Three hundred feet beneath the polished obsidian floors of the Star Luo Imperial Palace lay the Deep Imperial Vault.
In decades past, this subterranean chamber had been used by the White Tiger lineage to imprison rebellious dukes, treasonous generals, and captured enemy Titled Douluos. The walls were constructed from ten-foot-thick blocks of dark star-iron stone, completely cutting off all sound, natural light, and ambient spiritual energy from the surface world. Warmth did not exist down here; a damp, bone-chilling draft seeped constantly through the stone joints, smelling faintly of rust, wet moss, and stale blood.
Following the fall of Star Luo City to the Heaven Dou Empire's vanguard, the Deep Imperial Vault had been heavily modified by the engineering corps of Crimson Zenith City.
Massive, humming Spirit Tools shaped like octagonal bronze pillars had been driven directly into the four corners of the central rotunda. Glowing crimson runic circuits crawled across the cold stone floor, connecting the bronze pillars to four separate, heavy cages forged from spirit-sealing cold iron. Whenever any occupant inside those four cages tried to stir a single drop of spirit power within their dantian, the bronze Spirit Tools immediately released a wave of numbing spiritual vibrations that crushed their meridians into total dormancy, leaving them as weak and helpless as ordinary commoners.
Inside those four cages, arranged in a semi-circle facing a raised stone platform in the center of the rotunda, sat the four men Zhang Tian had specifically ordered to be left behind when the rest of the war criminals were shipped north.
In the leftmost cage sat Duke Zhu Zhenhong, the former patriarch of the Zhu Family Dukedom and the father of Zhu Zhuqing and Zhu Zhuyun. His once-immaculate ducal robes were wrinkled and stained with dust, his hair disheveled, yet he still sat with his back stiffly upright on the cold stone bench, clinging stubbornly to the lifelong arrogance of a man who stood second only to the Imperial Family.
In the two central cages sat the former princes of the Star Luo Empire: Dai Weisi and Dai Mubai.
Both brothers looked thoroughly miserable. Stripped of their royal armor and bound in heavy iron shackles that weighed down their wrists and ankles, their bruised faces bore the lingering marks of their humiliating capture during the collapse of the southern front. Dai Weisi leaned against the iron bars with a dark, brooding scowl on his face, while Dai Mubai sat on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest, his mismatched eyes bloodshot and staring fixedly at the stone steps leading up to the sealed dungeon doors.
In the rightmost cage sat Yu Xiaogang.
Compared to the Duke and the two royal princes, the self-proclaimed Grandmaster of the spirit world looked like a drowned rat. His scholar's robes were caked in dried mud from the ravine where Liu Erlong had dragged him off the eastern battlefield. He was huddled in the corner of his cage, shivering from the subterranean chill, his stiff, slightly palsied hands tucked into his torn sleeves as he muttered endlessly under his breath.
For weeks, the four of them had been kept down in this windowless vault in near-total isolation, given only plain water and coarse rations by silent, heavily armored guards who refused to answer their questions.
However, earlier that morning, during the changing of the guard outside the heavy iron doors at the top of the stairs, the four prisoners had overheard the guards chatting excitedly about the grand ceremony taking place in the Supreme Radiant Hall above!
That overheard conversation had acted like a spark thrown into dry tinder, igniting a fierce, desperate wave of speculation among the four captives.
"Did you two hear what those northern dogs outside the door were saying just now?!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong's voice echoed huskily across the dimly lit rotunda as he gripped the cold iron bars of his cage, his eyes glinting with feverish excitement as he looked toward Dai Weisi and Dai Mubai. "They said Her Majesty Empress Zhu Leihua has emerged from her secluded cultivation and ascended the Obsidian Throne! And they said the Heaven Dou Empire signed a cooperative treaty without annexing the Star Luo Empire, pardoning the Zhu Family Dukedom and the major sects!"
In the second cage, Dai Weisi straightened up sharply, his bruised face lighting up with a sudden, desperate hope.
"Imperial Mother is back on the throne?!" Dai Weisi breathed, his hands wrapping tightly around the iron bars as a wild grin broke across his face. "I knew it! I knew our Star Luo Empire couldn't be swallowed so easily! Imperial Mother was always deeply respected by the court ministers and the royal guards, and her natal family is your Zhu Clan, Uncle Zhu! She must have waited until the Heaven Dou Empire's vanguard let their guard down, and then used the hidden royal trump cards to force Xue Qinghe and that bastard Zhang Tian to the negotiating table!"
"Of course she did!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong puffed out his chest, his aristocratic pride roaring back to life as he convinced himself of his own deduction. "Empress Zhu Leihua is my wife's biological sister! And my wife, Wanyue, is the most virtuous, cunning noblewoman in the capital! Even though Wanyue disappeared from our estate before the war—no doubt going into hiding to coordinate with her sister the Empress in secret—the two of them would never sit back and watch me rot in a cell! Why do you think Father Emperor Dai Tianxiong was shipped off to the northern prisons weeks ago, while the three of us were kept right here beneath the palace?!"
