"So, which one would you like me to 'appease' first?"
Su Nian's question, like a pebble thrown into a deep pool, stirred up barely perceptible ripples in Xie Chen's eyes. He silently gazed at her, his gaze still carrying scrutiny and cold control, but deeper within it seemed to hold a hint of... indescribable complexity. She had accepted his "invitation" and stepped into this dangerous territory, which was within his calculations, but when she actually asked the question, a delicate balance seemed to have begun to tilt.
He didn't answer immediately, but closed his eyes, as if sensing the noisy "voices" within his body. The pale blue energy field in the room fluctuated slightly with his thoughts, and the photos on the wall silently observed everything.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and looked at Su Nian with an almost cruel calmness: "The noisiest one."
He raised his hand and pointed to the empty wall on one side of the room. The energy patterns there suddenly lit up, and as the blue light flowed, the scene twisted and changed, gradually condensing into a blurry, misty phantom—the outline of a cold and desolate mountain gate in the world of immortals and heroes. Although it was just an illusion simulated by energy, the familiar feeling of aloofness and loneliness instantly rushed over him.
“He,” Xie Chen said, his tone tinged with barely perceptible annoyance, “is always calling your name.”
As he spoke, a familiar, icy, and ethereal spiritual energy fluctuation, extremely faint yet incredibly clear, emanated from the illusion. It clashed with the cold, dark aura surrounding Xie Chen, yet strangely intertwined with it. It was the pure and obsessive spiritual energy belonging to the Immortal Lord Xie Chen.
Su Nian's heart skipped a beat. The noisiest one... was the Immortal Lord.
That immortal lord who once fell from grace for her, destroying his cultivation and merging ultimate protection and destruction into one. His obsession was so strong that even after being devoured, it could still create such a clear "echo" in this domain built on absolute control.
"What...should I do?" Su Nian suppressed the pounding in her heart and tried to make her voice sound calm.
Xie Chen walked to the energy-formed "mountain gate," his back to her, his voice devoid of emotion: "Do what you 'used to' did. Get close to him, respond to him, with your... hypocritical tenderness."
His words remained harsh, but Su Nian keenly noticed a subtle pause in his aura when he uttered "hypocritical gentleness." He was bothered by the gentleness she had once shown to the Immortal Lord, a gentleness that might not have been entirely an act.
Su Nian took a deep breath and walked towards the ethereal, cloud-shrouded figure. The closer she got, the more pronounced the cool, spiritual energy fluctuations became, as if an unseen soul was truly calling out to her in sorrow. She could even sense the faint scent in the air, carrying the aroma of cedar and cold spring water—the unique fragrance of the Immortal Lord Xie Chen.
She stopped in front of the illusion, reached out her hand, her fingertips trembling slightly, and gently touched the flowing blue energy.
"Xie Chen..." she called softly, not to the real, corrupted entity behind her, but to the restless echo in this void.
Almost instantly, the illusory cloud of mist began to fluctuate violently! A longing and pain, several times clearer than before, surged towards her like a tidal wave, carrying with it a destructive loneliness. At the same time, Xie Chen, whose back was to her, tensed up abruptly, letting out a suppressed groan. The dark energy around him trembled violently, as if a stone had been thrown into the water!
“Continue,” he commanded in a hoarse voice, his voice strained as if he were forcibly suppressing some kind of pain.
Su Nian knew that her "comforting" process was itself a process of the corrupted Xie Chen forcibly digesting and integrating these fragments. She was dancing on a knife's edge; one wrong move could provoke the fragments to become even more violent, or it could trigger a stronger backlash from the corrupted entity itself.
She composed herself, recalling her moments in the world of immortals and heroes. Those times when she initially approached them for the sake of a mission, but later unknowingly developed genuine feelings for them. She closed her eyes, no longer trying to act, but letting those real memories and emotions surface.
"I'm here..." she said softly, as if comforting a lost child, addressing the restless clouds. "I'm here... Look, I'm alright, I'm not hurt, I haven't disappeared..."
She rambled on about trivial things, just like she had done when the Immortal Lord's Dao heart was unstable and his inner demons were rampant, staying by his side. There were no fancy words, no deliberate sentimentality, only a peaceful, comforting whisper.
Gradually, the violently fluctuating illusion of clouds and mist seemed to calm down a bit. The raging longing and pain, as if soothed by a gentle hand, began to slowly and affectionately entwine around Su Nian's fingertips, no longer so aggressive.
However, just when Su Nian thought it was working, a sudden change occurred!
The previously peaceful spiritual energy fluctuations suddenly became sharp again! A powerful desire to pull her into the illusion and imprison her forever within that icy mountain gate erupted! Blue energy tentacles, like living things, suddenly wrapped around Su Nian's wrists, dragging her towards that illusory cloud!
