Chapter 642: The New World

“At last, a success!”

Inside the main temple, Wu Ming waved his hand, closing the transdimensional passage.

“Now… it all depends on the performance of my other self. Fortunately, I’ve already made preparations. Even if I fail, it won’t matter much… The path to immortality will eventually be under my feet!”

Muttering to himself, he returned to the main hall of the temple, sat still with an indifferent expression, as if carefully observing the world of Zhou—Wu Zhi ascending to power and moving the capital, other reincarnators carrying out their missions, and the explorations conducted by his other self.

…

In an unknown universe.

Dark, deep, yet seemingly carrying a hint of warmth.

Who knows how long had passed before Wu Ming barely regained a bit of consciousness.

“Where… am I? Why am I so weak?”

A thought emerged, only to fall back into slumber again.

After a long while, Wu Ming finally woke up, spreading his mind, yet seeing only a dim space, faintly glowing with a reddish-orange light.

“A universe… a world? Did I succeed or not?”

Unfortunately, the accumulated exhaustion from prolonged sleep only allowed him to think this much before darkness engulfed him again…

“How long have I been asleep…”

After an indeterminate amount of time, Wu Ming’s consciousness finally became fully clear. At this point, he could roughly discern his situation.

After all, being in a sealed environment, with only an umbilical cord sustaining life, such a state wasn’t hard to guess.

“Damn it! Did I actually reincarnate directly?”

Wu Ming was extremely speechless: “It seems that black hole was indeed the reincarnation center of this entire universe… Now I must have successfully been reborn into that universe. No wonder I was asleep all this time. After all, with just the vitality of an embryo, there’s no way to provide enough energy for my thoughts to function…”

At this point, he estimated that he had already reached seven or eight months, perhaps even about to be born.

However, even at this stage, prematurely activating his thoughts and burdening his brain was definitely not a good thing.

Wu Ming certainly didn’t want his reckless thinking to cause the fetus’s death, thus losing the precious opportunity he had barely managed to obtain at great cost. Therefore, he immediately suppressed all thoughts, entering a state of complete emptiness, devoid of any thinking or mental activity.

This was purely a cultivation of mental state, not requiring any alignment with cosmic laws. Simply put, it meant emptying his mind, thinking of nothing, so as not to burden the still-developing brain and body.

In this state, his physical form continued to grow larger, and faintly, some sounds began to penetrate.

Unfortunately, it was a completely unfamiliar language. Even if he understood it, Wu Ming wouldn’t bother memorizing it, so as not to burden this body further.

…

Time passed, and who knows how long had elapsed. Accompanied by an ear-splitting cry, Wu Ming suddenly awoke, his mood complex: “Birth… it’s begun.”

Pressure came in waves, as if everything around him were writhing, gathering strength to push him out into the world.

He could only cooperate, going along with the flow. If he didn’t possess independent willpower, the instinctive struggles of a newborn alone could cause the mother great pain.

“He’s out! He’s out! Everything went smoothly!”

Inside a room filled with a pungent odor, four bright gas lamps hung from the ceiling. Around it stood a circle of doctors and nurses dressed in orange-green uniforms.

One doctor picked up a pair of scissors, cut the umbilical cord, then sighed in relief, removed his mask, and exited the delivery room.

“Doctor, how is my wife?”

Outside, a young man in a shirt with mismatched buttons and hair as messy as a bird’s nest anxiously paced about. Upon seeing the doctor come out, his eyes lit up, and he rushed forward, grabbing the doctor’s arm.

“Congratulations!”

The doctor smiled: “The delivery went very smoothly. You can go see your wife and child now. By the way, it’s a boy!”

As a midwife who had delivered countless babies, often spending hours or even all night long, she knew very well that for a first-time mother, a smooth delivery like this was almost like hitting the jackpot.

“Oh, good! Everything’s fine!”

The man kept grinning foolishly until someone beside him gave him a nudge, reminding him to thank the doctor by shaking his hand. Then he entered the operating room to see his wife and child.

“You did great!”

He lovingly caressed his wife’s hair, then turned to look at the infant beside her, already washed with warm water and wrapped in a white blanket.

The boy opened his big, dark eyes, not crying, but curiously observing the surroundings.

“This is the new world… and these are the parents of this body…”

Wu Ming looked at the couple before him with a complex mood. Naturally, he couldn’t understand a single word they were saying, so he would have to learn the language anew. But for him, this was a simple task.