Dai Mubai lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes widening slightly as he listened to his future father-in-law and his older brother. "You mean... we weren't kept here to be executed?"
"Use your brain, Mubai!" Dai Weisi laughed hoarsely, the terror that had haunted him since the apocalyptic cannon blasts at the border suddenly giving way to arrogant relief. "If Zhang Tian wanted to kill us or throw us into the northern labor pits with Father Emperor, he would have put us on those flying carriages three weeks ago! The only reason we are still sitting right beneath the Supreme Radiant Hall is because Imperial Mother and Aunt Wanyue secretly demanded our safety as part of the peace treaty! Once the political dust settles on the surface in a few days, Imperial Mother will surely issue a royal amnesty to release us!"
"Hmph, when I get out of this cage, the first thing I will do is rebuild the Zhu Family's authority alongside Wanyue and Her Majesty," Duke Zhu Zhenhong sneered coldly, his eyes flashing with bitter venom as he thought of his two rebellious daughters. "As for those two unfilial, shameless bitches Zhuyun and Zhuqing who threw themselves into Zhang Tian's arms and betrayed their own bloodline... once the Heaven Dou Empire's main army withdraws to the north, I will personally invoke the ancestral family law and break their legs!"
Hearing Duke Zhu Zhenhong curse Zhu Zhuqing and Zhu Zhuyun as shameless bitches who had thrown themselves into Zhang Tian's arms, both Dai Mubai and Dai Weisi felt a sharp, suffocating stab of humiliation in their chests.
Unlike the fate of Duchess Zhu Wanyue or Empress Zhu Leihua, the fact that Zhu Zhuqing and Zhu Zhuyun had become Zhang Tian's women was already an open secret among the upper echelons of both empires.
Dai Mubai clenched his shackled fists until his fingernails dug into his palms. Every time he closed his eyes, he remembered how Zhu Zhuqing—the stunning, cold-faced fiancée who was supposed to belong to him by birthright—had looked at him like a piece of filthy garbage while standing beside Zhang Tian, her figure more breathtaking and voluptuous than ever under the nourishment of Zhang Tian's immortal herbs. And Dai Weisi's teeth ground together as he recalled how his proud, scheming fiancée Zhu Zhuyun had abandoned him without a backward glance to follow the Champion Marquis.
'Wait until Imperial Mother secures control over the empire again,' Dai Mubai thought viciously to himself, his heart twisting with jealousy and spite. 'Zhu Zhuqing was betrothed to me from childhood! I don't care if Zhang Tian has touched her—once we regain our freedom and power, I will drag her back into my bed and make her pay tenfold for humiliating me in front of that northern bastard!'
Meanwhile, over in the fourth cage on the far right, Yu Xiaogang listened to the three nobles celebrating their impending rescue and let out a raspy, superior scoff from his corner.
"Fools," Yu Xiaogang croaked, pushing himself up against the iron bars of his cage and adjusting his tattered collar with a trembling hand, trying to project the scholarly wisdom of the Grandmaster. "You three truly believe a piece of paper signed in the throne room above will save this continent from Zhang Tian and the Spirit Hall? How shortsighted."
Dai Weisi glared sideways at the mud-caked middle-aged man. "Shut your mouth, Yu Xiaogang! It was your useless Shrek Academy and your Clear Sky Sect allies who promised us that Tang Chen and the Sea God Island experts would crush the Heaven Dou Empire! Instead, our armies were wiped out in a single flash of light, and you were dragged into this dungeon like a dead dog by your own woman!"
The mention of Liu Erlong dragging him off the battlefield by his collar made Yu Xiaogang's pale face flush a deep, ugly red.
"What do an ignorant prince like you know of deep strategy?!" Yu Xiaogang snapped defensively, his voice rising an octave as he clung fiercely to the narrative he had spent the past three weeks constructing in his own head to keep from going insane. "Erlong has loved me with all her heart for twenty years! Do you know why she never married anyone else, why she waited for me in that academy for two decades despite our bloodline taboo?! A love that deep cannot be erased!"
Yu Xiaogang gripped the bars of his cage, his eyes shining with fanatical self-delusion.
"On the eastern battlefield, the Heaven Dou Empire's vanguard had completely surrounded our position!" Yu Xiaogang declared loudly, as if trying to convince himself as much as the other three prisoners. "If any other Titled Douluo of the Heaven Dou Empire had found me—the mentor of Tang San and the mastermind of the allied strategies—they would have slaughtered me on the spot! Erlong only pretended to submit to the Heaven Dou Empire and acted harsh toward me in front of the soldiers so she could capture me personally and keep me alive under her watch!"
