Tianlong's eyes met Akane's golden gaze with what appeared to be genuine bewilderment, his naked form swaying slightly as if the effort of standing was taxing his injured body.

"I don't know," he repeated, his voice carrying the hollow confusion of someone grasping at fragments of memory. "Everything is... pieces. Broken glass in my mind."

But Akane wasn't the same weeping, emotional wreck from the night before.

The composed, dangerous fox matriarch had returned—nine tails spread behind her in a display of barely contained power, golden eyes sharp with calculation and growing suspicion as they swept over the scene before her.

Her gaze lingered on how closely Yu Xiang stood beside the naked man, noting the protective way the human woman had positioned herself. The intimacy was obvious, undeniable, and it made something cold twist in Akane's chest.

"Where did you find him?" Her voice cut through the morning air like a blade, each word precisely enunciated as her eyes locked onto Yu Xiang's violet gaze.

Yu Xiang straightened, meeting the fox woman's stare with surprising boldness. She had spent the night preparing for this moment, rehearsing her lies until they felt like truth.

"I already told you," she said with the confidence of someone stating obvious facts. "From that sealed tomb in the eastern ruins. The one with the collapsed guardian formations."

Akane's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I went to that place after treating his wounds. Searched every stone, every broken seal."

The temperature around them seemed to drop several degrees as spiritual pressure began radiating from the fox matriarch. Several lesser fox spirits in the distance whimpered and pressed themselves closer to the ground.

"The place was empty except for ancient bones and scattered cultivation resources. No sign of recent disturbance. No trace of the energies that would indicate someone had been trapped there for millennia."

Yu Xiang's jaw tightened, but she didn't back down. Instead, she moved closer to Tianlong, her hand finding his in a gesture that was both protective and possessive.

"Then maybe you weren't looking hard enough," she said, her voice gaining an edge that made Akane's tails bristle with offense. "Or maybe the seals reformed after we broke them. Ancient formations do that sometimes."

The casual dismissal of her investigation skills hit Akane like a slap. Her golden eyes flashed with dangerous light as she took a step forward, her mature curves moving with predatory grace beneath her silk robes.

"You dare question my abilities, little girl?" The words dripped with centuries of accumulated authority. "I have been hunting through ruins and broken seals since before your great-grandmother was born."

But before the confrontation could escalate further, Yu Xiang's grip on Tianlong's hand tightened visibly, and she said the words that changed everything:

"Stay away from him."

The simple statement carried such fierce possessiveness, such protective instinct, that it made Akane pause mid-step. Her eyes widened slightly as she truly looked at the human woman—really seeing her for the first time.

This wasn't just some random cultivator who had stumbled across a mysterious man in ancient ruins. This was a woman in love, defending what she considered hers with the desperation of someone who had finally found something worth fighting for.

"He belongs with me," Yu Xiang continued, her violet eyes burning with emotion that couldn't be faked. "I don't care what you think you remember, what you think you see. He is mine."

The possessive declaration hit Akane like a physical blow, making her take an involuntary step backward. Her perfect composure cracked for just an instant, revealing a flash of something raw and wounded before her mask slammed back into place.

Yu Xiang's fierce expression seemed to unnerve even her, and she loosened her grip on Tianlong's hand slightly, as if suddenly realizing how tightly she'd been holding him.

But Tianlong's fingers immediately tightened around hers, refusing to let her pull away.

"Please, lady," he said, his voice carrying the confused politeness of someone trying to navigate social situations without full understanding of the context. "I don't even know you properly. From what Xiang told me, you're the one who healed me, saved my life. For that, I'm grateful."

He paused, pressing his free hand to his forehead as if trying to massage away pain that went deeper than physical injury.

"After my soul arrived in this body, there are two sets of memories contradicting each other. I cannot fully remember who I'm supposed to be. Everything feels like looking at the world through someone else's eyes."

Akane's entire body went rigid at his words, golden eyes widening with shock.

"What did you say?" The question escaped her lips barely above a whisper, but it carried the weight of cosmic importance.

The casual way he'd referred to his "soul arriving in this body"—as if discussing the weather rather than describing what sounded like divine reincarnation or soul transference—made her ancient mind race through possibilities she didn't want to consider.

But his face... his face was wrong.

Not her beloved's features, not the sharp cheekbones and aristocratic aura which always made her appreciate him from afar, never daring to get close, a love and devotion at a distance.

This man was handsome certainly, devastatingly so, but he was a stranger wearing unfamiliar flesh.

It should have been easier to remain composed. Should have been simple to dismiss whatever impossible coincidences had brought him here.

Except for his eyes.

Those crimson-gold depths held something that made her chest ache with recognition she couldn't quite name.

"Listen, Lady Akane," Tianlong continued, his words coming out with the careful uncertainty of someone trying to piece together fragments of truth. "I don't know where I am right now, but from memories I have I know this woman. Last thing I remember if not for these strange memories is that I was in a forest."

His stammering delivery, the way he struggled with each word as if testing whether it felt right in his mouth, made Akane study Yu Xiang with renewed intensity.

The human woman was still glaring at her with protective fury, violet eyes blazing with emotions that seemed entirely too genuine for any kind of deception.

"Do you even know who he is?" Akane asked, her voice sharp with challenge as she gestured toward Tianlong's naked form.

Yu Xiang lifted her chin with defiant pride. "He's the Emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty. And my soon-to-be husband."

The words hit Akane like lightning.

Her eyes snapped wide as recognition crashed over her in waves. Emperor. Yan Dynasty. The sketches her daughter Yuki had carried, the intelligence reports, the carefully gathered information about the lower realm's most dangerous rising power.

She had sent Yuki to investigate rumors of an emperor who had somehow gained unprecedented control over major sects, whose cultivation advancement defied natural law, whose very existence threatened the carefully maintained balance between realms.

Her mind instantly began connecting puzzle pieces with the terrifying efficiency of someone who had survived millennia through strategic thinking.

'The Emperor and his concubine went into ruins, only for my husband's soul to possess the Emperor's body?'

The thought was insane. Impossible. Soul transference between different people, across different realms, violating every known law of spiritual cultivation.

But it would explain everything.

The way her subordinates had responded to him with instinctive submission. The golden blood that carried traces of royal fox lineage. The impossible familiarity of his presence despite his foreign appearance.

Her golden eyes widened further as she stared at Tianlong, searching his face for any trace of the man she'd loved and lost.

But before she could voice her growing suspicions, before she could demand answers to questions that might shatter her world, Tianlong suddenly grabbed his head with both hands.

"URGH!"

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