Rebirth from the Embryo

Xiluo was one of the mountain gods of Mount Yunmeng.

As the most famous mountain range in Southern Chu, the Hundred Lands Mountain Range...

If its mountain gods and river gods could not be called as numerous as the hairs on an ox, they could at least be said to spring up in endless succession.

In fact, new mountain gods and river gods were born in the Hundred Lands Mountain Range almost every moment.

The creatures living in this land could also witness the fall of a mountain god or river god at any time.

Xiluo counted among the luckier mountain gods.

That was because Flying Peak, which she governed, lay far from the other mountains and close to human villages-a place where the vast majority of mountain gods and river gods were unwilling to stay.

After all, compared to the simple spirits in the mountains, humans were far too complicated a species.

Thus, unless necessary, most gods in this world were unwilling to have much contact with humans.

Because of her own experiences, the intensely curious Xiluo was something of an oddity among the mountain gods.

But even Xiluo had received quite a fright not long ago.

Not long before, an old man who appeared to be "human" had entered Xiluo's territory and fought a small golden sword.

In the end, the strange old man had been pierced through the chest by the little golden sword and fallen into Black Cloud Marsh near Flying Peak.

As for that little golden sword?

It had burrowed into a pregnant human woman's body, seemingly intending to reincarnate through the fetus within her.

To be honest, Xiluo had lived for nearly a thousand years and counted among the more knowledgeable mountain gods.

Yet she had never seen anything like this.

The strange old man went without saying.

Ever since he fell into Black Cloud Marsh, a poisonous mist had begun spreading from it.

Never mind ordinary wild beasts-even mountain gods and river gods were reluctant to approach the place.

And the sword pellet that had killed the old man was even more outrageous.

The little golden sword clearly possessed a consciousness of its own.

It wanted to reincarnate through a human fetus, yet had no idea how to protect its own soul.

Xiluo had watched with her own eyes as the little golden sword's divine radiance dimmed and quietly gathered dust after it entered the pregnant woman's body.

This meant that the little golden sword's memories of its former life were being erased as it merged completely with the fetus inside the woman.

So it was a fool who knew nothing?

Having transformed into a russet wildcat and leaped onto a roof beam, Xiluo delivered this assessment.

Yet as she watched the pregnant woman grow weaker by the day, an inexplicable pity could not help welling up deep in her heart.

Xiluo knew the pregnant woman and could see her love for the fetus in her womb.

More importantly, Xiluo noticed that the sword pellet was reducing its own nutritional demands, attempting to save its mother this way.

Unfortunately, even though the pregnant woman's husband was the finest hunter in the village...

Their current living conditions made it utterly impossible to sustain a genuine "divine fetus."

In this age, when food depended entirely on the whims of heaven, even keeping an ordinary person fed was already an enormous challenge.

Unless something unexpected happened, before the baby was born...

The pregnant woman and her child would both die from malnutrition.

"No, I'm afraid it won't even last that long..."

Suddenly turning her head, Xiluo looked outside the house.

Near the fence outside, a ravenous beast was quietly approaching the house.

Xiluo recognized that kind of beast. It was called a Tulu.

It was a large, four-horned goat that habitually hunted other creatures, and humans were among the things it ate.

Under normal circumstances, although Tulu ate people, they rarely approached human villages.

But ever since his wife became pregnant...

The hunter had begun venturing deep into the mountains to hunt all manner of animals so that his wife could nourish her unborn child and rest in peace.

This had directly reduced the Tulu's food supply, forcing it to risk hunting near a human village.

As for why it had chosen the hunter's wife?

From what Xiluo knew of Tulu, this was most likely no coincidence.

Although Tulu were not as intelligent as humans, they had an extremely strong vindictive streak.

At the same time, Li Boyang abruptly opened his three eyes inside the pregnant woman's womb.

What was that thing?

Through the perception of the heavenly eye between his brows, Li Boyang vaguely saw the Tulu nearby, exuding a scarlet aura.

It was the aura of blood, and also a sense of danger mingled with hostility.

Rustle...

Before Li Boyang could further distinguish the true source of that hostility...

The Tulu impatiently leaped into the little courtyard, smashed through the door, and let out its distinctive, shrill cry.

"Baa!"

The moment the Tulu cried out, it inevitably alerted the other villagers.

Amid shouts and angry roars, the young and able-bodied adults who had stayed in the village rushed out immediately, then signaled for the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children to hide.

Incidents of fierce beasts entering the village happened every so often.

The villagers could only pray that this particular beast would not be too ferocious, though in their hearts they had already pronounced a death sentence on whoever it had targeted.

"Get lost! Stay away!"

What Li Boyang had not expected was that, when the Tulu burst into the room...

His mother in this life abruptly rose and roared at a volume no lower than the beast's.

The scene was so unexpected...

Even the Tulu, the instigator of it all, could not help freezing for a moment.

Seizing that instant of hesitation, Li Boyang's mother grabbed a pair of scissors beside the bed without hesitation and hurled them viciously at it.

"Baa!"

At the sight, the Tulu finally recovered and immediately lunged ferociously at her.

The scissors Li Boyang's mother had thrown did not even touch the Tulu before it swatted them to the ground.

"You beast! I'll fight you to the death!"

Perhaps she was simply born that way, or perhaps motherhood had made her fierce...

Li Boyang's mother shielded her belly with one hand while snatching up a broken arrow nearby with the other and stabbing viciously at the Tulu.

Broken arrows were hardly rare in a hunter's home.

"Baa!"

A trace of humanlike contempt flashed through its eyes.

With an effortless dodge, the Tulu evaded Li Boyang's mother's attack.

The next second, the Tulu opened its bloody maw wide, poised to bite her head clean off.

Whoosh!

In the flash of a spark, a gleam of golden light flashed across Li Boyang's mother's belly.

Immediately afterward, a whitish light enveloped her entire body.

"Ah!"

Without the slightest idea what had happened...

Li Boyang's mother's eyes rolled back, and she instantly fainted.

Sensing danger, the Tulu instinctively took a step back, a trace of terror flashing through its eyes.

Yet the white light rising from the surface of Li Boyang's mother's body pursued relentlessly, bursting forth from her body like a sharp blade.

Swish!

In an instant, before the Tulu could react, the white light sliced off its head.

All that remained were its eyes, widened in shock and unwillingness, and its corpse, billowing with Blood Qi.