"AMUSING. MORTALS SPEAKING OF IMPOSSIBILITY TO A BEING WHO HAS LIVED SINCE THE REALM'S FOUNDATION."

The amusement in the Frost Wyrm Empress's voice somehow made the pressure even more terrifying.

Elder Liu Tianmeng, the military commander, found himself speaking despite the crushing force—desperation overriding all sense of self-preservation.

"Great Empress!" he wheezed, blood frothing at his lips. "The... the Emperor... he doesn't fight alone! Three women... bonded to him at the soul level! Their power... synchronized! We've never seen anything like it!"

"SPEAK CLEARLY, INSECT. WHAT OF THESE FEMALES?"

Bai Zhengming struggled to raise his head, every word a monumental effort against the cosmic pressure flattening him against the stone floor. "The intelligence reports... Great Empress... he ascended alongside them. They share power somehow. Attacking him alone would be... impossible. The women... they're his source of strength!"

Elder Chen, his face purple from the pressure, managed to gasp out additional details: "One archer... bronze skin... arrows that ignore defensive formations! One plant controller... nature dao beyond mortal limits! And... and Elder Feng Lianhua... she knows all our secrets!"

"INTERESTING."

The word carried the weight of avalanches, but beneath it was something else—calculation, perhaps even approval.

"I ALREADY KNOW THAT THE MALE HAS CLAIMED MULTIPLE BREEDING PARTNERS. PROPER ALPHA BEHAVIOR. BUT THIS COMPLICATES SIMPLE CAPTURE."

In her ethereal corner, Lily's soul fragment recoiled at the casual way this ancient entity discussed the man she... the man her heart still ached for.

'What is a breeding partner?' The crude terminology sent confusion to the soul fragment.

Elder Wu, the formation master, found courage in his expertise despite the crushing force. "Great... Great Empress... even our most powerful binding arrays... designed for single targets. The synchronized power you describe... it would shatter any containment we could create!"

"AND YET," the voice rumbled with terrible patience, "YOU EXPECT TO SERVE ME WITH SUCH LIMITATIONS?"

The pressure increased again, and several more elders collapsed completely, their cultivation bases beginning to crack under the strain.

Stone began to crumble from the ceiling as the mountain itself groaned under the Empress's displeasure.

"Please!" Bai Zhengming screamed, his voice breaking. "We are loyal servants! But this enemy... he's beyond our realm's power! To capture him AND his women simultaneously... it would require resources we don't possess!"

A silence that lasted eons—or perhaps heartbeats—stretched through the shattered council chamber.

Then, when the Frost Wyrm Empress spoke again, her tone had shifted from irritation to cold calculation.

"PERHAPS... YES. A CHALLENGE WORTHY OF MY ATTENTION."

The pressure eased just enough for the elders to breathe without the immediate threat of death, though none dared to move from their prostrate positions.

"VERY WELL. SINCE YOUR LIMITATIONS REQUIRE... ASSISTANCE... I SHALL PROVIDE TOOLS ADEQUATE TO YOUR TASK."

The air began to shimmer with otherworldly energy, reality bending as something vast began to manifest within their broken chamber.

"I BESTOW UPON YOU THE ETERNAL BINDING FORMATION—A CONSTRUCT THAT EXISTED WHEN GODS STILL WALKED THESE REALMS. IT WILL CAPTURE NOT JUST THE MALE, BUT ALL WHO SHARE HIS ESSENCE BONDS."

A complex array of silver light began etching itself into the very stone of the chamber floor, patterns so intricate and powerful that looking directly at them caused several elders to weep blood from their eyes.

"THE FORMATION REQUIRES TWELVE NASCENT SOUL CULTIVATORS TO ACTIVATE, AND WILL DRAIN THEIR LIFE FORCE COMPLETELY. BUT ONCE TRIGGERED, IT WILL BIND YOUR TARGETS AND TRANSPORT THEM DIRECTLY TO MY DOMAIN."

Bai Zhengming stared at the forming array in horror and awe. "Great Empress... the cost... twelve of our elders..."

"THE PRICE OF CAPTURING PREY BEYOND YOUR NATURAL CAPABILITIES." The voice carried no sympathy. "CONSIDER IT AN INVESTMENT IN YOUR SECT'S FUTURE RELEVANCE."

The formation completed itself, silver lines pulsing with power that made the air taste of lightning and frost. The very stones around it began to develop a coating of eternal ice that would never melt.

