One elder sitting to the left frowned. He was thin, old, and covered in dark scales along his neck. His name was Xue Hanzhu, a 2nd layer Sage Ruler who specialized in corpse-blood refinement.
"Origin Core cultivators cannot possess that kind of soul."
Xue Moren looked at him.
"Then go tell him that. Stand close when you do."
No one laughed.
Xue Hanzhu's expression darkened, but he did not answer.
That silence said enough.
Xue Moren was unpleasant. He spoke like a knife scraping bone. He insulted elders without warmth and without fear. But among the Bloodmoon Rakshasa, he had one privilege few others possessed.
He was almost never wrong when reading death.
Mo Shayan's gaze lowered toward the wound again.
"The force is still eating your blood."
"Slower now," Xue Moren said. "The healers can contain it."
"Contain it," Chi Yuelan murmured. "Not erase it."
"No."
Chi Yuelan's crimson eyes narrowed slightly. "That is interesting."
Luo Xuechan tilted her head. "You sound delighted."
"I am."
"I almost died."
"That is why I am delighted. If you had died, I would have fewer answers. Since you lived, I can enjoy the question."
Luo Xuechan's smile sharpened.
"You always were a cold bitch."
Chi Yuelan did not look at her.
"And you always confuse charm with importance."
The air around Luo Xuechan warmed. Her unstable blood mist stirred, spreading a faint scent of crushed flowers and fresh blood.
Mo Shayan lifted one finger.
The hall stilled.
Luo Xuechan's smile remained, but her aura withdrew.
Mo Shayan said, "The sister."
Luo Xuechan's eyes shifted.
For the first time since entering the chamber, amusement faded from her face.
"Less subtle," she said. "More dangerous in direct battle."
Luo Xuechan ran one thumb along the crack in her blade sheath.
"Her killing intent is not a technique painted over fear. It is not a battlefield mask. It is natural. She smells like someone born inside slaughter and bored by anything less."
Xue Moren added, "Her pressure was cleaner than most demons. No hesitation. No moral drag. No need to justify killing. She sees enemies and removes them."
A demon elder with a wide jaw grunted. "A human woman?"
"Human body," Xue Moren said. "Do not assume human heart."
The elder's jaw tightened.
Luo Xuechan chuckled. "Careful. Moren may be ugly, but his warnings are usually worth keeping."
Xue Moren did not even look at her.
Chi Yuelan's long nail tapped once against the table.
"And Ning Huang?"
This time, the council's attention sharpened properly.
Xue Moren's gaze deepened.
"That is where the situation gets… interesting."
Luo Xuechan leaned back despite her wound. Blood darkened one side of her robe, but her smile returned.
"When Long Shenyu was trapped, Ning Huang's emotions opened. Rage. Fear. Helplessness. Protectiveness." Her eyes glimmered. "She did not react like a hostage. She reacted like a woman watching her lover get threatened."
Mo Shayan's expression turned thoughtful.
"So he has another one on his side."
"Not merely on his side," Xue Moren said. "Attached. Deeply enough to act before calculation."
Several elders exchanged looks.
Demons understood appetite. They understood possessiveness. They understood obsession. Love, however, was something they often mocked because humans treated it like virtue instead of weakness.
Chi Yuelan smiled for the first time.
"Then she can overturn the situation."
One elder asked, "By betraying him?"
"Indeed."
The word entered the chamber lightly.
The reaction was not light.
Luo Xuechan's brows rose. Xue Moren's eyes narrowed. Even Mo Shayan turned his gaze fully onto Chi Yuelan.
Xue Hanzhu gave a rough laugh.
"Humans may bargain with demons. They may trade, scheme, sell information, hire killers, even make temporary alliances when desperate. But betray humanity for a demon?" His mouth twisted. "A woman like Ning Huang would rather kill herself."
Another elder nodded. "Especially a War Heiress of Heaven's Edict. Their pride is diseased. They call their thunder judgment and convince themselves Heaven agrees."
Luo Xuechan smiled faintly.
"I have made humans do many stupid things, but I admit, making that one kneel willingly before Bloodmoon would be difficult."
Chi Yuelan's smile did not change.
"You are all thinking too crudely."
Mo Shayan folded his hands.
"Explain."
Chi Yuelan walked around the table slowly.
Her steps made no sound.
"Love is a sickening thing," she said. "But not because it makes people gentle. That is the lie poets tell. Love makes people violent. It makes weaklings brave and geniuses foolish. It makes people exceed their strength, cross lines they would have sworn never to touch, and call obsession devotion because the word sounds cleaner."
No one interrupted.
Her voice remained calm, almost conversational.
"That is why it is useful. The stronger the feeling, the more threads there are to pull."
She stopped behind Luo Xuechan and rested one pale hand on the back of the demoness general's chair.
"We do not need Ning Huang to wake up one morning and decide demons are lovable. That would be stupid. We do not need her to betray humanity out of admiration for us. We do not even need her to know we are touching her."
