The alluring and eternally yearning whispers of the vampire fragments had not yet completely dissipated, and the lingering cool fragrance in the air seemed to still cling to the tip of the nose, yet a new storm was already brewing. The oppressive feeling brought by the echo of the "tyrant covered in mud and blood" in Xie Chen's words was completely different from the solitude of the immortal lord and the elegance of the vampires.
It was a primal, brutal power, carrying the scent of gunpowder and rust. Almost the instant Xie Chen finished speaking, Su Nian felt a barely perceptible tremor beneath her feet, not a physical one, but a resonance originating from the energy level. A dry, sandy, and faintly bloody scent filled the air, and she could almost hear the neighing of warhorses and the clanging of weapons.
Xie Chen stood in the center of the room, eyes closed, brows furrowed. The dark energy around him no longer flowed calmly, but surged and churned like boiling magma, mixed with obvious violence and killing intent. His back was ramrod straight, his jawline taut, as if he were bearing immense pressure, or as if he were resisting something.
“What he wants… is very simple.” Xie Chen opened his eyes, his gaze now burning with an undisguised desire for conquest and an almost beastly possessiveness. His voice had also become much rougher, carrying the echo of a battlefield, “Submission. Absolute submission. Kneel before him and acknowledge that he is your only king.”
He looked at Su Nian, his gaze so intense it seemed to brand her. It was the look of a tyrant from a slave dynasty, filled with unquestionable authority and a desire to mark all beautiful things with his own mark.
Su Nian's heart sank. Kneel? Submit? This was more direct than the Immortal Lord's call or the vampire's mark, and it touched the very bottom line of her dignity. She knew that this was not just the desire for the Tyrant's fragment, but also the instinct to control everything deep within the corrupted Xie Chen's heart, clamoring through the echoes of the fragment.
[Here it comes! The tough one's here!] 088 screamed in her mind, [Host! A scholar can be killed but not humiliated! We can't kneel! If we kneel, in his heart you'll always be inferior! What's the point of taming a beast? You'll just become a pet!]
Su Nian stood rooted to the spot, motionless. She stared at the imposing "Xie Chen" before her, who seemed poised to crush her at any moment, her mind racing. Direct confrontation was clearly unwise, but submission… was absolutely out of the question.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to suppress her instinctive aversion and fear, and even managed to force a smile that was out of place with the current atmosphere, tinged with helplessness and...nostalgia.
"Kneel down?" she repeated softly, tilting her head, her gaze seemingly drifting to the distant past. "In that world... it seems you never truly asked me to kneel."
Her words caused the surging violence in Xie Chen's eyes to pause slightly.
Su Nian continued speaking, her tone calm, as if stating a simple fact: "Even at the coronation ceremony, under the spotlight, when you personally placed the crown on my head... you simply held my hand and let me stand beside you, shoulder to shoulder with you."
She vividly remembered how, in that slave dynasty, she rose from a plaything to a partner in power. The tyrant Xie Chen, though cruel and bloodthirsty, recognized her wisdom and ability. He wanted a "femme fatale" who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him and survey the land, not a slave who would only grovel on the ground.
“You said back then…” Su Nian’s gaze refocused on the face of “Xie Chen” in front of her, with a clarity that saw through appearances and looked straight to the essence, “‘This country needs a queen who can match it.’ What you wanted was never my knees, but my… approval.”
She pronounced the word "approval" with exceptional clarity.
Xie Chen's body visibly trembled. The violent aura around him momentarily became chaotic, and a swift, cold scrutiny, belonging to his darkened self, flashed in his eyes, which burned with a desire for conquest, along with a hint of... astonishment at being caught off guard.
The echoes of the tyrant's fragments are based on the most primal emotions and memories. Su Nian's words precisely touched upon that deep-seated memory—the tyrant Xie Chen's yearning for her unique "admiration" and "recognition." This created a subtle conflict with the pure, objectified possessiveness of the corrupted entity.
“Approval…?” he repeated in a low, hoarse voice, as if savoring the meaning of the word, or perhaps mocking it.
“Yes, I acknowledge it.” Su Nian took a small step forward, her heart still pounding, but her demeanor possessed a strange calmness. She knew she had to seize this opportunity. “I acknowledge your strength, I acknowledge your…uniqueness.”