"Ah!" Su Nian exclaimed in surprise, stumbling as she was suddenly pulled!
"You're courting death!" Xie Chen's icy voice rang out simultaneously, now tinged with darkness!
He whirled around, his eyes blazing with murderous intent! An even larger, darker power crashed down like a tsunami, instantly striking the illusory cloud and the energy tentacles that entangled Su Nian!
"Crack—" A sound like shattering glass rang out, and the energy illusion twisted violently, almost collapsing! The tentacles that were wrapped around Su Nian also snapped off!
At the same time, the corrupted Xie Chen also let out a muffled groan, his face instantly paling, and a trace of bright red blood even spilled from the corner of his mouth! Forcibly suppressing the fragments of the same origin that were fiercely resisting had clearly caused a backlash against him!
Su Nian collapsed to the ground, a burning pain shooting through her wrist where the energy tentacles had gripped her. Looking at the glaring red mark on Xie Chen's lips, her heart felt as if it had been violently clenched.
The resistance from the Immortal Lord fragments was more intense than expected. And Xie Chen's main body's suppression was far more difficult than he had made it out to be. This "appeasement" was far more complex than he had made it out to be.
Xie Chen raised his hand, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were filled with a sinister gaze as he stared at the collapsing illusion and Su Nian, who had fallen to the ground. He walked over step by step, squatted down, and pinched her chin with his cold fingers, forcing her to raise her head.
"See that?" He forced a bloodthirsty smile. "Is this the result of your 'appeasement'? Or... deep down, do you also want to be pulled back by him? Back to that world where there was only ice and snow and the two of you?"
His doubts, like a venomous snake, coiled around Su Nian's neck once more.
Looking at the scarred and crazed face so close to hers, and at the undisguised jealousy and obsession in his eyes, Su Nian felt a surge of inexplicable courage, or perhaps a desperate impulse to throw caution to the wind.
She did not defend herself or show weakness as she had done before.
She raised her hand, not to push him away, but to touch his bloodied lips with her fingertips, very gently.
The movement carried a kind of cautiousness and...heartache that even she herself hadn't anticipated.
Xie Chen froze. The grip on her chin loosened unconsciously.
Su Nian looked into his eyes, those deep eyes that had held so much madness and pain, and spoke softly, her voice slightly hoarse:
“If I really wanted to go with him, I wouldn’t have just stood there talking…” She paused, meeting his suddenly sharp gaze, and continued, “I would have gone in on my own.”
“I’m staying here,” her fingertips still lingered on his slightly cool skin, conveying a tiny bit of warmth, “because the one standing in front of me now, with blood at the corner of his mouth, who would be so angry and hurt that he might be dragged away… is ‘you’.”
She emphasized "you" again.
It wasn't a celestial lord, nor any fragment, but rather the complete, corrupted Xie Chen who embodied all her obsessions and pain, the one who imprisoned her here.
silence.
A deathly silence spread between the two.
Xie Chen stared intently at her, his gaze seemingly trying to dissect every subtle fluctuation in the depths of her soul. Anger, doubt, a hint of disbelief, and a deeper, almost consuming, dark desire clashed violently in his eyes.
Her fingers touching his wound, her words "It's because of you"... were like a faint yet persistent light, trying to penetrate the defenses of his heart that had been frozen for ten years.
He suddenly grabbed her wrist, which was resting on the corner of his mouth, with such force that it made her wince in pain. But he didn't make any further moves; he just held on tightly, as if confirming the authenticity of the touch.
After a long while, he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse beyond recognition:
"Su Nian, you'd better... not lie to me."
This time, his threat seemed to contain a hint of vulnerability that even he himself was unaware of.
In his eyes, churning with intense emotions, Su Nian saw not only madness, but also a faint trace of… an extremely tiny crack in the ice.
[Host! The target's soul stability has decreased by 3%! Fragment agitation index has increased by 15%! But... but the core anchoring coefficient seems to be experiencing unknown fluctuations!] 088's report was filled with unprecedented confusion: [Is this... is this a good thing or a bad thing?!]
Su Nian did not answer.
She simply looked at Xie Chen, at the path that might exist beyond the crack, leading to the real "him".
She knew that this dangerous game of "complicity" had only just begun. And the next restless fragment might already be opening its eyes in the darkness.
(End of Chapter 156)
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Next Chapter Preview: The echoes of the Immortal Lord fragments have been temporarily suppressed, but what is the price paid? Who will be the next "noisy" fragment? The vampire's desire, the tyrant's wounds, or the e-sports god's stubbornness? What kind of seed did Su Nian's unexpected touch and words plant in Xie Chen's heart? As the integration of souls becomes increasingly unpredictable, can Su Nian's path of "taming beasts" find its true direction?
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