"There's no escape for you," Lian Luo whispered. "No resistance. You belong to me now. If you truly want to see your child survive, you will keep your mouth shut about this. You will tell no one."
"And you will visit my quarters tonight. Be obedient, give me a good night, and I will make sure you are rewarded fairly." He said it all with such certainty, such casual confidence.
That Jin Mulan understood with crystalline clarity, he'd done this before. Many times. To women who couldn't fight back. To women whose families had no power to protect them.
But she had power. Her husband had power. If only she could reach him. If only she could move.
Back in the dressing chamber, Luo He reclined on the bench with his eyes closed, every muscle relaxed. The facade of lazy indifference was perfect, the carefree husband with nothing troubling his simple mind.
But his awareness tracked the empty corridor outside, the servants moving past, the subtle vibrations in the air that indicated the normal flow of the wedding continuing.
Time passed. More time than should have. His eyes opened slightly. "Why is my wife taking this long?" The thought was genuinely curious, free of real concern.
"Does she take that long to pee? Maybe she's tending to other matters." He considered this with the kind of shameless practicality that would have scandalized half the court.
"Maybe she's gone for a poop. Perhaps that's why she's taking so long." The thought amused him. Most men, proper men, dignified men, would pretend such things didn't exist.
They'd construct elaborate fictions where their wives were delicate creatures incapable of such mundane biological necessities. Luo He had never been particularly interested in maintaining such fictions.
"Though at this point, even if she were," his mind continued its shameless trajectory. "She should certainly be finished by now."
He sat up, his eyes fully open now. A smile tugged at his lips as a new idea took shape.
"What if I go surprise her? Sneak into the washroom without her noticing. Perhaps I could give her a proper fright. A jump scare in the most unexpected moment."
He could already imagine her reaction. The way she'd shriek his name, her eyes widening in genuine surprise before narrowing in exasperation. The way she'd scold him.
The way she'll lecture him all the way back to the preparation chamber, her voice sharp but her eyes amused. What good was being married to someone if you couldn't occasionally behave like a complete fool?
What good was having a wife if you couldn't jump-scare her and accept the consequences?
"What kind of husband would I be if I couldn't at least accomplish that?" He thought with genuine conviction. He rose smoothly and activated the 'Silent Step'.
The tequenick flowed through him like water finding its channel. A masking of his entire presence so complete that even those with cultivated perception would sense nothing.
He remained fully visible to the naked eye, but his aura, his energy signature, his very presence in the world became imperceptible to a martial artist's third eye or the sixth sense.
His footsteps made no sound on the stone floor. The technique combined with his own natural grace, the result of years of cultivation, created the perfect conditions for undetectable movement.
He drifted through the corridor like a visible ghost, shameless in his intent to sneak into the women's washroom for the express purpose of startling his wife.
"No wonder everyone despises this man." The thought was almost amused. "But what is life without a little shameless mischief?"
He reached the washroom entrance and was about to round the corner when the world shifted. It was subtle, barely perceptible to anyone untrained.
A vibration in the air that suggested violence in the making, danger crystallizing into terrible form. Luo He's entire demeanor changed in an instant.
The lazy amusement evaporated. His body went absolutely still, every nerve suddenly firing with lethal awareness. He didn't release his technique. Instead, he deepened it.
Now it compressing his presence even further, and moved toward the entrance with the kind of controlled speed that left no sound, no disturbance. What he saw made something cold and very terrible crystallize in his chest.
Jin Mulan stood pressed against the stone wall, her body completely paralyzed by divine suppression. Her eyes were the only part of her that moved, and they tracked Prince Lian Luo with desperate, furious helplessness.
Lian Luo stood directly in front of her, his right hand buried in her hair, his left hand wrapped around her waist, his fingers digging into soft skin with possessive hunger.
His face was dangerously close to hers, his tongue extended toward her cheek, ready to taste her skin like some filthy predatory beast.
The two divine-level cultivators stood flanking the entrance, their auras a suffocating weight that held her completely immobilized.
In that fraction of a second before action, Luo He's mind crystallized a single thought with absolute clarity. "Did this filthy bastard already had kiss her?"
The concern wasn't for her safety in any moral sense. It was visceral, almost absurdly personal. If that creature's lips had already touched her skin.
If he'd already marked her with his filth, then Luo He would have to kiss those same spots. He'd have to taste what this predator had tasted, feel his lips where this bastard's lips had been.
The disgust was overwhelming. He found himself almost praying to god. "Please don't let him have kissed her. Please don't let me have to suffer that indignity."
But there was no time for further thought.
Luo He moved. In less than a heartbeat, he crossed the distance and placed his right hand firmly on Lian Luo's shoulder.
The sudden contact was enough to startle the man, and that split-second of surprise caused his extended tongue to retract, his body to stiffen.
And in that same instant, Luo He released his imperial aura. The Black Dragon Aura of the Luo Family erupted from him like a physical force. Not violent or explosive, but absolute.
Red and Black light flickered around his form, and the red dragon embroidered on his black robe seemed to writhe with living malevolence. It was the aura of imperial royalty distilled across many generations.
Power so absolute that it didn't need to shout because its mere existence silenced all opposition. Lian Luo's entire body seized.
His tongue snapped back into his mouth. His right hand, which had been tangled in Jin Mulan's hair, froze mid-motion. The hand at her waist went completely rigid, no longer squeezing nor exploring.
Just frozen like a statue, fingers still pressed against her skin but utterly immobile. Recognition crashed over Lian Luo like a tidal wave. "The Black Dragon aura of the Imperial Luo family."
"There were only two people in the entire Flame Kingdom who carried that aura. The Flame Emperor himself, who was nowhere near this wedding. And...and...
No. It couldn't be." He thought.
"But it was." In the span of two seconds, Lian Luo's mind raced through a cascade of memories. When he'd first seen Jin Mulan's husband at the banquet hall, something had nagged at him.
A sense of familiarity he couldn't place. He'd dismissed it then, arrogant in his certainty that anyone who mattered would be immediately recognizable to him, no matter who they were.
But now, the red dragon embroidered on the left side of Luo He's robe. The exact imperial dragon of the Luo dynasty.
Though rendered in red thread instead of black. It was the symbolic black dragon with red eyes.
The creature that embodied the power and authority of the Luo family, the unique sigil of the Luo family itself. Most people knew only the golden flame emblem on red banners.
The general symbol of the Flame Kingdom. But those closest to the Luo dynasty knew the truth. The flame represented the kingdom while the Black Dragon was the imperial animal, the true mark of power within the family.
And only direct descendants of the Luo Dynasty had the authority to embroider this specific dragon onto their clothing. Anyone else who attempted such an act would lose their head for the presumption.
The dragon was engraved right there, in red on black cloth, worn openly at a foreign wedding. Lian Luo's legs gave out beneath him.
Before the two divine-level cultivators could even react, before they could process what was happening, Luo He's aura pushed them back with casual force.
A single glance, enhanced with his immense will, sent them stumbling backward. They hesitated, caught between their duty to their master and the absolute terror of standing against imperial power.