SOL Chapter 11

Water Deep Mud Turbid (Part 2)

Li Huai Su almost immediately supported Li Shan’s arm to check his injuries upon seeing the situation.

Tian Chang stood grimly by the door, almost rebuking, “Li Huai Su, what’s going on? How could you let a pregnant patient with limited mobility snatch his sword?”

Li Huai Su wasn’t afraid of Tian Chang, but seeing him seemingly on the verge of rage, and fearing that acting now might injure Li Shan, he only said, “Tian Chang, don’t act rashly.”

Tian Chang’s aura suddenly dropped, and he harshly said to Li Huai Su, “What, could it be that you were doing it on purpose just now? You felt sorry for him, couldn’t bear to see him suffer these petty tortures, and wanted to take this opportunity to give him a chance to kill himself?”

Upon hearing this, Li Huai Su’s expression immediately turned ugly, and he almost wanted to fling his sleeves and leave in anger. But Li Shan was leaning on him at the moment, and Li Huai Su couldn’t just shake him off and leave.

The two sides’ pressure collided, a match for each other, which wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Li Shan, caught in the middle, was immediately pressured, his mind agitated, and he vomited a mouthful of blood.

Seeing this, Tian Chang immediately restrained his temper, but then he heard Li Shan, who had been weak on the bed, suddenly howl like a madman. If Li Huai Su hadn’t quickly held him in his arms, he would have gone to snatch the Enraged Sea Rising Tide that had fallen on the ground.

“Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!”

The voice hardly sounded like a human’s cry, more like a beast driven into a desperate situation. Or the sound of a long sword’s tip scraping against a bluestone road, grating sharply and coarsely on the eardrums, making one’s teeth ache.

Li Shan was usually the quietest person, and after becoming pregnant, he could even be described as gentle and lovable. The excessive pregnancy reactions had worn away his edges, and he wouldn’t even make a fuss when Tian Chang held him in his arms. When had he ever been in such a crazy state?

Tian Chang was almost stunned for a moment before he came back to his senses, and he hurriedly called the witch doctor to come and see Li Shan’s condition.

Fortunately, Tian Chang stopped him in time, and Li Shan only suffered some superficial injuries. After a bout of crying, he was completely exhausted and could only lie on the bed with his eyes open, silently watching the two people in the room.

Li Huai Su suppressed his emotions and got up to take his leave, but when he turned around, he saw Li Shan staring at him intently.

Li Shan’s pupils were very light, sometimes even appearing empty. If he didn’t make any expressions, it would be difficult for others to guess what he was thinking.

But Li Huai Su understood him perfectly.

Li Shan wasn’t blaming him for not saving him. After their separation at Red Liao Ridge, the two had long been in a relationship of irreconcilable hatred, with no feelings left to speak of. Li Shan was only resenting why he hadn’t killed him directly.

Alone, alone, water deep and mud turbid. Mud turbid is still acceptable, but deep water kills me.

…

The dim palace was extremely quiet, with only the occasional sound of bells colliding.

Tian Chang was originally sitting at his desk reviewing battle reports from the front lines, but when he heard a few crisp bell sounds coming from inside the bed curtains, he put down the battle reports and got up to check.

Only when he lifted the heavy curtains and gauze screens did a few faint rays of candlelight shine onto the bed.

Most demons prefer dark environments. By avoiding light so tightly, the demon fetus in Li Shan’s belly could be more peaceful and stop tormenting its mother day and night.

The faint candlelight only illuminated half of Li Shan’s face, which had become thinner, his pointed chin making him look very lonely, with a listless expression. He lay quietly on the bed, clearly awake, but surprisingly without any movement.

Tian Chang leaned over to untie Li Shan’s clothes and check the condition of him and the fetus in his belly. The candlelight shone in a little more with his movements, and it could be seen that Li Shan’s limbs were completely empty.

In just five months, Li Shan’s belly had become even more swollen than that of a woman about to give birth after ten months of pregnancy, as if a deformed tumor was growing in his belly. Combined with his bald limbs, he seemed to have been completely objectified into a birthing tool, with an unspeakable sense of strangeness.

Tian Chang’s voice was extremely gentle: “What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere again?”

Naturally, Li Shan couldn’t make a sound to answer him. Tian Chang had stuffed a rough, hollow glass ball into his mouth, which could completely press down on his tongue.

A red silk ribbon passed through the hollow part of the glass ball, looped around twice, and tightened tightly on Li Shan’s cheeks, pressing out two shapes, making him look like a fierce horse with a bridle. The glass ball occupied his entire oral cavity, making it impossible for him to even bite his tongue and commit suicide, and he couldn’t say anything crazy like “kill me.”

