Chapter 466: The Frozen Pass & General Cui Hao's Elevation

Thick, swirling clouds of glowing silver-blue mist rose from the wide subterranean spirit bath beneath the private estate, filling the vaulted crystal chamber with the rich, heady fragrance of aged spirit-sandalwood and concentrated Earth-Heart Spirit Marrow.

Outside and five hundred feet above the bedrock of Azure Fall City, the wooden prison-carriage carrying the disgraced First Prince Huang Wei was barely three miles down the snowy western highway. Down here in the warm, eighty-degree sanctuary carved directly over the ancient spirit vein, the bitter mid-winter gale did not exist.

Archmage Alaric Steele leaned his broad, muscular back against the smooth blue-gold crystal ledge of the steaming pool, the glowing water lapping around his waist.

In front of him, the water rippled as Imperial Consort Xian Zhao Mengxue, Imperial Consort Shu Su Xianye, and Noble Consort Cui Yulan stepped down the carved crystal stairs into the bath together, having shed their heavy court brocades, fur cloaks, and the newly awarded Golden Tiger-Tally in the dressing alcove above.

They were not alone in the subterranean bathhouse tonight.

Waiting side by side in the warm, waist-deep spirit water along the left and right curves of the pool were the other peerless beauties of Alaric’s inner household who had spent the past weeks orchestrating the takeover of the eastern border: Grand Elder Yun Lan of the Frozen Cloud Asgard, Queen Cai Wei of the Tagor Desert, Saintess Ceanna Paxton, Archmage Lilliana Valtor, Guildmaster Lin Ruoli of the Jade Serpent Merchant Organization, Chief Auctioneer Ya Su of the Gilded Lotus Auction House, Fallen Fairy Mu Qing, and Princess Hai Lan.

Every single woman in the glowing crystal pool was completely naked, their wet, porcelain skin glistening with droplets of liquid spirit-energy in the soft amber glow of the floating lanterns.

“You told us on the city wall that we were overdue for an inspection, Master,” Cui Yulan murmured, a hot crimson blush spreading across her fair cheeks and down her neck as she waded through the warm water toward Alaric’s chest.

Despite holding supreme command over seventy thousand border soldiers above ground, down in this steaming pool beside her sisters, Cui Yulan’s silver eyes shone with shy, eager submission. As she stepped closer, her massive, heavy breasts buoyed slightly on the surface of the spirit-water, the rosy nipples stiff and beaded above the steaming ripples, while her narrow waist and wide, curvy hips swayed with each step.

“An inspection should be thorough,” Alaric said, his deep baritone echoing softly off the crystal walls as he reached out with both hands, gripped Cui Yulan by her narrow waist, and lifted her effortlessly up until she was sitting perched on the warm crystal rim of the pool with her long, wet legs spread wide on either side of his shoulders.

Before Cui Yulan could even catch her breath, Alaric turned his gaze toward the other side of the pool where Grand Elder Yun Lan, Queen Cai Wei, Lin Ruoli, and Ya Su were watching with dark, lust-filled eyes.

“The three consorts have had my lap to themselves for two nights running,” Alaric said with a lazy, wicked smile, running his palms up Cui Yulan’s wet thighs to cup her bare, round buttocks on the stone ledge. “Yun Lan, Cai Wei, Ceanna, Ruoli, Ya Su—get over here. Whoever makes my cock happiest before the water cools gets the center of the bed tonight.”

A chorus of soft, breathless gasps and sultry giggles rippled across the pool.

Grand Elder Yun Lan—whose snow-white skin and cool, icy beauty contrasted fiercely with the needy heat in her eyes—moved through the water faster than anyone, reaching Alaric’s right side at the exact same moment Queen Cai Wei glided up to his left!

“Master has barely touched my chest for three days while we were locking down the five noble clans,” Queen Cai Wei purred huskily, pressing her huge, wet breasts flush against Alaric’s left arm while her slender hand reached beneath the glowing water to wrap around the thick, rock-hard shaft rising from his groin.

