Two weeks after Leyvi had entered seclusion for his cultivation session, surprising news reached the Leyan Family.
Caterina sent a message informing them that she was pregnant. The announcement shocked everyone in the household.
According to logic, Caterina, who possessed the highest cultivation realm among all the ladies, should have had the lowest probability of conceiving. Yet she had managed to become pregnant after just one week with Leyvi.
Some of the ladies felt a pang of sympathy for their Big Madam. She was clearly the woman Leyvi loved the most and had shared the most intimate moments with, yet she had still not been blessed with a child until now.
Anda, however, did not care who among the ladies got pregnant first. As long as they were carrying Leyvi's offspring, she would be overjoyed. With three children already on the way, she was incredibly excited about the growing family.
Unfortunately, Leyvi was currently deep in seclusion and completely unaware of the happy news.
Of course, the happiest person was naturally Caterina herself. The moment she detected the faint new soul fluctuation within her body, she burst into tears of joy.
She had held almost zero expectation of having a child anytime soon. Perhaps after several hundred years of trying, she might be blessed with one. That estimation had been based on data collected from many female Soul Formation Realm cultivators in the past. The chances were that low.
Caterina immediately dropped everything she was doing and cancelled all her plans. She handed over all her duties to Sheila and Luna. From now on, all she wanted was to focus entirely on taking care of her pregnancy.
But before that, in her usual bold fashion, Caterina made a public announcement to the entire city about her pregnancy, shocking the citizens once again.
Because of this news, Leyvi's already skyrocketing reputation as a "genius in bed" spread even further across the South Region and became even more exaggerated.
Some people went so far as to claim that Leyvi's vigorous seeds could easily impregnate any woman, and that higher cultivation levels meant nothing against his godlike fertility.
---
A year later.
Day 2 of Month 3, Year 2 of the Archipela Calendar.
It was just past midnight. Leyvi was still in seclusion, though he was no longer in a deep cultivation session. He could emerge at any time, but he had chosen to wait until there was an important matter that required his attention.
At this moment, Leyvi had spread his spiritual sense to its full range of fifty kilometers around him, a distance that surpassed even what most Soul Formation Realm cultivators could achieve.
"Ughh… my head hurts. There are too many sounds. I still can't discern anything," Leyvi muttered as he quickly reduced his range back to just around the mansion, shaking his head.
Spiritual sense did not only involve vision. It could also extend to other senses. Most cultivators, however, only ever unlocked and used the sense of sight.
Currently, Leyvi had been trying to master spiritual hearing, but it proved to be far more difficult than he had anticipated. If he was not careful, he could easily injure his own mind in the process.
When he had first unlocked spiritual hearing four months ago, his head had nearly exploded from the overwhelming input. All the sounds within the range of his spiritual sense had flooded into his mind at once.
Listening with spiritual sense drained his mental strength and posed a much greater danger to his mind than he had expected, especially when covering larger areas.
He had thought it would be easy, since he already heard with his physical ears every day. But he had been gravely wrong.
Physical ears acted as natural limiters. They filtered out ambient noise, prioritized nearby sounds, and protected the mind from being overwhelmed. They could not hear a whisper from a kilometer away, nor the rustle of leaves in a distant forest, nor the faint heartbeat of a sleeping child three houses down. This limitation was not a weakness. It was a necessary shield.
Spiritual hearing removed that shield entirely.
Suddenly, everything became audible at once. The drip of water from a leaky pipe ten streets away. The scratch of a pen on paper in a study across the city. The soft breathing of every sleeping resident within fifty kilometers. The chatter of nocturnal insects in the fields beyond the walls. The creak of every settling foundation. The murmur of every late-night conversation.
All of it, at full volume, with no filter and no prioritization.
The human mind was simply not designed to process that much auditory information simultaneously. It was like trying to drink an entire river in a single sip. The sheer volume of input could fracture one's sanity if not handled with extreme care.
The wider the range he covered, the more dangerous it became.