She didn't say "love," that word was too dangerous and too insincere in this time and place. She chose "acknowledgment," a more neutral word, yet one that could better touch these fanatical souls.
“But,” she changed the subject, her gaze sweeping over the sturdy energy cage, her tone carrying a subtle provocation and…guidance, “is a king who needs to use cages and coercion to gain ‘submission’ truly worthy of ‘recognition’? Your Majesty, tyrant?”
The last title she used was a respectful one that occasionally carried a slightly teasing connotation during the slave dynasty.
Xie Chen's pupils suddenly contracted! An even more violent aura erupted from his body! It wasn't because he was angry at her provocation, but because her words were like a key, simultaneously unlocking the Tyrant Fragment's definition of "power" and the corrupted main body's obsession with "absolute control"!
"Forced?" He took a sudden step forward, the ground seeming to tremble beneath his feet. He grabbed Su Nian's arm with such force that her face instantly turned pale. But he didn't harm her further; instead, he pulled her close, almost pressing her against his chest.
He lowered his head, his hot and chaotic breath spraying onto her forehead. In his eyes, the tyrant's desire to conquer, the madness of his corrupted self, and a trace of fury at being questioned about his "qualifications" were intertwined, forming an extremely dangerous mixture.
"You think...this room is a prison?" His voice was hoarse, tinged with a chilling excitement. "No! This is just...the beginning! I will show you with your own eyes what true 'kingship' is! What power is enough to make you willingly 'accept' it!"
What he wanted was no longer just a formality of kneeling. He wanted her complete and utter submission on a soul level! He wanted to prove that he deserved her "approval," using the most extreme method he could think of!
Just then, another unexpected event occurred!
Perhaps it was the impact of the Tyrant Fragment's strong desire to "prove" itself, or perhaps it was the fact that Su Nian's repeated "leveraging" had finally accumulated enough influence, but another fragment of power within Xie Chen's body, which had been relatively dormant, was suddenly activated!
A familiar, sun-kissed, sweat-soaked stubbornness and unwillingness belonging to esports legends surged forth like an undercurrent! It was a completely different kind of desire—not imprisonment, not marking, not submission, but... fighting side by side, the pure possession of "my championship and my heart are yours," a sentiment imbued with youthful spirit!
"Ugh—!" Xie Chen let out a painful growl, abruptly releasing Su Nian and clutching his head with both hands. The energy around him went completely out of control, with darkness, violence, scarlet, and a sudden, obsessive light accompanied by the sound of gaming keyboards flashing on his body, making his face appear as a shattered kaleidoscope.
The energy field in the room emitted a piercing buzzing sound, as if it were about to collapse at any moment. The photos on the walls flickered wildly, and the entire space was on the verge of disintegration!
[Warning! Warning! Multiple fragment echoes are causing a chain reaction! The stability of the main soul is rapidly decreasing! It is about to break through the critical point! Host! Do something quickly! He is about to completely lose control!] 088's alarm was sharper than ever before.
Su Nian was stunned by this sudden and dramatic change. Looking at Xie Chen, who was struggling in pain and seemed about to fall apart at any moment, and at the chaotic madness and obsession in his eyes that belonged to different worlds, a huge panic and... an indescribable heartache suddenly gripped her.
Her previous strategies, the so-called "taming" and "leveraging," seem to be triggering a devastating avalanche!
This can't go on any longer!
She didn't know where the courage came from, but she rushed forward, disregarding the potential harm from the violent energy, and opened her arms to tightly embrace the body that was trembling violently from the pain!
"Xie Chen!" She buried her face in his chest, where his breath was ragged and chaotic, and shouted with all her might. Her voice was trembling with sobs, but it was unusually clear. "Look at me! Just look at me! No matter which version of you it is, all I want... has always been you!"
At that moment, she couldn't tell whether it was acting, survival, or... an uncontrollable outpouring of genuine emotion as she witnessed his soul shattering on the verge of collapse.
The body she was holding suddenly stiffened.
The surrounding raging energy seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second because of this sudden embrace and shout.
(End of Chapter 158)
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