"The extraction of the Ice Flower essence requires fires that their rocky peaks cannot sustain. The price of these pills has tripled this season. That is the toll of our labor."
The scent of burning sandalwood in the bronze censers struggled to mask the acrid smell of ashes and scorched roots filling the hall. The elder of the host sect crossed his arms and leaned his heavy back against the oak chair, chin raised.
At the other end of the massive wooden table, silence reigned.
The young woman kept her head straight and her pale palms resting on her lap. The thick silver-gray silk robe covered her body, stretching slightly with each breath. Beside her, the guard of the Central Pillar stood motionless and silent.
The red-eyed emissary lowered her gaze to the open jade box on the center of the table. The pills inside showed microscopic cracks and gray stains of impurity. It was boiled trash. The alchemy of these border regions remained a slaughterhouse run by the blind.
A bitter memory struck the girl's mind. Eight years ago. Her grandfather, the most devastating martial force in the South, crushing an identical pill between his fingers until it turned to worthless dust. They decorate their own stagnation with gold powder, the old man's hoarse voice echoed in her memory. My cultivation suffocates in this theater.
She blinked slowly, dragging her focus back to the room. She tilted her face forward by a fraction.
"The vision of Your Excellency fills our coffers," the young woman said. Her voice came out calm and perfectly polished. "We will accept triple the demanded value."
The elder's short fingers drummed on the wood, satisfied with the easy silver.
"However…" she continued, freezing the man's fingers mid-motion. "To justify such an absurd expense before our leader, I must request that Your Excellency include three full carts of raw medicinal herbs in tomorrow's shipment."
The elder narrowed his eyes. His face paled, and his voice rose in irritation.
"This is pure extortion! We have a blood pact with the Blood Blade Sect! If your Central Pillar believes it can intimidate us, you are sorely mistaken!"
The woman did not move. The old man was using the Blood Blade Sect as a shield.
"Your alliance is well known, Elder," she murmured, her courteous smile never reaching her eyes. "They are ravenous dogs. But a dog starves when the Shadow Valley Sect cuts off its hunting routes. The watch our warriors maintain on the eastern border is the only dam preventing the Shadow Valley from swallowing both of your gates."
The hall fell into absolute silence.
"The spears of the Sect Master are still the heaviest iron in the South," her voice dropped into a practical, lethal tone. "It would be a tragedy if the Central Pillar, exhausted by the cost of these pills, decided to withdraw its guards from the border. Your Excellency would then be free to test your walls against the Shadow Valley alone. Three carts of herbs seem like a harmless price to keep our men at their posts."
Cold sweat ran down the host's temple. His bravado crumbled like sand.
The old man gripped his thigh beneath the table to stop his hand from trembling. He swallowed dryly, forcing his face back into a strained smile.
"Your vision of war is… quite broad," the elder's voice came out strained. He pushed the jade box toward her. "We will include the herbs in tomorrow morning's shipment. It was a pleasure doing business with you… Miss Mò Yán."
Mò Yán rose from her chair in one clean motion.
"The pleasure of cultivating peace honors our houses, Your Excellency."
The young woman turned her back and marched out of the hall. The profit in gold would be his, but the leash was now tied around the sect's neck, and her clan's next logistical step had already been paid for.
———
While the South slowly suffocated beneath the web of influence spun by the stone courts, thousands of kilometers away, in the isolation of the eastern bamboo forest, time had been devoured purely by the friction of two bodies.
The weeks locked inside had exacted a structural toll on their surroundings. The rustic room was unrecognizable. The straw bed and the thick supporting logs had been ground down by continuous friction until only a thin layer of dust remained. Even the bamboo floor had given way, sinking several centimeters into the dark earth beneath the brutal gravity generated with every impact.
The thick, suffocating air distorted the afternoon light leaking through the cracks.
Lying prone on the remains of the mattress, Yù Qíng's back displayed the smooth paleness of polished nephrite. The filth of mortality had been entirely purged. The woman's wide-open pores drew in and released air in an autonomous rhythm, cementing a glacial barrier on the outside.
Positioned behind her, Zhì Yuǎn kept his weight anchored over his wife's hips. His bare chest and thick arms resembled warm marble. The muscle fibers of both of them throbbed, saturated to the last drop with the dense energy they had accumulated through dual cultivation.
The friction reached the edge of its limit.
Zhì Yuǎn drove his hips forward in a long, non-negotiable thrust. His calloused hand slid over the young woman's shoulder and buried itself in Yù Qíng's black hair, yanking her pale neck backward with force. Her spine arched instantly, her belly crushed against the straw by the man's pelvis.
The thick, burning shaft invaded the channel. The girl's flesh, crushed and rebuilt under the fever of Primordial Gold, had contracted and hardened, regaining an untouched rigidity. The brutal invasion forced its way through the new barrier. The elastic resilience of the refined body swallowed the pain of the tearing, transmuting the aggression into a feverish submission that yielded until it struck directly against the limit of her womb.
