Silence, thick and profound, had settled over the chamber that now served as Su Wan's gilded cage. The ozone tang of shattered power had been replaced by the subtle fragrance of spirit herbs and sandalwood, an attempt to mask the fundamental violation that had transpired. She lay upon silks softer than cloud-down, her body humming with an alien energy that was both hers and not. The awakening of her Yin Phoenix bloodline had been a cataclysm of purity; what followed was a conquest of a different, more intimate nature.
The new Lu Tian stood by a window of polished obsidian, his small, boyish form silhouetted against the raging blood-red twilight of the Netherworld Mountains. He was examining his hand—a hand that had moments ago been the instrument of both her annihilation and her rebirth. The power thrumming within his meridians was serene, vast, and utterly his. The System's reward, the effortless ascent to the Early Full-Step Soul Transformation Realm, was a headier intoxicant than any celestial wine.
He could feel the fabric of the world with a clarity that would have driven his past goblin-self mad. The whispers of the wind carried tales from a thousand li away; the very Qi of the Black Dragon Citadel pulsed in time with his heartbeat. He was no longer a scavenger in this world. He was its master gardener, and he had just tilled the most fertile plot.
"The tremors in your spirit are… unnecessary," he stated, his voice a calm, high treble that held the weight of compressed eons. He did not turn to look at her. "You have not been diminished. You have been elevated. Chosen."
Su Wan's voice was a ragged thing, torn from the depths of her soul. "You… you have damned us both. My son… Ye Fan… the heavens will not allow this."
A soft, chilling giggle escaped his lips. "The heavens? The heavens are a script written by lazy bureaucrats. I am not a player in their drama. I am the author of a new one." He finally turned, his glowing green eyes pinning her to the bed. There was no lust in that gaze, only a terrifying, analytical possession. "Your son is a leaf on the wind of their fate. You are now the root of my dynasty. Which is the greater purpose?"
He approached the bed, each step silent yet echoing with finality. She tried to shrink back, but her body, flooded with his energy and the lingering ecstasy of the System's bonding process, refused to obey. It recognized its master.
"The union was a transaction of cosmic significance," he explained, his tone didactic, as if lecturing a slow student. "My Seed, catalyzed by the System, has intertwined with your awakened Phoenix essence. A new bloodline has been founded this day. But every foundation requires a marker. A covenant."
He extended a single, pale index finger. Darkness deeper than the void between stars coalesced at its tip, speckled with motes of captured starlight. It was not the corrupt demonic energy of the previous Ancestor; it was something far more primordial—the essence of the Many Births, Many Blessings System, a force of absolute creation through absolute dominion.
"This will not harm you," he murmured, his voice hypnotic. "It will honor you. It declares to all of creation, to the heavens themselves, whose womb this is."
He pressed his finger to her navel.
A sensation, sharp and hot yet inexplicably pleasurable, lanced through her. It was not pain, but a branding of profound finality. The dark energy flowed from his finger, etching itself into her very dantian, the core of her cultivation. It swirled and condensed, forming a intricate, beautiful, and lewd sigil.
It depicted a mighty Black Dragon, its body coiled in a possessive spiral, its maw open not in a roar but in a silent, protective snarl. Wrapped within its coils was a serene Yin Phoenix, its crystalline wings spread as if in flight, yet its head was bowed submissively towards the dragon's chest. The design was masterful, a perfect blend of fierce ownership and tender containment. It glowed with a soft, internal light, a mix of silver and obsidian, before the radiance faded, leaving the mark looking like a tattoo of the finest ink, etched permanently into her skin.
The Lewd Crest. A permanent, unbreakable brand signifying her status as the First Wife, the Prime Breeder.
A single tear, not of pain but of utter, complete comprehension, traced a path down Su Wan's cheek. She understood. She was no longer Ye Fan's mother. She was the foundation of Lu Tian's lineage. Her past was annihilated. Her future was irrevocably tied to the monster who stood before her, her body his greatest treasure, her womb his most sacred land.
The Ancestor admired his work, a cold satisfaction in his gaze. "A perfect seal. The Phoenix is bound. The harvest is secured."
It was then that a ripple of disturbance, a tremor of arrogant folly, tugged at his enhanced perception. It was a minor drama playing out in the main reception hall below—a clash of petty ambitions that carried the distinct, cloying scent of the Protagonist's orbit.
"It seems a weed is trying to grow in my garden," he mused, his attention shifting. "Attend to your rest. Nurture the seed within you. I must go and pluck another flower."
With that, he was gone, not bothering with the door, but simply vanishing into a ripple of spatial distortion.
---
He reappeared on a shadowed balcony overlooking the Citadel's grand reception hall. The scene below was a pathetic farce. The current Patriarch, Lu Zhen—a man whose ambition far outweighed his competence—was presiding over the humiliation of a young girl.
She knelt on the cold, unforgiving jade floor, her robes of the Profound Yin Sect torn at the shoulder. Her face, a masterpiece of delicate beauty, was pale but set in a mask of defiant pride. Yet, her eyes, the color of spring leaves, were wide with the terror of a trapped animal. This was Chu Ling, Grand Elder Yu Ming's prized successor, the jewel of the Profound Yin Sect… and the former fiancée of Ye Fan.
Looming over her was Lu Zhen's son, the Young Master Lu Chao, a peacock strutting on the strength of his name. "You dare refuse me?" he sneered, his voice dripping with condescension. "Your sect is a vassal of the Lu Clan. Your Grand Elder answers to my father. And that crippled dog you were promised to is less than the dirt on my boot. Your refusal is an insult to our entire lineage!"
