The Child-Bestowing Mountain God

In the blink of an eye, three months had passed since the "Tulu attack on the village."

After the initial fright, Li Boyang's mother-Chen Yun-quickly recovered, whether because she was strong by nature or simply carefree, and went back to working in the fields as though nothing had happened.

If Li Boyang had not been silently circulating Innate Qi all along to nourish Chen Yun in return and strengthen her body,

heaven knew whether this oblivious woman would have fallen ill from overwork.

Of course, Chen Yun's excessively healthy condition still inevitably caused quite a stir.

In this little mountain village of barely a dozen households, it was perfectly normal for pregnant women to work in the fields.

Never mind working in the fields during pregnancy.

Most women would even carry their babies on their backs and return to the fields the day after giving birth.

That was the life of the mountain folk, and a hallmark of this savage age.

Every day, people rushed about just to keep themselves fed and clothed.

Ordinary families simply had neither the time nor the means to observe a month of postpartum confinement.

Yet Chen Yun's condition was clearly different from that of an ordinary pregnant woman.

Despite being pregnant, Chen Yun had extraordinary stamina and was even stronger than before her pregnancy.

To be honest, Li Boyang had initially worried that Chen Yun's unusual traits might lead the ignorant villagers to treat her as a monster.

But Li Boyang soon discovered that he had worried needlessly.

Through his studies over this period, Li Boyang had more or less learned to understand this world's language.

And so, by piecing together scraps of conversation and making reasonable deductions of his own,

Li Boyang keenly realized that the villagers seemed to have taken his earlier slaying of the Tulu as an auspicious sign of the mountain god manifesting its power.

As for Chen Yun's various abnormalities?

The villagers had naturally assumed those were signs of the mountain god's special care for Chen Yun as well.

Only then did Li Boyang learn from his parents' conversations in this life

that his unusual nature had actually begun to show as early as the start of Chen Yun's pregnancy.

According to Chen Yun herself, during the early days of her pregnancy, she had dreamed of a little golden sword every day.

From her initial fear to her gradual acceptance afterward...

As she dreamed more and more often, Chen Yun began to dream of the little golden sword less and less, until she finally dreamed of a child with its back to her.

Only then had Chen Yun understood: all along, she had been dreaming of her own child-the child had wanted to see her!

Absurd. Utter nonsense...

Li Boyang firmly objected to Chen Yun's account, black lines practically covering his forehead.

He certainly did not remember possessing the ability to enter dreams, much less ever meeting Chen Yun in one.

Stories of this sort, of "birth through a mystical conception,"

usually only appeared in tales of sages born great.

Li Boyang did not consider himself a sage with earth-shaking ambitions, so naturally he refused to shoulder such "auspicious phenomena at birth," which were destined to bring endless trouble.

But refusal was one thing; what had happened in Chen Yun's household truly could not be called ordinary.

Ever since the "Tulu attack on the village," Li Boyang had noticed that he seemingly no longer needed to worry about dying in the womb.

Because no matter how he refined "Innate Qi,"

Chen Yun, whose body nurtured him, could supply ample nutrients, with plenty to spare.

Thanks to this, Li Boyang had grown at an extraordinary rate during his embryonic stage.

The pregnancy was clearly only three or four months along.

Yet Li Boyang's body had long since fully differentiated and was not much different from a full-term fetus.

Aside from that, nourished by abundant "Innate Qi," Li Boyang's Sword Pill and Heavenly Eye had also undergone some kind of qualitative transformation he could not understand.

First came the Sword Pill's transformation.

As the vessel that housed Li Boyang's soul and consciousness, the Sword Pill could unleash Sword Qi to protect his body.

But that activation had been deliberate: Li Boyang had to concentrate fully, even risking severe depletion of his vitality, to wield that Sword Qi.

His earlier slaying of the Tulu had been the first time Li Boyang deliberately activated its protective Sword Qi.

Yet after receiving an infusion of "Innate Qi," this protective Sword Qi seemed to have become a permanent passive skill.

Li Boyang did not need to deliberately activate or use it.

Whenever Chen Yun encountered any danger, the Sword Qi would emerge on its own to protect its host's mother.

Impervious to blades and spears, untouched by water and fire...

Those were merely the most basic manifestations of this Body-Protecting Sword Qi.

When necessary, upon detecting danger, the Sword Qi would even unleash itself to slay every threat within several meters.

Li Boyang felt that this "self-activating" Body-Protecting Sword Qi would very likely become a major obstacle to his birth.

So, to prevent the midwife who would deliver him from being slain by his Body-Protecting Sword Qi,

for a considerable time afterward, aside from continuing to absorb "Innate Qi," Li Boyang devoted himself to learning how to control this self-activating Body-Protecting Sword Qi.

Next came the Heavenly Eye's qualitative transformation.

With "Innate Qi" pouring into it without cease, the third eye between Li Boyang's brows could now open completely.

Once he fully opened his Heavenly Eye, Li Boyang could see what was happening outside through Chen Yun's belly.

This was not merely the ability to see through things; it also possessed the power of farsight.

At the very least, Li Boyang had definitely never possessed such powerful vision in his previous life, capable of clearly seeing a mosquito's quivering wings from over ten meters away.

And Li Boyang could feel that his third eye was still growing and developing.

With a sufficiently abundant supply of "Innate Qi," Li Boyang was very curious just where this Heavenly Eye's limits lay.

Huh? What's that?

Just as Li Boyang opened his Heavenly Eye once again to observe this world,

he suddenly noticed a... wildcat, its entire body fiery red, perched on a beam in his home?

The reason he put a question mark after the word "wildcat"

was that the wildcat's expression was far too human, and it held a fresh chunk of meat in its mouth, torn from who knew where.

It appeared without a sound, then vanished just as silently...

Without ever disturbing the sleeping Chen Yun and her husband, the wildcat dropped the fresh chunk of meat and disappeared from Li Boyang's sight.

*...*

Staring blankly at the spot where the wildcat had vanished into thin air, Li Boyang could not collect himself for a long time.

A wildcat version of the River Snail Maiden?

When Li Boyang finally came back to his senses, he immediately turned to look at the fresh chunk of meat the wildcat had left behind.

He could tell that the fresh meat had been carefully selected and bitten off.

Besides, whether it was his imagination or not, Li Boyang could even vaguely see some kind of hazy breath rising from it.

I think I know where that endless supply of Innate Qi has been coming from...

As this thought flashed through his mind, Li Boyang recalled the villagers' earlier discussions about the mountain god.

Now it seemed that the villagers' firm belief that Chen Yun was a woman under the mountain god's protection

might not have been simply because he had slain the Tulu?

This silly woman... could she really be under the mountain god's protection?

Could that wildcat be the legendary child-bestowing mountain god?

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