In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

Lin Qiye looked at her: "How long has it been?"

"A little over a month, about the same time as Qingyin and the others." Luo Sheng's tone was as calm as if she were talking about the weather. "The first two were daughters. I hope this one is a son. That way, no matter what happens in the future, we can take care of each other."

Lin Qiye was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Yes."

Three women and ten maids, a total of thirteen people, were confirmed to be pregnant in less than three months.

This news caused quite a stir among the gladiator's higher-ups—not for any other reason than that such a rate of reproduction was almost unprecedented in the gladiator's history.

It is unheard of for one person to impregnate multiple women simultaneously in a short period of time.

After learning this news, Shangguan Lin remained silent for a long time before saying to his deputy, "It seems that the inheritance he fused with is rather special..."

At the same time, the bloodline feedback within Lin Qiye's body began to surge in at an unprecedented speed.

Each time a new life takes root, he can feel a warm energy surging from the depths of his bloodline, flowing along his meridians into his dantian. Although each stream of energy is not very large, the sheer number of them—the feedback from thirteen bloodlines surging in simultaneously within just three months—creates an extremely considerable torrent of power, propelling his cultivation level upwards at a visible speed.

He had already broken through his previous bottleneck and entered a completely new realm. After merging with the Candle's inheritance, his cultivation underwent another qualitative leap, reaching a height that even he himself found difficult to accurately assess. Now, with the support of nearly ten bloodline feedbacks, his cultivation surged upwards once again, breaking through several minor realms along the way, finally stopping before a certain extremely stable barrier.

He sat cross-legged in the cultivation chamber, eyes closed, focusing his inner vision and feeling the surging, almost overflowing power within his body. Dark golden Origin Qi flowed like a river through his meridians, each circulation making his cells more solid and resilient. His bones, permeated by the dark golden light, gradually took on a translucent, jade-like luster, as if they had been reforged. His internal organs, nourished by that power, also became more robust, each pulse filled with explosive force.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his hands.

His fingers were long and slender, with distinct knuckles, and his skin was covered with an extremely thin layer of dark golden light, as if wrapped in an invisible film. He clenched his fist, and the dark golden light suddenly contracted, condensing on his fist to form a thin film of light. He lightly punched the air in front of him—without using any source energy, relying solely on the strength of his physical body—and a low boom echoed through the air, the force of the punch leaving a shallow dent on the wall of the training room.

He withdrew his fist, looked at the dent in the wall, and remained silent for a moment.

His strength more than doubled within three months.

His current strength far surpasses that of when he fought Xun Yan's replica in the Canggu Mountains. If he were to face that replica now, which had burned the altar's core, he wouldn't need to use any bloodline-level suppression; with just his pure physical strength and Origin Qi cultivation, he could completely suppress it within ten moves.

The speed of his improvement left him feeling somewhat dazed.

But at the same time, he also realized something—his strength was improving too fast, so fast that his mental state and combat experience couldn't keep up. With the triple boost from the inheritance of Zhu, Yin He's memories, and the feedback from his bloodline, his cultivation had skyrocketed, but he hadn't experienced many true life-or-death battles. He was now like a swordsman who possessed a peerless divine weapon but didn't have enough time to hone his swordsmanship—the weapon was enough, but his skills were still far from sufficient.

He needs real-world experience.

He needs real battles that allow him to give his all to hone his fighting skills and integrate the power within him with his true fighting instincts.

But he didn't have that much time to find an opponent.

The strange feeling in the arena became even more pronounced during the three months he was in seclusion.

When he finally emerged from the secluded cultivation chamber and stood once again in the sunlight of the inner courtyard, he immediately noticed the change—the faint, fishy smell in the air was more than twice as strong as it had been three months ago. And the number of people enveloped by that strange aura had also noticeably increased. Standing at the entrance of the mansion, his gaze swept over the passersby on the street, and he could clearly see that approximately one in three people carried that fluorescent blue "base color."

The underlying color was no longer so faint as to be almost imperceptible three months ago, but had become visible to the naked eye—deep in the pupils of those people, there was a faint, illusory image of a vertical pupil crack slowly rotating, though it was difficult to notice under normal light.

Lin Qiye's pupils contracted slightly.

He realized that some changes had occurred in the arena during those three months that he was unaware of. However, he had overlooked these changes because he was so engrossed in his training and the joy of his increased strength.

He turned and walked back to the mansion, where he found Luo Sheng teaching his eldest daughter cultivation in the second inner courtyard.

Luo Sheng sat on a stone bench, holding a small wooden board covered in writing. Her eldest daughter sat on her lap, pointing at the words and babbling them aloud. Luo Sheng's belly was already slightly protruding; although she was wearing loose clothing, the curve was still clearly visible. Her complexion was much better than before, with a soft glow unique to pregnant women.

She looked up and saw Lin Qiye walking over. Her gaze lingered on his face for a moment before she lowered her head and continued teaching her daughter.

Luo Sheng patted her daughter's head, then looked up at Lin Qiye, "You're out? Finished your cultivation?"

"It's over." Lin Qiye sat down on the stone bench next to her, his gaze falling on her slightly protruding belly. "How do you feel?"

"It's all good. This pregnancy is more stable than the previous two." Luo Sheng's tone was calm, but there was a faint smile on her lips. "It's probably because the food at home is better, my mood is better, and my health is naturally better."

Lin Qiye nodded, paused for a moment, and then asked, "Have you noticed anything... amiss lately?"

Luo Sheng stopped what she was doing, looked up at him, and asked, "Something's wrong? What do you mean?"

"Well... has anyone noticed anything unusual about the atmosphere on the street, or the behavior of certain people?"