Transmigrating Into a Fantasy World: Signing in During Pregnancy, Reaching the Summit with My Childhood Sweetheart

19: Chapter 19: Dead wood leadsDespair, like a tide of cold water, instantly submerged Elder Sun’s heart.

Inside the Woodshed, the lives of Lin Mo and Su Muxue hung in the balance. Although the conflict between ice and fire within their bodies had temporarily subsided, the wounds left by the depletion of their Origin and the backlash of the Seal were like time bombs. In the backyard, Liu Qingxuan lay beside the roots of the filthy bone rotting grass, the potent poison attacking her heart. Her life force was like a flickering candle in the wind, liable to be extinguished at any moment.

Three lives—three lives he had personally drawn into this storm’s vortex—were all hanging by a thread! As for himself, having forcibly suppressed the Profound Yin backlash while acting as a conduit for the ice-fire cycle, his internal organs were damaged, his True Qi was in Chaos, and he had almost completely lost the ability to move!

”Is Heaven going to destroy me... destroy my tiny pharmacy?” Elder Sun leaned against the cold wall. Blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto his lapel, blooming into striking red plum blossoms. His clouded eyes were filled with pain and resentment. He had spent his life practicing medicine, saving the dying and healing the wounded, only to end up watching three innocent lives perish before him?

No! Absolutely not! A stubbornness and refusal to yield, born from a healer’s instinct, flared up in his exhausted chest like a dying spark suddenly catching fire! He, Sun Jishi, had not yet reached the time to close his eyes and accept fate!

He struggled, using his last ounce of strength to stumble to Liu Qingxuan’s side. His trembling fingers touched her carotid pulse. The pulse was weak and chaotic, like a tangled mess, carrying a deep-seated, chilling Death Qi! The poison of the bone rotting grass had already invaded her heart Meridians, frantically devouring her last bit of life force!

”Corroding the heart and eroding the bones... even immortals would find it hard to save her...” Elder Sun’s heart sank to the bottom. He knew this poison all too well! Unless he had a legendary Sacred Detoxification Pill, there was no way to save her! And how could his small-town pharmacy possess a Sacred Detoxification Pill?

Despair struck again. He looked at Liu Qingxuan’s pale and swollen face, her fingers blackened by the poison, and his gaze swept over the crisscrossing old and new scars beneath her worn sleeves... This stubborn woman, for her children, had struggled to survive in desperate situations like wild grass, only to finally fall beside this filthy poisonous herb... ”The children...” Elder Sun’s gaze turned toward the Woodshed. If Liu Qingxuan died, how could those two little ones survive? Moer was depleted and dying, and Su Muxue was heavily injured by the backlash of the Seal. This small pharmacy would become the grave for the mother and her two children!

Just then—

Inside the Woodshed, the unconscious Lin Mo was experiencing an unprecedented storm in the depths of his consciousness.

The forcibly interrupted Bone Tempering, the backlash of the ice and fire conflict, the heavy burden of the depleted Origin... all of this had almost completely destroyed him. But the faint yet ”active” pulse of the chaos dao seed and the lingering warm aura of the Soul-Nourishing Wood Shavings were like a lighthouse in the dark, firmly anchoring his consciousness that was about to dissipate.

[Warning! High concentration of Life Origin toxin (bone rotting grass · heart meridian erosion state) detected externally!] [Warning! The toxin source’s vital signs are rapidly failing!] [Analyzing toxin composition... Highly toxic! Filthy! Soul-eroding! ...] The cold System prompts rang out frantically, like a long-sounding siren!

Toxin? Mother?! Lin Mo’s consciousness was like ice water poured over his head, instantly waking him from the chaotic pain! He ”perceived” it! He perceived the heartbreaking scene in the backyard—his mother lying on the ground, her life force rapidly draining away like a kite with a broken string! The filthy poison entwined around her heart Meridians radiated the aura of death!

”Mother—!” A silent, heart-wrenching scream erupted from the depths of his consciousness! Immense fear and anger instantly overwhelmed all pain! She couldn’t die! Mother couldn’t die! He had promised to protect her! Driven by this protective will that transcended all limits, the chaos dao seed suddenly erupted with an unprecedented light! Though still dim and depleted, it carried a resolution to perish together!

