By the time he left, neither woman felt abandoned by his intention to coax Ning Huang. They felt treasured, steadied, and included in the expansion of his path.
Conquest built territory.
Affection kept the heart of it from rotting.
Long Shenyu found Ning Huang near the front edge of the artifact after sunset.
The sky had turned red-gold. Wind curled around the defensive barrier in soft streams. Below them, mountain ridges stretched like dark bones beneath the clouds.
Ning Huang stood with her spear in hand, not practicing, just feeling the movement of lightning through her body. Her expression was calm, but not peaceful.
Long Shenyu walked up behind her.
She sensed him before he arrived.
"You walk too quietly."
"I wasn't hiding."
"That makes it worse."
He smiled. "You noticed anyway."
She did not answer.
He stepped closer.
Ning Huang's shoulders tightened slightly, but she did not move away.
So he took the next step.
He came directly behind her, wrapped one arm around her waist, and drew her back against him as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Her body went rigid.
"You are too comfortable being so close," she said.
Long Shenyu's voice was calm near her ear.
"You are too comfortable pretending you dislike it."
Her eyes flashed. "I could kill you for saying that."
His Dragon Soul warmth rolled gently through her circulation, not invading, not forcing, only brushing against the harsher edges of her lightning and steadying it. The effect was subtle, but immediate. Her Aurora Judgment Lightning, which usually moved like imperial decree, quieted around him.
He said, "You could try. But if you really wanted distance, your lightning would have pushed me away before your mouth did."
That silenced her.
She glared at him over her shoulder.
Long Shenyu only chuckled and said, "Beautiful."
Ning Huang, still glaring hard, said, "Who?"
"You."
She blushed.
She hated that she blushed.
Long Shenyu held her tighter.
For several breaths, she did not speak. Her pride fought with the reality of her own body. Her lightning had not rejected him. Her instincts had not warned her. The warmth moving through her veins felt infuriatingly right, like a missing stabilizing force she had no intention of admitting she wanted.
Finally, she said, "You are used to women accepting this?"
"No."
"That is obviously a lie."
"I am used to being honest with women. Whether they accept it immediately depends on how stubborn they are."
"And what am I?"
"Very stubborn."
Her eyes narrowed.
He added, "Also very cute when you're angry."
Her lightning crackled.
Not enough to hurt him.
Enough to make the air complain.
"Do not call me cute."
"I'll call you imperial if you prefer."
"I prefer silence."
"No, you don't."
She almost turned fully to strike him, but his arm tightened slightly. Not to restrain her. To remind her that she had not truly tried to leave.
That irritated her more than force would have.
"You think you understand me."
"I understand enough."
"You understand nothing of Heaven's Edict Thunder Palace."
"I understand you enough."
Her reply caught in her throat.
Her blush returned, sharper this time. "Your confidence is unbearable."
"My accuracy is unbearable."
She stared at him.
Then, quietly, she said, "You are dangerous."
"To enemies, yes."
"To everyone."
"No." He looked at her without a trace of mockery. "Not to my women."
Ning Huang's breath shifted.
She said, "And if I never become one of your women?"
"Then I'll keep pursuing you until you admit you want to be."
"You don't consider failure?"
"No."
"Because you are arrogant?"
"Because you're still here."
That struck cleaner than any boast.
Ning Huang looked away again.
Long Shenyu did not force her to say more. He held her quietly, letting the warmth of his Dragon Soul move through her lightning until her breathing evened out. The intimacy was not only physical. It was cultivation-deep. Her body remembered being healed by him. Her lightning remembered being stabilized by him. Her pride remembered being defeated and protected by the same man.
That combination was dangerous.
After a long silence, she asked, "When we reach River Ridge, what will you do first?"
"Depends who speaks rudely."
"That is your plan?"
"That is the first branch of the plan."
"And the second?"
"If they attack, I cripple them and make use of them."
"Third?"
"If they kneel quickly enough, I make proper use of them."
Ning Huang stared. "That is not a plan. That is violence with categories."
Long Shenyu smiled. "Most plans are."
Against her will, she almost laughed.
Almost.
He saw it anyway.
"You nearly smiled."
"I did not."
"You did."
"I should have struck you rather than your sister when we first met."
"And yet here you are."
Her lightning flickered again, softer this time.
He leaned closer. "Still not pushing me away."
Ning Huang closed her eyes for one breath.
Then she said through her teeth, "You are not allowed to look so pleased about that."
Long Shenyu's answer was immediate.
