The cold spread through Shen Xiu's veins like glacial poison, eradicating the heat of her Soul Force of fire.
The world seemed to slow down, her limbs refusing to obey any command.
It was absolute paralysis, a terrifying sensation that she, a Silver-level expert, had never imagined feeling. The Soul Force inside her Soul Realm, once a raging volcano, was now a frozen lake, completely sealed and inaccessible. The violet dust that had penetrated her was not an ordinary poison; it was a seal, a cage for her own soul.
She could only watch, powerless, as Xiang Yun approached. The smile on his lips, visible even through the demon mask, was not that of someone who seemed to have escaped death by a hair's breadth.
It was the smile of a hunter who had just cornered his prey. Unhurried, he extended his hand toward her face.
"No!"
Instinctively, Shen Xiu tried to recoil, a scream of alarm caught in her throat. But her body did not move an inch. She was trapped, a statue of flesh and bone. The panic, cold and sharp, pierced her heart. She watched, wide-eyed, as his fingers wrapped around the edge of her fox mask.
"Let's see who is behind this lovely delicate fox mask!" Xiang Yun joked, a smile dancing on his lips for suspense.
With a smooth motion, he slowly began to move his hands, removing the mask.
Shen Xiu's face paled.
The cold air of the alley touched her now-exposed face. Her identity, her greatest secret that day, was revealed. Shen Xiu's face, a masterpiece capable of toppling cities, was now as pale as paper, her lips trembling without sound. The horror seemed to strike her soul with the force of a hammer.
If they discovered that she, one of the Sacred Family members and a Professor at the Sacred Orchid Institute, had attacked a student in the black market, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Not only would her reputation be destroyed, but the Sacred Family, always looking for an excuse to suppress other families, could suffer devastating retaliation for her recklessness.
Unfortunately for her, the young man before her did not seem to care at all about the politics of the City of Glory. Xiang Yun tilted his head, studying her terrified face with an almost clinical curiosity.
"Wow! Professor Shen Xiu. What an unexpected surprise," he said, his voice calm, but with a cutting tone of irony.
"You! Let me go!"
She tried to speak, plead, threaten, anything, but her mouth remained sealed. The panic in her eyes intensified when she saw the Soul Force gather again at his fingertips, glowing with a sinister blue light in the alley's shadows.
What was he going to do? Kill her? The idea was terrible, but what came next was infinitely worse.
With a smile now carrying a hint of mockery and playfulness, Xiang Yun slightly knelt and, with a delicacy that contrasted with the situation, lifted the hem of his cloak and his dress beneath.
"No... stop..." the scream echoed inside Shen Xiu's mind, a storm of fury and humiliation. Her body, the sacred sanctuary she had protected for so many years, was now being defiled by a brat.
Xiang Yun snapped his lips.
His gaze traveled along the curve of her calves, rising up her slender and well-toned thighs, a testimony to years of rigorous training. His look paused for a moment on the small piece of white silk covering her most intimate parts. It was a look containing a little of every feeling, whether lust, or as if assessing a new possession.
Because at that moment, that was what Shen Xiu was. His new possession.
"Bastard! Demon! Look away! DON'T LOOK!" she screamed in her silent mind, her face burning with shame surpassing even the fear of death.
But Xiang Yun did not seem to care about her thoughts.
"You know, tutor," he began, his voice a low, intimate whisper. "Many think the Xiang Family is now just a declining aristocratic family. But the oldest noble families always have their specialties, their secrets... Do you know what mine is?"
He paused, watching the horror bloom in her eyes as understanding began to dawn. She knew, and she knew exactly, but the way he spoke, the place he touched... was the prelude to nothing good.
With a victorious smile seeing she understood the gravity of her situation, he looked up at her and smiled:
"You know, a beautiful possession requires a proper collar, don't you think?" he murmured, more to himself than to her.
"No... no... no!" Shen Xiu could only scream inside her mind. Her body felt like an ice sculpture, petrified.
Xiang Yun's finger, charged with Soul Force, slid softly over her skin, the cold of his energy contrasting with her body's natural warmth.
"Let's begin," he said, his voice soft, almost a torture. "This first inscription I'm drawing... think of it as the main anchor."
His finger began to move, tracing a complex spiral just below her sternum. "It will attach directly to your Soul Realm. Normally, your spirit would reject and burn it, but thanks to my little gift earlier, your Soul Realm is... docile. Open to suggestions."
"No! It can't be! My Soul Realm... he's really profaning the very source of my power! Stop, please, stop!" Shen Xiu's mental plea was useless, like a moth beating against a glass window.
His finger continued, beginning a new pattern branching from the central spiral. "Now, these lines," he continued, voice still calm and soft, "are threads that will give me some information. They will connect from the main anchor to each of your meridians. Soon, I'll be able to see through your thoughts, hear what you're thinking... and even feel your deepest desires. Let's just say we'll have quite an... intimate connection."
The implication of those words hit her harder than the palm strike she had dealt him. Her privacy, her thoughts, her desires... all would be at his mercy. He wasn't just taking her body; he was stealing her very existence.
