The first piece of data Kenji processed upon waking wasn't a number, nor a variable, nor a market projection. It was a weight. A warmth. The anchor of a sleeping body snuggled against his, and the soft scent of jasmine and orchids emanating from the red hair that tickled his chin. His left arm was completely asleep, trapped under Xiao Yue's body—a logistical inefficiency that, for the first time in his existence, he didn't mind in the slightest.
He opened his eyes. The dawn light filtered through the window of his new, austere room, tracing long, golden lines across the gray tile floor. His mind, normally a hurricane of analysis and optimization, was unusually silent. It was a calm that wasn't empty, but full. Full of the warmth of the sun, the memory of a conversation without strategic objectives, and the solid, quiet presence of the young woman beside him. The void left by Project Odyssey, the black hole left by his first karoshi, felt, for the first time, a little less absolute.
"This state is... optimal," his brain concluded, an observation so anomalous and simple it almost made him smile.
Beside him, Xiao Yue stirred, a soft murmur escaping her lips as she clung tighter to his arm. She woke slowly, blinking until her golden eyes focused on Kenji's face, just inches from hers. An instant blush rose to her cheeks, but it was quickly replaced by a mischievous smile laden with a new intimacy.
"Well, well," she whispered, her voice husky with sleep. "Looks like the Golem is a lot less... Golem-like when he sleeps. You almost look human."
Kenji processed the comment. Logic dictated a dry response, a reorientation toward the day's objectives. Instead, he chose a different path.
"The biological recovery protocol has been... unexpectedly efficient," he replied, his usual dryness now tinged with a nuance that was almost humorous.
She let out a small laugh, a crystalline sound that vibrated through him.
"Is that what you call cuddling? You're a lost cause, Kenji. By the way, my arm is completely asleep."
Just as she tried to move, the real world decided to interrupt their bubble. Measured footsteps were heard outside, approaching the courtyard. The tension was instantaneous.
"Damn it!" Xiao Yue hissed, the powerful cultivator who could dismantle an elite disciple now transformed into a guilty teenager.
In a motion that was a blur of panic and agility, she slid out of bed. For a second, she hesitated, looking around for an escape route. Kenji, whose mind had already calculated that the probability of being discovered was overwhelming, simply pointed to the large, dark wood wardrobe in the corner.
Xiao Yue didn't think twice. She ducked inside, closing the doors just as a soft knock sounded at the courtyard entrance.
"Assistant Kenji?" a servant's voice, likely Liling's, came through clearly. "The Matriarch requests the preliminary report on the forges' fuel consumption."
Kenji composed himself in an instant, his face returning to the mask of impassive efficiency. He stood, ignoring the stabbing pain in his back—a reminder of his "training"—and put on a clean robe.
"Acknowledged. The report will be on her desk in ten minutes," he answered, his voice projecting calmly.
The footsteps receded. Kenji waited exactly 15.3 seconds before opening the wardrobe. Xiao Yue emerged, her hair disheveled and an expression of comical indignation on her face.
"Next time," she said, pointing an accusing finger at him, "you install an early warning system. I nearly died of fright."
They looked at each other, and despite the tension, a knowing smile spread across their faces. Their secret relationship was a logistical risk, but also the foundation of their strange and powerful joint venture.
While the new normal was settling in Xiao Yue's pavilion, the old guard was conspiring in their sanctuary of opulence. Zian's private pavilion was no longer a place of indolence, but of cold, calculating determination. Humiliation had transformed into a poison he now sought to distill for others.
Xue Li, the envoy from the Alchemists' Guild, sat across from him, his usual unctuous smile replaced by a mask of serious attention. His Guild's reputation was also at stake.
"A simple defeat is not enough," Zian declared, his voice devoid of its previous rage, now as cold and sharp as ice. "It's not enough for her to lose. The clan must see her fail. They must see her as an inept who cannot control her own power. The stain on my honor must be erased with her public and absolute humiliation."
"A laudable ambition," Xue Li agreed, his serpentine eyes gleaming with interest. "Brute force is sometimes counterproductive. Perception, however, is a much more subtle weapon. And to manipulate perception, alchemy offers... elegant solutions."
He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
"We don't need a poison that kills, Young Master. That would be crude and leave traces. We need a catalyst for failure. We call it the 'Discordant Soul Powder'."
"Explain," Zian ordered, intrigued.
"It is not a poison in the traditional sense. It's a disruptor. A minuscule dose, inhaled or ingested, is undetectable. In a calm state, it has no effect. But"—and here Xue Li's smile turned cruel—"under the pressure of high-intensity combat, when the cultivator mobilizes their Qi to its maximum, the powder acts. It causes the energy to become unstable, violent, impossible to direct. Your sister's own power will turn against her. Her most precise techniques will become clumsy bursts of uncontrolled energy. Her meridians will suffer damage, perhaps irreparable. To everyone watching, she won't look poisoned. She'll look like a fraud. A good-for-nothing who can't handle the power she supposedly possesses."
The plan was diabolical in its brilliance. It didn't attack her body, but her credibility. It would turn her into a joke, erasing the memory of her victory over Shi Teng and reaffirming the status quo.
"Perfect," Zian hissed, savoring the plan's malice. "And how do we administer it?"
"Discretion is key," Xue Li said. "We could bribe a servant to mix it into her tea before the match. Or, even better, smear it on her opponent's weapon. But the safest option, the one that leaves no loose ends, is through a gift. A gesture of 'good faith' from a neutral Elder before she enters the arena. A fan, a hair ribbon... something she might carry with her, infused with the odorless powder. No one would suspect a gesture of encouragement from a respected Elder."
