed at the third rule. "So, should I now act bravely in the face of injustice?"

Rule Three for cultivators traveling abroad: If evildoers are found persecuting innocent people, one may offer appropriate rescue, provided one's own safety is ensured.

Wen Xu considered himself someone who remained calm in any situation. When he had been dropped into the cultivation world out of nowhere, he had accepted reality quickly enough. But... men giving birth? In Bian Chunchou's words, did the cultivation world really play this hard?

"Let's subdue those two first."

Among the three of them, Chen Zui was the strongest, whether in cultivation or raw combat power. At those words, he raised his blade and sprinted over. Two screams of "Ah!" rang out, followed by the thuds of heavy objects hitting the ground. Wen Xu knew the pair had already been subdued.

Bian Chunchou and Wen Xu hurried over afterward. The pit meant for burying someone had already been dug wide and deep.

"You two think you're so capable, huh?! Do you take Yueyu Forest for a mass grave? Do you know Moonlight Grass grows here?! Burying corpses and murdering people—tomorrow, you two are getting served prison meals!"

The two thugs immediately began trembling like chaff in the wind. Chen Zui had sword-like brows and starry eyes, the standard looks of a handsome man, but he did not care for grooming himself. His brows and beard were thick and unruly now, making him look as though a baleful god had descended. With Bian Chunchou frightening them with his words as well, the more timid one rolled his eyes back and fainted on the spot.

Bian Chunchou thought, ...So useless. No wonder he could only be someone else's lackey. Completely worthless.

"You! Where did you kidnap this person from?"

The thug leader: ...I hate that I'm too brave. I want to faint too!

"Please spare me, immortals! I just... picked him up by the road. He was dressed as a woman, and I thought he was a pretty young lady! Who knew he was deceiving people? He's fucking a full-grown man, and he's even pregnant!" What damned bad luck.

Wen Xu had already released the man tied inside the sack. Fortunately, he was still breathing. "How did you know he was pregnant?"

The leader was a burly man, but he was currently sprawled on the ground, trembling as he spoke. "Well, when a woman is pregnant, her pulse is slippery—like pearls rolling across a plate. It's easy to recognize."

What the leader did not say was that he and his underlings had been hired by Jade Pavilion to force decent people into prostitution. If they found a beautiful woman alone by the roadside, they would usually sell her to a brothel for money. Men were acceptable too, of course, but absolutely not a pregnant man like this. Wouldn't that just be causing trouble for Jade Pavilion?

But Wen Xu had matured early. Back when he had been a beggar, there was no filth of the streets and marketplaces he had not seen. In fact, there were rarely any girls among beggars, because once people from the flower streets and willow lanes spotted a girl, they would take her away directly. Even an uglier one could still be used as a servant.

"You two work for a brothel, don't you?"

The leader buried his head against the ground, wishing he could find a crack and crawl into it.

"Judging by your appearance, you're not a physician, yet you know the pulse of pregnant women so well. It's hard for me not to make that connection."

The leader could only confess. He said that today, at a roadside tea stall, they had seen this beautiful woman dressed as a man—or rather, this beautiful man dressed as a woman—and had been seized by evil intentions. They knocked him out and abducted him, intending to sell him into a brothel. But they had not expected him to be a man. Being a man would have been one thing, but he was also carrying a child. Yet the man had seen their faces. They feared that if they simply let him go, he would report them to the authorities, so they decided to go all the way and bury him.

"Trampling human lives like grass—you're quite something. This isn't the first time you've done this sort of thing, is it?"

"Please spare me, immortal! This little one wouldn't dare! I was just possessed by evil thoughts—I've never harmed anyone's life before!"

Bian Chunchou thought, not even a fool would believe that! Look, even Chen Zui didn't believe it!

"Knock him out. Tie him up, and send him to the magistrate's office tomorrow."

Though the cultivation world had no imperial rule, every city was governed by a city lord. Langyuan City's administration was relatively well-developed. Even if the city lord rarely meddled in mundane affairs, the law enforcement and administrative bodies under the City Lord's Manor could swiftly hand down judgments. Criminals who forced decent people into prostitution or trafficked people generally received no less than fifteen years of hard labor.

Chen Zui did not take part in interrogations, but he was good at hitting people. One punch was enough to knock the man unconscious. He casually tied the two men together as well. "What about this person?"

A man was pregnant. Chen Zui scratched his head. It was rather strange.

"How about handing him over to the magistrate's office too?"

"No, don't hand me over to the City Lord's Manor, I..." The man in the sack finally could not help speaking.

Wen Xu thought, As expected, he had been pretending to be unconscious. He took two steps back and slowly said, "Why not? They harmed you. You are the victim. If you do not appear, they might..."

"I won't go! I'm a man, yet I carry this sinful spawn in my belly! I don't want this child! I ran away—I clearly escaped! Why is it still here?! Why is it still here?!"

The man was emotionally agitated, as though he had recalled something unbearable. He suddenly scrambled to his feet and ran away, but after only two steps, he collapsed not far off from exhaustion.