Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Wishing the Host a Smooth Pregnancy! Wishing the Babies a Happy New Year’s Eve!

“Heaven Rank talent?” Su Yan shot back inwardly. “Do you think Heaven Rank males are like roadside vegetables? Pick one up and there’s a pile waiting?”

The system replied coolly, “You have borne a child with quasi-rule talent. The system recognizes that Host is capable of bearing offspring of the same level.”

“Wait,” Su Yan said. “What’s quasi-rule talent?”

When had she ever had a child like that?

“Darkness. Light. Death. Fate. Space. Life,” Little Mei said. “A quasi-rule is not a complete rule. Through cultivation, or certain heavenly treasures, it can become a complete rule.”

Su Yan’s scalp tingled. “Which child of mine has something that insane?”

“The last one.”

Su Yan went still.

That meant the litter she’d had with Ming Lin Yuan. She remembered someone mentioning quasi-rule talent back then… she’d simply been too overwhelmed to care.

“And it was the birth of quasi-rule talent that pushed the system’s update,” Little Mei added. “The system can now serve Host better.”

“Serve me?” Su Yan scoffed. “I’m the one serving you.”

“The system exists to assist Host in conceiving and bearing children.”

“Fine,” Su Yan muttered. “Then tell me—where am I supposed to find a Heaven Rank male?”

“Divine Beast Academy.”

Su Yan nearly choked. “No kidding. I’m about to walk through the gates.”

“Wishing Host a smooth pregnancy.”

Su Yan ground her teeth. “Thanks so much.”

She stretched, half amused and half annoyed. Little Mei was really spoiled rotten—now it was Heaven Rank or nothing.

If that was the standard, she could only put Rong Wu aside and focus on finding a Heaven Rank male.

But how many times could she get lucky enough to give birth to rule-level cubs?

Su Yan looked down at Little Hao and felt her heart soften again. The more she looked, the more she liked him.

She wanted to steal him.

That evening, Pei Xuan laid out a feast—nearly a hundred dishes, arranged in shimmering rows like a banquet for royalty.

Steam curled upward in fragrant ribbons. Fish and meat and broth filled the air until her stomach betrayed her with a quiet growl.

Su Yan felt faintly guilty. She’d come, hugged Little Hao, slept half the day, and he still treated her like an honored guest.

“This is too much,” she said—and immediately took a big bite of steamed fish.

Pei Xuan watched her eat the fish first, and a memory stirred—back in Senyu Beast Forest, she’d loved fish too. She’d been tiny then, yet she’d eaten half a fish with frightening enthusiasm.

“What’s your true form?” he asked, as if he didn’t already know.

“A mouse,” Su Yan said, sipping a fragrant meat broth.

“Mouse clan?”

“Yeah. And a really small kind.”

She picked up a piece of braised rib, sauce glossy and rich.

Before she could reach for another bite, a sweet, delicate female voice drifted in from outside. “Xuan-gege, I’m here to play with Little Hao.”

Su Yan froze mid-chew.

Pei Xuan’s expression soured instantly, a shadow passing over his face.

“You eat,” he told Su Yan. “I’ll be right back.”

He gestured for the servants to attend her properly and left.

Su Yan kept eating, glancing toward the doorway. “Who was that? Your clan chief didn’t look happy.”

The attendant lowered their voice. “Clan chief’s cousin. Her true form is a leopard-fox beast—a mixed-blood beastman.”

“Mixed-blood?” Su Yan looked after Pei Xuan. “Didn’t I hear there’s only one pure-blood golden-eyed black leopard beast left?”

“There used to be,” the attendant said, face brightening. “Now we have the young clan chief as well. Golden-eyed black leopard beasts are born with Heaven Rank talent. They’re extremely difficult to breed. Even females with very high fertility struggle to conceive.”

Su Yan’s chopsticks paused. “Then… the clan chief—”

“The clan chief was gained at the cost of the old clan leader’s life,” the attendant said softly.

