The night was quiet—eerily so.
The Ninefold Sect's outer dormitory lay blanketed in moonlight, the bamboo trees whispering secrets only the wind could understand. Inside one of the stone rooms, Xian Lei sat cross-legged on the cold floor, sweat clinging to his brow.
His eyes were closed, but his mind blazed with focus.
Threads of qi slowly stirred within his body. They slithered through his meridians like tentative river currents, swirling around the dantian core at his lower abdomen. His breathing was steady, practiced, almost mechanical.
Draw qi from the world. Spiral it downward. Refine it. Compress it. Store it.
These were the foundational steps of cultivation.
Steps he had memorized. Mastered. Once lived. And then lost.
But now… he had something else.
Something new.
Something forbidden.
System Notification:Soul Tether: Yue QianlanStatus: Stabilizing…Warning: Soul Resistance Detected. Binding in progress.
A sharp pain lanced through his head.
Xian Lei gritted his teeth, fists clenching on his knees. A burning heat flooded his chest, then plunged into icy numbness. It was like being split in two—his thoughts, his essence, his very soul pulling in opposite directions.
Then came the voice.
Not spoken aloud, not heard through ears—but imprinted directly onto his consciousness.
Emotion-Linked Ascension System: Fully Activated.Soul Resonance Progress: 9.7%Target: Yue Qianlan (Inner Sect Disciple – Core Realm)
Host Realm: Qi Condensation (Stage 1)Resonant Link: Established.
⚠️ Warning: Bound Entity unaware of Soul Tether. Caution advised.
⚙️ System Protocols Online:▸ Emotion Channeling▸ Ascension Scaling▸ Cultivation Feedback Loop▸ Risk Flag: Mutual Destruction
System Objective:▸ Cultivate via emotional resonance.▸ Strengthen link through shared emotional exposure.▸ Maximize synchronization for optimal ascension.
Xian Lei sucked in a breath, cold sweat running down his back.
It was real.
He wasn't hallucinating. He wasn't dreaming. This wasn't some phantom pain of a dying man.
The System… had bound him to Yue Qianlan.
The same woman who would one day become the Demon Queen.
The same woman who once watched his family die without a blink of emotion.
The same woman who now—unknowingly—was his lifeline.
His source of power.
His curse.
His advantage.
"…So this is my second chance," he muttered.
A flicker of qi flared inside him in response—sharp and sudden.
Resonant Emotion Detected: Annoyance.Source: Bound Entity.+136 Qi Points Gained.
Xian Lei's breath hitched.
He could feel her. Not directly, not like touch or speech, but something deeper. A thread pulling at his core—alive with tension. When she shifted moods, he felt it ripple across their bond like a bell tolling across still water.
Right now… she was annoyed.
A faint impression formed in his mind's eye. It wasn't a memory, exactly. Not a vision either. Just intuition—the sense that somewhere in the inner sect, Yue Qianlan had just brushed off another sycophantic disciple, bored and irritated.
Her heartbeat, her breath, her mental pulse—it fed into him.
It was terrifying.
And intoxicating.
He opened his eyes slowly. The room looked the same, but he had changed.
Qi Condensation (Stage 1) → Stage 2: Achieved.
Two days ago, he was a broken corpse in a pyre of betrayal.
Now, with one surge of irritation from the Demon Queen, he had skipped weeks—no, months—of cultivation effort.
His hands trembled.
"This power…"
No, he couldn't afford to get drunk on it. Power from her emotions was a double-edged sword.
The System's words echoed again:
"Severe emotional trauma to the bound entity will reflect as backlash to the host."
He remembered her pain from his past life—the cold fury, the madness, the descent into merciless domination.
If that version of Yue Qianlan suffered, even a fragment of that agony now…
He'd die.
"No. Not this time," he whispered. "I won't let her fall again."
And he didn't mean it as mercy.
The more stable she stays… the stronger I become.
And if he could keep her from becoming the Demon Queen?
That meant she'd never massacre his family.
Never burn the Ninefold Sect.
Never…
He paused.
The thoughts weren't as clean as he'd like. Somewhere between hatred and strategy, something else was beginning to stir.
She isn't that monster yet, he reminded himself.
He thought back to the flickers of emotion he'd felt through the tether—loneliness, boredom, brief annoyance. No cruelty. No bloodlust. No desire to kill.
That monster hadn't awakened yet.
She was… just a girl. Cold. Distant. Isolated.
And powerful.
But still a girl.
Maybe this bond was his punishment. Maybe it was a divine joke.
Or maybe… just maybe, it was a weapon.
The next morning, the training bell rang at dawn.