[Host’s strong protective will detected! Triggering Origin survival instinct!] [Dao Seed characteristic activated: Chaos’s Beginning, All Things Return to the Origin!] [Analyzing toxin characteristics: Filthy and Soul-eroding... Can attempt to guide and devour... Risk: Dao Seed (Seed) may be eroded by filth, accelerating collapse... Success rate: below 0.1%... Execute?]

Devour? Guiding the toxin into his own depleted Dao Seed?! This thought was insane and fatal! His already collapsing Dao Seed, if it introduced this filthy poison, would undoubtedly be seeking its own death! A success rate below 0.1% was almost equivalent to suicide!

But... if he didn’t do it, his mother would surely die!

No hesitation! No weighing the options! ”Execute!!” Lin Mo let out a beast-like roar in the depths of his consciousness! For his mother, even if there was only a one-in-a-billion hope, he would gamble everything!

Buzz—! The chaos dao seed pulsed frantically! A faint but most primitive and overbearing devouring instinct suction, centered on Lin Mo, ignored the barriers of space. Like invisible tentacles, it suddenly reached deep into the cluster of filthy poison entrenched in Liu Qingxuan’s heart Meridians in the backyard!

”Withered Wood Guide!” This was an eerie method Lin Mo had forcibly birthed in his desperate situation, relying on his protective will and a vague understanding of the Chaos Dao Body’s characteristics (All Things Return to the Origin). It was almost instinctive, a method of harming oneself to benefit others! Using his own depleted Origin as a guide to forcibly devour another’s poison! Like withered wood forcibly absorbing filth to nourish itself, yet accelerating its own decay!

In the backyard, Elder Sun, who was about to risk everything to forcibly Seal Liu Qingxuan’s heart Meridians with silver needles to delay the poison’s onset, suddenly froze his withered fingers in mid-air! His clouded eyes widened, filled with unbelievable horror!

He clearly ”perceived” it! A faint power, carrying an indescribable ancientness and desolation, as if it could devour everything, was emanating from the dying infant in the Woodshed! This power ignored his existence and, like a precise scalpel, directly locked onto the cluster of bone rotting grass poison deep in Liu Qingxuan’s heart Meridians!

Then, under Elder Sun’s horrified gaze, that cluster of filthy poison—which even he was helpless against and which was frantically devouring Liu Qingxuan’s life force—seemed to receive some supreme summons. It actually ”obediently” and even with a hint of ”joy” detached from Liu Qingxuan’s heart Meridians, transforming into a tiny yet extremely condensed grey-black airflow. Like a tired bird returning to its nest, it silently drifted toward the Woodshed! In an instant, it vanished into the sleeping Lin Mo’s body!

”This... this is... drawing poison into the body?! No! This is... devouring?!!” Elder Sun shook violently, as if struck by a bolt of lightning from the Nine Heavens! In his life as a physician, he had seen countless strange poisons and techniques, but he had never seen such a bizarre, overbearing, and... self-destructive method! This infant... what kind of monster was he?!

As that grey-black airflow left her body, a trace of Death Qi faded from Liu Qingxuan’s pale face at a visible rate! Although she was still pale and weak, the fatal erosive sensation at her heart Meridians had disappeared! Her rapid and desperate breathing also slowed slightly! Although the poison was not completely cleared and the remaining toxicity continued to erode her body, the most dangerous heart meridian poison had been forcibly stripped away!

”Argh—!” Inside the Woodshed, Lin Mo let out a scream of agony that twisted to the depths of his Soul! The moment that strand of pure bone rotting grass Origin poison entered his body, it was like injecting the filthiest ink into a spring that was about to dry up!

The faint light of the chaos dao seed was instantly entwined and eroded by the grey-black filthy Qi! A cold, filthy, and intense erosive pain, accompanied by a Soul-tearing sensation, instantly swept through Lin Mo’s entire body! It was a hundred times more painful than Bone Tempering or the clash of ice and fire! His depleted Origin was like being thrown into boiling poisonous oil, letting out groans of being overwhelmed! The light of the Dao Seed dimmed rapidly, and tiny grey-black cracks, like those on cracked porcelain, even appeared on its surface!

