The Game

Once again, a long silence descended over the Demon-Suppressing Hall.

Wu Lingxiao knelt on the floor, staring at him blankly. The indescribable softness in her heart was quietly spreading at a speed she could do nothing to stop.

She remembered what Ying’er had said:

“For us women, the happiest moment in life has never been standing at the pinnacle of power. It is the moment we fall wholeheartedly and without reservation in love with someone.”

She remembered sitting alone in the imperial study night after night until dawn.

It turned out she was not incapable of love. Before Ye Xuan, no one had ever made her heart truly ache.

“Ye Xuan…”

Her voice was so faint that it sounded like a withered leaf drifting down in late autumn.

“I hate you.”

Ye Xuan said nothing. He only looked at her quietly.

“I hate you,” she repeated, her voice growing softer as her eyes reddened. “But I just… I just…”

She bit down on the rest of the sentence, clenching her teeth so tightly that she refused to let those three words escape her lips.

Ye Xuan looked at her. Deep within his gray-white eyes, the blood-red threads flowed with languid ease.

He reached out and gently brushed aside a stray lock of hair from her brow. His voice was low and calm, carrying an unwavering certainty that left her no room to resist.

“I know.”

Wu Lingxiao’s shoulders trembled faintly.

She did not push him away, nor did she raise her head.

She simply remained kneeling before him, her imperial robes spread across the floor and her hair in disarray, allowing the warmth she had held back for far too long to slide silently down her cheeks.

The crimson demonic lamps of the Demon-Suppressing Hall continued to flicker.

And as the blood-red threads within Ye Xuan’s gray-white eyes shifted, a thought—one whose roots he himself could not say when had taken hold—quietly became clear…

The color representing “love” in Wu Lingxiao’s heart was now nearly eighty percent crimson.

After a long while, Wu Lingxiao finally lifted her head. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

“Ye Xuan… you win.”

Those words, spoken by the Empress of Great Xia herself, carried the humiliation of a surrender.

She bit her lower lip, forcing down the bitterness and exhaustion rising from the depths of her heart, and slowly stood. Her imperial robes rustled in the air.

Turning her back to him, she swept out her broad sleeve. The ancient runes carved into the four walls of the Demon-Suppressing Hall instantly dimmed. The chains forged from ten-thousand-year black iron unlocked themselves with a sharp clank, and the restraints on Ye Xuan receded like a tide.

“Get up.” With her back still toward him, her voice was low, yet carried a trace of tenderness she herself failed to notice. “I… will no longer kill you. Come out.”

Ye Xuan did not move at once. Leaning against the stone wall, he savored the sensation of spiritual power surging freely through his body once more, yet the corners of his lips curled into a meaningful smile.

Ten days of torment had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience to him.

Besides, he had anticipated this moment long ago.

“Have you gone soft?” he asked, his voice hoarse yet teasing.

Wu Lingxiao spun around. A flash of irritation crossed her eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a complicated mixture of emotions.

She did not answer. Instead, she raised her hand and summoned a golden radiance that enveloped Ye Xuan from head to toe. The blood and bruises covering his body vanished, and even his tattered white robes were transformed into a luxurious black-and-gold imperial robe. It was modeled after her own imperial attire, though subtly altered to appear even more noble and domineering.

Hidden along the hem was an intricate dragon-and-phoenix design, symbolizing a certain bond she refused to acknowledge aloud.

“Put it on,” she said coldly. “Don’t make me look at you in such a miserable state.”

Ye Xuan rose and shook out his sleeves. His eyes swept across the gloomy, frigid Demon-Suppressing Hall, and the smile at his lips deepened.

He did not refuse. Allowing the splendid robes to envelop him, he underwent a complete transformation. He was no longer a prisoner in a dungeon, but an emperor standing above the world.

The two of them walked side by side out of the Demon-Suppressing Hall and up the shadowy stone steps. The night wind of the imperial palace rushed toward them, carrying the unique spiritual fragrance of the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty.

When they stepped out of the dungeon and reached the high platform outside the Demon-Suppressing Hall, Ye Xuan halted.

Dressed in magnificent robes that fluttered in the wind, he gazed down at the brightly lit, imposing imperial palace. The resplendent halls, the layers upon layers of restrictive formations, and the distant immortal mountains and spiritual veins all lay within his view.

He drew a deep breath, his voice low and reflective.

“Even with a Time Dao Physique, you still can’t change very much.”

Wu Lingxiao’s body trembled slightly at his words.

Her emotions were in utter turmoil. The crimson affection in her chest burned like a wildfire, yet her reason struggled desperately to suppress it.

She turned to him. A trace of conflict flickered across the emperor’s face before ultimately hardening into a decision filled with helpless resolve.

“Ye Xuan, I want you to become my imperial consort. The two of us will rule the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty together. With your ‘One Conquest, Eternal Conquest,’ we can elevate the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty above all the heavens.”

Her voice was domineering and impossible to defy, yet a hidden yearning lingered within it.

