Chapter 369: Lotus Born Together

Zhang Cai tightly grasped Zhang Xiaohua’s hands, and with his right hand, still in disbelief, he rubbed his own eyes, taking the opportunity to wipe away some of the dampness there. He looked Zhang Xiaohua up and down, unable to contain his wide smile, and said over and over: “Good, good, as long as you’re back, as long as you’re back.”

But then, he turned his head away, quietly wiping away his tears, as if overcome with joy, yet also as if reminded of something else.

Before Mr. Liu and Liu Kai could say anything, the nearby Old Shopkeeper Li hurried forward and bowed, saying: “Young Hero Zhang, do you still remember this old man?”

Zhang Xiaohua quickly returned the gesture and replied: “Uncle Li, please, there’s no need for such formality. You are the father of Brother Li Jinfeng, my elder. I truly cannot accept such courtesy from you.”

Seeing Zhang Xiaohua’s respectful response, Zhang Cai also grabbed Old Shopkeeper Li’s hand and said: “Old friend, Xiaohua is just a child, there’s no need to be so polite with him.”

Old Shopkeeper Li waved his hands repeatedly and said: “Brother Zhang, I will never forget the kindness of having my life saved. What’s more, Young Hero Zhang saved all three members of my family at once, and nearly lost his own life in the process.”

Zhang Xiaohua was embarrassed and said: “Uncle Li, just call me Xiaohua. I really can’t live up to the title of ‘Young Hero.’”

Mr. Liu, standing to the side, laughed and said: “Zhang Xiaohua, Zhang Xiaohua, it’s best we keep calling you Xiaohua. Let those Jianghu folks outside call you Young Hero Zhang.”

Hearing this, Zhang Xiaohua quickly stepped forward to pay his respects.

Mr. Liu chuckled, helping him up.

Then, Zhang Xiaohua and Liu Kai exchanged bows as well before standing together. Just as they were about to speak, suddenly, Zhang Xiaohua caught a scent in his nose, an aroma so rich it seemed overwhelming, yet so faint it was almost ethereal, drifting down from the heavens. At that moment, every pore in his body opened of its own accord, without him needing to circulate his inner energy, as if absorbing starlight on a night’s training, drawing in this strange and extraordinary fragrance with all his might. At the same time, the others in the courtyard seemed to sense something unusual as well. They looked at each other, sniffed the air, and began searching for the source of the scent.

Only Zhang Xiaohua released his divine sense, and could clearly see that the dragon and phoenix Yuan Qi in the sky had already descended above the small house. The dragon and phoenix formed from that energy seemed almost real as they danced in the air. After a while, the dragon and phoenix flew from different directions toward the space above the house, colliding silently. In an instant, both dragon and phoenix vanished, transforming into countless flower petals that drifted down. “Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers”, this phrase inexplicably flashed through Zhang Xiaohua’s mind.

Back when Zhang Xiaohua practiced the art of unity between man and nature, he had witnessed the vastness of the dragon and phoenix Yuan Qi in the starry sky. Now, as it turned into a rain of flowers, it covered the entire sky above Guo Village. Only a small portion of this floral rain seeped into the little house in the courtyard. Seeing this, Zhang Xiaohua fully extended his divine sense; except for the Yuan Qi that fell directly into the house, which he dared not disturb, nearly all the scattered energy was drawn into his own courtyard, where he absorbed it with all his might.

By now, Zhang Xiaohua had already reached the sixth level of Qi Refinement, his control over Yuan Qi finely honed. With his powerful divine sense and the aid of his upper dantian and Pill Heart, he absorbed all the scattered energy outside the house into his meridians as if a whale swallowing the sea.

As for the Yuan Qi above the house, Zhang Xiaohua dared not touch it recklessly. He certainly would not compete with his little nephew. The house remained shrouded in an invisible red light, and even his divine sense could not discern the use of that energy.

After a while, the scattered heavenly energy grew sparse. Suddenly, a mysterious melody echoed in his mind, as if resounding from within his own heart. Just as Zhang Xiaohua was about to use his divine sense to investigate, he heard an exclamation from inside the house. The red light covering the house instantly changed to a brilliant golden glow.

Zhang Xiaohua frowned, hesitating whether to probe with his divine sense, when suddenly the door to the house creaked open. Li Yinfeng, her face deathly pale, rushed out and called in a low voice, “Something’s wrong! Something’s wrong! Sister Qian’er… she… she’s given birth to a monster!”

Zhang Xiaohua was stunned at first. “Sister Qian’er?” But then he was even more dumbfounded. “A monster?”

It wasn’t just Zhang Xiaohua; everyone in the courtyard turned pale and asked, “What kind of monster?”

“A… a huge lotus! Qian’er gave birth to a huge lotus! Really, a giant lotus!”

“Ah!?” Everyone was dumbstruck.

“A lotus?”

“Xiaofeng, are your eyes playing tricks on you?” Liu Kai hurried forward and grabbed Li Yinfeng’s hand, asking anxiously.

Seeing this, Zhang Xiaohua was momentarily taken aback. The two of them seemed quite close… Could it be…?

As expected, Li Yinfeng’s hands were trembling, and her words came out in fragments: “It’s true, husband, I really saw it. Mother and Aunt Guo were so frightened they couldn’t move. That… that lotus, it even opens and closes, just like it’s blooming.”

At this moment, Li Yinfeng also saw Zhang Xiaohua and called out: “Xiaolong, why don’t you hurry in and take a look?”