“You had him in the cellar four nights ago, Cai Wei,” Grand Elder Yun Lan countered, her usual aloof dignity as the revered elder of the Frozen Cloud Asgard nowhere to be seen as she leaned in and pressed her own massive, buoyant breasts against Alaric’s chest, tilting her chin up to offer her soft red lips to his mouth. “Tonight it is my turn first.”

Alaric laughed against Yun Lan’s lips, capturing her mouth in a deep, fiery kiss while his right hand slid down through the warm water to cup her plump, round ass, pulling her soft pelvis tight against his hip.

As he kissed Yun Lan, Alaric turned his head back toward Cui Yulan sitting perched on the crystal ledge right in front of his face. He buried his face directly between Cui Yulan’s spread thighs, running his hot tongue flat up the center of her soaking-wet, pink folds!

“Ahhh—! Master!” Cui Yulan cried out, her back arching off the crystal wall and her fingers tangling in Alaric’s dark hair as his tongue flicked and sucked ruthlessly at her swollen clit while two of his fingers plunged deep into her tight, spasming pussy.

Below the surface of the steaming water, Queen Cai Wei and Saintess Ceanna Paxton knelt down in the shallow crystal steps between Alaric’s legs—holding their breath effortlessly with their high-tier cultivation as both women pressed their soft, wet breasts together around Alaric’s throbbing shaft and took turns kissing, licking, and sucking the swollen purple head from beneath the water!

“Mmph…” Alaric groaned against Cui Yulan’s dripping slit as he felt Ceanna Paxton’s warm, worshipful throat swallow half his length under the water while Cai Wei’s slick tongue swirled around the base and his testicles.

Standing right behind Cui Yulan on the crystal ledge, Zhao Mengxue and Su Xianye knelt down to hold Cui Yulan’s trembling shoulders, pressing their own massive breasts against her back while leaning down to kiss and suck on Cui Yulan’s heaving nipples as Alaric’s tongue drove her to a screaming, shivering climax on his face!

Pulling Ceanna Paxton and Cai Wei up from the water with a splash of glowing droplets, Alaric lifted Grand Elder Yun Lan by her firm, round buttocks and impaled her wet, tight pussy straight down onto his rock-hard cock right there in the warm pool!

“Ohhh! Master!” Yun Lan moaned aloud, her head dropping back and her wet dark hair clinging to her pale shoulders as her tight inner walls stretched and clamped fiercely around his thick shaft.

Alaric gripped Yun Lan’s narrow waist with one hand and cupped her heavy, bouncing right breast with the other, driving his hips upward beneath the water with rapid, powerful strokes that sent waves slapping against the edges of the pool.

Next to them, Archmage Lilliana Valtor, Guildmaster Lin Ruoli, Chief Auctioneer Ya Su, Fallen Fairy Mu Qing, and Princess Hai Lan pressed their wet, naked bodies in a tight, sensual circle around their Master—Lin Ruoli and Ya Su rubbing their huge, soapy breasts against Alaric’s muscular back and shoulders, while Lilliana and Hai Lan kissed Yun Lan’s flushed neck and rolled her other stiff nipple between their fingers as she rode him!

The moment Yun Lan cried out in a violent, breathless orgasm—her inner walls milking his length as she collapsed gasping against his chest—Alaric lifted Queen Cai Wei onto his waist next, followed by Lin Ruoli, Ya Su, and Ceanna Paxton right on the warm crystal steps!

One after another in the steaming, spirit-rich mist of the subterranean bath, then carrying them up the spiral stone stairs onto the massive fur-draped bed of the inner sanctuary, Alaric lavished his boundless Beast Emperor stamina across his entire circle of women. He pinned Cai Wei’s long legs over his shoulders until the serpent queen begged for mercy; he bent Lin Ruoli and Ya Su side by side over the velvet cushions, spanking their plump, round buttocks red as he switched his glistening shaft between their tight, dripping pussies; and he held Saintess Ceanna Paxton and Archmage Lilliana Valtor against his chest, kneading their massive breasts and sucking their hard nipples until dawn broke over the snow-covered mountains outside.