He let out a shaky, triumphant breath, nodding his head rapidly.
"Look at where I am right now! Am I dead? Or were my meridians shattered like the other captured officers? No! I am alive and whole in the palace dungeon!" Yu Xiaogang said smugly. "Erlong is surely waiting for Zhang Tian's vigilance to relax so she can secretly slip down here, unlock my cage, and flee south with me! And once I reunite with Xiao San on Sea God Island... hmph! Xiao San possesses twin martial spirits—the evolved Blue Silver Grass and the Clear Sky Hammer—and he is inheriting the supreme throne of the Sea God! Once my disciple ascends as an invincible God and returns from the ocean, Zhang Tian's mechanical Spirit Tools and his entire empire will crumble into dust before a single wave of Xiao San's hand!"
Listening to Yu Xiaogang's passionate speech, Duke Zhu Zhenhong, Dai Weisi, and Dai Mubai exchanged glances.
Even though they looked down on Yu Xiaogang's pathetic cultivation, what he said about Tang San inheriting the Sea God's throne on Sea God Island actually aligned with what they knew! Before the war, Tang Chen and Bo Saixi had openly stated that Tang San was undergoing the final trials of the Sea God. And since Tang Chen, Tang Hao, and Bo Saixi had escaped the battlefield alive, once Tang San became a true God on Sea God Island, wouldn't he come back to slaughter Zhang Tian?!
Thinking that they had Empress Zhu Leihua and Duchess Zhu Wanyue working to free them from the inside, and Tang San becoming a God on the outside to annihilate Zhang Tian later, the four prisoners in the dungeon suddenly felt a surge of vindictive, arrogant excitement!
CLANG—!
Right at the peak of their delusional celebration, the heavy, ten-ton star-iron doors at the top of the dungeon stairs groaned loudly as the external Spirit Tool locks disengaged and the double doors swung wide open.
Warm golden torchlight from the upper corridor spilled down the steep stone steps, cutting through the gloomy purple-red glow of the suppression pillars.
Instantly, all four prisoners stopped talking and turned their heads sharply toward the staircase, their hearts leaping into their throats.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Measured, unhurried footsteps echoed down the wide stone steps, accompanied by the soft, rhythmic rustling of heavy, luxurious silk gowns brushing against the stone.
Walking at the very front was Zhang Tian.
He wore a magnificent, floor-length robe of dark black silk interwoven with golden dragon-and-vine patterns, a jade belt fastened around his waist. His handsome face was calm and relaxed, and his icy blue eyes swept over the four iron cages below with a look of quiet, detached amusement—like a wealthy lord strolling into a cellar to inspect a few trapped rats.
However, it was not Zhang Tian alone who made the four prisoners freeze in their tracks.
Walking two paces behind Zhang Tian were five women.
Every single one of them was dressed in exquisite, high-collared, floor-length noble gowns of silk and brocade that draped gracefully down to their embroidered shoes, concealing every inch of their skin from the prisoners' eyes while still outlining their breathtaking, full-figured silhouettes. Zhang Tian was a fiercely possessive man; while he intended to use these women to shatter the minds and pride of the men in these cages, he would never allow the filthy eyes of prisoners to catch a single glimpse of his women's bare skin.
Walking directly at Zhang Tian's right side, openly holding his arm with her face uncovered, was Zhu Zhuqing. Her stunning, coldly gorgeous face was radiant and healthy, her dark hair pinned up with a priceless phoenix hairpin crafted from warm jade, and her cat-like eyes looked at the cages with icy indifference.
Behind Zhu Zhuqing walked four other women whose faces were currently concealed behind long, translucent silk veils attached to jeweled headdresses.
Though their faces were veiled, their distinct postures, their heights, and the familiar curves of their figures under their silk gowns caused the four men in the cages to stare intently through the iron bars!
Zhang Tian walked slowly down the final step into the central rotunda, stopping on the raised stone platform ten feet in front of the four cages. He didn't summon a chair or bring any guards down with him; the four bronze suppression pillars hummed steadily, keeping the captives completely powerless.
"It sounded quite lively down here a moment ago," Zhang Tian spoke, his smooth, resonant voice echoing clearly off the star-iron walls as a faint, mocking smile curved his lips. "As I was walking down the stairs, I couldn't help but overhear your brilliant strategic analysis. Let me see if I heard it correctly... Duke Zhu Zhenhong and the two former princes believe that Empress Zhu Leihua and Duchess Zhu Wanyue are secretly plotting to rescue you through the peace treaty? And Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang believes that Dean Liu Erlong only captured him out of twenty years of undying love, waiting for the right moment to break him out of jail?"
Zhang Tian shook his head slowly, letting out a soft, genuine laugh that made the skin on the prisoners' faces tighten.
