A Shocking Revelation and Ancient Shadows

Gu Yan struggled to speak. “Su Xiaoxiao, she’s… pre-gnant.”

“Wh…”

Xiyue stood frozen, her mind a blank. She looked at Gu Yan with a complicated expression.

Su Xiaoxiao’s abdomen ached terribly, her consciousness hazy. She couldn’t hear anything else, but her agonizing gasps pulled both their thoughts back to the present.

“Her stomach is hurting severely right now,” Xiyue said. “You need to find a solution first.”

Knowing the cause made prescribing the right medicine much easier. Gu Yan prepared a prescription and sent someone to brew it, then turned to Xiyue.

“She should only be about a month pregnant. The medicine she drank before had some adverse effects, which is why she felt unwell.”

“You’ll need to loosen her clothes. Taking medicine alone won’t work; we must perform acupuncture.”

However, even before Gu Yan could prick Su Xiaoxiao with the long needle, the little fish began to struggle.

“No…” Just seeing the needle’s tip filled her with terror.

“Let… let go of me…”

Her throat was still sore, making speech difficult. She cried out about her stomach pain, yet the moment she saw the needle, she began to wail and squirm away.

Even Xiyue was unsure what Su Xiaoxiao truly wanted.

Gu Yan wore a troubled expression, clutching the needle, hesitant about where to begin. Xiyue, disliking such dawdling, simply pulled Su Xiaoxiao into her embrace.

In a few swift motions, she stripped off Su Xiaoxiao’s outer and inner garments.

Su Xiaoxiao’s jade-like skin and small abdomen were exposed to the air, making her feel even more insecure.

With tear-filled eyes, she gazed at Gu Yan, her piteous look making Gu Yan reluctant to proceed. “Don’t move around,” Gu Yan murmured. “It will be over quickly.”

Xiyue gripped Su Xiaoxiao’s wrists, preventing her from thrashing and risking the needle being inserted in the wrong place.

Her pale, small belly, overly thin, was even slightly concave. Pressed down by Xiyue, she couldn’t move, and her agitation only made her choke uncontrollably.

Su Xiaoxiao gradually lost strength, her struggles weakening. “It will be over quickly,” Gu Yan chanted softly.

When the first needle pierced her skin, Su Xiaoxiao’s breathing was erratic, but she had given up fighting. She merely sobbed and trembled without cease.

As the needle tip touched her abdomen, Xiyue seemingly couldn’t bear to watch Su Xiaoxiao’s fear. She raised a hand and covered Su Xiaoxiao’s eyes.

Su Xiaoxiao was nestled in her arms, the two pressed intimately close. Xiyue’s voice resonated softly in her ear.

“You won’t be scared if you can’t see it.”

Xiyue’s palm, soft, slender, and fair, covered Su Xiaoxiao’s eyes, plunging her into darkness. This indeed alleviated some of her terror, yet when the needle pricked her, she couldn’t help but cry out.

Xiyue looked down at Su Xiaoxiao in her arms, her palm damp and warm. The little fish’s eyelashes fluttered, brushing against her skin, causing a tingling sensation that mirrored Xiyue’s inner turmoil.

After the acupuncture, they still had to wait for a while. Xiyue had assumed the little fish in her arms would have calmed down by then, but when she withdrew her hand, she discovered Su Xiaoxiao had fallen into a deep sleep at some point.

Sensing something was amiss, Xiyue lifted her head and gave Gu Yan a stern look.

Gu Yan quickly raised her hands in explanation. “I saw she was too nervous and feared the needle might slip, so I pricked her sleep acupoint to let her rest for a while.”

Only then did Xiyue avert her gaze, staring at Su Xiaoxiao’s sleeping face for a moment.

Her eyes fell upon Su Xiaoxiao’s needled abdomen. ‘This little fish is actually pregnant.’

She found it hard to believe, as both she and Su Xiaoxiao were clearly female, making it impossible.

“What you said earlier, was it true?”