During the first two full weeks that followed First Prince Huang Wei’s disgraceful departure, the northern winter unleashed its full fury across the borderlands.

Day after day across those two weeks, blinding white blizzards swept down from the northern polar seas and crashed against the towering peaks of the Kurogane Mountain Range.

Snow piled ten feet deep along the high mountain passes, burying the stone watchtowers and freezing the mountain streams into solid ribbons of blue ice. Along the western highway leading back toward the interior provinces of the Celestial Dragon Empire, military supply wagons could barely crawl five miles a day through the snowdrifts, and ordinary messenger hawks froze solid if they stayed in the upper air currents for more than an hour.

Inside the high black walls of Azure Fall City, however, the seventy thousand soldiers of the border garrison were warmer, better fed, and more orderly than they had been at any point during First Prince Huang Wei’s chaotic reign.

With Guildmaster Lin Ruoli and Chief Auctioneer Ya Su releasing steady, carefully measured shipments of grain, roasted mutton, dry charcoal, and Blood-Warming Pills from the Jade Serpent Merchant Organization’s hidden storehouses—and with every soldier’s back-pay settled in full under the joint seal of the new commanders—the threat of mutiny vanished overnight.

At the beginning of the third week, inside the warm, map-lined war hall of the central citadel, a very different command council was taking place.

Gone were the golden goblets, the dancing girls, and the loud, drunken boasting of First Prince Huang Wei.

Standing at the head of the long oak tactical table was General Cui Hao, wearing the dark silver-iron armor of the Acting Border Commander-in-Chief.

Because Noble Consort Cui Yulan was an Imperial Consort of the inner palace whose official role was to oversee the royal supervision seal rather than sit in the muddy barracks every hour of the day—and because she much preferred spending her afternoons and nights naked on the furs inside Alaric’s sandalwood-scented estate—she had delegated the daily frontline operational command to her elder brother General Cui Hao while retaining the Golden Tiger-Tally at her waist.

Around the oak table stood Noble Consort Cui Yulan in her violet fur-trimmed mantle, General Sun Ba of the Fierce Tiger Unit, Quartermaster General Luo Feng, Master Array Formulator Tian Yi, and—seated in a comfortable armchair right beside Cui Yulan and General Cui Hao—Archmage Alaric Steele in his simple gray linen healer’s robes.

Unlike First Prince Huang Wei, who had believed himself to be the reincarnation of the God of War after one lucky flood at Shattered Pass, General Cui Hao was an honest, seasoned Early-Stage Martial King who knew his own limits down to the bone.

Two months ago, General Cui Hao had lost Azure Fall City to General Tokugawa’s array formations. Then he had nearly died of the “Nine-Yin Blood-Rot Miasma” in the river trenches, had his shoulder pauldron shattered in Dragon’s Spine Gorge, and watched the Sunken Fortress blow up in his face—surviving every single disaster only because the quiet, polite Master Alaric had been standing nearby with a medicine vial or an ancient protective scroll.

In General Cui Hao’s eyes, Physician Alaric was not merely his sister’s savior and the benefactor of the Cui Clan; he was an unfathomable grandmaster of both medical alchemy and battlefield strategy whose every casual word was worth ten thousand pieces of gold.

“Master Alaric, Sister Yulan,” General Cui Hao said respectfully, turning the wooden terrain board slightly so Alaric did not even have to lean forward from his armchair to see the markers. “Over the past two weeks of blizzards, our Wind-Hound Unit scouts and the Black Tortoise Shield Corps have finished securing the Iron-Cloud Citadel and the first three iron-mining valleys around Azure Fall City. However, twenty miles northeast of Mount Kurogane lies the final mountain gateway before the eastern sea-road: the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass.”

General Sun Ba stepped forward and pointed a scarred finger at a jagged, five-mile-long mountain corridor flanked by towering spires of dark magnetic iron-ore.

