Harem Master: Seduction System

Chapter 491: The Pill Mistress’s Tribute

When the three-foot-thick profound-steel door of the subterranean Black-Ledger Vault finally rolled open on the morning of the sixty-first day, the warm summer sun was shining brightly over the canals of Jade-River City.

Up in the outer marble courtyard of Jade-River Pavilion, the four Half-Step Martial Emperor Inner Shadow Guards, Eunuch Feng, Eunuch Liu, and Commander Jin immediately dropped to one knee as the seven Imperial Consorts and Guildmaster Lin Ruoli ascended the winding white-marble stairs into the daylight, followed quietly by the veiled Lyra and Cassandra, the two maids Kara and Ulriya, and the unassuming gray-robed Steward Alaric.

To the eyes of the four Inner Shadow Guards who had accompanied Consort Mei and Consort Lan from the Imperial Capital two months earlier, their two mistresses looked more regal, powerful, and radiant than ever before.

Consort Mei, Mei Aoxue, wore a fresh, impeccably tailored court gown of dark-plum silk, her jet-black hair pinned neatly with her silver throwing daggers and her aura radiating the razor-sharp pressure of a Late-Stage Martial King standing half a step from the Peak.

Beside her, Consort Lan, Lan Caihe, glided forward in a lush lavender-and-violet orchid robe, her fair, sultry face glowing with youthful vitality and her newly ascended Late-Stage Martial King aura humming with rich wood-and-fire energy.

Not one of the guards kneeling on the flagstones had the faintest suspicion that beneath their crisp royal silks, both Mei Aoxue and Lan Caihe had spent the entire night on their hands and knees being bred raw by the humble “steward” walking six paces behind them—or that sixty percent of the Emperor’s secret Black-Ledger vault downstairs now consisted of enchanted river stones!

“Captain Ying,” Consort Mei spoke in her cold, crisp, authoritative voice as she stepped into the center of the courtyard and held up a sealed black-iron scroll stamped with all seven Imperial Consort seals. “Consort Lan and I have completed the sixty-day refinement of the eighty thousand reserve pill flasks and verified every line of the Wartime Logistics Directorate’s ledgers. There is not a single discrepancy in Imperial Consort De’s or Guildmaster Lin Ruoli’s accounts.”

“Furthermore,” Consort Lan Caihe added smoothly, gesturing toward forty sealed wagons waiting by the eastern courtyard gate, “because the Rimefrost Imperium’s winter legions have begun seasonal skirmishes along the northern passes, all seven of us Imperial Consorts have jointly decreed that instead of shipping these freshly refined combat pills and Black-Ledger spirit stones back west to sit idle in the capital, we will personally escort the supply train north through Cloud-Mist City and Iron-Blood Pass to reinforce the northern defensive line! Send a relay rider to His Majesty in the capital with this signed audit scroll today!”

“Yes, Consort Mei! Yes, Consort Lan!” Captain Ying and the other three Half-Step Martial Emperor Inner Shadow Guards bowed without hesitation, accepting the seven-seal scroll and dispatching a fast courier toward the capital at once.

Four days later, the grand procession returned to the heavily warded three-acre inner sanctuary of Cloud-Mist City—where Princesses Huang Mei and Huang Hua, Princess Gu Ling, Ling Ying, Queen Cai Wei, Grand Elder Yun Lan, Princess Hai Lan, Mu Qing, Saintess Ceanna Paxton, Archmage Lilliana Valtor, Ya Su, the Yue mother-and-daughter pair, and the Su twins welcomed the returning group with open arms.

That evening, inside the sound-severed strategy hall overlooking the steaming Jade-Lotus Pool, Alaric sat in his high-backed sandalwood chair at the head of the dark jade table.

The atmosphere in the strategy hall was electric.

