Chapter 620: The Mystery of Birth
At the northern end of the Southern Branch Mountain, the Dragon Court’s army was unusually busy. Despite the previous war seemingly won inexplicably, they had not directly participated in the fighting; however, their losses were significant.
First, there was the storm caused by Barbatos opening the portal, followed by the direct combat between Barbatos and Eil, both at the Mythical Rank. Even though they had tried to keep their distance, the residual effects were beyond what these ordinary troops could withstand.
The Human Allied Forces and the Red Dragon Court’s army were thus scattered and disorganized. After Ral woke up and hurriedly searched for Raphael’s whereabouts, they finally had a chance to regroup, assess their losses, and collect the spoils abandoned by the fleeing Human Allied Forces.
Of course, these soldiers only knew that their Dragon Queen was still alive, while they were unaware of her pregnancy and the future of the Red Dragon Court. Even Raphael and Fisher were still anxiously analyzing the current situation in the makeshift tent.
To be honest, it was mainly Fisher who was anxious, as the others might not yet fully grasp the state of affairs.
Standing at the door of the tent, Fisher looked seriously at the movements of the Dragon Court soldiers outside, but his gaze was slightly unfocused, seemingly contemplating a solution to the problem.
Inside the tent, Raphael, Jasmine, and Ral all watched him and Emhart on his shoulder. Their understanding of the mythical world was not deep enough to comprehend why Fisher suddenly became so anxious.
In the end, it was Raphael who spoke first,
“Fisher, what happens if the lock from the Spirit Realm on the child in my womb disappears?”
“He will lose his soul, Raphael, becoming a soulless shell.”
Emhart sighed and said with a hint of distress,
“The existence of a being at Mythical Rank leads their body to become a strong unified state of body and soul. In this case, the Spirit Realm cannot lock onto the small life growing inside you and grant it a soul. Even if reproductive rank is sufficient, those at Mythical Rank still cannot bring forth their own offspring.”
Raphael was slightly taken aback, suddenly recalling the soulless corpses that had their souls taken away in Feilon City years ago.
Unlike them, her child might suffer such a fate from birth.
Thinking of this, she covered her abdomen, her face turning pale, and her voice trembled,
“Is there really no way to resolve this problem?”
“A way? This…”
Emhart opened his mouth, suddenly at a loss for words, and turned to look at Fisher, who still stared outside, his expression grim and silent.
A way?
There might be a solution, but if it were that easy, the Moon Princess wouldn’t have given birth to a stillborn, and if it were that easy, why would Gabriel wish for a child with the Holy Grail?
Although there were no longer any restrictions on the number of mythical beings, where would Fisher find a Holy Grail capable of granting wishes?
But just then, Fisher suddenly realized something and turned to Jasmine, asking,
“Wait, Jasmine, you must be almost 165 years old this year, right?”
“Ah, yes.”
Jasmine nodded, and Ral, standing beside her, clearly understood how the age of the Whale Folk was calculated, as she had almost dropped her jaw when Jasmine said she was only two years old when they first met.
Fisher quickly walked back from the tent’s entrance, his expression becoming extremely confused,
“Yes, but your mother is the God of Destruction, Xu, which is the crux of the problem. She reached demigod status during the mythical war thousands of years ago and is one of the most powerful existences at the Mythical Rank. But she had you within the last couple of hundred years? If we exclude the possibility that you are not her biological daughter, then she must have a way to overcome the difficulty that the offspring of those at Mythical Rank cannot possess a soul!”
“That’s right, Jasmine, I almost forgot you are the daughter of the God of Destruction! Could you ask her for help?”
Emhart, perched on Fisher’s shoulder, also thought of this, letting out a sigh of relief as he looked at Jasmine.
“Eh, me?”
Jasmine opened her mouth, seeming a bit hesitant.
But seeing Fisher, who had finally found a glimmer of hope before her, she eventually pursed her lips and smiled,
“Then I’ll go back and ask my mom. I’ll set off right now.”
“No.”
But Raphael suddenly interjected firmly, causing Jasmine, who was about to get up, to look at her.
Raphael looked at Jasmine, sighed again, and turned to Fisher, resolutely stating,
“Fisher, don’t you know how Jasmine got out from her mother? She made a promise with her mother to enter the Mythical Rank before a certain time to leave the ocean. I don’t know what that time is, nor do I know if the current situation aligns with it, but fundamentally, she left the ocean and made a promise for you. Now you want her to return to her mother for the answer regarding your child in my womb. Do you really think a person like her would tolerate your actions?”
Emhart fell silent, cold sweat breaking out.
Indeed, they were a bit frantic due to the child’s urgent condition.
Thinking about it carefully, the daughter of the God of Destruction violated her own will to fulfill a promise to come ashore for a human; now the promise had not been fulfilled, and her daughter was returning to seek help for another woman’s child?