Outer disciples shuffled out of their dorms, still groggy, clutching training staves or basic swords as they made their way to the practice fields.
Xian Lei moved among them, silent, eyes sharp.
He spotted Ru Mei—still shy and quiet, hugging her robes to her chest.
Feng Zhu stood farther ahead, already surrounded by a few followers. He laughed too loudly at his own joke.
Xian Lei didn't care.
He had only one priority now.
Her.
He had to get close enough to observe Yue Qianlan—to learn her patterns, study her emotional states, and subtly influence them without tipping her off. The more emotional fluctuations she experienced, the more he could ascend.
But getting close to her wouldn't be easy.
In his first life, she'd been untouchable. Aloof. Private. Most outer disciples never even saw her until years later.
But now he had a system prompt. A living tether.
All he had to do… was follow the pulse.
He slowed his steps and tuned out the noise around him.
Focus. Anchor yourself. Breathe.
A thrum stirred in his chest.
Like a second heartbeat. Distant. Female. Cold. Yet strangely familiar.
His consciousness brushed it lightly—and an impression formed.
She was meditating.
He could feel the rhythm of her breath. Controlled. Slow. Perfect.
But beneath the surface—an undercurrent of tension. Not anger. Not sorrow.
Longing?
No. Not quite.
Resentment. Focused inward.
He saw it clearly now—she resented her own weakness. Her limitations.
She wanted to be strong enough never to be touched, never to feel vulnerable again.
That was what had eventually driven her into darkness.
This is the root, he realized. This feeling… this is where she starts to change.
If he could disrupt that cycle, divert it—could he change her?
Or would she sense the bond and crush him like an ant?
Emotion Detected: Frustrated Self-Doubt.+402 Qi Points Gained.
Qi Condensation (Stage 2) → Stage 3: Achieved.
He nearly stumbled mid-step.
He was rising too quickly. At this pace, he'd reach Stage 4 by nightfall.
But the emotions weren't infinite. She was composed. It would take increasingly strong triggers to evoke emotional bursts he could feed from.
He would have to craft them himself.
Not obvious provocations. Subtle things. Interactions. Influences.
And for that, he needed to become visible.
He needed to earn her curiosity.
Later that evening, Xian Lei stood outside the outer sect's herb garden—a place where inner sect disciples occasionally visited to gather spiritual plants or conduct alchemy.
He knew the schedule well.
Yue Qianlan often came here in the early evenings—alone, preferring to cultivate in silence while collecting ingredients for her frost-based pills.
This was one of the few predictable moments in her routine.
He knelt by the lotus pond, slowly harvesting frost-lily bulbs into his satchel. His aura was calm. Humble. Forgettable.
He waited.
And then he felt her.
The pressure in the air shifted—like the arrival of a predator.
Footsteps whispered on stone.
He didn't look.
Not yet.
But his soul knew. The tether trembled.
She was watching him.
Emotion Pulse: Mild Interest.+188 Qi Points Gained.
His heart pounded once.
He kept his eyes lowered, hands steady.
A long silence followed.
Then, a voice—soft and clear. Almost… bored.
"You're gathering frost-lily without gloves. Do you not fear the coldbite?"
He looked up slowly, as if startled. As if unaware of who she was.
Her presence stole his breath.
She was younger now—still only sixteen—but already striking. Midnight hair. Pale skin. Eyes like frozen mirrors, reflecting everything and nothing. A black sash marked her inner sect status.
He met her gaze for only a moment.
"I was taught not to fear useful pain," he said.
A faint flicker crossed her face.
Was that… amusement?
Emotion Pulse: Amusement.+212 Qi Points Gained.
She tilted her head.
"I haven't seen you before."
"I'm new."
A pause.
"Name?"
"…Xian Lei."
The moment froze.
He felt something twist in the tether. Recognition? Suspicion?
Then it passed.
"Mn," she said simply. "Be careful. Frost-lily burns skin after three minutes."
She turned to leave.
His throat tightened.
Should he say more? Try to provoke another response?
No. Too soon.
Let her remember him. Let her wonder about him.
Curiosity is the first crack in the ice.
As her figure disappeared down the path, the System chimed again:
Bound Entity Emotion: Curiosity (Mild)Synchronization Progress: 10.3%Qi Gained: +254
Cultivation Progress: Qi Condensation (Stage 3 → 4)
Xian Lei stood motionless by the pond as the lotus petals shimmered in the breeze.
The bond had formed. The tether had awakened. Her emotions would now shape his path—and in return, he could become the one person who might shape hers.
Not through brute force.
But through emotion.
This time… he would not simply survive her.
He would master her.