Free Web NovelChapter 6: 6. Looming Desires &...Threats
The grand assembly did not end with ceremony. It ended with a single sentence from the supreme throne.
The Sect Leader’s voice drifted down one final time as the Grand Elders began rising from their seats, that crystalline chime settling over the hall like the last note of a song that had no business being that beautiful.
"Jianxiao."
Just his name. Nothing attached to it. No title, no formal address. Just the two syllables she had used since he was young enough to still be surprised by how she said them.
"Come to my abode this evening."
The hall went very still.
It was not the dramatic silence of Ye Chen’s interruption earlier. This was something quieter and far more politically charged. Lu Jianxiao was her sole personal disciple, so a private summons was not inherently unusual. What made every Grand Elder freeze was the delivery.
In a sect governed by rigid etiquette, the Sect Leader had always maintained a front of flawless, calculated detachment. She typically communicated through private spiritual transmissions or formal administrative mandates. To openly bypass all sect decorum, strip away his title of Core Elder, and address him by his personal name before the entire high court was a deliberate display of absolute favor.
Every elder who had just been rising from their seat suddenly found a reason to pause. Robes were smoothed unnecessarily. Sleeves were adjusted. Eyes moved to the walls, to the floors, to anywhere that was not the supreme throne or the white robed figure standing in the center of the hall. It was a subtle, public reminder of exactly how much weight the master of Dragon Peak held on the grand chessboard, a reality that left the plotting factions of the inner court feeling deeply unsettled.
I kept my expression exactly where it was: composed, respectful, and giving nothing away.
’Lucy,’ I said internally. ’Scan her.’
A pause followed, longer than usual.
[SCANNING ERROR: Target cultivation is too high. Cannot proceed with the scanning. The Eye of Destiny needs to be upgraded.]
It seemed she could not be scanned yet. The candle could not map the sun. I filed that away and maintained my stance.
"This disciple is honored," I said, offering a measured bow toward the swirling celestial mist. "I will attend at Master’s convenience."
The meeting continued for a few moments longer, finalizing the arrangements for the ancient ruins that were set to open on the upcoming full moon night, just eight to nine days away.
The Myriad Sovereign Sect sits within the Azure Continent, but it is merely one piece of a much larger board. There are five continents in this mortal realm. Each of my wives hails from a different continent, a calculated reality that subtly connects my influence to every corner of the world.
Here in the Azure Continent, several lesser sects bow beneath the rule of three great, powerful factions.
The Myriad Sovereign Sect is one of those three titans, housing hundreds of thousands of cultivators ruthlessly climbing the martial ladder.
In this world, the law of the jungle is the absolute truth, and sects constantly bleed each other for resources. The opening of ancient ruins is a monumental event for these factions, particularly for the three supreme sects, which claim the lion’s share of the entry quotas.
In this continent, there are only three of my daughters living along with my first wife, Leng Qingxue. However, I share only one child directly with Qingxue, and she is the one who will lead the sect’s expedition team into the perilous trial grounds.
The heavy bronze doors groaned shut behind me, sealing away the suffocating, ancient pressure of the grand assembly hall. The crisp, spiritual air of Dragon Peak washed over my pristine white robes, carrying the faint, grounding scent of crushed pine and ozone.
I stood at the top of the sweeping jade staircase, taking a slow breath as I surveyed the sprawling courtyard.
A few dozen paces down the steps stood the two most striking figures of the inner court.
Leng Qingxue looked every bit the untouchable goddess of frost she had always been, and right beside her stood the graceful, lively woman whose bright eyes had been practically glued to me the entire time I was inside the hall: Elder Su.
My gaze drifted past them for a fraction of a second, catching movement near the outer archways.
I almost laughed. The universe truly possessed a wicked sense of humor.
Standing in the shadow of a grand pillar was Elder Su’s husband, Elder Mo. His face was still twisted into that same bitter, deeply insecure scowl he had worn inside. Standing right beside him, nursing his shattered pride and white knuckling the hilt of his rusted sword, was Ye Chen.
The fiercely jealous inner elder and the humiliated Child of Fate were naturally gravitating toward one another, forming a pathetic little support group built entirely on their shared hatred of me.
