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

Si Chen's pupils contracted sharply, and he instinctively tried to use his spiritual power to shake her off—

The moment the spiritual energy touched her body, it vanished without a trace again.

"It's strange, isn't it?" Chu Qingyue's fingertips gently brushed against his collarbone.

"Why can't your spiritual power harm me in the slightest?"

Si Chen stared intently at her, and finally, emotions other than indifference surfaced in his eyes—shock, confusion, and a kind of fear that even he himself had not realized.

"Because..."

Chu Qingyue leaned closer, her lips almost touching his, but stopped an inch away with a soft laugh:

"...Once you tell me in person that you love me, I will tell you."

She turned his face to face, forcing him to look at her.

Eyes facing each other.

In her eyes, he was a madman's obsession, a venomous resentment from hell, and a madness that wanted to drag him down into the abyss.

His eyes held a crumbling restraint, a shattered Dao heart filled with panic, and a longing he himself dared not admit...

"how?"

Chu Qingyue chuckled softly, her fingertips tracing his trembling lips:

"Does the Imperial Advisor still want to know the truth?"

Si Chen closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened his eyes again, a frozen calm had returned to his gaze.

"I have cultivated the path of ruthlessness for four hundred years, and have long since severed the seven emotions and six desires, dedicating my body and mind to the Way of Heaven."

"Without love or hate, without infatuation or anger, and certainly not... able to feel affection for anyone."

"The Path of Heartlessness?" Chu Qingyue scoffed, her laughter filled with mockery and pity.

"Four hundred years of ice, I, the Empress, will melt it inch by inch."

She leaned down and pressed her face against his smooth, cool chest.

The moment their skin touched, they both shuddered.

Her face was burning hot, like a burning flame;

His chest was cold, like a frozen snow-capped mountain.

Ice and fire merged at this moment, bursting forth with the light of destruction and rebirth.

"Ah Chen," she whispered, her breath brushing against his heart, "your ruthless path... couldn't control your heart."

"Your heart is beating so fast."

"Thump—thump—thump—"

Each strike was like a war drum being beaten on a silent observatory.

Si Chen closed his eyes.

Four hundred years of cultivation, four hundred years of indifference, four hundred years of transcendent detachment...

At this moment, it is as thin as a cicada's wing.

"Chu Qingyue," he said, his voice hoarse, "you...you will ruin me."

"Then let's destroy it." Her lips almost touched his, their breaths mingling, indistinguishable. "Let's go to hell together."

Before she could finish speaking, she wanted to kiss him.

Si Chen suddenly turned his head to dodge.

Chu Qingyue stopped moving.

Under the starlight, she looked at his profile, which was always calm and undisturbed, but now it was tense, his silver hair was messy, and his Adam's apple was bobbing violently, like a glass statue on the verge of collapse, torn between desire and his Dao heart.

Her eyes darkened, and she suddenly turned her head—

She bit down on his collarbone!

It wasn't flirting; it was a real bite.

Her teeth embedded themselves in her flesh, and blood gushed out instantly, staining her lips and teeth red.

The rusty taste spread in my mouth, carrying its unique, cool, cedar-like aroma.

Si Chen trembled violently.

"Uh..." he groaned, and blood trickled from the corner of his lips.

It's not an external injury, but a backlash from one's Dao heart.

When one cultivates the Way of Ruthlessness to its highest level, one's body and mind resonate with the Way of Heaven.

At this moment, his Dao heart was shaken, and the backlash force surged through his meridians like a tidal wave. Blood flowed upwards from his internal organs and spilled from the corner of his lips.

Chu Qingyue opened her mouth, licked the blood from her lips, and her eyes were eerily bright, like those of a bloodthirsty demon.

"Look, you're bleeding."

She ran her fingertips over the bloodstains at the corner of his lips, wiping away the bright red, as if drawing a bewitching mark on his pale face.

"The Grand Preceptor, who is immortal, indestructible, and the undisputed number one expert on the Azure Sky Continent... was somehow managed to be injured by me."

"Could this be considered... the only privilege your 'Heavenly Way' has left me?"

