Chapter 2: Demoted to Concubine

Pace Zorn finally felt a little more at ease. His attention returned to the Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline, and he saw it had risen to two ten-thousandths. "Ten Bloodline Potential Points increases the Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline by one ten-thousandth. Another eleven points took it from one ten-thousandth to two ten-thousandths. If I want to raise it to one hundred percent… I'll need around a hundred thousand Bloodline Potential Points." The thought made his scalp tighten. "People say a pregnancy lasts ten months. I'm already three months in. Seven months from now, I'll be born. That means I've got two hundred and ten days left." His mind raced. "At my current rate, I'll only get a little over two thousand Bloodline Potential Points. That would push the Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline to just over two percent!" "I have to find a way to get more Bloodline Potential Points." Worry seeped into him like cold water. "I may be a fetus, but my Spirit Soul is awake. I should be able to draw nutrients on my own and earn Bloodline Potential Points." He tried, focusing with intent. Energy immediately streamed into him faster, warm and steady. "It really works!" Joy surged through him. He kept drawing. Luna Juggins clearly sensed her qi and blood flowing toward the fetus without stopping. Surprise flickered across her face, then melted into something brighter, softer. "My child… they all said you'd be weak from birth." Her voice turned gentle, full of tenderness. "But I believe you'll be extraordinary. Even if you truly are weak from birth, you're still my child." About fifteen minutes later, a heavy drowsiness crashed down on Pace. He stopped drawing nutrients. Fighting sleep, he forced the panel open and took a quick look. He had gained 20 Bloodline Potential Points. Then he sank into deep sleep. On the third day, Pace woke. He opened the panel at once. Total Bloodline Potential Points: 32. "Subtract the daily points the system gives me and yesterday's active draw. That means I automatically drew 2 Bloodline Potential Points. That's one more than the day before." He pieced it together. "The more Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline I have, the more Bloodline Potential Points I draw automatically." He continued, sorting through the variables. "Two things limited my active draw yesterday. First, I didn't keep it up long enough. Second, my drawing speed wasn't fast enough." "Both will improve as I grow." He stopped thinking and reached outward with his senses. His mother, Luna Juggins, sat cross-legged on the bed, cultivating. Curiosity stirred. Pace listened closely to the rhythm of her cultivation, wanting to understand it early. About half a stick of incense later, he snapped back to himself. "I don't have much time awake each day. I need to draw nutrients while I can." Before he did, he didn't forget to raise his Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline first. He opened the panel to add points, only to freeze. The panel had changed. Under [Cultivation Technique], a new entry had appeared: [Maternal Art]. [Maternal Art: Second Tier of the Void Serene Zephyr Codex (0/10000)] (Will disappear after birth) "Maternal Art should be the Cultivation Technique my mother cultivates." Delight burst through him. "So I can help her cultivate too." With that thought, he poured proficiency points into the Maternal Art. He didn't dare fill it all at once. If something went wrong with Luna, he'd never forgive himself. For the first attempt, he only added 2000 proficiency points. In the next instant, enlightenment struck Luna like a bell. Everything cleared. She fully understood how to open her Energy Sea by tailoring it to her own condition. The path of cultivation was divided into nine realms: Meridian Opening Realm, Primal Sea Realm, Refining Realm, Divine Treasury Realm, Dragon Transformation Realm, Phenomenon Realm, Truth Seeking Realm, Truth Integration Realm, and Immortal Terrace Realm. Each realm was its own world, each breakthrough a chasm. The difference in strength was night and day, and crossing that chasm was like climbing into the heavens. Luna had been stuck at Peak Meridian Opening Realm for over three years. With enlightenment blazing through her, she seized the moment. She immediately took out a Sea-Breaking Elixir and swallowed it, then drove her True Energy at full force to open her Primal Sea. Boom! It was as if heaven and earth split within her. She successfully opened a Primal Sea inside her body. Under the endless scouring of True Energy, the Primal Sea expanded rapidly. One zhang! Ten zhang! A hundred zhang! A thousand zhang! When it reached a thousand zhang, Luna's True Energy ran dry. She could not expand it any further. The initial size of a Primal Sea was crucial, because the final Primal Sea could only reach about