160: Born with heterochromia, burdened by karma
For a Mortal, ten years is a long time, enough for a child to grow into a youth and for frost to touch one's dark hair.
Yet for Mo Chen and Su Wan in the valley, and especially for the life gestating within, these ten years felt infinitely stretched, frozen at a specific moment in time.
Over these ten years, Su Wan's abdomen had only swelled to a slightly noticeable curve, with no further changes.
The breath of life within, like an insect sealed in amber, was slow, constant, and carried an unsettling stillness.
Mo Chen could clearly perceive that the power contained within the tiny embryo was becoming increasingly complex and vast; Time, Karma, Annihilation, Power Of Will, and that wisp of Chaos Qi that had accidentally merged within were entangling and balancing each other, forming an extremely stable yet eerie equilibrium.
Until a late night in the tenth year.
There were no storms, no celestial phenomena, only a cold moon hanging alone, casting its clear light across the valley.
Inside the wooden hut, Su Wan, who had seemed to be in a deep slumber, suddenly let out a muffled groan that was both agonizing and seemingly relieved.
Her abdomen, where the life fluctuations had been stagnant for ten years, suddenly became intense. An indescribable aura, a mixture of the new and the ancient, of order and chaos, erupted like long-suppressed subterranean fire!
Mo Chen appeared by the bed in an instant, his eyes extremely grave.
He could feel that the balance maintained for ten years was being broken from within; a powerful will, yearning to be born, was recklessly battering against the invisible shackles formed by various Dao principles.
Su Wan's face was pale, sweat pouring down like rain. Her hands gripped the sheets beneath her tightly, her nails almost digging into the wood.
She looked at Mo Chen, her eyes filled with pain, but also a trace of the resilience belonging to a mother that had been deeply hidden for ten years.
"Brother Chen... he... he is about to come out..."
Mo Chen did not speak; he merely reached out and pressed his hand against Su Wan's abdomen.
He dared not use too much power, fearing he might disturb that fragile balance, so he only channeled a wisp of pure, gentle vitality inside to protect Su Wan's heart meridian, while focusing entirely on sensing the changes in the fetus.
The power within the fetus was surging wildly. At the position of the left eye, countless fragments of future light seemed to be flickering, revealing a mystery that peered into the river of time; at the position of the right eye, countless fine threads of Karma, interwoven like a spiderweb, were entangled and unfathomable.
What was even more heart-wrenching was that within those complex threads of Karma in the right eye, wisps of dark red power, filled with resentment and destruction, emerged quietly like maggots attached to bones, drifting and fluctuating—that was the reflection of the monstrous Karma accumulated by Liu Qingtian's original body, which had slaughtered countless worlds!
This Karma, accompanied by the Dao of Karma, was branded deep into this newborn Soul!
"Sigh..."
A faint sigh, as if coming from eons ago, echoed deep within Mo Chen's Sea of Consciousness. It was the unconscious murmur of the sealed Demon Lord essence regarding its own Karma affecting the Bloodline.
At this moment, the infant's power to break the shackles reached its peak!
Hum!
An invisible tremor rang out, and the balance maintained for ten years was finally completely shattered!
A soft light, containing endless profound mysteries, shone from Su Wan's abdomen, illuminating the entire wooden hut in sharp detail.
Within the light, the outline of an infant slowly emerged.
There was no loud wailing, only a faint whimper like the gentle tapping of jade.
As the light faded, a delicately sculpted baby boy lay quietly in Su Wan's arms.
He kept his eyes closed, his breathing even, as if he were merely asleep.
However, when he slowly opened his eyes, even though Mo Chen's will was as firm as a rock, he could not help but be shaken!
What strange eyes those were!
The left eye was clear and translucent, but deep within the pupil seemed to contain a flowing silver river, reflecting countless blurred future scenes—birth, aging, illness, death, the rise and fall of Dynasties, the birth and destruction of stars... as if all possibilities in the world were drifting and evolving within.
Staring into this eye would give one a dizzying sense of temporal disorder and the impermanence of fate.
His right eye, however, was even more bizarre.
The pupil displayed a deep, dark gold color. Inside, it was not a single scene, but a three-dimensional network interwoven by countless fine, complex, and glimmering golden threads. Each thread represented a connection of Karma, extending into the endless Void Realm.
Yet, within this network of Karma that should have symbolized order and connection, there were countless tiny, dark red, filthy auras entwined and drifting. Like tumors and cracks in the network, they constantly twisted and eroded those golden threads of Karma, emitting an unsettling sense of resentment and pain.
The Pupil of the Future, the Eye of Karma, and Karma Entanglement!
These eyes perfectly inherited and manifested his extremely complex Origin power, and also foretold his future, which was destined to be bumpy and full of twists.
Su Wan held the baby weakly, looking at his strange eyes. The joy of being a new mother had not yet fully risen before it was overwhelmed by the heart-wrenching feeling brought by the dark red Karma drifting in his right eye.
She looked up at Mo Chen, her eyes filled with helplessness and worry: "Brother Chen... No Return... his eyes..."
Mo Chen watched the baby silently, especially those eyes containing Karma, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
This Karma was brought by him.
It was his past, filled with blood and monstrous sin, that had projected onto this newborn life like an inescapable shadow.
He reached out a finger and touched the corner of the baby's right eye, which carried the Karma, extremely gently.
A cold, stinging sensation came from his fingertip; it was the instinctive rejection of vitality by Karma.
The baby seemed to feel the touch and turned his little head, his strange eyes looking at Mo Chen in bewilderment.
The light and shadows of the future in his left eye accelerated, the network of Karma in his right eye fluctuated slightly, and the drifting Karma also stirred for an instant.
"Waa—"
He finally let out his first cry after being born. The sound was not loud, but it carried a power that pierced the heart, as if declaring his arrival to this world, and also as if accusing that heavy, innate fate.
Mo Chen withdrew his finger, looked at the crying baby, then at Su Wan, who was full of worry, and finally said in a deep voice:
"No Return... Mo No Return."
"This is his fate."
He seemed to be saying it to Su Wan, and also to himself, "The future and Karma are his talents, but also his shackles.
And this Karma..."
He paused, his voice lowering: "Is the... sin and punishment he must bear."
Possessing the potential to see through the future and control Karma, yet cursed by endless Karma.
This power might make him terrifyingly strong in the future, but the pain of this Karma burning his Soul would surely accompany him throughout his life.
Inside the wooden hut, the newborn's crying echoed in the night of the valley.
Mo Chen stood there, his figure appearing somewhat lonely under the candlelight.
He looked at this child, born of schemes, accidents, and obsession, and looked at those eyes destined to be extraordinary yet painful. For the first time, the cold surface of the lake in his heart rippled with something called "responsibility," because of this Bloodline connection and the heavy Karma.
Yet, for Liu Qingtian, who was about to end his Mortal Transformation and return to the Star Sea, what did this responsibility mean?
No one knew.
Only the infant named No Return, with his strange eyes that could see through the future and Karma, yet were also entangled by Karma, ignorantly began his life, which was destined to be both magnificent and filled with painful struggles.