I shifted my attention back to the women and descended the jade steps, the sharp click of my boots drawing their attention instantly.
Elder Su turned first. Her face immediately brightened, a soft, unguarded flush rising to her cheeks as she took a half step toward me, completely forgetting the angry glare of her husband burning into her back from across the courtyard.
Beside her, Qingxue stopped. She did not turn immediately. Her slender fingers tightened almost imperceptibly around the scabbard of her sword. When she finally shifted to face me, her expression was a perfect, impenetrable mask of ice.
’Lucy,’ I commanded internally, keeping my pace steady. ’Scan both of them. Let us see exactly what I am working with.’
A soft, dual-toned chime echoed in my mind.
Two translucent blue interfaces materialized across my vision, formatted in precise detail.
[CHARACTER SCAN COMPLETE]
• Name: Leng Qingxue
• Identity: Primary Heroine / Peerless Ice Queen / Reincarnation of the Demon Queen [Destiny Template: Unawakened]
• Age: 250 Years Old
• Cultivation Level: Peak Nascent Soul Realm
• Relationship Status: Married / Slightly Estranged (One year of dead silence)
• Children: Lu Mushuang (Daughter / Age: 81)
• Bond Score: 75 / 100 [Complicated Attachment: Deep Affection Obscured by Grievance]
• Mental State: Deeply guarded, conflicted, and nursing a profound grievance from your year of absence. Her emerging past life instincts are subtly warring with her current mortal attachments.
• Hidden Desires: Complete Domination. Secretly craves the absolute, forceful shattering of her cold "Ice Queen" facade. Rough handling. Praise.
[CHARACTER SCAN COMPLETE]
• Name: Su Rulan (Elder Su)
• Identity: Inner Elder / Close Confidante of Leng Qingxue / Wife of Elder Mo
• Age: 450 Years Old
• Cultivation Level: Early Spirit Severing Realm
• Relationship Status: Married / Spiritually Loveless (Arranged political marriage to Elder Mo)
• Children: None
• Bond Score: 65 / 100 [Passionate Obsession: The Thirst for Possession]
• Mental State: Trapped in a cold, stagnant marriage; utterly captivated by your sudden, spectacular return and effortless dominance. Highly receptive to physical escalation.
• Hidden Desires: Romance. Voyeurism. Forbidden Trysts. Gentle Care.
The blue panels faded into the mountain breeze as I stepped down to meet them.
From the peripheral of my vision, I caught Mo Jiangfeng making a direct line toward Ye Chen in the shadow of the carved stone pillars. The old fossil’s steps were hushed but urgent, his gaze fixed entirely on the humiliated boy. I mentally noted the alliance with an amused smirk.
’Birds of a feather flock together after all, my Jianxiao,’ Lucy’s voice rang in my head, dropping her usual playful tone for a more mature, calculative rhythm. ’You should be exceptionally careful of that Ye Chen. It seems he is nowhere near finished. With his luck template, he might very well be targeting your daughter, Mushuang, since she will lead the expedition team at the trial grounds.’
’Targeting my daughter?’ I replied internally, my eyes narrowing slightly as a cold, lethal intent flashed through my soul. ’I will personally ensure he does not survive to tell the tales of the ancient ruins if he even breathes in her direction.’
Suppressing the murderous impulse, I smoothed my expression and stepped onto the courtyard tiles, directly closing the distance between the two women.
"Elder Lu," Su Rulan spoke first. Her voice was remarkably warm, carrying a soft, breathless quality that completely bypassed standard sect decorum.
The subtle flush on her cheeks deepened as she took a small step closer to me. "Your return to the high court was nothing short of magnificent. The Grand Elders looked as though they had swallowed spirit-sealing stones the moment the Sect Leader spoke your name."
"Elder Su is far too kind," I replied, deliberately holding her gaze for a beat longer than courtesy required. "Though it seems the inner court elders are far too preoccupied with outer peak juniors to notice the brilliance standing directly in front of them."
My eyes flicked briefly toward the far pillar where her husband was huddled with Ye Chen, then snapped back to her.
