CHAPTER 242: REVELATION!

"Is there anything else, my love?"

Xiran nodded lightly with a light blush as she bit her lower lip in embarrassment.

Slowly gathering her courage, she raised her head to look at him, gazing directly into his eyes as she said slowly:

"I have something else to tell you, dearest!..."

Ashen genuflected, getting to her eye level before asking softly: "Yes. Tell me. What is it, my love?"

Xiran, taking a deep breath, holding her embarrassment and joy back, announced: "I’m pregnant!"

"Huh?..."

It seems I misheard something...

It can’t be what I heard, right?

I should clear my ears before listening again...

Ashen stood up before putting his finger into his ear and yanking it nonstop to clear any dirt there may be.

He again knelt back in front of Xiran before requesting, "Xiran, my love, can you repeat what you just said one more time?"

Xiran nodded in understanding before taking a deep breath again and holding her joy.

"I... no, We- Are- Pregnant!!"

Ashen, not knowing how to react, was dazed.

"I’m going to be a mother!" Xiran excitedly said, "You are going to be a father!!"

It’s a dream, right? Ashen wondered to himself.

Xiran, on the other hand, could contain her joy:

"What is this? Why am I feeling this ecstasy after telling you?" Xiran spoke loudly. "I didn’t feel this joy before telling you. Maybe the anxiety of how you would react was suppressing my joy!"

Ashen, however, wasn’t joyous about this news as he was lost in thought of the future:

Can I afford a child right now?

In two days, I plan to announce my participation in the succession race, and if someone finds out about my child, won’t they be killed?

No child deserves to be born in that kind of situation where they can be assassinated by anyone.

This child will have a claim on the throne and thus will surely be targeted by many.

What should I do?

How did this happen?

As this question appeared in his mind, the flashes of his intimate moments with Xiran accompanied it as the answer.

Sigh... This body was too horny at the start.

I can’t believe I was this careless.

I did it with Xiran continuously every day.

It was only after I left for the Phoenix Feather Sect that we stopped.

Moreover, Cultivators are less likely to get pregnant.

Female cultivators usually use their cultivation to take the sperm out of their bodies after intercourse to avoid getting pregnant.

There was no concept of condoms among cultivators.

Since Xiran wasn’t a cultivator when we did it, she didn’t know about it.

Even I was new to this world at that time.

I could only hope that she wouldn’t get pregnant, but here we are.

Ashen sighed helplessly before deciding to have a conversation with Xiran about his worries.

It was always better to come up with a plan together when both could be affected by this very decision.

Stopping Xiran amid her joy, Ashen requested, "Xiran, I’d like to talk to you in private. Can we send Mao Na out?"

Does he want to discuss our child’s name?

She chuckled to herself before nodding in agreement.

"Mao Na, can you please wait outside for a moment? I will call you in a moment."

Mao Na innocently nodded her head before leaving the room and standing in front of the door.

Ashen, then, sat beside her, holding Xiran’s hand as he spoke solemnly:

"Xiran, you should know about the situation we are in. Our child might be assassinated if the news about him gets out."

"Huh?" Xiran’s pupils enlarged, being unable to understand his meaning: "What are you talking about, dearest?"

Ashen tightened his grip around her hand as he began explaining:

"Xiran, as you know, I’m a prince who has a claim to the throne of the emperor!"

"Similarly, my child will also have the same claim to the throne!"

"Now, there are others of my bloodline, like my siblings, and if they come to know about my child, they will feel threatened and will definitely target him. Due to this very reason, none of my siblings has a child of their own!"

Xiran’s face revealed the shock of understanding the situation Ashen was talking about; however, being desperate as she was, she tried to retort: "B-But, Won’t the Shang Clan protect the child?"

"Yes, they will..." Ashen paused before revealing the severity of their circumstances: "However, there are spies in this clan. You won’t even know when the child will be poisoned or murdered."

"H-How do you know that there are spies?" Xiran asked, refusing to believe his words.

"Because there are our spies in other clans and by the side of my siblings," Ashen answered straight to the point. "If we can place our spies there, can’t they do the same?"

"B-But why would they come after a small child?" Xiran questioned. "How can this small child, who isn’t even born, threaten your siblings who are more than 100 years old?"

"It is due to me! I’m already a core-formation realm cultivator at this young age."

"W-What??" Xiran was flabbergasted. "How can this be? You were at the nascent soul realm just a few months ago? You told me yourself."

"I was hiding my cultivation with an artifact."

Ashen didn’t reveal that he was a King realm cultivator since that would be even more impossible to believe.

"T-Then can’t you hide your cultivation from the world for our child?" Xiran asked hopefully.

Ashen shook his head helplessly: "You are too late. I have already promised the Shang Clan and my grandfather that I will be revealing my cultivation on the Emperor’s Birthday to gain support for my faction. If you had informed me earlier, I might have changed my plans, but now it’s impossible."

Xiran was silent, unable to understand what to do about this situation. She couldn’t think of any way.

She, looking at Ashen with tearful eyes, asked: "Then what do you want me to do, dearest??"

Ashen held her hands more firmly as he spoke determinedly:

"I want you to choose..."

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(A/N - Thanks for reading. ^..^)