The mad princess forces love upon him, and the aloof imperial advisor trembles every night.

"What a fine duty! Yes, the Grand Preceptor's duty is to protect the health and longevity of the Great Chu royal family. Therefore, whether it's the venomous Chu Qingyao or the powerless and furious Chu Xuanche, as long as they have the blood of the Chu family flowing in their veins, as long as they are alive and can still contribute to this crumbling empire... the Grand Preceptor will, as he is today, spare no effort to protect them, won't he?"

As she spoke, she suddenly lifted her foot and stepped unceremoniously onto the surface of his spotless cloud-patterned shoes.

Using her strength, she moved closer, her nose almost touching his.

"Since Imperial Advisor Si Chen is determined to save someone from my hands," a cruel glint flashed in her eyes, "Fine, so be it. I am not an unreasonable person."

She paused, then her lips curved into a seductive smile.

"However, if you want to get someone out of my 'Hall of Hell', you'll always have to pay a price."

The last syllable vanished in the sudden closeness—she tiptoed and kissed him. It wasn't tenderness, nor a tentative probe, but a conquering, grinding assault, a desperate, beastly tearing.

He wanted to imprint all his seven years of blood, tears, resentment, and unforgettable pain and hatred into the depths of his heartless and emotionless soul through this brutal contact.

Si Chen's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints in that instant.

For the first time in four hundred years, he so clearly "perceived" the existence of "lips"—not flesh, not an organ, but a place that could transmit warmth, softness, moisture, and a certain... torrent of emotions.

He could actually "taste" it. The bitterness was the loneliness of seven years of drinking ice; the fishy smell was the aftereffect of countless battles that had seeped into his bones; and there was also a trace of... a faint, almost desperate sweetness.

So this is what it feels like when lips and teeth touch. So this is what it feels like when breaths mingle. So this… is this what the crimson sea of ​​fury in her eyes, which has always wanted to devour and drown him… is this it?

Chu Qingyue's kiss was completely unskilled; her teeth accidentally bumped against his cold lower lip, sending a sharp pain through him—piercing his suddenly chaotic mind.

"How dare you..." He finally reacted, and for the first time, a crack appeared in his usually calm and indifferent voice. "Chu Qingyue, is this all you think about? Don't make me regret... regret saving you back then."

With a flick of his wrist, a gentle yet irresistible force dislodged her tightly clasped fingers.

However, Chu Qingyue seemed to have anticipated his retreat. She did not loosen her grip on his cloud-patterned shoes, but instead used the momentum of his retreat to lunge forward, wrapping her arms around his waist like iron hoops, her whole body almost hanging on him.

"Regret?" she gasped, her eyes blazing with madness and obsession. "Si Chen, you should have regretted it long ago—"

She raised her hand and gently stroked his bloodied lips, her movements tender as water, yet her eyes held a demonic, obsessive gaze.

"I regret fifteen years ago, when I shouldn't have pulled that little girl from the icy pond when she was about to die. I regret seven years ago, when I shouldn't have personally sent myself onto that carriage leading to hell. I regret tonight—" Her fingertips traced his collarbone, the pressure increasing.

"You shouldn't have testified for me, saying I was a virgin. Even if you did it to save the Prime Minister's residence, you knew that if they were to examine me, they would definitely frame me..."

Her eyes were bloodshot.

"But since I made the bet, I have the ability to prove my innocence. If I were to prove my virginity myself, I wouldn't let any of those who framed me live. But you had to interfere. Si Chen, you always appear when I need you the least. Tell me, are you... here specifically to bring me bad luck?"

Si Chen's voice was hoarse: "You're my nemesis? Chu Qingyue, you're wrong. I'm not your nemesis. I am your tribulation. I am the insurmountable barrier in your destiny, Chu Qingyue, destined to crush all your delusions, all your madness, all your... reckless ambitions."

"A calamity?" She laughed, a laugh that shook her whole body, but her eyes held only a desolate, icy wasteland. "What a calamity! Then, Grand Preceptor, why don't you see whether your heavenly tribulation is more powerful, or mine..."

She suddenly stood on tiptoe and kissed him fiercely again.

This time, she pried open his cold, tightly closed lips and teeth, with a ruthless determination to perish together, wanting to transfer all the darkness, resentment, and madness that had been tempered in her soul over seven years to him.

Si Chen's body suddenly stiffened.

That was an invasion that spiritual power could not resist. It was another, more primal, more savage force that violently crashed into his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness, which had been frozen and dormant for four hundred years.

"Ugh...!" A suppressed groan escaped from his throat.

He tried to use his spiritual power to shake her away, but when his spiritual power touched her body, it vanished without a trace, like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

Four hundred years of cultivation, a thousand rules and ten thousand precepts, all teetered on the brink of collapse in this one kiss.

Just as Chu Qingyue was almost suffocating, she suddenly released him, staggered back a step, her lips were bright red and dripping, but her eyes were terrifyingly bright, like a demon who had drunk its fill of blood.

Si Chen raised his hand, his fingertips brushing against the stinging corner of his lips, the bright red stain standing out starkly against his pale fingertips.

He lowered his gaze to the spot of blood, his long eyelashes casting a deep shadow beneath his eyes, his voice horribly hoarse: "Chu Qingyue, do you know what you're doing?"

"I know," Chu Qingyue gasped, raising her hand to wipe the equally messy water stains from her lips, her smile both alluring and insane. "I'm blaspheming."

She walked back to him step by step, ignoring the turbulent and unstable spiritual energy around them. She reached out her hand, her fingertips trembling slightly, and touched the corner of his bloodied lips.

"Si Chen, my good imperial advisor..." Her voice was soft, but the words she uttered were laced with deadly poison, "Look, your blood is red, it's hot too. What celestial being banished from the heavens, what untouched by worldly dust... it's all a lie."

Her fingertips slid down to his chest, feeling his steady, almost indifferent heartbeat through layers of robes.

"Your dancing here is no different from that of an ordinary person. So, stop putting on that superior attitude towards me." She suddenly gripped the fabric of his shirt, forcing him to look down at her.

"I, Chu Qingyue, have crawled back from hell, and I have no intention of living on my knees again. What I want, I will take; what I hate, I will kill. These two kisses today are merely interest. You saved Chu Qingyao once, and I will ask you for it once. As for the time you saved Chu Xuanche, I'll owe you that for now... I'll collect it next time, but if you ever dare to save anyone from me again... or ruin my plans again..."

She leaned close to his ear and spoke slowly and deliberately, as if it were a curse, yet also a confession:

"My actions will not be as simple as a kiss. I will strip you naked from your sanctimonious imperial advisor robes on this Star-Picking Tower, and chain you to the Star-Gazing Platform with black iron chains, so that the sun, moon, and stars may witness—to witness how you, this high and mighty, emotionless and desireless immortal, are dragged down from your pedestal, stained with my colors, branded with my mark, and ultimately…"

She paused slightly, then slowly licked away the faint trace of blood on his lips with the tip of her tongue.

"...Together with me, let us be forever lost in this vast and mortal world of sin."