“Before General Tokugawa Ieyasu died in the White-Pine ravine last month, General Cui,” General Sun Ba rumbled, “he had already evacuated twenty thousand of his surviving Blood-Moon Samurai and Ghost-Armored Ashigaru through the subterranean tunnels into the Thunder-Claw Bastion at the far end of that pass. Yesterday afternoon, when our forward regiments marched up to the mouth of the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass to clear the snow, the sky above the pass turned black as pitch!”

Master Array Formulator Tian Yi unrolled a charred parchment sketch across the oak table, his hands trembling slightly as he pointed to nine massive pillars of dark purple lightning drawn across the peaks.

“General Cui, Noble Consort Cui, Master Alaric,” Master Array Formulator Tian Yi reported gravely. “General Tokugawa Ieyasu truly earned his name as the Iron Demon of the eastern seas. Even before his death, he had already pre-constructed and primed a third, final layer of regional defense across the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass—leaving its activation key in the hands of his surviving deputy, Commander Ii Naomasa of the Red-Devil Samurai Legion!”

General Cui Hao frowned deeply. “What kind of formation is it, Master Tian Yi?”

“It is the ‘Nine-Heaven Thunder-Wrath Formation’,” Master Array Formulator Tian Yi explained, his voice dropping low. “Unlike the Dead Crow Basin array, which sucked spiritual Qi down into the earth, or the Sunken Fortress array, which used subterranean magma, this third formation uses the natural magnetic iron spires of the Thunder-Claw peaks to draw down the fury of the winter blizzards howling in the upper atmosphere! For ten miles along the mountain pass, the freezing wind and snow clouds have been converted into a permanent, roaring cage of purple-black heaven-lightning!”

General Sun Ba grimaced, rubbing his scorched beard. “Yesterday, I sent a vanguard squad of fifty heavily armored Grand Martialists carrying profound-steel shields fifty paces into the pass. Before they took ten steps, nine bolts of purple-black lightning dropped straight out of the snow clouds, melted their shields into iron soup, and charred forty men to cinders on the spot! The remaining ten crawled back with Severe Elemental Backlash and Lightning Necrosis rotting their leg meridians!”

Silence fell over the war table.

General Cui Hao looked at the drawn lightning spires on the parchment, then turned helplessly toward Alaric sitting calmly beside his sister.

“If First Prince Huang Wei were still here, he would have ordered ten thousand men to charge into the lightning until they ran out of bodies,” General Cui Hao said with a wry, humble sigh, bowing his head toward Alaric. “I know enough to see that marching armored infantry into a ten-mile lightning storm during a winter blizzard is suicide, Master Alaric. Moreover, the ten survivors who crawled back yesterday are lying in the infirmary right now with purple lightning-rot eating toward their heart vessels, and our camp apothecaries cannot pull the static out of their bones. How should we proceed?”

Beside Alaric, Noble Consort Cui Yulan looked at him as well. Outwardly, her silver eyes were cool and composed as the Border Marshal; beneath the table cover, however, her warm bare foot—slipped halfway out of her velvet boot—brushed lightly against Alaric’s ankle in a secret, affectionate caress.

Alaric took a slow sip of his hot herbal tea and set the porcelain cup down on the oak table.

To his Level 69 Peak Archmage perception—and to a man who personally possessed the mutated Beast Emperor grade Violet-Gold Celestial Spirit-Lion Physique containing Cui Yulan’s own Nine-Heavens Violet-Gold Suanni lightning law—a weather-based lightning array powered by magnetic iron spires was child’s play.

Even better, this “Nine-Heaven Thunder-Wrath Formation” that General Tokugawa had left behind in the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass was the exact excuse Alaric needed to keep the seventy-thousand-man army camped peacefully at Azure Fall City through the rest of the winter while his women refined the newly unlocked “Earth-Heart Profound Spirit Vein” beneath his estate!

