Su Yu almost thought she had found a rhythm.
Through three days of cautious experimentation, she had begun to be able to slightly regulate her heartbeat and local body temperature without triggering obvious warnings. She discovered that when her emotions were truly calm—not feigned, but genuine, deep-seated tranquility—the feedback from the Warm Jade Silk was most stable, and You Li also seemed less likely to pay extra attention.
Thus, she attempted to enter a meditative state each day after You Li left, sinking her consciousness into her dantian and carefully using that faint light to “touch” the Gu poison—not to transform it, merely to observe. The Warm Jade Silk would react slightly, but the fluctuations remained within normal range. She could even sense that, during this calm observation, the faint light seemed to glow a tiny bit brighter than before, though the change was extremely subtle.
This ignited a sliver of hidden hope within her. Perhaps, with enough patience and caution, she truly could slowly reclaim a bit of initiative right under You Li’s watchful eyes.
But Su Yu forgot that You Li’s greatest skill was dragging the entire world back into darkness just as she caught a glimpse of light.
On the fourth day, at midnight, You Li did not appear as punctually as usual. Su Yu waited on the stone bed until the Gu poison began showing signs of flaring up, yet there was still no sign of her. She grew uneasy, trying to use the methods she had practiced over the past few days to calm her body’s reactions. The effect was worse than before, perhaps due to the anxiety brought on by her dashed expectations.
Finally, just as Su Yu was almost convinced that You Li would not come tonight, the cell door slid open without a sound.
You Li stood outside the door, not entering immediately. She was dressed in attire Su Yu had never seen before—a pure black, form-fitting battle robe embroidered with dark golden demonic patterns along the edges, her long hair tied high, and a short blade hanging at her waist. She looked travel-worn, as if she had just returned from somewhere, carrying a faint scent of blood.
But what frightened Su Yu the most was You Li’s gaze.
It was no longer the teasing stare from before, but a pure, scrutinizing look that scraped over Su Yu’s entire body like a scalpel, finally settling on her face. The crimson eyes held not a trace of warmth, only a cruel calm.
“It seems that giving you a bit of freedom has taught you things you shouldn’t have learned,” You Li spoke, her voice very soft.
Su Yu’s blood instantly froze. She knew—You Li had discovered.
“I…” She wanted to say something, but her throat tightened, unable to utter a single word. At this moment, the Warm Jade Silk faithfully reflected her rapidly escalating fear—a clear, gripping pressure emanated from her chest, a sign that You Li was sensing her panic through the garment.
You Li slowly walked in, each step feeling as if it were treading on Su Yu’s taut nerves. She stopped beside the stone bed, not sitting down as usual, but instead looking down at Su Yu from above.
“Heartbeat control, body temperature regulation, emotional disguise… even attempting to ‘soothe’ the Gu poison with that pitiful flicker of light,” You Li listed them one by one, her tone as flat as if she were reading an inventory. “Sister Su Yu, you are more creative than I imagined.”
She bent down, her icy fingers lifting Su Yu’s chin, forcing her to look up. The Warm Jade Silk tightened slightly around her neck, bringing with it a suffocating sense of threat.
“But you shouldn’t have lied to me.” You Li’s voice dropped even lower, almost brushing against Su Yu’s ear. “I gave you this garment, gave you the chance to be honest, yet you used it to play tricks on me.”
Her other hand pressed against Su Yu’s chest, over the Warm Jade Silk, resting on the skin that heaved violently with fear.
“Do you know how I felt these past three days, every time I sensed your ‘calm’ heartbeat?” You Li’s fingers pressed down slightly, and the temperature beneath the Warm Jade Silk plummeted, icy and piercing. “I felt disgusted. Like eating poison coated in sugar—sweet on the outside, but inside lies your carefully calculated betrayal.”
“I didn’t…” Su Yu finally managed to force out the words, trembling.
“You did.”
You Li cut her off, her gaze turning completely cold. “You were trying to steal a bit of control from me, a bit of freedom. You treated me like a guard you could fool, treated this game like a chess match you could win.”
She straightened up, took a step back, and retrieved a small black jade vial from her robes. The vial was densely carved with demonic patterns, dizzying to look at even from a distance.
“The original essence of ‘Love’s Entanglement.'” You Li pulled out the stopper, and a sweetness ten times more potent than before filled the air, thickening the atmosphere of the dungeon. “Since you enjoy studying it so much, since you’re so eager to ‘transform’ it, I’ll give you the opportunity.”
Su Yu’s eyes widened in terror, her body instinctively shrinking back, but the stone bed and chains held her in place.
“No… You Li, please… I know I was wrong, I’ll never dare again…”
She pleaded, tears instantly welling up. This was no act—it was genuine, overwhelming fear. She had tasted the torment of Gu poison before, knew the agony even a regular dose could bring. The original essence… that would be worse than death.
“Shh.”
You Li placed a finger to her lips, her crimson eyes finally flickering with emotion—excitement, the kind that comes from watching prey completely break down. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t let you die. Just a double dose, so you can ‘feel’ it more clearly, and so I can ‘feel’ you more clearly.”
She stepped forward, gripping Su Yu’s chin with a force that felt bone-crushing. Su Yu was forced to open her mouth, watching helplessly as the black jade vial tilted, and a thick, honey-like dark red liquid flowed into her mouth.
A sweetness several times more intense than before instantly flooded her mouth, then erupted into flames—not spreading along her meridians, but exploding inside her body like a bomb. Su Yu let out a piercing scream, the black chains pulled taut, groaning under the strain.
