Chapter 243 The child has just been born when pirates attack.
The pregnant woman was not a martial artist, and at this moment her heartbeat was almost stopped, so the transfer of internal energy required even more caution.
If it were even slightly too much, it might overwhelm her heart, especially since she has a fetus in her womb, whose heart is even more vulnerable.
Therefore, this requires extremely strict control over internal energy.
Within seconds, Ning Jinli's forehead was already beaded with sweat.
"Hmm..." The pregnant woman groaned softly, gradually regaining consciousness and opening her eyes.
Ning Jinli immediately said, "Your baby is coming out, I'm helping you deliver, push quickly!"
Upon hearing this, the pregnant woman gritted her teeth and began to push without hesitation.
Ning Jinli was afraid that she would bite her tongue, so she stuffed a rolled-up towel into her mouth.
At the same time, the crippled strategist led the brothers from Blackwater Village to the vicinity, and they could see the glow of the fire and the hazy figures nearby.
The cripple wondered to himself, could it be that the assassin had some kind of connection with that couple?
Otherwise, how could tonight's situation have been so coincidental?
First, a mysterious man and woman sneaked into the village, then the second-in-command was chased to the gates of his own territory, and then the mysterious man and woman took him away...
It seems that there might be other assassins who have already joined up with the couple.
"Pass down the order, everyone listen up," the cripple gritted his teeth and issued the command based on his deduction, "Anyone you encounter besides the second-in-command, kill them all without mercy!"
Soon, apart from the men who were on the same boat with the cripple and were responsible for protecting him, the remaining six hundred-plus people quietly disembarked and disappeared into the icy water.
They held the sharp knife in their mouths and swam towards the swampy mudflats where the campfire shone.
On the mudflats, in a simple tent made of branches.
The girl woke up from her coma and saw a man and a woman surrounding the pregnant woman, whose face was full of pain and whose mouth was gagged.
At first glance, it looks exactly like someone is being abused!
This is outrageous!
She jolted to her feet, shouting in panic and anger, "What are you doing! Let her go!"
Before she could finish speaking, in a moment of desperation, she grabbed a wooden stick and smashed it hard against Xiao Qidi's back.
Bang!
The thick wooden stick broke in two.
Everything happened too fast.
Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi were both focused on the delivery and didn't react.
The blow made Xiao Qidi's face change color, but he stubbornly refused to move.
Ning Jinli hurriedly said, "We're delivering a baby! The baby's almost out!"
"Huh? Is...is she going into labor?" The girl was taken aback, hurriedly dropping the half-stick she was holding, and said awkwardly to Xiao Qidi, "I misunderstood, are you...are you alright?"
Xiao Qidi said coldly, "If you move your stick up a few inches, I'll be in trouble."
"I'm so sorry, please forgive me!" the girl kept apologizing. "I'll make it up to you later."
After saying that, she quickly moved closer.
She inadvertently caught a glimpse of the pregnant woman's open legs, with half of the fetus's head protruding between them, looking like a sticky ball of flesh, which terrified her.
She was only a teenager and had never seen anything like this before. She quickly moved closer to Ning Jinli and asked cautiously, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Ning Jinli said, "Just don't bother us. Go check on the old man's condition."
"Yes, yes, yes!"
The girl quickly retreated, checked her injuries, and then woke the old man up.
Both of them were unharmed and exchanged a few words in hushed tones.
Although I don't know who these two people are who are helping the pregnant woman give birth, they shouldn't be bad people.
They then tiptoed together to the pregnant woman's side.
They were very worried about the pregnant woman's condition. Seeing her face covered in cold sweat and in pain, with veins bulging on her forehead and neck from straining so hard, they were extremely distressed.
"How much of the baby's head has emerged?" Ning Jinli asked.
Xiao Qidi's expression was grave. "Only a small portion of them came out."
Ning Jinli thought to herself, "This is bad. The pregnant woman has already used all her strength, but it is still far from enough compared to the strength required to give birth."
He could only continuously transmit a small amount of internal energy to keep the pregnant woman awake, but he could not increase the transmission of internal energy, otherwise neither the mother nor the fetus could withstand it, and it would be even more dangerous.
The old man knelt to one side, tears streaming down his face, and said, "Madam... push harder!"
The young girl also spoke up: "Madam, the Xing family only has you and the orphan in your womb left... You must not have anything happen to you. The old Marquis and the old Madam, and General Xing... They must be watching over you from heaven. Hang in there!"
Upon hearing these words, tears welled up in the pregnant woman's eyes, and she suddenly burst forth with strength.
