Chapter 222 Octuplets (three updates)
Suming pulled up a stool and sat beside the mother cat, taking Mrs. Su's place. With one hand, he pretended to scratch its belly while covertly using his Soul Attachment Ability to attach his spiritual power to the white cat.
No sooner had he employed The Soul Attachment Ability than Suming's complexion underwent a drastic change. He felt as though an immense hand had seized his intestines and yanked them down hard. Not only a tug but also a vicious twist followed, and after the twist, another pull...n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
This sensation was overwhelmingly intense, beyond what words could articulate. Suming uttered an "oh," his mouth agape in an oval shape, legs trembling, a chill striking at his rectum, nearly tumbling off the stool.
"What weird thing are you up to now?" Mrs. Su, completely oblivious to the agony Suming was enduring, asked curiously.
Suming, eyes rolling back in pain, bit down on his teeth and squeezed out a faint smile, "I... I'm playing with the cat..."
"Playing with the cat? Cut it out. This little one is in pain right now. Don't scare it..."
Mrs. Su was speaking when she suddenly noticed that the white cat's cry had changed significantly from before!
The white cat had almost passed out earlier, lying motionless, only spasming occasionally. But after Suming scratched and made a 'funny face,' the white cat's previously tense body had visibly relaxed, opened its eyes, meowed softly, and even managed enough strength to flick its tail at Suming.
"Eh? Is this actually working?" Mrs. Su, exceedingly surprised, glanced between the grimacing Suming and Xiaobai, thinking that the veterinarian from the city's zoo really had some tricks up their sleeve.
Mrs. Su looked puzzled at Suming. If he was making a funny face, that could still be understandable, but was his funny face really that hideous? It was like he was being tortured.
"Mom... My friend said... It's all about acupressure massage... You have to press along the cat's belly like this..."
As Suming spoke through gritted teeth, he continued the "massage" on the white cat's belly in a bizarre way that nobody could comprehend, pretending to perform a so-called aiding birth technique.
It suddenly occurred to him that spiritual power was bidirectionally connected. The Soul Attachment Ability was based on spiritual power, and since it could feel an animal's sensations, might it also be possible to 'share' those sensations, in other words, share the animal's pain?
The white cat's biggest problem at the moment was a difficult birth due to an unknown cause. As his mother had put it, perhaps because of an excessive number of fetuses, it lacked the strength for childbirth. If it could 'make it through,' it would be fine, but if not, it might not survive.
Suming didn't know much about obstetrics, but common sense suggested that 'making it through' meant relying on physical and willpower. If he could share some of the pain from childbirth, reducing it to the level of a smooth delivery, or even lower than a normal one, perhaps the white cat's willpower could solve the problem.
The facts now seemed to prove that Suming's guess was correct! After the Soul Attachment Ability was activated, the pain that the white cat felt significantly decreased, and some of it transferred to Suming.
Of course, there might be many other factors involved in dystocia that couldn't simply be resolved by lessening the pain.
But this was the only method at present, to help the white cat endure a certain amount of pain, to focus its strength and spirit to bravely attempt again, and to forcibly deliver the babies in her womb. Animals are different from humans; humans have willpower and can bear pain, but animals do not possess such willpower. Although Xiaobai, who was frequently exposed to spiritual power, had somewhat stronger willpower than the average wild or domestic cat, it was still an animal and couldn't be compared to humans.
Since its willpower couldn't quickly be increased, the solution was to reduce the sensation of pain.
The method was quite effective, but Suming paid a heavy price.
"I really shouldn't speak thoughtlessly in the future," Suming lamented, his face a picture of misery. He had just said he would never experience the pain of childbirth in his life, and now here it was, instant karma!
A grown man, without any place in his belly for a baby, felt the pain transferred to his organs, mainly his intestines, feeling as though they were being yanked out, with a most embarrassing sensation coming from his rectum...
After enduring several minutes of excruciating pain, Xiaobai indeed seemed much better, slowly regaining her strength and starting a new attempt!
This was the most painful moment!
It is said that the maximum pain a person can endure is 45 units of pain, with the pain of childbirth amounting to 57 units, equivalent to 16 broken ribs at once.
From a man's perspective, the most intense pain one can feel is testicular trauma, roughly 200 units.
So, as Suming suffered through the delightful equivalent of breaking 16 ribs, he encouraged himself that this was still far from a man's limit; he had to endure it!