Zian nodded, a predator's smile forming on his lips. The plan was flawless. He had the perfect Elder in mind, one whose loyalty could be bought with promises of future power. The threat was no longer a distant possibility; it was a tangible countdown to Xiao Yue's destruction.
The news arrived like a cold breeze on a warm afternoon. Liling, the servant who had become the de facto head of Xiao Yue's intelligence department, came running to Kenji's courtyard, her face pale and her breath ragged.
"Assistant Kenji... Young Mistress..." she panted, giving a clumsy bow. "A rumor... a conversation among Young Master Zian's personal guards..."
Kenji immediately summoned his "board of directors." In his austere room, which now served as their headquarters, the trio gathered. The air, normally charged with Xiu Mei's creative energy or Xiao Yue's focused calm, was now tense.
Kenji laid out the problem with his usual logic, after Liling relayed the vague but alarming report about a "special package" that Xue Li had delivered to Zian, intended for the tournament.
"Threat analysis," he began, standing before a new scroll. "High probability of an attempted asset sabotage via an external alchemical agent. The objective is not physical liquidation, but performance and reputation degradation. We need a countermeasures protocol."
Xiao Yue, sitting with a straight back, showed no fear, only a cold determination. She was the target. Her role was to trust her team.
"So, while you two mad geniuses design the antidote, I need to become so strong that I can win even while poisoned."
Her gaze was like steel. Fear had been replaced by responsibility.
It was then that Xiu Mei, who had been listening with her eyes closed, let out a laugh. It wasn't a giggle, but an explosion of pure contempt.
"Discordant Soul Powder?" she scoffed, opening her amber eyes, which shone with a feline light. "Guild trash! Alchemy for butchers! Predictable and without elegance! Trying to destabilize a torrent of pure Qi like Yue-Yue's with that filth is like trying to divert a river with a handful of sand!"
She stood up, her three tails waving with a triumphant energy.
"An antidote? How boring! How defensive! How inefficient!" she exclaimed, throwing Kenji a mocking look.
Her proposal, as always, was a heresy of brilliant logic.
"We will not create an antidote that neutralizes the poison," she declared, her voice vibrating with the passion of an artist about to create her masterpiece. "We will create a 'Pill of the Unchanging Jade Heart'!"
Kenji raised an eyebrow, his mind already processing the implications.
"Its function is not to cleanse the poison," Xiu Mei continued, relishing the drama. "It is to make Xiao Yue's Qi core so pure, so stable, so harmonically perfect that, upon contact with the 'Discordant Soul Powder,' it will not only neutralize it, but absorb it! Refine it! We will turn the chaotic, dirty energy of their poison into a small but potent power boost for our Phoenix at the crucial moment!"
The audacity of the plan left Xiao Yue breathless. Kenji, on the other hand, was already writing on his scroll.
"A conversion of hostile assets into a short-term performance boost," he muttered. "The counter-attack strategy is... optimal."
"We will return their garbage to them," Xiu Mei concluded with a predatory smile, "but polished and forged into a dagger aimed straight at their pride!"
The plan of action was defined with an efficiency that even Kenji had to admire. The countdown to the tournament had begun, and the board of directors of Project Phoenix was set in motion.
Kenji, assuming his role as CEO, would handle the "counter-espionage intelligence."
"Using my new authority and the access to the records granted to me by the Matriarch, I will investigate Xue Li's supply routes. I will attempt to intercept the exact formula of the poison or, at the very least, confirm its nature and delivery method. I need data so Xiu Mei can calibrate the pill to perfection."
He found the first thread that very night. In a Guild procurement log, hidden under a transaction for common herbs, was the acquisition of an unusually large quantity of "Spectral Shadow Moth," an insect whose only known alchemical property was to act as a catalyst for unstable spiritual energies. It was the proof he needed. The poison was real.
Xiu Mei, for her part, locked herself in the pavilion the Matriarch had assigned her, transforming it into a sanctuary of wild alchemy.
"To forge an Unchanging Jade Heart," she explained to Xiao Yue, "I don't need common herbs. I need the Heart of a Thousand-Year Ice Lotus and a tear from a Cloud Crane. Ingredients that aren't bought with gold, but earned. Kenji will find a way to get them. Your job is to prepare yourself to receive them."
Meanwhile, Xiao Yue began the most brutal and demanding training regimen of her life. It was no longer about increasing her raw power, but about perfecting her control to a superhuman level. She had to be able to handle the violent reaction of absorbing the poison and converting it into power without her own meridians bursting.
Xiao Yue was sitting in the center of her courtyard in a lotus position, her eyes closed. Her Qi did not manifest as heat or light, but as a perfect, crystalline shield that enveloped her, barely a centimeter thick, so pure it seemed like a distortion in the air. Above her, Xiu Mei held a small drop of a dark, viscous liquid on the tip of a silver needle. It was a diluted version of the poison she had recreated from Kenji's data.
With a surgeon's precision, she let the drop fall.
As soon as the poison touched the Qi shield, there was no explosion. There was a hiss, a sound like water on red-hot metal. The dark drop didn't bounce off; it was absorbed, disintegrated, and for an instant, Xiao Yue's shield flared with a more intense pulse of power before returning to its crystalline calm.
She opened her eyes. Her face, bathed in sweat, showed no pain or strain, only an absolute, lethal concentration. The plan was not a theory. It was working. They were ready to strike back.