Luo Xuechan's eyes sharpened.
Chi Yuelan continued, "We only need to twist the thoughts already growing inside her."
She lifted one finger.
"Fear. Long Shenyu offends too many powers. What if he dies because of her?"
Another finger.
"Pride. She was Heaven's Edict's War Heiress. Yet now she stands beside a man the Palace will call enemy. What is she without her old name?"
A third.
"Guilt. Her sect trained her, fed her, raised her status. Is she betraying them? Or are they betraying her?"
A fourth.
"Jealousy. Long Shenyu already has women. More will come. Even if she accepts it, acceptance does not erase the sting. A small wound is enough if touched daily."
A fifth.
"Protectiveness. This is the strongest thread. If she believes betraying him is the only way to save him, she may do something far worse than betrayal. She may convince herself she is loving him properly."
The chamber was silent.
Even Luo Xuechan's smile had faded.
Xue Moren stared at Chi Yuelan for a long moment.
Then he said, "You intend to make her destroy her own balance."
"Yes."
"Not control her."
"Control is for impatient fools."
Mo Shayan's eyes narrowed.
"Do you truly intend to corrupt her mind?"
Chi Yuelan looked at him.
"Not all at once."
"Failure could lead them directly back to us."
"Yes."
"If Long Shenyu or his sister can sense the threads—"
"They will not."
"You sound certain."
"I sound prepared."
Mo Shayan did not smile.
Chi Yuelan folded her hands before her sleeves.
"My disciples have made great progress with the Red Moon Heart-Weaving Art. One cultivator pulling a heart thread can be detected. Five working through separate emotional channels are harder to trace. Nine working over distance through dream fragments, scent marks, reflected moonlight, and borrowed human resentment become almost invisible."
Xue Hanzhu frowned. "Against Sage Rulers, perhaps. But if their souls are as strange as Moren claims—"
"That is why we will not touch Long Shenyu directly," Chi Yuelan said. "Nor his sister. Nor the women closest to his bed at first."
Luo Xuechan's smile returned, thin and appreciative.
"You will poison the air around them."
Chi Yuelan nodded.
"Merchants. Servants. frightened local families. Palace sympathizers. wounded Thunder Palace agents. rumors spoken by women who pity her. Dreams seeded through moon-reflecting stones. One thread means nothing. A sigh here. A warning there. A story about a woman whose lover died because she refused to return home. A servant whispering that Heaven's Edict may kill him if she does not negotiate. A letter forged with enough truth to hurt."
Her crimson eyes gleamed.
"Slow corruption is not a blade. It is weather. By the time the target notices, they have already learned to breathe it."
Mo Shayan stared at her.
"And the concealment?"
Chi Yuelan's expression cooled.
"My disciples will carry Bloodless Moon Veils. They can hide from ordinary divine sense and even evade weaker Sage Ruler sweeps if they do not act directly. If necessary, I will lend them a fragment of my own heart-shadow. They will not approach Long Shenyu's immediate aura range. They will work through circles around him."
Xue Moren closed his eyes briefly.
"That is more reasonable."
Luo Xuechan laughed. "High praise from the corpse-reader."
He ignored her again.
One of the elders leaned forward.
"And if it succeeds?"
Chi Yuelan turned.
The red crystal ceiling reflected her smile above them, making it look as if another version of her watched from a pool of blood.
"If it succeeds, Ning Huang becomes the crack through which Heaven's Edict Thunder Palace bleeds."
The words changed the chamber.
Ambition stirred.
It moved through the elders like heat through wine.
Chi Yuelan did not raise her voice. She did not need to.
"Control Ning Huang, and we do not merely wound Long Shenyu. We gain a hand inside Heaven's Edict. Their War Heiress becomes a path to their Judgment Hall, their hidden movements, their prince's faction, their internal disagreements. Even if we never fully command her, her instability alone can force Heaven's Edict into mistakes."
Mo Shayan's scarred fingers tightened against the stone seat.
Chi Yuelan continued, "If Heaven's Edict bends, the Dominion rises. If we can make one of the great human thunder powers stumble at the right moment, then the Bloodmoon Rakshasa Dominion will not merely stand equal to the strongest Noble Domain forces. We can step above them. We can surpass the three imperial Noble Sects. We can become the shadow every human power fears when the red moon rises."
This time, the elders did not hide their reactions.
Greed entered their eyes.
Bloodlust followed.
The Bloodmoon Rakshasa were cautious when wounded, but ambition was their oldest poison. They had not survived by being reckless, but neither had they risen by thinking small. The idea of turning Heaven's Edict Thunder Palace into a cracked vessel—of using one proud human woman's heart as the first fracture—was too beautiful to ignore.
Mo Shayan looked toward Xue Moren.
"You faced Long Shenyu's power. Your judgment."
Xue Moren was silent for several breaths.
Then he said, "Do not stand near him unless you intend to pay with blood. Do not assume Origin Core means weak. Do not assume his affection makes him soft." His eyes opened. "But if you must attack, attack what he values before you attack his body."
