Silence returned between them—thick, suffocating, almost solid. Han Ling trembled. Every word his inner demon spoke was like a blade spinning inside his consciousness, digging deep into wounds he had carved himself.
The demon scoffed, standing up. "Come on, Han Ling. I'm the part of you that always knew this could happen. I saw when your eyes faltered, when her touch—that little red-haired slut's—pierced through your emotional armor. I felt it."
"Shut up..." Han Ling mumbled, weakly. His body within his consciousness was pale, lips cracked from anguish, as if even the guilt was eating away at his flesh.
"Why, huh?" the demon smiled, but there was no humor in it. "Didn't you say you'd resist any temptation? That no one but your sweet girl could ever touch you? That you'd die before pushing her aside again?"
"I DIDN'T PUSH HER ASIDE!" Han Ling shouted, his voice tearing from the depths of his throat as if it wanted to rip the world apart. "I just... I... couldn't..."
The demon paused. For a moment, the sarcasm gave way to a serious, grim stillness.
"And is that what you want her to see? When she looks into your eyes? A worm crying on the floor of his own mind? Because if it is... then maybe you really don't deserve her."
Han Ling bit his lip until it bled. The mist of the blood sea stirred around them, responding to his restrained rage. But he didn't rise.
"You think she's going to kill you, Han Ling?" the demon asked, voice almost sweet. "Let me tell you a secret... She already knows. From up on the Jade Peak, she's already seen. Do you really think you could hide anything from eyes like hers?"
Han Ling's eyes widened.
The demon chuckled softly. "She's already coming. And you're still here, on your knees, looking like a love-struck corpse."
"She... knows?" Han Ling whispered, his heart tightening painfully.
"Yes. And if I know you—and I do—she's going to arrive... look into your eyes... and make you wish you'd died before ever touching that girl."
Han Ling closed his eyes, chest heaving. No tears fell—he had already cried everything out.
The demon leaned down again, lips brushing Han Ling's ear with a freezing whisper.
"If you want to die... fine. But know this: if you don't fight back now... I'll take over. And when she gets here... I'll smile at her like nothing ever happened. And you'll be watching from inside your own body."
Han Ling slowly opened his eyes.
They were no longer so empty.
The blood around them began to boil—literally. Crimson bubbles rose like thorns, and the waves danced to a rhythm of restrained fury. Han Ling, who had been crumpled moments ago, moved like a beast freed from its chains.
His hand shot forward, grabbing his inner demon by the collar with brutal force, yanking him forward until their faces were nearly touching.
"You..." Han Ling's voice trembled—not with fear, but with pure rage. "You dare... dare even imagine standing in my place before her!?"
The demon's mocking smile faltered. For a second, his eyes showed surprise.
"She's mine!" Han Ling snarled, his amber eyes burning with a primal, possessive hatred. "Her body, her soul, her heart... everything she is belongs to me! No one—NOT EVEN ME—can touch her the way I do!"
He slammed the demon into the blood sea's floor with such force that the surface shuddered, crimson splashing like petals in the wind.
"You might be a part of me, but you're not me!" Han Ling advanced, each step sinking into the blood below. "You're just... a weak shadow born from my guilt! You think you can mock me? Talk about my woman like she's replaceable!?"
The demon laughed, spitting blood—even as a spiritual entity, the manifestation of Han Ling's rage was so real it hurt him.
"Look at that..." he gasped, "he's still in there... The love-struck, sick, obsessed monster..."
Han Ling drove his knee into the demon's chest and gripped his throat.
"Say her name one more time like she's not sacred, and I'll erase you from here—even if I have to erase myself with you."
The demon stopped. For a moment, silence. Then he smiled again—less sarcastically, more... respectfully.
"That's what I like," he whispered. "Now you look like someone worthy of her."
***
At the Jade Peak, in a silent hall
Han Xinrou sat on a throne of white jade, her posture upright, elegant, divine — but her fingers were buried into the armrests, cracking the mineral with a subtle snap.
Her crystalline eyes flickered like frozen lakes on the verge of shattering.
Before her, the images revealed by her All-Seeing Eye floated in ethereal fragments — freshly imprinted memories from Han Ling's soul.
She saw. She felt.
Every touch. Every muffled whisper. The heat, the surrender, the loss of control. That red-haired slut's skin against her sweetling's. And then... the moment that vile presence infiltrated him — the abyssal power of an outer god, taking advantage of his weakness.
"Ridiculous... disgusting... revolting..." her voice came out like a silk thread laced with poison, low and sweet, yet lethal.
She had known it could happen. She knew how dangerous Yu Yui was — not just because of her celestial physique but her provocative innocence. She knew her sweetling, so deprived of her, was vulnerable.
She had foreseen it.
She had accepted it.
But to see... to feel... was something else entirely.
"He's mine..." she whispered, biting her lower lip until it bled. Blood trickled down, pearlescent and crimson, as if even her body longed to kill.
Rage simmered like a volcano beneath her jade-like skin. It wasn't just jealousy. It was ancestral fury. A desire to destroy the world for daring to try and steal Han Ling from her hands. Even if he had fallen, even if he was weak in that moment... she would never accept something foreign touching him. Not even him.
"Fate wants to toy with me...?" her eyes gleamed, a golden pattern spinning in her pupils as her gaze pierced the veils of reality. "First he runs. Then I kill him. Then we reincarnate. And now... a god dares to use him as a vessel?"
