The Elevated Phoenix Valley was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the remaining southern side was the three-thousand-meter Absolute Phoenix Cliff. This place seemed to gather all the spiritual energy from the entire Divine Phoenix Mountain, and at a glance, it was like a pure, clear green, unlike other places that were dry and withered. Even the wind seemed exceptionally clear and gentle. In the middle of the Elevated Phoenix Valley was a clear and pristine lake. In front of the lake stood a girl who looked as if she were a fairy from a painting.
The girl wore an elegant phoenix dress, but it was overshadowed by her brilliant jade-like skin. Whether viewed from behind or in profile, she was like a dream fairy. Without even looking at her face and just from the sight of her back, one could tell that her beauty was one that only divinities possessed.
Behind her, a few meters away, stood a man in silence. He was so handsome that mere words seemed incapable of describing him. He wore dark robes that contrasted with his white and impeccable skin, while at the same time enhancing his black hair and equally dark eyes. His nobility was not something that could be imitated; it was present in every fiber of his being, as if he had been born to reign. His mere presence was enough to make entire worlds praise glory to his name and goodwill... and, at the same time, tremble before his unrelenting wrath.
This man was none other than Ren Zu. He looked at the girl in front of him, Feng Xue'er, standing by the edge of the lake, while silently assessing the unfolding events.
His plans for the Divine Phoenix Empire were advancing... but in an unexpected way. He never imagined he would gain a "bride" so easily. Of course, that woman didn't have feelings for him yet. Her heart, at that moment, belonged to Yun Che. But that wasn't exactly a problem. He trusted in his own charm... and in his own ability to conquer hearts. Sooner or later, she would fall in love with him....
Regarding the "Slave Mark" he had applied to the people of the Divine Phoenix Empire, contrary to what they thought, he couldn't hear their conversations. He could even capture thoughts, but only if he was near the person. Nothing beyond that.
The difference between his Mark and a common "Slave Mark" was another... and much more terrifying.
The "Slave Mark" created by his own technique was impossible to undo. Furthermore, it passed on to the descendants of those who carried it, like a hereditary curse. He could also kill any marked person with a single thought, without warning and without effort.
And finally, there was the most terrifying aspect: he was capable of possessing the body of someone who carried the "Slave Mark," taking full control and being able to use part of his own power, limited only by how much that body could withstand....
While he thought about this, Feng Xue'er remained motionless for long moments. Then, slowly, she crouched near the edge of the lake. The phoenix dress spread around her legs like flaming petals, and her fingers touched the water's surface with delicacy, creating small ripples that broke the reflection of the sky. She stayed there, silent, gazing into that natural mirror as if searching for an answer in it, or perhaps just trying to convince herself that she could still feel something beyond sadness....
Behind her, Ren Zu finally emerged from his thoughts and walked silently to her side; it seemed that the valley itself had become quieter, more obedient... as if even nature understood that an impossible existence was there.
His voice came calm, soft... like a breeze.
"Are you sad?"
The sound was low... almost too gentle for someone like him.
Feng Xue'er shuddered, her heart leaped as if struck by lightning, and she raised her head in a startled reflex. For an instant, her eyes widened, as if she had completely forgotten he was there...
"I...!"
She gripped her fingers against the edge of the stone, trying to compose herself.
"N-no, Your Excellency... I'm not sad."
The words came out too quickly. She lowered her face again, her gaze returning to the water... but now, the lake didn't reflect just the sky.
His face appeared on the surface like a forbidden vision. The black hair, as deep as the purest night... the dark gaze, unmoving, like an abyss hiding entire worlds... and that unreal beauty, as if an immortal had been torn from the sky and placed there, standing beside her, not belonging to any of that mortal reality.
Her heart beat faster.
She felt her face warm slightly, a shyness she hated to admit, even to herself. Every time she looked at him, she had a strange sensation, as if she were looking at something that shouldn't exist. As if it were a sin to observe for too long... and yet, impossible to look away. But when her heart seemed to be pulled toward him, the memories of her time with Big Brother Yun returned with force. Her throat tightened. She bit her lower lip, hard, trying to hold back the tremor in her emotions.
Ren Zu looked at her calmly and said softly: "You're lying to me...."
Feng Xue'er gripped her fingers even tighter on the stone.
Silence fell.
And, for some reason... she couldn't sustain the lie for long.
"I... I'm sad because I lost someone very important..." Then, she finally said, her voice low, almost inaudible: "Someone who... was like a brother to me. My Big Brother Yun..."