The ten days of torment, Ying’er’s words of awakening, and the confrontation in the Demon-Suppressing Hall had finally forced her to admit that she could not live without this man.

This fiend who had conquered her with laws and pierced the defenses around her heart with words had become the only person capable of stirring her emotions during her eight hundred years of empty rule.

She wanted him not merely for power, but also because of the attachment she refused to acknowledge.

Ye Xuan’s expression remained calm. His gray-white eyes swept across the countless lights of the imperial palace, as though he were looking at a chessboard whose layout he had long since mastered.

He said indifferently, “It’s your Great Xia Immortal Dynasty, not mine.”

The simple sentence struck Wu Lingxiao’s heart like a heavy hammer.

The sharpness in her eyes intensified. Her black-and-gold imperial robes stirred without wind, while the crimson-gold dragon-patterned jade pendant at her waist began to hum, faint echoes of the laws of time flowing through it.

She took a step forward, closing the distance between them. Her voice carried tightly restrained fury.

“Ye Xuan, you were the one who provoked me first! I could have been a carefree and pleasure-loving empress, possessing all the handsome men beneath the heavens and spending my nights in song and revelry, free and unrestrained. It was you—with that damn ‘One Conquest, Eternal Conquest’—who turned me into what I am today! And now you want to stand apart from all of this?”

Ye Xuan turned his head and looked at her calmly. There was not the slightest ripple in his gray-white eyes, as though he had already seen through everything.

His voice was flat, yet every word cut like a blade.

“You were a cold and faithless person to begin with. Don’t flatter yourself by thinking you’re any better.”

Wu Lingxiao’s expression changed dramatically, and a chilling intent to kill flashed through her eyes.

She stared at him, her chest heaving violently. Beneath her imperial robes, her ample figure strained against the fabric.

The love that had been temporarily suppressed by her Time Dao Physique began to stir again, leaving her caught between hatred and confusion. She gnashed her teeth, her voice cold as ice.

“Do you want to suffer more?”

A trace of sorrow crossed Ye Xuan’s eyes.

It was not sorrow for himself, but pity and disappointment for the woman before him.

He slowly shook his head. His voice was as deep as if it had risen from the abyss.

“Isn’t the most painful torture in this world the fact that you once cavorted with your adulterous lover in the Paradise Realm?”

The words were like an invisible slap, striking Wu Lingxiao across the face.

Panic instantly surfaced in her eyes. She turned her head instinctively, afraid to meet his gaze.

The Elysian Heaven—an obscure secret from eight hundred years ago. She had thought the traces of it had long since been erased by the passage of time, yet she had never expected Ye Xuan to expose it with a single sentence.

The two acts of infidelity were the shame she least wanted to confront in the depths of her soul. They were also proof that 【One Conquest, Eternal Conquest】 had never been able to lock her down completely.

“You… You don’t love me. You only see me as prey.”

Her voice trembled, carrying a question that was almost on the verge of collapse.

Ye Xuan remained composed and continued, “Even 【One Conquest, Eternal Conquest】 couldn’t stop you from cheating. Anyone who loves you is destined to suffer.”

He paused. Deep within his pale-gray eyes, blood-red patterns flickered faintly. His voice grew colder, yet carried a sense of utter release.

“So I don’t love you, because you’re not worthy of it.”

Those words struck Wu Lingxiao like a thunderbolt.

She abruptly staggered back a step. Her noble, icy face twisted in an instant, and fury blazed in her eyes. The violence and humiliation she had suppressed for ten days erupted completely as she roared:

“Who are you to say you don’t love me?! You were the one who provoked me and controlled me with 【One Conquest, Eternal Conquest】!”

She trembled with rage, her fingertips nearly piercing her palms. Blood dripped down, yet she remained completely unaware of it. The dignity of an emperor vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a woman torn apart by her emotions.

Ye Xuan shook his head, his expression still calm. He looked at her and spoke neither hurriedly nor slowly, with the composure of someone who saw through everything.

“【One Conquest, Eternal Conquest】 is an innate talent I was born with. It requires neither activation nor the expenditure of anything. Even I don’t know what it truly is.”

After a brief pause, his gaze swept across the night sky above the imperial palace, and he said indifferently:

“But ultimately, 【One Conquest, Eternal Conquest】 exists only to restrain women like you—unfaithful scum. A woman as devoted and true-hearted as Ying’er would never be affected by it.”

Wu Lingxiao’s expression instantly turned ferocious. She stared fixedly at him, her voice filled with hysterical madness.

“I have a way to make her fall for someone else! I possess the Temporal Dao Body—I can reverse everything! I can make her fall in love with another man and see your true nature!”

Ye Xuan’s expression was disdainful, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips.

“Your despicable methods won’t change a thing. Besides, I won’t allow you to do that.”

Wu Lingxiao looked at him, her eyes filled with defiance and unwillingness.

“You think you can stop me?”

Ye Xuan remained indifferent, his pale-gray eyes as still as a deep pool.

“I can’t. But you won’t be able to deal with Ying’er. I don’t know where she comes from, but she must be countless times more powerful than you.”