Only the red threads tied to the amputated limbs could move slightly, and when they moved, they would pull on the bells hanging on the bed curtain to speak for him.

The demon fetus in Li Shan’s belly was unusually peaceful today, and Tian Chang went to check the recovery of the amputated limbs.

People who suddenly lose their limbs easily experience phantom pain. In the first two days after Tian Chang cut off Li Shan’s hands and feet, he fed him an excessive amount of raw copper flowers to numb his nerves, which had already cut off his perception of pain. But every time Li Shan saw the state of his body, he could hardly restrain himself from trembling with pain and cold sweat.

Tian Chang had no choice but to hang him in the air for two days, so that he wouldn’t touch the stumps and start bleeding again.

Even though Li Shan had demon blood in his body to keep him alive, it was still quite slow for such an injury that almost cut off half a person’s weight and broke tendons and bones to recover.

But this was also what Tian Chang liked to see. The last time Li Shan suddenly went crazy had left a considerable shadow on Tian Chang. He still hoped that Li Shan could be obedient during his confinement period, at least not suddenly pick up a sword and stab himself.

There had never been a precedent for a mortal to conceive a demon fetus. Even the erudite great witch had never heard of such a rare thing, so no one could predict when the child in Li Shan’s belly would be born.

According to the demon race’s own experience, it could be a few years or a few days. Anyway, he wouldn’t die, and it wasn’t a big problem to let Li Shan slowly recover from the injuries to his limbs after giving birth.

Seeing that the amputation was healing well, Tian Chang gently picked up Li Shan, as if holding a fragile porcelain doll, and carefully placed him on his lap. Then he bit his finger and dripped blood into Li Shan’s mouth, which was propped open by the glass ball.

Tian Chang couldn’t learn Li Huai Su’s gentle lullabies, nor could he memorize Shi En’s dazzling love words. He could only comfort him softly in his ear, “I’m doing this for your own good, otherwise, what would you do if you hurt yourself?”

The porcelain in his arms seemed to be trembling a little.

However, after two hours, the bells rang incessantly again, accompanied by a series of muffled thuds.

Tian Chang went to check the situation and saw Li Shan banging his forehead hard against the bed rail, once after another. He hurriedly reached out to pick up Li Shan and hold him in his arms, and then he noticed that his clothes were wet.

The witch doctor had already prepared the medicine and tools, but the demon fetus was too large and conflicted with Li Shan’s physique, so the delivery process was still extremely difficult. After continuous tearing and unconscious incontinence, a mass of blood and flesh with unclear structure and distorted shape crawled out from between Li Shan’s bloody legs. It was covered in sticky blood, its internal organs were scattered on the outside, and it was almost no different from the living skeletons that crawled out of the No Ferry Sea.

As soon as the monster landed, it writhed and struggled on the ground, its sticky body constantly wriggling in its mother’s pool of blood, baring its fangs and claws. Many pairs of eyes were embedded in the flesh ball, but it still seemed to be blindly searching for its mother’s aura in the room, emitting a sharp and disgusting howl that pierced the eardrums and was extremely unpleasant.

Tian Chang didn’t even bother to glance at it. He simply waved his hand and told the witch doctor to take the monster out of the room.

Turning around and turning his eyes back to Li Shan, he found that Li Shan was still awake, silently looking at him with his light-colored pupils, but without any emotion, as if he was in a daze.

Li Shan’s genitals were severely torn, his flesh was blurred to the point where it was almost impossible to see the specific situation, and his organs had been displaced by the demon fetus. The witch doctor had already treated him and fed him medicine to stop the bleeding, but blood was still oozing from the wound, and the bloodstains on the bed were constantly spreading and blurring.

Tian Chang didn’t dislike the dirt on his body. He simply gently picked him up and held him in his arms, his face resting on his chest, where there was actually a heartbeat like a living person.

Li Shan’s body trembled slightly from the pain, and he could only let Tian Chang’s embrace tightly wrap him up.

Tian Chang gently kissed Li Shan’s forehead, thinking that he was frightened by the little monster that crawled out of his belly, and softly comforted him, “It’s okay, we’ll have many, many more children in the future.”

Li Shan’s delivery was too sudden. When Li Huai Su arrived after hearing the news, he only saw this strange and ridiculous scene before him.