"WHEN THE FORMATION ACTIVATES, ALL WITHIN ITS INFLUENCE—THE MALE AND HIS BREEDING PARTNERS—WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO MY FROZEN DOMAIN. THERE, SEPARATED FROM THEIR FAMILIAR ENVIRONMENT AND OVERWHELMED BY MY PRESENCE, THEY CAN BE... EVALUATED."

Elder Liu dared to ask the question weighing on all their minds: "And if... if we succeed, Great Empress? What becomes of our sect?"

A sound like the world's end—the Frost Wyrm Empress laughing.

"IF YOU SUCCEED, LITTLE INSECTS, YOU WILL HAVE SERVED A PURPOSE WORTHY OF EXISTENCE. IF YOU FAIL..."

The unfinished threat hung in the air like a death sentence.

"THE FORMATION IS YOURS. USE IT WISELY. YOU WILL HAVE ONE OPPORTUNITY—THE MOMENT THE TARGETS LOWER THEIR GUARD, PERHAPS DURING THEIR MATING RITUALS OR WHEN THEY BELIEVE THEMSELVES SAFE."

The overwhelming presence began to withdraw, though the cosmic pressure remained, keeping all the elders pinned in place.

"DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME, IMMORTAL SECT. YOUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE DEPENDS UPON DELIVERING THIS EMPEROR AND HIS FEMALES TO MY DOMAIN."

As the Frost Wyrm Empress's presence receded to a barely tolerable level, Elder Liu Tianmeng struggled to his knees, his meridians screaming in agony from the cosmic pressure that had nearly shattered his cultivation base entirely.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he looked toward Sect Master Bai Zhengming, who remained prostrate on the cracked stone floor, his usually immaculate robes soaked with cold sweat, and his entire body trembling like a leaf in a hurricane.

"Sect Master," Elder Liu gasped, his voice barely above a whisper, "forgive this subordinate's ignorance, but... what manner of entity have we just... encountered?"

The question hung in the air like a death sentence.

Several other elders who had managed to survive the encounter turned their bloodshot eyes toward their leader, desperate for answers that might help them comprehend the incomprehensible force they had just faced.

Bai Zhengming's hands shook as he slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, his face pale as mountain snow and aged by decades in the span of minutes.

When he spoke, his voice carried the weight of ancient terrors long buried.

"You... you really don't know," he whispered, staring at the pulsing formation with eyes that reflected depths of fear no mortal should possess. "None of you... were present during the Great Sealing, were you?"

Elder Chen, still lying flat against the floor, managed to croak out: "Great Sealing? Sect Master, what are you speaking of?"

A bitter laugh escaped Bai Zhengming's lips—the sound of a man who had seen too much and lived too long. "Then let me tell you a story, my fellow elders. A story of why our sect's true founders fled from the Immortal Realm to establish themselves in this 'safe' lower realm. A story of the Demoness who nearly tore apart the very fabric of the Upper Realms themselves."

The chamber fell into dead silence, broken only by the soft pulsing of silver light and the distant sound of settling rubble.

"Three thousand years ago," Bai Zhengming began, his voice carrying the cadence of a funeral dirge, "there existed in the Immortal Realm a being of such devastating beauty and terrifying power that even the Dao Ancestors spoke her name in whispers. They called her the Empress of Eternal Winter, but those who knew her true nature called her by another name..."

His voice dropped to barely audible levels, forcing the other elders to strain their damaged hearing.

"The Heartbroken Demoness."

Elder Wu's eyes widened despite his injuries. "Sect Master, surely you don't mean—"

"I mean exactly what you think I mean," Bai Zhengming cut him off sharply. "She was no ordinary immortal, no mere beast emperor who had achieved human form. She was something far more dangerous—a female whose love had been her power, and whose loss had become her vengeance."

The sect master struggled to his feet, using the wall for support as he faced the silver formation that now seemed to pulse in rhythm with his words.

"The entity you just encountered, the being who has so casually gifted us with power beyond our comprehension... she is that same Demoness. And the mate she lost, the one whose death drove her to such madness that it took the combined might of every Dao Ancestor in the Upper Realm to contain her..."

Bai Zhengming's voice cracked as he spoke the words that would change everything.

"He called himself the Horny God."

The reaction was immediate and devastating. Elder Liu's newly healed meridians cracked again from the sheer shock.

Elder Chen's cultivation base fluctuated wildly, threatening to destabilize entirely. Elder Wu actually fainted, his consciousness unable to process the implications.

"Wh-who?"

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