— Nnnngh! — a strangled moan tore from Yù Qíng's reddened lips, her cold fingers clawing into the ruined straw.
— Swallow it all, Qíng — his deep voice vibrated, low and heavy against the girl's ear. — Squeeze.
The command crushed the last of her mental resistance.
— Yes… husband… — she whimpered, her sweat-streaked face twisting with pure possessive adoration. — Fill me…
The peak tension snapped. A thick, scalding torrent of seed erupted violently into the woman's depths.
The impact shattered Yù Qíng's sanity. The girl on her stomach gasped for air. Her inner walls convulsed in frantic spasms, relentlessly milking her husband's flesh while her small body overflowed with a heavy tide of her own glacial Yin.
His fire and her dark water collided.
Zhì Yuǎn tensed his muscles and sucked the lethargic matter from his wife straight into his veins. He anchored the pressure in his skull, activated the invisible steel gears of the Mill at the center of his chest, and crushed his wife's Yin between the teeth of the axis.
Crack.
The Mill turned mercilessly. One, two, nine uninterrupted inversions. The friction ground the dark water until the energy shattered, converting into a pure torrent of golden, incandescent Primordial Qi.
Beneath him, Yù Qíng's spine trembled under violent spasms, performing the exact same slaughter with his Yang.
The cultivation completed the exchange. But both of their foundations had already reached their ceiling.
The newly sculpted bones and muscles physically repelled the new wave of Primordial Qi. With no free space left in the flesh, the heavy golden matter was violently thrown downward, plummeting in free fall toward the void beneath the sternum.
The energy crashed against the abyss of the lower dantian.
The brutal impact hollowed out the Dantian. The golden matter anchored itself in the new bed, and the absolute weight of that concentration dropped like a lead anvil into the center of gravity of both bodies.
Their physical forms reacted instantly. The fever and insane heat their skin had been radiating for weeks vanished in the blink of an eye. The untamable fire was swallowed and locked away behind seven seals in the new chamber. The girl's skin beneath him cooled drastically, cementing into a glacial, impenetrable outer wall.
Zhì Yuǎn stopped the friction. He released his wife's nape, his heavy breathing filling the room as his broad muscles lost their extreme tension. He ran his thumb over his own chest, feeling the internal void finally occupied.
His calloused hand descended and gently pressed against Yù Qíng's smooth, pale lower abdomen, feeling the tense swelling of his own volume retained beneath her skin.
— You've gotten fat, Qíng — his rustic voice broke the dimness, carrying a cynical humor. — Your belly is sticking out.
Yù Qíng turned her face, mashed against the straw. Territorial stubbornness tugged at her lips, but her black eyes gleamed with lingering possessiveness.
— And whose fault is that? — she retorted, her velvety voice failing into a coy whisper as her slender legs relaxed heavily on the bed. — You fucked and poured so much at once that I couldn't even keep up with absorbing it…
Zhì Yuǎn let out a low chuckle through his nose. He pushed his broad torso up, rising amid the destruction of the room, and picked up the dark linen pants thrown in the corner.
— Get up. We're going out for a bit — he ordered, practicality taking over as he tied the leather belt. — Your father already prepared the cart for Qīngshí. We need to go to the square and buy some clean clothes so we can blend into the crowd in the city tomorrow.
———
The heavy thud of the wooden bar hitting the floor unlocked the cabin. The cool afternoon air rushed into the rustic room, sweeping away the dense, sweet scent of sweat.
In the beaten-earth courtyard, Yù Méi stopped mid-step. The basket of fruit she was carrying slipped from her fingers and hit the ground. The youngest had come to the bamboo grove ready to pound on the door until her knuckles hurt, but the sound of the lock opening froze her in place.
Yù Qíng was the first to step onto the veranda. She wore the same blue cotton nightdress, barefoot. The woman's skin was pale, smooth, and clean, repelling the wind-blown dust.
But the real shock hit in the next second.
Zhì Yuǎn stepped out right behind his wife, still shirtless. His body filled the doorway. Yù Méi's heart slammed against her ribs. His muscles were thicker, cemented. He was no longer just the village carpenter; the man exuded a heavy physical pressure that swallowed the air in the courtyard.
Yù Méi's throat went dry. Her chest tightened with a force she hadn't expected. Her gaze dropped uncontrollably, locking onto her brother-in-law's body. A strange, shameful heat rose so fast she almost felt dizzy. She didn't even realize her mouth was slightly open, nor that a thin trail of saliva was already dripping from the corner.
— The cart… it's ready — Yù Méi stammered, her voice coming out as a thin, strained thread. She took a small step forward, hypnotized. — Brother-in-law… what did you do? You're… huge.
Yù Qíng stopped on the step. Her eyes locked onto her younger sister's face, then dropped straight to the girl's slightly open mouth and wide eyes.
