Chapter 474: Ambush in the Steaming Pool

Inside the Sacred Nine-Dragon Bathhouse, the air was warm, humid, and fragrant with the scent of white spirit-orchids and mineral-rich mountain water.

The bathhouse was an enormous vaulted hall carved out of polished white nephrite and veined rose marble. Nine towering pillars sculpted like coiling golden dragons supported the high dome overhead, while at the center of the hall lay a vast, circular hot spring pool forty yards across. Steaming, crystal-clear water poured continuously from the jaws of nine marble dragon heads along the walls, keeping the water waist-deep along the outer steps and chest-deep near the central jade platform.

Unaware that a silent ripple of silver-violet light had just materialized behind the widest golden dragon pillar in the shadowy northern alcove of the hall, Yan Ruyu and Ning Wan’er walked to the marble dressing screens beside the water’s edge.

Hidden behind the dragon pillar under his Void-Concealment spell, Alaric did not rush out. Instead, he raised both hands and silently wove a dual-layered arcane formation around the inner walls of the bathhouse:

Sound-Severing Void Ward!

Eight-Fold Spatial Anchor Lock!

His invisible purple-gold mana threads sank seamlessly into the inner nodes of the Eighth-Tier Nine-Dragon Isolation Barrier that Yan Ruyu had just activated. Now, not only was the bathhouse completely soundproofed and shielded from the Half-Step Martial Emperor guards waiting outside the bronze gates, but even Yan Ruyu’s silver medallion would no longer be able to open the doors without Alaric’s permission.

Having locked the cage, Alaric leaned his shoulder against the warm marble pillar, his ruby eyes watching with calm appreciation as the five mature, extraordinarily voluptuous wives of Emperor Huang Long began to undress by the steaming water.

“Remove all your garments and spatial rings, Sisters,” Yan Ruyu instructed in her strict, businesslike voice as she reached up to unbutton the silver clasps at the throat of her ink-black court gown. “The Heart-Mirror Spiritual Pulse Art requires unobstructed skin contact with the geothermal mist so no defensive talismans can falsify the reading.”

“We have nothing to hide, Sister De,” Zhao Mengxue replied smoothly, exchanging a secret, wicked smile with Su Xinyue and Cui Yulan as the three of them untied their silk sashes in unison.

Sliding their crimson, sapphire, and dark-violet robes off their shoulders, Zhao Mengxue, Su Xinyue, and Cui Yulan stepped out of their pooled silks completely naked. Their fair, porcelain skin glistened in the warm steam, their massive, heavy breasts swaying with every step, and their wide, fertile hips and plump, rounded buttocks glowing with the vibrant, alluring vitality instilled in them by weeks of Alaric’s relentless dual cultivation.

Even Yan Ruyu and Ning Wan’er paused for a brief moment as they looked at the three women.

‘Strange,’ Yan Ruyu thought, her sharp phoenix eyes narrowing slightly behind her silver-rimmed spectacles as she looked at Cui Yulan’s glowing skin and the ripe, lustrous fullness of Zhao Mengxue’s and Su Xinyue’s curves. ‘They just returned from a freezing, brutal border war, yet their skin is smoother and more radiant than when they left the palace, and their Yin essence looks impossibly full.’

Setting the thought aside for the inspection, Yan Ruyu unfastened her own ink-black and silver court robe and let it slide down her tall, statuesque frame, followed by her white silk inner bindings.

From behind the dragon pillar, Alaric’s gaze traveled slowly over Imperial Consort De’s naked body.

For a woman who spent her days lecturing the harem on modesty and strict discipline, Yan Ruyu possessed a body built purely for sin. Her skin was blindingly fair, without a single blemish from her swan-like neck down to her long, shapely legs. Freed from her tight black bodice, her breasts were truly massive—heavy, full, snow-white globes that jutted out proudly from her chest and swayed with a lush, hypnotic weight, crowned by remarkably dark-rose, rigid nipples. Her waist was slender and firm, flaring out into wide, sensual hips and a pair of high, round, pillowy buttocks that looked begging to be gripped and spanked red.

She left only her silver-rimmed spectacles on her nose and her platinum sword-hairpin in her coiled black hair as she stepped gracefully down the marble stairs into the waist-deep thermal water.

Beside her, Virtuous Consort Ning Wan’er blushed softly as she untied her seafoam-green and peach silk robes, letting the soft fabrics fall away to reveal her own breathtaking nakedness.

Compared to Yan Ruyu’s tall, severe stature, Ning Wan’er was slightly softer and even more overwhelmingly curvy. Her fair skin had a creamy, peach-blossom tint in the warm steam. Her breasts were enormous for her narrow frame—heavy, teardrop-shaped mounds of soft white flesh that bounced gently against her ribcage as she walked, her pale-pink areolas wide and soft. Below her tiny, waspish waist, her hips curved out wide and fertile, flowing into thick, velvety thighs and a lush, heart-shaped rear.

