Spiritual pressure exploded from her form like a tidal wave, raw and uncontrolled in its intensity.

The force slammed into both figures with crushing weight, sending Yu Xiang flying backward through the air like a ragdoll.

CRASH!

Yu Xiang's body hit the wooden wall of the hut with bone-jarring force, revealing that the walls were reinforced by some kind of inscriptions, making them harder than steel. The impact sent cracks spider-webbing through the rough timber.

She crumpled to the floor, blood spraying from her lips as she gasped for air, her ribs screaming with agony from the devastating blow.

But Tianlong was caught in the same spiritual blast. His unconscious form was hurled sideways, his perfect physique tumbling through the air with dangerous momentum.

The moment Akane realized what she had done—that her uncontrolled fury had endangered the very person she was trying to protect—her body moved without conscious thought.

She lunged forward with inhuman speed, her arms wrapping around Tianlong's falling form just before he could crash into the opposite wall.

His weight settled against her voluptuous curves as she caught him, his head coming to rest against the soft swell of her massive breasts.

Tianlong's eyes fluttered open at the impact, consciousness returning as he found himself cradled in Akane's embrace.

For a moment, confusion clouded his features as he processed the situation. Or at least he sounded like he was confused, clearly using his artifact to its fullest.

His acting was quite good enough to hide his awareness, and as his crimson-gold gaze focused, he saw Yu Xiang crumpled against the wall, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

"Xiang!" The name tore from his throat as genuine concern overrode his deception before he moved.

He pushed against Akane's arms, breaking free from her protective embrace as he scrambled toward Yu Xiang's fallen form.

His hands moved to lift her trembling body, checking for serious injuries while his eyes blazed with furious accusation.

"How can you do that to her?" he demanded, turning to glare at Akane with raw emotion. "Are you a human or some kind of monster!"

Those words—'monster'—hit Akane like a physical blow to the chest.

Her golden eyes blinked rapidly, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find words that wouldn't come. Especially seeing his such genuine gesture to another woman was already taking a toll on her mental ability, which had considered him her husband and even cried over it.

The ancient fox matriarch, who had commanded respect and fear for millennia, found herself speechless under the weight of his accusation simply because she felt he was the one for whom she lived.

"I... I..." she stammered, but the words stuck in her throat.

But then she noticed something that made her blood run cold.

Yu Xiang, despite her injuries, despite the blood on her lips and the obvious pain wracking her body, was giving Akane a smile.

Not the innocent expression of a wounded woman seeking comfort.

A devil's smirk.

The expression was so subtle that Tianlong, focused on checking her condition, missed it entirely.

But Akane saw it clearly—the cold calculation, the satisfaction, the unmistakable look of someone who had just won a crucial battle.

In that instant, Akane realized with crystal clarity that this woman was far more dangerous than she had ever imagined.

Yu Xiang wasn't just ambitious or greedy.

She was a master manipulator who had just turned Tianlong against the very person trying to protect him.

'This woman,' Akane thought, her nine tails bristling with instinctive alarm, 'is too dangerous to be beside him.'

'But...' Even though Xiang was an ant in front of her, she looked towards the man, who even though holding visible worry for that woman possessed something that should have been directed to her which instantly made her heart thump, realizing she needed to handle this soon enough.

Akane took a shaky step backward, her golden eyes wide with the horror of what she had just done.

Her hands trembled as spiritual energy still crackled around her form, the aftershocks of her uncontrolled outburst making the air itself shimmer with residual power.

"I didn't mean to—" she began, her voice breaking with genuine surprise due to outburst of emotions. She might have overreacted, forgetting that he was there.

"Stop right there."

Tianlong's voice cut through her attempted apology. Clearly he knew this would happen but not so soon, but at least Xiang fulfilled her side of script that he had told her.

His eyes blazed with fury as he carefully helped Yu Xiang to her feet, one arm supporting her trembling form while the other wiped blood from her lips with surprising gentleness.