The eldest descended the veranda in two quick steps. Her pale hand shot forward and grabbed Yù Méi's chin with force, locking her sister's face in place. Yù Qíng's cold thumb roughly wiped the wet trail of saliva from the corner of the girl's mouth before it could drip further.
— Swallow your drool, Méi — Yù Qíng hissed, her voice low, raw, and thick with territorial jealousy. She released her sister's chin with a sharp shove. — And stop staring at him. Have you packed for the trip?
Yù Méi stumbled back, tripping over her own feet. She rubbed her sore jaw, her face burning with shame at being caught so humiliatingly.
On the veranda, Zhì Yuǎn picked up the gray tunic from the bench and put it on. He recognized that gleam in Yù Méi's eyes. He had seen the same look in Yù Qíng years ago, when she was still much younger. Back then, he had also been too young to see it as anything but childish. Now, looking at Yù Méi, that same gleam simply felt… wrong.
He let out a quiet sigh through his nose, almost laughing at himself internally.
Funny how age changes what we consider innocent, he thought, and continued tying his belt without showing anything.
— We'll draw too much attention if we travel without proper clothes — he said, his rustic voice cutting through the sisters' argument as he fastened the leather belt. — The merchant should still be at the village square. Let's head down this afternoon and buy some fabric. We'll take the road tomorrow morning.
———
The dirt square of Qīngshān reeked of horse manure and dry straw. The noise from the trading stalls died down the moment the trio crossed the main street.
Zhì Yuǎn walked in front, his broad body covered by a rough tunic and his face hidden in the shadow of a thick straw hat. Right behind him, Yù Qíng wore a strip of dark cloth tied over her nose and mouth, leaving only her black eyes visible.
They stopped in front of the fabric merchant's stall.
"Pure silver," Zhì Yuǎn said, tossing three heavy coins onto the wooden counter. "The uncut rolls."
The merchant's eyes widened and he hurried to open the chests in the back.
Yù Méi stopped at the edge of the table. The teenager's hand touched a dress made of raw cotton dyed gold. The fabric contrasted with her dirty brown hair. The youngest's cheeks warmed. She wasn't thinking about her friends in the village; her mind instinctively imagined whether Zhì Yuǎn would look at her legs in the cart if she wore it.
Zhì Yuǎn noticed the girl standing there. Without saying a word, he pushed another silver coin toward the merchant, paying for the dress. Yù Méi hugged the garment to her chest, her face burning with shame and gratitude.
On the other side of the counter, Yù Qíng ignored her sister. The woman's quick hands sorted through rolls of navy-blue silk. Then she pulled the thicker fabrics from the stall: a gray silk and a completely black velvet. She would make his robes. She would cover her husband's skin with her own hands.
"Add the woven fabrics to hide the face as well," she ordered the merchant, her voice muffled by the cloth.
Zhì Yuǎn looked toward the back shelves. He picked up a black straw hat with a firm brim and placed it on his head. Then he grabbed a smaller one, woven with yellow and black straw and wide brims. He tossed the piece onto Yù Qíng's fabrics.
"The sun on the road tomorrow will hit your skin and draw attention from any provincial trash," he said, his rustic voice practical. "This brim covers your entire face."
While the merchant weighed the silver, Yù Méi clutched the golden dress. The teenager raised her eyes, taking advantage of her sister being focused on the fabric rolls. Yù Méi's gaze slid straight to the line of Zhì Yuǎn's jaw, the only piece of skin the black hat didn't hide. She bit her lower lip, distracted.
Yù Qíng noticed immediately.
The woman took a side step, completely blocking her sister's view. Yù Qíng's pale hand shot forward, grabbed the heavy roll of gray silk, and shoved it forcefully against Yù Méi's chest.
"Hold the load, Méi," Yù Qíng ordered, her voice coming out low and sharp.
Before the youngest could steady herself under the weight of the fabric, the eldest closed the distance in one motion, invading the girl's personal space. Yù Qíng's pale face leaned in and she pressed her lips directly against her sister's ear.
"We leave tomorrow morning," the whisper slithered into the youngest's ear canal, velvety and overflowing with territorial venom. "If you keep looking at the wrong place inside our cart, I'll break your neck and leave you on the side of the road."
A icy chill ran down Yù Méi's spine. The teenager swallowed dryly and took a quick step back, clutching the fabrics to her chest and lowering her head at once, her face burning with fear and humiliation.
Less than two steps away, Zhì Yuǎn's forged hearing caught every syllable of the death threat.
The corner of the man's rigid lips curved into a cynical half-smile beneath the shadow of his hat. Long accustomed to his wife's sick possessiveness, he simply pocketed the remaining silver and completely ignored the friction between the two.
The young man turned his back on the stall and walked out of the square, his boots crushing the dirt as he led the way back to the bamboo cabin. Their isolation was over. The road to the metropolis of Qīngshí awaited them in the morning.