It caused her deep emotional turmoil. It was as if she were being torn in two, her heart aching with the pain of losing her master, even as her mind screamed that it was the right thing to do.
The knowledge that the person she loved and respected was destined to be her enemy, that their paths were fated to cross in violence and war, only added to her pain.
"Shenlian Yingyue, I command you to stop! Can't you hear me? Don't look at me like that! Don't speak to me in this way!" Xiong Zi Ying's voice cracked, revealing the depth of his desperation. Anger surged within him, yet there was an undercurrent of pleading, a vulnerability that made his words tremble. This was the first time he had called her by her full name, as if in that moment he recognized the entirety of her being.
