A groan of genuine agony tore from his throat as he stumbled backward, his perfect physique trembling with pain that seemed to radiate from deep within his skull.

The white bedsheet he'd been using to maintain some modesty slipped from his shoulders and pooled at his feet, leaving him completely naked as he doubled over in apparent torment.

"Blood..." he gasped, his voice thick with anguish that made both women freeze in alarm. "Golden blood... everywhere... those traitors..."

Akane's breath caught in her throat as his words painted a scene she knew all too well.

The throne room. The moment of betrayal. Her beloved's final moments as his own brother's blade found its mark.

"The crown..." Tianlong continued, his voice breaking with emotion that seemed to come from the depths of his soul. "It should have been... why did he... brother, why?"

His legs gave out completely, sending him crashing to his knees in the dirt as golden tears—actual golden tears—began streaming down his face.

Yu Xiang immediately dropped beside him, her hands frantically checking for injuries, for any sign of what might be causing his breakdown.

But Akane stood frozen, her own eyes filling with silver tears as she stared at the naked man writhing in apparent spiritual agony.

Those words. That anguish. The way his voice cracked on 'brother'—exactly the way her prince's voice had broken when he'd spoken of Armidian's growing ambition.

"N-no... How is this even possible." Akane's golden eyes remained fixed on Tianlong's trembling form, her mind racing through calculations that felt increasingly impossible.

Her hands clenched at her sides as spiritual energy coursed through her body, every instinct screaming contradictory messages.

'How could this be possible?'

No one in the lower realm should know those details. The exact words her beloved had spoken in his final moments, the specific way his voice had broken when speaking of his brother's betrayal. Those memories were hers alone, carved into her soul through millennia of grief.

Yet here was this foreign man, this Emperor from a distant dynasty, speaking words that made her ancient heart bleed with recognition.

Either her love was blinding her to obvious deception, or she was witnessing something that defied every law of cultivation she understood.

Akane closed her eyes, drawing in a shuddering breath as she tried to center herself. When she opened them again, her golden gaze moved with clinical precision over Tianlong's naked form, searching for any detail that might confirm or deny the impossible.

His build was wrong—too broad, too perfectly sculpted, like some artist's idealized vision of masculine beauty. Her prince had been leaner, more elegant, with the refined features of royal breeding.

But those tears...

Golden tears that carried the unmistakable spiritual signature of fox royalty, impossible for anyone outside the bloodline to produce.

'I need to be certain.'

Moving with the fluid grace of centuries of cultivation, Akane approached the kneeling man. Her hand lifted toward his forehead, fingers trembling slightly as she prepared to use a soul-reading technique that would reveal the truth.

But she halted mid-motion as Tianlong suddenly reached out, his arms wrapping around Yu Xiang's waist as he pulled the human woman against his chest with desperate need.

The sight hit Akane like a physical blow.

Her beloved prince—if this truly was him—embracing another woman while completely naked, his face buried against her neck with intimate familiarity that spoke of countless such moments.

"No..." The word escaped her lips as barely a whisper, but the pain in her voice was unmistakable.

The wrongness of it, the complete violation of everything she remembered about her prince's honor and dignity, made her heart clench with agony. Her husband had been nobility personified, someone who would never display such crude behavior, especially not in front of others.

This was not how the man she loved would act.

Yet the way he clung to the human woman, the desperate vulnerability in his posture, triggered protective instincts that had nothing to do with logic.

'The other tribe members cannot see this.'

Without conscious thought, Akane's nine tails spread wide as she channeled her qi manipulation abilities. Invisible spiritual threads wrapped around both figures, lifting them gently from the ground as she guided them toward the nearest hut with practiced precision.

The door swung open at her will, and she settled them inside with the same care she might use handling precious, fragile artifacts.

Only once the privacy barrier was in place did she allow herself to truly observe what she was seeing.

Tianlong landed softly on the simple wooden floor, his naked form still trembling with the aftershocks of whatever spiritual pain had overwhelmed him. But as his crimson-gold eyes focused on Akane's face, his lips parted with a single word that changed everything.

"Akane..."

Her entire body flinched as if struck by lightning.

Not 'Lady Akane' or 'Fox Matriarch' or any of the formal titles befitting her station. Just her name, spoken with the same gentle familiarity that had once made her heart race in the upper realm's moonlit gardens.

Tianlong grabbed his head again, fingers digging into his scalp as if trying to physically pull memories from his skull.

"This name..." he gasped, his voice thick with confusion and growing recognition. "Yes... it was me. That name—it's 'my' name."

The words hit Akane with the force of a spiritual technique.

Her composure shattered completely as she abandoned all pretense of caution. Moving with desperate urgency, she dropped to her knees beside him, her hands reaching for his face with trembling fingers.

"Yes, yes!" she whispered, her voice breaking with hope and desperate need. "You are—you remember! Can you remember more? Please, try to remember more!"

Her palms cupped his cheeks with the reverence of someone touching the most precious treasure in existence, golden eyes searching his face for any flicker of the recognition she craved.

But Tianlong's reaction was not what she expected.

His hands moved to hers, gently but firmly removing her touch from his face as he pulled back with obvious discomfort.

"Please, lady," he said, his voice carrying polite but definite rejection. "Have some decency. Don't touch me like this."

Akane's world stopped.

The words hit her like a technique aimed directly at her soul, each syllable carving fresh wounds in her heart.

"What?" The question escaped her lips barely above a whisper, but it carried the weight of shattering hopes and devastating confusion.

Her prince had never spoken to her with such cold formality. Even in their most difficult moments, he had always treated her with warmth, with the special affection reserved for his most trusted confidante.

But before she could process the rejection fully, she noticed where his attention had turned.

Tianlong's hand found Yu Xiang's, his fingers intertwining with hers in a gesture of obvious intimacy and comfort. His entire demeanor shifted as he looked at the human woman, his expression softening with genuine affection.

The sight made Akane's vision blur with fury.

Clenching her jaw so hard her teeth ached, she turned her golden gaze on Yu Xiang with barely contained killing intent.

"What the hell did you do to him?" The question came out sharp as a blade, though she kept her spiritual pressure carefully controlled to avoid damaging his fragile state.

Yu Xiang met her glare with surprising boldness, lifting her chin in defiant challenge.

"I already told you," she said with the confidence of someone stating obvious truth. "I am his soon-to-be wife."

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