Inside the residence of the Prince of Yang in the imperial capital of Qixia Country.
One morning, after Ding Yun had paid her respects to her mother-in-law, Madam Liu Qin, as per custom and was about to return for breakfast and some time with her children, her mother-in-law, with a smile, held her hand and insisted she stay.
"Little Yun, no need to rush back. Sit down, let your mother and daughter have a good chat."
After Ding Yun sat, Madam Liu waved to the ordinary maids to withdraw, keeping only her personal attendant. Then, she spoke with great earnestness:
"Look, Peng'er's status and position are vastly different now, aren't they? He's a Prince, after all. Of course, I'm not looking down on you. Your contributions, mother, I hold them dear and understand them clearly. Without you, Peng'er wouldn't have his current status and position.
But look at the other Prince residences nearby. Which one is as desolate as ours? You gave birth to a single spiritual root genius and your vital energy was greatly depleted, making you unwilling to conceive again in the short term. Your father-in-law and Peng'er understand. The Ancestor also instructed that your innate vital energy is damaged and requires careful nurturing, otherwise it might affect your lifespan. But we only have two children. It's really too few! According to the rules for the imperial clan, a Prince can have six daughters who enjoy the corresponding titles, and besides the heir, ten sons who can inherit lower-ranked titles. Lacking even one means a loss. This kind of benefit should not be missed.
Raising so many children would be quite strenuous for you alone. You already have a son and a daughter. In the future, you just need to enjoy life. Therefore, my intention is that we should take more concubines for Peng'er. While he's young, let him have more children, lest he be unable to when he's older. More children mean more blessings, and I'm sure your late father-in-law would be happy."
Liu Qin was not truly seeking Ding Yun's opinion; she was merely informing her. Agreement would be best, but even if Ding Yun disagreed, she would proceed regardless. Not even an Empress had the right to prevent the Emperor from taking concubines, as long as the number did not exceed the prescribed limits. The imperial clan would only support it.
"Everything is as you say…"
Ding Yun was indifferent. Recently, whenever Liu Yunpeng visited her, she had to expend mental energy to confuse him, which was already tiresome. Having more concubines meant he would preferably not visit her at all in the future. Her status as the Prince's consort was unshakeable, and no one could move her.
Seeing Ding Yun's compliance, Liu Qin was extremely pleased. They quickly reached an agreement, with Liu Qin responsible for all arrangements. Ding Yun, whose parents and relatives had passed away less than half a year ago, would not be involved. She would simply serve tea to the concubines once they were brought in.
After the discussion, Ding Yun returned to her courtyard as usual. All other activities proceeded as before, and even the nightly disciplinary games were not intensified but continued as they had for the past few months. Every night at midnight, she would pull Liu Yunpeng and Liu Qin's souls into her constructed soul space, allowing them to personally experience the pain of the original host's over ten months of pregnancy and the despair of her death from hemorrhage. The most ingenious part was that Ding Yun could use her conceptual-level River God ability to infiltrate the river of time, stealing a wisp of temporal energy to apply within her soul space, thus altering the flow of time. This allowed them to experience over a year of the original host's life, from conception to death, in less than an hour of external time. It was truly exquisite!
And to prevent them from going mad or their souls from collapsing, Ding Yun would also delete relevant memories after each session. Upon waking, they wouldn't even have a dream, and life would continue as usual. It was quite good.
However, Ding Yun had no intention of tormenting them forever. She planned to continue only until the number of days equaled the original host's pregnancy and death, bringing a sense of closure. Even though Liu Yunpeng was taking concubines today, Ding Yun did not increase the intensity or duration of the torture. After all, these two mortals could not live for many years. Enduring fourteen months of pregnancy and death by hemorrhage daily, with their memories erased, would inevitably cause some damage to their souls, even with Ding Yun's best techniques. Their frequent feelings of mental fatigue, poor memory, and lack of concentration were merely shallow external manifestations. Their conditions would only worsen, but Ding Yun was careful not to let them perish completely. After fourteen months, at most their souls would be damaged, requiring several reincarnations to recover.
Although the original host did not hate them and never intended to torment them, Ding Yun felt uncomfortable seeing the mother and son enjoy everything that was hard-won by the original host's life. Since she had spare time every night and did not require much sleep, she decided to torment them instead.
After experiencing the pain of fourteen months of pregnancy and death by hemorrhage, Liu Yunpeng and Liu Qin were sent back by Ding Yun with their recent memories erased, before they could even form any other thoughts. The next morning, they woke up with normal fatigue and continued their lives. The process of taking concubines also proceeded as planned.
Meanwhile, Ding Yun was using the opportunity of her mother-in-law and husband being too busy to pay attention to her and her two children to formally begin her plans for them. Shortly after breakfast, she sent all the servants away and took the two children to the artificial river. She personally engineered their fall into the water.
That's right, she deliberately manipulated the terrain, tripped the two children, causing them to tumble into the man-made river at the edge. At the same time, she feigned an attempt to save them and jumped into the river herself. Then, she put on a show, activating her River God ability to manifest a female River God, holding three pairs of different children and three different bodies of herself. She asked herself which pair of children and which body was lost. Ding Yun's soul truthfully answered, and the manifested female River God, following the script, merged the previously created Golden Child and Silver Child into her own children. Thus, she gained a four-year-old daughter at the Golden Core stage and a two-year-old son, also at the Golden Core stage. As they were still young and had not practiced any cultivation techniques, they could not perfectly control their internal spiritual power. The next moment, two immense Golden Core pressures radiated throughout the Prince's residence and spread outwards.
Simultaneously, the Golden and Silver bodies derived from her own physical body were naturally merged into her original form. Her physical strength instantly advanced to a level comparable to a True Immortal. However, Ding Yun understood cultivation techniques, so she controlled her aura, only displaying the Golden Core stage, maintaining it at the same level as her children. After all, there were already many River God legends in this world, and she had even produced a high-grade immortal artifact. Why not let her children benefit from it? The other child, being raised by the Ancestor, did not have the opportunity to fall into the water, but the two children she raised by her side were good candidates. She intended to design the world into an era of the end of magic, but letting her children enjoy the twilight of that era wouldn't be a problem. Furthermore, from then on, she and her three children would have cultivation, while Liu Yunpeng and Liu Qin would forever remain mortals. It felt rather good. After all, people say that what one cannot obtain is the bitterest suffering.