[Warning! High concentration of Life Origin toxin (bone rotting grass · heart meridian erosion state) has invaded!] [Warning! Dao Seed (Seed) is suffering from filth erosion! Stability is plummeting! Collapse countdown: 10... 9... 8...] [Warning! Host’s mental will is suffering from a Soul-eroding impact from the potent poison! On the verge of dissipating!] The cold countdown rang out frantically in Lin Mo’s consciousness like a funeral bell!

Withered Wood Guide! Drawing poison to burn the self! He had succeeded, but he had also pushed himself into an abyss of eternal damnation! The filthy poison was frantically eroding his already depleted and dying Origin, accelerating his demise!

”Moer—!” In the backyard, Liu Qingxuan, who had just been pulled back a bit from the gates of hell, seemed to hear her son’s heart-wrenching scream of pain amidst her agony and coma! A surge of pain and panic originating from the depths of her Bloodline instantly seized her! She didn’t know where the strength came from, but she actually snapped her eyes open! Although her vision was blurred and her body was in intense pain and numb, she struggled and hoarsely called out toward the Woodshed!

Inside the Woodshed, Lin Mo’s consciousness, under the impact of the filthy poison and Soul-eroding pain, was like a small boat in a violent storm, about to be completely destroyed. The countdown ticked coldly: [Collapse countdown: 3... 2...]

Just then— ”Buzz...!” A faint but exceptionally pure and cold air unexpectedly emanated from the sleeping Su Muxue beside him! This cold air was not the previous violent backlash, but carried a strange sense of peace that soothed the Soul, like the clear light of the moon, instantly enveloping the struggling Lin Mo!

It was Su Muxue! From the depths of her Seal, in the tiny crack torn open by the collision of ice and fire, a strand of pure Profound Yin Moon Essence power, originating from the core of her life Origin and suppressed by the Seal, seeped out in response to Lin Mo’s collapsing pain fluctuations and the stimulation of the filthy erosion!

This strand of pure Profound Yin Moon Essence power was like the clearest ice spring from the Nine Heavens, instantly dousing Lin Mo’s Soul and Dao Seed, which were being eroded and burned by the filthy poison!

”Sizzle—!” It was like a red-hot iron being plunged into ice water! Under the washing of this pure Profound Yin Moon Essence power, the frantically eroding filthy poison and Soul-eroding pain were actually suppressed, frozen, and stripped away by a trace! The grey-black cracks spreading on the chaos dao seed also seemed to be covered by ice crystals, stopping their expansion! That destructive countdown strangely... paused!

[Detected injection of high-purity Profound Yin Moon Essence power (Origin purification state)!] [Filth erosion speed reduced by 90%! Soul-eroding pain weakened by 70%!] [Dao Seed (Seed) collapse process paused! Stability maintained at the dying threshold!] [Host has gained a brief moment of respite! Please purify/expel the poison in your body as soon as possible!]

Heaven never cuts off all paths! This strand of pure Profound Yin Moon Essence that Su Muxue had instinctively released was like a light of salvation in the dark, winning an extremely precious chance of survival for Lin Mo!

”Ugh...” Lin Mo’s painful convulsions suddenly lessened a lot. Although the poison was still in his body and the Dao Seed was still entwined by filth and on the verge of collapse, at least... he wouldn’t die immediately! He greedily guided this strand of pure Profound Yin Moon Essence power, as if grasping a life-saving straw, struggling to suppress the poison in his body while frantically operating the ”Embracing Origin Stance,” trying to stabilize his last bit of life force.

In the backyard, Elder Sun took in everything—Liu Qingxuan’s miraculous slight improvement, Lin Mo’s heart-wrenching scream, and the change in the pure cold air that had suddenly erupted in the Woodshed! On his withered face, his expression went from extreme horror to unbelievable shock, and finally transformed into a nearly pious realization!

”Withered Wood Guide... Profound Yin Moon Essence... Chaos inclusion... Yin and Yang mutual assistance...” he murmured to himself, his clouded eyes erupting with an unprecedented bright light, as if he had instantly seen through some fundamental truth of the world! ”So that’s how it is! So that’s how it is! The chance of survival is not in external things, but in themselves! In the unbreakable Karma between them!”

