Even though her belly was swollen to the point of bursting, Lin Zaozao did not dare vomit out the milk. A tiny infant, she could only stare helplessly at the slightly yellowed white canopy above her head.
Lin Zaozao kept wondering what kind of terrible sins she had committed in her previous life, that she ended up with such an inhumane, wicked system after her transmigration.
Once she could move, she was determined to embrace death first.
Encountering such an evil system, death was not to be feared, but living was truly horrifying.
The dark figure that had been standing by the infant's bed, upon seeing the ghostly hands forcefully pour milk down Lin Zaozao's throat, had desperately tried to attack the shadowy presence, but he knew that as a soul from another world, he could not harm it in the slightest.
He was now human, no longer a Nightmare Demon.
A Nightmare Demon could harm the accursed invader, but a human had no means to do so.
[Host, you'd better not seek death. No matter how you try to die, this system will pull you back from the Underworld Palace.
Of course, if you insist on stubbornly pursuing death, then this system will place the punishment on your family members.
Host, didn't you have parents and an adopted brother from the orphanage in your previous life?
This system has the ability to transmigrate people. If the host disobeys, then this system will punish your family members.
Especially your brother, he is a child of destiny. His fortune is no less than yours.
Trading his life for the host's life, this system only profits and does not lose.]
"I'll kill you! You bastard! If you dare harm Luo Luo, I'll slaughter you! You're just a system, aren't you? You're a demon!
Wait until I can move, I'll slaughter you! Son of a bitch! Mongrel!"
The previously calm Lin Zaozao lying in the infant's bed suddenly burst into curses.
Damn it, that dog of a system!
This was no system at all! It was an utterly inhumane demon!
[Host, for daring to insult this system, this system will now administer an electric shock punishment.]
The next second, Lin Zaozao's tiny infant body began to tremble uncontrollably under the dog system's electric shocks.
Until finally, her trembling turned into convulsions.
The dark figure that had been guarding her desperately lunged at the shadowy presence standing beside Lin Zaozao.
But just like before, he couldn't touch the dark shadow.
"Zaozao, Zaozao, how are you? Zaozao..."
Recovering from the electric shocks, Lin Zaozao opened her mouth several times before weakly saying to the shadowy figure, "Are you... a soul-snatching ghost? You're trying to snatch my soul! I was almost tortured to death by that dog system."
"Zaozao, you can actually see me. Zaozao, I'm Gu Shan, I'm your husband..."
"Oh man! Ghost brother! I'm just a newborn infant, you know! And I have a ghost as my husband now.
This is... hahaha, really something. That damned system! I'll kill your ancestors!
You think you can kill me? I'll have the little ghost snatch your soul."
Gu Shan, as the dark figure, looked at the infant Lin Zaozao and listened to her mocking him, while she continued cursing the accursed invader.
Seeing her suffering pained him, and he didn't know how to explain his existence to her.
After all, Han Ye, Han Xibei, and the Ye Xi Princess had told him before the sacrifice that if he wanted to travel through time and space to accompany Lin Zaozao, he could only do so as a ghostly presence.
Moreover, he was now human, no longer a Nightmare Demon. In this different timeline, he couldn't stay with Zaozao for long.
But just now, when he saw that ghostly thing harming her, and he could do nothing to stop it, the feeling was more agonizing than death itself.
"Zaozao, believe me. I'm not a ghost, I'm really your husband. It's just that I've traveled from your next life.
To avoid punishment from The Way of Heaven, I can only take this ghostly form for now, to temporarily accompany you.
Zaozao, in my next life, I was already carrying your child. So for the sake of your child, could you not seek death so easily, and live well?
Don't worry, we will definitely protect you."
Lin Zaozao looked at the blurred ghostly figure before her, but it wasn't difficult to see that he was a extremely handsome man. Such a handsome man was her husband in her next life?
Wait, didn't this handsome man just say that he was carrying her child?!
He's a man, in this previous world, how could a man get pregnant?!
If not for her infant body, she would have sat up in shock from the bed.
Damn! Was she really that amazing in her next life, that she could make a man bear her child?
"Zaozao, live well, okay? I came here because I was afraid you wouldn't be able to persevere.
Zaozao, if you die, I... I really won't be able to live on. Please, Zaozao, don't give up on yourself so easily from now on, okay?"
Hearing the man's heartfelt plea and his tearful expression, Lin Zaozao decided not to die for now.
She didn't believe that she would never find a way to deal with that dog system in the future.
"Zaozao..."