"I'm very pleased."
After Long Shenyu spent time with Ning Huang, the remaining days on the Thundercloud Jade Skiff became strangely calm.
Not peaceful, exactly. With Long Shenyin on the same artifact, true peace was impossible. Every few hours her killing intent would sharpen, pressing against the artifact's inner formations until the jade panels gave faint tremors. Sometimes she cultivated in silence. Sometimes she opened her eyes just to glance at Long Shenyu as if wondering whether she should challenge him before they reached River Ridge. Every time she looked over, Long Shenyu only smiled back, which irritated her more than if he had actually spoken.
Mei Qingxue used the travel time to stabilize her recent cultivation. The denser atmosphere carried by the skiff's formations helped her refine her Moonveil Spirit Body a little further.
Shen Lanyue spent most of her time studying the flying artifact's formation lines. She did not have Ning Huang's background, but her perception was excellent. After half a day, she could already identify which formation nodes were used for flight, which ones stabilized the hull, and which ones redirected lightning-aspect energy into speed.
Ning Huang noticed.
"You understand more than most lower-domain formation masters," she said one evening, standing near the control platform.
Shen Lanyue replied evenly, "Only the outer logic. The deeper inscriptions are beyond me for now."
"For now?" Ning Huang asked.
Shen Lanyue glanced at Long Shenyu, who was lounging nearby like he owned the skiff.
"For now," she repeated.
…
On the final morning before River Ridge, the clouds thinned. The air changed first. It became heavier, cleaner, filled with a denser current of Heaven and Earth energy. Moonwatch's atmosphere had been like a shallow pond. River Ridge's surroundings felt like a real river, still not worthy of the Noble Domain itself, but far above the poor outer lands.
Mei Qingxue sensed it and opened her eyes.
"So this is the difference," she murmured.
Shen Lanyue stood beside the railing. Her face remained composed, but her fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the jade rail. Below them, mountains rose in long green ridges. Roads crossed the valleys like silver threads. Spirit ore carts moved in guarded convoys. Sword lights flashed occasionally on distant practice platforms built into cliffs.
Then River Ridge City appeared.
It did not simply sit on the land like Moonwatch. It occupied it. Massive outer walls curved around three connected ridges, each wall reinforced with layered defensive arrays. Watchtowers rose like stone swords. Broad roads led into the city from four directions, each packed with merchants, guards, wandering cultivators, and sect messengers. The city gates were large enough for beast caravans to pass through three at a time.
Even from the air, Mei Qingxue could feel the difference.
Moonwatch City had factions.
River Ridge had weight.
She stared down, unable to hide the awe in her eyes. "It is so much larger."
Shen Lanyue nodded. "The cultivation atmosphere alone is several times stronger. The materials used in the walls are also different. Those are not ordinary defensive stones."
Ning Huang's reaction was much colder. She looked at the city, then away, as if she had seen better courtyards than this.
Long Shenyin did not even bother standing fully. She rested her spear across her shoulder and looked down with bored contempt.
"This is what they call stronger?"
Ning Huang said calmly, "For the Lower Domains, River Ridge is not weak."
"For the Lower Domains," Long Shenyin repeated, as though the phrase itself was an insult.
Long Shenyu stood beside the railing and looked over the city with more interest than reverence. He noticed the sword platforms first. Then the banners. Then the way most guards wore narrow blades instead of spears, axes, or sabers. Even the city's patrol routes were built like sword lines—straight, aggressive, meant to pressure movement rather than merely observe.
"This city leans toward sword cultivators," he said. "Not just as a preference. As a culture."
Shen Lanyue followed his gaze. "The Qin Family's influence?"
"Most likely."
Ning Huang added, "The Qin Family is tied to the Verdant Edge Sword Sect. If they dominate River Ridge, the city's sword culture would naturally follow."
Long Shenyu smiled. "Good. Sword cultivators are usually proud."
Mei Qingxue blinked. "Why is that good?"
"Proud people step forward faster."
Long Shenyin stood at last. "And die faster if they are disappointing."
The Thundercloud Jade Skiff descended outside the city, far enough away that they would not immediately trigger other cultivators and the aerial restriction formations. Ning Huang put the artifact away once they landed. The open road stretched before them, crowded with travelers moving toward the gate.
Mei Qingxue looked toward the massive entrance, then back at Long Shenyu.
"What are our first steps?"
Shen Lanyue was already thinking. Her gaze moved over the patrols, the nearby merchant lines, the guard rotations, the side roads leading toward clan districts.
