48: Your child needs you, don't die.

【 Extract genes, maintain sufficient intimate behavior with the other party during pregnancy. 】

【 The fetus will absorb sufficient genetic fragments during the process. 】

Is this... what it meant?

"In other words... I need to keep Li by my side, have him treat me well, touch me, and even..."

Tu Nan couldn't bring herself to say the word.

This was just too much.

The beast world, the System—whose setting was this that had absolutely no bottom line?

In other words, for the sake of the Children, she needed Li?

Realizing this, she turned around blankly, only to be shocked.

A knife! When did it get into Hain's hands?

He was pinning Li down with his knee, holding that cold glint high, ready to end this battle with the final and most lethal blow.

"Hain! Don't!"

Hain heard a different kind of decisiveness in her tone compared to just a moment ago. He controlled his strength, letting the tip of the blade stop right at Li's forehead.

It hung there.

Tu Nan pushed open the car door.

Stumbling through the yellow sand, she ran over to the two Male Beast.

Only then did a glimmer of life appear in Li; Tu Nan's approach had lit him up again.

His previously lifeless expression erupted once more with that stubborn, death-defying tenacity.

But Tu Nan did not rush toward him.

He watched, helpless, as his Foster Mother approached that strange Male Beast and even placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Hain, let him go..."

Tu Nan said, "I know him."

As her delicate lips uttered the name of another Male Beast, Li struggled violently.

Hain snorted coldly.

He applied a little more force with his hand, locking his prey down completely.

Tu Nan was actually pleading for him—why?

Hain scrutinized Li carefully.

This Chaotic Beast was covered in wounds and looked like he was close to being scrapped; what exactly made him worth Tu Nan speaking up?

"Why? No matter what happens, as long as he dies, it will all be over."

He asked cautiously, keeping the question vague.

There were indeed some Female who would choose to submit to those who had once bullied them.

But that would not be Tu Nan.

The person who made his Soul react would not be so weak.

He could not have misread the resilience and vitality in Tu Nan's eyes. Those were excellent qualities often found in the Female of his familiar Sea Soul Star.

But Tu Nan had not grown up in such an environment; she also possessed a blend of fragility and cynicism toward this world.

This made her appear unique.

Her Soul shone brilliantly, like that Pearl mixed in the sand, making it hard for him to look away.

Just as the priest said, on the road of searching, the Soul will naturally recognize its destination...

"Tell me the reason for keeping him alive."

Hain asked again, unwilling to let it go. He felt this reason would be... very important.

"He must live," Tu Nan answered seriously.

"He is the father of the Children in my stomach."

Hain was slightly distracted, and Li seized this sliver of an opportunity to roll away.

Li thought he had already reached his limit, having squeezed out every ounce of strength.

It turned out he hadn't.

He knelt half-way at Tu Nan's feet, raising his hand gently. His hand, covered in chapped skin and abrasions, landed devoutly on Tu Nan's lower abdomen, and he asked, trembling: "Is it... true? ... The Children."

His eyes were fixed intently on Tu Nan.

Hain did not move.

Li was at the end of his rope now; there was no way he could harm Tu Nan right under his nose.

Hain was also waiting for Tu Nan to continue explaining.

Tu Nan had never seen Li look so disheveled yet so desperate.

Tu Nan knew that, in reality, Li never had too many extraneous thoughts in his mind.

Once he set his mind on something, nothing else existed. It was just like how he wouldn't overthink why there was a Foster Mother, or whether Tu Nan was willing to become a Foster Mother.

He simply determined that Tu Nan was his, then marked her as his territory, and treated her with everything he had.

Tu Nan sighed gloomily.

Li had never really given up on her; it was she who had reacted out of stress at that moment.

She had not completely separated her past life from the present.

This had blinded her eyes, perhaps leading her to make the wrong choices.

"Yes," she replied to Li, "The Children, I promised you. Didn't I?"

She smiled slightly, casting off the emotions that had been shackling her.