"I have met many delusional men in my life," Zhang Tian chuckled, looking from cage to cage, "but locking the four of you in the same room has truly produced a masterpiece of comedy. Before I send a few of you off to your final destinations, I felt it would be a pity not to come down here in person and let you hear the truth directly from the women you are placing all your pathetic hopes upon."
In the third cage, Dai Mubai wasn't even listening to Zhang Tian's mockery about the treaty. From the second Zhang Tian had stepped into the rotunda, Dai Mubai's bloodshot, mismatched eyes had been glued exclusively to Zhu Zhuqing, who was standing close beside Zhang Tian with her slender hands wrapped affectionately around Zhang Tian's arm!
Seeing the woman who had once been his betrothed leaning so naturally and intimately against the man who had ruined his life, a wave of irrational, burning jealousy swamped Dai Mubai's mind.
"Zhu Zhuqing!" Dai Mubai lunged forward and slammed his shackled hands against the cold iron bars of his cage, his voice hoarse and trembling with rage. "Let go of his arm! Have you forgotten who you are?! You are a daughter of the Zhu Family Dukedom of the Star Luo Empire, and you were betrothed to me from the day you were born! How dare you stand beside the enemy who destroyed my father's empire and smile like a shameless—!"
SMACK!
Before the filthy word could leave Dai Mubai's mouth, Zhang Tian casually flicked a single finger through the air.
A condensed thread of invisible spiritual pressure shot between the iron bars and struck Dai Mubai squarely across the jaw, snapping his head violently to the side and knocking two bloodstained teeth straight out of his mouth as he crashed onto his back on the stone floor!
Zhang Tian's icy blue eyes cooled instantly as he looked down at the groaning former prince.
"Watch your tongue, Dai Mubai," Zhang Tian said calmly, though the chill in his voice made the temperature in the dungeon plummet. "Zhuqing is my cherished Wife, and a primary lady of Crimson Zenith City. A spineless coward who fled his own country and abandoned a young girl to die in the family succession trials does not even have the right to speak her name, let alone insult her in my presence."
Hearing her Husband defend her dignity so decisively, a warm, deeply affectionate light rippled through Zhu Zhuqing's dark eyes. She looked up at Zhang Tian's profile with pure love before turning her gaze back down toward the bleeding Dai Mubai in the third cage and her biological father, Duke Zhu Zhenhong, in the first cage.
"You heard my Husband, Dai Mubai," Zhu Zhuqing spoke, her voice as cold and sharp as northern frost. "From the day you abandoned me in the Star Luo Empire to go wallow in brothels in Soto City, claiming you did it for my own good while leaving me to be hunted like prey by my sister, any tie between you and me was severed forever. It was my Husband who gave me a real home, who elevated my cultivation, and who treated me as a treasure rather than a political stepping stone."
"You unfilial, rebellious girl!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong roared from the leftmost cage, his face purple with outrage as he slammed his fist against the bars. "I am your father! Even if Dai Mubai failed you in the past, how dare you betray the Zhu Family and help an outsider overthrow the Star Luo Empire?! Have you no shame toward your ancestors?!"
Zhu Zhuqing turned her cold cat-like eyes toward Duke Zhu Zhenhong, her expression completely devoid of filial warmth.
"My ancestors? Father?" Zhu Zhuqing asked with a faint, icy sneer. "When did you ever treat me as a daughter, Duke Zhu Zhenhong? From the day I awakened my Hell Civet spirit, in your eyes, my sister and I were never human beings—we were merely two pieces of breeding stock raised in a cage so that whichever one of us survived could be married off to the victorious prince to preserve your ducal title! Had I lost to my sister back then, you would have watched me die without shedding a single tear. My life belongs to my Husband, Zhang Tian. As for the Zhu Family Dukedom... you should worry less about my ancestors and more about what is standing right in front of you."
In the second cage, Dai Weisi ignored his younger brother spitting blood on the floor and stared fixed-eyed at the first veiled woman standing just behind Zhu Zhuqing.
Even with the translucent black silk veil covering her face and the high-necked dark purple gown hiding her skin, Dai Weisi knew every curve of that tall, voluptuous, mature figure by heart! For years, he had lusted after and plotted alongside that woman, believing she was his most devoted partner on his path to the throne!
"Zhuyun..." Dai Weisi called out, pressing his bruised face right up against the iron bars, his voice filled with a mixture of desperation, lingering possessiveness, and anger. "Zhuyun, I know that is you behind that veil! Why are you standing behind Zhang Tian without saying a word?! When you disappeared from the capital before the war, Father Duke and I thought Zhang Tian had kidnapped you and forced you to submit using some sinister mental technique! Speak to me, Zhuyun! Tell me he forced you! Now that Imperial Mother is back on the throne, you don't have to fear him anymore!"
Standing behind Zhang Tian, the first veiled woman paused.
Then, receiving a slight, permissive nod from Zhang Tian, Zhu Zhuyun reached up with her slender, pale fingers and unclipped the black silk veil from her headdress, letting it fall away to reveal her stunning, mature, and fiercely alluring face.
