The Great Qin Dynasty, Tianshi Court.

“Your Highness, everything is ready. You may enter.”

A maid knelt low, her voice trembling.

Seraphina Whitehaven, wrapped in a crimson gown that clung to her blazing curves, lifted her chin. The sharp glint in her fox‑bright eyes burned with impatience. “No matter what happens inside,” she said, each word biting cold, “no one is to come in.”

She was the daughter of the current Grand Tianshi, and the Crown Princess in name. After giving her order, she pushed the door open and stepped into the chamber.

Inside, a young man lay unconscious.

It was Leisure Thornwell—the Sixth Prince of Great Qin.

“Leisure Thornwell, Leisure Thornwell… all these years, I wouldn’t even let the Crown Prince touch me. All for this moment.”

“Everyone praises you for carrying the Pure Yang bloodline. But they know nothing… I, Seraphina Whitehaven, bear the Pure Yin bloodline.”

“Once I take your Pure Yang force, my foundation will soar beyond measure. From then on, nothing will bind me.”

“What I seek was never the position of Crown Princess. I want to become an empress in my own right.”

Her voice grew wilder, breath unsteady, eyes reflecting a greed sharp enough to cut. She pulled out a pink elixir and pressed it past Leisure Thornwell’s lips.

Within a few breaths, feeling the medicine take hold, her hesitation vanished.

……

At that moment, Leisure Thornwell’s consciousness crawled back from the abyss.

Confusion tangled in his chest as he slowly opened his eyes.

Seraphina Whitehaven’s figure filled his vision the instant sight returned, her silhouette burning like a looming omen.

A ringing crack exploded inside his skull, as if someone had slammed an invisible hammer straight into him.

“Didn’t I get ambushed by the Taihao Divine Emperor and the Yaochi Divine Mother? Didn’t I already fall to ashes?”

“What… is this?”

“Why… why is the misery of my youth happening all over again? Am I trapped in some illusion?”

Leisure Thornwell’s eyes trembled for a heartbeat, then sharpened with a sudden, blazing clarity.

“No… this isn’t an illusion.”

“I’ve been reborn.”

“Back to my younger years.”

“Back to the most wretched, humiliating chapter of my life.”

Three years ago, he had awakened the Pure Yang Bloodline, shaking the entire Great Qin Empire to its core.

And from that moment, Crown Prince Cedric Thornwell had wanted him dead.

Seraphina Whitehaven, the Crown Prince’s consort, offered her schemes like a blade wrapped in silk. She poisoned Leisure, igniting his Pure Yang Bloodline and throwing him into endless torment. The Yang poison burned him day and night, leaving him no choice but to crawl to the Tianshi Court again and again, begging for pills just to stay alive.

For three full years, every pill Seraphina fed him had been a Resentful Yang Pill.

That pill made the power of his Pure Yang Bloodline gather and fester inside him without release. Her plan was cruel and simple—wait until the accumulation reached its peak, then swallow all of his Pure Yang power herself, merging Yin and Yang, and help her father overthrow the throne.

In his past life, after Seraphina devoured his Pure Yang Bloodline, she still refused to kill him. She found his suffering entertaining. So she kept him alive, locked away, using him as a toy she didn’t want to discard.

But in the end, her rebellion failed. The current Qin Emperor might look like a dying old man, but he was a venomous beast of the throne. Ruthless to the marrow, he’d even refine pills from the flesh and blood of his own children for the sake of longevity.

Even the half-dead Leisure Thornwell had been useful to him—trash could still be thrown into the furnace.

Fortunately, Celestine Austin, his childhood companion, had risen quickly in her sect. She arrived at the last possible moment and risked her own life to save him from the Emperor’s claws.

By then, Leisure’s life source had been shattered beyond repair. Celestine ignored the danger to herself, searching for help everywhere, begging, bargaining, trying every method she could find…

In the search for a spirit herb to heal Leisure Thornwell, Celestine Austin met a fatal mishap—her fragrance faded, her life scattered like dust.

Leisure Thornwell fell into utter despair. With nothing left to hold onto, he climbed a cliff and stepped into emptiness, wishing only for death. But fate twisted—he was caught in a spatial rift and flung into the Tianjie.

There, chance favored him. In a mere hundred years, he rose to become the strongest human cultivator of the Tianjie.

It was then that the supreme immortal artifact, the Hongmeng Cauldron, emerged. He joined forces with his friend, the Taihao God Emperor, and the Yaoci Divine Mother to seize it.

Under Leisure Thornwell’s fierce onslaught, the three of them crushed the ten alien God Emperors.

Yet just as the Hongmeng Cauldron fell into his hands, the Taihao God Emperor and the Yaoci Divine Mother struck him together.

He had never guarded against them. In that instant… he was erased, body and soul scattered.

At that moment, he noticed it—within his elixir field, a small cauldron was quietly floating.

It was… the Hongmeng Cauldron.

Could it be… the Hongmeng Cauldron that pulled me back to my youth? he wondered silently.

This was the fabled treasure that sparked endless slaughter every time it surfaced in the Tianjie. Countless peak experts had bled for it, yet no one had ever truly controlled it. No one knew its secrets.

Leisure Thornwell was about to probe it, to see what mysteries hid within the Hongmeng Cauldron—

Suddenly, the pure yang force in his body surged out wildly, being drained even faster by Seraphina Whitehaven.

His mind snapped back. His gaze turned icy.

Seraphina Whitehaven… Crown Prince… Father Emperor… Taihao… Yaoci… now that I live again, none of you will ever hurt me!

Celestine… last life, you struggled for me, endured pain, humiliation, even death… I owe you far too much.

This time, I will repay you. I will protect you.

His body was in ruins, breath weak, spirit frayed.

But right now… was the perfect chance.

Seraphina Whitehaven had treated him like a living furnace.

Fine—he could just as easily make her his.

Her so‑called secret art looked crude to Leisure Thornwell, laughable even. He had a hundred ways to turn yin and yang on their heads.

Moments slipped by.

The pure Yin within Seraphina braided itself tightly with the pure Yang inside Leisure. Just as she was about to draw all that power into her own body—

The boy who’d been lying limp and lifeless suddenly tensed. In one fierce pull, he swallowed the fused energy whole.

In an instant, the body that had been battered and weak beyond saving was reforged—fed by the vast, pristine tide of yin and yang until it felt solid again, alive again.

“Aah!”

Seraphina cried out, her voice sharp with pain. Her eyes snapped open—and froze.

The youth she thought unconscious was staring right back at her.

“My yin–yang power…” Her face twisted, fury contorting her delicate features until she looked ready to tear Leisure apart with her teeth.

“Give it back!” she screamed, lunging for his throat with both hands.

Leisure caught her wrists mid‑air, his grip like iron.

Her scheme had shattered. She’d lost a huge portion of her pure Yin, her breathing was a mess, her strength scattered. She couldn’t break free from him even if her life depended on it.

There was still a bit of pure Yin inside her. He wasn’t about to waste it.

Holding the advantage, Leisure pressed on.

Seraphina felt the last of the cold Yin leaking out of her like water slipping through cracked stone. Terror washed over her, and she choked out, “Leisure… please…”

“I’m the Crown Prince’s Consort…”

Leisure let out a low, cold laugh.

There was no lust in his eyes—only a chill sharp enough to cut bone.