Sitting or standing around the table were now seven of Emperor Huang Long’s ten official wives—Noble Consort Cui Yulan, Imperial Consort De Yan Ruyu, Consort Mei Aoxue, Imperial Consort Xian Zhao Mengxue, Imperial Consort Shu Su Xinyue, Consort Lan Caihe, and Virtuous Consort Ning Wan’er—alongside Matriarch Lyra Steele, Aunt Cassandra Galanis, Guildmaster Lin Ruoli, Chief Auctioneer Ya Su, Princess Gu Ling, Ling Ying, and Princesses Huang Mei and Huang Hua.

Even before the strategic briefing began, Mei Aoxue and Lan Caihe made their devotion abundantly clear to the entire household: Mei Aoxue stood directly behind Alaric’s right shoulder massaging his neck with her cool, slender hands while shooting proud, possessive glances at the other women, while Lan Caihe knelt openly beside his left knee on a silk cushion, happily feeding him peeled spirit-grapes with her fingers and rubbing her massive, violet-silk-clad breasts against his thigh like a pampered cat.

“Tell me what your Shadow-Plum intelligence network has gathered over the past forty-eight hours since we reconnected your cipher relays, Aoxue,” Alaric said, swallowing a sweet grape from Lan Caihe’s fingers and giving the royal alchemist’s plump cheek an affectionate pat.

Mei Aoxue stepped forward half a pace, tapping a dark-crimson fingernail against a silver cipher cylinder resting on the map table.

“Because my Shadow-Plum Pavilion operates independently of both the Ministry of War and the Censorate, our informants inside the Imperial Capital and along the northern Rimefrost border continued sending weekly encrypted reports to the Cloud-Mist dead-drop while we were in the vault, Master,” Mei Aoxue reported, her voice crisp and deeply respectful toward Alaric. “First, inside the Imperial Capital, only three high-ranking wives remain beside Emperor Huang Long: Empress Feng Mian, Noble Consort Rong—who is the biological mother of Second Prince Huang Xuan—and the array grandmaster Consort Zhu.”

Alaric’s ruby eyes gleamed thoughtfully at the three names.

‘Consort Zhu, Noble Consort Rong, and Empress Feng Mian,’ Alaric noted silently. ‘Those are the final three rungs of the ten-step ladder that stands between me and Level 70.’

“What is keeping the three of them inside the capital right now?” Lyra asked from Alaric’s right side, leaning her chin on her hand as her blue eyes studied the northern map.

“The northern border war with the Rimefrost Imperium,” Mei Aoxue answered, sliding three carved ice-wolf markers onto the mountain range seven hundred miles north of Cloud-Mist Province. “Over the past two months, while we were in Jade-River City, the Rimefrost Imperium’s ruler—Empress Anastasia Volkov, a True Martial Emperor of the Frost Dao—deployed two more Winter Legions to the Frozen Heaven Passes. Her niece and vanguard commander, Grand Duchess Svetlana Volkov, who is a Peak-Stage Martial King, has already broken two outer watchtowers held by the Third Prince’s army.”

“And how is Emperor Huang Long responding to that?” Cui Yulan asked, her silver eyes narrowing with a commander’s sharp focus.

“Huang Long still refuses to leave the capital himself because he fears the Frost Empress will circle around to strike the capital’s northern leyline if he steps out of the Nine-Dragon Formation,” Mei Aoxue explained with a cold smirk. “However, my palace spies report that if the Third Prince’s northern array walls show any further signs of cracking over the next two months, Huang Long plans to send Consort Zhu—our Inner Court’s foremost Jade-Bamboo Array Grandmaster—north to reinforce the border formations, followed by Second Prince Huang Xuan and his mother, Noble Consort Rong, to oversee the northern reserve armies!”

Hearing that, Zhao Mengxue and Su Xinyue exchanged a wicked, thrilled glance across the table.

“If Huang Long sends Consort Zhu and Noble Consort Rong north toward our provinces to shore up the border,” Su Xinyue purred, “they will have to pass right through our logistics network—just like Sister Ruyu, Sister Wan’er, Sister Mei, and Sister Lan did!”

