Pregnancy Dream (Continued)

After all, using this ability took a great deal of mental and physical energy. Tao Qiu ate several meals a day, so it was understandable that he might have some extra fat.

Besides, he spent all day flying and hunting prey, which counted as strenuous exercise. He hadn't experienced any physical discomfort, either. How was there any sign that he was pregnant?

The reason he realized he had a child in his belly—or, more accurately, eggs—was that the eggs themselves had "told" him.

Half a month after that absurd night, which was to say, last night, Tao Qiu had been dreaming of lying in a mountain of berries, happily eating away, when three little birds suddenly appeared out of thin air and fluttered into his arms.

One bird was black and the other two were white, and their personalities were completely different.

The black one perched on his leg, standing straight like a little gentleman, though its gaze was full of exasperation.

The two white ones were different sizes. The larger one kept chirping as though protesting something, while the smaller one hopped onto Tao Qiu's shoulder and gently rubbed against his cheek, tears pattering down as it looked pitiful and aggrieved.

Tao Qiu had no idea what was going on and stared blankly. Seeing that he wasn't reacting, the three little birds flew onto his belly, bowed their heads in unison, and pecked it hard.

Tao Qiu woke with a start and instinctively reached for his belly. Mm, it was round and warm. Luckily, it had been a dream; it didn't hurt at all in reality.

The dream was so strange that it finally made Tao Qiu pay more attention to his belly, which had "gotten fat."

Once he did, he noticed something was wrong. He had never gotten fat in his previous life, but he had seen potbellied men in real life. Their fat bellies hadn't been so round, hard, or prominent.

The way he looked now was more like the neighbor lady he remembered, who had been several months pregnant.

He had also heard people say that pregnant women had pregnancy dreams. Could his dream about the three little birds have been...

The thought alone was enough to break Tao Qiu out in a cold sweat.

He had been single since birth in both his lives. In this life, because of his circumstances, he had barely even seen any female birds, and he had no idea what pregnancy was like for mutant bird monsters.

Besides, although he was attracted to men, he firmly regarded himself as a man, both physically and mentally. A man getting pregnant was utterly preposterous to him!

In the midst of his panic, Tao Qiu suddenly thought of something else, and his alarm grew even worse.

He patted his cheeks and forced himself to calm down. To test his suspicion, he immediately gathered the energy of his ability inside his body, just as he usually did when making plants grow during the day, and slowly directed it through his meridians toward his hands.

This was something he had learned from experience over the past few days. Gathering the energy scattered throughout his body in one place before using it significantly improved both efficiency and results compared with sending it haphazardly into plants, and it was also excellent for developing his ability.

Doing this seemed to widen the area through which the energy could travel, and the amount also showed signs of gradually increasing. Tao Qiu felt noticeably more comfortable physically, which might also have been why his ability was growing stronger.

But when the energy reached his abdomen, a small complication occurred, one Tao Qiu had expected but that nevertheless filled him with despair.

The once-abundant energy suddenly diminished by two-thirds. It was like a mighty river held back by a dam, leaving only a thread-thin trickle to flow downstream.

This had happened when Tao Qiu used his ability a few days ago. After that portion of energy disappeared, his abdomen would feel warm and comfortable. He had assumed the problem arose because he wasn't yet skilled enough at using his ability, and since it didn't harm his body, he hadn't paid it much attention.

But now it seemed there was another reason that energy had "disappeared."

Tao Qiu gritted his teeth and deliberately directed all his remaining ability energy into his abdomen. Sure enough, it all vanished, as though something had swallowed it.

As more and more energy was swallowed, Tao Qiu felt an intense comfort in his abdomen. At the same time, he suddenly noticed something unusual there.

To put it poetically, it was as if a few little seeds in the soil had absorbed enough water and nutrients to finally have the strength to break through their shells and the earth, poking their heads out into view.

But the reality was more like something out of a horror story, because Tao Qiu could clearly sense living things inside his belly—and more than one.

Perhaps because the truth went so strongly against Tao Qiu's common sense, or perhaps because the darkness magnified his fear, Tao Qiu rather heartlessly thought of the horror movies he had seen in his previous life, in which alien parasites burst out of human bodies!

Tao Qiu couldn't help shuddering. Then a sudden pain clenched his abdomen. It was brief, but enough to pull his attention back.

This was the first time he had felt any physical discomfort since becoming pregnant.

Tao Qiu didn't fall asleep again before the sky began to pale. He thought about many things, but even he couldn't say exactly what.

It wasn't until noon that hunger brought Tao Qiu somewhat back to himself. He flew dazedly to his usual hunting grounds, and when blood burst from his prey's body, he finally lost control of his emotions, venting all the anger and helplessness in his heart.

Only when the last glow of sunset faded and night fell did Tao Qiu stop his frenzied slaughter.

Numbly, he dragged a few mutant monsters from the pile of corpses and ate them, then carried a few more back to the cave in his beak and placed them toward the cooler back of the cave.