Cradling her jade zither against her bare, heavy breasts, Ning Wan’er waded through the warm water and climbed onto the dry, circular white-jade platform rising two feet above the center of the pool.

Sitting cross-legged on the warm jade platform entirely naked—her massive breasts resting gently atop the upper rim of her seven-string jade zither while her thick, fair thighs folded beneath her—Ning Wan’er looked out at Cui Yulan, Zhao Mengxue, and Su Xinyue, who had waded into the pool a few yards away alongside Yan Ruyu.

“Sisters, please relax your Battle Auras and open your primary meridian gates,” Ning Wan’er said gently, placing her slender fingers on the seven glowing strings of her zither. “I will now play the first movement of the Heart-Mirror Pulse.”

Cui Yulan, Zhao Mengxue, and Su Xinyue did not bother hiding anything. Standing in the waist-deep water with their wet, heavy breasts gleaming above the surface, the three consorts smiled faintly and opened their meridian gates wide.

*Thrum—!*

Ning Wan’er plucked the first three strings of the jade zither.

A ripple of translucent, emerald-pink spiritual sound drifted across the surface of the steaming pool, passing smoothly through the naked bodies of Su Xinyue, Zhao Mengxue, and Cui Yulan before rebounding back into the strings of the zither.

The very instant the rebounding spiritual pulse touched Ning Wan’er’s fingertips, the gentle smile froze on her delicate face.

Her misty apricot eyes flew wide open in utter shock, and her finger slipped violently off the fourth string with a sharp, discordant *twang*!

“Sister Wan’er?” Yan Ruyu frowned, wading a step closer through the water as her heavy white breasts parted the steaming ripples. “What is it? Did you detect residual demonic qi from the Whispering Gorge?”

“N-No!” Ning Wan’er stammered, her fair cheeks draining of color before flushing a deep, scandalized crimson as she stared in disbelief at Cui Yulan, Zhao Mengxue, and Su Xinyue. “It… it is not demonic qi! Sister Ruyu, their Yin foundations… their wombs and all thirty-six of their inner meridians are completely saturated with a man’s scorching Yang essence! And it is fresh—from less than a day ago!”

Yan Ruyu’s jaw dropped slightly, her phoenix eyes flashing with instant, glacial fury behind her silver-rimmed spectacles.

“What did you say?!” Yan Ruyu hissed, spinning in the water to glare at the three consorts. “You three have been away from the Imperial Capital and His Majesty’s bedchamber for months! How could your wombs be filled with fresh Yang essence?! That essence signature—it does not belong to His Majesty’s Golden Dragon Qi! Who dared defile the Emperor’s wives?!”

Instead of looking panicked or guilty, Zhao Mengxue let out a slow, sultry laugh, running a wet hand up her own heavy breast as she stepped rightward in the pool to block the eastern steps.

At the same time, Su Xinyue glided to the left to cut off the western steps, and Noble Consort Cui Yulan stepped straight forward in the center of the water, her silver eyes locking onto Yan Ruyu and Ning Wan’er with a cold, predatory smile.

“Defiled?” Su Xinyue purred, her voice echoing richly across the vaulted bathhouse. “Oh, Sister Ruyu, Sister Wan’er… wait until you feel how small and pathetic Emperor Huang Long really is compared to a true sovereign.”

“You—you have all turned traitor!” Yan Ruyu’s voice rang sharp and cold as she instantly reached up to pull the platinum sword-hairpin from her coiled hair, while her left hand reached into the water toward thesilver formation medallion at her waist to summon Eunuch Feng and Eunuch Liu from outside! “Guards! Break the—!”

She pressed her thumb down on the silver medallion—and nothing happened. The Eighth-Tier Isolation Barrier around the bathhouse remained locked tight as solid iron!

“Do not waste your strength on that medallion, Imperial Consort De,” a deep, calm, magnetic voice spoke from directly behind the central dragon pillar.

Both Yan Ruyu and Ning Wan’er spun their heads around in horror as the air beside the marble steps shimmered, and Alaric stepped casually out of his concealment.

He had already stripped off his gray physician’s robes, wearing only a pair of loose black silk trousers. The warm golden lantern light of the bathhouse gleamed across his tall, broad-shouldered, heavily muscled torso, radiating the immense, suffocating vitality of his Beast Emperor physique and the swirling violet-gold mana of a Peak Archmage.

“The physician?!” Ning Wan’er gasped, instinctively hugging her jade zither tighter against her massive, bare breasts to cover herself from his burning ruby eyes. “You… you hid your cultivation! How did you get inside the sealed bathhouse?!”