The Ancestor's inherited memories provided the context. This petty bullying was the old Lu Tian's design—a blunt instrument to psychologically wound Ye Fan, to make the future prey stumble before the true hunt. The strategy of a thug, not a sovereign.
The new Ancestor's lips curled. Such a waste. Such a tragic lack of vision.
His giggle, light and airy, echoed through the vast hall, instantly freezing the tableau below. All movement ceased. All eyes, wide with shock and fear, turned upward to the shadowed balcony.
"A-Ancestor!" Lu Zhen stammered, his patriarchal authority evaporating as he dropped to his knees in a profound kowtow. Lu Chao followed suit, his bravado replaced by primal terror.
The Ancestor descended, not by the stairs, but by stepping on the air as if it were a staircase of solid qi. Each step caused the light in the hall to dim and the pressure to intensify, pressing down on every soul present except the one he focused on.
[System, analyze,] he commanded internally.
[Target: Chu Ling. Age: 18. Cultivation: Late-Stage Qi Condensation.]
[Physique: Innate Yin Spirit Veins. Exceptional Qi absorption rate. Compatibility with Host's Netherworld Qi: 89%.] [Status: Ye Fan's Former Fiancée (Engagement recently broken under duress). Primary Emotional Attachment for Protagonist. Current emotional state: Defiant, Terrified, Betrayed.]
[Womb Value: High (Progeny predicted to inherit strong spiritual sensitivity and high cultivation aptitude).] [Designation: High-Value Breeder. Strategic Acquisition. Successful implantation will demoralize Protagonist and grant +1 Minor Realm.]
Exquisite. She wasn't just a woman; she was a key strategic asset, a fertile field, and a masterstroke against the heavens' chosen fool.
"The previous owner thought in terms of lack and scarcity," the Ancestor stated, his childish voice laced with an ancient, terrifying patience. He began to circle Chu Ling, who trembled under the weight of his gaze, a gaze that seemed to strip away her robes, her pride, and her very soul to assess the utility beneath. "He saw a connection to an enemy and sought to sever it. A crude solution."
He stopped directly before her, looking down with those pitiless green stars. "I think in terms of abundance and growth. I see a different purpose. A higher yield. You do not possess a divine bloodline, but your spirit is refined, your connection to the Protagonist is a thread of fate I can now grasp. You are… excellent soil."
Lu Chao, imbued with the stupidity of the truly privileged, dared to speak. "Honored Ancestor, she was to be my—"
A flick of the Ancestor's wrist. Not a spell, not a technique. Merely a thought given form. The air itself solidified into an invisible hammer and struck Lu Chao in the chest. The sound was a wet crunch of breaking bone. He was hurled across the hall into a granite pillar, slumping to the ground like a broken doll, unconscious or dead—a matter of complete irrelevance to the Ancestor.
"You mistook a future jewel of my crown for your petty trinket," the Ancestor said, his tone chillingly matter-of-fact. He returned his attention to Chu Ling, who was now paralyzed by a dread so profound it was beyond screaming. This was not a spoiled young master. This was an elemental force of possession.
"The boy, Ye Fan… he spat some foolish vow, did he not?" the Ancestor mused, plucking the knowledge from the whispers of fate that now coiled around him like obedient serpents. "A promise to reclaim his honor in three years? A childish fantasy written on water."
He leaned close, his voice a whisper that slithered past her ears and directly into the core of her consciousness. "Your destiny is no longer a subplot in his pathetic story. It has been purchased by eternity. You will not wait for a boy to become a man. You will serve an Ancestor and become the mother of kings. Your womb will be the cradle of a new world."
The System hummed in agreement. He didn't need to touch her. His will alone, the crushing, divine pressure of a Soul Transformation expert, wrapped around her spiritual core. It was an invisible brand, a prelude to the physical one she would soon receive, marking her soul for his collection.
"Take her to the Chrysanthemum Suite, next to the Phoenix Chamber," he commanded the prostrate Lu Zhen, his voice leaving no room for question. "Let her see the opulence that awaits my favored. Let her contemplate the magnificent purpose she will serve."
As guards clad in obsidian armor approached, Chu Ling found a shred of her shattered courage. "Ye Fan will come!" she cried, her voice breaking. "He will save me! He will defeat you!"
The Ancestor giggled, a sound of genuine, monstrous delight. "Oh, I am depending on it, little blossom. His rage will be the storm that scatters my seeds to the farthest corners of the world. Every step he takes in his quest for vengeance will lead him to another of my wives, another of his beloved heroines, each one round with my child. He is not my executioner; he is the fertilizer that enriches my fields."
He turned his back, the audience concluded. The matter was settled.
[New Primary Objective: Secure Breeder 'Chu Ling'. Implant the 'Seed of Many Offspring'.]
[Reward: Advancement to Mid Full-Step Soul Transformation Realm.] [Secondary Objective: Identify next high-value target connected to the Protagonist. Analysis suggests: 'Elder Sister' figure within the Profound Yin Sect ('Elder Sister' Lian), or a 'Rival Young Mistress' from a neighboring clan ('Bai Clan's Bai Wei).]
The Eternal Goblin Ancestor looked out beyond the citadel walls, towards the distant, mist-shrouded peaks of the Profound Yin Sect. His green eyes glowed with infinite hunger. The first seed was planted. The second was chosen. The hunt was now truly begun. Ye Fan's world was shrinking, its greatest lights being gathered into his harem. And the Protagonist, in his blind fury, would only help him find the next one.