Hearing Gu Shan's whimpering voice, Lin Zaozao reached out her tiny chubby lotus root-like hand, wanting to touch his cold handsome face.
Unfortunately, her short little arms couldn't reach.
Just as Lin Zaozao was about to give up, Gu Shan took the initiative to place his face in her chubby little hand.
It was a pity that, as a ghostly presence now, only Lin Zaozao and his past self could see him.
His beloved little girl couldn't touch him!
Nevertheless, Gu Shan looked at Lin Zaozao with boundless tenderness in his eyes.
In his previous life, he lacked the ability to protect his beloved. But in this life, he would definitely make all the arrangements to protect his wife.
He and Han Ye and the others sent his wife back to regain her memories, not to let her return and be punished.
If only his past self could have discovered that the young Lin Zaozao had been possessed by a demon, then he would surely have been able to deal with that damned fiend.
His little girl would never again be forced to sacrifice her own life.
"Lin Zaozao, my love..."
"Oh my, my handsome brother! Your appearance has truly captured my heart! So handsome!
Are you really my husband from my past life with your good looks? And you're pregnant? How many children? What are their names? How did we enter the bridal chamber?"
Lin Zaozao's rapid-fire questioning made Gu Shan's face redden. He was still doing well at responding, but as for the matter of entering the bridal chamber, how could he describe that!
Gu Shan looked at Lin Zaozao's tiny infant face, which surprisingly wore a lecherous expression.
After a moment of bewilderment, a doting smile appeared on his face.
His Lin Zaozao, if not for the persecution of that damned beast, would have remained a lovely young girl from start to finish.
Bold and carefree!
Instead of becoming completely closed off to the world by the end, as she had.
Looking at the infant face before him, as Gu Shan lowered his head to kiss Lin Zaozao's forehead, he discovered that his little girl had already fallen asleep.
Gu Shan gazed at her sleeping expression, then hesitated and turned to head out of the Sacrificial Hall.
Now, he had to find his past self.
Gu Shan's hazy form travelled towards the forbidden grounds of the Han Country. In the Han Country, just as there was a high priest to bless the people, there was also a calamity to plague them.
And that calamity was Gu Shan's past self.
His past incarnation was a reviled Nightmare Demon.
A decade-long drought in the Han Country had led to many deaths. The resentful spirits of those who perished from starvation and plague accumulated, and under special conditions, turned the corpses into desiccated mummies.
He was reborn amidst those scattered remains, a soulless, emotionless Nightmare Demon.
As the saying goes, "One demon out of ten nightmares."
And Gu Shan's past self was one of those loathsome nightmare fiends.
Gu Shan's ethereal form passed through the multiple walls towards the heart of the forbidden grounds.
When he reached an iron cage made of Mysterious Iron, containing a young boy tightly bound within, his eyes showed no ripple of emotion.
It was as if he were looking not at his tormented past self, but at a stranger.
He even loathed his former incarnation.
That inhuman, soulless being who only knew slaughter.
As the boy raised his head, Gu Shan saw clearly that the child's eyes were blood-red.
To survive, he had to absorb resentful energies and demonic auras scattered throughout the mortal realm.
A demon dwelling in the gutter, yet still able to receive Lin Zaozao's redemption. She was the sole light in his life!
"Who are you?" the boy asked coolly.
His voice was as cold as millennium-old glacial ice. Gu Shan met the boy's icy gaze without changing his expression.
His ethereal form passed directly through the cage of Mysterious Iron to stand before the boy.
"I am you," Gu Shan said, his tone as cold.
"Proof!"
The red-eyed boy stared at him dispassionately.
"The proof lies in the Sacrificial Hall outside the forbidden grounds. Once you get out, you'll find the proof naturally.
Let me tell you, the little girl we've been waiting for is back. When you go out later, don't frighten her."
With that, Gu Shan paid no heed to the boy's reaction and passed through the Mysterious Iron, heading out of the forbidden grounds.
Time was short, and he had to return to guard his Lin Zaozao...
As the red-eyed boy watched Gu Shan's ethereal form depart, his blood-red eyes were filled with scorn.
So what if they were the same person? Whether the man before him was truly himself or not, it made no difference.
They were both reviled Nightmare Demons whom everyone wished dead.
No, from the start, his little girl had never loathed him, let alone wanted to kill him.
The boy's crimson eyes flickered, and in the next moment, his once emaciated frame began elongating monstrously.
As his body grew larger, the Mysterious Iron that had bound him clattered noisily to the ground.
