"Mrs. Juggins, you have five days to get rid of the fetus in your belly." "You're far too weak. The Mrs. Juggins bloodline is too thin. You can't possibly nurture a child with a strong innate foundation." "With a weak innate foundation, the child is destined to be mediocre." "The Southern Marquisate has no need for a mediocre heir!" Pace Zorn drifted in and out of haze as that woman's voice cut through the darkness, cold and absolute. His heart clenched for no reason, as if disaster had already arrived at his doorstep. He tried to open his eyes. He couldn't. His eyelids might as well have been sealed shut. He tried to move his arms and legs, only to realize he wasn't touching anything at all. He floated, suspended in liquid. Strangely, he didn't feel like he was suffocating. *What kind of dream is this?* he thought, dazed. *Did I fall asleep at my desk again while doing homework?* Then it hit him with terrifying clarity. He had transmigrated. He had been reborn as a fetus still inside his mother's womb. In the next instant, an image surfaced in his mind, crisp as if he were seeing it with his own eyes. A cold-toned hall spread out before him. A dragon's head trophy hung as decor. White tiger pelts lay draped over furniture. Iron-blooded armor stood on display beside spears and a divine bow. In the center stood a breathtakingly beautiful young woman, her belly slightly rounded, her temperament soft and fragile. Beside her stood a handsome, resolute young man in battle armor. Opposite them, seated high in the main chair, was an elderly couple dressed in the robes and caps of nobility. The elderly woman rolled a string of Prayer Beads between her fingers. Each bead exuded a hazy Buddhist glow. The beautiful young woman dropped to her knees with a thud, looking even more delicate as she sobbed, "Father, Mother, please have mercy. This is Parker and my first child. I'll take care of the pregnancy, I'll eat every tonic I can. I'll make sure the child is born with an innate foundation that doesn't lose to anyone!" *She's my mother…* Pace Zorn realized. Then his scalp went numb. *Wait. They're going to abort me?* *Are you kidding me? Other people at least die after they've done something. I haven't even opened my eyes and I'm getting flushed out first?* *No way. Absolutely not!* *System! Panel! Whatever dragged me here, get out here and save me!!!* He clawed at survival with everything he had. The matriarch of the Southern Marquisate didn't so much as blink at the plea. Her fingers kept turning the Prayer Beads, her words sharp enough to carve bone. "My Southern Marquisate breeds dragons in human skin. We swallow mountains and rivers like tigers. For twelve hundred years, we have guarded the southern frontier on behalf of the Celestial Sovereign, protecting the people from demons." "How could a frail descendant of the Southern Marquisate stand watch over the southern frontier?" "Even if you give birth to him, once he steps onto a battlefield, he will end up in the belly of demons and foreign races sooner or later. White-haired sending off black-haired." "Better short pain than long pain. Abort it." "If you truly want a child, then cultivate diligently. Become a Third Realm cultivator as soon as possible. Only then will you have the strength to bear and nurture the mighty bloodline of my Southern Marquisate." Seeing the matriarch's heart was stone, Luna Juggins turned and clung to the armored young man's leg, crying so hard her voice broke. "Husband… husband… w-wah… This is our child… wah… our first child…" The young man turned his face away. His stern features tilted up toward the ceiling, shame flickering across his expression, but he stayed silent. Unmoved. He had agreed to this. That was why he had rushed back from the front lines. In the Southern Marquisate, weakness was a sin. A child born without a strong innate foundation was a sin the moment it drew breath. *Damn it, even Dad's this cold-blooded?* Inside Luna Juggins's belly, Pace Zorn boiled over. *Fine. If I'm born, I'll beat you until your head swells and you're crying apologies!* *System, panel, anything! Hurry up! If you don't show up, it's game over!* He begged until his throat felt raw, even though no sound could leave him. At last, a translucent blue panel appeared in his mind. [Name: Pace Zorn] [Age: Fetus, three months] [Cultivation: None] [Bloodline: Wind Spirit Constitution 44%, Divine River Constitution 28%, Mortal Constitution 17%, Sixfold Abyssal Vessel 8%, … Ancient Divine Constitution 0.001%] [Divine Skills: None] [Cultivation Technique: None] [spells: None] [Martial Techniques: None] [Bloodline Potential Points: 10](Automatically gained 10 points per day; can also be obtained by drawing from the mother's body. Ends after birth.) [proficiency: 10000](Automatically gained 10000 points per day.) Relief crashed through him. With the panel finally here, he managed to steady himself. He scanned his bloodline information at a frantic pace. Wind Spirit Constitution: Easily gains insight into wind. Cultivating the wind path yields twice the results with half the effort. Wind-type battle techniques gain an additional threefold increase in power. Divine River Constitution: Qi and blood, divine strength, and True Energy flowed like an endless river, surging without cease. Damage received was reduced by threefold, and it could immunize most special damage. … Ancient Divine Constitution: The most perfect and strongest Battle Constitution of the Human Race in the ancient era. It possessed countless advantages: immunity to ten thousand evils, suppression of anomalies, invincibility among peers, an unrivaled physical body… and more. Once the Divine Constitution reached completion, one could stand shoulder to shoulder with a Great Emperor and suppress the heavens. After skimming the long list, Pace Zorn's focus locked onto the Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline. Its percentage was the smallest. But it was the strongest. Strong to the point of being unreasonable. If he could choose, he would choose the strongest. Always. He dumped all 10 Bloodline Potential Points into the Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline in one go. In an instant, an ancient, weathered scene slammed into his mind, so overwhelming it stole his breath. A lofty man stood atop a hundred-zhang platform that ran with blood. Above him stretched a boundless sky, old beyond time. Before the platform, countless beings