Two thousand years unbroken, O Lord of Qingcheng! Ahahaha... a mortal man bedded you and got you pregnant!
Bao'an Hall, rear courtyard, first light.
Bai Su sat by the window, a plain white robe making her face look thin as rice paper.
The primordial forbidden art had cost her too much of her own spirit. That pulse of life inside her, condensed from blood and cultivation, drew steadily on her power. Even though this was not a true, naturally conceived life—the weakness, the pain her body bore, were not the smallest bit false.
She lifted her teacup. The instant her fingertip touched warm porcelain, her wrist trembled, beyond her control.
Xu Xian's footsteps, familiar, sounded outside the door.
Bai Su let her lashes fall. Pressed a slender finger to her temple. Let her body lean toward the table. Didn't use her power to hide the paleness on her face. Didn't hide the exhaustion between her brows.
A dull ache stirred behind her eyes. She kept them closed for a moment, then let the pain pass.
A test, a clumsy test—so clumsy, its intentions all too obvious.
And a hope, innocent enough to be almost pitiable. She wanted to know—if Xu Xian saw her weak like this, would he come without thinking, take her hand, check her pulse himself?
And then—find the miracle she'd planted there with her own hand.
The mighty Immortal Lord of Qingcheng, two thousand years of cultivation behind her, now stooping to schemes this unworthy of the light, all to keep the one she loved a little closer, in the middle of an absolute despair.
Shedding the cold moon-heart of Qingcheng, seeking only one night's warmth in the mortal dust.
Knowing full well that flowers in a mirror, moon on the water must, in the end, shatter— and still— cutting her heart open, bleeding, bleeding, to weave the veil of illusion.
A gamble, doomed from the start to defy Heaven itself. And she was already too far past turning back.
"My lady?" The curtain rustled. Xu Xian strode in fast.
The moment he saw her like this, the ease vanished from his face; he crossed to the table, reached out, steadied her shoulder. "What's wrong? Why does your face look this bad? Did you not sleep well?"
Bai Su lowered her eyes. Let a carefully measured weakness show.
"Perhaps I caught a chill last night. My chest feels tight today." Her voice thin as a thread of wind. "It's nothing. Husband needn't worry."
"What foolishness is this." His brow drew tight.
"I'm a physician. How could I stand by and watch my lady suffer?" He took her wrist without waiting for permission, fingers settling with perfect precision over her pulse.
The air froze, for that moment.
Bai Su held her breath. Her heart pounded, fast and hard, again and again. She didn't know if she was more afraid the forced, artificial pulse would betray some flaw, or simply waiting to see what he'd do once he understood.
Xu Xian's face was grave at first.
But as his fingers traced that pulse, the worry in his eyes began, bit by bit, to fade. What rose instead: something close to bewilderment. The bewilderment of a man struck by the most tremendous good news of his life.
He looked up, sudden.
"This..." His fingertips trembled with the words.
"Is this—a slippery pulse? My lady, you—you are with child?"
Bai Su lifted her eyes, weak, a shy, apologetic smile at the corner of her mouth. "I wasn't certain myself. I was afraid it was only wishful thinking, so I said nothing."
Xu Xian checked again, careful.
A moment, and that fine face lit entirely with overwhelming joy.
"It's already been two, three months. The pulse of pregnancy has settled. Steady." He looked struck senseless by his own happiness, pulled her tight into his arms, eyes brimming red at once.
"We're going to have a child! My lady, we're going to have a child! This is a blessing Heaven itself has granted us!"
He babbled, incoherent, against her ear.
"No, this won't do, you're so weak, we must nourish you properly. Doesn't the apothecary still have that hundred-year-old immortal herb for settling the womb? Extraordinarily rare, that herb. Nothing better for the blood, for nurturing the child. I'll take it and go make you a pot of rich, milky crucian carp soup myself, tonight!"
Bai Su leaned against his shoulder. Felt the real, burning warmth of that body. Closed her eyes. A smile at the corner of her mouth, and at the same time, a single tear sliding silent from the corner of her eye. Find the original chapter at novelping dot com.
She'd won her gamble.
This dream, woven from blood, from cultivation, and from lies, had finally deceived the one person she loved most in the world. But she knew better than anyone—this was only the mirror-flowers, the water-moons, brought into being by her own blood, watered from her own veins.
"Husband is too kind to me..."