“Your isolation barrier is quite well made, Consort De,” Alaric said smoothly, walking down the top marble step until his bare feet touched the warm water. “It is so well made, in fact, that with a few minor spatial adjustments of my own, your Half-Step Martial Emperor eunuchs standing fifty paces outside the gate won’t hear a single scream from either of you tonight.”

Yan Ruyu’s face turned white with rage and humiliation as she realized she was standing stark naked in the water before a strange man—and that Cui Yulan, Zhao Mengxue, and Su Xinyue had deliberately lured her and Ning Wan’er into this sealed room!

“Shameless traitors!” Yan Ruyu snarled, not wasting a single breath trying to cover her nakedness as her Late-Stage Martial King cultivation erupted from her fair body like a silver tempest. “You three actually whored yourselves out to a foreign mage and dare to plot against Sister Wan’er and me?! Even if the outer barrier is locked, I will cut off this dog’s head myself and use his blood to break the array lock!”

As she infused her Late-Stage Martial King Qi into the platinum sword-hairpin in her hand, the hairpin expanded in a flash of blinding starlight into a four-foot, razor-sharp silver longsword!

“Sister Wan’er, back me up with your zither! Kill the man first!” Yan Ruyu shouted, her long, pale legs kicking off the marble floor of the pool as she launched her naked, curvaceous body through the steaming air straight at Alaric!

“Heavenly Law Sword Art: Star-Weaver Severing Slash!”

A dozen dazzling threads of condensed silver Sword Qi shot from the tip of Yan Ruyu’s blade, weaving in mid-air into a lethal, cross-hatched net of starlight edges aimed straight at Alaric’s throat and chest, while behind her on the central platform, Ning Wan’er gritted her teeth and swept both hands forcefully across the strings of her jade zither:

“Soul-Whispers Illusion Zither: Seven-String Mind Shatter!”

*CLANG—THRUMMM!*

Seven invisible, crescent-shaped sonic blades mixed with a disorienting mental illusion wave screamed across the water toward Alaric’s temples, intending to stagger his consciousness for the half-second Yan Ruyu’s sword needed to pierce his heart!

Alaric did not even take a step back on the marble stairs.

‘A disciplined sword net paired with a mental sonic strike,’ Alaric assessed calmly as the attacks closed to within three feet of his chest. ‘Well coordinated for two palace wives, but far too slow.’

Raising his right hand, Alaric snapped his fingers as a six-pointed runic circle of blazing violet-gold mana materialized in front of his palm:

“Arcane Aegis: Prismatic Mirror Wall!”

“Mind’s Eye: Soul-Shatter Counter!”

*BOOM! CRACK-CLANG!*

The seven invisible sonic blades and the mental illusion wave struck Alaric’s outer mana ward and shattered like fragile glass against an iron mountain, sending a sharp mental feedback pulse rebounding across the pool that made Ning Wan’er cry out and clutch her head as her massive breasts bounced wildly behind her zither!

Simultaneously, Yan Ruyu’s dozen silver Star-Weaver Sword Qi threads slammed full-force into the shimmering violet-gold planes of Alaric’s Prismatic Mirror Wall. Sparks of silver starlight and violet mana exploded across the steaming bathhouse, whipping the mineral water into ten-foot waves, yet not a single sword thread managed to scratch the surface of Alaric’s shield!

‘What?!’ Yan Ruyu’s pupils contracted in shock behind her wet spectacles as she hung suspended in mid-air, her heavy white breasts heaving from the force of her strike. ‘A Late-Stage Martial King’s full-power sword technique didn’t even crack his defensive spell?!’

Before Yan Ruyu could flip backward to regain her footing in the water, three naked, wet figures surged through the rising steam from the left, right, and below!

“Your opponent is not just our Master, Sister Ruyu!” Noble Consort Cui Yulan’s clear voice rang out as dazzling arcs of purple-gold lightning crackled across her wet, voluptuous body. Vaulting out of the pool with her bare, long legs coiled in lightning, the Peak-Stage Martial King swung her right palm straight down toward Yan Ruyu’s flank:

“Violet Thunder Art: Coiling Suanni Lightning Palm!”

At the exact same instant, Zhao Mengxue and Su Xinyue struck from either side of the pool, their Late-Stage Martial King auras flaring in brilliant crimson fire and deep-blue water currents:

“Scarlet Sky-Burning Wing Slash!”

“Deep-Sea Coiling Water Dragon!”

Caught in mid-air by three Imperial Consorts whose combined cultivation exceeded her own, Yan Ruyu gritted her teeth and spun her silver longsword in a desperate, circular defensive dance around her naked frame:

“Star-Weaver Secret Art: Thousand Silver Stars Barrier!”