Su Yan stared. “How?”

“At the Beast God Temple,” the attendant said, voice hushed as if afraid to offend the heavens. “The old clan leader offered his remaining lifespan and the Beast Emperor’s blood, sacrificing to the Life Law God to beg for offspring.”

Cold crept up Su Yan’s ribs. “That price is insane.”

“And the young clan chief?” Su Yan asked carefully. “Little Hao… is he—”

“No,” the attendant said quickly. “Half a year ago, the clan chief brought the young clan chief back from his travels. He is pure-blood, not mixed-blood.”

The attendant’s eyes shone with pride. “Most importantly, the clan chief did not sacrifice himself. Fifteen years ago, when the old clan leader passed, the black leopard clan was suppressed so badly we almost had to leave the imperial city. Everyone feared the clan chief might do something desperate for offspring.”

Su Yan swallowed. “Half a year ago… Senyu Beast Forest…”

Could it really be that kind of coincidence?

Her fingers tightened on her chopsticks as she let her awareness sink into the system.

“Little Mei,” she asked carefully, “is Little Hao my first child?”

The answer came immediately.

“Yes.”

The bun in Su Yan’s hand slipped from her fingers and thudded onto the table.

No wonder Pei Xuan had asked her that question at the teahouse.

She’d never seen his face clearly then. It hadn’t been possible. He’d been injured—ruined—his entire upper body a mess of blood and torn flesh.

She’d only done it to survive. To get pregnant quickly enough to keep herself alive.

“But,” Su Yan demanded inwardly, “isn’t his talent Half-Spirit Realm? How could he have had Little Hao with me?”

“At that time, he was injured from tribulation,” Little Mei said. “His cultivation was suppressed around Profound Rank. Therefore Host could bear Profound Rank offspring. After he completed the tribulation, he evolved to Half-Spirit Realm.”

Su Yan let out a shaky breath. “So I caught him in the gap.”

If he’d been Half-Spirit Realm back then, she wouldn’t have conceived—and she would’ve had no way out at all.

She opened the system shop again and finally noticed the line she’d missed before: free and one-point items were limited to Host and Host’s offspring.

Little Hao didn’t just resemble her child.

He was her child.

No wonder he’d clung to her so instinctively.

And Pei Xuan… Pei Xuan must have known. He must have recognized her, and he still hadn’t told her.

Why?

Was he afraid she’d take Little Hao from him?

Su Yan couldn’t swallow another bite. She rose and went straight back to Little Hao’s room.

The cub slept like a stone, mouth slightly open, a faint puff of breath brushing her hand when she touched his chest.

Su Yan picked him up, pressed a kiss to his forehead, and in the next instant placed him into her system space.

The system had a designated space for storing children. Now she used it.

Then she shifted, shrinking into a little white mouse.

With the system map open in her mind, she slipped along shadowed corners and narrow gaps, taking the most deserted routes out.

When Pei Xuan finished handling his cousin and returned, Su Yan was already gone from Royal Beast Street.

If he could secretly take a child away, so could she.

Let him taste what it felt like to lose one.

Su Yan didn’t go back to her inn. She left the imperial city entirely, slipping beyond the walls and onto quiet roads where the wind carried dust and dry grass.

A palm-sized little white mouse running along the ground drew no attention at all.

When she was far enough away, she stopped.

She released Little Hao from her system space.

Now that his talent had risen to Heaven Rank, he looked bursting with energy. Purple-gold thunder flickered around him in thin threads, and a terrifying pressure rolled off his bloodline like heat from a forge.

Little Hao shook his chubby body, yipped a delighted “Awoo~,” and bounded around her mouse form with bright curiosity.

Su Yan stared. “…What are you doing?”

He wasn’t thinking of eating his own mother, was he?

“Mom,” Little Hao said clearly, “you’re so small.”

Su Yan froze. “Y-you can talk?”