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

She paused, her voice becoming softer, more seductive, and more venomous:

"Just like before... every time you close your eyes and concentrate, trying to touch your lofty Heavenly Dao, I lean in, kiss you, bite you, and tease you in every way I can think of, until your forever calm face is stained with my living presence and the disheveled look that can no longer be hidden?"

Si Chen's back stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment.

"You can try," he finally spoke, his voice still calm, but if you listened closely, you could discern a slight crack beneath the ice.

"I have cultivated for four hundred years and experienced countless tribulations in the mortal world. Your meager skills are nothing more than a mayfly trying to shake a tree."

He turned around, his silver hair cascading like a waterfall under the deep blue starlight of the observatory. His azure eyes looked down at her, reflecting her eerie figure in red robes and black hair, her hands bound by black iron chains, yet his gaze remained calm and undisturbed.

"I will seal your speech acupoint," he said calmly. "From now on, you will not be able to utter a single word on this observatory."

Chu Qingyue's pupils contracted slightly, but then she smiled—a silent smile that bloomed on her face, like a blood-red datura flower swaying in the night wind.

She looked at him, her eyes filled with the question, "Can you seal my mouth, can you seal my thoughts? Can you seal the deep-seated hatred in my eyes, and... anything else?"

Si Chen understood. He raised his hand, a glimmer of light gathering at his fingertips, but instead of striking her acupoint for speech, he drew a talisman in the air. The pale golden runes wrapped around her neck, wrists, and ankles like chains, finally disappearing into the cinnabar scar between her brows.

"Silence spell, spirit-sealing seal." His voice was indifferent.

"From this moment on, you will not only be unable to speak, but your ability to transmit sound in secret will also be restricted. Although you still possess internal energy, it can only be used for strengthening your body; your techniques for injuring or killing others will be completely sealed."

Chu Qingyue's smile finally froze.

She tried to circulate her internal energy, and sure enough, the domineering true energy she had honed through seven years of bloody battles in the Northern Desert was still surging through her meridians. However, whenever she tried to condense it into her palm or channel it into her weapon, it was as if she had hit an invisible barrier, causing her true energy to dissipate and leaving only an empty echo.

"As for your 'outrageous methods'..." Si Chen flicked his sleeve, turned, and walked towards the sundial in the center of the observatory.

"I will preach to you for two hours every day at Chenshi (7-9 AM) and Youshi (5-7 PM), and teach you the 'Qingjing Jing' (Classic of Purity and Tranquility) and the 'Daode Zhang' (Chapter on the Way and Virtue). When you can recite them fluently, when you understand the true meaning of 'The highest good is like water, which benefits all things without striving,' when..." He paused slightly, and ultimately did not finish his sentence.

Chu Qingyue stared at his back, then suddenly swung backward—the chains rattled loudly, and she used the momentum to rush forward, her red figure like an arrow shot from a bow, heading straight for Si Chen's back!

Si Chen did not turn around. Just as her fingertips were about to touch his robes, a pale golden barrier silently appeared.

Chu Qingyue crashed into it as if she had hit an invisible wall of copper and iron. She was violently bounced back, the iron chains taut, pulling her back into the air before she fell heavily onto the cold ground.

"Cough..." She collapsed to the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood, which stained the bluestone floor tiles red.

Si Chen slowly turned around, lowered his eyes, and his gaze fell on that dazzling red for a moment.

"This observatory is protected by a powerful array." His voice was devoid of emotion. "Even if your killing techniques were sealed now, you wouldn't be able to break through it in your prime. Give up on that idea."

He walked up to her, squatted down, reached out and pinched her chin, forcing her to lift her face.

Their eyes met. In his glassy eyes, he saw her disheveled yet still stubbornly alluring face.

The cinnabar scar on her forehead bled red under the starlight, and the crimson sea of ​​anger in her eyes had not faded in the slightest. On the contrary, it burned even more wildly and fiercely because of this extreme humiliation and confinement, almost burning everything, including herself.

"Chu Qingyue. I'm giving you two choices."

"First, stay here quietly, cultivate yourself, read scriptures, comprehend the Tao, and dispel your hostility. When you are truly 'still,' your heart is clear, and your murderous thoughts have disappeared, I will lift the seal and let you leave."

"Second," he said, applying slight pressure with his fingertips, leaving a faint red finger mark on her fair chin.

"If you continue to resist so madly, then I will use all the restrictions, formations, and sealing techniques I have learned over the past four hundred years to lock you here. Day after day, year after year, until the seas change and the stars fall, until your beauty turns to white bones, your soul will still be imprisoned on these black iron chains, never to be freed or reborn."

Chu Qingyue's chin was held by him, rendering her unable to speak or communicate. But slowly, very slowly, she extended her tongue and licked away the trace of blood from her lips. Then, she gave him a smile that was extremely alluring, extremely provocative, and extremely insane.

Silently, through lip reading: "I choose the third path—" "To drag you down to hell with me."

Si Chen released her hand, stood up, and his wide sleeves brushed past her eyes, bringing with them a cool, snowy scent. "Stubborn to the end," he said, turning to walk to the edge of the observatory and gazing into the distance.

The night sky was vast and boundless, with the Milky Way hanging low as if about to fall.

---------

Chu Qingyue did not sleep on the first night.

He prepared a soft couch for her under the star map, and she simply lay on her side without closing her eyes.

Si Chen sat cross-legged on a futon at the other end of the observatory. His silver hair reached the ground, his moon-white robe was like a cloud, and his body was surrounded by a pale golden spiritual energy that complemented the star map on the dome, making him look like a celestial being in deep meditation.

She stared at him, her eyes unblinking. Like a caged beast eyeing its hunter, waiting for the slightest moment of weakness to pounce and tear his throat apart.

Si Chen knew she was watching. Four hundred years of cultivation had made his mind as clear as a mirror, reflecting everything within a hundred feet.

Her gaze was tangible, filled with hatred, anger, and a twisted obsession, like a thorn in my back.

But he remained motionless. Until midnight, the star chart on the observatory's dome began to slowly rotate, corresponding to the actual celestial trajectories. A beam of clear moonlight shone through the glass skylight, directly onto Chu Qingyue.

The cinnabar scar on her forehead suddenly felt slightly warm in the moonlight.

Si Chen suddenly opened his eyes. He saw that Chu Qingyue's curled-up body began to tremble slightly. It wasn't from cold, nor from fear—the trembling came from the depths of her bones, carrying a kind of suppressed pain to the extreme.

She bit her lower lip until it bled, but remained silent, or perhaps she couldn't make a sound. Her scarlet eyes shone terrifyingly in the moonlight as she stared intently at him.

Si Chen stood up and walked to her. He squatted down and reached out to grasp her wrist. The skin his fingertips touched was burning hot, her pulse was alarmingly fast, and the true energy surging uncontrollably through her meridians was raging—a conflict between the Spirit Sealing Seal and some domineering cultivation technique within her body.

"What kind of evil technique have you been practicing?" Si Chen frowned, his voice cold and deep.

Chu Qingyue couldn't answer, she just laughed, laughing until tears streamed down her face, mingling with the blood from her lips and leaving a poignant trail on her pale face.