And so, the next step was to learn how to impose limitations on his spiritual hearing and focus only on the sounds within a smaller, specific area.
So far, Leyvi could only hear sounds around the mansion with any real clarity. He could pick up everyone's voices, their breathing, heartbeats, the rustling of clothes and hair, footsteps on wooden floors, the wind blowing gently through the garden, water dripping from leaves after rain, and countless other small ambient noises, all at the same time. The sensation was vastly different from hearing with his two physical ears.
If he tried to extend his hearing beyond this range, it became much harder to discern the sounds properly. But of course, everything could be improved with more training and practice.
Some time ago, he had also learned about Caterina's pregnancy through his spiritual hearing, which had shocked him greatly. Apparently, she had a longer pregnancy period as well.
While Leyvi was listening carefully, he suddenly heard a familiar voice filled with urgency.
"Ah, my baby is coming out! I can feel the contractions. Sayu, tell Big Madam!"
Hearing Hana's voice, Leyvi immediately opened his eyes and calmed his mind, preparing to exit seclusion. His first son was about to be born within the next day.
He had been paying close attention to Hana's pregnancy for the past few months. She had developed a full, round pregnant belly at nine months, but it was only now that the baby was finally coming. Her pregnancy had lasted a little over a year. Although it was longer than average, it was not uncommon among cultivators.
The truly uncommon one was Nala's pregnancy. Even now, her belly had not grown fully. Her pregnancy had already approached seven years, which was mind-boggling to everyone. Nobody could predict when she would finally give birth.
Very quickly, Leyvi left his seclusion room and headed straight to the labor room, appearing so suddenly that he surprised Hana.
"Husband! You're here!" Hana exclaimed from the bed. She was in a resting position with her pelvis already open in preparation.
Leyvi smiled warmly as he sat down beside her. "My wife is giving birth, so of course I came to give you emotional support."
"Hehe. You don't have to worry so much," Hana giggled, her heart feeling sweet and warm. "I have a soft body. I won't feel any pain like other pregnant ladies. The delivery should be very smooth."
The fact that he had come immediately showed that her husband had been paying attention to her all this time.
"It doesn't make it any less important," Leyvi said gently, holding her hand. "I wasn't around much during your pregnancy, so I want to be here for the entire labor period at the very least."
Soon, the other ladies also arrived at the labor room and were surprised to see that Leyvi was already there.
A little while later, Anda and Layla brought in a midwife. Seeing that Hana was still in the early labor phase, the midwife told everyone they didn't need to gather right away. She asked them to call her when the time was right.
Layla then brought the midwife to a guest room so she could rest comfortably until needed.
Eight hours later, Hana finally entered the active labor phase, meaning she was getting close to giving birth.
At this moment, Hana was still happily chatting with everyone in the room, causing the midwife to be completely dumbfounded. Are you really giving birth right now?
Two hours later, Hana safely gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
"Uaaaaaa!" The newborn cried loudly as he entered the world.
Everyone in the labor room cheered with overwhelming joy. The Leyan Family's first child had finally been born!
The midwife was utterly speechless as she carefully handed the wrapped baby boy over to Hana.
From the beginning until the end, the woman giving birth had not been in any pain. Hana had pushed the baby out very smoothly while watching the process with visible excitement, which was an incredibly strange sight for the experienced midwife.
Is this really a childbirth? she thought. It felt even weirder than all the difficult deliveries she had assisted with throughout her life.
"Husband, look! Our baby is so cute!" Hana said joyfully as she showed the newborn to Leyvi.
"Hahaha! Let me hold him," Leyvi replied with a bright smile. "If he's this cute now, he must be incredibly handsome when he grows up."
He gently took the baby from Hana's arms as if it were the most precious thing in the world.
The moment he held his son and saw his tiny face clearly, it finally dawned on him that he was now a father. This feeling was completely different from becoming an uncle. This was his own flesh and blood.
"What should we name him? Have you thought about it?" Anda asked curiously.
"Let's name him Leylin!" Leyvi said without hesitation. "He is Leylin Leyan!"