However, when Zhu Zhuyun looked at Dai Weisi in the iron cage, there was not a single trace of longing, guilt, or helplessness in her dark eyes.
Instead, she looked at her former fiancé with a mocking, condescending curl of her red lips—as if she were looking at a foul-smelling beggar lying in a ditch—before turning toward Zhang Tian and dropping gracefully to both knees upon the stone platform, bowing her head toward his boots with fanatical reverence.
"Master," Zhu Zhuyun spoke, her sultry voice dripping with complete, unconditional submission and pride in her servitude. "This Servant feels disgusted hearing this incompetent waste call my name. May This Servant tell him the truth so he stops barking like a deluded cur?"
"Go ahead, Zhuyun," Zhang Tian said casually, resting a hand on Zhu Zhuqing's waist as he looked down at the stunned Dai Weisi. "Tell your former fiancé just how 'forced' you have been over the past few years."
Inside the second cage, Dai Weisi's mind went completely blank for a second at the way the proud, arrogant eldest daughter of the Zhu Family knelt at Zhang Tian's feet and called herself "This Servant" and him "Master"!
Zhu Zhuyun remained kneeling beside Zhang Tian's boots, lifting her chin slightly to look through the iron bars at Dai Weisi and her father, Duke Zhu Zhenhong.
"Kidnapped? Forced by a mental technique?" Zhu Zhuyun laughed softly, a rich, mocking sound that echoed through the silent dungeon. "Dai Weisi, you truly flatter yourself if you think I ever held a shred of genuine affection for a mediocre weakling like you. When I was with you in the Star Luo Empire, I only tolerated your clumsy touch and played the role of your dutiful fiancée because I had no other choice under the family's cruel rules! You couldn't even satisfy me as a man, let alone give me the power to break free from the fate of a political tool!"
Dai Weisi's face turned beet red, the veins on his neck bulging as if they were about to burst! "You... what did you just say, you slut?!"
"That is right—I am a slut, but I am Master's obedient slut alone!" Zhu Zhuyun replied without a trace of shame, her dark eyes glowing with a feverish, intoxicating blush as she glanced up at Zhang Tian with worshipful adoration. "Do you want to know what really happened, Dai Weisi? The very first night Master conquered me, I realized what a true, peerless sovereign feels like! Master's strength, his stamina, and the vital essence coursing through his body gave me pleasure and cultivation breakthroughs that a useless waste like you couldn't provide in ten lifetimes!"
She smiled cruelly at Dai Weisi's trembling, horrified face.
"While you were out on the Star Luo Empire border eating dust and dreaming about taking the throne, I was kneeling in Master's warm bedchamber every single night, begging him on my hands and knees to use my body however he pleased!" Zhu Zhuyun stated clearly, every word acting like a poisoned dagger twisting into Dai Weisi's pride. "I willingly gave him every secret of your military deployments, every hidden treasury route of the Zhu Family, and every weakness in your formations! Touching you was the greatest stain of my life, Dai Weisi—and serving as Master's lowly toy is the greatest honor I could ever ask for!"
"Aaaargh! Zhu Zhuyun, I will kill you! I will tear you to pieces!"
Dai Weisi went completely berserk inside his cage, rattling the heavy cold-iron bars with bloodied hands as the bronze Spirit Tools flashed, sending a numbing jolt through his body that dropped him to his knees, gasping and foaming at the mouth in sheer, impotent humiliation!
In the first cage, Duke Zhu Zhenhong was shaking from head to toe, his face alternating between ashen white and livid purple as he pointed a trembling finger at his eldest daughter kneeling at Zhang Tian's feet.
"Shameless! Utterly shameless!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong roared, his voice cracking with fury. "For a daughter of my Zhu Family Dukedom to openly brag about being an enemy's lowly bed-slave in front of her own father and fiancé—you have thrown the face of the Zhu Clan into the gutter! Good, very good! Since both of my daughters have turned into unfilial, traitorous dogs for Zhang Tian, I no longer have any daughters!"
Duke Zhu Zhenhong took a deep, ragged breath, glaring furiously at Zhang Tian with bloodshot eyes as he clung to his last, unshakeable pillar of confidence.
"Zhang Tian! Don't think that just because you corrupted my two young, naive daughters with your vile tricks, you have truly conquered the Star Luo Empire or my household!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong spat through the bars. "Her Majesty Empress Zhu Leihua is the proud sovereign of the Star Luo Empire! Today in the Supreme Radiant Hall, Her Majesty only signed that treaty with you and Xue Qinghe to buy time for our empire and protect the innocent! Once Her Majesty and my wife Wanyue finish consolidating the loyalty of the Star Luo Empire's sects behind the scenes, you will see what the true vengeance of the Zhu women looks like!"
