The village square of the Orycto tribe was usually a place of rhythmic, predictable labor, but today the peace was shattered by a sharp, panicked scream that echoed from the northern storage sheds.

Long Zhan, who had been standing near the central fire pit with his arms crossed, turned his head with the precision of a hawk. His violet eyes narrowed as a thick, the plume of black smoke began to rise against the backdrop of the mountain peaks.

"Fire! The charcoal stores are igniting!" someone shrieked.

In a tribe that relied on deep-earth insulation and wood-framed structures, fire was a death sentence. The Orycto tribe did not have a blacksmith; their tools were bone, stone, and rare traded metals.

However, they maintained a vital "Fire Pit"—a deep, lined trench where specialized Fire Handlers kept a perpetual ember burning to provide warmth and heat for cooking.

These handlers were responsible for the tribe’s life-force, managing the high-quality charcoal produced from the dense, oily hardwoods of the mountain.

Somehow, the fire had leapt from the trench. A rogue spark, aided by an unusually dry gust of wind, had landed in the primary charcoal shed. The oily wood didn’t just burn; it roared.

Long Zhan’s first instinct was to return to the cottage. His soul felt a tether pulling him back to Lin Wan. But the Chief of the tribe rushed toward him, his face pale and eyes wide with terror.

"Lord Zhan! The smoke! If the wind shifts, it will reach the nursery burrows!" the Chief cried, his voice cracking with desperation. "Our Fire Handlers cannot contain the oil-fire. Please, help us!"

Long Zhan looked toward the cottage, then at the billowing black smoke. If he stayed, the tribe would be decimated. His pride as a High-Ranked Beastman warred with his possessiveness, but his duty to the weak won out—a decision Su Mei had gambled on with lethal accuracy.

"Davy!" Long Zhan barked, his voice cutting through the panic. "Guard the cottage. Let no one in or out,I feel this can’t have happened for no reason".

The silent Dragon warrior nodded, stepping toward the path to Lin Wan’s home. Satisfied, Long Zhan turned toward the fire.

He didn’t use water; he used the sheer pressure of his aura to create a vacuum. He leapt toward the shed, his golden skin shimmering under the heat as he began to beat back the flames with waves of raw, concentrated energy.

While the Dragon Lord was occupied with saving the tribe, Lin Wan was already tied up by the Soul-Draining Vine. The obsidian tendrils had coiled tightly around her limbs, their thorns piercing her skin to drink directly from her meridian flow.

Within her, the mysterious pregnancy was also draining her essence, the unborn cubs reacting to the external threat by pulling even more greedily from their mother’s core.

[Host! Warning! Essence levels at 5%... 4%...] Weiwei’s voice was a frantic alarm in her mind. [Initiating emergency system energy transfer. I will keep your vital organs functioning, but I cannot stop the external drain!]

The pain and the sudden loss of energy were too much for her mortal frame. Lin Wan’s head fell back, her dark hair spilling over the black vines like ink, and she fainted into a terrifying, cold darkness.

Back at the village, the last of the fire gasped its final breath as Long Zhan crushed the air out of the shed. He stood amidst the charred remains, his chest heaving, when a sharp, cold pang shot through his heart.

He looked immediately toward the clearing where the females had gathered for the lesson, but the radiant figure in the white tunic was nowhere to be seen.

He moved with a speed that blurred the air, arriving at the circle of rabbit-females in a heartbeat.

"Where is she?" he demanded, his voice a low growl that made the ground vibrate.

"Female Lin... she went back to her cottage," Lilly stammered, her eyes wide with fear. "She said she had to check on something".

Long Zhan didn’t wait for another word. He took off running, a dark feeling of impending doom clawing at his insides. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The moment he reached the cottage, his worst fears were realized. The door was ajar, and inside, the space was ransacked.

furs were scattered on the floor, and the small, hand-carved box that held her most precious token lay empty and discarded.