“General Cui is wise to halt the advance,” Alaric spoke in his gentle, scholarly voice, earning an immediate, reverent nod from every officer in the room. “The ‘Nine-Heaven Thunder-Wrath Formation’ borrows its strength from two sources: the seasonal winter blizzards crashing over the northern peaks, and the ungrounded magnetic iron veins running along the surface cliffs of the pass. Trying to force an army through that corridor while the mid-winter storms are at their peak is fighting the heavens themselves.”

“Then we should hold our defense lines at the mouth of the pass and wait for the blizzards to weaken?” General Cui Hao asked eagerly, picking up a brush to take notes as if listening to a sacred scripture.

“More than merely waiting,” Alaric said smoothly, pointing a slender finger at three high ridges overlooking the western mouth of the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass. “First, Commander Ii Naomasa and his twenty thousand surviving samurai are trapped behind their own lightning curtain with no farmland and only the winter rations stored in the Thunder-Claw Bastion. Second, if Master Tian Yi’s array scholars drive thirty-six ‘Earth-Sinking Copper-Jade Rods’ into these three western ridges over the next few weeks, the copper-jade rods will gradually siphon thirty percent of the ambient static out of the snow clouds and ground it safely into the lower riverbeds—weakening the outer edge of their barrier without costing a single soldier’s life.”

Master Array Formulator Tian Yi slapped his forehead in sudden enlightenment, his eyes shining with admiration. “Earth-Sinking Copper-Jade Rods to bleed off the atmospheric charge along the western ridges! Why did I not think of that?! Master Alaric’s understanding of heaven-and-earth elemental flow is truly fathomless!”

“As for the ten vanguard soldiers suffering from Lightning Necrosis and Elemental Backlash in the infirmary,” Alaric added, pulling a small jade bottle of pale violet pills from his sleeve and setting it on the table in front of General Cui Hao, “have the apothecaries dissolve one of these ‘Violet-Dew Grounding Pellets’ in warm spring water for each man, and Noble Consort Cui can accompany me to the infirmary tent this afternoon to draw the residual thunder-static out of their meridians.”

General Cui Hao picked up the jade bottle with both hands, bowing deeply from the waist. “With Master Alaric and Sister Yulan overseeing the camp, the soldiers of the eastern border have nothing to fear! General Sun, Master Tian Yi—carry out Master Alaric’s instructions to the letter! Halt all frontal assaults on the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass, fortify the western ridge camps, and begin forging the thirty-six copper-jade grounding rods immediately!”

“Yes, General Cui!” General Sun Ba and Master Array Formulator Tian Yi roared in unison.

Cui Yulan stood up from the table, fastening her fur-lined violet cloak as she looked down at her brother. “Hao, once you finish assigning the patrol rotations for the western ridge, send the updated guard rosters to the Jade Serpent counting house so Guildmaster Lin can issue the extra fur cloaks and charcoal rations for the ridge sentries. Master Alaric and I will inspect the wounded in the northern infirmary now, and afterward, we will review the confidential border dispatches in the private pavilion.”

“Leave the patrol rosters to me, Sister!” General Cui Hao said earnestly, beaming with pride at how tirelessly his noble sister and the saintly Physician Alaric worked every day and every night to safeguard the army. “Do not tire yourselves out too late over those border dispatches!”

Walking out of the citadel war hall five paces behind Alaric, Cui Yulan kept her face straight until they stepped inside her closed, fur-lined carriage—and then let out a soft, breathless laugh as Alaric immediately pulled her onto his lap and slipped his warm hand straight inside the front of her violet armor tunic to cup her bare, heavy breast.

“Mmph… you heard my foolish brother,” Cui Yulan whispered against Alaric’s lips as his thumb rolled her hardening nipple and her thighs parted over his knees. “He told us not to tire ourselves out too late tonight…”

“Oh, you are going to be very tired tonight, Marshal Cui,” Alaric murmured darkly, kissing her throat while she squirmed and moaned softly on his lap all the way to the northern infirmary.

Yet while the upper command of Azure Fall City operated as Alaric’s private playground during that third week of winter, out on the freezing, wind-lashed western ridges overlooking the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass, a lone figure in a snow-caked mercenary cloak was staring into the roaring purple lightning curtains with bloodshot, calculating eyes.