Outside the window, Qing stood in the corridor, a jar of freshly bought liquor cradled in her arms. Every word of joy from inside, she heard perfectly clearly. Saw through, at a glance, the near-humiliating gamble and calculation hidden beneath that weakness.
The more tenderly Brother smiled, the tighter Qing's chest grew, moment by moment. Bitterness, heartache, sorrow with nowhere to go, all rising together.
She turned.
Struck the wine jar hard against the corridor post. Tipped her head back for a long swallow. The liquor burned all the way down, stung her eyes.
"A blessing from Heaven?" She muttered, low.
"It's nothing but a cursed karma."
Even so, she lowered the curtain gently for the two of them, and disappeared into the shadows of the corridor.
Days later, deep into the night.
Only a single small flame in the Xu household kitchen. The clay pot on the stove bubbled softly. Fresh crucian carp simmered into rich, milky broth, the herb's bitter, medicinal fragrance mingled with sweet fish, rising thread by thread through steam.
Xu Xian ladled out the thickest bowl, carried it in, fed it to Bai Su spoon by spoon.
Bai Su had lost count of how many bowls she'd drunk these past few days. She'd long since grown tired of the taste. Yet every time she saw the hope in Xu Xian's eyes, she took another spoonful.
By then, only a thin layer of broth remained. A faint, alluring fragrance still drifted through the night air.
Creak—
The wooden window pushed open, a narrow gap.
A leopard-spotted cat's head poked in, furtive. The very same spirit-cat that had come down, again and again, to challenge Bai Su, and been sent flying, again and again.
It sniffed once. Its cool green eyes went wide. The fish smells so good! No, wait. This sovereign came down tonight on serious business.
The spirit-cat crouched on the sill, staring at the pot, repeating to itself:
I came down tonight, especially, to mock Bai Su. Two thousand years of tribulation couldn't bend her immortal bones—and now a mortal man's bedded her, gotten her with child! What a joke! Some once-in-three-realms scandal, this.
If I don't mock her to her face, it will be a wasted trip.
“Two thousand years unbroken, O Lord of Qingcheng! Ahahaha... yet a mortal man bedded you and got you pregnant! ”
Just thinking of Bai Su's face, gone pale with fury the moment she heard it, brought an involuntary grin to the spirit cat's mouth.
"Grrrrrrowl—"
But its stomach, unhelpfully, gave a loud rumble.
It looked down at the pot. The broth caught a glossy shimmer. "Hmph. This sovereign will just taste it. Just the one lick."
It lowered its head. Gave the surface a light lick.
"Meow!" Its whole body trembled. How could anything taste this good?
One lick, then a second, then a third. In no time, the bottom of the pot had been licked cleaner than washed.
"Little one, why are you hiding here stealing food?"
Xu Xian, back with the empty bowl, caught the whole scene perfectly clearly. Gentle by nature, far from angry, he laughed, stepped forward, stroked its smooth, handsome fur.
"Never mind. My wife's already had her share, and the rest was only going in the waste anyway. If you like it that much, finish it."
He glanced at the empty pot, couldn't help a small laugh.
"Only—that soup had a hundred-year-old immortal herb in it. It's meant for settling pregnancies. For a tomcat like you, eating all that, I'm afraid—"
Before he could finish, the heavenly power inside the spirit-cat collided, violent, with that immortal herb. The herb was meant, by nature, to nourish a body of the deepest yin, warm and settle a womb already carrying life.
And this particular spirit-cat happened to be unmistakably, robustly masculine. Two opposite forces slammed together in its belly.
"Hummm—"
Beneath its beautiful gold-and-silver spots, its belly, without warning, began to glow and glow. Not the grand, proper gold of the Western Paradise. A ring of pink-hot, brilliant, and thoroughly improper lotus light instead.
Unfolding, layer on layer, like an overly elaborate pink lotus lantern on the river during the Lantern Festival—flickering in the dim kitchen.
With each startled breath, the lotus-petal lights on its belly shrank and swelled in turn. Somehow, they formed an enormous, utterly ridiculous pregnancy-steadying formation.
At the same time, its whole world spun. An indescribable, warm, maternal tenderness—together with the instinct to fear the cold, seek a soft nest, draw everything close beneath its own belly—flooded its mind all at once. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
"This... what kind of sorcery is this?" Its limbs went weak beneath that surging pink heat; the spirit-cat looked down at its own flickering belly, and even its yowl came out off-key.
"Pah—HA HA HA HA HA!"
