Nearly 50 years passed in the blink of an eye. The world transitioned so much that it was unrecognizable to Ely every time she used her divine sense to check.
She had created a small hut in the Qi Origin, where she would cultivate for days. There were other huts there as well, but those were usually empty. Only she was dedicated enough to cultivate for so long.
Ning had gone back home since she was in closed cultivation and was spending some time with the family. It was An-Jee's birthday, and they were celebrating her reaching 9 years old.
An-Jee was Hi-Ah's 2nd daughter.
Hi-Ah and Jung-Hee had gotten married by now and had kids of their own. They had married late, but that didn't matter much to them as a cultivator.
Hi-Ah had 3 children, while Jung-Hee had 4.
They would all be gathered in the family too, even her brother, who would be there with his wife and children.
It always felt bad being around children, so Ely decided to skip this one birthday party. Besides, she was so close to breaking through as well. Just one simple push and she would fly past the Immortal God realm, entering whatever it was that lay beyond it.
She felt the movement in her womb and couldn't help but smile. "You want to come out too, don't you?" she asked. "But, it's not time yet. You still have to grow just a little more. You can come out after that."
Ely held a positive attitude towards her child these days. She was no longer as worried, or at least she didn't appear to be.
Nothing bad had happened to her child yet, and the baby had grown in her womb without any problem.
Sure it was slow growth, but at this point, that was the least of her worries. She had come to terms with the fact that it might take her a hundred years to give birth to her child.
Once the child calmed down, she focused on cultivation again.
She cleared her to find and slowly fell into a meditative trance where she felt the gentle Qi in the air. She calmly pulled it towards herself, improving her cultivation base as she did so.
Time passed slowly but surely, and at some point, she lost herself to the feeling.
A sudden change in the gentleness of the Qi woke her up from her trance and she stopped cultivating immediately.
Her first instinctual act was to softly hold her baby, but she was not in problem. She then focused on her own cultivation base, which was also not what had woken her up.
Then she checked the surrounding. Nothing was there either.
"What happened?" she couldn't help but ask. She looked around and at the last moment, she saw specks of light vanishing from the sky.
Those bright lights in the sky had appeared again, and Ely's worry increased again. "What the hell are you?" she couldn't help but ask.
Once everything was back to normal, she went back to cultivating.
Similar instances happened many more times over the course of the next few years. Ely asked Ning about it, but Ning couldn't tell her what was happening at all.
Without the system, he was just as in the dark as the entire world was.
Ely broke through to the next realm, and now she was in a realm that had no name. She could give it one herself, but she had no idea what to give it.
It would make more sense for the names to be set taking in mind the rest of the cultivation realms from start to finish, but people weren't cultivating fast enough for anything to have names at all.
Most didn't even know they were a cultivator at all. Due to their lack of understanding, most of them were stuck at a breakthrough.
Ning tried to keep the information as hidden as possible, going as far as to force people to make blood oaths to not spread the cultivation techniques he gave them.
This mostly happened to the extended family he had now, which included his cousins-in-law and their respective families. He was fine with them using it, but he wanted to rest of the world to come to the understanding of what cultivation was on their own.
With both mana and Qi available at a high concentration, he didn't want to turn the world chaotic all of a sudden by giving people two pathways to becoming strong.
He cultivated in the Origin as well, and by now he was at the peak of whatever was possible.
He walked over to the hut where Ely had been cultivating after her breakthrough.
Her stomach was as large as it had ever been, and Ning was sure the child would come any time now.
"Our child is moving around a lot these days," Ely said.
"It should be anytime now," Ning said. "I'm so nervous. I… I've always been so bad with children. I don't know if I can be a good father."
"You are great with children. Look at how many kids you've taken under you and trained them," Ely said.
"I… I was using the system most of those times. I don't know how I will do without it," he said.
The sky lit up for a few seconds and stopped.
"When is that going to stop?" Ely asked.
"What is that even?" Ning asked.
"At least the Qi had stopped being disturbed every time that happened," she said. "I wonder if that is some sort of sign."
"Maybe," Ning said. "Do you want to go home?"
"Sure," Ely said. "I've cultivated enough already. I should go relax a little around the family."
Ning nodded and held out his hand to help her up. Ely grabbed his hand and slowly got up when she stopped halfway through and looked at Ning with an incredulous look.
Both she and Ning realized at the same time what had happened.
"My water broke," Ely said.
Ning's eyes went wide. "The baby is coming."