He didn’t need to wait for his men to catch up. His eyes locked onto the snag of white fur on the doorframe and the trail of flattened grass leading toward the ridge. He let out a sound that wasn’t human—a vibration of pure, draconic fury.

By then, the other dragons and several of the tribe’s strongest males had realized the fire was merely a distraction. They ran after Long Zhan, their footfalls like thunder on the forest floor.

The females, led by a struggling Lilly and Ember, tried to follow, but their males caught them, pulling them back for their own safety.

"Let me go! Wanwan is in danger!" Lilly screamed, but she was scooped up and carried toward the safety of the burrows.

The village fell into a tense, prayerful silence, everyone waiting for news of the female who had promised them a better life.

Long Zhan reached the edge of the

Whispering Woods, his nostrils flaring as he caught the scent of fox musk mixed with the rot of the woods. He saw her then—Su Mei.

She was standing near the threshold of the deep forest, her white tail swaying slowly, a triumphant, malicious smile stretching across her face as she gazed into the shadows where she knew Lin Wan was dying.

The Dragon Lord didn’t shout. He moved like a shadow in the moonlight, covering the distance before Su Mei could even blink.

Before she could process the sound of the wind, Long Zhan’s hand was around her neck, lifting her off her feet with enough force to make her spine crack.

Her smile vanished, replaced by a bug-eyed expression of pure, unadulterated terror as she looked into the violet eyes of a god who had just found his reason to destroy.

"Where is she?" he hissed, his violet eyes burning with a light that promised a slow, agonizing end.

Su Mei clawed at his hand, her face turning purple. "I... I don’t... know... "she gasped.

Long Zhan’s grip tightened. I can smell the Woods on you, little fox. I can smell the guilt in your blood. If she is harmed, I will not just kill you. I will erase your lineage from the history of this world.

He didn’t wait for an answer. He flung Su Mei so hard that she gave a sickening thud. f

. . .

Back in the forest, Lin Wan’s heart was slowing. The vines were thick around her now, almost forming a cocoon. She was so cold.

. . .

Long Zhan walked closer to Su Mei and stood over the crumpled form of Su Mei, his shadow stretching across the dirt like the wings of a gargoyle.

Su Mei was gasping for air, her fingers clawing at the dust as she tried to drag her broken body away from him. The sound of her ribs grinding against each other was a sickening, rhythmic crunch that filled the silence of the square.

She had expected his anger, perhaps a roar, but she had not expected this—a quiet, clinical violence that treated her like a nuisance to be discarded.

"You... you cannot... kill me," Su Mei wheezed, blood bubbling at the corner of her mouth. Her fox ears were tattered, one hanging at a broken angle. "The law... it forbids... the slaying of females, so you can’t kill me."

Long Zhan stepped forward, his heavy boot coming down inches from her face. The ground beneath his foot cracked, spider-webbing out in a perfect circle. He leaned down, his violet eyes glowing with a lethal, crystalline light that made her soul shrivel.

"I know the laws of the Dao, you evil wench," Long Zhan whispered, his voice vibrating with a frequency that made the nearby wooden structures groan.

"I know I cannot take your life without a heavy price to pay. But the Dao says nothing about how many pieces I can break you into before I leave you to rot, I may not take. your life but I can definitely make you wish for death, but I promise you this, you will wish for it so much, but it shall elude your grasp, if anything should happen to her!."

In his mind, a cold, dark calculus was running.’ If the Heavenly Dao hadn’t put a restriction on killing females, I would have ended her life right here. I would have torn her throat out and fed her remains to the mountain kites’.

He reached out, grabbing her by her long, white tail. With a casual flick of his wrist, he swung her. Su Mei let out a strangled shriek as she flew through the air, her body hitting a massive, ancient oak tree on the edge of the clearing.

The ’thwack’ was followed by the unmistakable sound of more bones snapping, her leg, perhaps a shoulder, or her ribs, She slumped to the roots, gasping in agony, her vision swimming in a sea of red.