The light in Cha Jin’s eyes dimmed. “Why not kill me?”

Su Yi sheathed Guiding Mysteries. “If that senior apprentice brother of yours finds out I’ve taken you captive, will he come save you?”

Cha Jin was briefly dazed, but she quickly understood Su Yi’s intentions. She couldn’t help but sigh, “I understand. You plan to use me as bait to make my senior apprentice brother show himself.”

“You’re not so stupid after all,” said Su Yi. Suddenly, his hand shot out, and he wrapped his fingers around Cha Jin’s snowy-white neck. He held her aloft, her back facing him.

Cha Jin’s expression changed dramatically. “What are you doing?

The hand clamped around her neck, and her entire body went soft and limp. She could barely breathe, nor could she exert any strength at all.

Now, with her back facing Su Yi, in this position and at this distance, she felt an indescribable sense of shame and indignation.

Su Yi ignored her. He just extended his right index finger, pressed his fingernail straight against the snowy white skin of her back, and started outlining.

A sudden, piercing pain made Cha Jin go rigid. Her breathing sped up, and she couldn’t help but wheeze and moan.

And as Su Yi’s index finger traced lines in the soft flesh of her back, thread after thread of blood-colored wounds intertwined, gradually forming a complex and bizarre bright red pattern, like layer upon layer of overlapping flames. It was dazzling but intimidating.

Throughout this process, Cha Jin’s slender frame quivered, and sweat beaded on her delicate features. Her bright eyes flashed with shame, resentment, and pain.

From time to time, the piercing pain was so intense that she couldn’t help but gasp and pant for breath. Her breathing was heavy and ragged.

Against the utter silence of the great hall, the sound was enough to make any man’s blood boil.

Suddenly, Su Yi’s nail paused.

It was almost like the bright red inscription carved into Cha Jin’s back was breathing. It lit up, then extinguished, over and over again as it gradually merged into her skin.

“Aa~!”

Cha Jin cried out, and her beautiful eyebrows knit together. Her face flushed red, and she bit down on her lower lip, hard.

Su Yi relaxed his grip on her neck, and she slumped to the floor, unable to move. Her dress was already drenched in sweat, and beneath the fabric, her petite frame quivered.

She felt dizzy, as if her soul was convulsing. It felt swollen, as if it might burst. The pain was so great that her eyes were blank, and the sound of rapid gasping and heavy breathing filled the room.

Su Yi let out a breath of turbid air, then sat languidly off to the side. He picked up a teapot, poured himself a cup, and drained it.

“What is this?” Quite some time passed before Cha Jin came to her senses. She could no longer repress her terror, and her voice trembled as she spoke.

She could sense that a formless power had invaded her soul, yet for some reason, she was completely powerless to resist it.

There was undoubtedly nothing more terrifying than the unknown.

Cha Jin wasn’t afraid to die, but she was afraid of a life worse than death.

“It’s called a ‘Soul-Binding Rope.’ It’s an unpresentable, paltry little secret spell. If you were an Origin Dao cultivator, you could easily refine it.”

Cha Jin was stunned. An Origin Dao cultivator? But those are top-class existences, Earthly Immortals!

“What… What does it do?” Cha Jin couldn’t help but ask.

Su Yi said indifferently, “It’s simple: it will make your life worse than death. Every three months, the spell’s power will erupt. Every time it erupts, you’ll feel as if ten thousand swords were carving up your heart and flaying your flesh. It’s more than ordinary people can endure. 

“If you cannot dispel the Soul-Binding Rope within half a year, it will fully erode your soul, and you’ll become little more than a walking corpse. In the end, you’ll have no choice but to watch as your skin festers and rots into a puddle of pus….”

Su Yi’s tone was calm and indifferent, but Cha Jin couldn’t help but tremble. 

“You’re a devil!” She shrieked, and her will collapsed. Her beautiful face was bleak, her terror and rage readily apparent.

Only the truly brave could stare death straight in the face. Cha Jin clearly didn’t have that kind of courage, especially since what she faced wasn’t death, but a life worse than death, a cruel and brutal end.

Su Yi glanced at her. “I forgot to tell you, but once this spell takes effect, the user can influence the rope binding your soul with a single thought. The sensation is much like being whipped.”

Almost as soon as he said this, Cha Jin cried out in agony. “No!”

 She couldn’t help but clutch her head, fall to the floor, and writhe in agony.

For the first time, she understood what it meant for pain to extend all the way into your soul. It was truly worse than death.

In the world of martial artists, killing someone didn’t amount to much. At the very least, death was an ordinary part of life.

But Su Yi’s use of secret spells to control another’s life and death? That was unquestionably horrifying.

Cha Jin finally understood at a deep level just how terrifying the young man she’d offended was. He was like the devils they heard about in stories!

Quite some time passed before Cha Jin’s piercing agony dispersed, but the torture had already left her disheveled. Her hair was unkempt, and she looked down on her luck and pitiful.

When she next looked at Su Yi, her eyes were full of fear.

“From this day forth, your life is in my hands. When my anger dissipates, I might very well grant you release. Until then, if you dare disobey my orders, don’t blame me for my poor manners,” said Su Yi flatly.