*CLANG-CLANG-BOOM!*

A spherical cage of spinning silver sword-sparks erupted around Yan Ruyu, colliding violently with Cui Yulan’s purple-gold lightning palm, Zhao Mengxue’s blazing fire-hawk wave, and Su Xinyue’s crushing water-dragon coil!

The explosive shockwave blasted a twenty-foot crater into the water of the pool, sending steaming geysers splashing against the vaulted ceiling. Yan Ruyu let out a muffled groan as the combined force of the three consorts’ strikes cracked through her silver sword sphere and sent her hurtling backward across the pool—slamming her bare back and plush buttocks hard against one of the marble dragon pillars while blood trickled from the corner of her lip!

On the central platform, Ning Wan’er saw Yan Ruyu knocked back and panicked. Biting her plump lower lip, the curvaceous zither mistress raised her right hand high and slammed all five fingers down onto the glowing jade strings, pouring every drop of her Mid-Stage Martial King Qi into her strongest area-of-effect technique:

“Heart-Mirror Supreme Art: Falling Jade Blade Storm!”

Hundreds of razor-sharp, translucent green sound-blades erupted in a360-degree hurricane from the jade zither, tearing up the marble tiles of the central platform as she tried to force Cui Yulan, Zhao Mengxue, and Su Xinyue back and clear a path to smash the bathhouse walls!

“A nice melody, Consort Ning, but your rhythm is off,” Alaric’s calm voice echoed from the steps.

Lifting his left hand, Alaric traced a single runic character in the humid air and clenched his fist:

“Seventh-Tier Void Magic: Abyssal Gravity Well!”

“Crimson Flame-Lance: Pinpoint Shatter!”

*WHOOSH—THUD!*

Instantly, a localized field of tenfold gravity crashed down solely upon the central jade platform!

“Ah—!” Ning Wan’er let out a helpless cry as her soft, naked body was slammed down onto her hands and knees atop the wet jade stone by the crushing invisible weight, her massive, teardrop breasts flattening against the top of her zither and her round buttocks forced upward into the air!

Before her hundreds of sonic blades could travel five feet, the tenfold gravity crushed them flat into the water, and a single, pencil-thin beam of condensed crimson fire-mana shot from Alaric’s fingertip—striking the seven spirit-silk strings of her jade zither with surgical precision and snapping all seven strings at once without burning a single hair on Ning Wan’er’s hands!

*SNAP-TWANG!*

With her zither strings severed, Ning Wan’er suffered an immediate qi recoil, coughing softly as her Mid-Stage Martial King aura collapsed and Su Xinyue and Zhao Mengxue lunged onto the central platform from both sides—grabbing Ning Wan’er’s fair arms and pinning her naked, squirming body flat against the wet jade stone!

“Let go of me! Zhao Mengxue, Su Xinyue, have you lost your minds?!” Ning Wan’er cried out in terror, kicking her thick, creamy legs uselessly as the two stronger Late-Stage Martial King consorts locked her wrists behind her back and sealed her major acupoints with quick finger strikes.

Across the pool, Yan Ruyu pushed herself off the marble pillar, her silver spectacles crooked on her nose and her heavy white breasts slick with water and heaving violently. Seeing Ning Wan’er captured and her three former peers smiling coldly around the pool, Yan Ruyu channeled the last of her burning Late-Stage Martial King essence into her silver sword, intending to burn her own blood essence to unleash a desperate life-or-death sword strike:

“Heavenly Law Forbidden Art: Falling Star—!”

She never finished the chant.

With a silent flicker of silver-violet light, Alaric vanished from the marble stairs through a short-range Spatial Step and materialized directly in the water six inches in front of Yan Ruyu’s heaving, naked chest!

Yan Ruyu’s phoenix eyes widened in shock as Alaric’s right hand moved faster than her gaze could track—sheathed in the blinding violet-gold aura of his Beast Emperor physique—and caught the bare blade of her Late-Stage Martial King sword with his naked palm!

*CRACK—SHATTER!*

With a casual squeeze of his fingers, Alaric shattered the condensed Star-Weaver Sword Qi coating the blade, wrenched the platinum sword out of Yan Ruyu’s numb grip, and tossed it clattering across the marble tiles of the bathhouse floor!

Before the proud Chief Arbiter of the Inner Court could even raise her knee to strike, Alaric’s left hand shot out and clamped firmly around her slender, pale throat, while his right hand struck three rapid flashes of mana directly into the meridian nodes beneath her collarbone and navel:

“Arcane Seal: Meridian Lock!”

“Ugh—!”

Yan Ruyu’s Late-Stage Martial King Battle Aura extinguished like a candle in a hurricane. Her long, shapely legs instantly lost all their martial strength, buckling beneath her in the waist-deep water until the only thing keeping her upright was Alaric’s large, powerful hand holding her by the throat and his other arm wrapping like an iron band around her naked, curvy waist!