The grand hall of the Azure Sword Sect was utterly silent, save for the whistling wind blowing through the massive hole Elder Mo had smashed in the bamboo ceiling.
Tantai Zhi stood frozen in the center of the room.
She wasn't looking at the sky. She wasn't looking at the ash of the supreme assassination artifact on the floor. She was staring blankly at Yan Shuo's lips.
Zhi'er. The two syllables echoed in her mind, completely drowning out every other thought in her spiritual sea.
For a single, suspended moment, the world went quiet.
Even the wind through the broken ceiling seemed to pause.
For a century, men had screamed her name in terror. Cultivators had whispered it in fear. Even her own Sect Master only addressed her by her title. And since they married, Yan Shuo had playfully, lazily called her "Wife."
But just now, his voice had cracked like thunder. It was deep, ancient, and thick with an unquestionable, possessive authority. Zhi'er. A violent, scorching heat erupted across Tantai Zhi's flawless porcelain face. Her cheeks flushed a brilliant, overwhelming crimson that spread all the way down to her collarbones. Her heart, which hadn't accelerated while facing a Late Nascent Soul Grandmaster, was suddenly pounding against her ribs so fast it felt like a trapped bird.
She completely forgot that she had just taken a Nine-Venom Karmic Nail directly to the palm. She forgot about the Righteous Alliance. Her terrifying, world-ending intellect had been completely overridden by the sheer, unadulterated bliss of a maiden hearing her beloved say her name.
Yan Shuo, still holding her wrist, gently wiped the last drop of foul blood from her palm with his ruined white sleeve.
"Is it entirely gone?" Yan Shuo asked. His voice was no longer the lazy drawl of a pampered boy. It was cold, focused, and heavy. He traced his thumb over her smooth skin, searching for any lingering traces of the soul-rotting venom.
"I... I..." Tantai Zhi stammered. Her glowing golden eyes were completely unfocused. She stared at his thumb moving over her palm, her knees actually feeling slightly weak. "Yes, Hus... Yan..."
She couldn't even form a coherent sentence. She just bit her lower lip, her face so red she looked like she might spontaneously combust, and shyly nodded her head.
Yan Shuo looked up from her hand, raising an eyebrow at her violently blushing face.
His calculating Demon Lord mind frowned. Why is she turning red? She just took a supreme karmic poison point-blank to the hand. Is it a fever? Is the venom boiling her blood?
He didn't understand the sudden romantic deviation scrambling her thoughts. To him, the situation was completely, terrifyingly serious.
When she had lunged in front of that poisoned nail, a deeply buried, fiercely territorial instinct had awoken in Yan Shuo's ancient soul. He wasn't experiencing mortal, poetic love. He was experiencing the absolute, violent possessiveness of a sovereign.
A hundred years ago, she was a starving, shivering sixteen-year-old girl in the snow. He had given her a piece of meat. She belonged to his history. And now, she belonged to his present. She was his shield. She was his wife. She was his person.
And the Righteous Alliance Patriarch had just tried to break something that belonged to him.
Yan Shuo's dark eyes narrowed, a freezing, demonic chill settling over his heart. He didn't let go of her hand. He kept his grip firm, silently claiming her. He didn't let go.
His fingers tightened slightly around her wrist, a silent, instinctive claim that brooked no argument.
You want to play with soul poison, Patriarch? Yan Shuo thought, a dark, bloodthirsty smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. Fine. I'll show you what real poison looks like.
A loud, pathetic groan echoed from behind the Sect Master's throne.
Sect Master Zhao slowly peeled his face off the polished floorboards. He blinked groggily, rubbing a massive bump on his forehead. The residual spiritual pressure from Elder Mo had completely knocked him out.
"Ugh... my head..." Zhao mumbled, staggering to his feet. He looked around the grand hall, his eyes widening in absolute horror when he saw the massive hole in the ceiling and the scorch marks on the floor.
"Lord Yan! Saintess!" Zhao gasped, frantically patting his robes. "Where is the Imperial Envoy?! Where is Elder Mo?! Did we pay the thirty million spirit stones?!"
"Elder Mo had to retreat in a hurry, Sect Master," Yan Shuo said calmly, finally dropping Tantai Zhi's hand. He casually snapped his paper fan open, though his eyes remained entirely cold. "He forgot to take his five low-grade stones. You can put them back in the treasury."
Zhao stared at the five cheap stones sitting on the floor, then looked up at the sky. "He... he fled? Just like that? He didn't arrest anyone?"