Cha Jin repressed her shame, bitterness, despair, and indignation. She lowered her head and said in a quavering voice, “Yes.”

She never wanted to experience that inhumane torture ever again. 

What terrified her even more was the discovery that with the Soul-Binding Rope in place, she couldn’t even consider rebelling.

Cha Jin was an inheritor of the Wheel of the Moon Sect, but Su Yi’s casual display of control over life and death and that cold cruelty reminiscent of deity fully cowed her into submission.

The realization that her life was entirely out of her control was incomparably humiliating, but at the same time, a faint and inexplicable feeling sprouted within the depths of her heart.

It was much like how, after being broken in, a young beast would submit in the face of absolute power and start showing signs of tameness.

…..

Outside the Ode to Elegance Pavilion.

……

Zhou Zhili stood with his hands behind his back, looking up toward the latticed windows of the second floor. His expression was subtle and complex.

Zhang Duo and the others stood beside him. None of them spoke, but their expressions were strange.

Just now, they heard the sound of clashing metal emanating from the second floor. All of them were startled; they even thought that Su Yi and Cha Jin were fighting.

But before long, they heard a series of indistinct, agonized cries. From a distance, it sounded more like heavy breathing and moaning…

Hearing that, any man’s imagination would run wild!

Zhang Duo and company even wondered if a scene of forceful domination was playing out in the pavilion. In that case…

It would really get the blood pumping!

But it seemed that His Sixth Highness was in a rather poor mood.

Zhang Duo and the others’ keen senses picked up on Zhou Zhili’s erratic changes in expressions. However, he said nothing, and they didn’t know what he was thinking.

Still, none of them were stupid enough to ask. The woman he had his sights on had likely fallen into another man’s demonic clutches. In his shoes, who could possibly be happy?

As their imaginations ran wild, the sound of footsteps emanated from afar.

“You’re not done playing yet?” Qing Jin had arrived, her voice lazy yet magnetic.

She wore men’s robes and carried a jar of wine. Her sharp, bright eyes carried a hint of intoxication, and she looked idle and relaxed.

Her beauty was obvious and stunning, magnificent as a distant mountain, with full red lips. Add that to her tall frame and, even in a man’s clothes, she was a powerful assault to the senses.

“Martial Aunt, you’ve misunderstood. I’m not the one playing tonight.”  Zhou Zhili sighed, feeling a bit stifled.

Qing Jin blinked in surprise. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Zhou Zhili clammed up. Zhang Duo took the hint, coughed dryly, and explained.

When she heard the entire story, Qing Jin’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “So did they start fighting just now, or…?”

“Uh….” For a moment, Zhang Duo didn’t quite know how to explain. Zhou Zhili looked a bit uncomfortable too.

Qing Jin’s sharp eyes swept across the group, and she vaguely seemed to understand. A flabbergasted look arose on her fair and stunning features. “No way! Su Yi has the bearing of a fallen immortal. How could he possibly be so lustful?”

“Lady Qing Jin, you can’t say that. After all, none of us really saw anything happen,” Zhang Duo hurriedly explained. 

Qing Jin snorted coldly, not the least bit polite. “When you do this sort of thing, do you let spectators gather around to watch?”

She increasingly suspected that Su Yi and Cha Jin were up to something unfit for the public eye. Otherwise, why would he make the sixth prince and his subordinates leave?

“I never would have guessed. I really wouldn’t have guessed. And here I thought he was like me, wholeheartedly focused on pursuing the Dao. I truly wouldn’t have guessed that he… was no different from those men of the mundane world…” Qing Jin sighed.

She felt an inexplicable sense of melancholy and loss.

Su Yi had actually come to the Sand-Scouring Waves in search of a woman. It was truly hard to believe.

Zhou Zhili and Zhang Duo couldn’t help but grimace. What does she mean, ‘no different from the men of the mundane world’? Isn’t she insulting us along with him?

It was then that two figures emerged from the pavilion.

They were none other than Su Yi and Cha Jin.

Everyone immediately looked over.

Su Yi looked just as he had before, calm and aloof, hands behind his back. It was as if the heavens could crumble around him and he wouldn’t even blink.

But when he saw Cha Jin’s current state, Zhou Zhili’s heart ached.

This peerless beauty’s hair was undone, her face was pallid, and her clothes were wrinkled. Although they’d dried somewhat and she’d attempted to straighten them out, they were still visibly drenched with sweat.

Unlike before, her head hung low, and she obediently walked alongside Su Yi. Her charming smiles and radiant, stylish confidence had vanished.

If you looked closely, you’d discover that she was trembling, faintly but uncontrollably.

Whenever she looked up and saw Su Yi, the depths of her gaze filled with fear and awe.

How could Zhou Zhili keep his imagination from running wild?

When they saw this, Zhang Duo and the attendants’ expressions were ambiguous. It seems…. Young Lord Su has thoroughly dominated this peerless beauty?

As for Qing Jin, she was already a bit despondent, and when she saw Cha Jin meekly and submissively accompanying Su Yi, her mood soured, and she felt an indescribable rage well within her. 

Qing Jin couldn’t help but say, “I would never have guessed you were that kind of person!” 

But as soon as she said this, she froze as she realized that she’d slipped up. What… What’s going on with me?