An utterly merciless laugh exploded outside the kitchen door.
Qing leaned against the doorframe, watching that glowing pink belly flicker in the dark, laughing so hard she could barely stand.
"Well, well! If it isn't Your Feline Majesty. Gone from sight a moment and already showing?"
"Shut your mouth!"
Mortified, it clamped its tail down at once, tried desperately to cover its glaring belly with both front paws. "You long green worm! Did you poison this sovereign?"
Qing's eyes flicked, thinking fast. She reined in her laughter, arranged her face into perfect gravity. Walked over. Lowered her voice.
"Your Feline Majesty, you're in real trouble now. Do you have any idea what my brother-in-law put in that soup?"
Its ears twitched. "What did he put in it?"
Qing drew a sharp breath, entirely as though this were the gravest matter in the world.
"That was the most overpowering herb in the mortal world—the Mother-of-All-Blessed-with-Motherhood herb! Specifically potent against male divine beasts. Ingest it by mistake, and the Yang core inside your body melts entirely within a few hours. Turns to the energy of pregnancy."
"What!" Its ears slammed flat, eyes gone wide with terror.
"Nonsense! You... don't you dare lie to this sovereign!"
"Who's lying to you?" Qing kept her expression grave. Pointed straight at its belly, still shrinking, swelling, and glowing pink-hot.
"See for yourself. Give it three more days—you'll see your two thousand years of cultivation turn entirely into the energy of pregnancy."
She bit back a smile. Pressed the threat further.
"By then you'll be lying under the Xu kitchen stove, howling through the birth of a whole litter of mortal alley-cat kittens. Might be a dozen at once. Every single one needing milk. Breastfeeding."
Breastfeeding? Have kittens? A whole litter of mortal alley-cats?
Its every last defense collapsed at once.
It could already see itself, belly swollen, lying in humiliation in a straw nest beneath the stove, a dozen mewling kittens around it. A sovereign of the Western Paradise, forced to nurse mortal strays!
"This sovereign does NOT want to have kittens—!" Tears burst forth at once.
Xu Xian stood off to the side, completely confused. Looked from Qing to the glowing-bellied cat, unable to make sense of it.
Qing, ordinarily sharp-tongued but fairly reasonable, addressing some good-looking stray with utmost gravity as "Your Feline Majesty," spinning this whole elaborate tale of kittens.
He assumed she was in a playful mood tonight, laughed, tried to rescue the cat with a little medical reason.
"Qing, don't frighten it further. That is only a nourishing herb, in the end—warms the blood, harmonizes Yin and Yang. A cat eating it by mistake, at most it'll run hot, restless a while. There's no way it'd actually—"
But the terrified spirit-cat could no longer hear a word of it.
It leapt up violently. Its limbs, weak from the heat still churning through it, gave out the moment it hit the sill; it slipped, crashed straight through the wooden window with a loud bang.
In the next instant, that once-mighty spirit of the Western Paradise fled, wailing, into the night streets of Lin'an, glowing pink belly flashing with every panicked leap.
All that remained in the air: a single, tear-choked curse.
"Long green worm, you just wait, this sovereign will be back! Once I've dealt with this litter of kittens—next time, this sovereign shows you no mercy at all!"
In the kitchen, Qing finally couldn't hold back any longer, doubled over the stove, laughing until she could barely breathe.
Xu Xian stood there with the empty bowl, lost in thought. He'd never heard whatever the cat had said to Qing in that silent spirit-tongue of theirs. Only stared after it, and after a long moment, murmured to himself:
"That cat... was actually rather cute."
At the far end of the corridor, Bai Su stood quiet beneath the moonlight, a plain white outer robe over her shoulders. She'd heard every word of the whole absurd farce. Watching Qing laugh so freely, a faint smile rose across her own face too.
But before it could reach her eyes, the pulse of life inside her, forced into being by her own cultivation, gave a sudden, heavy lurch.
She pressed a hand to her abdomen, by instinct. Moonlight fell through the spaces between her fingers, across the faint swell beneath.
Inside, Xu Xian's joy for the future. Outside, the absurd, warm laughter between Qing and the cat. All of it, together, looked, truly, like a complete and happy household. Exactly as she had so desperately wished for.
Flowers in the mirror and the moon in the water—in the end, they remain nothing more than that. The more beautiful it seemed, the closer it felt within reach—the more silently it would shatter and disappear.
A mirage is nothing but a mirage.