Li Fong held Bai Lianxing's words close to her heart long after he finished speaking. Not because she craved power. Not because she wanted glory, prestige, or dominion.
Because she had someone to protect.
She looked at A'shae lying unconscious below her, his face pale beneath the streaks of half-dried blood. The thin scar that cut across his left eye. The missing fingers on his right hand. The memory of him suspended in the claws of that monster carved itself deeper into her mind with each passing breath.
Her heart tightened until it hurt.
The kind of hurt that made her want to tear her own chest open just to stop the ache.
She never wanted to feel that again. Not even once.
She clenched her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms. Her grip trembled with the force of emotion, but she didn't release it. The powerlessness she felt when she watched A'shae bleed out, when she stood helpless against that beast, when she screamed with nothing but raw desperation in her hands...
She would never allow that to happen again.
Never.
Yet there was something else that unsettled her deeply.
Since awakening, she felt everything. The wind brushing past them as they flew shimmered with energy, blowing through her senses like a living river. The clouds hummed faintly with cosmic vibrations. Even the air itself felt layered, thick with invisible threads she could almost grasp if she reached out far enough.
Energy flowed everywhere.
In everything.
Except A'shae.
She looked at him again. As though he were a blotch on a living painting, completely untouched by any of the world's energies. He was a void where color should be. A silence in a world made of song. If Bai Lianxing was right, even newborns possessed a wisp of energy. Even stones had essence if old enough. Even dust carried faint remnants.
But A'shae had nothing.
A deep, cold confusion pressed into her chest, but before she could dwell on it.
A booming, fiery voice split the heavens open.
"Bai Lianxing!"
The shout slammed into Li Fong like a physical blow. Her body tensed. Her heart jumped. The sky itself seemed to tremble. A force surged toward them from above, blazing hot and heavy.
She looked up sharply.
Bai Lianxing froze mid flight.
His expression twisted into something she had not expected from a man of his power.
Pure panic.
"...dear wife..." he whispered in dread.
A streak of red tore through the clouds toward them, wrapped in flames that curled like living ribbons. Before Li Fong could react, the fiery aura crashed into Bai Lianxing with explosive force.
Except it was not an attack.
He was swallowed whole by a voluptuous woman whose beauty blazed as fiercely as her presence. Long crimson hair cascaded behind her like a burning waterfall, and her arms locked around him with the strength of a constricting beast.
Li Fong blinked.
The woman was breathtaking. Voluptuous, radiant, fierce. Her figure was the complete opposite of Li Fong's own. Where the fiery woman was ample and dramatic, Li Fong's shape was lean, strong, defined more by power than softness (in her mind). Not that she lacked curves, but hers were subtle. Functional.
Still, the difference was stark.
Her chest tightened faintly, but only for a moment. A'shae had always made it clear what he liked most, and she had that in abundance. That was enough for her.
She brushed the stray insecurity aside.
The red-haired woman continued her assault on Bai Lianxing. She scolded him with the fury of a small star, tugging his cheeks, shaking him back and forth, pulling him close only to shove him again. Fire sparked off her hair with every movement.
"You reckless, infuriating, disappearing disaster of a man!" she snapped. "How dare you vanish for three days without a word. Do you know how worried I was?"
Bai Lianxing, despite the verbal beating, looked like he had ascended into bliss. A dopey smile tugged at his lips every time she yanked him closer.
"My love." he said dreamily, voice muffled against her chest as she squeezed him. "I can explain."
"You better." she growled.
Li Fong raised a brow.
Ruthless was one word for her.
Possessive was another.
Affectionate... in a terrifying way.
But Bai Lianxing enjoyed every second of it. It was painfully obvious.
The fiery woman tilted her head finally, noticing Li Fong and A'shae in his floating cocoon of energy.
Her scowl shifted into curiosity, then suspicion, then a slow, knowing smirk.
But she said nothing yet.
And Li Fong, holding A'shae close, suddenly had the sense that whatever came next would change the course of everything.
Bai Lianxing's wife finally turned her full attention toward Li Fong and A'shae. Her fiery aura pulsed outward in waves of heat that made the air shimmer like molten glass. Her eyes, a molten gold, scanned Li Fong up and down with blatant boldness.