In the second and third cages, hearing Duke Zhu Zhenhong's fierce declaration, both Dai Weisi and Dai Mubai gritted their teeth and nodded fiercely.
Yes! Zhu Zhuqing and Zhu Zhuyun were young women who had been seduced or broken by Zhang Tian's power! But Empress Zhu Leihua—their dignified, icy Imperial Mother—and Duchess Zhu Wanyue were mature, proud rulers of the Star Luo court who hated Heaven Dou Empire to the bone!
Even over in the fourth cage, Yu Xiaogang nodded slightly to himself, thinking that while the Zhu sisters were hopeless, at least the older generation had some backbone—just like his beloved Liu Erlong!
Standing on the raised stone platform in the center of the rotunda, Zhang Tian listened to Duke Zhu Zhenhong's grand speech about his wife's "impeccable noble virtue" and the Empress's "secret vengeance."
For a moment, Zhang Tian didn't say anything.
He simply glanced over his shoulder at the third and fourth veiled women standing quietly behind him—one wearing a regal, high-necked gown of deep royal violet, and the other wearing a sumptuous matron's dress of dark crimson silk.
Then, Zhang Tian turned back to Duke Zhu Zhenhong, a slow, devastatingly cruel smile spreading across his handsome face.
"Impeccable noble virtue? Secretly plotting vengeance against me?" Zhang Tian repeated softly, his icy blue eyes crinkling with dark amusement. "Lord Duke, since you miss your virtuous wife and your respected sister-in-law the Empress so dearly... why don't you ask them about their grand vengeance yourself?"
Zhang Tian raised his right hand and snapped his fingers lightly.
"Wanyue. Leihua. Take off your veils and say hello to your husband and your stepsons."
The dungeon went dead silent.
Wait... what names had Zhang Tian just called?!
Wanyue?! Leihua?!
Duke Zhu Zhenhong's heart stopped beating for a full second, a cold terror so intense it froze the blood in his veins seizing his chest as he stared with bulging eyes at the two mature, veiled women stepping forward onto the illuminated stone platform!
Beside Zhang Tian, the woman in the dark crimson silk gown and the woman in the royal violet gown reached up simultaneously with trembling, obedient hands and removed the long silk veils covering their faces.
The torchlight fell clearly upon their features.
On the left stood Duchess Zhu Wanyue—Duke Zhu Zhenhong's wedded wife of twenty-five years, looking radiantly youthful, lush, and glowing with a rosy, thoroughly satisfied vitality that Duke Zhu Zhenhong had never once seen on her face during their entire marriage!
And on the right, wearing the amethyst hair-crown of the Star Luo Empire that she had just worn in the Supreme Radiant Hall two hours ago, stood Empress Zhu Leihua!
"Wan... Wanyue?!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong stumbled backward a step inside his cage as if he had been struck in the chest by a warhammer, his jaw dropping open in utter, mind-shattering disbelief.
"Imperial Mother?!" Dai Weisi and Dai Mubai both shrieked at the exact same time, scrambling up against the bars of their cages with eyes wide as saucers!
At first, for a fleeting, desperate fraction of a second, Duke Zhu Zhenhong tried to convince himself that his wife and the Empress had come down to the dungeon with Zhang Tian as part of a political inspection to negotiate their release.
"Wanyue! Sister-in-law Leihua!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong cried out, pressing his face between the cold iron bars and reaching his shackled hands out toward his wife. "You finally came for us! Wanyue, tell this arrogant northern bastard that as part of the tripartite treaty signed today, the three of us are to be released into the custody of the Empress immediately!"
Duchess Zhu Wanyue looked through the iron bars at the aging, disheveled man who had been her husband for over two decades.
There was no warmth in her eyes. There was no pity, no hesitation, and not even a shred of awkwardness. Instead, looking at Duke Zhu Zhenhong after spending months experiencing the heaven-defying ecstasy, vitality, and absolute dominance of Zhang Tian's bedchamber, Zhu Wanyue felt only a bone-deep disgust that she had ever wasted twenty-five years of her life married to such a weak, arrogant, impotent old fool!
Without saying a single word to Duke Zhu Zhenhong, Duchess Zhu Wanyue—and right beside her, the reigning Empress of the Star Luo Empire, Zhu Leihua—turned toward Zhang Tian, lifted the hems of their floor-length silk gowns slightly, and dropped gracefully to their knees on either side of Zhu Zhuyun!
The mother and the aunt knelt side by side with the eldest daughter at Zhang Tian's boots, lowering their noble heads until their foreheads lightly kissed the cold stone floor in front of his toes!
"Master," Duchess Zhu Wanyue and Empress Zhu Leihua spoke in soft, reverent unison, their mature, melodious voices trembling with deep submission and fanatical devotion. "Your two lowly Servants await your command."
Silence.
