Chapter 21: The Second Heartbeat
Time: The Next Morning.
Location: Inside the Farming Space.
The artificial sun remained fixed in the white sky, unaware of the passage of time, but the rhythm of the farm was dictated by the people living in it. Usually, this was the time Luo Xia would be tending to the Star Grass or practicing her saber forms near the Spirit Spring.
But today, the saber lay cold on the rack.
Luo Feng was near the goat pen, filling the trough with fresh fodder. He hummed a low tune, his mood light. His shoulder stiffness was gone, the wine problem was solved, and his cultivation was progressing smoothly toward Layer 5.
Clatter.
A loud noise came from the cooking area.
Luo Feng turned instantly. He saw Luo Xia leaning heavily against the stone table, a wooden ladle dropped at her feet. Her face was as pale as paper, and she was clutching her stomach with both hands.
"Xia?"
Luo Feng dropped the fodder bucket. He blurred into motion, crossing the twenty meters in a single heartbeat.
He caught her just as her knees gave out. Her skin was cold to the touch, clammy with a strange, sticky sweat. Her breath came in shallow, ragged gasps.
"I'm... I'm sorry," Luo Xia whispered, her voice trembling. "I just... the room spun. I don't know why. I've been eating... I promise I've been eating..."
"Hush," Luo Feng's face was grim. He picked her up effortlessly, carrying her to the bamboo bed near the spring.
He placed her down gently. His heart was hammering against his ribs, fear—cold and sharp—piercing through his confident exterior. Was it Qi Deviation? Was it the wine fumes? Had he poisoned her by accident?
"Let me check," Luo Feng said, his voice tight.
He placed three fingers on her wrist.
Technique: Sun & Moon Internal Scan.
He pushed a gentle thread of Moon (Yin) Qi into her meridians. He expected to find a blockage or an injury.
Instead, he found a vortex.
Her Dantian, usually a calm pool of Qi, was turbulent. But the energy wasn't leaking out. It was being pulled down.
Luo Feng traced the flow. The Qi was flowing out of her Dantian, through her meridians, and converging at her womb.
There, in the center of her lower abdomen, was a tiny, pulsing node of life. It was small, no bigger than a bean, but it was greedy. It was latching onto Luo Xia's cultivation base, drinking her Spirit Qi to build its own foundation.
Thump-thump.
Luo Feng froze.
He could feel it. A second heartbeat. faint, rapid, and distinct from hers.
He pulled his hand back as if burned, staring at her stomach.
"Husband?" Luo Xia looked at him, terrified by his reaction. "Is it bad? Is my cultivation broken?"
Luo Feng let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. The fear vanished, replaced by a wave of emotion so overwhelming it nearly knocked him over.
"No," Luo Feng whispered, his voice cracking. He took her hand, pressing it against her own stomach. "Your cultivation isn't broken, Xia. It's being shared."
He looked into her eyes, a smile breaking through his shock.
"You are pregnant."
The Protection.
Luo Xia froze. Her hands trembled as they rested on her abdomen.
"Pregnant?" she breathed. "But... we tried for years in the slums. Nothing ever happened."
"In the slums, we were starving," Luo Feng explained gently, brushing the hair from her sweating forehead. "Our bodies were too weak to sustain life. But now... the Spirit Rice, the Water, the environment... we are healed. And life has found a way."
Tears welled up in Luo Xia's eyes. "A baby... a cultivator's baby."
"Yes," Luo Feng nodded seriously. "But this is dangerous, Xia. This isn't a mortal pregnancy. I can feel it. The baby is absorbing your Qi. It's building a Spirit Root in the womb. That's why you collapsed. It's eating your energy faster than you can regenerate it."
He stood up, his demeanor shifting instantly. The joyful husband was gone; the strategic cultivator returned.
"From this moment on, you are forbidden from working," Luo Feng commanded, his tone leaving no room for argument. "No harvesting. No saber practice. No cooking. You sit. You cultivate. You eat."
"But the farm..." Luo Xia protested weakly.
"I will handle the farm," Luo Feng cut her off. "I will handle the wine. I will handle the sales. Your only job is to feed that child and keep yourself alive."
He looked at the cooking fire.
"Wait here."
The Spirit Meal.
Luo Feng walked to the kitchen area. He moved with a focused intensity, as if he were brewing a high-grade pill.
He took out the High-Grade Yellow Jade Rice.
He took out the fresh bucket of Spirit Milk from the Cloud-Horn Goat.