Xiao Qidi's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "It moved! More of the child's head is showing!"
Seeing this, Ning Jinli quickly had the old man and the girl lean close to the pregnant woman's ear, hold her hand, and continue talking to her.
Finally, after a muffled roar, the pregnant woman's body, which had been stretched to its limit, suddenly went limp, her mouth opened, and the torn towel slowly slid off.
"Madam! Madam!" The girl and the old man were terrified.
"It's born...it's born!" Xiao Qidi's shoulders trembled as he slowly lifted a sticky, bloody newborn from between the pregnant woman's legs.
The old man instantly burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably.
The young girl shouted, "Madam, did you hear that? The baby has been born! Don't fall asleep!"
"Child...child..." The woman's eyes were slightly closed, her breath barely audible.
Ning Jinli kept her alive by using her internal energy, and with her amazing willpower, she did not faint.
"Wait... Qi Di! Why isn't the child crying?" Ning Jinli noticed something was wrong.
Xiao Qidi was stunned for a moment, then looked down at the baby in his arms.
The child was covered in purple-red marks, and he didn't cry or even move.
"Quick! Pat him!" The old man snapped out of his daze and hurriedly reminded him, "I heard the midwife say that if a newborn baby doesn't cry, you need to pat his bottom. If he still doesn't cry, then turn him upside down and pat his feet."
Xiao Qidi complied without hesitation.
Following the method step by step, after a few slaps, the baby moved slightly, but still didn't make a sound.
Everyone's hearts sank.
Ning Jinli's mind raced. "Let me try it!"
Xiao Qidi immediately handed the baby to her.
When Ning Jinli received the baby, she realized that it was big and heavy, significantly larger than a normal newborn. It was a miracle that the baby could be born under such circumstances.
She tried to pry open the baby's mouth and found it was full of a muddy, sticky substance.
I was right.
When the child's head was halfway out, some mud and amniotic fluid got into the child's mouth and nose because the mother was soaking in the muddy water, forming mucus that got stuck in the throat.
Ning Jinli sucked out the mucus with her mouth without hesitation.
After quickly spitting it out, turn the baby over, gently pat its back, and at the same time, transfer even more subtle internal energy into it.
The baby coughed a few times and then let out a loud cry!
The skin, which had turned so purple it was almost black, returned to normal.
Xiao Qidi, the girl, and the old man all felt a great sense of relief at this moment. Their extremely tense mood relaxed, and they almost collapsed to the ground.
Ning Jinli quickly cut the umbilical cord with the tools in the first-aid kit, cleaned the baby, wrapped it in a towel, and gently placed it in the woman's arms.
"My child...my child..." The woman wept uncontrollably.
Ning Jinli checked the woman's pulse; although it was very weak, it had become steady.
She breathed a sigh of relief, knelt down, and bowed three times to the sky, "Thank you, God, for protecting us. Mother and child are safe..."
"It's a boy? Heaven has eyes! The Xing family line has not died out!" The old man next to him was so excited that he kowtowed repeatedly.
Judging from what the old man and the girl said, the mother and son came from very high-ranking families. The woman's parents-in-law were a marquis and his wife, and her husband was a general.
In addition, this area is within the territory of a marshland.
Surname Xing... a general from a noble family...
When this information was put together, something seemed to flash through Ning Jinli's mind.
But there's no time to think about it now; we need to make sure the mother and daughter, as well as the young girl and the elderly woman, are settled.
If you help someone give birth and then abandon them, leaving them in these rivers and swamps teeming with pirates, they certainly won't survive more than three days.
Whoosh—
The faint sound of flowing water echoed around this narrow mudflat.
Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi both keenly noticed the abnormality; it sounded as if something was emerging from the water, unlike the normal sound of flowing water.
"You two, take good care of the mother and child, and stay in the tent without coming out."
Ning Jinli gave a brief instruction to the girl and the old man, then left the tent with Xiao Qidi, and quickly used more branches and weeds to conceal the tent as much as possible.
The tent was simply built by the two of them using branches and leaves; it was small and inconspicuous.
The young girl, the elderly woman, and the woman who had just given birth huddled together, protecting the baby.
The baby seemed to instinctively sense the danger and stopped crying.
"Could it be... that the assassin has caught up with us..." The woman trembled, her voice barely audible, filled with fear.
She herself was not afraid of dying, but she was afraid that her child would die right after birth.
"Don't be afraid," the girl whispered comfortingly, "No matter what, I will protect you."
The old man also spoke up: "Young lady... if it really is an assassin, I will fight them to the death to distract them and buy time. Please... you must protect the only bloodline of the Xing family."
