What Should Never Have Come Still Came
Time slipped away quietly amidst anticipation and trepidation, like sand slipping through our fingers.
Castorice's pregnancy has entered its final sprint stage.
Luo Li's "Special Care During Pregnancy" mission has long been exceeded, and the rewards accumulated in the system interface are dazzling, almost enough to hold a small superpower expo.
But his mind was no longer on those dazzling cheat codes.
All his energy was focused on that impending, fate-determining "final moment."
He pushed [The Eyes of the Time Abyss] to its limit.
The right eye, [Peering into Secrets], is like the most sophisticated radar, scanning day and night for countless fragments of possibilities related to the future and childbirth.
He saw:
• The bright shadowless lights in the delivery room (old-fashioned medical equipment he acquired at great expense, operated by a reliable medical robot kindly provided by Lu Jingheng).
The mother, Zhou Wan, paced nervously back and forth outside the door, muttering to herself.
Yang Shan and Qingqiu Ze stood guard at the entrance of the building, like two gatekeepers, blocking any possible disturbances.
Castorice's brows furrowed slightly from the contractions, and her resolute purple eyes strained to stay awake.
Two tiny, wet babies were carefully lifted up and let out their first loud cries upon entering the world.
He himself, trembling, cut the umbilical cord and carefully held the two warm, soft little lives in his arms. The thrill of being connected by blood almost brought him to tears.
• I even saw a blurry halo of a system notification: "[Ultimate reward being distributed...]".
These images are so clear, it's as if I experienced them firsthand.
Luo Li made thorough preparations for this.
He used a [Spacetime Barrier] to completely envelop his dwelling, preventing even a mutated mosquito from flying in.
He prepared a massive amount of energy crystals and recovery potions to ensure that the Castorice could have the most abundant energy support during production.
He even repeatedly simulated various possible unexpected situations and developed dozens of emergency plans.
Everything seemed to be developing in the best direction he had foreseen.
He was full of confidence, feeling that he had seized fate by the throat.
However...
There was only one thing he could never "see through" no matter what.
Like an exquisite oil painting, every detail is perfect and the colors are rich, except for the most important figure in the center, which is covered by an impenetrable, absolute black veil.
He couldn't "see" what happened after Castorice and her child successfully gave birth, and after he was immersed in the immense joy of becoming a father for the first time...
At the end of that fragment of the future he repeatedly glimpsed, when he held his two children and excitedly wanted to kiss the tired but smiling Castorice —the scene would always abruptly end there, or become extremely blurry and distorted.
It was as if an invisible force, beyond his current understanding of the [Eyes of the Time Abyss], forcibly erased everything that followed.
This "unknown" was like a poisonous thorn, deeply embedded in Luo Li's heart, casting an uneasy shadow over all his "thorough preparations."
He tried to use Causal Tracing to deduce the cause from the effect, but all he got was chaos.
He had also risked using the power of the [Seed of Destiny] to sense it, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea, without even a ripple.
What exactly is it?
Could it be that at his most triumphant moment, when his guard is at its lowest, a being surpassing S-rank, or even SSS-rank, could forcibly break through his [Spacetime Barrier] and abduct them?
Or perhaps... it was Castorice's own power, or... the rules of Amphoreus, that were triggered at a specific moment?
Luo Li racked her brains but couldn't find a reasonable explanation.
This feeling of powerlessness was even more suffocating than when he faced an S-rank lord alone.
What was bound to happen has finally happened.
On a particularly deep, blood-red evening, Castorice's water broke.
The "script" that had been rehearsed countless times was performed right on time.
Zhou Wan immediately went into high alert, comforting Castorice while frantically preparing things.
Upon receiving the message, Yang Shan and Qingqiu Ze immediately took their positions and sealed off the stairwell.
Lu Jingheng remotely activated the medical robot he had left behind, a robot with a sophisticated structure and a cold, metallic sheen.
Luo Li carefully carried Castorice into the "birthing room" that had been prepared in advance and had undergone countless rounds of disinfection and energy purification.
He held her hand tightly, slowly channeling the pure and gentle power of [Spacetime] Path into her body to help stabilize her breathing and alleviate her pain.
"Don't be afraid, Castorice, I'm here."
His voice was unusually calm, as he tried to soothe her tension and calm his own heart, which was pounding in his throat.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Castorice's forehead, and her purple eyes were somewhat unfocused due to the pain, but her hand gripped Luo Li tightly, so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
The medical robot emitted a steady operating sound, and various monitoring data jumped on the screen.
Time passed by, second by second.
Outside the delivery room, Zhou Wan's suppressed prayers and pacing could be heard.