He had expected Li Shan’s miserable state. Shi En had told him about this before. Tian Chang was afraid that Li Shan would hurt himself, so he turned around and first made Li Shan into a human pig.

At this moment, Li Shan’s limbs had been cut off, his internal organs had been squeezed out of place, and his genitals had been severely torn. His entire body was covered in blood, and he could almost be said to be inhuman. If not for Li Huai Su and Tian Chang’s blood keeping him alive, he would have died ten times over.

But Tian Chang didn’t feel anything was wrong at all. He even felt that the scene before him was extremely warm and happily hugged him, fantasizing about having a bunch of little demons in the future.

Although Li Huai Su knew that Tian Chang usually only imitated human behavior, the scene before him was still too obviously inhuman.

The smell of blood filled the room, and Li Huai Su felt a little nauseous. He suppressed his eyebrows and said coldly to Tian Chang, “You’re torturing him like this, it’s really better to just kill him.”

Tian Chang turned his head with a confused expression, his hand still gently stroking Li Shan’s hair. “Why kill him? He’s the mother of my child. Of course I have to treat him well.”

Li Huai Su was speechless for a moment and felt that he couldn’t communicate. The sound of their conversation disturbed Li Shan, who had been quiet and silent. He turned his face dully, met Li Huai Su’s face, and immediately struggled, disregarding the injuries and pain on his body.

He had lost his limbs and was weak after giving birth. Even though he had used all his strength, this struggle was like playing around for Tian Chang. Seeing Li Shan like this, Tian Chang coaxed him softly like a child and reached out to untie the red silk ribbon that bound the glass ball, only to find that his face was wet, and he was actually crying.

Tian Chang had never seen him shed tears before. For a moment, he was a little stunned. The former Li Shan was a statue, cold and silent. Now that the statue had collapsed, the stones were still rough and silent. Of course, you couldn’t expect him to shed a tear for you.

Li Shan squirmed out of Tian Chang’s arms, shaking his disabled limbs and crawling in Li Huai Su’s direction, leaving a long trail of blood on the bed. Li Huai Su looked down at Li Shan. His limbs were shortened, and he clumsily propped up his body and crawled like a puppy that couldn’t make a sound.

Li Shan stumbled to the corner of the bed. Li Huai Su was afraid that he would lose his balance and fall down, so he subconsciously raised his hand to support his shoulder. But Li Shan grabbed him as if he had caught a life-saving straw, using his shortened limbs to hold onto Li Huai Su as much as possible, and warm tears fell like beads, burning away on Li Huai Su’s chest.

For a moment, Li Huai Su didn’t push him away. After a few seconds of silence, he raised his eyes and silently met Tian Chang’s gaze.

Tian Chang said sincerely, “Your relationship is really good.”

Li Huai Su suddenly said, “His current physical condition is not suitable for continuing to stay in the Demon World.”

Tian Chang was usually half-witted, but today he strangely understood Li Huai Su’s implication. He actually wanted to take Li Shan away from Transformation Joy Heaven.

This suggestion was not a problem in itself. Li Shan was originally a cultivator, and letting him recuperate in Transformation Joy Heaven, where the demonic energy was strong, was tantamount to going against the grain.

But it was rare to see someone as righteous as Li Huai Su, wanting to take away someone’s child’s mother who had just given birth. Even though Tian Chang’s perception of external objects and emotions was different from others, he couldn’t help but frown when he heard this, and his tone was sour. “Where do you want to take him? The cultivation world is suitable for him to recuperate, but you two can’t go back, so what’s the difference between your Clear Mirror Platform and here?”

Li Shan lay in Li Huai Su’s arms, almost unable to breathe from crying.

Li Huai Su patted Li Shan’s thin back soothingly, but his heart became more and more angry. He patiently explained to Tian Chang, “The human world, Peach Blossom Spring, is full of spiritual energy and far away from the war, so it’s perfect for him to recuperate.”

Li Huai Su spoke so clearly, Tian Chang was speechless for a moment.

He was reluctant to part with Li Shan, after all, he had just given birth to a child for him, and he was full of tenderness.

Li Huai Su said that he wanted to take the person away, as if he had snatched away a toy that he was currently fond of and would soon be tired of. It wasn’t that he was so reluctant, but he was inevitably upset.

Tian Chang looked at Li Shan’s completely senseless appearance, only knowing to hide in Li Huai Su’s arms and cry. He also knew that the torture during this period had completely broken his mind, not to mention the horrifying injuries that were visible to the naked eye.

“Whatever you want.”

Tian Chang stood up with some annoyance and walked out of the house.