I leaned my back against the damp stone wall of the granary, my lungs burning. My War-Qi was a joke.
Nothing but a stagnant puddle in my dantian that wouldn't move no matter how much I circulated it. In the Kingdom of Han-Guk, I was what they called a 'Dull Blade.' A junior commander with a title bought by a father who didn't want me around.
"Commander... leave me."
I looked down at Lady Min-Ah. She was slumped against a grain sack, her silk robes torn and stained with soot. She was a genius of the Blue Lotus Sect, a woman whose beauty was only matched by her icy cultivation.
But right now, her skin was mapped with pulsing black veins...
Void-Qi poisoning.
"I'm not leaving," I grunted, checking the corridor.
The heavy wooden door was the only thing between us and a Sun-Zhen execution squad. I could hear their chanting. They didn't just kill, they harvested.
A flicker of light sparked in my vision. At first, I thought I was finally having a stroke from the stress. Then, a cold, mechanical voice echoed directly in my skull.
[Initialization Complete.]
[Host: Kang-Dae detected.]
[Lineage: Emperor's Dual-Pore Body (Awakened).]
[Emergency Protocol: High-Purity Yin Source detected in proximity. Compatibility: 96%.]
"What the hell?" I muttered.
[Notice: Your meridians are currently 'Dry.' Without an immediate infusion of Yin Energy, your core will collapse under the pressure of the surrounding Void-Qi. Suggestion: Initiate 'Ethereal Harmony' with Subject: Lady Min-Ah immediately.]
It was reminiscent to the systems that I had read before being transmigrated here. A sudden, throbbing heat pooled in my groin, it felt like a live wire had been shoved into my gut.
My eyes locked onto Min-Ah.
"Min-Ah," I whispered, kneeling beside her.
Her eyes were glazed, her breath coming in shallow hitches. I reached out, my hand trembling as I touched the bare skin of her neck.
The moment our skin met, a massive jolt of electricity surged through my arm. It was a raw, primal hunger. The system's interface flared a deep, hungry crimson in my mind.
[Warning: Resonance at 5%. Yin-Yang imbalance detected. To stabilize the Host and the Subject, full physical unification is required.]
"The... the poison... it's too deep," she gasped, her body arching in a spasm of pain.
"Min-Ah, look at me," I said, my voice dropping, turning raspy.
The System was showing me her internal map now. I could see her meridians, glowing rivers of silver being choked by black sludge.
Already planting an idea in my head.
"I have a way to pull the poison out. But it's... it's the Dual Way. I have to take you. Right here. Right now."
She looked at me, her pride warring with the terror of the Void. She saw the desperation in my eyes, but she also saw the massive, sudden surge of my own arousal, a physical manifestation of the System's demand for balance.
"Do... whatever you must," she whispered, her fingers digging into my shoulders. "I will not... be fuel for those monsters."
The door at the end of the hall splintered. They were through the first barricade. I didn't waste another second. I pulled her deeper into the shadows of the grain stacks.
I stripped my leather brigandine with shaking hands, my heart hammering against my ribs. I turned back to her, my gaze sweeping over her ruined silks. I reached for the ties of her armour, my fingers brushing against the soft, trembling curve of her breasts. Even through the soot, her skin was like cream.
As I pulled the silk away, exposing her to the damp air of the warehouse, her breath hitched. Her nipples were peaked, tight from the cold and the fear. The System roared in my mind.
[Resonance Rising: 15%... 22%...]
I pressed her back against the rough grain sacks, my body hovering over hers. The heat coming off her was incredible, the Frost-Qi of her sect was reacting to the Emperor's Fire waking up in my blood.
When I kissed her, it wasn't a gentle thing. It was a collision. Her mouth was hot, tasting of blood and desperation.
I felt her hands slide down my back, her nails digging into my skin as I guided her legs around my waist. The friction of her bare thighs against my hips was enough to make my vision swim.
I was harder than I'd ever been in my life, a physical ache that demanded release.
"Kang-Dae," she moaned into my ear, her voice a mix of a plea and a command.
[Notice: Yin Energy overflow detected. Channeling starting now.]
I entered her in one sharp thrust, and the world exploded.
It was a floodgate opening. I felt the black, oily Void-Qi from her body rush into mine, but instead of killing me, my Dual-Pore body began to refine it, turning the poison into pure, white-hot War-Qi.
Min-Ah let out a choked cry, her head falling back as her eyes turned a glowing silver. Our rhythms weren't just physical, they were spiritual. Every time I hit her, I felt a pulse of energy move from my base, up my spine, and into her heart.
The System's numbers were screaming in the corner of my vision.
[Resonance: 60%... 75%...]
[War-Qi Leveling: 1... 4... 7...]
The sensations were overwhelming. The slick, wet sound of our bodies joining, the scent of her sweat mixed with lotus blossoms, and the sheer power flowing through my veins.
I felt her internal walls clench around me, her body shivering in a violent, Qi-driven climax that sent a wave of silver light rippling through the dark warehouse.
[Resonance: 100%! Resonance Peak Achieved!]
[Reward Unlocked: 'Heaven-Splitting Slash' (Grade 1).]
[Status: Level 10 reached.]
I slumped against her, gasping, my seed spent inside her as the last of the black veins vanished from her skin. She looked up at me, her eyes clear for the first time, her breath ragged.
The warehouse door kicked open.
Three Sun-Zhen scouts stood there, their jagged black blades dripping with blood. They saw us, a disgraced commander and a noblewoman, half-naked amidst the grain.
One of them laughed, a sound like grinding stones.
"Found a little rat and his whore," he spat in his guttural tongue.
I stood up. I didn't feel like a rat anymore. I felt like a god.
My skin was buzzing with a faint, golden aura. I reached out my hand toward a discarded, rusted dao laying on the floor. The weapon flew into my grip as if it were alive.
"My turn," I whispered.
With a single, fluid motion, the Heaven-Splitting Slash I'd just inherited swung. A crescent of white light tore through the air, so fast the scouts didn't even have time to raise their blades.
The light hit them. Silence followed for a heartbeat. Then, all three of them slid apart, their bodies severed perfectly at the waist.
Their blood didn't even touch me; the heat of my Qi vaporized it before it could land. I looked back at Min-Ah. She was sitting up, wrapping her ruined silks around her, staring at me with a mixture of awe and something that looked a lot like hunger.
[System Notice: First Partner Synchronized. Lady Min-Ah's cultivation has increased by two minor realms. Your 'Harem of Generals' has its first member.]
"We need to go," I said, my voice steady. "The city hasn't fallen yet."