The thought of her name caused a sudden, violent wave of possessive anger and raw determination to flood his chest.

He closed his eyes for a split second, and his mind instantly flashed back to the distant past, to the memory of a secluded mountain cliff in the lower world, where a beautiful, cool-eyed female had used her medical knowledge to save his life from a deadly venomous wound.

He remembered the soft touch of her hands, the crisp, clean scent of her skin, and the way he had vowed to become a powerful five-stripe Guardian just to be worthy of standing by her side.

He had left her then to train in the deepest ancestral forests, but when he returned to find her, she was gone—taken away by the very man who now sat casually on the supreme throne of the heavens.

’It doesn’t matter if you have forgotten my face,’ the man vowed internally, his golden eyes narrowing into thin slits as he looked down at the glittering hall. ’The boundary wall is thinning in two weeks. Even if I have to break my own cultivation core to slip through the spatial rift, I am coming down to find you. I will claim my place at your side, Wanwan... and this time, no male, beasthusband or king will ever take you away from me.’

Suddenly, Wang’s hand froze mid-air, just an inch away from his jade wine cup.

His long, silver-tipped ears twitched slightly. He didn’t look up, but his instincts, sharper than any detection array in the universe, instantly registered a sudden spike of intense, burning hostility locking onto his body from the high dark pillars.

It wasn’t the clumsy, fearful jealousy of the council elders. It was the sharp, territorial malice of a warrior.

In a single, seamless flash of crimson light, Wang’s body vanished from the high throne, leaving his jade wine cup to hover perfectly in the empty air.

Up on the dark stone ledge, the cloaked man’s golden eyes widened slightly as his vision lost track of the target.

Before his heart could even beat a second time, a sudden, freezing weight dropped onto the air directly behind his shoulder blades.

Wang materialized out of the void, standing just two inches behind the cloaked figure.

The darkness of the corridor became instantly solid, the atmospheric pressure dropping so low that the stone walls began to let out a quiet, groaning sound. Wang did not attack, He simply stood there, his broad chest almost touching the back of the black cloak, his crimson eyes looking down at the stranger with an expression of absolute, murderous disgust.

The moment Wang stepped into this narrow space, a sudden wave of an extremely specific scent hit his nose. It wasn’t a feline smell. It was a sharp, high-altitude, piercing scent that felt incredibly pungent and offensive to his feline biology, the unmistakable aura of a powerful avian predator from the lower realm.

But beneath that pungent avian scent, there was something else, a faint, almost microscopic residue of an energetic signature that caused Wang’s core to vibrate with a sudden, violent flash of defensive jealousy.

It was the residual mark of a male who had once breathed the exact same air as his missing female.

"An eagle should not try to nest in a cat’s palace," Wang spoke, his voice smooth, low, and perfectly flat, yet it carried a deadly density that made the stranger’s breath instantly freeze in his throat. "Your gaze is entirely too loud, stranger. Give me a single reason why I should not extract your soul from your skin right now and feed it to the valley beasts."

The cloaked man did not turn around. He kept his back completely straight, using every single ounce of his five-stripe guardian cultivation to resist the crushing weight of the Patriarch’s aura. His face remained hidden beneath the deep hood, a cold, mocking smile cutting through his lips in the dark.

The news that Wang’s memories were sealed was known to the upper clans, so he knew about it, he just didn’t expect that the patriarch in question was Wang, He knew that the grand king standing behind him had absolutely no idea who he was looking at, even though he had watched Wang take Lin Wan away from the trees all those months ago.

"The Upper Realm belongs to the high clans, Patriarch," the man whispered, his voice low, slightly raspy, and entirely controlled as he carefully masked his true vocal frequency. "But the heavens cannot control the path of a wild bird. I have no interest in your throne, nor do I care for your alliance. I am merely passing through the ridges."

"You are carrying a scent that offends me," Wang murmured, his crimson eyes narrowing into thin, dangerous slits as he stepped a fraction of a second closer, his hand hovering near the back of the man’s neck.

