“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 to 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 have you!” Zu An sighed deeply.

“…” Chu Chuyan.

She had no idea why Zu An was saying such words at this moment, but again, he had always been an unpredictable person to her.

The other lackeys were dumbfounded too. Everything that had happened today was so ridiculous that it felt like a badly written novel. The young master and Zu An identified one another as their friends, then they fell out with one another, and now, they were suddenly talking about filial piety. What was wrong with this world?!

“…” Shi Kun.

He harrumphed coldly and said, “It’s out of consideration of our friendship that I patiently answered your ridiculous question. Now that I’ve fulfilled your curiosity, you can depart with peace of mind!”

“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 at those 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 fuller and fuller…

Shi Kun’s face scrunched a little. He thought that he was suffering from diarrhea. One must know that he valued his image as a refined gentleman greatly, so it would be extremely humiliating for him if he had to run to the toilet in the presence of so many people.

Hm? Why does it feel like my stomach is 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!

It 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 trading 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 from seeing Zu An and young miss Chu getting so intimate with one another?”

“That’s very possible.”

…

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

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

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

Fortunately, the pain 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.

But around thirty seconds later, that familiar yet foreign pain assaulted him once more.

“Ah?”

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

“Have I been cultivating too 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 regathered his focus to control the wind blades 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 around twenty seconds later, he still nearly caved in 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 doing?” Chu Chuyan stared at the livid-faced Shi Kun in confusion.

She could sense that the wind blades in the surroundings were suddenly alternating between strong and weak. Right now, it even looked like they were going to dissipate. This lessened the pressure on her greatly.

“He might be reflecting on his evildoings now,” sneered Zu An.

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

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

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. With his current strength, he couldn’t hope to overpower them.

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

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

“This is recovery medicine. Don’t worry, it has no poison and 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, so it was basically taking away his only bonus life left.

However, he knew that the crux of whether they could survive this ordeal lay with Chu Chuyan. He was clearly insufficient to deal with a fifth rank cultivator at the moment, not to mention that there was a bunch of fourth rank and third rank cultivators around too.

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

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

Then, she downed the content inside the bottle in a single gulp.

Frankly speaking, what she was doing here was incredibly risky, and it was far beyond her comfort zone. As the daughter of a ducal clan, there were constantly plenty of people out for her life. On top of that, her beautiful appearance attracted the lust of the men around her, leaving 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 never allow her drinking water to be out of her sight. Due to such an upbringing, she had been able to keep herself safe thus far.

Her reflexive 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 chug down the drink.

That being said, she didn’t bear much hope for his ‘recovery medicine’. After all, given Zu An’s background and strength, it was unimaginable for him to bring out anything decent.

But all of a sudden, she felt a warm surge of energy gushing through her body into her limbs. The dull pain coming from her injuries and the chaotic ki raging in her body began to alleviate swiftly.

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

“It’s the medicine my teacher gave me back then. It’s said to be able to revive even a dead corpse. How is it? Are your injuries fully recovered now?” asked Zu An.

Previously, when Chu Zhongtian and Qin Wanru grilled him about his background, he claimed that a mysterious man had taught him how to cultivate. It would make perfect sense for him to push this matter over to his ‘teacher’ too, or else Chu Chuyan would start suspecting him once again.

“Your teacher must be a formidable person,” remarked Chu Chuyan. “Even though I haven’t fully recovered yet, my injuries should have healed by around 60 to 70 percent. I’ve never seen such an incredible recovery medicine before!”

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

“Of course! Your husband is an amazing man, after all!” replied Zu An gleefully. Then, he suddenly noticed something that she said and frowned. “Wait a moment, you said that your injuries only recovered by 60 to 70 percent?”

“Yes, it recovered by that amount instantaneously. Isn’t that good enough? I was still having trouble trying to hold on earlier, but my condition is good enough to put up a fight now.” Chu Chuyan was more than satisfied with the results, so she couldn’t understand why Zu An had a discontented look on his face.

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

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

Wait a moment!

Zu An suddenly remembered that the ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ had a parenthesis behind labeled S. 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, so even if he could recover to full health, that didn’t mean that she would be able to do the same too.

“Argh, it hurts!” exclaimed Shi Kun.

No matter how strong his willpower was, the pain arising from childbirth was not something a human could endure. Once he started crying out, he couldn’t stop anymore. Screams of misery escaped from his mouth, 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 Kung’s face had distorted from sheer pain, such that he couldn’t even speak a word at all.

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 did back then. She had thought that it could have been just as coincidence as it was unthinkable to her how it could have been Zu An’s doing, but it turned out to be really the case!

Zu An reined in his thought 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.

So, she immediately charged over to Shi Kun’s side. 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. Those vines that had been touched by her sword were immediately cloaked in a layer of frost, falling heavily back 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, feed this to the young master!”

Zu An was alarmed. He had no idea what that medicine was, but it would cause a variable if Shi Kun were to eat it. So, he immediately made a move and charged forth as well.

He was determined to take down Shi Kun while the latter was down!