The words came out slowly, laden with pain. But she didn't explain further; she couldn't. She had promised her father not to touch on that subject near the young man at her side and, above all, not to make her feelings too obvious. Before leaving with him, her father had called her aside, away from the others, and asked her to behave properly in front of His Excellency, not to mention Yun Che and not to make the feelings she carried obvious.
She hadn't fully understood at that moment. But the seriousness on her father's face and the pain in his voice... that was more than enough to make her take it seriously. She nodded, promising to obey. Because, even without understanding everything, she knew it was important.
So, she avoided saying more at that moment, although she wanted to....
Because every time she thought of Yun Che, she felt an emptiness in her chest that threatened to swallow her whole. She wanted to cry. She wanted to curl up somewhere and cry until there were no more tears left. But the situation didn't allow it.
She took a deep breath, trying to push away the tears that threatened to fall again.
"But... I'm happy too...." She added, raising her eyes to the lake once more: "Happy because Your Excellency let me come here... to my favorite place... before we leave. This valley... this lake... has always been where I felt most at peace. Thank you... for letting me stay here a little while."
She didn't look directly at him. She was still too shy. But her voice carried a sincere and pure gratitude.
Ren Zu remained silent for a moment. His black eyes observed her reflection in the lake, and then the real figure beside him. He didn't smile, but there was no coldness in his expression either.
"You can stay as long as you want..." He said simply: "Do you want to be alone?"
Feng Xue'er opened her mouth almost immediately, the word "yes" already formed on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to curl up there by the lake, let the tears fall without witnesses, let the emptiness in her chest spread until it hurt less. But then... her father's words echoed in her mind, clear as the phoenix's call that had awakened her.
She swallowed hard. The "yes" died before it was born. Her fingers gripped the edge of the stone, her nails digging into the damp surface.
"No..." She said, her voice so low that it almost got lost in the gentle wind of the valley: "I... don't want to be alone."
Feng Xue'er raised her eyes to the lake again, seeing his reflection beside her, so close, so unreal. Her heart raced once more, but now it wasn't just shyness or fascination. It was something more confused, heavier.....
She desired him like someone who loves snow above all else: it wasn't just liking the cold; it was needing it, waiting for the sky to darken and holding her breath when the first flake fell, because snow doesn't ask for permission; it simply comes, silent and inevitable, too beautiful to be ignored; and so was he, a presence that didn't beg for attention but took it, not by force but by nature, until she realized that her heart was already surrendered like a city in winter, quiet on the outside and completely dominated on the inside, wanting only to be covered by him, layer by layer, until no piece of herself remained that didn't bear the mark of the man who changed everything without making a sound.....
It was a feeling she had never experienced in her entire life. The only way she could explain it... was that.
And, parallel to that strange sensation, which left her heart inexplicably heavy, there was also a subtle, almost guilty relief. Her father had promised that, in exchange for her sacrifice, he would treat the Blue Wind Empire with more kindness... the nation of her Big Brother Yun.
She hoped he would keep his word.
While the girl had confused emotions and countless thoughts, Ren Zu observed her reflection for a moment, then turned slightly to face her truly. His voice came out calm and indifferent.
"You don't need to feel pressured to do something you don't want because of me. Although we are politically promised husband and wife now... we are not yet married. We are just... getting to know each other. I wouldn't destroy the Divine Phoenix Empire over something as petty as you wanting to be alone. I'm not that childish."
Feng Xue'er shuddered upon hearing the words. A shiver ran down her spine, but not from fear; from something stranger, sweeter and more painful at the same time. She blinked, surprised, and looked at his reflection in the lake. The figure there seemed even more melancholic now, as if carrying a weight that no one else saw.
She turned and looked at him before speaking, hesitant:
"You... seem... like a true immortal from fairy tales. Why... why do you carry this indifference toward people's lives...?"
Ren Zu tilted his head slightly, and a minimal smile curved his lips, not mocking, but almost resigned.
"I'm not indifferent...." He replied, his voice low like the whisper of the wind in the valley. "I just choose not to feel anything about my selfish actions. My selfishness is greater than my empathy."
He paused for an instant, his black eyes as deep as the night sky itself staring into her blue ones.
"That's why I consider myself... a villain."