"Water is not enough," Luo Feng muttered. "She needs density."
He poured the thick, pearlescent milk into the pot. He added the golden grains of rice. He didn't use water at all.
He ignited the Earth Fire Tag under the pot.
Simmer.
Usually, rice porridge was a simple peasant dish. But this was luxury beyond the imagination of the outside world.
The Yellow Jade Rice released its Yang energy, warming the pot.
The Spirit Milk released its Yin energy, thickening into a creamy, rich broth.
The smell wafting from the pot was intoxicating. It smelled of sweet cream, roasted nuts, and pure vitality.
Luo Feng stirred it slowly, infusing his own Qi to ensure the energies blended perfectly. He cooked it until the grains broke down completely, turning the mixture into a smooth, golden-white paste.
He carried the bowl back to the bed.
"Eat," Luo Feng said, spooning up the porridge. "It's cooked in pure Spirit Milk. It has ten times the energy of a normal meal."
Luo Xia opened her mouth. As soon as the warm, rich porridge hit her tongue, her body shuddered. The gnawing emptiness in her stomach vanished instantly. The baby inside her seemed to calm down, sensing the flood of high-grade nutrition.
She ate the entire bowl. Color returned to her cheeks. The cold sweat evaporated.
"Better?" Luo Feng asked, wiping a smudge of milk from her lip.
"Much better," Luo Xia sighed, leaning back against the pillows. "I feel... full. For the first time in days."
"Good. Rest now. I need to check the fields."
The Balance of Earth and Fire.
Luo Feng stepped away from the bed, ensuring Luo Xia was asleep. He walked toward the southern fields, his mind racing with plans. He needed more money. A child meant resources. He needed diapers, clothes, and eventually, cultivation techniques for the baby.
He stopped at the edge of the Red Clay Area.
Three days ago, he had engaged in a massive terraforming project, mixing the Black Spirit Soil with the Red Clay to save the crops.
He looked at the result.
The soil was no longer a cracked, angry red. It was a deep, rich Red-Brown. It looked heavy and fertile, like the earth found near volcanic hot springs.
He walked down the rows.
The Crimson Fire Grapes.
The vines looked healthy. The leaves were a lush, dark green, no longer scorched at the edges.
The grapes themselves had changed.
Before, they glowed with a blinding, unstable red light, buzzing with chaotic radiation.
Now, hanging in the new Red-Brown Soil, the grapes were a deep, opaque crimson. They didn't buzz; they hummed.
Luo Feng touched a cluster.
[System Scan]
[Crop: Crimson Fire Grape.]
[Status: Stabilized.]
[Attribute: Fire (70%) / Earth (30%).]
[Quality: Grade 1 (Peak).]
[Note: The chaotic Yang energy has been grounded by the Earth Qi. The fruit is now safe for direct consumption.]
"Balanced," Luo Feng nodded in satisfaction. "The Earth element from the mixed soil has tamed the Fire."
He then looked between the rows, where the Iron-Skin Yams were growing.
Usually, yams grew underground, hidden. But these yams were so energized they were pushing the soil up. The vines were thick as ropes.
He dug one up.
The Yam was heavy, covered in a skin that felt like actual iron. But when he scratched the surface, the flesh inside wasn't white. It was veined with red streaks.
[System Scan]
[Crop: Fire-Veined Iron Yam.]
[Status: Mutated.]
[Attribute: Earth (60%) / Fire (40%).]
[Effect: Drastically increases skin toughness and heat resistance.]
"Mutated," Luo Feng grinned. "The Yams absorbed the excess heat from the grapes and evolved."
It was a perfect symbiotic circle.
The Soil regulated the heat.
The Grapes produced the Wine material.
The Yams absorbed the waste heat and became body-tempering food.
Luo Feng stood in the middle of his thriving farm.
Behind him, his wife slept with their unborn child, fed by Spirit Milk.
In front of him, the fields were producing mutated, high-grade treasures.
To his left, the Spirit Goats and the Fire Crow watched him with loyalty.
He clenched his fist. The anxiety of the pregnancy faded, replaced by a steely resolve.
"I have everything I need," Luo Feng whispered to the wind. "Let the baby come. Let the enemies come. I will feed them all, or bury them all."
He picked up the mutated Yam and the basket of stabilized grapes.
"Time to brew the next batch. The family is growing, and we need every Spirit Stone we can get."
[End of Chapter 21]
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