Chapter 88: I Came, I Saw, I Conquered
The apparition glowed faintly, appearing youthful—around thirty—with a scholarly, elegant aura. It was clearly a projection, not a physical body.
"You... are the master of this tomb?" Lin Qingzhu asked, her eyebrows knitting together in suspicion as her face changed.
"Haha, no need to be alarmed," the refined man replied with a chuckle. "This is just a remnant of my spirit left behind, sealed within the coffin. Had your battle not shattered the coffin, I wouldn't have been able to appear."
Lin Langtian raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. So, it seemed the condition to summon the tomb's master was to destroy the stone coffin—something he'd completely overlooked in his memories of the past timeline.
"Shameless! And you call yourself an elder?" Lin Qingzhu spat, her voice tinged with anger as her clear eyes burned with fury. "To have used such underhanded methods!"
"Matters between men and women are natural, part of the balance of Yin and Yang. What's shameless about that?" the elegant man answered smoothly. "When the two hearts are aligned, mutual cultivation only strengthens one another."
"Save your nonsense. I'll handle this myself!" Lin Qingzhu retorted sharply.
"That won't work," the man said with a smirk. "This obstacle was set up not to harm, but to bring together."
He glanced back and forth between Lin Langtian and Lin Qingzhu with a knowing smile. "Kid, consider yourself lucky. Such an exquisite beauty—someone even I never saw in my lifetime. Make sure you treat her well in the future."
Lin Langtian felt a chill run down his spine. This tomb master, it seemed, hadn't been an upstanding figure in life and was a bit of a pervert.
"What are you trying to do?" Lin Qingzhu's cold gaze narrowed, her normally clear voice now laced with a steely edge.
"To bring you together," the man replied with a smile. He raised a hand, and the Nirvana Heart within Lin Qingzhu began to release its energy, expanding and filling her with a rush of pure Yin energy, freezing her internal Yuan power instantly.
"I offer great fortunes, and none can refuse them," the man said, his voice low. With a flick of his finger, Lin Langtian's body became stiff and floated helplessly toward Lin Qingzhu, who was still struggling to regain control.
"Hm, there's still something missing to set things in motion." The man stroked his chin, then snapped his fingers. Two wisps of pink light shot from him and entered Lin Langtian and Lin Qingzhu's bodies.
The instant the pink light entered him, Lin Langtian's body turned feverishly hot. An unnatural warmth rose from his abdomen, spreading through his limbs. Meanwhile, Lin Qingzhu's exposed skin flushed a bright red as her usually clear eyes clouded, her inner struggle now overrun with a haze of longing.
The surge of Yin energy within her seemed to draw her inexorably toward Lin Langtian, who radiated pure Yang energy. It was as though someone frozen to the core had suddenly come across a comforting fire, impossible to resist.
"You scoundrel!" she hissed, her delicate frame shivering as her fading rationality clung to her last shreds of control.
"Cause and effect, my dear," the elegant man said with a smug smile. "I achieved Nirvana by harmonizing Yin and Yang. That Nirvana Heart is of me, and it requires a balance of Yin and Yang to work fully. By chance, the two of you came here... isn't it destiny?"
"Destiny? Between us?" Lin Langtian thought, bewildered. In the original timeline, Lin Dong had been destined to end up with Lin Qingzhu. Was he now about to take her place in that fate?
The refined man stood with his hands behind his back, watching with a quiet, knowing smile.
"Spirit Aunt! Spirit Aunt!" Lin Langtian called out in his mind, frustration welling within him. Though he had nothing against forming a bond with Lin Qingzhu, he hated the feeling of losing control. If this was going to happen, he wanted to make it happen on his terms.
"Enough with your human nonsense! Leave me out of it!" For the first time, Spirit Aunt's voice, usually so composed, broke into a rare, irritated outburst before she fell silent.
In the midst of his turmoil, a slender arm wrapped around his neck, pulling him close. A warm, soft figure pressed against him.
An alluring scent wafted up to him, and Lin Langtian's eyes blazed red, his self-control quickly unraveling.
"Lin Langtian, if you dare touch me, I swear I'll kill you when I regain control!" Despite her weakened state, Lin Qingzhu glared at him, her once angelic face now flushed and tempting, her voice a soft threat barely escaping her lips.
Seeing her defiance even now only heightened Lin Langtian's desire to conquer. "What's so special about being a princess of the heavens?" he thought. "I came, I saw, and I conquer!"
With a growl of determination, he reached out, tore away the thin veil covering her face, and looked upon the full beauty beneath.
"Once glance conquers the city, another the entire nation," he thought, awestruck by her beauty. Even the refined man chuckled in appreciation, raising his hand to envelop the two of them in a glowing orb of light, surrounding them in a cocoon.
"Kid, you've inherited the Red Flame Howling Sky Spear, so consider this my final gift to you." With a smile, the man pointed a beam of light into Lin Langtian's mind, filling it with knowledge.
"Even in death, I've brought joy to others. What a pleasure this has been." With a final laugh, the refined man faded into a scatter of light, his presence vanishing from the stone hall.
With his departure, silence filled the chamber, save for the soft glow emanating from the orb. Inside, two figures moved as one, lost to the world around them.
As they were swept away in the moment, neither noticed a faint, shadowy energy seeping out from the Golden Spirit Wheel Mirror, drifting unnoticed toward Lin Qingzhu's storage pouch. Inside the pouch, a faint cracking sound began, as if something was hatching...
(End of Chapter)
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