Inside the delivery room, Castorice's suppressed moans of pain and Luo Li's steady guidance could be heard.
Everything was exactly as Luo Li had "seen" the future.
finally--
"Wow--!"
A clear and powerful cry pierced the tense atmosphere!
The first child was born safely.
Almost immediately after, a second, slightly weaker but equally vibrant cry rang out.
Twin sisters, Luo Shiyu and Luo Shiyi, arrived safely into this blood-soaked world.
The medical robot deftly performed the procedure, cutting the umbilical cord, wiping, and wrapping...
Following the "script," Luo Li, trembling, used her hands—hands capable of tearing through space and annihilating S-class lords—to gently receive her two tiny, rosy-cheeked daughters wrapped in soft swaddling clothes.
The one on the left is the older sister, Shiyu, who is crying loudly with her little fists clenched tightly.
The one on the right is the younger sister, Shiyi. Her sobs are soft, and her eyes are not yet open, but she subconsciously rubs against him.
An indescribable surge of joy and emotion overwhelmed Luo Li like a tsunami, instantly shattering all her psychological defenses.
His eyes instantly reddened, and tears almost welled up in his eyes.
Success! They were born safely!
He subconsciously looked up at Castorice, who was lying on the bed exhausted but trying to smile, wanting to share this unparalleled joy with her.
In that instant, as his mind was racing and his attention was completely drawn to his newborn daughter and exhausted wife...
An anomaly has occurred.
There was no warning whatsoever.
There were no energy fluctuations, no spatial distortions, no enemy invasions, and not even any of the [Spacetime Barrier] alarms he had set up were triggered.
It was as if... part of the image had been erased out of thin air.
Luo Li felt a sudden lightness in her arms.
Those two sensations, which had just been heavy, warm, and soft, have vanished.
He suddenly lowered his head.
His hands were empty.
His two daughters, whom he had just been carefully holding in his arms, are gone!
He turned his head in horror to look at the delivery bed.
On the bed, the gentle yet weary smile of a new mother hadn't faded from Castorice's face, but her entire being, along with the sheets beneath her, began to become... transparent?
Like bubbles gradually dissipating in the sunlight, starting from the edges, they gradually transform into tiny, crystalline blue particles of light, carrying the aura of the River of Souls, silently vanishing into the air.
"Castorice?!"
Luo Li let out a heart-wrenching roar and almost instinctively lunged forward.
[Time Retardation]! Activated to its maximum! He wants to freeze this space!
Ineffective! The dissipation of light particles is completely unaffected!
[Space Folding]! Seal off the entire room!
Ineffective! The light particles seemed to exist in another dimension, directly penetrating his spatial blockade!
[Causal Tracing]! Finding the Root Cause!
The feedback was an absolute "nothingness"! It was as if their very existence had been erased from the causal chain by some higher-level force!
[Space-Trace Instant Shadow]! He tried to catch those particles of light!
His hand pierced through the particles of light, but all he grasped was a patch of cold air.
[Eyes of the Time Abyss] operates wildly, the left eye retracing the past, the right eye Peering into Secrets!
All I could see was blank space! A blank space that seemed to have been formatted by absolute power, a despairing blank!
He even used the [Seed of Destiny].
The seed emitted a faint light in his palm, but it only flickered for a moment before fading completely, as if it had exhausted all its strength and failed to even stir a ripple.
Less than three seconds.
Right before Luo Li's eyes, after he had used every means and exhausted all his strength—
Castorice, Luo Shiyu, Luo Shiyi.
His wife and his daughter.
It has completely disappeared.
They left no trace, not a single trace of energy, as if they had never existed in this room, in this world.
The delivery bed was empty, with only slightly disheveled sheets, proving that what had just happened was not an illusion.
The medical robot stopped operating, and the data on the screen returned to normal.
Outside the door, Zhou Wan seemed to have heard Luo Li's desperate scream and was anxiously pounding on the door, "Xiao Li! What's wrong? What happened? How is Xiao Die?!"
Luo Li stood frozen in the center of the room, like a statue whose soul had been taken away.
He looked down at his empty hands, where the warmth and weight of his daughters seemed to linger.
Why?
He made so many preparations, possessed such immense power, and foresaw countless possibilities...
Why this particular kind?
This disappearance... which was completely beyond his comprehension and could not be explained by any known logic?
Is a child's beginning always a permanent farewell to their father?
What kind of peak is this?!
A chilling, bone-deep despair, mixed with raging rage and endless bewilderment, engulfed him instantly, like Eternal Freeze in the eternal night.
He won the process, but lost everything.