The battlefield was quiet now. Smoke curled in the distance, scorched earth crackled with heat, and the once-golden sky had dimmed under the weight of devastation.
In the center of it all stood Liu Chen, his golden-black eyes gleaming. The Golden Sun Leaf floated quietly behind him, its vibrant aura slowly weakening.
"Tch. The energy is fading," he muttered.
From his storage ring, he pulled out a jade-white container, engraved with runes that shimmered with cold light.
The Sacred Medical Box.
Made from Glacial Jadewood and lined with spatial stabilizing inscriptions, it could preserve a heavenly treasure. But something like the Golden Sun Leaf if can save for only one incense stick of time. Any longer, and its medicinal potency would begin to bleed away.
With a flick of his wrist, Liu Chen gently guided the leaf inside. A click sounded as the lid sealed shut. A faint mist of spiritual fog emerged from the edges of the box.
"I'll need to refine this within the hour," he said, eyes narrowing.
But then, a groan.
Behind a half-crushed boulder, Cai Lin stirred. Her scaled skin had cracks; blood dried across her lips and collar. Her snake-goddess illusion had long vanished, and her spirit energy was in chaos. Yet despite that, her breathing had already started to steady.
Liu Chen walked toward her.
She looked up weakly, green pupils narrowing. "So... you're going to finish it?"
"No," Liu Chen replied, crouching beside her. He looked at her face, streaked with grime and blood. Yet even in such a broken state, there was a wild, seductive beauty that clung to her like a curse.
"You're healing," he observed.
She scoffed, coughing blood. "Beast blood. Our recovery is faster than you fragile humans."
Liu Chen smiled faintly. "I know."
He reached out slowly, his fingers brushing a strand of blood-stuck hair from her cheek. Her body tensed—but she couldn't move.
"You're wondering why I spared you."
Her throat moved slightly.
"There are two reasons."
He let his hand linger just a little too long on her cheek before pulling away, standing straight again, looking into the sky.
"The first is strategic. I've killed enough today. But to rule this world, to reach the alex of Dao. But how could I reach that easily, I won't do it alone."
He looked back down at her.
"I'll need swords. Shields. Brains. Loyalty. Bloodlines. And sometimes... I'll need monsters."
Cai Lin blinked slowly, her body struggling to keep up with his words. To make his ambition to rule the world. This man either mad or some kind of freak genius.
"You are one."
He turned and looked at her whole form—her slender waist, the hint of scaled patterns still fading along her arms, and her tightly-bound battle robe stained in dark green.
"And my soul... saw what even your tribe doesn't know."
He tapped his forehead gently.
"It saw an echo of something ancient inside you—a noble serpent bloodline, long diluted, barely traceable. But it's there."
Her eyes widened.
"Liar. If I had something like that... my clan would've known."
"They can't see it. They don't have eyes for precious treasure...," Liu Chen said flatly. "But I do."
He knelt beside her again. When he first reach this place to behind Golden Sun Leaf. He see Cai Lin first time, his golden soul echoes some voices. That tell him that she had extraordinary bloodline traces in her body, but hardly. If she was to awake that ancient bloodline to full extension, she had to at least reach Immortal Emperor realm. And that was also when she had extraordinary talent. If she reach that level whe her talent will already exhaust, she can't even awake some traces of the mysterious bloodline.
"That bloodline... if awakened, it could shake the balance of the continent. Perhaps even rival the ancient divine beasts. But you're too weak now. If I killed you, I'd be killing an uncut jewel."
He leaned closer. "So I'll keep you. For now."
His finger glowed gold as he pressed it lightly between her brows.
She gasped. "What are you—?!"
"The second reason," Liu Chen said quietly, his breath warm against her cheek, "is personal."
He let his hand trace the curve of her jaw. Her skin, though bruised, held a strange softness under his touch. He was young in his past life... and I am still young now. And now there's a beautiful snake girl with such alluring state, how could his male blood doesn't react.
"Even cultivators have desires. And you... are tempting."
Cai Lin's face flushed—not with embarrassment, but rage. "You—!"
But she couldn't finish. Because her body trembled as golden light flooded into her soul sea.
"No... what are you doing?!"
Liu Chen's eyes glowed brighter. "Placing a Slave Seal."
It was a terrifying thing—ancient, forbidden in many sects, but powerful. The Slave Seal was a spiritual imprint that tied life and death to the master's will. At a thought, she could be erased from existence.
A part of Cai Lin screamed to resist—but the seal was already taking hold. Liu Chen's golden soul was not one that could be opposed.
"Stop! My clan—"
"Won't save you," he said coldly. "This seal can't be broken even by an Immortal Emperor. Not unless they sacrifice you in the process."
Her body froze.
"I will give you a piece of advice. Don't try to taste limits of my slave seal, if you don't want your soul sea to shatter in fragments.You belong to me now."
He stood once again, eyes calm.
"Consider this mercy. You live. You have a chance. Become someone worthy, and you may earn more than chains. Fail... and I snap my fingers."
He looked once more at her form, her torn robe revealing curves that would have made any mortal man fall.
He didn't act.
But the fire in his eyes was real.
"Rest for half an hour, then go to the work. You still have to guard this place when I refine this Golden Sun Leaf" he said.
Then turned, and walked into the crimson forest. But before he could go in, a clear voice sound behind him.
"Who are you?" Its Cai Lin who wants to ask the identity of this mysterious young boy. After all who has the physique of "God and Demon Body" and power to make her to his slave, young maiden of Heavenly Python Tribe.
"Liu Chen, young master of Ancient Liu Clan." She is already his side, so it was not problem to tell about his identity. It would even more convincing to submit her with his identity of Young master of Ancient Liu Clan.
Behind him, the sun hung low—its golden light now burning red.
And Cai Lin, bruised and shivering, looked at his back with a mixture of rage, shame... and something unspoken.