Luo Xuechan smiled.
"That sounds like approval."
"It sounds like survival."
Mo Shayan looked at Chi Yuelan.
"You will proceed slowly."
"I know."
"No direct strike."
"Of course."
"No disciple acts without layered escape means."
"They will have them."
"If one is exposed, they cut their own heart thread and die before capture."
Chi Yuelan's smile deepened.
"My disciples understand romance."
The elders understood what she meant.
Mo Shayan raised one hand.
"Then begin."
Outside the council chamber, nine young demonesses knelt in a shadowed corridor, each wearing a thin veil black enough to swallow red moonlight. Their eyes were lowered. Their fingers were already bleeding into small bowls of dark water.
At Chi Yuelan's command, those bowls trembled.
A faint red thread rose from each one.
Thin as hair.
Soft as silk.
Cruel as fate.
…
Far away, River Ridge City continued to breathe.
Outwardly, the city stabilized.
The branded leaders still sat in their halls. The Qin Family still existed. The Wen Family still drafted contracts. The Lu Family still counted property deeds behind thick walls. The Huo Family furnaces still burned through the night, selling weapons to cultivators who pretended they were not afraid.
Merchants still moved through the streets.
Inns still filled.
Ore, swords, pills, beast hides, maps, spirit herbs, and rumors passed from hand to hand beneath hanging lanterns.
River Ridge was too large to stop functioning simply because its spine had been broken. It was a city tied to routes, trade, family interests, and Noble Domain ambitions. Too many people depended on its streets. Too many caravans had nowhere else to go. Too many cultivators had debts, feuds, and opportunities locked behind its walls.
So the city lived.
But everyone knew it now wore a collar.
Not a visible one.
Worse.
A collar of fear.
The Qin Family's surviving elders still appeared in public, but their arrogance had been carved down to bone. Their smiles came quickly. Their bows came deeper. Their orders were careful, and every careful order carried the same unspoken question.
Would this offend him?
The city lord's remaining officials no longer spoke of balance between families. Balance had died. Neutrality had died with it. The branded leaders might sit in their halls, but their authority no longer belonged to them.
It flowed upward.
To the Three Spirit Inn.
To the man who treated Noble Domain sects like troublesome dogs.
No one retaliated.
No one dared.
The difference in power had been made too clear.
During these weeks, Long Shenyu was not idle.
The forests outside River Ridge became his training ground.
They were not like the thin woods surrounding Moonwatch. The land near River Ridge was closer to the Noble Domain routes, and even though it was still technically Lower Domain territory, the Heaven and Earth energy was thicker. Ancient roots drank traces of Sky Qi drifting down from distant mountain veins. Beasts here were larger, meaner, and more intelligent. Some carried diluted bloodlines from Noble Domain wildernesses. Others had been driven from inner territories by stronger predators and settled near River Ridge, where local cultivators feared them enough to avoid their dens.
Long Shenyu found that convenient.
By the end of the second week, the results were impossible to hide.
Ning Huang reached the 6th layer Sky Lord realm. Shen Lanyue reached the 5th layer Sky Lord realm three days later. Mei Qingxue similarly reached 3rd layer Sky Lord. Each of them were more than capable of fighting several minor realms above their base through the bonds and Long Shenyu guidance.
Long Shenyu's own growth was stranger.
By every normal measure, he should have advanced further.
He had the Sovereign Bonds.
He had Mei Qingxue's awakened potential, Shen Lanyue's restored cold foundation, and Ning Huang's terrifying addition to the bond network. He had conquest luck from Moonwatch and River Ridge. He had resources stripped from powerful enemies. He had a body and soul that understood cultivation far beyond anything this mortal planet could teach.
A normal genius with his advantages might have rushed into peak Sky Lord.
A monstrous genius might have forced half-step Sage Ruler.
A reckless one might have tried to break directly into Sage Ruler and call it destiny.
Long Shenyu reached Great Perfection Origin Core.
That was all.
But Great Perfection was not ordinary perfection.
The common peak of a realm, Perfection, was simply the ninth layer brought to its limit. Half-step into the next realm meant touching the threshold ahead without fully crossing it. Most cultivators treated half-step as superior because it carried a trace of the next realm's energy quality.
Great Perfection was different.
It was the true extreme of a realm.
A state where foundation, energy, body, and comprehension were compressed so completely that it's possible a very powerful genius became stronger than ordinary half-step cultivators of the next realm. It was not a bridge. It was a throne built at the very summit before crossing onward.
Long Shenyu knew this.
He had walked such paths before.
Even so, he considered his progress slow.
Inside the Three Spirit Inn's highest cultivation chamber, he sat cross-legged in the center of a formation made from spirit crystals, beast cores, sword fragments, and stolen Noble Domain talismans. Golden-red Origin Qi moved around him in spirals. Each strand was dense enough to make ordinary Origin Core cultivators cough blood if they tried to absorb it.
His dantian was vast.
Too vast.
That was the problem.