“Of course! Why would I not be filial to my mother?” Shi Kun snapped in response.

The Great Zhou Dynasty embraced the value of filial piety. No matter how lofty a person’s standing was, they dared not be pinned with the label of being unfilial.

“How can you claim that you’re filial without going through the hardship brought about by ten months of pregnancy and the pain of labor? You don’t know the suffering your mother has been through in order to give birth to you!” Zu An sighed deeply.

Chu Chuyan was rather befuddled.

She had no idea why Zu An was bringing this up right now, but then again, he had always been an unpredictable person to her.

Shi Kun’s lackeys were dumbfounded as well. Everything that had happened today was so ridiculous that it felt like a badly written novel. The young master and Zu An had suddenly claimed that they were friends, then fell out with one another almost immediately, and now, they were suddenly talking about filial piety. What was wrong with this world?!

Shi Kun narrowed his eyes at Zu An. He snorted coldly and said, “It was out of consideration for our friendship that I patiently answered your ridiculous question. Now that I’ve satisfied your curiosity, you can depart this world in peace!”

“Since you view me as a friend, it’s only right for me to bequeath you with a gift. I’ll allow you to experience the joys and hardship of pregnancy so that you can better appreciate your own mother and become a more filial son!” A mysterious smile emerged on Zu An’s face. 

“What nonsense is that?” Shi Kun and his lackeys stared at Zu An as if he was a fool. How could a man possibly get pregnant?

Only Qiao Xueying was alarmed by his words, and she shouted out loud, “Young master, be careful!”

“Be careful?” Shi Kun was perplexed. Victory was already in his grasp, and very soon, Chu Chuyan would be his. What was there to be careful about?

Ah? Why does my stomach suddenly feel bloated? Did I eat something bad? Argh, it’s getting more and more full… 

Shi Kun’s face scrunched a little. He thought that he was suffering from an upset stomach. As someone who valued his image as a refined gentleman greatly, he thought it extremely humiliating if he had to run to the toilet in the presence of so many people.

Hm? Why does it feel like my stomach is still getting bigger and heavier?

He looked down at his own stomach, but there were clearly no changes at all. 

It’s getting more and more swollen!

There was a weird disconnect between how he felt and what he saw, and it made him doubt his own senses. He turned to his lackeys and asked, “Is my stomach getting bigger?”

“Bigger? It isn’t.” 

The lackeys shook their heads in confusion. At the same time, they began exchanging glances with one another.

“Isn’t there something very different with the young master today?”

“Yeah! He claimed that Zu An was his friend, and now, he’s asking if his stomach is getting bigger…”

“Say, it is possible for the young master to have gone mad from envy after seeing Zu An and young miss Chu behaving so intimately with one another?”

“That’s very possible.”

… 

Shi Kun couldn’t help but reach down to fondle his stomach, but no matter how he massaged it, the bizarre sensations he was feeling just wouldn’t go away.

Soon, a mystifying pain assaulted him, causing the features of his handsome face to scrunch together. It was an incredibly weird pain, coming from his nether regions. He had never felt anything like this before. It felt like his soul was screaming from within.

He was, after all, a reputed prodigy, and a young master from a prominent clan. He forced himself to endure the pain and stopped himself from screaming out loud. He couldn’t bring himself to shriek miserably before his lackeys and the woman he loved.

Fortunately, the pain only lasted for around ten seconds before finally fading off, as if it had never been there.

“What’s going on?” Shi Kun frowned. He realized that the wind blades he had been controlling were showing signs of dissipating, so he quickly focused his attention on them once more.

About thirty seconds later, however, the familiar yet foreign pain assaulted him once more.

“Ah?”

The sudden burst of excruciating pain almost caused Shi Kun’s wind blades to scatter on the spot. W-why is it coming back?! He tried his best to endure it, and once again, the pain vanished after a few seconds.

“Have I been cultivating so hard that my cultivation is going a little berserk?” Shi Kun felt that he should get Elder Shi Lezhi to take a close look at his current condition.

He quickly refocused his attention and brought the wind blades back under control once more, but he couldn’t shake off the worry that the excruciating pain would strike him once more. 

Even though he was already mentally prepared for it, when the unbearable pain struck again about twenty seconds later, he nearly collapsed on the spot.

Shit! Stop it!

Worst of all, he realized that the interval between each assault of pain was growing shorter, and the pain was getting more and more intense.

“What’s he up to?” Chu Chuyan stared at Shi Kun in confusion. He seemed to be getting paler, and she could sense that the power of the wind blades around them was fluctuating wildly. Even now, they looked on the verge of dissipating. This lessened the pressure on her greatly.

“He might be reflecting on his evil ways,” sneered Zu An.

That fellow could never imagine that the pain he’s suffering is known as labor pains. Well, no man in this world would have that experience to share with him, and no woman would talk about this in front of a man in this fairly conservative era.

Given how desperate the situation had become, he had no choice but to use his Knock-You-Up Eyes. Its effects were fairly splendid, but it was a pity that he only had one use of it left.

Zu An wanted to rush forward to get rid of Shi Kun once and for all, but seeing that Qiao Xueying and the others had already run over to cover him, he had no choice but to drop that thought. He couldn’t hope to overpower them with his current strength.

Zu An pondered for a moment before taking out a bottle of ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ and handing it over to Chu Chuyan. “Honey, drink this.”

“What’s that?” Chu Chuyan was wary of the bottle of suspicious liquid, and was a little hesitant to drink what Zu An was offering her.

“This is restorative medicine. Don’t worry, it has no poison or side effects, and it’ll send you back to full health right away!” 

Zu An was a little reluctant to bring it out and this was the only bottle he had left, and he was effectively giving his final bonus life away.

