The sun beat down warmly on the white jade courtyard of the Cloudsoaring Peak.
Under normal circumstances, breaking through to the Core Formation realm was a time for joyous celebration, endless banquets, and accepting gifts from fawning sect elders.
For Yan Shuo, it meant he currently had a violently unstable void-like singularity sitting in his dantian.
Absorbing the Abyssal Star-Core had given him an impossibly heavy, heaven-defying foundation, but it came with a massive drawback. The demonic rock was actively trying to crush his meridians from the inside out. To keep it subdued, Yan Shuo had to sit in absolute, motionless meditation for at least two hours every single afternoon, constantly feeding it a steady stream of his golden Qi to keep the gravitational pressure stabilized.
He was currently sitting cross-legged on his Heavenly Wood reclining chair, his eyes closed, his breathing perfectly regulated.
"Husband, you are sweating," Tantai Zhi murmured softly, kneeling beside his chair. She gently dabbed his forehead with a cool silk handkerchief.
Yan Shuo didn't open his eyes. He couldn't. He was currently in the middle of a delicate internal struggle, wrestling with a localized gravitational force that threatened to crush his internal organs.
"I'm fine, Wife," Yan Shuo managed to say, keeping his jaw locked. "The core is just... settling. I need to cycle my Qi for another hour without breaking my posture."
Tantai Zhi's golden eyes filled with intense, protective worry. "You work too hard, Husband. I will go to the Alchemy Pavilion right now. I will force the Grandmasters to extract the essence of a Thousand-Year Frost Lotus to cool your meridians. If they refuse, I will snap their cauldrons in half."
"Just... ask nicely," Yan Shuo forced out a tight breath.
"I will be back in exactly one hour!" she promised, pressing a soft, fleeting kiss to his cheek. "Do not move, Husband. I will handle everything!"
Yan Shuo felt the rush of wind as she phased out of the courtyard, rocketing down the mountain like a crimson meteor on a mission to terrorize some poor, elderly alchemists.
The courtyard fell completely silent.
Well, almost silent.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
A few dozen yards away, near the grand peach tree, Su Mei was rhythmically sweeping the jade tiles with her bamboo broom.
The former Golden Dragon Pavilion auctioneer was still wearing her scratchy gray burlap sack. For the past three days, she had been a model prisoner. She kept her head down, she didn't speak, and she treated Tantai Zhi like an unpredictable natural disaster that could end her life at any second.
But today, with the terrifying Saintess finally gone from the courtyard, Su Mei paused her sweeping.
She looked over her shoulder at the fifteen-year-old boy sitting motionless on the wooden chair.
Su Mei swallowed hard. Her Heavenly Fox instincts, which had been buried under layers of sheer, unadulterated terror, were suddenly beginning to twitch.
Fox cultivators were unique. They didn't rely strictly on meditating in caves to grow stronger. They were creatures of desire, innate predators who cultivated by deceiving, seducing, and siphoning the pure Yang essence and dense Qi of powerful cultivators. It was a biological imperative. They were drawn to massive sources of energy like starving moths to a bonfire.
And right now, Yan Shuo was leaking.
Because he was actively wrestling with the Abyssal Star-Core, faint wisps of impossibly dense, pure, ancient demonic Qi were seeping from his pores. To a normal human, it just felt like a heavy pressure in the air.
But to a Heavenly Fox, it smelled like a ten-thousand-year-old roasted spirit pheasant drizzled in divine nectar.
No, Su Mei told herself, her hands gripping the bamboo broom tightly. Don't look at him. He is a monster. He is a Demon Lord in a boy's body. If you touch him, his wife will flay your skin and refine it into a treasure.
She forcefully turned back around and resumed sweeping. Swish. Swish.
But the scent was intoxicating. It was overwhelming. The pure, unfiltered energy radiating from Yan Shuo's stabilized core was the kind of essence that could push a fox cultivator straight through a major bottleneck. Just a tiny taste—just a single breath of that leaked Qi—would be worth ten years of bitter meditation.
Su Mei's pink eyes began to glow. Her breathing grew shallow.
He's immobilized, her fox instincts whispered, drowning out her common sense. He told the Saintess he cannot break his posture. His Qi circulation is completely sealed. He cannot retaliate.
The bamboo broom clattered softly against the jade tiles as it slipped from her hands.
On the Heavenly Wood chair, Yan Shuo felt the exact moment the atmosphere in the courtyard changed. The faint scent of crushed peach blossoms drifted through the air, mixing with the heavy, sweet Yin energy of a Charm Art.
Yan Shuo kept his eyes shut, his mind completely focused on holding the void-like singularity in his dantian together.
Miss Su, Yan Shuo warned internally, unable to project his voice without ruining his Qi circulation. Do not do this. I am holding together a foundation that weighs more than this mountain. If you disturb me, we will both perish.
He heard the soft, quiet padding of bare feet against the jade tiles.
Su Mei had slipped out of her straw sandals. She crept closer, her movements completely silent, hypnotic, and predatory. The terror that had kept her subservient for three days was completely overridden by the gluttonous, overwhelming greed of her fox nature.
She stopped right in front of the chair.
Yan Shuo couldn't move his head, but through his spiritual sense, he could see her perfectly.
