The rough wooden door creaked as Tianlong pushed it open, his bare feet touching the cold earth outside the hut.

The morning sunlight hit his face, making him squint and raise his free hand to shield his crimson-gold eyes.

"Ugh..." he muttered, his voice rough and confused. "Where... where am I?"

His gaze swept across the fox tribe village with genuine bewilderment painted across his features. Curved huts dotted the landscape, their organic shapes blending with the forest around them.

His crimson-gold eyes darted around the fox village with genuine confusion—or what appeared to be genuine confusion.

The Beast Taming Aura did it work perfectly, given he could see fox spirits standing around the village while their faces were turned towards him as if protecting the hut he was in until now.

'System,' he thought, his mental voice sharp with focus despite his outward disorientation, 'Activate the Mask.'

Naturally knowing how difficult it was to maintain his facial expressions in front of someone like that woman, he needed to appear genuinely confused and to do that he needed support of an artifact.

[Advanced Morphing Bracelet partially Activated]

But recalling how much his harem points had bled, it felt like his whole body was bleeding, seeing so many losses which he could not recover any time soon. Just because that woman was master of illusions, he could not fool her using low-grade artifacts. So to purchase divine grades he needed to use so many points that he had farmed throughout his journey here.

The only thing he could hope was that his investment would bear some good fruit.

[Host emotional state will be partially suppressed to maintain character consistency]

The familiar blue interface disappeared as Tianlong allowed his shoulders to slump, his usually confident posture crumbling into something more vulnerable.

He pressed the heel of his palm against his forehead, fingers digging into his scalp as if trying to physically extract memories that refused to surface.

"Where... where am I?" he muttered, his voice carrying the perfect note of lost confusion. "This place... it feels familiar, but..."

Behind him, Yu Xiang emerged from the hut, having quickly dressed in a simple robe she'd found inside.

Yu Xiang emerged from the hut behind him, her violet eyes immediately assessing his performance. Even she had to admit—if she didn't know better, she'd believe his confusion was real. The way his brows furrowed, how his powerful frame seemed diminished by uncertainty, the genuine lost look in his eyes.

'He's really committed to this act,' she thought, impressed despite herself.

"You're awake," she said softly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "How do you feel? You've been unconscious for hours."

Tianlong flinched at her touch, his head snapping toward her with the wariness of a wounded animal.

For a moment, his eyes held no recognition, no familiarity—just the blank confusion of someone who'd lost everything.

"You... I know you, don't I?" His hand moved as he clasped her face, poking her nose, pulling her lips as if trying to annoy her as he searched her face desperately, as if she were the only anchor in a storm of fractured memories. "Your face... it's the only thing that makes sense. But everything else is... repulsive."

He gestured helplessly at the village around them, at the fox spirits who had begun to gather at a respectful distance, their ears twitching with curiosity and concern.

Given how the arrival of Akane was anytime soon possible, he needed to be natural.

"Fragments," he whispered, his voice cracking with manufactured anguish. "I remember fragments. A throne room... golden light... and blood. So much blood. But the faces are all wrong, twisted, like looking at reflections in broken glass."

Yu Xiang's expression softened with what appeared to be genuine sympathy, though Tianlong knew she was likely enjoying the performance as much as he was.

"It's alright," she murmured, moving closer until she could wrap her arms around his trembling form. "We'll figure this out together. Your memories... they might return in time."

'Come on,' Tianlong thought as he leaned into her embrace, allowing his naked body close enough to feel her side boob. 'Are you trying to make me erect?!'

'!'

'Here she comes.' But while he seemed to be enjoying himself, his enhanced senses detected a familiar spiritual signature approaching through the trees.

His muscles tensed involuntarily—not from fear, but from the sheer realization that not only him but even those he loved would die if he messed up here.

The footsteps were light, barely disturbing the fallen leaves, but to his cultivation-enhanced hearing they sounded like thunder.

When Kitsune Akane stepped into the clearing, Tianlong's breath caught in his throat despite himself.

'Fuck me sideways...' The crude thought surfaced unbidden as his eyes took in her appearance with the analytical appreciation of a man who'd spent lifetimes studying female beauty.

She was... devastating.

Not in the youthful, perky way of his wives back home, but with the kind of mature perfection that could drive empires to war. Her silver-white hair cascaded down her back like liquid moonlight, catching the dappled sunlight and throwing it back in prismatic waves.

The elegant bun she'd worn during their first encounter had been abandoned, leaving the silky strands to frame her face in wild disarray that spoke of a sleepless night spent in emotional turmoil.

But it was her body that made his cock twitch with involuntary hunger despite the serious nature of their deception.

This was a MILF in the truest, most devastating sense of the term. Her breasts were absolutely massive—easily the largest he'd encountered, even including his well-endowed wives.

They strained against the silver silk of her robes with the kind of natural weight that defied gravity, creating a cleavage so deep a man could lose himself exploring it.

The fabric clung to every curve, outlining nipples that seemed perpetually erect, begging for attention he desperately wanted to provide.

Her waist pulled in tight despite her mature age, creating an hourglass silhouette that spoke of both feminine softness and underlying strength.

But her hips... her hips flared out in a way that screamed fertility, the kind of breeding curves that triggered every primal instinct he possessed.

Her ass, barely visible beneath the flowing robes, promised handfuls of firm flesh that would clap beautifully under the right circumstances.

Nine magnificent tails swayed behind her with unconscious grace, each one thick enough to wrap around a man's torso, covered in fur so lustrous it seemed to glow with inner light.

They moved with her emotions—currently drooping with exhaustion and barely contained hope.

But it was her face that truly destroyed him.

Classical beauty didn't begin to cover it. High cheekbones, a delicate nose, lips that were full without being obscene—all arranged in proportions that would make sculptors weep with envy.

Her golden eyes, usually sharp with ancient wisdom and authority, were now red-rimmed from crying, the lashes damp and clumped together in a way that made her look heartbreakingly vulnerable.

She looked exhausted, emotionally drained, but underlying the fatigue was a desperate hope so intense it made his chest tighten with unfamiliar guilt.

'Focus, you perverted bastard,' he scolded himself, even as his body responded predictably to the sight of her. 'She's the target, not a quick fuck.'

But then those golden eyes met his, and he saw something that made his chest clench unexpectedly.

"Who are you?" In a firm voice with clear, glaring eyes, Akane inquired.

'!—no wait', Clearly, as he doubted if not for the bracelet, he would have flinched, so emotional at that moment given she just emitted a sharp strange aura that seemed to have created a strange kind of illusion.

But it was cut off by the divine artifact creating similar energy, prompting him to think fast and just mutter, "I don't know."

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