It was Corbin.

Assigned with the Iron-Wolf Scouting Unit to dig trenches for Master Array Formulator Tian Yi’s copper-jade grounding rods along the freezing western ridge, Corbin stood leaning on an iron pickaxe while the bitter wind whipped ice crystals against his scarred iron half-helm.

Half a mile below the ridge, the five-mile-long corridor of the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass looked like a river of purple-black snakes. Every few seconds, bolts of terrifying heaven-lightning arced from the low black snow-clouds to the magnetic iron spires lining the canyon walls, filling the air with the sharp smell of ozone and scorched rock.

All around Corbin on the snowy ridge, the common soldiers of the scouting unit and the Fierce Tiger Unit were chatting cheerfully as they dug the rod-pits, praising General Cui Hao, Noble Consort Cui Yulan, and the benevolent Physician Alaric for halting the suicidal frontal charges and issuing them double rations of hot mutton soup and Jade Serpent charcoal.

Corbin spat a mouthful of frozen saliva into the trench, his stomach twisting with nausea at every word of praise he heard.

‘Look at these sheep,’ Corbin thought bitterly, striking his pickaxe into the frozen granite with enough force to crack the rock three feet down. ‘Alaric Steele snaps his fingers in a warm room, tells General Cui Hao to sit on his hands for the rest of the winter digging copper poles into the snow, and seventy thousand soldiers thank him for saving their lives! Meanwhile, that bastard is sitting back in Azure Fall City enjoying the fruits of the entire province while my system points sit at zero!’

Over the past three weeks, Corbin had spent every last one of his remaining 34,000 System Points purchasing the “Ancient Bloodline-Mirroring Soul Stone” and a high-grade “Lightning-Insulating Void Cloak” from the System Store before the Imperial Victory Banquet—only for his five watchdog captains to be wiped out before he ever got a chance to use the Soul Stone!

Now, with First Prince Huang Wei gone and the entire military command unified behind General Cui Hao and Noble Consort Cui Yulan, there were no more disgruntled captains in the camp willing to whisper in the dark with “Lieutenant Mo Chen”, and no Censorate envoys left to appeal to.

However, as Corbin paused his pickaxe and looked down toward the northern edge of the “Nine-Heaven Thunder-Wrath Formation” where a frozen mountain stream ran out from beneath the cliffs of the Thunder-Claw Mountain Pass, his system interface suddenly chimed with a faint blue passive notification.

[System Passive Detection: Weakened Leyline Seam Detected 400 Yards North of the Primary Iron Spire.]

[Analysis: The “Nine-Heaven Thunder-Wrath Formation” Draws 90% of Its Atmospheric Charge Along the Upper Granite Spires. The Subterranean Culvert Beneath the Frozen Stream Contains a 3-Foot Gap in the Lightning Curtain During Snow-Squall Peaks.]

[Note: With Host’s “Lightning-Insulating Void Cloak” and Level 62 Martial King Physical Constitution, Host Can Slip Through the Culvert Seam Undetected.]

Corbin’s pickaxe froze halfway in the air.

Slowly, he raised his head and stared through the swirling snow toward the dark iron silhouette of the Thunder-Claw Bastion rising at the far eastern end of the lightning-shrouded pass.

Inside that bastion sat Commander Ii Naomasa and twenty thousand surviving elite warriors of the Rising Sun Empire—along with the secret military war-chests, ancient array blueprints, and encrypted continental intelligence dispatches that General Tokugawa Ieyasu had evacuated from Azure Fall City before his death!

More importantly, two days ago, Corbin had overheard the signal clerks mentioning that an emissary from the Rimefrost Imperium in the far north and a wandering contact linked to the Flame King Feng Xiao had secretly met with Commander Ii Naomasa on the eastern side of the pass!