The burning sensation traveled from her mouth down to her stomach, then spread to every limb and joint. Every inch of her skin felt as if scalded by boiling oil, every bone as if roasted over fire. But this was only the beginning.
The true power of the Gu poison lay in its erosion of nerves and consciousness. Su Yu felt her soul torn in two—one half enduring hellish agony, the other half morbidly craving more, deeper stimulation.
Her vision began to blur, twisted illusions appearing before her eyes: blood-red mandrakes blooming in the darkness, Qing Li and You Li’s faces overlapping and alternating, her master’s disappointed gaze, the burning halls of Xuan Yu Zong…
“Ah… ahhh—”
She couldn’t control her screams, her body writhing frantically on the stone bed, trying to crash against the stone wall to alleviate the agony within. At this moment, the Warm Jade Silk was no longer comfortable clothing but had turned into an instrument of torture—it faithfully amplified and transmitted every ounce of pain, and because of its connection to You Li, it made this suffering a two-way torment.
You Li stood by the bed, her face slightly pale, fine beads of cold sweat seeping from her temples. Through the Warm Jade Silk, she too felt that terrible agony, though not in its entirety, it was enough for her to understand what Su Yu was enduring. Yet her gaze remained icy, even carrying a satisfaction that bordered on self-inflicted cruelty.
This was what she wanted—Su Yu utterly shattered.
Not the shameful collapse from before, not the numbness after submission, but being pushed into the abyss by the one she trusted most, where in extreme suffering, all pretense, all schemes, all resistance were crushed, leaving only the most primal, most naked plea for mercy.
Su Yu could no longer form complete words. Her throat was choked with screams and sobs, tears mingling with sweat streaming down wildly, soaking the Warm Jade Silk and rendering the moon-white garment nearly transparent, clinging tightly to her trembling body.
Her nails scraped against the stone bed, fingertips splitting and bleeding, leaving chaotic bloodstains on the stone surface. Her long black hair, damp with sweat, clung to her cheeks and neck, swaying with her violent tremors.
Most heartbreaking were her eyes—once clear and cold as the moon, now filled with indescribable pain, fear, despair, and a trace of pleading directed at You Li. Her gaze pleaded: Save me, stop, I can’t bear it anymore…
But You Li did not stop.
She watched Su Yu struggle in agony, watched her proud self-control completely disintegrate, watched her attempt to summon that faint light only to be instantly devoured by more intense Gu poison, watched her shift from trying to preserve dignity to nothing but instinctive convulsions and sobs.
Then, just as Su Yu was on the verge of fainting, You Li finally moved.
She sat on the stone bed, pulling the trembling, sweat-drenched body into her embrace.
Su Yu clung to You Li’s battle robe like a drowning person clutching driftwood, burying her face in her shoulder, releasing suppressed, broken sobs. The Warm Jade Silk transmitted chaotic signals where their skin touched—extreme pain and cold relief, desperate collapse and the satisfaction of control.
“Can you feel it?” You Li whispered in her ear, her voice also somewhat hoarse, whether from the shared pain or something else, “This is what’s real. The pain is real, the collapse is real, that you cannot leave me—is also real.”
She stroked Su Yu’s sweat-drenched hair, her movements almost tender, yet her words were the cruelest: “Don’t play tricks on me again, Su Yu. You cannot bear the consequences. Your pitiful little games are like a child trying to fight a storm with leaves—laughable, and pathetic.”
Su Yu trembled violently in her embrace, unable to speak, only shaking her head repeatedly, tears soaking You Li’s shoulder.
“Remember this feeling today.” You Li continued, her fingers tracing the back of Su Yu’s neck, where the edge of the Warm Jade Silk was faintly warm. “Remember what awaits you when you try to resist. Then make your choice—whether to continue this doomed game or accept reality and obediently become my possession.”
She paused, her voice lowering further. “At the very least, as my possession, I won’t let you suffer like this.”
It was a devil’s promise, a temptation from the abyss. After such extreme pain, even the slightest relief felt like heaven.
Su Yu’s weeping gradually weakened, turning into intermittent sobs. The intense flare-up of the Gu poison slowly subsided, leaving behind exhaustion as if drained of all strength and a persistent, fine stinging at her nerve endings. Her consciousness wavered, her body collapsing limply into You Li’s embrace, lacking even the strength to clutch at the other’s robes.
You Li held her, unmoving for a long while. The dungeon was silent except for Su Yu’s faint whimpers and the intermingled, gradually steadying breaths of the two.
The dim light of the glazed lantern cast their entwined shadows onto the stone wall, distorted, merged, indistinguishable from one another.
After what felt like an eternity, You Li laid Su Yu flat on the stone bed and covered her with a brocade quilt. Su Yu had already slipped into a semi-conscious state, her eyes half-open, staring vacantly upward. Tears still flowed silently, tracing paths from the corners of her eyes into her hairline.
You Li sat by the bed, reaching out to gently wipe away those tears with her fingertips. Her expression was complex and inscrutable—there was the satisfaction of control, the pleasure of cruelty, but deep within, there seemed to be a faint tremor.
“Sleep,” she whispered, as if soothing a child. “Tomorrow will be better.”
She rose and walked away, pausing at the cell door to glance back.
Su Yu still lay with her eyes open, tears flowing soundlessly. The moon-white Warm Jade Silk, soaked with sweat and tears, clung to her thin, trembling body like a second layer of pale skin, or like a wound that would never heal.
Shattered, utterly, heartbreaking to the point of suffocation.
And this was exactly what You Li wanted.
The cell door closed, and darkness swallowed everything.