The sudden urge to crush this specific male was instinctively higher than anyone he had met since his awakening. "If I see your shadow within the central territory again, I will not speak to your back. I will tear your wings from your body."

"Then I shall take my leave," the man murmured smoothly.

Before Wang’s hand could drop, the black cloak suddenly rippled like a sheet of liquid silk. With a sharp, sudden gust of wind that smelled of high mountain air, the figure completely dissolved into a dozen dark stone-grey feathers, vanishing through the open ventilation stone of the high palace ceiling into the starry night layout outside.

Wang stood alone on the dark stone ledge, his hand slowly dropping back to his side. He looked out into the empty night sky, his fist tightening until his bones let out a sharp, crisp click.

The stranger was gone, but the pungent scent remained trapped in his memory, fueling a dark, restless fire inside his chest that demanded he accelerate his plans to descend.

Meanwhile, down inside the peaceful sanctuary of the space, the atmosphere was entirely different, shifting back to the warm, heavy comfort of the modern estate.

The golden light of the setting sun had completely faded, leaving the wide kitchen and living room area illuminated by the soft, warm yellow glow of the modern recessed ceiling lamps.

The three cubs had finally fallen asleep after their heavy afternoon bath, their round, fluffy white bodies curled into a large, tangled pile of fur and tiny blue merman tails inside the soft velvet playpen in the corner.

Lin Wan stood beside the long quartz counter, her long hair falling loosely over her shoulders.

She wore a simple, soft grey tank top and loose cotton shorts, her slender fingers slowly wiping down the clean surface of the counter with a damp white cloth.

Her face was calm, but her breath was slightly deep, her mind still calculating the geographic lines of the upcoming boundary thinning.

A sudden, massive shadow fell over the kitchen tiles.

Long Zhan walked through the door from the rear courtyard. He had just finished securing the final perimeter arrays with Qin Mo, and his huge frame was radiating a thick, heavy heat.

He had discarded his shirt entirely, his massive, beautifully sculpted chest and six-pack stomach glistening with a light layer of sweat from the physical labor. His long hair hung loosely around his wide shoulders, and his sharp violet eyes were fixed entirely on Lin Wan’s back.

He didn’t make a sound as he strode over the polished floor, his large bare feet moving with absolute, predatory silence.

Before Lin Wan could even turn her head to look at him, a pair of warm, and heavily muscled arms wrapped securely around her waist from behind, locking her body directly against his hard, broad chest.

Lin Wan’s back pressed flat against his solid muscles, her breath catching slightly as she felt the intense, burning heat of his skin radiating through her thin tank top.

Long Zhan leaned his large head down, his sharp jaw brushing against the side of her soft neck as his hot breath fanned over her skin, his large fingers curling tightly around her hip bones with a sudden, unyielding strength

"You’re still working, Wanwan," Long Zhan whispered, his voice dropping into a low, deep, and intensely raspy rumble that vibrated directly against her spine.

The playful, boisterous attitude he usually carried was completely gone, replaced by a raw, heavy, and deeply possessive territorial instinct that had been building inside his chest for weeks. "The snake is already resting in the side hall, but my mind is too loud tonight. I can’t look at those maps anymore without thinking about what’s coming in two weeks, I don’t want to feel helpless as I did last time"

Lin Wan did not struggle against his hold. She rested her hands over his forearms, her cool eyes looking down at his large, tan fingers. "Long Zhan, the arrays are secure. There is nothing to be anxious about."

"I’m not anxious about those bastards, Wanwan," Long Zhan growled softly, his grip tightening just a fraction of a second more, his lips brushing against the soft curve of her earlobe as a wave of pure, intoxicating desire completely consumed his violet eyes.

He turned her body around within his arms until she was facing him, his large hands moving up to cup the sides of her neck, his thumbs rubbing against her pulse point with an intense, burning hunger.