The girl said, "Even if the assassin comes, he might not be able to find us. I also feel that the two young men and women who rescued us are not ordinary people. It's hard to say about the woman, but the man... his physique and aura alone are intimidating enough. Moreover, he was hit hard by my stick, which broke, but he was completely unharmed."
As the three discussed this...
Xiao Qidi and Ning Jinli walked to the edge of the mudflats outside the tent, staring coldly at the water surface that was shimmering with ripples.
The night was deep, and thick fog surrounded the area.
The campfire flickering behind them was the only source of light, illuminating a very limited area.
"Stop hiding, come out!" Xiao Qidi said loudly.
The words had barely left his mouth.
Splash—splash—
One after another, the sound of splashing water rang out.
A dense mass of figures darted out of the water.
Ning Jinli's eyes widened. "Hiss... So many? There must be over a hundred, right? Do these bandits have an irreconcilable feud with General Xing's family? They're not even sparing pregnant women; they're trying to wipe them out completely!"
“I think there are more than a hundred.” Xiao Qidi turned around and kicked the campfire.
He kicked a large number of burning branches and sticks into the air, and then they fell like flowers scattered by a fairy.
The flickering firelight illuminated more figures emerging from the water.
Xiao Qidi frowned. "Roughly estimated, there are at least six or seven hundred people, if not a thousand."
Ning Jinli's heart skipped a beat.
As the saying goes, even a lot of ants can kill an elephant.
Moreover, this is the territory of the pirates, giving them an absolute home-field advantage.
It would be difficult for her and Xiao Qidi to handle this alone.
Ning Jinli quickly calculated that, at present, the safest course of action was to leave.
Once the portal opened, they took the mother, child, girl, and old man and ran away. The pirates searched the entire Blackwater Bay thoroughly but couldn't find them.
However, this means giving up the small base in the dense forests of the delta behind them.
These days, the special forces soldiers have been working day and night, just so they can start collecting mothwing grass as soon as possible.
The small base was already in place, and all the equipment was set up. It looked like we could build a collection point around it, but then this unexpected situation happened.
"Sigh..." Ning Jinli sighed softly, "It seems that conflict is inevitable. We can only wipe out all these pirates who have come to our doorstep."
Xiao Qidi said calmly, "The monkey troop just happened to tell us the location of the pirates' lair, so let's take them all out at once."
Ning Jinli pondered for a moment.
If she really wanted to kill them, all she had to do was get a few machine guns for the special forces, and the hundreds of pirates who were about to approach would never return.
Then, we can use that helicopter to fly over the pirates' lair and easily wipe them out completely.
Moreover, eliminating the river bandits can be considered as acting on behalf of Heaven and ridding the people of a scourge.
“Hmm… let’s do it that way then,” Ning Jinli said. “But before that, I’d like to hear from the pirates why they wanted to exterminate those people.”
There's a reason she wanted to do that.
After all, we can't just listen to the one-sided accounts of those few people; we have to consider the testimonies of the pirates as well.
What if the so-called General Xing and his family aren't good people either?
We must not lower our guard against them just because one of them is a woman who has just given birth, one is an old man, and one is a young girl, and because they claim to have a background as a marquis or general.
Now some pirates are starting to come ashore.
Ning Jinli cleared her throat. "Ahem! Tell me, who's your leader?"
Swish—
A sound like something cutting through the air.
A cold glint flashed.
Her answer was a dart.
Ning Jinli quickly dodged to the side, frowning as she said, "Aren't you going to talk before resorting to violence?"
Swish, swish, swish!
The pirates threw even more darts.
Xiao Qidi and Ning Jinli could only dodge.
The pirates who had reached the shore seized the opportunity to swarm forward and attack the two men with sharp knives.
"Heh, they're pretty fierce." Xiao Qidi sneered, seized the opportunity and threw out his fists. With several muffled thuds, several pirates were sent flying and fell into the water.
Ning Jinli was not to be outdone and slapped him repeatedly.
Several pirates were knocked unconscious on the spot, their eyes rolled back, foaming at the mouth, and they collapsed to the ground, unable to get up.
However, even more pirates came ashore one after another, surging towards the two like a tidal wave.
The people inside the tent heard the fighting outside was particularly intense, and assumed that there were too many assassins chasing after them, so their hearts were in their throats.
The woman placed the child in the girl's arms, forcing back her sobs as she explained:
"Hurry and take him, sneak out from behind this tent... Maybe we can still escape alive... In the next life, I will repay you by being your ox or horse..."
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