"Indeed! Quite the celebration it will be. Well, I must continue my duties. Good day, miss!" And with that, he resumed his paper-scattering and flew off.

Yu Xiang remained floating in the air for a moment, staring down at the paper in her hands with new eyes. Around her, the air continued to shimmer with falling announcements, creating an almost magical atmosphere.

Four wives...

Despite herself, despite her anger at being manipulated, she felt something stir in her chest. Something she hadn't expected.

Envy.

What woman hadn't dreamed of a wedding so grand that the entire world would witness it? A celebration so magnificent that even decades later, people would speak of it in hushed, reverent tones?

And this... this was beyond even the wildest fantasies. An entire empire invited. Papers falling like blessed snow to announce the union.

This is what an Emperor's wedding should be.

Her fingers tightened on the announcement as she slowly descended back to the ground, landing near where Chen waited. The golden lettering seemed to mock her with its elegance, its casual display of absolute power and authority.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Chen approaching until he roughly yanked the paper from her hands.

"Let me see that," he demanded, his bronze eyes scanning the text rapidly.

Yu Xiang watched his expression change from curiosity to shock to outrage in the span of seconds.

The crumpled wedding announcement trembled in Chen's white-knuckled grip as his bronze eyes scanned the golden text again and again, as if reading it repeatedly would somehow change the words burning into his retinas.

Imperial Wedding Decree By Order of His Majesty Emperor Tianlong

Let it be known throughout the realm that Emperor Tianlong shall wed four beloved wives in a grand ceremony:

- Lady Mei Ling, the Nature's Heart

- Lady Lin Yue, the Crimson Archer

- Lady Feng Lianhua, the Ice Queen Elder

- Lady Zhao Meilian, the Silver Moon Divine

All subjects of the Empire are cordially invited to witness this blessed union...

"ZHAO MEILIAN!" Chen's roar shattered the peaceful afternoon air, his voice cracking with a mixture of rage and disbelief that made nearby trees shudder from the sheer force of his qi-enhanced scream.

Yu Xiang took an involuntary step backward, her violet eyes widening as she witnessed something she'd never seen before - Zhao Chen completely losing control.

Gone was the arrogant young master, the confident "Son of Heaven."

In his place stood a broken man whose entire world had just collapsed.

"That... that BASTARD!" Chen's cultivation base erupted outward in chaotic waves, his early Core Formation qi lashing out like a wounded beast. "He took my mother! He fucking took my MOTHER!"

The wedding announcement burst into flames in his hands, the expensive parchment reduced to ash in seconds as his uncontrolled energy consumed it.

But even as the paper burned, the words remained seared into his mind like brands.

Lady Zhao Meilian, the Silver Moon Divine.

His mother. The woman who had vanished on the night of the coup, who he'd spent years believing was dead or captured by enemies. She was alive.

She was alive, and that monster - his own grandfather - was going to marry her.

"I'LL KILL HIM!" Chen screamed again, his voice breaking as tears of pure fury streamed down his face. "I'LL FUCKING KILL THAT SICK BASTARD!"

Zhao Chen's spiritual energy exploded outward in chaotic waves, his body trembling with barely contained fury as he prepared to launch himself skyward.

His bronze eyes blazed with murderous intent, teeth clenched so hard blood trickled from his gums.

"I'll tear that bastard apart!" he snarled, qi gathering around his form like a storm of golden lightning. "I'll make him pay for what he's done to my—"

"STOP!"

Yu Xiang's sharp cry cut through his rage like a blade, her slender fingers wrapping around his wrist with surprising strength. The contact was electric—skin to skin, her grip firm and desperate as she yanked him back from the brink of launching into certain death.

Chen whirled on her, his bronze eyes wild with grief and fury. "Let go of me! I have to—"

"Don't be a fool!" she snapped, her violet eyes blazing with an intensity that matched his own. "He will kill you!"

"What?" Chen blinked, confusion cutting through the red haze of his rage for just a moment.

At that instant, the artifact ring on his finger pulsed with warm, soothing energy. The calming enchantment his hidden master had woven into the jewelry activated automatically, recognizing the dangerous spike in his emotional state.

The golden qi swirling around him began to settle, his breathing slowing as artificial tranquility washed over his mind like cool water on burning coals.

For the first time since grabbing the wedding announcement, Zhao Chen truly noticed Yu Xiang's hand on his wrist. Her fingers were pale and delicate, but her grip was iron-strong, trembling slightly with the effort of holding him back.

'She... she stopped me,' he realized, his rage-clouded mind finally processing what had just happened. 'She's trying to protect me.'

Meanwhile, Yu Xiang's sharp mind was racing through calculations and possibilities, her analytical nature cutting through the emotional chaos to see the larger game being played.

'If this idiot died, things would not end well for me too,' she thought grimly, her grip tightening on Chen's wrist. The pieces were falling into place now, forming a picture she should have seen earlier.

'The Emperor giving me favors... it was simply to make Zhao Chen jealous. And after this wedding announcement where he's marrying his mother—it's clear now. He's just trying to take revenge on this guy.'

Her violet eyes flickered with cold understanding as the full scope of Tianlong's psychological warfare became apparent. She wasn't a person to him—she was a weapon, a tool specifically designed to torment Chen.

'And if I let him go now, the Emperor will naturally kill him. And then my usefulness to him ends.'

The realization sent a chill down her spine. She needed Chen alive, needed him as her ship to keep sailing toward whatever benefits she could extract from this twisted game. Without him, she was nothing more than another pretty cultivator in a world full of them.

Acting on pure survival instinct, Yu Xiang let tears well up in her eyes, her expression shifting into a mask of desperate concern.

"What will happen to me if something happens to you, Zhao Chen?" she asked, her voice breaking with carefully manufactured emotion.

The words hit Chen like a physical blow. His body trembled, the rage draining from his features as her question sank in.

"What?" he whispered, bronze eyes wide with confusion and growing realization.

Yu Xiang glared at him through her tears, her performance flawless as she channeled every ounce of acting ability she possessed.

"What will I do if something happens to you?" she demanded, her voice cracking with apparent anguish. "And doesn't your mother seem to have agreed to this marriage? What if she never cared for you?"

The words were like poisoned daggers, each one finding its mark in Chen's already wounded heart.

Yu Xiang continued, her tears flowing freely now, her outward expression that of someone genuinely caring and desperate but she needed to control this man from destroying her ambitions.

She said:

"Are you going to leave someone who cares for you for someone who doesn't even care about their son all these years?

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