“And we can make sure the Third Prince’s northern array walls crack much faster than Huang Long expects, Master,” Consort Lan Caihe chimed in eagerly from beside Alaric’s knee, lifting her round, sultry face with a devious glint in her bedroom eyes. “The eighty thousand flasks of combat and Qi-recovery pills that we are shipping north tomorrow to the Third Prince’s camp and the capital’s loyalist garrisons were all personally re-refined by me in the vault! At Master’s instruction, I mixed a trace of Slow-Veil Lotus Powder into the Third Prince’s batches—anyone who takes those pills in battle will feel a temporary rush of warmth, followed two hours later by a thirty percent drop in their Qi recovery speed! Meanwhile, all the true Seventh-Grade pills and supreme herbs from the Imperial Pill Vaults are stored right here for Master’s own armies and women!”

Alaric smiled approvingly, running his fingers through Lan Caihe’s soft dark hair. “Good girl, Caihe. Weakening the Third Prince’s camp by thirty percent will guarantee that the northern arrays falter before autumn—forcing Huang Long to send Consort Zhu and Noble Consort Rong straight out of their turtle shell in the capital.”

“There is one more urgent piece of intelligence from my northern Shadow-Plum scouts, Master,” Mei Aoxue said, moving her finger to a jagged, ice-covered canyon thirty miles south of the Rimefrost border called Shattered Glacier Valley. “It concerns those four fugitive Peak Martial Kings who tried to raid your temple here in Cloud-Mist City five months ago: the Flame King Feng Xiao, the Sea Devil Long Chen, the Soul Eater Qin Wu, and that scarred swordsman Corbin.”

At the mention of those four names, Princess Gu Ling, Queen Cai Wei, Grand Elder Yun Lan, Princess Hai Lan, and Mu Qing—who were seated along the second tier of silk cushions beside the lotus pool doors—all looked up with cold, attentive eyes.

“What have those four stray dogs been doing up in the snow for the past five months?” Queen Cai Wei asked, a cruel smile curving her red lips as she recalled how pathetic Feng Xiao had looked outside the cathedral glass.

“For the first three months after Elder Gu Shan injured them, they hid inside an abandoned dwarf mine near the volcanic belt to heal their broken bones,” Mei Aoxue reported precisely. “Over the past two months, however, they have been ambushing our imperial supply convoys in the northern gorges to steal spirit stones and medicinal herbs. More importantly—three days ago, one of my top Shadow-Plum scouts intercepted a secret spirit-hawk message between the scarred swordsman Corbin and a forward scout of the Rimefrost Imperium’s vanguard commander, Grand Duchess Svetlana Volkov!”

Alaric’s eyebrows lifted slightly in genuine interest. “Oh? Corbin and Feng Xiao are reaching out to the Rimefrost Imperium’s Grand Duchess?”

“Yes, Master,” Mei Aoxue nodded. “According to the intercepted cipher, Feng Xiao and Long Chen need a rare northern treasure called the Ten-Thousand-Year Glacial Heart-Lotus—which only grows inside the Rimefrost Imperium’s royal ice-gardens—to forge a pill that they believe can break ‘high-tier soul-enslavement hexes’ and push their own strength past the Half-Step Martial Emperor threshold. In exchange for Grand Duchess Svetlana bringing them a stalk of that Glacial Heart-Lotus, the four fugitives offered to hand over the captured patrol schedules of the Third Prince’s eastern mountain passes! The meeting between the four fugitives and Grand Duchess Svetlana’s detachment is set to take place twelve days from now at midnight inside Shattered Glacier Valley!”

Silence fell over the strategy room for three seconds before Aunt Cassandra Galanis burst into a rich, delighted laugh.

