Jade Throne Realm – Central Mainland – Flying Sword Sect Territory
Year of the Jade Rooster Time to Shine
Sect Mistress Xu Minzhi was on fire.
Literally.
The left side of her body glowed a deep, feverish red, her skin emanating enough heat to boil the spiritual koi swimming three terraces down. The right side shimmered with frost, so bitter and absolute that a jade statue of a phoenix nearby had quietly cracked, wept icicles, and decided to migrate in shame.
Still, she stood. Robes neatly ironed. Hair pinned in five precise coils. Ten documents reviewed. Three punishment orders signed. One spoiled disciple properly wept into repentance and spiritual reflection.
The Sect Mistress was 6% dilated and also—according to the chief healer—completely insane for still walking around.
"Lady Minzhi, please—please—lie down. You're in active labor," one poor servant whispered, clearly seconds from biting his own sleeve out of raw panic.
"Am I?" Minzhi replied mildly, pausing mid-scroll. "Feels like the contractions are every ten minutes, perhaps eight. Not that intense. I've been struck by Heaven's Tribulation bolts with more rhythm."
A fwoosh of heat radiated off her side, setting the curtains on minor fire. A snap of frost followed, freezing said curtains into a sculpture of a dying flame. One servant quietly passed out behind a potted pine.
---
The problem was simple.
Minzhi Wife of Xu Zhongshan, Mistress of Flying Sword Sect, top-tier Healing Dao practitioner, and the Central Mainland's infamous rogue healer known as Ghost Hands did not want to be on maternity leave.
"Oh, you'll rest for three months," the elders had said. "Don't be ridiculous," she had replied.
"You need time to emotionally recover," the well-meaning Fourth Ancestor had gently encouraged.
"To recover from what?" she snapped. "Giving birth to two divine monsters I personally cultivated with my own spirit marrow and medical brilliance?! I should be given a reward, not confinement!"
Her husband, of course, had smiled with the grace of a man who knew how to survive long marriages: he said nothing.
The birthing chamber was ready.
It had been reinforced in every imaginable way:
Formations inscribed by Sword Immortals,
Spiritual barriers laid by wind-imbued alchemists,
The pond outside stocked with ice lotus petals and phoenix fire stones—in case one twin tried to kill the other during birth.
But where was the mother?
Sitting at her desk, reviewing funding allocations for the Flying Sword Sect's upcoming cooking competition.
Because who else was going to do it?
Inside her own dantian, Minzhi could feel it the twins were stirring. A pull of frost and fire coiling together like dragons dancing in opposite rhythm. The Frost Moon and Sun Body signatures were manifesting so strongly, they were now visible as spiritual halos pulsing around her belly.
Which was now glowing.
A bit inconvenient.
Not that she cared.
Her hand hovered over her teacup—Lotus Pearl Blend, infused with Grade Nine ingredients, brewed by Xu Anyue's personal lightning kettle. A sip calmed the slight internal quake. Her internal organs realigned like courteous disciples avoiding eye contact with a sect elder.
"Much better," she sighed.
---
"You are glowing, Sect Mistress," one of the junior Elders offered nervously.
"Am I?" she asked, glancing down at her shimmering stomach. "Ah, yes. They're practicing again. Frost lotus pulses faster when I finish the third cup. Little darling is obviously showing off."
"Shouldn't you be in the "
"No."
"But "
"If I don't finish reviewing these tax relief requests for the outer disciples, no one will, and then we'll have a riot before I can even cut the umbilical cord."
"But the elders said "
"The elders also think a mother's mindset is fragile."
She sipped again.
"I snatched a soul back from Yama after its meridian chain was snapped by a Devil cultivator's soul-blade. I can give birth while doing my taxes. Kindly bring me more ink."
Meanwhile, across the sect, Xu Zhongshan stood at the front gate in full ceremonial robes, hands behind his back. He wasn't waiting for enemies.
He was waiting for reputation to survive.
Elder Zhou ran up, panting. "S-Sect Master, she's walking."
"Of course she is," Zhongshan replied serenely. "She has contracts to finalize."
"She's glowing, Sect Master."
"She's always glowing."
"She's on fire!"
"Then I suppose the flame-resistant talismans worked."
In the ancestral hall, Xu Feiyu peeked into the misting mirror and chortled.
"She's 6% dilated and still arguing with a formation spirit about property zoning."
Yuling sipped tea. "She is divine."
"She's terrifying."
"She's still a better administrator than Elder Lin and he's been trying to replace her for two hundred years."
"Who do you think will faint first?"
Feiyu grinned. "Zhou. He's already twitching."
Inside the office, Minzhi winced slightly, hand bracing on the desk as another contraction gripped her.
She breathed out.
"7%."
A servant blinked. "Pardon?"
"Dilation. I'm 7% now."
The healer fainted behind a shelf.
Minzhi did not flinch. She reached for the next scroll.
"Now if someone can get me the reports on spirit beast mating migration patterns, we can keep the mountaintop griffons from getting into a frenzy during delivery. I'd rather not have to birth my daughters while deflecting aerial copulation."
---
Xu Anyue, from her embroidery pavilion, looked up.
"She's not gone into the birthing chamber yet."
Liang laughed. "She'll walk in at 9.9 centimeters."
Zhenyan exhaled.
"She'll walk in, file a complaint about the humidity, slap someone for not lighting the correct incense, and then give birth standing up."
Anyue whispered with a grin, "Like a queen."