ten times the initial size. The larger the initial Primal Sea, the stronger one became, the greater the potential, the farther the road could go. Ten zhang meant talent. A hundred zhang meant an outstanding genius. A thousand zhang meant a heaven-sent prodigy. Luna stopped cultivating and opened her beautiful eyes. She could barely contain her joy. The human body had one hundred and eight meridians. The Void Serene Zephyr Codex she cultivated could only open forty-five. By all logic, she should have been nearly incapable of opening a thousand-zhang Primal Sea. Yet the enlightenment she received ran deep. During the process, she wasted not a single thread of True Energy. That was how she achieved the impossible and opened a thousand-zhang Primal Sea in one breath. "My child… was it you who helped Mother cultivate?" Luna lowered her head. Her pale fingers stroked her belly, her voice impossibly soft. That enlightenment had felt like divine assistance. She knew her comprehension and aptitude were not good. Otherwise, she would not have failed for three years to open her Primal Sea. There was only one explanation. The fetus had helped her. It wasn't just speculation. She could feel it in her heart. Hearing his mother's question, Pace stretched his tiny body in response. When Luna felt the movement, her happiness swelled even more. Motherly love spilled from her, warm and overflowing, as she continued to stroke him through her belly, murmuring with tender affection, "Good child… Mother's good child…" Bathed in that love, Pace felt comfortable from head to toe. He opened the panel and added all his Bloodline Potential Points to the Ancient Divine Constitution Bloodline. A weathered, ancient scene unfurled in his mind. A lofty man stood on the tip of a mountain peak that stabbed into the clouds. He gazed outward, half looking down upon the world. Golden light flowed through his eyes, and clouds, mist, forests, and mountains turned transparent before him. In the distant ranges thousands of miles away, a wounded ferocious beast fleeing through dense wilderness appeared clearly in his vision. The lofty man's eyes narrowed. Above the wounded beast, terrifying lightning suddenly descended. In an instant, it was struck into ash, vanishing without a trace. At the end, the lofty man slowly turned his head and cast a single glance toward Pace. Boom! The vision shattered. Pace snapped back, his heart still pounding with shock. He opened the panel to check. Sure enough, there was a new entry under Divine Skills. [Divine Skills: Divine Punishment Eye (0/1,000,000)] 〖Divine Punishment Eye: See heaven and earth as lines on your palm. Nothing can hide. Shatter all falsehoods. Where the sacred gaze falls, heavenly thunder descends in judgment.〗 "This Divine Skill is insane. Killing without even showing your face. Perfect for playing the shadow." Pace's delight nearly overflowed. He loved Divine Punishment Eye. One glance from a thousand miles away and the enemy died. It left flawless proof of absence, and it could make everyone believe the target deserved it. Even the heavens had passed judgment. He closed the panel and thought, "Mother used up all her True Energy opening her Primal Sea. I won't actively draw nutrients today." With that, he slipped into sleep on his own. When Luna sensed the fetus go completely quiet, she took out a Millennium Primordial Elixir, swallowed it, and refined it to recover some True Energy. Afterward, brimming with joy, she rose to find her husband, Parker Zorn. If the fetus could help her reach enlightenment, it proved the child was anything but ordinary. Not long after, Luna found Parker in the martial training ground, practicing his technique. After hearing her, Parker looked unimpressed. "It has nothing to do with the fetus. You've been preparing to open your Primal Sea for over three years. It's been a long time coming." Back then, after he cultivated the first tier of his ancestral Divine River Dragon Chant Art to perfection, he had opened a ten-thousand-zhang Primal Sea in only seven days. He had never considered opening a Primal Sea difficult. Then he began to persuade her earnestly. "You've entered the Primal Sea Realm. You should press on and reach the Third Realm, the Divine Treasury Realm, as soon as possible. Then we'll have many children." His gaze turned cold. "This fetus must be dealt with early, so it doesn't drag down your cultivation." Luna shook her head, firm as iron. She had to prove the child's worth. "I truly reached enlightenment because the fetus helped me. After I broke through, I asked, and it responded." "Parker… our child is extraordinary. Let's bring him into the world." She stepped forward and clutched his arm. Her stunning face tilted up, her eyes shining with pleading, begging, desperate hope. Parker sighed. He pried her hands away, then held his palm out in front of her. "Give me the Abortion Pill." Luna thought she had