A silence so heavy, so suffocating, and so sanity-shattering dropped over the subterranean rotunda that only the soft crackling of the wall torches could be heard.
In the first cage, Duke Zhu Zhenhong stood frozen like a stone statue, his eyes bulging so violently from their sockets that the tiny blood vessels in his scleras burst into red webs!
In the second and third cages, Dai Weisi and Dai Mubai stared at the kneeling figure of Empress Zhu Leihua—the supreme, untouchable Imperial Mother of the Star Luo Empire—pressing her forehead near Zhang Tian's boots and calling him Master, and their brains simply short-circuited!
"What... what are you doing, Wanyue?!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong's voice came out as a high-pitched, strangled squeak, his entire body shaking like a leaf in a hurricane as he gripped the iron bars until his fingernails tore and bled. "Get up! You are the Duchess of the Zhu Family! And Your Majesty... you are the Empress of the Star Luo Empire, the wife of Emperor Dai Tianxiong! Why are the two of you kneeling at that young bastard's feet alongside Zhuyun and calling yourselves his servants?!"
Zhang Tian looked down at the three kneeling women of the Zhu Clan—the mother, the aunt, and the eldest daughter—before looking back up at Duke Zhu Zhenhong with a leisurely, mocking smile.
"Why are they kneeling, Lord Duke?" Zhang Tian asked conversationally, resting his hands behind his back as he strolled two steps closer to Duke Zhu Zhenhong's cage. "Because just like your eldest daughter Zhuyun, both your virtuous wife Wanyue and your respected sister-in-law Empress Leihua have long since become my thoroughly obedient, devoted sluts."
BOOOOOOM!
Those calm, casual words exploded inside Duke Zhu Zhenhong, Dai Weisi, and Dai Mubai's heads like a Heaven Rending Cannon detonating at point-blank range!
"You lie!! You are lying, Zhang Tian!!" Duke Zhu Zhenhong shrieked at the top of his lungs, spittle flying from his lips as madness flickered in his eyes. "Wanyue is my wife! She has been faithful to me for twenty-five years! And Empress Leihua was in secluded cultivation in the inner palace! How could they possibly—!"
"Faithful to you?"
Duchess Zhu Wanyue lifted her head from the stone platform, cutting off her former husband's hysterical screaming with a cold, disdainful laugh. Her cheeks were flushed with a charming, seductive glow as she leaned her shoulder lightly against Zhang Tian's calf, looking at Duke Zhu Zhenhong as if he were a pathetic clown.
"Zhu Zhenhong, let me wake you up from your pathetic dream," Duchess Zhu Wanyue spoke clearly, her mature voice echoing into every corner of the dungeon. "Do you remember a few months before the war started, when Master came to our Zhu Family estate in person?"
Duke Zhu Zhenhong froze, his breathing ragged. "That day... yes…I remember he came to the mansion after he suppressed us with his strange ability...But I don't recall him doing anything to you…"
"Recall anything? You?" Zhu Wanyue laughed aloud, shaking her head with open mockery. "Well…Let me tell you…That night, Master walked into my private courtyard and took me right upon my bed!"
Duke Zhu Zhenhong's knees buckled as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to his spine!
"No... impossible..." he choked out, clutching his chest as a sharp, tearing pain seized his heart.
"Not only did Master conquer me on my bed that night, Zhu Zhenhong, he showed me that for twenty-five years with you, I had never once known what it meant to truly be a woman!" Zhu Wanyue continued mercilessly, her eyes shining with shameless pride and obsession as she looked up at Zhang Tian. "Compared to Master's magnificent body and his divine vital essence that made me climax until I fainted and pushed my cultivation straight through my many years long bottleneck, a quick, useless old man like you is repulsive to even think about! That very night, I crawled at Master's feet alongside my daughters and begged to become his lowly slave! In fact, in Master's bedchamber, Zhuyun, Zhuqing, and I have served Master together as a mother-and-daughter pair more times than you can count!"
Pfft—!
Hearing his wedded wife of twenty-five years openly brag about being conquered on his own marital bed, mocking his manhood, and happily serving Zhang Tian in a mother-and-daughter threesome with his own eldest daughter, Duke Zhu Zhenhong couldn't take the stimulation anymore! A massive mouthful of dark red blood sprayed violently from his mouth across the iron bars as he collapsed onto his knees, his eyes rolling wildly in his head!
Yet, the nightmare wasn't over!
Beside Zhu Wanyue, Empress Zhu Leihua gracefully raised her head, her regal, mature face carrying a submissive, deeply infatuated smile that made Dai Weisi and Dai Mubai feel as though the sky of the Star Luo Empire had literally collapsed on top of them.
"And as for the two of you, Dai Weisi, Dai Mubai... and my dear brother-in-law," Empress Zhu Leihua spoke, her melodious voice—which had just commanded the fealty of every sect in the Supreme Radiant Hall two hours ago—dripping with utter contempt for the men in the cages. "You actually thought I was in secluded cultivation during the war? And you thought I signed the treaty today to secretly rescue the White Tiger lineage?"
