"Who...are you?"

Xie Chen's deep voice pierced through the lingering chill around the altar, striking Su Nian's heart. He stood at the edge of the frozen domain, dark red energy flowing around him like a living thing, forming a stark yet dangerously opposing pole with the azure ice crystal world. In his blood-red eyes, emotions far more complex than rage surged—extreme shock, deep scrutiny, and a trace of primal, instinctive tremor and...confusion that even he himself was unaware of.

The woman before him was no longer the "blood servant" he knew, someone whose blood was somewhat special and required careful control. She stood at the center of the ancient altar, her body radiating a vast chill originating from the same source as this "ice core fragment." Her eyes were cold and majestic, like an ancient deity who ruled this world. This power, this aura, was unlike anything he had ever known, yet strangely... it touched a forgotten corner deep within his soul.

Su Nian slowly turned around to face him. The altar's eerie blue glow illuminated her pale yet resolute profile, the bloodstains at her wounds appearing starkly contrasting against the ice crystals. She didn't answer his question, but instead asked in return, her voice calm yet carrying an undeniable authority:

"And what about you, Xie Chen? Occupying this body, enjoying the benefits of the sealed one's power, yet forgetting where you came from and why you suffer... who are you?"

Her gaze was sharp as an icicle, as if trying to pierce through his cold exterior and reach the core of his deepest, most primal pain, suppressed by the darkness within him.

Xie Chen's pupils contracted sharply! Su Nian's words were like a key, unexpectedly prying open the tightly closed door deep within his heart! The unchanging, millennia-old throbbing pain emanating from the underground seal seemed to become even clearer and...sharper at this moment? It was as if something within was echoing the voice from the outside!

"Shut up!" he shouted, trying to suppress the sudden, unsettling resonance with anger. "Despicable thief! Do you think you have the right to question me with this power that you've stolen from who-knows-where?"

He took a step forward, and dark red energy surged like boiling magma, attempting to forcefully break through the suppression of the frozen domain. The terrifying pressure caused the surrounding frozen air to creak under the strain!

Faced with Xie Chen's sudden increase in pressure, Su Nian did not back down. With a slight thought, the runes on the altar beneath her feet lit up again, the suspended ice core fragments spun faster, and even purer and more ancient Taiyin ice power surged into her body, supporting this icy domain. The ghostly blue light and dark red energy collided and annihilated fiercely in the air, emitting a hissing sound and stirring up chaotic energy turbulence.

"Steal?" Su Nian's lips curled into a cold, mocking smile. "This power originally belonged to me, just like the soul you painfully sealed away beneath the castle, it originally belonged to you!"

She raised her hand, her fingertips flashing with a ghostly blue light, pointing towards Xie Chen's heart, and also seemingly towards the depths of the earth beneath the ancient castle.

"You drink my blood, seeking a moment of 'quiet,' but have you ever considered why it can soothe the restlessness that originates from the very core of your soul? Because flowing within that blood is a power of the same origin as yours! Flowing with... the obsession with me that remains etched deep within your soul, even in your brokenness and oblivion!"

Every word struck Xie Chen's heart like a heavy hammer! The dark energy around him fluctuated violently, and the cold killing intent in his blood-red eyes was once again replaced by chaos! The painful roar from the source of the earth seemed to become clearer, and even faintly mixed with a trace of... excitement?

"No...impossible!" Xie Chen roared, his handsome face slightly distorted by the intense inner turmoil. "Absurd! I am Prince Yongye, how could I associate with someone like you..."

His words came to an abrupt end.

Because Su Nian did something that shook his very soul.

She withdrew all her defensive power, dispelled the cold glint from her fingertips, and even deliberately weakened the intensity of her icy domain. Unsuspectingly, step by step, she walked towards him across the crystalline ice. She walked towards the dark prince who had just moments before shown her murderous intent and whose power far surpassed hers.

Her eyes were no longer cold, but filled with some indescribable, profound sadness and... pity?

“Look,” she stopped a few steps in front of him, her voice as soft as a sigh, “even if you’ve forgotten everything, even if your ‘shell’ is filled with pain and darkness, trying to destroy me…”

She slowly raised her right hand, still stained with blood, not to attack, but as if she wanted to touch something, and reached out to him.

"...Your soul, your origin, still calls to me, still...cannot truly harm me."

Xie Chen stood frozen in place.

He looked at the hand that reached out to him, covered in wounds and blood, and at those eyes that seemed to be filled with the light of ten thousand years of stars and sorrow. The resonance that had been forcibly suppressed deep in his soul erupted like a flood that had finally broken through the dam!

"ah--!!!"