What surprised him most, however, was the surrounding environment.

“This… gas lamps? Disinfectant? And an almost modern operating room?”

The bright, white surgical tools like tweezers and small knives, as well as the nearby white cotton, left a deep impression on him: “This world… seems… seems…”

But he didn’t get to look for long before several nurses carried him and the woman to another bed and wheeled them out of the operating room.

“It seems to be a hospital, and quite well-equipped. It looks like the medical field is quite advanced here…”

Looking at the glass on the window and the faint sunlight outside, along with distant chimneys emitting black smoke, Wu Ming felt somewhat reassured.

After all, he was in a modern world with advanced medicine, which was naturally beneficial for ensuring the survival of an infant.

After reincarnating, he now had no supernatural powers to protect him, and had to rely entirely on the environment to safeguard his life.

Luckily, from what he had seen so far, the surroundings seemed safe enough, and his life should be relatively secure.

An infant’s brain was still underdeveloped, and after thinking for a while, a strong wave of sleepiness overcame him.

Before falling into a deep slumber, the only thought lingering in Wu Ming’s mind was dissatisfaction: “Why does everyone look like a blond-haired, blue-eyed Westerner? Did I end up in yet another universe leaning towards the West?”

…

From then on, Wu Ming immediately entered a life of humiliation.

Although his body was growing up step by step, things like breastfeeding and changing diapers were quite a challenge for an adult’s sense of dignity.

Fortunately, his mental cultivation was strong, allowing him to selectively ignore these things.

About a month later, they were discharged from the hospital and returned home.

According to Wu Ming’s observations, this family’s living conditions seemed pretty good. They had their own apartment in a city, which was quite spacious and even came with a small garden.

The male head of the household even drove a black car. The smooth lines and the roaring of its four wheels made Wu Ming feel a bit emotional.

However, there was one thing that puzzled him: the car seemed to be powered not by regular gasoline or diesel engines, but by a steam engine! It emitted black smoke and made a loud rumbling noise all the way.

Moreover, on the way, he saw far too many black smoke-emitting chimneys, as if boilers were burning everywhere, causing Wu Ming to worry about his future respiratory development.

“My little angel, we’re home!”

The female owner held Wu Ming and placed him into a cradle that had been prepared in advance.

The entire room was decorated very warmly, with a fairy-tale style. The corners of the tables were even wrapped in cloth, showing how careful this family was.

Through several mirror observations during this time, Wu Ming also learned his own appearance.

Golden fluff, sapphire eyes, and skin as white as milk—completely the look of an ordinary Western baby.

“It looks like I really have reincarnated into a Western world. It’s very similar to the steam age of my past life, but there seem to be some differences!”

Wu Ming gained some understanding and began to live in this family under the identity of a baby.

After moving in, the male head of the household started working early and returning late, likely an office worker with a very tiring job. Basically, he had to leave every day before dawn and wouldn’t return until long after nightfall.

The one who spent the most time with Wu Ming was this body’s mother.

After such a long time, through secretly listening to the conversations between this couple and their neighbors and friends, Wu Ming had learned that this newlywed couple’s male was named James Straling, while the female remained unknown to him, as everyone called her Mrs. Straling, and James only addressed her as “dear.”

Mrs. Straling was a very gentle and patient woman.

She had no idea that Wu Ming had already more or less understood their daily language. Still, she held up some alphabet cards and kept babbling, trying to teach Wu Ming how to speak.

“I… Mama!”

Mrs. Straling smiled tenderly, pointing at her nose and then at Wu Ming: “You… Steven! Steven Straling!”

“Steven Straling?”

Wu Ming inwardly rolled his eyes but knew that he had absolutely no power to resist at the moment. So he simply stared innocently at Mrs. Straling, pretending to understand nothing.

“Oh, my little Steven, you’re still too young… Being able to call Mom and Dad is already amazing… Are you hungry?”

Mrs. Straling, her face beaming with joy, picked up Wu Ming and gently nuzzled his little face, looking as if she could never get enough of him.

Wu Ming felt even more speechless inside, wishing this period would pass quickly but being helpless, only passively enduring Mrs. Straling’s “affection.”

Life as a baby was quite boring.

Besides being forced to make sounds every day and randomly humming a few times to get by, Wu Ming spent most of his time sleeping.

Of course, half of that was real sleep, while the other half was dedicated to studying this world—in more precise terms, the supernatural rules of this world.