kowtowed in worship: mortals, powerful cultivators, immortals, even Buddhas. Behind the platform lay mountains of corpses and seas of gore. Ferocious beasts, demons, evil spirits, divine beasts, flood dragons… bodies piled upon bodies. Farther still, the horizon was crammed with endless monsters, ghosts, beasts, and foreign races. They huddled at a distance, trembling, fear saturating the air. Pace Zorn stared, stunned out of his mind. The lofty man seemed to sense his gaze. Slowly, he turned his head and looked back. Boom- The vision shattered. Pace Zorn snapped awake, and the change was immediate. His body felt as if it had leapt to a higher level. Strength surged through him. His mind sharpened. Even his awareness of the outside world grew clearer. He checked the panel again. The Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline had risen to one ten-thousandth. Thump! Thump! Thump… The fetal heartbeat strengthened. Luna Juggins felt it clearly, undeniable proof of the child's existence. "Husband… I'm begging you… wah…" she pleaded harder, voice ragged. "Please… don't abort our child…" The matriarch of the Southern Marquisate slammed her palm on the table. "Mrs. Juggins! My Southern Marquisate is iron and blood. How dare you wail here like some lovesick girl and disgrace our household?!" Luna Juggins flinched and forced herself to stop sobbing, but tears still poured down her cheeks. She looked at her husband with pleading eyes. Parker Zorn finally turned back. He bent down and helped her up, supporting her fragile frame. His voice was grave. "Luna, have you thought about this? If the child is born weak, he'll be inferior his whole life. He'll suffer every day, live in misery, and he might even hate us for bringing him into the world…" "Bullshit!" Pace Zorn cursed the twisted logic the moment he heard it. "You're strangling me before I'm even born. If you do this, I'll haunt you for the rest of your life!" No one could hear him. "So," Parker Zorn continued, his tone hard as steel, "we should abort the fetus." Luna Juggins went cold from head to toe. She had thought it was the matriarch forcing this. She had never imagined the child's own father would demand it too. She tore free of Parker Zorn's hands and stumbled back two or three steps, fighting to keep her footing. "Luna, don't blame me for being cruel," Parker Zorn urged. "It's for everyone's good. When you become a Third Realm cultivator, we'll have children again. Many, many children." Luna Juggins wiped her tears and turned to face the elderly couple. Grief hollowed out her voice. "Father, Mother… this daughter-in-law is willing to abort the fetus. I only beg you to grant me a few days." The matriarch of the Southern Marquisate stopped rolling her Prayer Beads. She produced a bottle of Abortion Pill and handed it over as if offering mercy. "Ten days." Earlier, she had only given five. Luna Juggins stepped forward and accepted the Abortion Pill with both hands, obedient and meek. Watching his mother, outnumbered and crushed by pressure, agree to end him, Pace Zorn felt both furious and absurdly amused. An Ancient Divine Constitution that hadn't even been born yet was about to be aborted. A wave of exhaustion swept over him. He couldn't resist it. He sank into sleep. He was only a fetus, after all. His body couldn't keep him conscious for long. When Pace Zorn woke again, it was the next day. He quickly checked his body. Nothing felt wrong for the moment. The Abortion Pill probably hadn't been taken yet. He opened the panel and saw he had 11 Bloodline Potential Points. "The extra point must've come from automatically drawing nutrients from the mother while I slept," he guessed. "Whether I get aborted or not, I'll do what I can." He poured all his Bloodline Potential Points into the Ancient Bloodline again. That ancient, weathered vision returned. The lofty man was locked in a blood-soaked battle with an Eight-Headed Serpent. The creature stretched for dozens of li. When it coiled, it was like a mountain. Each of its eight enormous, horrifying heads spewed something different: flames, frost, venom… Before it, the man was dust. Surrounded by eight heads, he could only dodge desperately. He couldn't harm the Eight-Headed Serpent at all. He couldn't even get close. Just as it seemed the lofty man would be overwhelmed and die beneath the creature's wide-area assault, something shifted in him, as if he had grasped a truth. He shook once. His body swelled rapidly, growing into a giant with feet planted on the earth and head propping up the sky, even larger than the Eight-Headed Serpent. With brute force alone, the giant tore off the serpent's eight heads one by one. Then he grew larger still, lifted his leg, and stomped the corpse into a paste of flesh. Pace Zorn watched, mind shaken to its core, mouth hanging open. The lofty man turned slowly and looked at him again. Boom- The vision exploded into fragments. Pace Zorn returned to himself, breathless, with the strange certainty that he had learned something. He snapped open the panel. A new entry had appeared. [Divine Skills: Divine Constitution: Heaven and Earth Phenomenon (0/10,000,000)] 〖Divine Constitution: Heaven and Earth Phenomenon: Created by the Primordial Ancient Divine Constitution. It granted the Human Race a physical body stronger than all races. All other Heaven and Earth Phenomenon are castrated, weakened versions. Strength and defense increased by a tenfold exponent based on the caster's size increase. If size doubled, strength and defense increased tenfold. If size increased ten times, strength and defense increased a thousandfold, and so on.〗 Seeing the Divine Skills entry, Pace Zorn's heart leapt. The Ancient Divine Constitution could pass down Divine Skills through bloodline inheritance. At the same time, Luna Juggins also sensed the fetal heartbeat strengthen again. Thump! Thump! Thump… With every beat, she even faintly felt the child drawing nutrients nonstop. She believed the fetus had sensed danger in the dark and was fighting desperately to live. She lowered her head and stroked her belly with a pale hand. Her voice was gentle, but it carried a quiet, unshakable resolve. "My child, you've suffered. Mother will bring you into this world." Pace Zorn froze. So that was it. His mother had pretended to submit, buying time while she searched for another way to keep him alive. Was she going to flee back to her family and give birth to him in secret?