Douluo Continent: Martial Soul Young Gilas, Sandstorm King!

Chapter 170 Even the stars are not eternal.

Zhu Zhan seemed to have no expectation of Lin Xia's reply; he was lost in his own emotions, his voice carrying a bitter, dreamlike quality.
"Without the Netherworld Cat, she wouldn't have been branded as the 'Star Luo's Daughter-in-Law' from birth, wouldn't have been forced to learn those cold rules from a young age, and wouldn't have been like two caged beasts locked in the same cage with her older sister, forced to fight to the death..."

A deep sadness flashed in his eyes.

“Zhu Zhuyun…that’s my daughter too! I’ve watched them grow from tiny little bundles in swaddling clothes into what they are today…but this damned fate! This damned rule! It has turned them into enemies! It has crushed the bond between blood relatives to shreds!”

His gaze seemed to pierce through time and space, glimpsing a more distant future, filled with a desperate premonition.

"This is just the beginning... When they grow older, when the struggle between Dai Mubai and Davis reaches its climax... one of them will die! The victor will live on over the corpses of the loser, and the loser... will have even their bones erased from the family's record! This is the fate of the Netherworld Cats! This is the price of being tied to the Star Luo Royal Family's war chariot!"

Zhu Zhan abruptly withdrew his gaze and looked at Lin Xia. His deep-set eyes were bloodshot, filled with an overwhelming weariness and a complex emotion that bordered on pleading.

“Xia, tell me… what should I do? As the clan leader, I must uphold the rules, ensure the stability of the Zhu family's marriage alliance with the royal family, and push forward this brutal competition, even if it means sacrificing my own daughter! But as a father… I…”

He choked up, unable to utter another word, and simply closed his eyes in anguish, his shoulders trembling almost imperceptibly.

As the last rays of the setting sun disappeared completely below the horizon, the pavilion in the middle of the lake was shrouded in a hazy twilight, and a chill began to rise.

Lin Xia listened quietly, watching the man struggling in pain before her.

He understood that Zhu Zhan's confession was not without purpose—it included an element of feigning weakness to gain sympathy and close the distance, an intention to test Lin Xia's attitude towards Zhu Zhuqing, and perhaps even a sliver of... a faint hope that he could bring a glimmer of change to Zhu Zhuqing in this cruel fate.

But Lin Xia saw more clearly behind that sigh the relentless crushing of the individual by the family's destiny, as hard as a rock and as cold as ice, and the ironclad rules of the royal family.

Zhu Zhan's pain is real, but his stance will never change because of it.

He remains the same patriarch who would not hesitate to push his daughter into the arena for the sake of the family's interests.

Lin Xia picked up the tea, which had long since gone cold, and took a small sip. The icy liquid slid down her throat, carrying a hint of bitterness.

He did not directly respond to Zhu Zhan's pain, but instead looked at the silent lake in the twilight, his voice calm yet carrying a clarity that pierced through the mist.

"Uncle Zhu, destiny is destiny because it seems indestructible, as if forged by the laws governing the movement of the stars. But have you ever thought about..."

He turned his head, his dark golden eyes shining brightly in the dim light, and stared directly at Zhu Zhan.

"Even the stars are not eternal."

"Within a game of chess, the pieces naturally follow the rules set by the players. But what if... this piece possessed the power to overturn the chessboard?"

Lin Xia's words, like a pebble thrown into a stagnant pond, stirred violent ripples in Zhu Zhan's heart. Overturn the chessboard? What arrogance! And what... chilling power!
Zhu Zhan suddenly opened his eyes, staring in shock at the seven-year-old boy in front of him who had already displayed astonishing talent.

Lin Xia didn't say anything more. She simply picked up a pastry, slowly broke it into pieces, and fed it to the impatient young Gilas beside her. As dusk settled, the pavilion in the middle of the lake fell into silence.

The evening breeze brought coolness, dispelling the complex emotions in Zhu Zhan's heart, leaving only an unprecedented shock and a hidden spark of hope that he himself had not even noticed.

He gave Lin Xia a deep look, then said nothing more. He simply stood up silently, his tall figure blending into the deepening night, and slowly walked away along the corridor. His steps seemed heavier than when he arrived, as if he had unloaded something.

Lin Xia sat alone in the pavilion, listening to the footsteps fade into the distance, her fingertips lightly tapping the cold stone table.

Young Gilas munched contentedly on his snack, making soft "crunch" sounds.

"Destiny? Rules?"

Lin Xia muttered to herself, a cold smile curving her lips.

"Just wait. I will use the hardest ore to forge a pickaxe that can shatter all shackles."

The night was as dark as ink, so thick it seemed impossible to dissolve, pressing heavily on the continuous rooftops of the Zhu family mansion.

The lingering echoes of their conversation at the lakeside pavilion, like a stone thrown into a deep pool, though the ripples have subsided, have carved an unprecedented crack in Zhu Zhan's heart.

Inside Zhu Zhan's study, in the heart of the Zhu residence.

The windows were tightly closed, blocking out the cold moonlight. Only a soul-guided lamp on the desk emitted a dim yellow glow, casting Zhu Zhan's tall figure onto the wall covered with star charts and family genealogies, making him appear particularly heavy and lonely.

He neither cultivated nor handled clan affairs; he simply paced back and forth in his study, which was covered with a thick animal hide carpet. Each step he took felt as if he were treading on invisible thorns.

"Even the stars... are not eternal..." Lin Xia's calm yet earth-shattering words echoed repeatedly in his mind like a spell. Each word was like a heavy hammer, striking at his deeply ingrained beliefs.

He walked to the massive map of the Star Luo Empire, his finger unconsciously tracing the emblem symbolizing the close connection between the Star Crown Family and the Netherworld Cat Family. Was this alliance, passed down for hundreds of years, this "rule" watered with the blood and sacrifice of countless generations, truly unbreakable? Lin Xia's potential was terrifying; the inconceivable abilities of Young Giras, slaying a thousand-year-old soul beast at seven, repairing national artifacts… all of this foreshadowed the possibility that this young man possessed the power to defy all reason.

"Overturn the chessboard..." Zhu Zhan chewed on these two words, a complex light flashing in his eyes. There was an instinctive resistance to that arrogant idea, a secret, unthinkable tremor, but more than anything, a deep fear.

He didn't dare to gamble.

The Zhu family, having weathered countless storms, has stood the test of time in the Star Luo Empire, becoming a top-tier clan inextricably linked to the Star Crown Royal Family, thanks to their absolute adherence to the rules and unwavering loyalty to the royal family. This destiny of the "Netherworld Cat" is both a shackle and a protective charm. If Zhu Zhan were to break it… the consequences would be unimaginable. The royal family's wrath, internal divisions within the family, other covetous forces… he could already foresee the Zhu family's collapse and rivers of blood flowing down their slopes.

"For my two daughters..." He closed his eyes in anguish, his vision flashing before him the adorable image of Zhu Zhuyun as a toddler learning to walk, and Zhu Zhuqing's increasingly strikingly similar, calm yet stubbornly defiant black eyes. His wife's early death had always been the deepest pain in Zhu Zhan's heart, and Zhuqing's eyes were a continuation of that pain.

(End of this chapter)