Chapter 8 - My First Child

Huuuuuuu..... Haaaaaaaaa... Huuuuuuu..... Haaaaaaaaa...

I'm so nervous... This will be my first time giving birth. I heard it will hurt a lot, as if you were being split apart in half, at least, that's what the midwife told me. I hope it won't be as painful as I thought it would be, and I wanted to take some painkillers beforehand, but the midwife told me taking painkillers before giving birth can be very dangerous, so I gritted my teeth and just accepted it. All for my love child with Bai Bai. Besides, Bai Bai will be by my side, so at least I won't be alone.

"An Xin, don't worry. I won't be going anywhere. I will stay here with you until our child is born. I will support you all the way." Wei Bai comforted me.

"I know you will. I'm just a little nervous, since I won't be able to use any Qi at all. At least, I can take comfort in the fact that since the baby will absorb all the Qi I have, it is less likely the baby will die. The scholars have said that it is extremely rare for cultivators to have any stillbirths because of that, and also due to that, the baby is more likely to have the talent for detecting and absorbing Qi from Heaven and Earth." I replied, trying to soothe my nerves.

"The scholars may be weird sometimes, but their knowledge is usually unparalleled. Especially the ones that cultivate. Though the scholar cultivators are more focused on the 4 arts. The ones that don't, have many different weird inclinations. Some are more normal like martial arts, but I heard some of them study dead bodies..." Wei Bai mentioned in an attempt to distract me, which I admit, worked.

"Ugh, please don't mention that, it's very queasy in itself to play around with dead bodies.

I'm fine the dead bodies alone, we hunt ourselves after all. We need to cut out all the meat or there won't be enough for everyone. Occasionally there would be bandits trying to steal from our hunting trip, and also our caravan. So humanoid dead bodies aren't a rare sight...

But aren't those more like demonic cultivators? Toying with dead bodies..." I disgustedly questioned.

"I do not know. But I do know that cultivators from dark sects are worse. They toy around with living people instead.

The demonic cultivators usually have more bloodlust and faster cultivation speed, since they rely on many different plundering arts that devour other people's cultivation, which is bad, yes.

But the dark cultivators are more sinister. They rely on rituals and experiments to gain power by toying around with people they've captured.

At least the demonic cultivators only use the body and soul of other cultivators they've captured for cultivation or weapon making. They might torture the souls, but it's for bringing out the savagery in the souls to be used in their attacks.

However, the dark sects torture people, cultivator or not, for bringing out the worst emotions in people. Horror, fear, anger, any kind of negative emotion, they use it to drive their rituals.

We don't have to worry about demonic cultivators, since they have their own region far from here, and only go around hunting the borders and having skirmishes. The decennial war between the righteous and demonic factions just recently ended, both sides need to recuperate. Even though the remaining demonic cultivators usually get much stronger than before, our righteous cultivators managed to hold out in terms of numbers and cooperation, which is the things that demonic cultivators have trouble with. The competition over there is cutthroat, to say the least.

But the dark sects don't care about any of that. They settle down wherever they like, in the territory of both sides, and terrorize the commoners and cultivators alike, making trouble for both factions.

Especially the demonic faction, they hate dark sects with a passion, because more than once they have lost the war to our righteous faction because they had no commoners to grow and manage the farms. They couldn't afford to waste Qi on easing hunger with as little numbers they have as it is." Wei Bai rambled.

"You seemed to know them quite well, especially the dark sects..." *smirk* "Also, you're very talkative today." I teased.

"....It's a special day today.. And also, I was trying to grab your full attention. ...Did it work?" Wei Bai guiltily muttered.

"Fufu, it did. But you still haven't answered my first question." I chuckled.

"I fought some of the dark sects' cultivators a few times while protecting our caravan. ....Also, I heard about the demonic cultivators' habits and differences compared to dark sect cultivators from a senior at the Mercenary Association while on the way to wiping out a dark sect." Wei Bai explained.

"How come I didn't know about you doing such a dangerous thing?!" I angrily asked.

"....I was asked for a favour from a friend to take a job at the Mercenary Association. The pay was good, but he wanted some friends to come along so we could have each other's backs. ...It was during the time when the caravan usually set out. We managed to do it smoothly thanks to that senior explaining to us all about the dark sects, since his family were commoners that were used as sacrifices for blood rituals. ...I rejoined the caravan as it was coming back to the clan." Wei Bai hesitatingly explained.

"And you never sought to tell me??!! Do you still see me as your wife??!! You little..!!!" I scolded Wei Bai as I felt rage popping a vein in my head.

"I'm sorry! But I didn't want to worry you in the first place, which was why I didn't tell you about it... Besides, nothing went wrong at all, none of the mercenaries died or got heavily injured, that senior knew all the tricks the dark sect used like he hunted them for a living, which is not too far from the truth. Forgive me, okay, An Xin?" Wei Bai pleaded while holding my hands together in his.

"Hmph! You owe me one. That's final. You got that?!" I confirmed with fury while pouting as I shook his hands off and pointed my finger at him.

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you for letting me off the hook." Wei Bai complied as he saluted.

"Hmph~!" I pouted while turning my head away from him.

"Don't be so angry anymore, okay, Xin Xin? At least I managed to successfully distract you from being occupied by the whole giving birth matter. You're not so nervous anymore, right?" Wei Bai appeased me while hugging me from the side.

"You...! ...You're right. I'm not nervous anymore. But it doesn't mean that you should lie to me. I'm very hurt that you never deigned to tell me about something this important, especially something that concerns with your well-being! My husband, do you still see me as someone important to you??!" I angrily exclaimed.

"I do. I still do. I always do. You will always be the most important person in my life, Xin Xin. Besides our child. Which is why I told you about it, didn't I?" Wei Bai swore.

"If I didn't chase you for an answer, would you still have told me? Hmph."

"I.... don't know. It is very hard to tell you about it, especially without making you angry. You know that I don't want to make you angry at all. I cherish you a lot, Xin Xin. And I always want to make you happy."

"....At least you told the truth. I won't forgive you for it though. Show me through your actions as you always do."

"...Yes."

"By the way... You called me Xin Xin, didn't you?" I asked as a smile was tugging at the corner of my lips.

"I-I... I didn't." Wei Bai stuttered.

"You did! Why are you still so shy about calling me Xin Xin in public?" I teased.

*looks away, blushing*

"You're so cute~ when you're like this. I love it when you're like this, you're so fun to tea..... Ugh.."

"Xin Xin! What's wrong?!" Wei Bai panicked.

"It's okay, it's just a contraction." I downplayed.

"What do you mean, 'it's just a contraction.'?!" Wei Bai shouted.

"Relax, I have these all the time nowadays." I informed Wei Bai.

"All the time?! Is the baby coming?" Wei Bai anxiously asked.

"Ahahahaha! Look at you, you're so anxious you look like you're about to jump out of your skin!" I laughingly mentioned.

"And you look as if you don't have a single bit of nervousness in you. Well, I guess it's better this way. I'll be anxious for your portion too." Wei Bai sighed.

"Ufufu, thank you then...uh oh."

"Now what?" Wei Bai asked.

"My contractions. They're getting stronger. And more frequent. Usually it isn't a problem, because I can easily control it. But this. It's different. It's unstoppable. I think the baby's coming. For real this time. I think she can't wait anymore." I seriously uttered.