novelraw Chapter 327 Steady Progress
Chapter 327 Steady Progress
Chapter 327 Steady Progress
Ling Chengen didn't intend to keep the matter of the gestation chamber a secret from those around her. Although the explanation process was a bit troublesome, she ultimately achieved the result she wanted.
However, there are only three incubation pods, which is definitely not enough to go around.
Yuheng was very curious about this thing, so he specifically asked whether the incubation chamber could conceive twins.
The system's answer is yes, but the quantities of various nutrients inside the incubation chamber are fixed. This means that if twins are born in the incubation chamber, the embryos must compete for nutrients, and the newborns will most likely have one strong and one weak, or both may be very weak.
Ling Chengen was a little confused. Couldn't the nutrients be replenished in time when they were depleted?
"There was a large-scale case in the interstellar community where the nutrients inside the incubation pods were replaced. Later, a series of regulations were introduced to prevent anyone from targeting unborn embryos."
"If any step is not performed according to regulations, the incubation pod will automatically trigger an alarm, send its coordinates to the military and police, and immediately activate its protection function. The incubation pod will be locked down, retrieved by the interstellar police, and sent to the interstellar incubation pod center, where the interstellar government will raise the child."
Ling Chengen clicked his tongue twice and asked in a low voice, "Aren't we in another dimension? Even if we send the coordinates, what's the point?"
The system murmured, "That's hard to say. Have you ever left this planet to see farther, more distant places?"
So you...
Who knows if this world, where civilization is just beginning, is not in the same universe as its origin?
Ling Chengen was silenced by the system's ambiguous words and didn't say anything more in the end.
The distant stars and sea above her head were not her destination.
She's only just started out, and hasn't even fully unified the central part of the Northern Wilderness yet. Where would she find the time to ponder such profound philosophical questions?
The incubation chamber can only nurture one child, just one.
There's nothing wrong with that.
……
When Ling Chengen learned that Shi Ruoan could help her get pregnant, he was stunned. After looking her up and down with curiosity, he decided to try what he had learned from Shi Panxing.
A month after the baby in her womb turned one month old, Shi Ruoan used a secret technique of the almost extinct merfolk to transfer the baby into her own body.
She felt almost no pain throughout the process, and she even fell asleep as soon as she got close to him.
When I woke up, I felt fine.
Compared to her relaxed and carefree demeanor, Shi Ruoan appeared somewhat weaker.
However, he was a top-tier warrior with physical abilities far superior to ordinary people, so he only needed to rest for a few hours before gradually recovering.
When Ling Chengen sat up in bed, he looked at Shi Ruoan lying on his side and gently touched his abdomen.
It remains flat and clean.
But she felt a familiar presence.
It is extremely rare for a male to become pregnant and give birth.
In her previous life, she had only seen in educational videos that male seahorses could get pregnant and give birth.
I never imagined that I would actually encounter such a situation in my lifetime.
Ling Chengen still didn't quite feel the reality of it all, only a sense of novelty. She sat cross-legged next to Yu Heng and pointed to his stomach: "How long will this pregnancy last?"
Because of the secret technique he used, and the fact that his body had suddenly received an embryo, Shi Ruo'an was unable to adapt immediately. He was sweating profusely on his forehead and neck and wanted to do something to distract himself. Just then, Ling Cheng'en spoke to him, and he calmed himself down before replying, "I don't know either."
"It depends on whether this child inherits your bloodline or mine."
"It generally takes sixteen to eighteen months for the Merfolk to conceive."
"Where are the orcs on land?" Shi Ruoan asked curiously.
Ling Chengen rested his chin on his hand, shook his head and said, "I'm not really sure about that either. I've been paying attention to the pregnant females in the city lately. Some can give birth after four or five months of pregnancy, some have to wait eight or nine months, and some may need thirteen to twenty months."
Shi Ruoan adjusted the height of her pillow, pondered for a moment, and then lay on her side, saying, "It feels quite similar to the sea tribes."
"You are from the Boshan Giant Tiger Clan. If this child also inherits your bloodline, how long will it take to develop?"
Ling Chengen didn't really know much about her own race, only that her beast form was very powerful and durable. So she stared at Shi Ruoan for a few seconds before saying guiltily, "I don't know about that. I'll go ask Father later."