It would be merciful for Xu not to imprison Jasmine in the ocean; with her reputation during the mythical war, the greater possibility was that she would directly eliminate Fisher.
“…”
Fisher understood the reasoning but still hesitated.
After all, the Moon Princess’s previous experience was still fresh in memory; the offspring of those at Mythical Rank rarely had good endings, with only Jasmine standing before them as an exception. Now Gouwen was in the Spirit Realm, and Xu was the most likely to know the answer, but he just…
People don’t understand pain until they experience it themselves, just like how he couldn’t grasp the sorrow hidden beneath the Moon Princess’s calm words—imagining how painful it was to watch her bloodline turn into soulless corpses and even be reduced to a target for humans to drain their blood.
But the Dragon Queen had not lost her composure; she was also a mother.
“Alright, if I say no, it’s no. He is my child too, and of course, I’m worried about his safety, but we absolutely cannot act rashly. Let’s think of another way.”
Raphael sighed but still insisted on her viewpoint, looking at Jasmine without being impulsive,
“Jasmine just fought alongside us to resolve the previous hardships, and… in any case, we can think of other ways. Dragonkind usually requires at least six or seven months to give birth; he has just made himself comfortable in my womb, so we still have time.”
“Raphael…”
Jasmine felt somewhat moved but was at a loss for words, only able to bite her lip and reflect on those emotions within.
With Raphael’s persuasion, the “human father” experiencing this for the first time gradually calmed down, and he shifted his approach, saying,
“Then I’ll go meet the God of Destruction in person.”
“Risky, Fisher.”
Emhart looked at him with dead fish eyes, a face that seemed to say, “Are you tired of living?” Considering the things Fisher had done, he feared Fisher might not even reach the ocean before being disposed of.
However, he simultaneously thought of an alternative,
“What about Ramastia? He is a deity; even if he cannot intervene in the world, he must know the solution to this problem.”
“Lord Ramastia must know; He understands all the secrets of the world, but… I haven’t been able to reach Him for a long time. I can’t even get back into the ocean; I think even the Whale Folk in the trenches can’t hear Him anymore.”
Jasmine shook her head with some regret and said.
But none of this worked, and none of that worked—were they supposed to just stand by and watch?
The atmosphere in the tent gradually grew silent, as almost everyone fell into doubts of contemplation.
Fisher and Raphael were considering how to save the unborn child without a future, while Ral couldn’t interject, as she knew nearly nothing about this, and not causing trouble was quite an achievement.
As for Jasmine, aside from contemplating methods, she even began to doubt what method her own mom used to give birth to her.
Could it be that she wasn’t her mother’s biological daughter?
Exactly, so her mom was so powerful, her talents astonishing, while she herself was so clumsy that she couldn’t even enter the Mythical Rank.
It seemed like a more reasonable explanation, didn’t it?
Thinking of this, Jasmine’s chubby little face turned particularly pale, and she even felt somewhat relieved that Fisher didn’t personally go to meet her mother, as she was genuinely a bit scared—scared that Fisher would return with an answer of “Jasmine is not my biological daughter.”
If that were the case, not only would Raphael’s child be doomed, she would also…
“Alright, alright, Fisher, don’t be anxious. Everyone should rest a bit and eat something; we still have time, okay?”
It was still Raphael who couldn’t stand it any longer, standing up first, patting Jasmine’s shoulder, then walking over to Fisher and giving his waist a slight tap with her tail.
When Fisher turned to look at her, he saw Raphael’s scales gradually folding down, as she stretched her hands toward him,
“We’ve only just escaped from a great peril and resolved such a big trouble; how can we frown when we haven’t even had the chance to celebrate? Come here.”
“…”
Fisher slightly bowed his head and embraced her, feeling her warmth tightly pressed against him, with her face buried in his shoulder.
“Alright, relax a bit. Don’t rush. I feel I can sense his existence; he is still alive, and there is still hope.”
“Okay.”
Then Raphael released Fisher, as if to set an example, walked out of the tent, and perked herself up to command the Dragon Court’s army to confirm losses and retrieve war spoils among other actions.
Ral, after glancing at Fisher, quickly followed Raphael, swiftly exiting the tent.
“Teacher Fisher, I want to try again at the seaside to see if I can contact Lord Ramastia.”
Jasmine, with some anxious thoughts, quickly stood up and said to Fisher.
Clearly, what she wanted to confirm was not just this answer but also the mystery of her own birth.
Why had she never seen her father since she was born?
Why was the gap between herself and her mother so huge?
Wasn’t she her mother’s biological daughter? If she was, how could her mother, being a mythical being, give birth to her?
All these questions urged Jasmine to want to leave here. However, just as she was about to go, Fisher grabbed her, making her turn her head to look at him.