She chuckled softly, but a trace of pain, unnoticed even by herself, flashed in her eyes.

"What exactly did you…" Si Chen asked breathlessly, each word laced with blood, "What did you do to me? Why can't my spiritual power harm you, yet you manage to injure me?"

Chu Qingyue smiled.

She propped herself up and looked down at him.

Her purple robe was as wide as clouds, her silver hair flew in the night wind, and behind her was a vast star map, with thousands of stars twinkling behind her.

Like a phoenix reborn from the ashes, she was about to drag this celestial being from the heavens down to the mortal realm, and together they would fall into an endless hell.

"I already said..."

She leaned down and lightly touched his chest with her fingertips:

"Once A-Chen falls in love with me, I will tell you."

"Let me tell you why you are my calamity, and I... am also your only 'lifeline' and 'weak point'."

Si Chen abruptly turned his face away.

"wishful thinking."

He gritted his teeth and spoke slowly and deliberately.

Chu Qingyue, however, did not care about his resistance.

She bent down, her fingertips tracing his eyebrows and eyes, as if she were tracing a lost treasure that had been found again.

"Isn't the Imperial Advisor most skilled at deducing heavenly secrets, understanding people's hearts, and predicting the past and future?"

"Then let me ask you—"

"Right now, at this very moment, how about you put yourself through this?"

"Let's calculate... whether I, Chu Qingyue, am truly in your destiny, Si Chen?"

"Is this the 'ill-fated relationship' you keep talking about?"

Si Chen opened his mouth.

He wanted to say "no".

I want to say, "Those who follow the path of ruthlessness do not enter the mortal world, nor are they entangled in cause and effect."

I want to say, "I cultivate the Way of Heaven, while you walk the Way of Humanity. The Way of Heaven is ruthless, and the Way of Humanity is full of hardships. We... were never on the same path from the very beginning."

But before he could speak, that metallic sweetness surged up his throat again.

More turbulent, more scorching.

"puff--!"

He suddenly turned his head, and a mouthful of blood spurted out.

Crimson bloodstains splattered on Chu Qingyue's purple robe and her pale cheeks.

Warm, viscous, with its unique cool scent.

Chu Qingyue's eerie smile froze instantly.

Do you hate him? Yes.

She hated him for a single divination he made seven years ago, which pushed her into the fiery pit of a marriage alliance with the Northern Sea. All those dark and hopeless struggles and battles, as well as her head full of white hair and her body covered in poison, were all thanks to him.

Do you resent him? Yes.

She resented him for practicing that heartless path, and resented him for spitting blood rather than looking at her.

But what sustained her through the seven years of suffering and the carnage of the Northern Underworld, besides hatred and resentment, was something else entirely.

—It was the eight years at Zhaixinglou, the afternoons when he taught her to recognize star charts and read divination texts.

It was his spiritual power that healed her wounds and removed her scars time and time again; it was his gentleness as he sat beside her bed on every stormy night, stroking her head and saying, "Don't be afraid."

She never imagined she would really hurt him, or see him so...broken.

"Ah Chen!" she cried out, frantically trying to untie the gold chain from his wrist. "What's wrong with you? Why are you vomiting blood?! I..."

She helped him up, placed her palm on his back, and continuously channeled her inner energy into his body—

But it has no effect whatsoever.

His meridians felt as if they were being violently rammed by some force, and the backlash from the internal energy was even more severe.

"Ugh..." Si Chen groaned again, and blood once more spilled from the corner of his tightly pursed lips.

He abruptly shoved her hand away, the force so great that she staggered backward.

"Get out." A single word, icy and chilling, carrying undisguised disgust and resistance.

After saying that, he struggled to get up and leave this place that had made him lose control, made him look foolish, and almost shattered his Dao heart.

Chu Qingyue's hand froze in mid-air.

A sharp, almost suffocating pain shot through my chest, more excruciating than any wound I had suffered in the Northern Sea.

So this is what it means for the heart to hurt.

But she just... smiled.

That smile was as alluring as a red spider lily, blooming on lips stained with blood—breathtakingly beautiful, yet utterly insane.