Mrs. Su had no idea about Suming's bittersweet ordeal. Seeing him contorting his face, she wanted to reproach him, but in reality, after Suming's improvised birthing technique combined with his grimacing, Xiaobai did show signs of recovery. Her belly was pulsing rhythmically, far from the deathly stillness from before. Even flipping over and crawling out of her nest, she began to try more actively.
Just as the kitten, still wrapped in its amniotic sac, started to emerge again, the pain that Suming shared was nearing its breaking point. If this continued, Suming feared he might faint from pain before the kitten was even born, which would be disastrous!
Suming slapped his forehead hard, chiding himself for his foolishness. He had forgotten one of the key traits of the Soul Attachment Ability!
This power wasn't limited to a single animal; it could be used on multiple targets!
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Why go through the silly ordeal of enduring the suffering of the white cat's labor alone?
Thinking of this, Suming grinned mischievously and spread his spiritual power out like radar, searching for any animal within a few dozen meters.
...
Huang, with a name like that, you'd know he's a dog.
Having hung around Sun Town for several years, everyone in town recognized him. He had never been hit, and people often gave him their leftover food. Full, he'd lounge under the eaves basking in the sun, and after waking up, he'd leisurely stroll around, occasionally acting as a guard dog, helping the townsfolk drive away wild boars from the mountains.
As a stray dog, Huang's life was quite comfortable except for his single status, without any substantial regrets.
Today, many people in the town were setting off firecrackers which, according to experience, meant that tomorrow he'd surely get plenty of delicious food, maybe even meat! With hopeful dreams of a better tomorrow, Huang found a grassy nest and nestled into a fragrant sleep.
While in the middle of his sleep, Huang suddenly felt a chilly breeze behind his butt, and his tail shot up high as he awoke in a panic, looking back in terror.
...
In fact, Cui Hua was a rooster. As an elder among his kind, he intuitively knew that he'd managed to live so long without being killed because he'd crowed every morning without fail since he was young.
So, he developed a good habit: as soon as it got dark, he'd dutifully return to his nest to sleep.
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a rooster crow in time! Daily crowing is the key to survival!
He'd barely slept when Cui Hua suddenly felt a weightiness in his abdomen, and his pointed rear end shot up, waking him from his dreams with a bizarre sensation.
Could it be he was laying an egg?!
...
Deep under the ground, more than a meter down, an earthworm was busily digging tunnels as usual. It didn't know why it spent every day burrowing through soil, but from the moment its life began, digging had become an instinct.
As it burrowed, the earthworm jolted as a sensation called 'pain' spread throughout its body.
I'm broken! Without hesitation, the earthworm used its special ability; its rear half detached from the front, and both halves continued to burrow in opposite directions with determination.
...
Almost simultaneously, the abdomens of all the animals within a dozen meters of Suming's house began to feel odd sensations, and before Suming's eyes, a multiview monitor seemed to appear, showing dozens of different scenes: chicken nests, grass shacks, dog kennels, pitch-black ones, and even a couple in the midst of lovemaking...
"Oh, mom, I didn't mean to – sorry, carry on!" With basic decency still intact, Suming quickly withdrew the soul attachment from the animal in someone's bedroom.
As he deployed the Soul Attachment Ability, his spiritual power drained away rapidly, like a receding tide. Correspondingly, the pain that had been borne by Suming alone was now shared by dozens of animals. The burden on Suming's body instantly lifted, and the excruciating pain in his abdomen eased to just a slight discomfort, akin to an upset stomach.
For Xiaobai, things were even more relaxed, and before long, the first kitten was finally born with ease!
The newborn was about the size of a palm, with sparse white fur and no hair on its tiny legs. It was covered in mucus and couldn't even open its eyes.
The cat mother extended her tongue and licked the viscous liquid off the little one. The kitten wriggled a bit and, with eyes closed, mewed softly at Suming.
"Don't touch the kitten, if it smells like humans, the cat mother won't recognize it and might kill it," warned Mrs. Su quickly, slapping away Suming's hand as he reached to touch the kitten, and cautioned him concernedly.
Actually, not just cats, but most animals have this trait. However, Suming's animals did not have this problem after being exposed to spiritual power. Pretending to wear a glove, he cradled the kitten and lightly tapped its damp nose with a finger.
The kitten, unable to open its eyes, latched onto Suming's finger guided by the scent. Its teeth hadn't yet come in, so nibbling on Suming's finger felt ticklish.
After that, one kitten after another was born with ease.
When the clock struck twelve, the white cat had successfully completed the birthing process. Experience more tales on empire
A total of eight kittens, four black and four white. A first litter of eight was uncommonly large, no wonder there were complications.
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