Li Fong could have sworn she heard the woman murmur under her breath, "Is she cosplaying as a man?"
The fiery beauty's gaze lingered on Li Fong's short hair, then lowered to her chest, then to her hips. The woman's expression shifted into a proud, almost smug grin, as though she found her initial assumption correct.
Li Fong felt irritation flicker through her chest like a spark kissing dry leaves, but she forced her face to remain still.
The woman then turned to A'shae.
Her smile vanished immediately.
Her brows furrowed sharply, her golden eyes narrowing as she took in his pallor, injuries, and most of all, his complete lack of any detectable energy. Where Li Fong had seen a void, this woman felt it too. But she seemed far less concerned and far more annoyed by the sight.
Then she looked at her husband.
Before she could speak, Bai Lianxing held both his hands up defensively.
"We should summon the elders and the important figures of the sect." he said quickly. "A meeting is required before any questions."
His wife stared at him with a flat look that said she knew he was avoiding something, but she did not push the issue. Not yet.
Even so, she had already deduced what mattered to him and what did not. A'shae's strange appearance, strange hair, and strange lack of energy were mildly interesting at best. He was only a mortal with a sturdy body. Nothing more.
But Li Fong...
A fledgling bursting with power she barely knew how to hold. Energy that curled wildly around her like ribbons of raw potential. The fiery woman sensed it in one glance.
She gave a sigh and shifted her posture.
Her voice finally rang out, warm and confident.
"My name is Yun Huolian. Clan name Yun. I am Bai Lianxing's wife."
Her pride glowed as bright as her flames.
"With your permission." she added, though the smirk she wore said she rarely asked anyone for anything."I will take this mortal to rest. His wounds need attention."
Before Li Fong could process the introduction, fiery energy bloomed around Huolian, wrapping around A'shae like a warm cradle of heat. She lifted him effortlessly, the flames supporting his unconscious body without burning him.
Li Fong's eyes sharpened dangerously.
Her shoulders tensed.
The rising power in her chest surged like a beast ready to spring.
She took a step forward.
But Bai Lianxing was faster.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. His voice was calm and assured.
"Don't worry. My wife is taking him somewhere safe to recover. You will see him again soon."
Li Fong hesitated, torn between instinct and trust. Her jaw clenched. Her heartbeat thudded in her throat.
But she forced herself to release the tension.
"...Fine."
Huolian shot her a sharp grin, all teeth and flame, then soared toward a distant tower of the castle with A'shae in tow. The fiery trail she left behind made the sky blush orange.
Li Fong's hands tightened helplessly as her eyes followed A'shae until he vanished through an archway of glowing stone.
Bai Lianxing exhaled, relieved she did not explode.
"Come. We should walk from here."
She blinked. "Walk?"
He shrugged with a sheepish smile. "I need a moment to recover from my wife's affection."
He stepped onto the floating platform that served as a landing terrace, and Li Fong followed.
What awaited her inside the castle overwhelmed her immediately.
It was alive.
Truly alive.
The walls pulsed faintly with flowing patterns of essence, shifting like ink in water. Crystalline orb lights floated overhead, drifting lazily like jellyfish. Cultivators strode through the corridors, some walking, some flying inches above the ground, some vanishing into thin air with casual ease.
Sparks of different elements erupted here and there. One child sneezed and accidentally coughed out a bubble of water that floated away like a drifting sphere. A pair of disciples sparred in a courtyard, blades of force clashing and scattering multicolored shards of spiritual light. A woman meditated in the air, wrapped in swirling wind currents shaped like wings.
Floating crystals chimed softly as they drifted past.
Everywhere she looked, power existed like breath. Natural. Ordinary. Abundant.
Exactly like the anime A'shae had forced her to watch countless times.
Except this was real.
Bai Lianxing gave her a small smile when he saw the awe blooming in her eyes.
"Welcome," he said gently, "to the Seventh Heaven of the Bai Sect. One of the fourteen major territories of the upper realms."
She swallowed hard.
Stunned.
Overwhelmed.
But somewhere deep in her heart, that same burning spark flared again.
She would grow strong enough to live here.
Strong enough to survive here.
Strong enough to protect A'shae.
No matter what it took.