The big gates at the front of the house groaned as thousands of people slammed against them from the outside.
The noise went all across the wide yard, followed by the scary sounds of wild shouting and hands scratching at the metal.
The five thousand high-rank warriors and wild beasts in the woods had completely lost their minds, driven totally crazy by the sweet smell coming from the house.
Inside the yard, things were turning into pure chaos. The house guards were trying to hold the line, but their faces were pale with fear. They could feel the push of the crowd outside.
"Keep your lines!" General Zhen Sheng roared, his deep voice cutting through the noise.
He was completely in military mode now, his usual pride replaced by focus. He ran down the front steps, his boots thudding against the ground as he reached the line of guards. He grabbed the captain by his coat, shoving him toward the left side.
"Double the line at the center crease," Zhen Sheng ordered, his golden eyes flashing as he looked at the bending gates. "If those gates pop open, do not run back. You use your shields and push them right back into the dirt. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, General!" the captain yelled back, moving fast to follow the command.
Zhen Sheng did not look back at the main house. He was furious. He was a top leader, and the idea of a wild crowd breaking down his doors and destroying his things was a massive insult to his high placement. He wasn’t fighting to protect anyone out of kindness; he was fighting because his pride refused to let these madmen win.
Up on the wide front porch, Prince Jing Yuchen stood perfectly still by the main door. His face was entirely pale, and his violet eyes were dark with deep concentration. He raised both of his long hands, his palms facing the outer wall of the place.
A big wave of freezing Enigma power shot out from his fingers. The air around the porch turned cold fast, so cold that the air turned to ice. A thick, glowing blue wall of ice and ozone power began to crawl across the entire front wall, closing the cracks and making the gates stronger.
"Hold the line!" Jing Yuchen said, his voice carrying a dangerous edge. "My blue wall will take the first physical hit, but you must keep the yard safe."
A young guard near the steps shook, his eyes turning a bit cloudy as he breathed in the stray sweetness still floating in the air from the house. "The smell... it is too thick, Your Highness."
Jing Yuchen glanced back toward the inside hallway, his jaw clenching tight. "Ignore the smell and focus on your weapon, guard. If you drop your shield, I will personally throw you to the crowd outside."
Inside the main room of the house, the air was hard to breathe. Li Yan was leaning against a thick post, his fingers digging into the surface as he tried to stay on his feet. He was panting fast, his chest rising and falling in small movements.
His body felt like it was on fire. The poison left inside his bond was making things worse, forcing his SS-Rank smell to pour out of his skin in a thick pink fog. It rolled across the floor tiles, filling every corner of the room with the strong smell of lilies.
"Damn this body," Li Yan muttered under his breath, his teeth pressing together as a wave of dizziness hit his head.
He used all of his willpower to keep his mind steady. He was a CEO, a man used to handling big trouble from a place of total control, but this body chaos was something he could not simply sort out. He hated this weakness. He hated how his own skin was betraying him, turning him into a target for five thousand madmen.
The front doors burst open, and Zhen Sheng walked back into the room. The general was covered in sweat, his chest moving hard from the work of managing the guards outside. The moment he stepped into the room, the thick smell of lilies hit him square in the face, making his golden eyes widen with instant anger.
"Fix your body, Duke!" Zhen Sheng barked, marching over to where Li Yan stood. He stopped just a foot away, his hot wood smell rising fast to fight off the sweet fog. "Your smell is leaking through the window cracks. It is turning my own guards into madmen outside! We can barely keep them from fighting each other!"
Li Yan raised his head slowly, his eyes filled with pure hatred as he stared back at the general. "You think I am doing this on purpose? If you have a way to shut it off, then do it instead of shouting at me like an idiot."
"You are the one with the SS-Rank body," Zhen Sheng retorted, his voice rising in anger as he grabbed the post right above Li Yan’s head. "Control your inner power! You are supposed to be a high lord, yet you are leaking energy like a broken bucket."
"My core is reacting to the poison you took in the big room," Li Yan hissed back, his voice sharp despite his bad breathing. "If your military security had done their job and caught the spy before the wine was served, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Do not dump your mistakes on my shoulders."
Zhen Sheng’s face turned dark, his grip tightening on the post. "Watch your mouth, Mingxuan. I am handling five thousand people at my gates because of your smell."
Before Li Yan could reply, the front door closed with a soft click, and Jing Yuchen walked into the room. The prince’s violet eyes were completely red, the lines around his head showing clearly from using so much of his Enigma power to keep the outer ice wall up. He looked tired, but his posture was still entirely proud and stiff.
He did not say a word at first. He simply walked straight toward the post, his boots clicking softly against the floor.
"The wall is holding, but the crowd is not leaving," Jing Yuchen said, his voice flat and cold.
He stopped right in front of Li Yan, looking down at his pale face and the sweat dripping from his chin. Without any warning or gentleness, the prince reached out and grabbed Li Yan tightly by the collar of his inner robe. With one rough pull, he dragged Li Yan away from the post and toward the open space in the middle of the room.
"What do you think you are doing?" Li Yan demanded, trying to pull away, but his legs were too weak to hold onto the floor.
Jing Yuchen ignored his struggle completely. He kept his firm grip on the robe, his eyes looking over at the general.
"We cannot fight them all off forever while he is leaking like this," Jing Yuchen said, his voice dropping low and dangerous. "The ice wall will break in ten minutes if the smell keeps pulling them forward. We need to seal his scent lines by hand, right now."