“Teacher Fisher?”
“Sorry, Jasmine. Earlier, I was just too anxious and couldn’t wait to know the method to save the child, so I let you go meet your mother to seek answers; I didn’t consider the consequences.”
“I understand, Teacher Fisher. I didn’t take it to heart. I was just suddenly a bit unsure if I am truly my mother’s child.”
Fisher forced a smile, suddenly recalling the appearance of that barefoot doctor from the Whale Folk,
“You are definitely the child of Xu and Gouwen.”
“Eh? Why?”
“Well, realistically speaking, when I was in the Northern Region, I encountered a Phoenix at Mythical Rank who was also pregnant. Five or six thousand years ago, her child was treated by a Whale Folk doctor who was most likely your father. After so long, with his intelligence and love for your mother, he may have already found a way for your birth.”
Jasmine bit her lip, feeling warmth in her heart but also couldn’t help but ask,
“How come it feels like Teacher Fisher is quite familiar with my dad?”
Fisher started to sweat a little on his forehead, unable to say that he had once called your dad a brother, so he could only say,
“The Moon Princess is very grateful to that Whale Folk doctor who might be your father, so she told me a lot.”
“I see.”
Jasmine smiled, lowering her head, and suddenly opened her arms to hug Fisher,
“Thank you, Teacher Fisher. I will try to help you and Raphael find the answers.”
After saying that, she let go of Fisher and quickly left the tent, heading rapidly towards the distant ocean.
Suddenly, only Fisher and Emhart, who had flopped back onto his shoulder, remained in the tent. Emhart, with his dead fish eyes, turned his head to Fisher and complained,
“Do you think you’re lucky? They’re all so good. Have you ever thought about slapping yourself in the face when you’re looking for someone else?”
“…”
Fisher glanced at Emhart, but his body returned to the tent, still feeling some lingering anxiety in his heart.
The Apocalypse Prophecy was approaching, and Chaos was eyeing this world to destroy it. He had abandoned Hela’s plan to save Raphael and started the path of collecting the completion manual to control Chaos.
The journey was arduous, but having his own child in such a predicament made him feel even more challenged.
In silent contemplation, he turned to Emhart and asked,
“Do you have any relevant clues, records, or texts about the offspring of beings at Mythical Rank?”
“Where would there be such things?” Emhart sighed and muttered, “There’s only three types of genuine mythical beings: Angels, Demons, and Elves, which don’t reproduce, so only those who enter the Mythical Rank afterward would encounter problems like yours. But those mythical beings are too busy hiding to live; how could they have records? The examples of the Moon Princess and Xu are probably among the few in the last ten thousand years—a failure and a success.”
Didn’t this still only leave the path of Xu and Gouwen?
But as he spoke, Emhart’s expression suddenly became very conflicted and shy.
Fisher sensed his discomfort and furrowed his brows, asking,
“What? Do you have other clues?”
Emhart pouted, looking at Fisher with his dead fish eyes. After several seconds, he finally resigned and said,
“If you’re really going to say it, there might be one more person who has relevant clues. If you ask her, she is very likely to tell you the answer. But from my personal standpoint, I strongly suggest you only consider this method if you are truly left without a choice.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“…Who else could it be?” Emhart looked at Fisher with an extremely uncomfortable tone, then continued, “Who meets the following conditions: lives long enough, has sufficient knowledge, has connections with Xu and Gouwen, and has a decent relationship with you?”
Lives long enough: Over ten thousand years old
Sufficient knowledge: Renowned throughout the world, known for wisdom and labeled by a quest for knowledge.
Connection with Xu and Gouwen: A thousand years ago, Gouwen, she, and Fisher executed a mission together and had a good friendship.
Good relationship: The only female who called Fisher “dear.”
Reflecting on the above four conditions, doesn’t it suddenly narrow down the answer?
Fisher remained silent for a moment, looking at Emhart, who seemed to have eaten a thousand flies, and simultaneously spoke up,
“Hela.”
“Yes, that murderous Baemon.”
Emhart sighed, seemingly reluctant to say it,
“But I strongly advise you not to do so. After all, you see, she had just used her plan to harm Raphael; although it was to save you, who knows? What if she had thought about this layer when she decided to spare Raphael? What if she is just waiting for you to ask, then leads you in a direction, regardless of whether it’s right or wrong? She could have already laid a trap on your path without you realizing it to achieve her purpose.”
Fisher indeed also considered this. He was even sure that if he inquired with Hela, he would certainly receive a corresponding answer.
But what if it was really as Emhart said? This could be a multi-layered plan that Hela had planned. Then choosing to trust the solution she provides might end up being worse than doing nothing at all.
So, after a moment of silence, he finally said,
“…You’re right.”
“Hey, you’ve become smarter, Fisher!”
“…”