Zhang Xiaohua rubbed his nose, feeling quite awkward. His sister-in-law was giving birth, how could he dare go in?

Seeing this, Mr. Liu didn’t have time to explain. He said to Li Yinfeng: “Xiaofeng, you’re the bravest among us. None of us can go in, so you’d better hurry back and keep watch. Don’t let anything serious happen.”

Li Yinfeng seemed confused. She glanced at Zhang Xiaohua, then nodded. “Alright.”

With that, she was about to go back inside. Just then, in Zhang Xiaohua’s divine sense, he saw golden light surging at the doorway of the small house, as if something was about to emerge. Zhang Xiaohua didn’t dare to be careless. He quickly drew the small sword from his robe and stared nervously at the door.

Sure enough, as golden light burst forth in the courtyard, Zhang Xiaohua’s divine sense saw his own mother walking out, cradling a large, round sphere in her hands. The sphere was wrapped in a flowing layer of gold, sliding continuously like water, occasionally emitting golden rays invisible to the naked eye.

When Zhang Xiaohua looked with his eyes, he saw that the golden light was indeed taking the shape of a lotus, opening and closing with each pulse of radiance, mimicking a lotus in bloom.

At this moment, Guo Sufei’s face was pale, her lips tightly pressed together, and her hands trembling as she slowly, step by step, walked to the center of the courtyard. Except for Zhang Xiaohua, who still stood firm with his sword, everyone else had retreated several steps in fear, their faces filled with tension and anxiety.

Their retreat naturally made Zhang Xiaohua stand out. Though Guo Sufei’s eyes were dazed and fearful, when she saw Zhang Xiaohua, a look of joy flashed across her face. She called out softly: “Xiaohua?”

Though her voice was faint, Zhang Xiaohua heard it clearly and replied through tears: “Mother, I’m back.”

Guo Sufei nodded and gestured for him to step back a little, but Zhang Xiaohua shook his head and said: “Mother, it’s alright.”

Then, glancing around, he said: “Mother, why don’t you put it on the stone table?”

Guo Sufei still shook her head, her eyes drifting toward the main gate of the courtyard. How could Zhang Xiaohua not understand her meaning? He walked straight over and said: “Mother, it’s alright. Let me take a look.”

Guo Sufei would not let him come any closer. She stepped back a few paces, her voice trembling: “Xiaohua, you… you stay farther away.”

Zhang Xiaohua stopped and said: “Mother, have you forgotten? Back then, I was the first to notice my sister-in-law’s pregnancy at a glance.”

Guo Sufei was taken aback. Zhang Xiaohua continued: “Give this thing to me, let me see what’s really going on.”

Guo Sufei asked: “Are you sure it’s safe?”

Zhang Xiaohua smiled. “It’s fine, Mother. It’s only my nephew or niece, what is there to be afraid of?”

With that, he stepped forward, took the lotus from Guo Sufei’s hands, and she could only comply, though she still followed closely behind him, clearly uneasy.

The lotus, transformed from the sphere, felt just like a real lotus in his hands. Zhang Xiaohua walked to the stone table, placed the lotus on it, and examined it with his eyes. It looked exactly like a genuine lotus, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except that it kept opening and closing, which was rather unsettling.

Zhang Xiaohua then released his divine sense to carefully inspect the sphere.

The moment his divine sense touched it, Zhang Xiaohua was startled out of his wits. This was no ordinary sphere, this was an incredibly intricate formation, made up of countless golden talismans, each one shaped like a tadpole, linked together and spinning in the air like flowing water!!!

When Zhang Xiaohua immersed his divine sense into one of the tadpole-like talismans, he was shocked to find that inside it was yet another world of endless talismans, each as tiny as a tadpole, interwoven together.

“This…” Zhang Xiaohua was dumbfounded.

This far surpassed his imagination, far exceeded any formation or restriction he knew. He vaguely sensed that this entire spherical formation seemed to exist innately, not something created by human hands, nor could it be broken by human means. As for those even tinier talismans, just a single glance with his divine sense revealed their complexity and subtlety, billions of times more profound than the formation arts he’d learned from Fire Dragon True Person on the deserted island. Perhaps the gap was even greater, but Zhang Xiaohua could not even fathom it.

“What should I do? The child is probably inside this formation. If I can’t break it, the child won’t be able to come out. But this formation, I doubt anyone in the world could unravel it.”

“What on earth is going on? Sister-in-law only drank spring water rich in Yuan Qi, and I only gave her a small yuan stone. How could such a strange thing be born? And it’s even protected by this innate formation?”

“That’s right, the auspicious dragon and phoenix this morning, the heavenly maiden scattering flowers just now, even that faint music, all of it was for this child, wasn’t it? But if there are such heavenly omens, the fruit should fall when ripe. Surely heaven wouldn’t leave us with an unsolvable riddle.”

Thinking this, Zhang Xiaohua glanced at his mother, who now seemed a bit calmer, perhaps because she was beside her son, or maybe because she trusted his abilities. The others, seeing this, also stepped forward a few paces. Only Zhang Cai and Mr. Liu stood right beside Zhang Xiaohua; the rest kept a cautious distance.

Zhang Xiaohua sighed, about to speak to his mother, when the golden formation happened to rotate to a certain angle. Zhang Xiaohua’s divine sense swept over it by chance, and his heart suddenly leapt with joy.