convinced him. Overjoyed, she hurriedly took out the Abortion Pill and handed it to him. Parker uncorked the bottle and poured out a black pill the size of a longan, sharp and pungent. He pinched it between thumb and forefinger and ordered, leaving no room for refusal, "Open your mouth." He had already seen through her. Luna had never intended to abort. So he decided to feed her the Abortion Pill himself, to prevent complications. Luna's face drained of color. She clapped a hand over her mouth and stumbled back, retreating from him. "I won't! I won't!" she cried, shaking. "If you want me to kill my child, I'd rather die!" Parker's face darkened to iron. Luna was usually gentle, obedient, always following his lead. He hadn't expected her to fight him on something this important. "You're the child's father too!" Luna begged, voice breaking. "Can you really bear to kill him? Please… please let me give birth." Parker said coldly, "Because he's my child, he has even less right to be born. A tiger doesn't raise a pup that barks like a dog. I, Parker Zorn, don't need a mediocre descendant." "Let it go. It's good for everyone, including for it." As he spoke, he strode toward her and barked, "Swallow it!" Luna felt the last of her hope collapse. Still backing away, she yanked out a dagger and pressed it to her throat. Tears streaked her soft, beautiful face, but her expression was unshakably resolute. "Parker… don't force me." Parker had to stop. Rage made his whole body tremble. "You're being utterly unreasonable!" Luna dropped to her knees, the dagger still tight to her throat, and pleaded through sobs, "Please, let me give birth to the child." Parker flung his sleeve and walked away. Luna stayed kneeling, refusing to rise, hoping he would soften. She had planned to numb the Marquis of Southguard and his wife, along with Parker, then find a chance to slip away from the Southern Marquisate and hide until she gave birth. But she had been exposed. There was no chance left to escape. Half a day later, the matriarch of the Southern Marquisate walked up to Luna. "Mrs. Juggins, you've disappointed everyone." The matriarch's face was dark, her disgust undisguised. "Threatening Parker with your life. Are you trying to force him into dishonor?" Luna pleaded, voice hoarse. "Please, Mother, allow me to give birth. I'm willing to accept any punishment." "If you're so lacking in sense that you insist on giving birth to that bastard, then you're unfit to be Parker's lawful wife." The matriarch's voice turned icy. "From today onward, you're demoted to concubine. The bastard you give birth to will be born of a concubine, with no right of inheritance. And after it's born, the Southern Marquisate won't spend a single copper on it." With that, she tossed a document and a brush at Luna's feet. "If you want to give birth to that bastard, sign the confession letter!" Luna lowered her head to read. In stark black ink on white paper, it read: Confession Letter I, Luna Juggins, deceived my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and husband. I defied my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and husband and refused to repent. I am willing to accept punishment, demote myself to concubine, and any children I bear will be born of a concubine, with no right of inheritance. After reading it, Luna took the brush with trembling fingers and signed her name through tears. "Fingerprint," the matriarch said coldly. Luna had no choice. She bit her fingertip, dipped it in blood, and pressed a bloody print onto the confession letter. The matriarch lifted a hand. The confession letter flew into her grasp. She snorted heavily and swept away with a flick of her sleeve. After she turned, she rolled a string of Prayer Beads that glowed with faint Buddhist light. A calculating smile crept onto her face. In truth, when Luna had first married into the Southern Marquisate, the matriarch had opposed it with all her might. She despised Luna's low background and mediocre cultivation aptitude. In her eyes, Luna was nowhere near worthy of her dragon-among-men son. But Parker had been bewitched by Luna's beauty, the number one beauty of White Emperor City, and he had refused to marry anyone else. On top of that, the Juggins family had been willing to provide an enormous dowry. In the end, the matriarch had been forced to agree. Luna had brought this upon herself and been demoted to concubine. At last, the matriarch could bring in the ideal candidate she had chosen long ago. The daughter-in-law she favored was Gemma Scurr. Not only was she the eldest young lady of the Scurr family of Green State, she was also the only personally taught lay disciple of the Buddha Master of Mount Salvation. Mount Salvation was one of the Celestial Empire's two great cultivation holy lands. The Buddha Master possessed boundless Divine Skills and immeasurable power. Even the Celestial Sovereign had to show him respect.