The hall had descended into open chaos.
Shouts overlapped into a ugly roar. Tables lay overturned, wine pooling across the stone floor like spilled blood. Two elders were grappling on the ground, qi flaring wildly as they traded clumsy blows. A guard tried to pull them apart and took a fist to the jaw for his trouble, collapsing in a heap. Another guard, eyes blurry from the toxin, drew his blade but only succeeded in slashing at empty air before stumbling into a pillar.
Mu Tianhao stood at the head table, face purple with rage, roaring for order that no one was listening to anymore.
"Enough! I will have silence or I will have heads!"
His words were swallowed by the noise.
Xuan Ye slipped through the outer edge of the chaos like a blade through silk. No one noticed the crippled outer disciple stepping closer to the inner circle. The Chain link in his soul sea boomed with eagerness.
Then he sent a single sharp command through the link.
In the servant alcove near the side wall, the marked servant froze mid step.
Her eyes widened in sudden panic, the abyssal root plug deep inside her pulsed violently as the Chain Rune ignited. A brutal wave of forced pleasure slammed into her without warning and her knees buckled instantly. A raw, broken cry tore from her throat before she could stop it.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
Her body trembling hard, with clear fluid gushed violently around the plug, soaking through her gray robes in an instant and splattering onto the stone floor in a messy, visible puddle. Her back arched, eyes rolling back, tongue lolling out as the orgasm ripped through her with savage intensity. She dropped the wine jar she was holding. It shattered loudly with red liquid spraying everywhere.
Everyone nearby turned.
"What the....?!"
"A servant just… collapsed?"
"Is she sick? Look at the floor!"
The sudden, obscene scene cut through the shouting like a knife. Several elders and guards stared in shock as the woman twitched on her knees, moaning helplessly while another powerful aftershock made her squirt again, adding to the growing puddle beneath her. Her robes were drenched, clinging transparently to her trembling body.
The distraction was perfect.
In the brief moment every eye turned toward the servant's humiliating public climax, Xuan Ye moved.
He darted forward through the confusion, slipping past distracted guards and arguing elders with smooth but predatory grace. Mu Qinglan had risen from her seat, frost qi already gathering around her hands as she tried to restore order.
"You...!" she snapped at a shouting elder. "Control yourselves!"
Xuan Ye was on her in an instant.
He grabbed her wrist from behind, yanking her backward into the narrow side corridor that led away from the main hall. The sudden pull caught her off guard. She stumbled, ice qi flaring instinctively as she twisted to face him.
Mu Qinglan's silver colored eyes widened in fury when she realised it was but a mere "crippled outer trash" from the lower tiers.
"You filthy outer trash!" she hissed, voice dripping with contempt.
"Who are you?!"
"How dare you lay a hand on me?!"
She thrust her free palm forward. A blast of blade like ice erupted toward his chest, cold enough to freeze blood solid.
Xuan Ye twisted at the last moment, letting the ice graze his shoulder. The cold burned, but his repaired meridians held. He didn't flinch. Instead, he stepped in close slamming his forearm against her throat and pinning her against the corridor wall.
Mu Qinglan's eyes flashed with shock and rage. She tried to summon another blast of ice, but he drove his knee between her legs, forcing them apart and disrupting her qi flow.
"Get your dirty hands off me, you worthless dog!" she snarled, struggling violently. Her hair whipped across her face as she twisted. "I'll freeze your worthless soul into shards! Do you know who I am?!"
Xuan Ye leaned in, his voice low, calm, and utterly devoid of warmth.
"I know exactly who you are, Mu Qinglan..."
"The proud genius. The symbol of your family's precious name, also the one they're all fighting over right now, or is it against?"
"Hmmm."
He tightened his grip on her throat just enough to make her gasp.
"But right now," he continued, his eyes cold as the void itself, "you're coming with me."
Mu Qinglan's face exploded in fury. She kicked and thrashed, ice forming along her fingertips but Xuan Ye was faster and stronger than his outer disciple appearance suggested. He wrenched her arm behind her back, forcing her forward down the side corridor.
She stumbled, still spitting insults.
"You will regret this, trash! When my father finds out..."
"He's a little busy right now," Xuan Ye cut in flatly, dragging her deeper into the shadows toward the main hall's rear entrance. The sounds of fighting and shouting grew louder behind them. "By the time anyone notices you're gone, it will already be too late."
Mu Qinglan fought every step, her ice qi flaring wildly and frosting the walls but Xuan Ye's grip was iron. He hauled her inexorably forward towards the ancestral altar's faint glow visible through the archway ahead.
The chaos in the main hall continued to rage unchecked.
No one had come after them yet.
'"They proud daughter of the Mu family was being dragged straight toward the altar and noone had noticed.""
As Expected.