Venom, Ice and Fire.
The air was thick with the scent of burnt herbs and sweet corruption. Haaron stood beneath the shattered archway of the ruined alchemist's sanctum, staring at the woman who'd just claimed him with a kiss as fierce as battle.
Mei Lin—rogue cultivator, venom mistress, and now… another soul drawn into the gravity of his dominion.
"I don't want a slow initiation," she said, eyes dark and glowing. "I want to feel everything. The fire, the pull… your control."
Haaron stepped forward, his voice like silk laced with command. "Then strip."
She obeyed.
Her fingers made quick work of the straps and buckles holding her leather armor in place. Bit by bit, her pale skin was revealed—smooth, flawless, flushed with want. Scars from old alchemy burns kissed her thighs and hipbones, but she carried them with pride.
When she stood fully bare beneath the flickering alchemy flame, she raised her chin. "Is this what your women look like before you brand them?"
He stepped closer and wrapped a hand around her throat—not hard, just enough to make her breath catch. "No. You're filthier. And I like that."
She gasped as he pulled her to him, his other hand grabbing a handful of her hair, pulling her head back. His mouth claimed hers in a kiss that was nothing like before—no tenderness, no testing. Just raw domination.
Her knees buckled.
He caught her, lifted her, and slammed her back against a smooth stone table still etched with alchemy diagrams. Her legs wrapped around his waist instinctively, the contact of their bodies enough to make her moan aloud.
"Haaron…" she breathed, biting his lip.
He tore his robe open, releasing his hardened length, and pressed the thick tip between her folds—slowly, letting her feel the heat of it, the weight, the power.
"Beg," he said.
"Please," she whispered, trembling. "Poison me with you."
He pushed inside in one brutal thrust.
She screamed.
But it wasn't pain—it was overwhelming pleasure.
His shaft stretched her wide, filled her to the brink, and her walls clenched around him like they wanted to swallow him whole. Venomous qi exploded from her core, but Haaron absorbed it, converted it into pleasure, and shoved it back into her through the Sutra.
Each thrust was punishing.
Her breasts bounced with every impact. Her fingers scratched at the table's edge, her moans rising in pitch as her mind unraveled.
"You feel that?" he growled, slamming deeper. "That's me. Claiming you. Marking you."
"Yes! Gods, yes!"
He angled his hips, hitting the spot that made her scream again. Her legs locked tight, her nails raking down his back. His rhythm never faltered—deep, rough, steady. His hand slid between their bodies, rubbing her swollen clit as she shattered beneath him.
Her orgasm hit like venom through the bloodstream—violent, twitching, loud.
She sobbed his name as her qi exploded into his.
And the Sutra flared.
Another node bound, another woman claimed.
Haaron came deep inside her, filling her womb with heat and power. Mei Lin collapsed beneath him, her entire body trembling.
"You're mine now," he said, panting. "No antidote."
She smiled weakly. "Never wanted one."
Far above the ruined sanctum, on the snow-drenched cliffs of Verdant Flame Sect, Yue Shilan gasped.
Not from training, not from danger, but from the bond forming.
It struck her like lightning. The Sutra pulsed. A new connection. A third soul binding to Haaron.
She felt it. Felt them, felt the moment he entered Mei Lin.
Felt the orgasm tear through her, felt Haaron's energy deepen.
She collapsed to her knees, hand over her chest, gasping for air.
"Another one… another woman… another piece of him that's not mine."
She tried to suppress it. To meditate. To ice her emotions, but the Sutra made it impossible.
She felt his passion, his power, his possessiveness as he claimed someone else—while she sat alone, untouched, aching.
Why do I care so much?
She had known him for days. Kissed him once.
And yet… She wanted to scream, She wanted to cry.
She wanted to walk into that sanctum and tear Mei Lin off him—
Or take her place.
Elsewhere, banners unfurled in the wind. Crimson armor glinted under sunlight as rows of Iron Wyrm Alliance warriors gathered on the border of Verdant Flame territory.
Gao Yun, now walking with a cane, stood at the head, flanked by Elders in Late Nascent Soul Realm and war-trained disciples armed with suppression talismans.
"There he is," Gao snarled, pointing to the ridge where Haaron's spiritual imprint lingered. "That's where the bastard broke me. And that's where we'll burn him alive."
"We don't just want him," Elder Zhao said coldly. "We want the women too. All three."
"Claim them for the Alliance?"
"Dissect them first. Figure out how their harem-linked cultivation works. Then we'll see if they're worth keeping."
The army marched.
Hours later, Haaron sat on the grass with Mei Lin's head in his lap. She dozed lightly, a faint smile still on her lips, her body still glowing from the Sutra's completion.
Lian Rou sharpened a blade nearby, humming.
Then Haaron's senses flared.
Qi—hundreds of signatures—approaching fast.
He stood slowly, eyes narrowing. "They're coming."
"Who?" Lian asked, already rising to her feet.
"The Alliance."
He rolled his shoulders. The spiritual nodes within him burned to life—Rou's charm, Shilan's ice, Mei Lin's venom. They flowed through him like a storm waiting to be unleashed.
He looked down at Mei Lin,then up at the sky.
And smiled.
"Let them come."