For the next three days, Tao Qiu didn't leave the cave. He neither continued his life-saving undertaking of growing plants nor went mad again.

When the surviving mutant monsters saw that Tao Qiu hadn't come out to patrol his territory as usual, they all assumed he had died suddenly after going mad, just like the high-level mutant monster before him.

Many mutant monsters coveted the valley where Tao Qiu lived and longed to claim his territory, so a few bold ones secretly made their way to his cave.

The more cautious ones hid near the valley and watched. After hearing several shrill screams and seeing that the mutant monsters who had gone in still hadn't come out, they knew their hopes had come to nothing.

Not only was he still alive and well, but he was as strong as ever.

Afraid that lingering too long would get them discovered and slaughtered by Tao Qiu, the low-level mutant monsters all slunk away with their tails between their legs.

As for the few highly intelligent, high-level mutant monsters who rarely ventured out, they each had their own thoughts upon hearing that Tao Qiu had gone mad but hadn't died.

With the troublemakers gone, peace returned to the valley.

So what had Tao Qiu been doing cooped up in the cave for those three days? Naturally, he had been thinking about whether to keep the little ones in his belly.

During his frenzied slaughter, Tao Qiu had already accepted the fact that he was pregnant.

Although Tao Qiu could take human form, his pregnancy followed the physiological patterns of a bird. That much was clear from how round his belly had become.

For a human, a pregnancy wouldn't even have been showing after just over half a month.

Different species of birds had pregnancies of different lengths. Tao Qiu couldn't even figure out what kind of bird he was, much less estimate his due date. In any case, it couldn't be ten months like a human pregnancy.

Looking at his round belly, Tao Qiu guessed that if things continued this way, he would have to give birth after a little over a month at most.

To be honest, Tao Qiu didn't want to give birth, but he neither knew how to get rid of the eggs nor whether doing so would put him in danger.

Didn't people say that if something went wrong during a human pregnancy, both mother and child could easily die? Could the same happen to birds?

Tao Qiu had cherished his life in both his past and present lives. Otherwise, he wouldn't have worked so hard to grow plants just to live a little longer. Unfortunately, fate had been unkind to him in both lives. He had died unjustly in his previous life, nearly died again for no apparent reason in this one, and, just when he had finally found a way to extend his life, had accidentally gotten pregnant.

To be safe, he decided to lay the eggs and consider what to do afterward when the time came. By now, he was exhausted in both body and mind.

Tao Qiu reflected that he had forced himself on an innocent person to get through his heat. Even if that person didn't hold him responsible, he still had a price to pay after all.

Considering that the eggs in his belly needed to be nourished with his ability energy, Tao Qiu stopped growing plants in the days that followed and directed all his energy to them.

While Tao Qiu was busy nurturing his pregnancy, the humans at Yong'an Base continued living their lives as usual.

Lou Yu's injuries had healed well. He could be said to have fully recovered, and besides cooperating with the research institute's experiments, he was also practicing using his ability on his own.

He wanted to grow stronger both to take revenge and to avoid ending up in the same predicament as last time. He couldn't rely on someone else to save him every time.

Lou Yu had been free to leave the research institute since the day before yesterday, though he had to be prepared to be summoned back at any time.

The members of his team all lived together. Huo Lan and John had gone out on a mission a few days earlier and returned today, so after dinner, the group held a brief meeting as usual.

Their mission had been to find a particular mutant plant for the research institute. It hadn't been especially dangerous, and neither Huo Lan nor John had been injured.

After describing the mission, John glanced at Lou Yu and said, "The news going around the base a few days ago about the Snow Bird in the valley going mad and killing everything in sight was probably true. When we went out this time, we found far fewer mutant monsters in the area, and we also found some monsters' severed limbs and bones."

A mercenary team had happened to be nearby when Tao Qiu went on his rampage and had nearly been caught up in it. After returning to the base, they had spread the story, describing it in wildly exaggerated terms, practically painting Snow Bird as a living asura.

Lou Yu hadn't been able to leave the base recently, so he had asked Huo Lan and John to find out the truth while they were out.

Snow Bird had saved his life, and Lou Yu owed him a debt. They had also spent a night like that together, so whether out of gratitude or reason, Lou Yu couldn't turn a blind eye to matters concerning him.

Seeing Lou Yu frown, Huo Lan added, "On our way back to the base after the mission, John and I took some time to investigate near the valley. We happened to see Snow Bird flying back to the valley after his patrol. He looked very healthy, so he should be fine."

As for why Snow Bird had gone mad, no one could explain it.

The sight of Snow Bird escorting them back to the base that day was still vivid in their minds. Huo Lan and the others felt some goodwill toward a mutant monster who was friendly to humans.

Hearing this, Lou Yu silently breathed a sigh of relief, and the restless gloom he had been unable to suppress lately slowly subsided. As long as Snow Bird was safe, that was enough.