Ling Chengen looked at his long fishtail draped over the edge of the bed, then at his smooth waistline, V-line, and well-defined abs, and asked curiously, "Will your belly really get bigger?"
Shi Ruoan knew she was just curious, so she took a deep breath and said, "Probably, but this is my first time experiencing something like this, and I don't know what will happen next."
Ling Chengen draped the corner of the blanket over his stomach and said seriously, "Don't let your stomach get cold."
Shi Ruoan chuckled and said, "I am an ice-type warrior."
Ling Chengen watched as he exhaled a lot of cold air, and his lips twitched, but he still stubbornly covered his stomach.
……
Before the rainy season arrived, the central region was finally unified.
Four auxiliary cities also sprang up around the City of Ten Thousand Beasts at the same time.
The orcs who later surrendered in the central region were settled in four subordinate cities, where they, along with the rat orcs who had built the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, began to build their new sanctuary.
At the same time, Ling Chengen also won over many small and medium-sized tribes in the eastern region.
The reason she didn't directly wage war and annex the Uja tribe like she did was because she couldn't deploy troops at the moment.
Most of the well-trained warriors were taken out by Chang Tianchen to practice against those unconvinced tribes.
The newly subjugated tribes brought a large population, but these people cannot become her strength in a short period of time. They need further refinement and polishing before they can be truly put to use.
Therefore, for the time being, a policy of appeasement can only be used in the eastern region.
However, the salt was controlled by the Beast City and the Sea Spirit Tribe, which was equivalent to holding those tribes by the throat.
The tribal chiefs in the east are all shrewd and know they can't offend the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, so even if they're unwilling to follow the City's lead, they won't deliberately do anything bad.
Ling Chengen did not leave the City of Ten Thousand Beasts again, but instead arranged for his men to communicate back and forth, subtly undermining the Uja tribe's layout in the east.
……
This year's rainy season is exceptionally long.
The water levels in the rivers inside and outside Beast City were very high. Fortunately, a super-large underground drainage system was built at the time, otherwise the houses in the city would not have escaped the fate of being flooded. Chongzhen stood on the stone bridge, half of his body hanging over the edge. He looked down at the rushing water below and the stones submerged in the water. His brows furrowed slightly. He placed his palm on the bridge railing and used his supernatural power to reinforce the pier under the stone bridge that was missing a corner.
Bai Qingyu is busiest during the rainy season.
He is in charge of emergency management, especially matters related to waterways.
Originally, Shi Ruoan should have helped share his burden, but after Yu Heng examined his body, he directly rejected Shi Ruoan's idea of helping.
Yuheng realized that he had been somewhat presumptuous at the time. Although male merfolk could help females get pregnant, the male merfolk's brood cavity was severely degenerated and the space was small, which affected the normal development of the embryo.
The fact that he had to take care of Shi Ruoan's health and ensure that the baby could grow normally in his womb was already very troublesome for him.
He even wanted to go to work and do manual labor, fearing that the baby in his belly hadn't made a sound.
These people, they might as well not consider him a witch doctor.
They wouldn't even let him be a human being.
Yuheng is very aggressive; this is a consensus among the family members.
So under normal circumstances, no one would provoke this witch doctor who has a sharp tongue and a bad temper.
Shi Ruoan and Yu Heng were both level 17 warriors, but for some reason, Shi Ruoan always felt inferior to Yu Heng.
He couldn't figure out the answer to this problem.
After being scolded by Yuheng, Shi Ruoan silently picked up the medicine bottle on the table, pulled an umbrella from the umbrella stand, and walked alone into the downpour.
When he got home, only Yu Shaochen was there.
Ling Chengen and Su Weihua went to the annex city, where the city was still under construction. It was currently the rainy season, and all work had been suspended. Because the project was only in its early stages, the drainage system was not yet in place, which resulted in a large portion of the land where they were being housed being flooded.
The construction of these four subordinate cities was also fraught with difficulties. Ling Chengen and Su Weihua went to the subordinate city in the northeast, while Bai Qingyu led a group of crane warriors to the subordinate city in the southeast. The subordinate city in the southeast was the most severely flooded, and it was the lowest-lying of the four subordinate cities.
Bai Xi and Bai Xu also led their respective teams to provide support to the other two subordinate cities.