‘Inside Azure Fall City, Alaric Steele holds all the cards,’ Corbin thought, his heart beginning to beat faster against his ribs as a desperate, audacious plan formed in his mind. ‘Every warehouse in the city is trapped by Lin Ruoli and Ya Su, and his estate is guarded by four Arch-level women and the three Imperial Consorts. But out there, on the other side of that lightning array, sits Commander Ii Naomasa, the Rimefrost Imperium’s envoys, and information on where Feng Xiao and the other continental monsters are moving!’

If Corbin slipped through that subterranean culvert tonight under his “Lightning-Insulating Void Cloak”, he could infiltrate the outer perimeter of the Rising Sun camp, assassinate isolated Martial King officers to farm fresh System Points, and—better yet—plant false intelligence showing that the true commander and supply mastermind of Azure Fall City was the gray-robed physician residing in the upper merchant estate!

‘If I cannot use the Celestial Dragon Empire’s laws to kill you, Alaric,’ Corbin vowed silently, his fingers tightening around the shaft of his pickaxe until the iron groaned, ‘I will farm my points off the Rising Sun remnants in this pass, find the Flame King Feng Xiao—whose women you stole—and bring an army of outside monsters straight down onto your sanctuary!’

While Corbin waited on the freezing ridge for nightfall to begin his desperate foray into the lightning-choked mountain pass, back inside Azure Fall City, the sun dipped below the western peaks, casting a peaceful violet twilight over the snow-covered roofs.

Inside the expansive, tropical-warm inner sanctuary of Alaric Steele’s estate—where the newly opened conduit from the subterranean “Earth-Heart Profound Spirit Vein” filled the rooms with a faint, shimmering golden-blue mist of pure spiritual vitality—the long winter night was just beginning.

In the center of the grand bedchamber, twenty-foot silk curtains of crimson and gold hung around a raised platform covered in fifty layers of plush snow-fox furs and velvet cushions.

Three bronze braziers burned aged spirit-sandalwood in the corners, blending their warm, woody fragrance with the sweet scent of lotus oil and female skin.

Alaric lay stretched out comfortably in the center of the massive fur platform, completely naked, his chiseled Beast Emperor physique glowing with vibrant golden-violet luster as he effortlessly digested the ambient spirit-vein essence rising through the floor.

Surrounding him on the furs was a breathtaking, decadent banquet of flesh.

Tonight, all ten women of his eastern inner circle—Imperial Consort Xian Zhao Mengxue, Imperial Consort Shu Su Xianye, Noble Consort Cui Yulan, Grand Elder Yun Lan, Queen Cai Wei, Saintess Ceanna Paxton, Archmage Lilliana Valtor, Guildmaster Lin Ruoli, Chief Auctioneer Ya Su, Fallen Fairy Mu Qing, and Princess Hai Lan—had gathered in the sanctuary to cultivate the surging spirit-vein mist while attending to their Master.

Not a single woman wore a thread of clothing.

Because the concentrated “Earth-Heart Spirit Marrow” mist rising from the floor made their skin flush hot and stimulated every nerve ending in their bodies, their bare, voluptuous figures glistened with a fine layer of fragrant sweat and spirit-oil.

Right now, Alaric was showing special favor to the women who had worked tirelessly in the shadows over the past weeks.

Straddling Alaric’s chest, facing away from him so that he had a glorious view of her arched back, her narrow waist, and the plump, snow-white globes of her bare buttocks, was Fallen Fairy Mu Qing—her knees planted on either side of his ribs as she lowered her wet, dripping pussy slowly onto his mouth while leaning forward to kiss Queen Cai Wei!

At the same time, down between Alaric’s muscular thighs, Saintess Ceanna Paxton was on her hands and knees with her golden hair spilling over the furs and her huge, pillowy breasts swinging heavily beneath her chest, while Alaric’s thick, rock-hard shaft was buried balls-deep inside her tight, scorching-hot pussy!

“Ahhh—! Master! Your cock is hitting so deep tonight!” Ceanna Paxton cried out, her blue eyes rolling back in fanatical, lust-drunk ecstasy as Alaric gripped her wide, fertile hips with both hands and drove his hips upward into her from below.