Her adoptive parents from her past life, the laboratory—they were beyond reach now. All the betrayals had remained in the past.

She had a new life now.

She had to move forward, move forward, without looking back.

She also had a new sustenance—the Children.

Tu Nan revealed a genuine smile, caressing her lower abdomen.

Unlike those adoptive parents who were only connected by a genetic basis and forced together.

She finally had a true Bloodline relative now.

She had actually always envied the secret intimacy between Little Bear and Ji Yu.

Even if it wasn't acknowledged, there had always been a kind of trust and warmth flowing between that mother and Children. That was a feeling she had never truly received.

But, it didn't matter.

When she personally nurtured this Children.

She would give him all her love, give him the best of everything, raise him, and not let him suffer any harm.

And Li was the Children's father, so naturally, he also had to contribute to this Children.

First, it started with the intimate relationship needed for gene extraction.

She stroked Li's one intact ear and asked, "Now you have to support me and the Children. You can't die, okay?"

Li's heart was bursting with emotion; his mind went black, but brilliant light appeared before his eyes.

The strange beast man, the wounds on his body—he had forgotten them all.

Li hugged Tu Nan; the strong man had gone completely stiff from the overwhelming emotional shock.

"Okay, okay, I won't die."

Li gritted his teeth, his voice sounding as if it were squeezed from the deepest part of his throat. His spine remained straight; he refused to fall.

Tu Nan looked at him and suddenly felt that the vow uttered by this body, torn apart by battle, was more sincere than any he had said before.

"I'll support you..."

He was still speaking, but his body was already swaying as he slid from in front of Tu Nan.

"Li!"

Tu Nan caught him.

Li fell heavily into her arms, and finally, his eyelids drooped, and he passed out completely.

Tu Nan checked under his nose; there was still shallow breathing. Setting down the heavy stone in her heart, she looked at the silent Hain.

"Can I trouble you one last time?"

"Help me bring him back to the caravan."

"I have to save him!"

Tu Nan requested.

* * *

Hain didn't ask any more questions.

Every word Tu Nan said, each more firm than the last, made him understand everything.

Under such a request, reasons seemed pale.

He dragged Li back to the caravan using the military vehicle. Before that, he had even taken out the first-aid kit from the military vehicle and given Li an adrenaline shot.

On the way back, the two didn't say a word.

Once they reached the caravan, facing Ken who came up to ask questions, Hain simply took out the military badge Kong Jiamu had given him and, using "official business" as an excuse, forcibly demanded that the caravan treat this battered Chaotic Beast.

Tu Nan watched as he put on his noble airs, shooed everyone else away, and followed Tu Nan's instructions to place Li in the tent belonging to Ji Yu and Tu Nan.

Not until everything was properly arranged did Hain speak again.

"I'm leaving now." He didn't look at Tu Nan again but instead looked toward the horizon, in the direction of his home, the Sea Soul Star.

Hain revealed a faint, bitter smile.

On this trip, it seemed he had found his soulmate under the guidance of the goddess, but unfortunately, he had arrived a step too late.

Tu Nan looked at him gently.

Neither happy nor angry; it was the composure of someone who had made a major decision.

The color of her Soul seemed even more brilliant, Hain sighed.

Tu Nan was now like a Pearl that had been polished, having brushed away its dusty shell to finally reveal the more complex and lustrous light beneath.

As expected, the priest was always right. Everyone would be answered by the goddess, but one should not ask for too much.

"If one day..."

Hain wanted to tell Tu Nan, if you need anything, you can come to the Sea Soul Star to find me.

But after thinking for a moment, he didn't say the rest of the words.

After all, that didn't sound like a good wish. Instead, it sounded as if he were hoping for something bad to happen.

So he cut the topic short and simply wished her well.

"I wish you all the best."

"I wish you the same."

Tu Nan crossed her hands over her chest and performed a solemn bow.

When Tu Nan stood up, she only saw the tent curtain swaying slightly.

Hain was already gone.

He had left.