This busy period lasted until the end of the rainy season.
The climate in the Beast World can be switched with a single click.
The day before it was pouring rain, the next day the sun was shining brightly.
The temperature suddenly rose from 20 degrees to 38 or 39 degrees.
Looking at the foundation that had been painstakingly laid some time ago, Ling Chengen found it almost unrecognizable after the rainy season. He could only sigh and tell the rat people to wait until the ground dried before starting construction again.
Fortunately, the rat-race orcs had already learned from their experience. Looking at the mess on the city foundation, they calmly said, "It's alright, these are minor problems. We can clean it up again soon. I'll go and revise the underground water system blueprints first, so that the city won't flood during the long rainy season."
When they first started working with Chongzhen, they were truly feeling their way across the river by touching the stones.
Because they had no experience to draw upon, they would start by building, and if the test revealed that the structure was unstable, they would tear it down and start over. This process was repeated over and over again... It was through tireless work day and night that they finally created the most magnificent Beast City in the Northern Wilderness today.
Looking at the optimistic and calm rat-orc engineer, and the short orc who didn't complain at all and started working as soon as he entered the construction site, Ling Chengen's regret quickly dissipated, and he decided to go back and take some time to improve the welfare and treatment of the rat-orc.
Previously, the rat race was considered a weak group in the City of Ten Thousand Beasts. This was mainly because, in order to take over the Mulan Plain and cut off the source of the plague, she arranged for Chang Tianchen to carry out a cleanup and crackdown on the rat race.
Those who fought back to the death were mostly dead.
The remaining people, forced by circumstances, ultimately chose to submit.
But behind this compliance often lies a deeper sense of resistance.
Therefore, fundamentally speaking, they are the mortal enemies of the rat-folk orcs.
Ling Chengen had no intention of providing the enemy with preferential treatment; he was content as long as they could survive, have food to eat, and warm clothes to wear.
But things are different now.
From initially being cautious, vigilant, and xenophobic, the rat-orcs have now naturally integrated into the Beast City. They can now conduct business and trade with orcs who are taller than them, which shows that they have accepted the Beast City and have begun to consider themselves citizens of the Beast City.
The rats are no longer an enemy that needs to be constantly guarded against.
In addition, what is most lacking in the early stages of such infrastructure construction is practical talent like them.
Therefore, improving basic welfare benefits is perfectly reasonable.
With the rise of four subordinate cities, each city accommodated a population of 30,000 to 50,000.
The number of beastmen under Ling Chengen's rule has unknowingly exceeded 200,000.
A population of over 200,000.
Excluding the old, weak, sick, disabled, cubs, and females who are unable to fight, their combat strength is close to 120,000.
With such power, she could easily challenge any large tribe in the south.
However, Ling Chengen did not rush things and slowed down his pace after unifying the central region.
She prefers a steady and methodical approach.
Slowing down the pace was temporary. Ling Chengen's goal was to train a team that could win battles, so he spent almost every day in the second half of the year running to the military camp, which inevitably led to a lot of contact with Chang Tianchen.
Chang Tianchen has not lost control of his emotions in the past two years. The orcs who followed him in his campaigns have gone from being unconvinced at the beginning to being completely obedient and following his lead.
Although rumors of his ruthless and bloodthirsty methods circulated throughout the Beast Plains, no one could deny his battle record.
His ability level was still slightly higher than hers.
Ling Chengen hadn't fought him in a long time and didn't know his actual skill level.
However, after he resolved the seal on the Heartfire, Ling Chengen's attitude towards him finally softened considerably.
On the training ground at the camp.
Ling Chengen, carrying a short gun that showed almost no signs of repair, made his move decisively.
Chang Tianchen glanced at Ling Chengen's vibrant face, then at his own weapon, the Fangtian Halberd. He felt that the shaft of his weapon was too long, and the curved blade was too sharp. If he didn't control it properly, he might hurt her.
After all, an inch longer means an inch stronger.
So he snatched Lin Quan's large ring-shaped saber from his backhand, and with only half a step forward, he blocked the attacking spear tip. With the twisting of his waist, arm, and wrist, the ring-shaped saber in his right hand directly deflected the powerful blow, which then stuck into the weapon rack beside him.