He suddenly straightened his hunched back, as if he had instantly aged ten years! A powerful belief and resolution belonging to a physician filled his entire body! His internal injuries remained, and his True Qi was in Chaos, but none of this could stop him anymore!

”Little girl! Little boy! And you, this stubborn mother!” Elder Sun’s voice carried a power that pierced the heart, echoing in the deathly silent pharmacy, ”I, Sun Jishi, will gamble my lifelong cultivation and remaining Lifespan today to fight for this sliver of opportunity for you!”

He no longer looked at Liu Qingxuan and stumbled but firmly rushed back to the Woodshed. His gaze swept over Lin Mo, whose aura was weak and whose small face was distorted with pain but temporarily stabilized, and then looked at Su Muxue, who was sleeping beside him, but the ice cracks on her body seemed to have faded slightly, and she was unconsciously emitting a faint, pure cold air.

”Little girl, I’m sorry! I’ll borrow a bit of your Moon Essence power!” Elder Sun shouted softly, his withered fingers moving like butterflies, carrying his remaining faint True Qi as he lightning-fast tapped the center of the faint ice crack on Su Muxue’s forehead! This time, it wasn’t suppression, but an extremely subtle guidance!

Buzz! A strand of Profound Yin Moon Essence power, even more condensed and pure than before, was carefully guided out by Elder Sun! This power was pure and flawless, carrying the divine effect of soothing the Soul and cleansing filth!

”Little boy! Hold on! Transform the poison into a guide, and consolidate your foundation!” Elder Sun guided this strand of pure Moon Essence power and suddenly pressed it against Lin Mo’s chest, where the chaos dao seed eroded by filth was located!

The pure Profound Yin Moon Essence instantly merged into Lin Mo’s body, merging with the strand of power that had instinctively dissipated earlier, turning into a cool spring that washed over his Origin eroded by the poison! At the same time, Elder Sun’s other hand changed from a finger to a palm, carrying a moderate and peaceful faint True Qi, and pressed it against Lin Mo’s back, forcibly guiding his depleted and chaotic blood and Qi to circulate according to an extremely ancient and profound route! This route actually faintly matched the ”Embracing Origin Stance” Lin Mo had explored on his own, yet it was even more subtle, carrying a charm of turning decay into something magical!

Lin Mo only felt a clear stream pour in, and the violent poison erosion and Soul-eroding pain in his body were instantly reduced by more than half as if frozen! Moreover, the blood and Qi circulation route guided by Elder Sun made his depleted Meridians feel like they were receiving rain after a long drought, and a faint but real new life force began to emerge with difficulty!

”Ugh...” He let out a groan of much-needed comfort, and his tightly furrowed little brows relaxed slightly.

Elder Sun looked at the changes in Lin Mo and felt that Su Muxue’s condition had not worsened due to the guidance of the Moon Essence power (instead, because a bit of power had been released, the pressure of the Seal seemed to have lessened by an extremely tiny bit), and his heart was greatly relieved!

He immediately turned around, rushed to the backyard, and carried Liu Qingxuan—who was still weak and unconscious but whose heart meridian poison had been removed and who was temporarily out of mortal danger—back to the Woodshed, letting her lie beside Lin Mo and Su Muxue.

Inside the small Woodshed lay three people whose lives were intertwined.

Elder Sun slumped exhausted in the corner, watching this Soul-shaking scene—an infant with a chaos dao seed, depleted and dying yet drawing poison to save his mother; a girl burdened with a forbidden Profound Yin Seal, critically injured yet instinctively dissipating Moon Essence to save someone; a mother who risked her life for her son, plagued by poison yet miraculously surviving.

Between them, there seemed to exist an invisible, unbreakable bond of Karma, pulling each other in a desperate situation, forcibly snatching a chance of survival from the hands of the God of Death!

”Fortune... fortune truly plays with people...” Elder Sun murmured to himself, his exhausted face showing an extremely complex expression, somewhere between a cry and a smile. He tremblingly felt for an old, cherished needle pouch from his robes, inside of which lay nine strange bone needles of varying lengths, shimmering with a dark, cold light.

His gaze became incredibly solemn, yet carried a hint of relief.

”It seems... these ’Yuan-Locking Life-Prolonging Needles’ at the bottom of my trunk... can no longer be hidden today.”