Feng Xue'er blinked, surprised. For the first time, she saw something beyond his absolute beauty: a subtle melancholy, a silent loneliness that he carried like an invisible crown. And suddenly, her heart ached. It truly ached. She didn't want to see him that way. She didn't want someone so... perfect... to see himself as a villain.
"You're mistaken, Your Excellency..." She said, while her blue and pure eyes stared into his with absolute sincerity. "Even if you're selfish... you saved millions of people with a single gesture. That... that means you're not a bad person. You... you have kindness. Even if you don't want to admit it."
Ren Zu almost smiled. The girl beside him was so pure and kind that she seemed like a pearl lost in the mud. Even in a situation like that, where he had basically "enslaved" her entire family, she still showed kindness toward him.
That was... strange.
Was it because of his unfair charm? Or was it simply her nature?
Honestly, it was a bit unbelievable. He expected the classic type of reaction: a rebellious beauty, indignant about a forced marriage, refusing to accept her fate... that clichéd thing, you know?
But no.
She was being too receptive, and she didn't seem really worried about any of it. Most likely, this had to do with her mind, still filled with confused thoughts and clouded by sadness, unable to process everything that was happening clearly. Perhaps, at that moment, she was just acting robotically because of it.
Either way, he was starting to truly like her.
So, he decided to be honest, risking being hated by her because of it.
"You're mistaken," He replied, his voice calm, almost gentle. "If your father hadn't agreed to my demands... I would have killed all of you. Without hesitation. Without remorse. Ruthlessly. I wouldn't hesitate even for a second."
The words fell like cold stones into the lake's water, shattering their reflection into thousands of fragments.
Feng Xue'er felt a chill run down her spine. But strangely... she didn't recoil. Her eyes were still fixed on his, and although fear was there, something stronger was beside it: a pure curiosity, a desire to understand.
"Then... why didn't you do it?" She asked, her voice low, almost a whisper.
Ren Zu didn't respond immediately. He just kept looking at her—at those blue eyes that seemed to contain the entire sky, at that face which, even overtaken by sadness, was still more beautiful than anything he had ever seen.
"Why, I wonder...?" He murmured, more to himself than to her.
The voice came out low, almost a whisper laden with a kind of pondering that he rarely allowed to show. It was as if he were answering a question that hadn't even been asked, but that still hung between them like an inevitable truth.
In reality, he had let all of them live for a clear reason: he wanted the Divine Phoenix Empire as one of the two new Sacred Grounds. It was simple, rational, efficient.
But at that moment... he felt it hadn't been just for that.
Feeling her gaze, he slowly closed his eyes, as if he didn't want to face her reflection in the lake, nor the girl herself beside him. The way she looked at him was too pure: without fear, without judgment... just with curiosity and genuine kindness....
Even he didn't understand that strange feeling in his chest.
It was as if, suddenly, he had found a single flower blooming in the middle of a burned field. A flower that didn't fear the ash, that didn't know the world's cruelty.
Indeed, now he understood perfectly when they said that those with malice in their hearts, when they find a pure heart, feel an inevitable attraction, like smoke seeking the air, like mud desiring clean water, not to become better, but to finally touch something that isn't broken. A kind of love born twisted: it's desire and hunger at the same time, an impulse to approach what is holy and untouched, even knowing that the simple touch can stain... yet unable to resist the shine that denounces and calls it.
When he opened his eyes again, there was something different in them: no longer just coldness and indifference, but a minimal trace of... acceptance? Or perhaps just resignation.
He stepped away calmly, taking a few steps back, his dark cloak rippling.
"You don't need to call me 'Your Excellency'...." He said, his voice soft like the wind that began to blow gently through the valley again. "You can call me Brother Ren... or Husband. Whichever you prefer. There's no need for formalities between us now."
He paused, his black eyes scanning her face one last time as if wanting to etch every detail: the held-back tears, the shy blush on her cheeks, the sadness that still danced in her blue eyes.
"I'll come back in a few hours. Stay here. Go through your grief. Cry if you want. Be alone with your thoughts. I won't interfere."
Finishing saying that, he turned slowly, his tall and perfect body moving away toward the path that led out of the valley. Something beyond the mortal was withdrawing.
Then he was gone.
The valley returned to silence. Only the soft sound of water lapping at the edge and the distant song of birds.
Feng Xue'er finally felt the air truly enter her lungs.
She looked at the water.
Her reflection was alone now.
And then... the tears she had held back so fiercely finally fell, one by one, touching the lake like small snowflakes melting... silent... inevitable... too beautiful and sad to be stopped.
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