Chapter 5429

Artemis strode forward, exhilaration still coloring her voice. “Summon every disciple. Front courtyard-now!” she ordered the nearest acolyte.

Moments later, more than three hundred women in snowy robes formed crisp ranks beneath the morning sky, pure spiritual currents dancing like silver mist around their figures.

But the moment their gazes found Jared, martial composure shattered. Desire-raw, unguarded-flared in their eyes, hotter than the golden power they’d tasted during fusion. Each of them carried the memory of a breakthrough and bliss stitched into the fabric of her soul, and that memory now pulled toward him like iron filings to a lodestone.

Standing at their head, Artemis felt the heat of those stares burning her back. A faint rose tint blossomed on her cheeks, yet pride glimmered beneath the blush. She lifted her chin, determined to harness this storm of loyalty and longing for the battle to come.

Artemis’s chest rose and fell with a hush no one heard. The memory of sharing blood and power with Jared still sang beneath her skin, every heartbeat promising that impossible rush of strength-and the quiet thrill of feeling their souls threading into one. That remembered brightness tugged at her even now, whispering that one more union could push her cultivation higher, could strip away every wall between them until the universe itself bent to their joined will.

Had Aurelius not been standing so politely to the side, she might have abandoned every last shred of sect-leader composure, crossed the room, and folded herself into Jared’s waiting arms without a second thought.

Aurelius caught the unspoken storm in her eyes. The corner of his mouth curled upward—a small, knowing smile that vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, like sunlight slipping through storm clouds.