Mei Yilan carefully gathered the two jade bottles and the transcribed parchments, treating them with the utmost reverence before securely storing them within her spatial ring. When she looked back up at her nephew, the exhaustion that had previously clouded her eyes was entirely gone, replaced by the burning, unyielding drive of a clan leader who had just been handed the keys to the city.
"I am going to the alchemical halls immediately," Mei Yilan declared, smoothing out her robes as she stood up from her desk. "We will not waste a single breath. I will personally oversee the lockdown of the refining sector, and I will take the main furnace myself. With a Tier-3 alchemist joining the assembly line, we will absolutely hit that three-day target."
"I expect nothing less from you, Aunt," Shen Yu smiled warmly, rising from his chair.
As Mei Yilan turned to gather a few remaining ledgers, Shen Yu's gaze drifted toward the voluptuous assistant standing dutifully to the side.
For a fleeting, deliberate moment, Shen Yu let the innocent nephew facade drop. His golden eyes swept over Xu Yi from top to bottom, taking in her sharp, intelligent face, the heavy, generous swell of her breasts straining against her high-collared dress, the soft, mature curve of her stomach, and the plush width of her hips. It was a dark, intensely hungry gaze, the look of a sovereign evaluating a particularly exquisite prize.
Without Shen Yu even needing to flex his cultivation, the terrifying passive aura of his Heaven Seducing Primordial Bloodline rippled through the air.
Xu Yi completely froze.
Despite possessing the formidable strength of an 8th Stage Foundation Establishment expert, her spiritual defenses were instantly bypassed. A sudden, violent spike of heat erupted deep within her lower abdomen, tearing through her meridians like an uncontrollable wildfire.
Her breath hitched sharply in her throat, her heart suddenly hammering wildly against her ribs. Completely helpless against the terrifying, supernatural aura of the young master, she instinctively clamped her thighs tightly together as an intense, unfamiliar rush of slick warmth suddenly flooded between her legs, soaking her undergarments in a matter of seconds.
Her mind spun with dizzying confusion. She was a disciplined, professional woman in her forties, yet under the weight of this young man's gaze, her knees felt terrifyingly weak, and her body was reacting with a desperate, heavy arousal that she couldn't comprehend or control.
Before Xu Yi could even attempt to process the intense, melting sensation pooling in her core, Shen Yu's expression shifted. The predatory hunger vanished, replaced instantly by a polite, perfectly innocent smile.
"Xu Yi," Shen Yu said, his voice smooth and clear.
"Y-yes, Young Master?" she stammered, her face flushed a deep crimson as she struggled to keep her voice steady.
"I will be returning to the Tang Estate now," he instructed gently. "Please arrange for the storehouse to send several large batches of the raw herbs to my private courtyard tonight. I will also refine a portion of these pills to ensure we have a massive stockpile ready for the launch."
"Understood... I will have them delivered immediately," she managed to whisper, her chest heaving slightly.
"Thank you." Shen Yu offered her one last, charming smile, turned on his heel, and casually strolled out of the office, leaving the deeply flustered and aching assistant staring blankly at his retreating back.
The sun had finally dipped below the horizon by the time Shen Yu settled back into the plush velvet cushions of his shadow-wood carriage.
"Back to the estate, Uncle Fu," Shen Yu commanded.
As the carriage rolled smoothly into the bustling, lantern-lit streets of Thousand Waves City, Shen Yu let out a quiet sigh. His mind shifted away from the impending collapse of the Peng Clan and turned inward.
'System,' he called out mentally.
The familiar, abyssal-black screen bordered in pulsing neon-pink materialized instantly in the dim cabin.
=========================================
[ PRIMAL DESIRE INHERITANCE: HOST STATUS ]
Name: Shen Yu
Cultivation Base: Qi Condensation (9th Stage)
Progression to Next Realm: 66%
Desire Points (DP): 1000
[ PHYSIQUE & BLOODLINE ]
Bloodline: Heaven-Seducing Primordial Bloodline (Primordial Grade)
Skills:
Celestial Fox Veil [Active]
Heaven's Charm [Passive]
Primordial Genesis Seed [Active]
[ CORE INHERITANCE ARTS ]
Primordial Yin-Yang Scripture (Stage 1)
Blood-Hand Demonic Medical Arts
=========================================
Shen Yu stared at the glowing numbers, a subtle frown creasing his handsome forehead.
Sixty-six percent.
Despite having devoured the incredibly potent Yin Qi of an 8th Stage Golden Core Matriarch and despite engaging in relentless, high-quality dual cultivation with Lixue and Meng Yan for an entire month, he had yet to hit the absolute limit of the 9th Stage.
For any ordinary cultivator, absorbing that sheer volume of pure Yin energy would have been enough to propel straight through Foundation Establishment and perhaps even touch the borders of the Core Formation realm. But his current vessel was different. The Heaven Seducing Primordial Bloodline was a terrifying, heaven-defying existence, and as a result, his Dantian was like a bottomless, apocalyptic abyss.
As he advanced through the stages, the amount of energy required to fill his Qi pool was expanding exponentially. He required ten, perhaps even twenty times more energy than any normal cultivator to take a single step forward.
Shen Yu rested his chin on his knuckles, feeling a fleeting, bitter sense of disappointment. As a demonic grandmaster who lived for the thrill of conquest, the explosive, violent joy of rapidly breaking through realms was one of the greatest feelings in existence. This slow, methodical grinding felt frustratingly tedious.
Still, he mused, a cold smirk slowly returning to his lips. There is a profound trade-off.
Because his Dantian held such a terrifying, compressed ocean of Qi, his foundation was unspeakably dense. Even sitting at a mere sixty-six percent of the 9th Stage of Qi Condensation, the raw, explosive power coursing through his veins was enough to effortlessly crush early Foundation Establishment experts with his bare hands.
If his Primordial Bloodline required an entire ocean of pure energy to finally shatter the ceiling of the 9th Stage, then he would simply have to drain this world dry to get it.
Leaning back against the plush velvet cushions, Shen Yu closed his golden eyes as the carriage rattled smoothly through the shadowed streets of Thousand Waves City. His mind drifted over the geopolitical chessboard of the northern district and beyond, methodically evaluating the remaining female prodigies, matriarchs, and hidden talents. He needed a new furnace. He needed another exceptional, heaven-defying source of Yin to plunder and conquer.
His dark, calculating thoughts were eventually interrupted by the steady slowing of the carriage and the heavy, metallic clank of the Tang Estate's newly reinforced iron gates swinging open.
"We have arrived, Young Master," Uncle Fu called out softly from the driver's seat.