Upon arriving back at the chamber, his women hurried to his side, their faces etched with fatigue. Shen Yu held up the jade bottle, the blue-gold light of the pill shimmering through the translucent stone.

"The pill is finished," he stated, his voice raspy from the alchemical fumes.

Lixue took the bottle with trembling hands, her eyes bright with hope. She carefully moved to the bedside and tried to place the pill against her mother’s lips, but Yilan’s jaw was locked tight in a trauma-induced trance.

Even when they managed to part her lips, the pill sat motionless on her tongue; her throat was unresponsive, her body refusing to cooperate with the healing process.

"Can we not use our Qi to push it down and help it dissolve?" Meng Yan asked, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"No," Shen Yu interjected sharply. "Her internal state is a storm of fractured energy. If any external Qi, even ours, enters her system right now, it will clash with the pill’s potency and tear her meridians apart. It would be an execution, not a cure."

Lixue looked at her mother, her voice breaking. "Then... then what do we do? She can’t swallow, and we can’t force it."

Shen Yu let out a heavy, calculated sigh. "The pill must be dissolved manually and delivered with a steady, natural warmth. We have to crush it and pass it to her... mouth-to-mouth."

A stunned silence fell over the room. "What?" all three women whispered in unison, their eyes widening.

"It is the only way to ensure the medicine bypasses her internal defenses without triggering a Qi rejection," Shen Yu said, his face a mask of grim, professional necessity. "Is there anyone among you willing to do it?"

The room went still. Lixue looked down, her face heating up at the thought of such an act, even with her own mother. Meng Yan and Xu Yi glanced at each other, trapped between their devotion to Shen Yu and the sheer intimacy of the task.

No one spoke.

"Fine," Shen Yu rumbled, his tone echoing with the weight of a martyr. "I will do it then."

He approached the bed and sat beside the unconscious Matriarch. He placed his hands on either side of her face, his thumbs grazing her pale, cool skin. As he looked down at her, her features were a more mature, regal version of Lixue’s, and a dark, predatory thought flickered through his mind. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

’She is breathtaking even in this state,’ he mused. The architect of the Tang Clan’s grace. ’How much more beautiful will she be when that regal composure finally breaks beneath me?’

’Control yourself,’ he chided his lustful thoughts, though the smirk didn’t entirely leave his soul. First, we mend the prize.

He placed the sky-blue pill into his own mouth, careful not to let his saliva dissolve it too early. With one hand, he gently pried Yilan’s jaw open; with the other, he supported the back of her neck, tilting her head to the perfect angle.

Then, he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.

The three women watched from the shadows, a strange, tangled knot of jealousy and awe tightening in their chests. To Lixue, it was a moment of seeing his man kissing her own mother, which was quite thrilling to her even if the situation was serious.

To Meng Yan and Xu Yi, it was a display of terrifyingly tender possessiveness. It looked like a saint bestowing the breath of life upon a fallen goddess, but for Shen Yu, it was the first taste of a conquest he intended to savor for a lifetime.

As his lips remained locked against hers, Shen Yu began to break down the pill. The sky-blue medicine didn’t just dissolve; it reacted to his Yang-heavy saliva, turning into a viscous, glowing nectar that tasted of crushed lotus and electricity.

He deepened the kiss, his tongue working with a practiced, rhythmic precision to guide the essence past her clenched teeth. What had started as a clinical necessity quickly spiraled. He tilted her head back further, his fingers tangling in her silk-soft hair, pressing her into the mattress as he forced the healing nectar down her throat.

A few minutes passed, the heat in the room rising to a stifling degree. Suddenly, the potent energy of the pill sparked. Yilan’s body jolted, a sharp gasp catching in her throat, and her eyes flew open.

Confusion instantly turned to raw, unfiltered shock. She saw the face of her nephew, the son of her dearest friend, blurred and dangerously close, his mouth devouring hers. Panic flared. Her hands, cold and trembling, flew up to slam against his broad chest, trying to shove him away. She shook her head violently, a muffled protest dying in her throat.

"Mother, stop!" Lixue’s voice pierced the haze, frantic and tearful. "He’s saving you! He’s pushing the medicine into your body!"

Hearing her daughter’s voice, Yilan’s struggles slowed. She felt the cool, electric pulse of the pill essence finally sliding down her throat, mending the scorched pathways of her esophagus. A deep, involuntary flush crept up her neck and settled into her cheeks. She went still, her eyes wide as she realized the "sacrificing" nature of the act.

But now that she was awake, Shen Yu became even more proactive. He didn’t pull away; instead, he began to play with her tongue, his movements bold and demanding. Yilan’s mind was a whirlwind. She told herself he was merely ensuring every drop of the medicine was delivered, that this was the work of a devoted healer.

But as the seconds ticked by, the passive pheromones of his Heaven’s Charm began to bleed into the kiss. The aggressive, intoxicating scent of him filled her senses, clouding her judgment. Her own tongue, betraying her logic, began to stir. Slowly, tentatively, she began to move against his, her movements mirroring his rhythm.

The room was silent, the others watching in rapt attention, but Meng Yan’s eyes narrowed. As the highest-level cultivator present after Yilan, she could see the subtle shift in the Matriarch’s posture, the way her fingers curled into Shen Yu’s hair rather than pushing him away.

’My man is truly built different,’ Meng Yan thought, a surge of heat blooming in her own thighs.

’He didn’t even spare his mother-in-law.’