However, he knew that their hopes of making it through this ordeal rested with Chu Chuyan. He was clearly not strong enough to deal with a fifth rank cultivator at the moment, not to mention the bunch of fourth rank and third rank cultivators that were around as well.

As long as Chu Chuyan could recover her full power, she should be able to deal with the threat facing them. Besides, she was his wife too, so it was not as though he was giving away such a precious treasure to an outsider.

Chu Chuyan stared at Zu An quietly for a moment before finally nodding. “Very well.”

With that, she downed the contents of the bottle in a single gulp.

Frankly speaking, what she was doing here was incredibly risky, and it was well out of her comfort zone. As the daughter of a ducal clan, there were many people constantly out for her life. On top of that, her beautiful appearance ignited the lust of the men around her, which left her with no choice but to be constantly wary of her surroundings.

From a young age, she was taught to never accept food from others, and to never allow her drinking water to be out of her sight. Thanks to such an upbringing, she had been able to keep herself safe thus far.

Her automatic reaction if anyone were to offer her a bottle of unidentified fluid was to ignore it. If the person offering the bottle to her was someone of special standing, making it impolite for her to turn that person down right away, she would accept it with a smile, but she wouldn’t really drink it.

But for some reason, after looking into Zu An’s eyes, she actually broke the own rule she had set for herself.

Is it because he’s my husband? Is it because I sensed sincerity in his eyes? Or is it because of the look of reluctance on his face?

Even she had no idea what was going through her mind either when she chugged down the bottle of fluid.

That being said, she had little faith in his ‘restorative medicine’. After all, given Zu An’s background and strength, it was unimaginable that he would have anything decent on him.

All of a sudden, though, she felt a warm surge of energy gushing through her body and into her limbs. The dull pain coming from her injuries swiftly faded, and the chaotic ki raging in her body began to calm down.

“What medicine did you give me? How could it be so potent?” asked Chu Chuyan in astonishment.

“It’s some medicine that my teacher gave me back then. It’s said to be potent enough to bring the dead back to life. How is it? Are your injuries fully recovered now?” asked Zu An.

When Chu Zhongtian and Qin Wanru grilled him about his background previously, he claimed that a mysterious man had taught him how to cultivate. It would make perfect sense for him to hang this matter on his ‘teacher’ too, to prevent Chu Chuyan from renewing her suspicions of him.

“Your teacher must be a formidable person,” remarked Chu Chuyan. “Even though I haven’t fully recovered yet, my injuries should be about sixty to seventy percent healed. I’ve never seen such incredible restorative medicine before!”

Even restorative medicine concocted by someone of Ji Dengtu’s caliber would require some time before it took effect, but this medicine was actually able to heal a person instantaneously. If it was sold in the market, its value would be immeasurable!

“Of course! Your husband is an amazing man, after all!” replied Zu An gleefully. Something she had said suddenly hit him, and he frowned. “Wait a moment, you said that your injuries are only sixty to seventy percent healed?”

“Yes, I recovered by that degree almost instantaneously. Isn’t that good enough? I was still having trouble just holding on earlier, but I’m in a good enough condition to put up a fight now.” Chu Chuyan was more than satisfied with the results, so she couldn’t understand why Zu An looked rather discontented.

Of course it isn’t enough! I was able to recover from my wounds instantaneously the last time I drank it, so why is it different for Chuyan? Could it be that the effects of the items from the system are discounted for others?

No, that doesn’t make sense though. The items should either work completely or not work at all; there shouldn’t be any reason why the effect is discounted. 

Wait a moment!

Zu An suddenly remembered that his Faith in Brother Spring was tagged with an ‘S’ label. Could this mean that it only heals lower-ranked cultivators to full health, but its effects are less effective on higher-rank cultivators?

His years of gaming experience in his previous life helped him to swiftly figure out the truth. Chu Chuyan’s cultivation rank was much higher than his own, so even if the medicine was able to restore him to full health, that didn’t mean that it would do the same for her as well.

“Argh, it hurts!” exclaimed Shi Kun.

No matter how strong his willpower was, the pains of childbirth was not something a human could endure silently. Once he started crying out, he couldn’t stop himself anymore. Wails of misery escaped from his mouth in a constant stream, shocking everyone present.

“Young master, what’s wrong?” 

The lackeys panicked, unable to comprehend what was happening to Shi Kun. They couldn’t see any injuries on him, so why was he suffering so much?

Shi Kun’s face was distorted from sheer pain, so much so that he couldn’t even utter a single word.

Qiao Xueying glanced at Zu An fearfully. There was no way she couldn’t tell that Shi Kun was suffering from the same symptoms as she had back then. She thought that it might have just been coincidence, as it was unthinkable to her that it could have been Zu An’s doing, but it turned out to be really the case!

Zu An reined in his thoughts and shouted, “Quick, kill them!”

“Alright!” Chu Chuyan had no idea why Shi Kun would suddenly be in such great pain, but an opportunity had finally presented itself.

She immediately charged at Shi Kun. Despite her incredibly fast movement, her motions remained pleasingly graceful, reminiscent of a true fairy.

Qiao Xueying’s face paled. She raised her hand and channeled the vines on the floor toward Chu Chuyan in hopes of stopping her.

In response, Chu Chuyan calmly swung her sword and tapped it lightly on the vines coming her way. The vines that had been touched by her sword were immediately cloaked in a layer of frost, falling heavily to the ground and losing their ability to move.

Qiao Xueying hurriedly took out a bottle of medicine and threw it over to one of the lackeys, saying, “Quick, give this to the young master!”

Zu An was alarmed. He had no idea what that medicine was, but it would change the situation in an unexpected way if Shi Kun was to eat it. So, he immediately made a move and charged forth as well.

He was determined to take Shi Kun out while he was down!