"No... my mind... my secrets... he can't! This is worse than death! It's endless torture!" The terror was so overwhelming that for a moment Shen Xiu wished her fire palm had been full strength, or that they had both been consumed by the flames. Anything would be better than this.
Xiang Yun seemed to feel the wave of her despair, for a satisfied smile spread on his lips behind the mask. "Ah, yes. You're beginning to understand. But we're not done yet. This is the cleverest part."
His finger now drew a circle around the entire rune matrix, linking all the lines into a unified, terrifying pattern. "This final circle is the obedience clause. It rewrites your most basic instinct. Meaning, your will to resist me... will disappear. Any command I give, no matter how degrading or against your will, your body and soul will obey without question. You might even hate me in your mind, but your body..." He paused, his finger stopping for a second before tracing the final line, descending between her soft breasts, completing the seal. "...your body will be mine."
When the last stroke was completed, the entire inscription glowed with an intense golden light for a moment before sinking under Shen Xiu's skin, disappearing completely from sight.
No visible mark remained, but Shen Xiu felt it. She felt as if an invisible cage was closing around her soul. She felt the hooks piercing her consciousness. She felt her own will being subdued by a powerful and inescapable force.
"Slave..." the final thought was not a scream, but a broken whisper of defeat in her mind. "He... he has turned me into his slave. Everything... is lost."
Tears continued to fall, but now they were not of anger or fear. They were tears of absolute despair, the silent mourning of an empress who had just died in that filthy alley, leaving behind only an empty shell at the mercy of her new master.
Xiang Yun clearly sensed her mind almost breaking.
With the slavery seal firmly implanted, Xiang Yun finished his work. The golden light dissipated beneath her skin, leaving behind an invisible and unbreakable cage in her soul.
"It's done!"
He stepped back, and his posture shifted. The cold precision of a master inscriptionist gave way to the arrogance of a conqueror. His eyes, visible through the slits of the demon mask, roamed over Shen Xiu's exposed body one last time, from her bare feet to the valley of her breasts, the greed and possessive desire gleaming shamelessly in his gaze.
'He… what is he going to do now?' Shen Xiu's mind screamed, her body bracing for a violation she now had no way to stop.
To her surprise, he leaned forward and, with a nearly casual motion, pulled her dress back down, covering her again.
'What!?'
He then raised a hand to her face, his fingers tracing the line of her jaw before brushing across her tear-stained cheek. The touch wasn't gentle; it was possessive, like an owner caressing a newly acquired pet.
"You see, tutor," he began, his voice now carrying a lewd and amused tone, that of a young pervert who knows he holds all the power. "I could do whatever I want with you, right here and now." His eyes dropped once again, tracing the curves beneath the fabric as if he could strip her again with just a glance. "And believe me, there are many things I want to do."
'Then do it! Just get it over with!' a desperate part of her thought, preferring immediate pain to this torturous anticipation.
"But..." he continued, his thumb hovering dangerously close to her trembling lips. "I'm a very patient man. For now, I won't force you to do anything… as long as you behave." The smile in his voice was unmistakable.
"Go back to your life, keep being the respected tutor of the Sacred Family. But remember, every second, who you belong to. Don't think about betraying me. Don't think about telling anyone. I'll see through your thoughts, and every word you say—I'll know."
He stepped away but paused before turning to leave. "Oh, and one more thing. I wouldn't try to remove the seal if I were you. The matrix is directly linked to your Soul Realm. Any external force that tries to break it... well, at best, your Soul Realm will shatter, turning you into a mindless cripple for the rest of your life. At worst..." He shrugged. "Let's just say death would be a mercy."
With that final warning hanging in the cold air, Xiang Yun turned and walked out of the alley without looking back, his figure disappearing into the shadows of the black market as swiftly as he had appeared.
He left her.
He really left her.
Shen Xiu remained there, the paralysis from the initial seal slowly beginning to fade, the sensation returning to her limbs like painful pins and needles. But she didn't move. She was completely stunned.
'He... he's gone?'
Her mind, which had prepared for the worst imaginable fate, couldn't process what had just happened.
He had control over her body.
He literally had it in his hands. He had humiliated her, stripped her, marked her like cattle, and terrified her to her very soul. He could have completed his domination in any way he wished, and she wouldn't have been able to do anything but cry.
But he didn't. He warned her, threatened her... and walked away.
Confusion battled terror in her heart. Why? Was it some kind of twisted mercy? A sadistic game to prolong her suffering? She couldn't understand his logic.
Letting her go seemed like a monumental tactical error for someone who had just created such a powerful enemy. Unless... unless letting her go had been the plan all along.
The idea that she was more useful to him free than captive, an involuntary spy in the heart of one of the most powerful families, began to take shape in her mind, bringing with it a new layer of frozen horror. He didn't just want her as a plaything; he wanted her as a tool.
Slowly, with an effort that felt monumental, she managed to move her fingers. The paralysis was fading, but the golden seal in her soul, the collar of her enslavement, remained, a cold and permanent weight she knew she would carry forever. She was free to go, but she would never truly be free again.