Su Rulan caught her breath, her fingers tightening against the silk of her robes. She understood the implication instantly. Her husband was blind to her, yet I was looking directly at her. The thrill of the forbidden statement hung heavily in the air between us, causing her heart rate to spike visibly.
"Jianxiao," a freezing voice interrupted, slicing through the warmth like a winter gale.
Leng Qingxue finally stepped forward. The localized temperature around her dropped instantly, thin veins of frost webbed across the jade flagstones radiating from her white boots.
Her icy blue eyes locked onto mine, completely guarded and carrying a raw, ancient grievance. Her expression remained sharp, elegant, and entirely composed.
"You have been sealed behind a stone door for an entire year of dead silence," Qingxue said, her tone smooth and cold, masking the bitter contempt underneath. "You do not get to emerge without a single word of explanation to your family and immediately begin exchanging pleasantries in the courtyard."
"I am merely stating obvious truths, Qingxue," I said smoothly, turning my full attention to my wife.
I took a deliberate step forward, walking directly through the localized chill of her spiritual qi without breaking stride. I stopped mere inches from her, close enough to smell the faint scent of winter plum blossoms on her skin.
"But since we are speaking of family," I continued, dropping my tone to a quiet, demanding register,
"let us discuss Mushuang. She is eighty-one years old, yet in a few short days, she is scheduled to lead the sect’s expedition team into those unstable ancient ruins as the Leader. Why did you allow our daughter to take the most dangerous position on the board?"
The question hit her behind that flawless shield of ice. Qingxue’s knuckles turned bone-white as her grip tightened almost imperceptibly around the scabbard of her frost sword, but she refused to let her composure drop.
"You dare question me?" she whispered, her voice remaining low, controlled, and sharp enough to cut glass. "You pushed her away, Jianxiao. Long before you locked yourself away in Dragon Peak, you treated her like a total stranger. You refused her tea greetings, ignored her breakthroughs, and met her with nothing but absolute, freezing distance."
I remained silent, allowing the dark memories of the original host to surface and process.
The previous Lu Jianxiao had not walled himself off out of a desperate need to break through his bottlenecks. The truth was something far darker.
He had harbored a terrifying, obsessive affection for his daughters, a twisted possessiveness that had deeply terrified even his own mind. To keep those dark thoughts from bleeding into reality, he had forced that absolute, freezing distance upon them, choosing to become a cold stranger to protect them from his own monstrous nature. But in doing so, he had been completely blind to the profound psychological damage his sudden abandonment had left in its wake.
"She thinks she failed you," Qingxue said, her posture rigid, though her eyes finally betrayed her, turning glassy with unshed, furious tears that her pride stubbornly refused to let fall.
"She believes she was cast aside because she was not strong enough to earn her father’s pride. Do you have any idea what she did to secure the position of Expedition Leader? She challenged core disciples twice her age and took internal wounds she tried to hide from me. She did it all because she believes that if she brings enough glory to your name from the ancient ruins, her father might finally look at her again."
Su Rulan quietly took a half step back, granting us the illusion of privacy, though her eyes remained glued to my reactions, utterly fascinated by the absolute tension between us.
Before Qingxue could reassemble her fading composure or utter another sharp word, I stepped through the last fraction of space separating us.
I pulled her into my chest.
Qingxue went entirely rigid. The sudden, forceful warmth of the embrace caught her completely off guard. For a split second, her icy spiritual qi flared defensively, but the absolute, flawless pressure of my restored Peak Nascent Soul foundation effortlessly absorbed the chill, wrapping around her like an unshakeable wall.
Against my chest, the rigid posture of the peerless Ice Queen cracked. Her breath hitched, her small hands coming up to press against my shoulders as if to push away, but instead, her fingers tightly gripped the fabric of my white robes. The heavy weight of her one-year grievance collapsed inward, her head dropping slightly against my shoulder as she let out a single, shaky, hidden exhale.
For a brief moment, the untouchable elder vanished, leaving only a wife whose husband had finally come back from the dark.
Then, reality rushed back.
