Chapter 282 - 281: Bai Qingyue What’s Wrong?
High above, far away from the chaotic aftermath of the Grand Court and the bleeding, purple tear of the Hollow Beyond, two figures cut through the atmosphere with the speed of a falling star.
Lin Yuan utilized the Immortal Cloud Step, but with his newly forged True Elemental Body and his Early Soul Transformation cultivation, the movement art had evolved far beyond mere physical displacement. He was bending the spatial laws of the Nine Provinces around them, creating a localized slipstream that carried them toward the hidden coordinates of the Sacred Grounds.
He held Bai Qingyue securely against his side, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist. To protect her from the sheer, flesh-tearing friction of their velocity, Lin Yuan projected a soft, emerald-green barrier powered by the Azure Dragon within his Liver Secret Realm. The barrier maintained a perfect, soothing temperature, bathing her in boundless, inexhaustible life origin.
Below them, the sprawling landscapes of the Central Continent passed by in a blur of majestic mountains, deep spiritual rivers, and towering ancient cities. Yet, even from this altitude, the subtle signs of the world’s distress were visible. The ambient spiritual Qi was highly agitated, rippling with the residual shockwaves of the Heavenly Fire and the invasive, rotting taint of the demonic miasma leaking from the cracked Nine Heavens Ward.
Lin Yuan’s deep purple eyes were fixed strictly on the horizon, his mind calculating the optimal, safest route to the Sacred Grounds. His mind was an icy fortress, already devising strategies to consolidate his Five Great Secret Realms and prepare for the inevitable demonic invasion.
But then, the flawless rhythm of their flight was broken.
Bai Qingyue, who had been resting her head against his shoulder, suddenly let out a soft, sharp intake of breath. Her fingers tightened convulsively in the fabric of his robes.
Through their karmic tether, Lin Yuan felt a sudden, violent fluctuation. The brilliant, crystalline blue light of her newly forged Golden Core flickered erratically, and a wave of profound, disorienting vertigo washed over her consciousness. Her spiritual energy spiked, then plummeted, causing her physical body to go entirely limp in his arms.
"Qingyue!"
Lin Yuan’s composure vanished instantly. The cold, calculating expert who had just beaten a Demon King to death without blinking was entirely replaced by a terrified husband.
He did not decelerate slowly. He forced the spatial slipstream to an absolute, immediate halt, the sheer displacement generating a localized sonic boom that flattened the clouds for miles around. He descended rapidly, targeting a serene, snow-capped mountain peak far removed from the populated sects and the creeping demonic corruption.
He landed upon the snow as lightly as a falling leaf, gently lowering her to sit upon a smooth, flat boulder. The high-altitude wind was biting, but Lin Yuan’s True Elemental Body instantly radiated a profound, ambient warmth that melted the snow in a ten-yard radius, creating a comfortable, spring-like sanctuary.
"Yuan... I’m alright, just... the world is spinning," Bai Qingyue murmured, her face deathly pale. She pressed a hand to her forehead, her eyes losing their focus as she swayed slightly.
Lin Yuan knelt before her, his hands gently framing her face, as mind immediately began racing through the possibilities.
Is it the Heaven and Earth luck? Lin Yuan thought, his brow furrowing deeply as he observed the erratic pulsing of her dantian. When I was forming my Primordial Spirit, she used our karmic bond to siphon the overflowing Heaven and Earth luck to wash her physique and guide the formation of her Golden Core. But her cultivation, even at the Early Stage of Core Formation, might not be enough to handle the essence of such immense fortune!
Bai Qingyue had spent years with a crippled cultivation, held back by the insidious Soul Transformation restriction. When Emperor Tianxu removed the curse using Void Refinement energy, she had skyrocketed from a mortal state back to the Peak of Foundation Establishment in a single heartbeat. Then, mere moments later, she absorbed the Heaven and Earth luck, completely dissolving the barrier to Core Formation.
Such cultivation progress in such an impossibly short time , Lin Yuan reasoned grimly. Even with her Talent, the physical vessel must adapt to the sudden influx of mass and energy. Is this the backlash? If the Heaven and Earth luck was too dense, it could be fracturing her newly formed core from the inside out!
The mere thought of her cultivation shattering a second time sent a spike of cold, apocalyptic dread through his soul.
"Do not move. Let me see the flow of your Qi," Lin Yuan commanded softly, his voice betraying a rare, desperate urgency.
He placed two fingers gently against the pulse point on her wrist. He closed his eyes and sent a faint gentle thread of his Divine Sense into her body. With his Early Soul Transformation cultivation, his perception of the human body was absolute. He could see every atom, every meridian pathway, and every drop of spiritual essence.
He directed his divine sense straight toward her dantian, fully expecting to find microscopic stress fractures on the surface of her Golden Core, or perhaps residual wisps of Origin Qi ravaging her meridian walls.
Instead, his divine sense swept past her dantian and halted abruptly.
Lin Yuan froze.
The breath hitched in his throat. The terrifying, inexhaustible cycle of the Five Great Secret Realms within his own body seemed to stall for a fraction of a moment.
Within the deepest, and most protected sanctuary of her physical vessel, sheltered beneath the radiant light of her Golden Core, there was an anomaly. It was not a crack. It was not a backlash.
It was a spark.
A tiny, impossibly bright, perfectly formed spark of life.
𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
Lin Yuan’s divine sense hovered over the spark, his mind effortlessly analyzing its resonance, its structure, and its profound, karmic signature. The aura radiating from the faint cluster of cells was an exact, flawless harmonization of his and Bai Qingyue’s essence.
There were two heartbeats inside her body.
Lin Yuan’s mind effortlessly calculated the signature of the life force, deducing how old it was.
One month and fifteen days.
Exactly forty-five days ago. Before the Peerless God Tournament. It traced back to the quiet, intimate nights they had shared in the sanctuary of their own home, long before all this.
Bai Qingyue was pregnant.
He was going to be a father.