She rose with a smooth movement, her transcendent cultivator's aura exploding like a storm of razor petals. Even the air seemed to recoil in fear.
"Very well... if they want to take him from me... let them try. But only one of us will still be breathing at the end."
She touched her lips with a bloodstained finger, then smiled.
"Sweetling..." her tone became more melodic, honeyed with a shard of madness. "...I'm coming to get you."
And if that god was still in control when she arrived...
She would make sure to tear it out, inch by inch, burning every trace with the flames of her possessiveness.
Her unrestrained aura erupted suddenly, utterly crushing the Jade Peak.
She became a streak of light, flying at absurd speed, and it seemed only to increase.
Han Xinrou was heading toward the "end of the world" at her maximum speed, her unrestrained aura destroying everything in her path — matter or space.
At some point, her speed surpassed that of light, something supposedly impossible, yet her rage seemed to grant her power enough to break the laws of physics.
She had noticed the nine elders following her, but none of that mattered now.
Han Ling was her top priority.
Han Ling. Everything for Han Ling.
---
Han Ling — or whatever was controlling his body — was moving toward the "end of the world." Yu Yui was with him, but the way she trembled, in fear and absolute terror, made it clear she didn't want to be.
"My dear... why are you trembling?" Han Ling's voice sounded concerned. "Are you hurt somewhere?"
He stepped closer again, wearing that same gentle smile, that same affectionate gaze that made Yu Yui's stomach churn.
Yu Yui remained still, eyes wide, heart pounding in her chest. Her fists clenched tightly. She didn't know what that thing was — but it wasn't the Han Ling she knew. She'd spent too long watching that man. Obsessively. Silently.
Every step, every look, every subtle shift in his expression... she knew.
And this... was all wrong.
"You... you're acting strange," she murmured, stepping back. Her red eyes were fixed on him like those of a cornered beast. "You don't talk like that. You don't look like that. You don't... touch like that."
Han Ling tilted his head, confused. "I'm different? I just... feel lighter. Happier. With you by my side, I no longer need to hide what I feel."
A lie. A filthy lie.
Yu Yui gritted her teeth.
"You never said you wanted to make me happy. Not once. You called me a toy. Told me to crawl. Said I was just a tool to attract luck... and I liked that."
The last part came out softer, with an embarrassed note that made her cheeks flush.
The fake Han Ling seemed to hesitate. "But that's not healthy, Yui. You don't need—"
"Shut up." Her voice trembled. "You don't know what I need. He did. He wasn't kind. He was cruel. Cold. Arrogant. And even so... he made me feel alive. I felt real when he kicked me to the ground, when he looked at me like I was a useful insect."
She looked away for a moment, clearly ashamed, but continued.
"I know it's weird, okay?! I know it's wrong. But... that's how I am. I like being humiliated. Being cursed at. Being treated like something disposable. Because that's the only way I feel like I belong to him. And I... I've always been watching. I saw everything. Everything."
Her gaze locked onto that fake smile. "You might have his face... might even use the words you think he'd say... but you don't fool me. Not even he realized how closely I was watching. When he furrowed his brows while lying. When he forced calm so he wouldn't kill someone. When he ignored me on purpose to make me crawl after him."
She took a step forward, fear giving way to wounded pride.
"You're not my master. You're just a pathetic impostor wearing his skin."
A deadly silence fell between them. The wind stopped. The sky seemed to hold its breath.
The smile on Han Ling's — or rather, the outer god's — face remained serene. But inside, the creature inhabiting that body twisted in pleasure.
Ah... so perceptive. So broken. So delicious in her dissonance.
She trembled. Her eyes were wide, and her body tried to maintain an arrogant posture, but every muscle betrayed the absolute terror she felt.
And the outer god relished it.
He wasn't gentle out of love or compassion. He was gentle because kindness was a cruel mask. Watching confusion and panic bloom in her eyes like a dark flower — that was an art to him.
A game.
The smile widened.
Han Ling's lips curved at an inhuman angle. Smooth, graceful, and yet... wrong. The line of the smile looked like it might split his cheeks, and his amber eyes gleamed as though reflecting an abyss.
Yu Yui stepped back half a pace, instinctively. Her legs trembled.
"My dear..." his voice was soft, low, wrapped in a tone almost paternal "...why are you shaking so much?"
She didn't answer.
He already knew.
Of course he knew.
"Are you cold? Or perhaps..." he tilted his head slightly, as if trying to understand something he already perfectly grasped "...is it me who's scaring you?"
Yu Yui gasped. A small sound, but enough to feed the twisted pleasure of the thing watching her.
"I just want you to feel safe," he continued, stepping forward, even with that smile far too wide and eyes void of emotion. "You're so precious. So special. I would never harm you."
But every word felt like a knife slowly gliding across skin. It was false, venomous. As if the universe itself refused to accept those words from that face.
Yu Yui bit her lip. She wanted to scream, to run, but her body was frozen. Part of her still wanted to believe it was the real Han Ling. But most of her already knew.
That thing... wasn't a man.
And it was enjoying her fear.
"You're so adorable like this, trembling like that," Han Ling murmured, voice disturbingly gentle. "Can I hold you? Help you calm down?"
***
End of Chapter.