Empress Zhu Leihua let out a soft, scornful laugh, reaching out a delicate hand to lovingly smooth the hem of Zhang Tian's dark-gold robe.
"Weeks before your foolish father Dai Tianxiong even marched his army to the northern border, my sister Wanyue and my niece Zhuyun helped Master abduct me away from this Star Luo Empire," Empress Zhu Leihua revealed calmly, shattering the last pillar of royal dignity the two princes possessed. "Then…Master thoroughly broke my pride and claimed my body! Do you know where I was during the entire war? I was kept in a secret mansion in Crimson Zenith City, wearing nothing at all, spending every waking hour learning how to kneel and please Master with my mouth and my body like an obedient bitch!"
"No... NO!! Imperial Mother, stop talking!! You are the Empress of the Star Luo Empire!!" Dai Mubai howled, tearing at his blond hair with both shackled hands as tears of sheer humiliation and rage streamed down his bruised face.
"The Empress?" Zhu Leihua sneered at Dai Mubai and Dai Weisi. "The only reason I put this annoying crown back on my head today and sat on that Obsidian Throne was because Master ordered me to act as his puppet to keep the civilian populace quiet! Just two hours ago, right after the ceremony ended, I handed every single treasury key, military seal, and administrative power of the Star Luo Empire directly into Master's hands! And right before Master brought us down to this filthy dungeon to laugh at you... Zhuyun and I were kneeling naked on the carpet of the royal bedchamber upstairs, fighting over who got to swallow Master's seed!"
"BLAAAARGH—!"
In the leftmost cage, Duke Zhu Zhenhong let out a gurgling, animalistic shriek as a second, even larger fountain of dark blood erupted from his mouth!
His daughters—his prized jewels of the Zhu Clan!
His wedded wife of twenty-five years!
His sister-in-law, the supreme Empress of the entire Star Luo Empire!
Every single woman of the Zhu Family bloodline—three entire generations of the most noble, untouchable women in the southern empire—had been completely conquered body and soul by Zhang Tian! Not only had they helped Zhang Tian destroy the Star Luo Empire and his dukedom from the inside out, they were standing right in front of his cage proudly bragging about kneeling together as Zhang Tian's obedient sluts!
Duke Zhu Zhenhong slumped forward against the iron bars, his fingers spasming as blood foamed from his lips, his mind teetering on the ragged edge of total insanity, unable to form a single coherent word through his sobs of rage and despair.
Beside him, Dai Weisi and Dai Mubai were in no better state. Both royal princes of the proud White Tiger lineage were slumped on the floor of their cages like broken puppets, their faces buried in their hands as they wept and cursed in utter, crushing psychological defeat. Every hope of royal amnesty, every shred of imperial pride, and every fantasy of reclaiming their fiancées had been ground into filthy mud right before their eyes!
Standing on the raised stone platform, Zhang Tian looked down at the three ruined nobles with calm satisfaction, gently stroking Zhu Zhuqing's soft hand at his side while Zhu Wanyue, Zhu Leihua, and Zhu Zhuyun knelt dutifully at his boots.
Then, slowly, Zhang Tian turned his head toward the fourth and final cage on the far right.
Inside that fourth cage, Yu Xiaogang was pressed flat against the back stone wall, his face as white as funeral paper and his entire body trembling so violently that his teeth chattered aloud in the quiet dungeon.
Watching the noble Duchess and the reigning Empress of the Star Luo Empire drop to their knees and reveal themselves as Zhang Tian's fanatical, degraded toys had scared Yu Xiaogang half to death!
Yet, as Zhang Tian's icy blue eyes locked onto him, and then shifted toward the fifth and final veiled woman standing silently on the far right of the platform—a tall, fiery-auraed woman whose figure Yu Xiaogang had loved and pined after for twenty long years—Yu Xiaogang swallowed hard, his eyes widening with desperate, frantic terror as he clung with all his might to his very last delusion.
"Er... Erlong..." Yu Xiaogang stammered, his voice shaking pitifully through the iron bars as he stared at the fifth veiled woman. "Erlong, you are not like those shameless aristocratic women of the Star Luo Empire! Tell him! Tell this demon that you only captured me on the battlefield to save my life! Tell him that your heart still belongs to me!"
Zhang Tian looked at the trembling Grandmaster in the cage, and then glanced sideways at the silent, veiled figure of Liu Erlong.
A cold, deeply entertaining smile curved Zhang Tian's lips as he prepared to pull down the final pillar of Yu Xiaogang's pathetic life.
"Erlong," Zhang Tian said softly. "Take off your veil. It seems our great Grandmaster still thinks you are here to stage a romantic prison break for him."