"We should first gather information," she began. "If the Qin Family already received news from Moonwatch, then the safest—"
Long Shenyin coldly snorted.
Shen Lanyue stopped.
Long Shenyin looked at Long Shenyu. "Let us see if the trouble you promised is worth anything."
Mei Qingxue sighed.
Shen Lanyue also sighed, though with less surprise and more resignation.
Ning Huang tried to remain indifferent, but her eyes had already sharpened. She had seen enough of these siblings to know that once Long Shenyin said something like that, someone was about to bleed.
Long Shenyu smiled, utterly relaxed.
"With overwhelming strength, nothing else matters," he said. "We are not sneaking into River Ridge. We are introducing ourselves."
Shen Lanyue gave him a flat look. "At the gate?"
"Where else would most people see?"
"That is exactly the problem."
"That is exactly the point."
Before Mei Qingxue could speak again, Long Shenyu's Qi wrapped around her and Shen Lanyue. It did not feel rough. It supported them like an invisible hand beneath their feet and waist. Then he rose into the air.
Mei Qingxue gasped softly.
Shen Lanyue's eyes widened despite herself.
Long Shenyin rose beside him, spear on her shoulder, her aura heavier and more savage. Ning Huang watched them for a breath and followed under her own Sky Lord power.
The five of them crossed the remaining distance above the road.
They did not suppress their auras.
That single decision changed the entire atmosphere near the gates.
Most cultivators entering River Ridge carefully restrained themselves. Even Sky Lords lowered their pressure when approaching the Qin-controlled gate, not out of humility, but out of common etiquette. Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin ignored that custom completely. Their cultivation realms registered as Origin Core, but their natural presence carried a depth and danger that made lower cultivators stumble backward without understanding why.
The first guards to notice them froze.
Then one shouted.
"Experts approaching from above!"
The Qin Family captain stationed at the gate looked up. He was a broad-shouldered man in green-edged armor, a 9th layer Origin Core cultivator with a sword at his waist and the arrogance of someone used to representing the strongest family in the city.
His first reaction was anger.
Then he saw the problem.
Two of the approaching figures were Origin Core cultivators.
And they were flying.
Not gliding. Not riding treasures. Not standing on swords. Flying.
His eyes narrowed sharply. "Impossible."
Then he saw Ning Huang's robes.
The white-gold lightning pattern. The noble cut. The unmistakable style of Heaven's Edict Thunder Palace.
The captain's anger sank into caution.
A Heaven's Edict disciple arriving with unknown Origin Core monsters was not a normal matter. Heaven's Edict direct disciples were famously arrogant and rarely acted as escorts for anyone. If this disciple was following them by convenience, that was one matter. If she was with them by choice, that was another.
Before he could decide, a man stepped out from the shaded pavilion behind the gate.
This man wore the green sword robes of the Verdant Edge Sword Sect. He looked about thirty, though his true age was higher. His cultivation was 2nd layer Sky Lord, and he made no attempt to hide it. Sky Qi moved around him like a drawn blade covered in leaves and wind.
His name was Lu Jianheng, an outer envoy of Verdant Edge.
He had arrived two days earlier after the Qin Family received warnings from the Huo Family and scattered reports from Moonwatch. He had not fully believed the reports. Origin Core juniors suppressing Sky Lords? A conquered city? Branded leaders? Absurd. At most, some treasure, some hidden elder, or some exaggerated panic had turned a local defeat into a legend.
When he saw Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin flying, his first thought was not fear.
It was certainty.
Treasures.
Some hidden flight treasure must be concealed beneath their robes, or perhaps a one-use talisman. Their auras were strange, yes, but lower-domain cultivators often mistook treasure pressure for personal strength.
As for Ning Huang, Lu Jianheng noticed her, but he did not panic. Heaven's Edict disciples were proud and indifferent. They often watched conflicts without interfering unless their own dignity was touched. In his mind, she was probably traveling in the same direction and had not yet decided whether these fools were worth protecting.
Lu Jianheng looked at the Qin captain.
"Gather your strongest guards," he said. "We will meet these so-called Origin Core monsters properly."
The captain's hesitation vanished.
"Yes, Envoy Lu."
With a Verdant Edge Sky Lord standing behind him, his confidence returned. The nearby Qin guards also straightened. What had seemed unnatural a moment ago became manageable in their minds. No matter how strange the newcomers were, this was River Ridge. This was the Qin Family's gate. Behind the Qin Family stood Verdant Edge.