“What are you laughing at?”
Xia Qingyue stood where she was, coldness radiating from her entire body. Her voice was colder than ten-thousand-year ice.
She had expected to see Lin Chen begging in fear, or collapsing completely.
But he didn’t.
At this moment, blood stained the corner of Lin Chen’s lips, yet a sharp, chilling smile slowly curved upward.
There was no fear in that smile. No despair. Only a mocking clarity, as if he had seen through everything, along with a madness that was ready to risk his life.
Cough! Cough!
He spat out a mouthful of blood, braced himself with one arm, and stood up. Facing Xia Qingyue, he straightened his back and met her gaze directly, locking onto those glass-like eyes filled with anger and authority.
There was not a trace of fear in his eyes. “I’m laughing… because I guessed right.”
Xia Qingyue froze.
Her brows knitted tightly.
Lin Chen stared at her, still standing high above in her crimson dress, and spoke slowly, each word cutting like a dull blade.
“You’re this powerful, and you see me as nothing more than an ant. If you only needed a furnace to harvest from, there are countless people in this world who meet your requirements. So why choose me, a cripple whose spiritual root has been taken?”
“You bled. That was your first time.”
“With your beauty and strength, if you truly wanted pleasure or cultivation, why would you need to go this far?”
Before he could finish—
“You!!!”
Xia Qingyue’s pupils shrank violently, and her aura faltered for a brief instant.
Under such overwhelming pressure, anyone else would have already fallen to their knees in terror.
But Lin Chen did not.
Facing this unrivaled empress of the Heavenly Realm, his gaze was as sharp as a blade, as if it could tear apart her perfect, cold façade.
His words were brutally direct.
Like a knife, they pierced straight into her most hidden secret.
“You forced me to reach the Master Realm within three months, or die. That’s not just an order, it’s a deadline. Your deadline.”
“You have no choice.”
“You’ve been poisoned, or suffered some strange injury. You must rely on dual cultivation with me to suppress it.”
“And it has to be me. No one else will work.”
“Am I right?!”
The final words came out as a low roar, filled with a reckless, all-or-nothing determination.
Boom!
It was as if thunder exploded in Xia Qingyue’s mind.
The immense pressure around her wavered for a moment. In her icy eyes, a trace of shock appeared for the first time.
How could he…?
A mere mortal. A cripple who had lost his spiritual root. Yet from fragments even she hadn’t consciously pieced together, he had deduced something so close to the truth.
This wasn’t just courage. It was terrifying insight, almost monstrous.
And he dared to expose it openly, ignoring her authority.
Was this the one chosen by the Chaos Pearl?
The Chaos Pearl, a mysterious treasure of the Primordial Sacred Clan, older than the clan itself. No one knew its origin.
Even she had not fully refined it, only using it as a cultivation space with a hundredfold time flow.
Yet now, the one it had chosen left her shaken.
That shock came from his composure under life-and-death pressure, his insight, and his audacity.
But being seen through like this made Xia Qingyue deeply uncomfortable.
A killing intent surfaced in her eyes.
Only the dead keep secrets best.
“You can kill me,” Lin Chen said as he saw the killing intent and laughed instead of fearing it. “But what happens after that?”
Xia Qingyue fell silent. Frost and a faint, almost imperceptible hesitation intertwined on her flawless face.
Yes.
Killing him would be effortless.
She could vent her anger and keep her secret.
But then what?
“Kill me, and how will you suppress your poison?”
“Kill me, and will you even survive three months?”
“Kill me, and can you return to where you came from?”
“Our lives are already tied together. If I live, you live. If I die, you die.”
Xia Qingyue’s chest rose and fell sharply.
Anger and killing intent clashed violently within her.
She stared at Lin Chen. This young man was like a stone thrown into a frozen lake, shattering the absolute control she once held.
The atmosphere in the chaotic space grew suffocating, like the stillness before a storm.
Lin Chen held his breath, his eyes fearless.
He could feel the tangible killing intent lingering around his neck.
He was gambling.
Fighting for leverage.
He refused to remain a puppet, a furnace to be used, discarded, and controlled at will.
My life belongs to me.
Time passed.
Slowly, the killing intent that had nearly solidified into reality began to fade like a receding tide.
The cold aura around Xia Qingyue remained, but the certainty of killing disappeared.
She said nothing. Instead, she looked at Lin Chen with a complicated gaze. There was still anger, still coldness from being provoked, but beneath it lay something deeper… seriousness, even consideration.
If anyone in the Heavenly Realm saw this, they would be utterly shocked.
Back then, who had ever made Xia Qingyue hesitate or weigh her options?
Even when besieged by the seven great sacred clans, she had only frowned once.
Yet now, a mortal youth had forced her into hesitation.
His courage, insight, and unyielding will had tipped the scales.
The balance of this silent game had shifted.
“Your spiritual flame.”
Xia Qingyue compromised.
With a flick of her finger, a strand of chaotic spiritual flame descended silently beneath the crude cauldron and began to burn.
The flame seemed eternal, as if it would never extinguish.
Lin Chen glanced at the flame, and only then did his tense nerves finally relax.
He had won.
Not just the flame, but also a crack in his relationship with this mysterious woman in red.
From this day forward, he would no longer be her puppet furnace.
Because now, he had leverage. He had a voice.
But he wasn’t satisfied yet.
He looked at Xia Qingyue again and said clearly, “Tell me your identity.”
Xia Qingyue stared at him for a long moment, her gaze filled with complexity, though her voice remained cold. “Knowing my identity will only make you die faster.”
“Do you think I’m afraid of death?” Lin Chen smiled fearlessly and pressed on, “At the very least, I deserve to know who I’m dual cultivating with.”
Xia Qingyue glanced at him coldly, her expression still unreadable.
Finally, she spoke.
“Xia Qingyue, Emperor of the Heavenly Realm.”
With that, her crimson dress swayed as her figure dissolved into the depths of the chaotic space, disappearing completely.
Yet her departing silhouette seemed heavier than when she arrived.
“Xia Qingyue… I’ll remember that.”
Lin Chen clenched his fists.
One day, he would truly suppress this untouchable empress beneath him.