Realizing what she was doing in the open courtyard, Qingxue stiffened, her face instantly heating with a rare, deep crimson flush. She pulled back abruptly, her eyes wide as she rapidly reassembled her distant facade, trying to erase any trace of her momentary weakness.
The atmosphere between us became profoundly awkward. I let my hands drop smoothly back to my sides, a faint, knowing smirk playing on my lips while she deliberately looked away, fixing her collar and clearing her throat to regain her dignity.
"The ruins," Qingxue said, her voice returning to its stiff, formal pitch, though her cheeks were still faintly pink. "The full moon night is eight to nine days away. If you intend to interfere with the expedition deployment, you have less than ten days to prepare."
"Eight to nine days," I echoed, glancing back toward the shadow of the pillar. Elder Mo and Ye Chen were just finishing their hushed exchange and parting ways into the outer corridors. "That is more than enough time."
Qingxue nodded stiffly, completely unable to hold my gaze for another second. The residual warmth from the embrace was clearly overloading her defensive instincts.
"I have important matters to attend to," she said quickly. The words entirely lacked their usual freezing edge.
Without waiting for my response, a burst of pale blue frost qi enveloped her slender frame. She stepped into the sky and shot toward her pavilion, escaping the courtyard with a hurried, erratic speed that bordered on outright panic. The untouchable Ice Queen had effectively run away.
The sudden silence left only two of us standing at the base of the grand staircase.
I turned slowly, my gaze settling on the graceful woman who had watched the entire spectacle in absolute, breathless silence.
Su Rulan had not moved a single inch. Her husband was already long gone, leaving her completely unattended. The soft mountain breeze tugged at her elegant outer robes, but her focus was pinned solely on me. The flush on her cheeks had only deepened after witnessing my effortless, physical dominance over her closest friend.
I took a slow, deliberate step toward her. Then another.
I did not stop until I was standing well past the boundary of polite sect decorum, invading her personal space so completely that I could see the slight tremble in her long eyelashes.
"It seems my wife has abandoned me in the courtyard, Elder Su," I said smoothly, my voice dropping to a low, intimate register.
Rulan’s breath hitched. Her heart rate spiked so violently I could practically hear it pulsing against her ribs. She looked up at me, her eyes dark and swirling with that intense, passionate obsession the system had warned me about.
The cold, loveless reality of her marriage to Elder Mo vanished completely under the heavy, intoxicating pressure of my gaze.
"Then it is incredibly fortunate," Su Rulan whispered, her voice trembling slightly as she leaned just a fraction of an inch closer, "that you are not entirely alone, Jianxiao."
I let my gaze drop briefly to her slightly parted lips before meeting her eyes again. The afternoon sun was still casting long shadows across the jade courtyard, leaving hours before the sky would turn dark.
"Indeed," I murmured. I reached out, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear and deliberately letting my fingertips linger against her warm skin. "And since my private audience with the Sect Leader is not until this evening..."
A slow, dangerous smile curved my lips as I leaned in, my words brushing softly against her cheek.
"...it seems I still have plenty of time to properly reacquaint myself with the inner court."
Miles away from the sunlit jade courtyard of Dragon Peak, a far darker atmosphere settled over an isolated summit within the inner court.
Beneath the sprawling, twisted branches of an ancient spirit-blood tree, two figures sat in the shadows around a carved stone table. The wind howled through the barren peaks, masking the quiet clink of porcelain as the middle-aged cultivator poured a cup of bitter tea.
"So, what do you plan to do now that your plans were thwarted by that bastard Lu?" the older man asked. Elder Mo’s voice dripped with pure, unadulterated venom, his knuckles turning white around his teacup.
Across from him, the seemingly ordinary-looking boy remained completely still. Ye Chen did not touch his tea. The righteous, humiliated aura he had projected inside the grand assembly hall had vanished entirely, replaced by a cold, calculating darkness that felt entirely out of place for a junior disciple.
He stared down at the rippling reflection in the dark liquid, his thoughts shifting to the upcoming ancient ruins and the eighty-one-year-old Expedition Leader who will be stationed at their borders.
"Well," Ye Chen said slowly, a deeply sinister smile curling the corners of his mouth. "His wife is off-limits for now. But his daughter seems to be not."