Su Mei had unlaced the top of her coarse burlap sack, letting it slip off one of her pale, creamy shoulders. Her dark brown eyes had completely shifted into brilliant, swirling pools of glowing pink. A faint, phantom outline of a fluffy fox tail swished excitedly behind her.
She looked down at the sweating, immobilized boy with a hungry, seductive smile.
"Lord Yan," Su Mei whispered. Her voice was pure, liquid silk, completely saturated with her Heavenly Fox Charm Art. "You look so tense. So burdened. Allow this lowly servant to relieve you of some of that heavy Qi."
Have you lost your senses?! Yan Shuo's internal monologue roared. If I release this Qi, the Star-Core will shatter my spine! And worse—if my wife walks in here right now, she will reduce the entire Central Continent to ashes out of sheer jealousy!
Yan Shuo desperately tried to funnel a tiny sliver of his demonic aura outward to scare her away, just like he had done to the arrogant young master in the city.
But he couldn't.
Every single drop of his willpower and mental energy was locked into a dead heat with the Abyssal Star-Core. He was a perfect, immovable statue. If he twitched a single finger, the gravitational feedback would violently rupture his dantian.
He was completely, utterly trapped by his own cultivation.
Seeing that the terrifying Demon Lord didn't even open his eyes to rebuke her, Su Mei's confidence skyrocketed. Her fox instincts practically sang with victory. He really was immobilized! The apex predator was temporarily completely helpless!
"Don't worry, little husband," Su Mei purred, stepping directly into his personal space. She was so close he could feel the warmth of her skin. "I won't take much. Just a little taste to help me break through my bottleneck. The Saintess won't even know."
She leaned over him, her hands gently resting on the armrests of his Heavenly Wood chair, caging him in.
She didn't try to kiss him directly—that would be too aggressive and might trigger a violent physical reflex. Instead, she tilted her head, her soft lips hovering barely an inch away from his own. She parted her lips, her fangs lengthening slightly, and began to forcefully inhale the dense, golden-black Qi leaking from his mouth and nose.
To a cultivator, this was an incredibly intimate, deeply violating act. She was directly siphoning his life force and cultivation base through the air.
Yan Shuo's eyes snapped open.
He glared at her, his dark eyes filled with a terrifying, ancient fury. He was a supreme Demon Lord! He had slaughtered armies! He had toppled empires! And right now, he was being treated like a helpless spirit well, freely drawn upon by a rogue maid in a burlap sack!
Su Mei saw his eyes open, and for a split second, a flash of pure terror hit her. But the taste of his Abyssal Qi hitting her tongue was too intoxicating. It was like drinking liquid immortality. Her pink eyes glowed brighter, completely drunk on the power.
She leaned in even closer, her chest brushing against his white robes, accelerating the siphoning process.
Yan Shuo gritted his teeth, his jaw locked tight. The Star-Core in his dantian violently shuddered, destabilizing as Su Mei stole the Qi meant to suppress it. A sharp, agonizing crack echoed in his ribs as the gravity began to warp.
Stop! Yan Shuo roared in his mind, sweat pouring down his temples. Foolish fox, you will doom us both!
He desperately began to cycle his core faster, trying to pull the Qi back, but his absolute immobility made it an agonizing, losing battle against her innate siphoning arts.
Just as the gravitational pressure inside his chest reached a critical, bone-snapping breaking point...
A sound echoed across the Cloudsoaring Peak.
It wasn't a loud sound. It was the soft, distinct click of the grand courtyard gates being unlatched.
Yan Shuo's blood ran entirely cold.
The Star-Core's gravity was terrifying, but the sheer, absolute dread that surged through his soul was far more overwhelming.
"Husband!" Tantai Zhi's sweet, cheerful voice drifted into the courtyard. "The alchemists were very cooperative! I didn't even have to break a single cauldron! I brought the Frost Lotus extract—"
Her voice abruptly stopped.
Su Mei froze. The intoxicating high of the stolen Qi instantly vanished, violently replaced by the cold, horrifying reality of what she was currently doing.
She was straddling the armrests of the Heavenly Wood chair. Her burlap sack was slipping off her shoulder. Her lips were hovering barely an inch away from the Saintess's beloved husband, actively sucking the breath out of his mouth.
Silence fell over the courtyard. It was a thick, suffocating, world-ending silence.
At the entrance of the courtyard, Tantai Zhi stood holding a small jade vial of medicine.
She didn't drop the vial. She didn't scream.
She just stared at the fox cultivator leaning over her paralyzed husband.
Slowly, the bright, cheerful sunlight in the courtyard began to physically dim. The vibrant green leaves on the peach tree instantly withered, turning black and disintegrating into ash as a localized domain of absolute, necrotic death expanded outward from the Saintess's feet.
Her golden eyes didn't just dilate; they completely shattered, consumed by a suffocating, bloody darkness.
"A fox," Tantai Zhi whispered.
The sound was so quiet, but it vibrated with enough murderous intent to crack the bedrock of the mountain.
Su Mei slowly turned her head toward the gates. Her pink fox eyes were wide with a terror so profound her soul actually tried to leave her body. She was looking directly at the face of a god who had just decided to erase her concept from existence.
Yan Shuo, still completely paralyzed by his unstable core, stared at his wife's terrifying, world-ending aura.
Well, Yan Shuo thought, a single drop of sweat rolling down his cheek. So this is where my path ends.