"He tried to leave a parting gift," Yan Shuo stated, his voice dropping an octave. "It was very rude. Which is why the Azure Sword Sect is no longer going to sit on this mountain and wait to face their false tribunal."
Zhao swallowed hard, a terrible feeling of impending doom washing over him. "What... what are we going to do, Lord Yan?"
"Prepare the grand flying ship, Sect Master," Yan Shuo ordered. It wasn't a suggestion. The sheer, suffocating weight of his command made Zhao instinctively bow. "Stock it with enough spirit pills and resources for a long campaign. We are going to the Central Continent."
For a brief, terrifying moment, Zhao no longer saw a fifteen-year-old boy.
He saw something ancient wearing a young man's skin.
"The Central Continent?!" Zhao shrieked, his voice cracking. "But Lord Yan, the Righteous Alliance headquarters is there! It's an impenetrable fortress! If you and the Saintess go there now, it's basically a declaration of war! They have dozens of Grandmasters!"
"They have dozens of targets," Yan Shuo corrected smoothly, turning to face the terrified Sect Master. "The Patriarch owes my wife an apology for throwing a nail at her. I am going to make sure he delivers it. In person. On his knees."
Sect Master Zhao nearly fainted a second time. The fifteen-year-old youth wasn't just talking back to an Envoy; he was planning to march up to the golden gates of the Righteous Alliance and demand the Patriarch grovel! He was actively courting death!
But when Zhao looked at the Saintess, expecting her to talk some sense into her young husband, he realized he was entirely alone in his panic.
Tantai Zhi wasn't even listening to the conversation. She was standing slightly behind Yan Shuo, her hands clasped together over her chest, staring at the back of his head with an expression of pure, unadulterated worship. Her cheeks were still a brilliant shade of peach.
He called me Zhi'er, she thought happily, completely ignoring the fact that her husband had just casually declared war on the most powerful sect in the mortal realm. He sucked the poison out of my hand. He is so brave. He is so handsome. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist from behind, resting her flushed cheek against his shoulder.
"Whatever Husband wants," Tantai Zhi murmured dreamily, her terrifying aura completely neutralized by her intense, maidenly bliss. "If Husband wants the Patriarch on his knees, I will go sever his legs right now."
Yan Shuo sighed, gently patting the arms wrapped around him. Still crazy, he noted internally. But at least she's my kind of crazy.
"No need to sever his legs yet, Zhi'er," Yan Shuo said casually.
SQUEAK. Tantai Zhi let out a tiny, high-pitched sound, burying her burning red face deeper into his white robes. He had said it again!
Yan Shuo ignored the strange noise his wife just made and looked back at Zhao.
"Have the ship ready in one incense stick of time, Sect Master," Yan Shuo commanded. "And send a disciple to the back gardens. Tell Su Mei to pack her burlap sack. If we are stepping into the enemy's stronghold, I want their former premier shadow operative standing right next to me."
Sect Master Zhao bowed deeply, his entire body trembling. "A-As you command, Lord Yan!"
An hour later, the massive Azure Sword Sect flying ship broke through the defensive barrier of the Cloudsoaring Peak, turning its bow directly toward the heart of the Central Continent.
Standing on the wooden deck, Yan Shuo leaned against the railing. The wind whipped his white robes around him. He felt the heavy, stable rotation of the Abyssal Core in his dantian.
Behind him, holding a tray of freshly peeled spirit grapes and looking like her Dao heart was about to collapse from sheer terror, was Su Mei.
"Miss Su," Yan Shuo called out without turning around.
Su Mei flinched, quickly stepping forward. "Y-Yes, Lord Yan?"
"When Elder Mo returns to the Patriarch, they will know their assassination failed," Yan Shuo said, his dark eyes locked on the horizon. "They will raise the defensive grand arrays of the Golden Dragon City. They will prepare for a siege. Tell me, what is the fastest way to bypass a continent-grade defensive barrier without swinging a sword?"
Su Mei swallowed hard. She looked at the boy's back, realizing that the Righteous Alliance had absolutely no idea what kind of monster was sailing toward them.
"You don't break the barrier, My Lord," Su Mei whispered, her training as a hidden watcher taking hold. "You purchase the loyalty of the elders who hold the array flags."
Yan Shuo smiled. It was a cold, calculating, entirely demonic smile.
"Exactly," Yan Shuo murmured to the wind. "Let's go scatter some wealth."
"And buy ourselves a war."