Every heavy upward thrust of Alaric’s pelvis made Ceanna Paxton’s round, peachy buttocks slap loudly against his groin, sending ripples through the plush flesh of her ass while her tight inner walls clenched and milked his throbbing length without mercy.

Above Alaric’s chest, as he licked and sucked deeply at Fallen Fairy Mu Qing’s sensitive pink folds—making the usually quiet sword-fairy whimper and tremble uncontrollably above his face—Grand Elder Yun Lan and Archmage Lilliana Valtor knelt on his left and right shoulders.

Both the icy Peak Martial King and the regal Elemental Archmage leaned down together, pressing all four of their massive, heavy breasts against the sides of Alaric’s chest and neck, taking turns rubbing their stiff, rosy nipples across his collarbone and feeding their soft peaks to his free hands!

“Look at Mu Qing’s thighs shaking just from Master’s tongue,” Archmage Lilliana Valtor murmured huskily, her own hand sliding down to rub her soaking-wet slit against Alaric’s left thigh while he pinched her hard nipple between his fingers. “And Ceanna has been taking his cock for half an hour already… Master, do not make Yun Lan and me wait much longer, or our pussies will flood the furs.”

“Wait your turn, Professor,” Chief Auctioneer Ya Su giggled from the foot of the bed, where she and Guildmaster Lin Ruoli were kneeling behind Ceanna Paxton—the two merchant queens pressing their own huge, oiled breasts against Ceanna’s back while their tongues licked the sweat from Ceanna’s shoulders and their fingers reached down to stroke Alaric’s heavy testicles every time his shaft plunged in and out of the Saintess!

And resting along the right edge of the wide fur platform, curled together in a lush, tangled row of bare legs and heavy chests as they caught their breath from the first round of the evening, lay the three imperial consorts: Zhao Mengxue, Su Xianye, and Cui Yulan.

Cui Yulan lay on her stomach on the soft snow-fox furs, her chin propped on her folded hands and her plump, round buttocks still glowing a bright, rosy pink from Alaric’s palms earlier. Beside her, Zhao Mengxue lazily caressed the smooth curve of Cui Yulan’s bare back and fondled one of Cui Yulan’s massive breasts pressed against the mattress, while Su Xianye fed Cui Yulan a slice of chilled spirit-peach.

Watching Alaric effortlessly pleasure Mu Qing with his mouth, pound Ceanna Paxton into screaming bliss with his massive shaft, and fondle Yun Lan and Lilliana’s heavy breasts with his hands—all while the rich golden-blue mist of the subterranean spirit vein nourished their bodies and washed away every trace of fatigue—Cui Yulan felt a deep, warm wave of contentment settle over her heart.

Outside these walls, her brother General Cui Hao was happily fortifying the snow-covered ridges according to Alaric’s painless plan, believing his sister was hard at work reviewing confidential border strategies with the saintly Physician Alaric.

In truth, the Border Marshal of the seventy-thousand-man eastern army was lying naked on a pile of furs, watching the man she loved rule over a harem of peerless queens, archmages, and imperial consorts—and already feeling her own tight passage growing hot and wet again as she waited for him to pull her back onto his lap before the winter night was through.

Pulling out of a convulsing, weeping Ceanna Paxton after pumping a thick, scalding torrent of seed deep into the Saintess’s womb, Alaric lifted Fallen Fairy Mu Qing off his chest, flipped her onto her back right beside Grand Elder Yun Lan and Archmage Lilliana Valtor, and looked across the sea of blushing, heavy-breasted women reaching out for his touch.

“Who said anything about waiting?” Alaric chuckled, his ruby eyes blazing with dark, inexhaustible vitality in the sandalwood smoke as he hooked Mu Qing’s and Yun Lan’s long, pale legs over his shoulders at the same time and guided his glistening shaft straight to the next soaking-wet entrance. “The blizzards outside will last another three weeks—and none of you are leaving this bed until the snow melts.”