He let out a bloodcurdling roar and clutched his head violently! The dark red energy spiraled out of control, surging wildly around him! Countless chaotic and shattered images exploded in his mind!

Starry sky... side by side... a cold judgment... the excruciating pain of a soul being torn apart... the sealed darkness and loneliness... and... and these eyes before him! These eyes that he thought were merely those of a "blood servant," yet they seemed to pierce through his eternal life!

"No...it wasn't me...that was..." He stammered, his bloodshot eyes filled with extreme pain and struggle, as if two consciousnesses were fiercely battling within him! One was the dominant, world-weary, and violent dark side, and the other was the original consciousness that had been sealed and suppressed for thousands of years, belonging to the true Xie Chen, and filled with obsession with the person before him!

The frozen domain became unstable due to Su Nian's active contraction and Xie Chen's loss of energy control, and cracks began to appear in the surrounding ice crystals.

Watching him struggle in agony, Su Nian felt as if her heart was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, the pain making it hard to breathe. She knew she was forcibly awakening his suppressed primal consciousness, a process that felt like a slow, agonizing torture for him.

But she didn't stop. This was the only chance! The only chance to break this cycle of despair!

She took another step forward, ignoring the out-of-control dark energy emanating from him that was powerful enough to tear her apart, and opened her arms to hug him tightly!

The moment she embraced him, she poured out all the awakened memories from the depths of her soul, all the warm longing, and all the comforting and protective intentions contained in the power of ice, without reservation, like the purest light, through this physical contact, into the chaotic core of his soul!

"Xie Chen...look at me...it's me...I'm back..."

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

Xie Chen's violent struggle abruptly stopped.

The familiar and warm light that surged into the core of his soul was like a solitary lamp lit in boundless darkness and pain, temporarily dispelling the millennia-old chill and violence. The two madly fighting consciousnesses within him experienced an extremely brief pause.

He slowly and with great difficulty raised his head. The chaos in his bloodshot eyes subsided somewhat, replaced by an extremely vulnerable, bewildered look, like that of a lost child. He looked at Su Nian's face so close to his own, at the icy tears rolling down her cheeks (tears influenced by the power of the Ice Soul). A profound sense of familiarity and longing, etched deep within his soul, overwhelmed him like a tidal wave.

He instinctively and tremblingly raised his hand, as if wanting to touch her cheek and wipe away her tears.

His lips moved, and a name, almost inaudible, seemed to traverse eternity, struggling and broken, spilled from his throat:

"……read……?"

However, at the very moment that syllable fell—

A sudden change has occurred!

The brief confusion and vulnerability in his eyes receded like the tide, replaced by a deeper, more terrifying darkness and rage! It was as if the dark consciousness that had been briefly suppressed felt an unprecedented threat from this call and launched its most frenzied counterattack!

"Get out of my way!"

A terrifying power, far exceeding anything seen before, suddenly erupted from Xie Chen's body! Su Nian was as if she had been hit head-on by a high-speed train; she was violently thrown back and crashed heavily into the black stone pillar at the edge of the altar!

"Pfft—!" She suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, as if her internal organs had shifted, her soul was severely injured again, and her vision went black.

Xie Chen stood there, enveloped in an intense, impenetrable dark energy. His blood-red eyes held only a pure, all-consuming madness and... a trace of extreme fear, as if his most sensitive spot had been touched.

He stared intently at Su Nian, who was slumped against the stone pillar, his voice hoarse as if sandpaper were being rubbed together:

"You...don't even think about...taking away...my 'peace'...don't even think about...awakening 'him'!"

He raised his hand, and all the dark energy condensed in his palm into a dark spear that seemed capable of devouring all light, wrapped with countless phantoms of souls wailing in agony!

The spear tip was pointed directly at Su Nian's brow!

This time, there was no emotional struggle, only the purest, necessary action to maintain its own existence... annihilation!

However, at this critical moment—

A hazy gray light, like the dawn tearing through the night, suddenly appeared between Su Nian and the dark spear!

Derrick's figure slowly emerged from the void.

The simple wooden staff in his hand was now emitting an unprecedented, gentle yet unwavering light, steadily blocking the destructive spear!

“Master,” Derrick’s voice remained steady, but carried an unprecedented heaviness and resolve, “you should… wake up.”

(End of Chapter 66)

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Next Chapter Preview: Derrick has finally stepped into the limelight! Can he withstand Xie Chen's dark side, unleashed in his rage and at full power? Su Nian is critically injured and on the verge of death! Will the briefly awakened consciousness deep within Xie Chen's soul have another impact? Will the ancient altar reveal its true power in this ultimate showdown? The three sides converge; the final moment is approaching!