Gu Yan naturally understood her meaning and replied earnestly, “It is true.”

Xiyue’s expression grew solemn; a closer look would reveal a flash of murderous intent and coldness in her eyes.

“She is female, and I am female,” Xiyue said in a deep voice. “How could she be pregnant?”

“Ordinary women, of course, cannot,” Gu Yan explained. “It only occurred to me during the pulse diagnosis. There’s a book about the Merfolk in the Ghost Clan’s Ancient Library of Ten Thousand Books. It’s not strange at all, because Su Xiaoxiao is a Merfolk.”

Gu Yan continued, “She is young. Among the Merfolk, those her age haven’t fully matured. However, the Merfolk are darlings of the Heavenly Dao. Once they encounter their beloved, their internal structure will mature automatically. Both men and women can impregnate a Merfolk of this age.”

“She was brought back to the Demon Realm by Your Excellency, and these past days, you have been…” Gu Yan paused, then whispered, “…showing her such affection. That’s why…”

Xiyue’s expression seemed to darken further. Gu Yan, thinking Xiyue believed she was spouting nonsense, continued, “May I ask, Your Excellency, when you were intimate with this little fish, did you ever enter the deepest part of her body?”

Gu Yan had read this in a book and described it as written: “The place resembling the spout of a pot.”

Xiyue paused, slightly stunned, then nodded.

Gu Yan laughed. “That’s it!”

She couldn’t help but glance back at Su Xiaoxiao lying on the bed, thinking, ‘This Merfolk is truly rare.’ She then subtly looked at Xiyue, finding it utterly inconceivable. ‘She is clearly the one who gives birth, yet now another woman will bear a child for her. How miraculous.’

Xiyue’s black face carried immense deterrence. Gu Yan quickly averted her gaze, secretly praying that the child Su Xiaoxiao bore would resemble Su Xiaoxiao as much as possible to be cute.

Xiyue remained silent, ancient memories suddenly surfacing in her mind.

****

Thousands of years ago, she was still a small snake, not yet in human form.

The snake clan was inherently cold-blooded, yet numerous. The reason lay in their lustful nature; during their mating season, any two snakes could entwine their tails and couple.

Xiyue was the product of a passionate night between two such lustful snakes.

She was born alongside several other eggs. There were many siblings, but their mother snake had no affection for them, though she didn’t let them starve either.

The mother snake had gained sentience and cultivated a human form, possessing considerable power. Xiyue and her siblings inherited some of her spiritual energy, taking on human forms shortly after hatching, like four or five-year-old human children.

Xiyue was the smallest and most slender of them all. They were demons, and naturally cold-hearted snakes, completely devoid of any desire for parental or sibling affection.

The Demon Clan was a world of the strong preying on the weak from birth. Xiyue originally had several elder brothers and sisters, but gradually, she noticed that her siblings who ventured out began to disappear one after another.

This was not unusual. It was common for demons with insufficient cultivation to be hunted and devoured by stronger ones when they went out.

However, Xiyue one day made an accidental and horrifying discovery: it was their own mother, the snake who had given birth to them, who was personally devouring her children.

The bloody scene delivered a tremendous shock to the young Xiyue. She remained hidden in a corner, unable to move for a long time, fear and dread spreading through her heart.

After a long while, she covered her mouth and ran, cold sweat beading on her forehead. From the snowy ground behind her, she heard a crunching sound.

She turned her head in terror, thinking her mother had discovered her and was coming to devour her too.

—But the person behind her was her elder brother.

Her brother, also in the form of a child, spoke with chilling coldness. “Did you only just find out? I’ve known for a long time.”

“Look at how shocked you are. This isn’t anything rare.”

Her brother smiled faintly. “Resources are scarce in the Demon Clan. When winter comes and food is tight, many species will eat their young to preserve themselves.”

“She gave birth to us merely as food to get through the winter.”

Her brother asked, “Sixth Sister, who do you think is next? Me, or you?”

Xiyue didn’t answer him then; she simply swatted his hand away and ran.