“Wait—let me get this straight!” Cassandra grinned, slapping her thigh as her purple eyes danced with amusement. “Those four lovesick idiots still think Gu Ling, Cai Wei, Yun Lan, Hai Lan, and Mu Qing are under a brainwashing curse, so they are committing literal treason with the Rimefrost Imperium’s Grand Duchess just to buy a flower to ‘cure’ women who were riding Alaric’s cock by choice half an hour ago?!”

Beside the lotus pool doors, Princess Gu Ling’s fair cheeks turned a bright, rosy crimson, though a cold, disdainful curve touched her soft lips as she smoothed her lavender silk skirt over her lap.

“Feng Xiao always believed that the entire world revolved around his alchemy and his righteous vows,” Gu Ling said quietly, her starry eyes looking toward Alaric with pure, unshakeable devotion. “Even after I looked him in the eye from the temple balcony and ordered my clan elders to kill him, his pride still won’t let him accept that my heart and body belong to Master.”

Alaric leaned back in his sandalwood chair, tapping his fingers once against the armrest as a clean, effortless strategic play formed in his mind.

He did not need to waste his own strength fighting those four fugitives in a barren glacier, nor did he want them quietly trading intelligence with the Rimefrost Imperium without his permission.

Even better—here was the perfect opportunity to turn Emperor Huang Long’s own military machine against the four “Sons of Destiny” while simultaneously testing the strength of the Rimefrost Imperium’s Grand Duchess Svetlana Volkov!

“Lin Ruoli, Yan Ruyu, Aoxue,” Alaric said calmly, his ruby eyes gleaming in the lantern light. “Twelve days is more than enough time to arrange a very lively welcoming party at Shattered Glacier Valley. Today, using General Bao’s duplicated Imperial Vanguard Tiger-Seal that Kara and Ulriya copied at Iron-Blood Pass, along with Yan Ruyu’s and Aoxue’s official tokens, send an urgent, top-secret military directive to General Bao and the four Half-Step Martial Emperor Royal Guardians stationed at the Northern River Crossing.”

Lin Ruoli’s dark eyes lit up immediately with sharp comprehension. “You want us to give General Bao and the Royal Guardians the exact time and coordinates of the midnight meeting in Shattered Glacier Valley!”

“Not only that,” Alaric smiled smoothly. “Have Aoxue’s Shadow-Plum scouts plant visual recording crystals around the rim of Shattered Glacier Valley beforehand. When General Bao and the four Half-Step Martial Emperor Royal Guardians catch Feng Xiao, Long Chen, Qin Wu, and Corbin red-handed in the middle of the night trading imperial border maps with Grand Duchess Svetlana of the Rimefrost Imperium—and we send that crystal recording straight to Emperor Huang Long’s desk in the capital—even the Flame King’s old connections in Pill Valley won’t be able to save him from being hunted as the number-one traitor of the human race.”

“And what about Grand Duchess Svetlana Volkov of the Rimefrost Imperium, Master?” Noble Consort Cui Yulan asked, a knowing, playfully possessive smile touching her lips as she glanced at him. “I have fought the Rimefrost vanguard twice at the northern passes. Grand Duchess Svetlana is Empress Anastasia’s prized niece—a proud, icy beauty at the Peak of the Martial King realm with silver-white hair and a figure that every northern general whispers about. Are you going to let General Bao capture her?”

“General Bao is a blunt hammer,” Alaric chuckled, standing up from the strategy table and reaching out to pull both Consort Mei Aoxue and Consort Lan Caihe into his arms while gesturing for Lyra, Cassandra, Cui Yulan, and Lin Ruoli to follow him toward the inner bedchamber. “He and the four Royal Guardians will have their hands more than full fighting four desperate prodigies and the Rimefrost frost-cavalry at the same time. In five days, a small group of us will travel north in my warded flying carriage to watch the fireworks over Shattered Glacier Valley from a comfortable distance—and make sure the pieces fall exactly where I want them.”