"I don't know what happened here," he continued, though he actually knew, his voice firm. "But I can see what you did."

Of course, making sure to give a judging look, he glanced at the woman, knowing how she saw her husband in him and the intensity of love making even her, who should be strong enough to think rationally if not for him, clearly creating the puzzle pieces he needed to cut off all of her doubts.

So he glared at her, not with anger but more of disappointment.

Akane's breath caught in her throat as those familiar eyes—so different in this foreign face yet somehow achingly recognizable—fixed on her with judgment that felt like physical weight on her heart.

"Lady Akane, I will just take my leave," Tianlong said, his tone growing distant and formal. He had played the game he needed to, now it was time to end this. "Given you helped me and also seem unrelated to my brother, I apologize for our first meeting."

He shifted his grip on Yu Xiang, pulling her closer against his side as he turned toward the door.

"I will take my leave now."

Though he could have stayed here and played the husband role, both were dangerous. If that woman got suspicious of him, she would kill him. And it was unsure that she would even let him come sleep with her on the bed. So he needed to create a situation where she first removed all the doubts of him being a scammer, and the second was to give him a solution to get him back.

'!'

"What?" The casual dismissal—the way he spoke of leaving as if she were nothing more than a stranger who had shown him basic courtesy—made Akane's world tilt on its axis.

Panic shot through her chest like lightning as she watched him support Yu Xiang's injured form, moving toward the exit with deliberate steps that carried him further away from her with each heartbeat.

"Wait!"

The word tore from her throat before she could stop it, raw and desperate.

"Where are you going?"

Tianlong paused at the threshold, not turning around but acknowledging her question with a slight tilt of his head.

In that moment of stillness, Akane's analytical mind finally cut through the emotional chaos clouding her judgment.

If this man were truly some elaborate scammer, some opportunist seeking to exploit her grief and desperation, he would be doing everything possible to stay close to her power and resources.

He would be claiming his place, demanding recognition, trying to worm his way into her good graces.

Instead, he was walking away.

Leaving behind everything she could offer him without a backward glance.

The realization hit her with startling clarity—whatever else might be true about this situation, this man genuinely believed himself to be who he claimed to be.

Tianlong finally turned, and the smile that crossed his features made something cold settle in Akane's stomach.

It wasn't cruel exactly, but it carried an edge of predatory satisfaction that she had never seen in her beloved prince's expressions.

"Of course," he said, his voice carrying a casual confidence that made her nine tails bristle with unease. "To play emperor game."

To make his words more impactful, he paused, his grip on Yu Xiang tightening possessively as his crimson-gold eyes gleamed with something that might have been anticipation.

"I might have gotten this body by fluke, but it's far stronger for me to take revenge on that brother."

Akane's golden eyes narrowed as his words settled into her mind like pieces of a puzzle she didn't want to complete. Clearly, her eyes noticed his gesture, body tone and the way he held that woman in that naked state was unlike the dignity her husband usually showed.

He was not him yet him at the same time.

Of course she knew about the Emperor's strength in the lower realm—his rapid rise had been the subject of countless intelligence reports.

But even his Great Vehicle Realm cultivation, impressive as it was for this backwater dimension, seemed hardly sufficient for the kind of cosmic revenge he was suggesting.

"Do you think that body is strong enough?" she asked, her voice carrying the subtle condescension of someone who had witnessed the rise and fall of empires.

Tianlong halted completely, his entire posture shifting as he turned to face her with an expression that made her instinctively take a step backward.

"Lady Akane," he said, his voice dropping to a register that seemed to bypass her ears and speak directly to something primal in her bloodstream. "This body possesses the ability to become stronger by sleeping with strong women."

The casual admission hung in the air between them. He just needed to throw the last piece of crumb for this fox to bite as it would be his only chance to either get under her skirt or leave this place unscathed while revealing his biggest secret.

"It is a dual cultivation body."

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