Great Xia, Green Lotus Sect.
Depths of the Demon Suppression Prison.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Moisture pooled on the cavern ceiling before falling in heavy droplets. Flickering lamplight from wall niches cast dim shadows across the sealed stone chamber.
The space was paradoxically lavish, furnished with every comfort. At its center loomed an ornate bed carved from golden spiritwood, its frame adorned with dragons, phoenixes, and amorous motifs. Now, the massive structure creaked rhythmically under strain, its groans echoing through the chamber.
Behind crimson curtains, silhouettes shifted.
A woman in disheveled palace robes labored above her captive. Silver hair cascaded down her snow-white back like moonlight, her porcelain skin flawless beneath arched brows and phoenix eyes. An aura of frosty nobility clung to her—yet her flushed cheeks and smoldering gaze painted a starkly contradictory portrait of desire.
Beneath her lay a pale, strikingly handsome youth shackled to the bed by four glowing chains. His limbs strained against the inscribed restraints, but the seals held firm.
Liu Ruyan paused, her breath ragged. The icy disdain in her disciple's eyes dampened her ardor. She traced his jawline with a finger. "A'Ze," she murmured, "A century together... and still no affection for your master?"
The youth—Ning Chen—finally stirred. His lips curled in mockery. "You hallucinate. Who'd love a scheming wretch who trapped her disciple as a cultivation furnace?"
A transmigrator from another world, Ning Chen had joined Green Lotus Sect a hundred years prior. When his peerless Sovereign Yang physique awakened three years later, his own master—Sect Leader Liu Ruyan—had crippled his cultivation and imprisoned him here, forcing him to fuel her ascension through dual cultivation.
Liu Ruyan's smile remained unshaken. "Necessity drives me. The sect's survival demanded this."
"Survival?" Ning Chen scoffed. "Had I cultivated freely, I'd have ascended within a century! The sect would've gained immortal prestige!"
"Short-lived glory." She shook her head. "After your ascension, rival sects would've torn us apart for your secrets. True power requires... continuity."
"Spare the platitudes." His laugh bit like winter wind. "You feared your mediocre talent would doom you. So you stole my Yang essence to cheat death."
The sect leader's composure flickered, then hardened. "True enough," she admitted, her voice honeyed yet unrepentant. "But who embraces mortality willingly? Blame yourself, foolish disciple, for trusting me with your secret... and my luck in discovering ancient texts about Sovereign Yang's... applications."
Her crimson lips curved as she resumed their grim dance. "One final push, dear disciple. My Nascent Soul realm breakthrough nears..."
Time accelerates.
An hour later, Liu Ruyan staggered from the bed, sated yet drained. A jade sphere materialized in her palm—its purpose to seal the harvested spiritual essence. She spared no glance for the weakened youth. Even suppressed to mortal frailty, his Yang constitution let him match her stamina blow-for-blow.
Come midnight, his ruined vitality would regenerate completely—the very reason she'd chosen this grim path. Originally fated to stagnate at Golden Core realm, she'd vaulted to Nascent Soul's peak in mere decades through his "assistance," elevating Green Lotus Sect from obscurity to Great Xia's elite.
Regrets? Never. Her gaze hardened as she straightened her robes. She'd ascend to immortality. Forge Green Lotus into not just Great Xia's pinnacle, but the supreme power across all Canglan Realm.