A Glimpse of Her Tragic Fate, Zhu Zhuqing Finally Awakens!

The night wind swept through the abandoned manor, stirring the faint arcs of lightning that still lingered in its dark alley and lifting the loose strands of black hair across Zhu Zhuqing's forehead.

Chu Yuan stood with his hands behind his back five paces away, looking down at the black-clad girl with deep, tranquil black eyes. He took in the trace of hesitation in her eyes that she had yet to sever completely.

"Are you still hesitating?"

Chu Yuan spoke calmly, his cool voice unusually clear in the silent alley:

"Do you still believe the Hell Spirit Cat can only have a sliver of hope against your elder sister Zhu Zhuyun and Dai Weisi by relying on the Evil-Eyed White Tiger?"

Chu Yuan's words struck the last shackle deep within her soul.

Ever since the day she awakened her Nether Civet Martial Soul at six and was betrothed to Dai Mubai, the Zhu Family's patriarch and elders had drilled the same idea into her day after day: the Hell Spirit Cat clan had served the White Tiger imperial family for generations. Without the boost from fusing with a White Tiger Martial Soul, a Hell Spirit Cat Soul Master would struggle to reach the pinnacle in a lifetime, much less survive the cruel battle for family succession.

"What a laughable rule, and what a pitiful way to be tamed."

A mocking smile curved Chu Yuan's lips:

"It was clearly a contest of life and death for two people, yet when Dai Mubai felt the pressure from his elder brother, his first response wasn't to stay and train bitterly at your side. Instead, he fled alone to the Balak Kingdom a thousand miles away, clinging to his miserable life and leaving you to face all the family's infighting and the risk of assassination."

Chu Yuan took a slow step forward, each word striking at her heart:

"Do you think that in the years since he fled to Suotuo City, he's been swallowing humiliation and biding his time? No, he's merely been using escape from fate as an excuse to squander what remains of his princely authority in this little city, sinking into a life of wine and women day and night. He dresses up his cowardice and incompetence as unrestrained charm and prettifies his abandonment of his fiancée as a search for a breakthrough. That is the fine match your Zhu Family chose for you, and the so-called fate in which you've always tried to place your hopes of survival."

Keqing, standing to Chu Yuan's left, frowned slightly, undisguised contempt showing in her amethyst eyes.

As the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing, a firm believer that "man can conquer heaven," nothing disgusted her more than such antiquated shackles that tied one's fate to marriages between bloodlines and cowardly men.

"Chu Yuan is absolutely right."

Keqing's cool voice rang out at just the right moment. "A mediocrity who doesn't even have the courage to face a powerful enemy, who can only numb himself by bullying the weak and indulging in pleasure-to place your hopes of survival in trash like that is the greatest insult to you."

Zhu Zhuqing's face turned pale.

She understood all of it, and the scene in the Rose Hotel lobby at noon today was still vivid in her mind.

But the sudden collapse of an obsession she had held for so long left her feeling as though she stood on the edge of a bottomless cliff, desperately in need of one last straw to break her ties to the past.

Chu Yuan seemed to see through her thoughts. He gave the small of Mona's slender back a gentle pat:

"Since the Zhu Family's second young lady still hasn't seen reality clearly, why not use your Hydromancy to show her what her fiancé is doing right now? While you're at it, let her see how her so-called fated marriage would originally have ended if she hadn't met me."

Mona adjusted the broad, pointed witch's hat on her head and thrust out her full chest:

"Black-clad girl, watch closely. The stars never lie!"

With those words, Mona gently swept her fair, jade-like hand through the night air.

Without the need for a brass water basin as a medium, a crystal-clear azure water mirror filled with countless streams of brilliant starlight formed and spread out of thin air in the alley.

As its surface rippled, Mona's Vision blazed with dazzling blue light. Following the karmic connection of a token that still lingered on Zhu Zhuqing, she instantly found the star's trajectory far away in the southern end of Suotuo City.

The ripples on the mirror faded, and an incomparably clear image sprang into view before Zhu Zhuqing!

It was a seedy brothel tavern in southern Suotuo City, ablaze with gaudy lights and thick with the scent of powder and perfume.

Shattered wine jars littered the floor of a lavish, disordered private room. Golden-haired Dai Mubai, with his uncanny double pupils, was sprawled shirtless on a couch, a heavily made-up courtesan with half-undone clothes in each arm.

"Fuck... What rotten luck at the Rose Hotel today! Once I break through to Soul Ancestor and Soul King, I'll tear that bastard and bitch to pieces sooner or later! Come on, drink with Young Master Dai! Whichever of you makes me feel good tonight can have all these Gold Soul Coins!"

In the image, Dai Mubai showed no sign of resolving to do better out of shame. Instead, he was indulging himself all the more, venting his frustration and Evil Fire on wine and women. His large hands roamed freely over the two courtesans, his expression wanton and numb.

At the sight of the revolting scene in the water mirror, Zhu Zhuqing felt her stomach churn like rivers and seas overturning!

While she had been fighting through bloodshed, the man who never stopped talking about the pressure he bore from the imperial family was actually drinking and making merry with brothel prostitutes in his arms!

Mona gave her finger a gentle turn, and the image in the water mirror shattered and reformed into countless dim, intertwined star trajectories.

She pointed to a faint, shadowy star line that had originally belonged to Zhu Zhuqing but was tightly entwined and suppressed by the spectral form of a white tiger. Her tone was grave and pitying as she explained:

"Do you see? This was your original path of fate before you met us. The stars show that if you swallowed your disgust, compromised, and pushed that man onward, you could indeed just barely master that Martial Soul Fusion Skill. But what would it cost you?"

Mona looked straight at the pale-faced Zhu Zhuqing with mint-green eyes and spoke word by word:

"On your original path, the light of your life star was almost completely swallowed by the White Tiger's star trajectory. That means you would spend your whole life as his appendage and shadow. When he suffered setbacks, you would have to bear the pressure for him; when he fought his enemies, you would have to exhaust your very essence to help him display his might. You would even have to endure his filthy past, living your entire life in the cage of an imperial marriage, never truly able to have a name or a life of your own! This is the fate you've struggled so hard to let go of!"

As Mona withdrew her hand, the star-fate water mirror in midair dissolved into a skyful of crystalline specks and scattered in the night wind.

Silence returned to the alley.

Zhu Zhuqing stared blankly at the empty space where the water mirror had vanished, as though she had undergone a baptism that had remade her very bones.

Yes...

Even if she didn't die at Dai Weisi and Zhu Zhuyun's hands, what difference was there between death and swallowing humiliation to help a man who disgusted her rise to a high position, then living her whole life as "an appendage of the White Tiger"?

The Star Luo Zhu Family's rules? The fate of an imperial marriage? The shackles of the Martial Soul Fusion Skill?

To hell with her family's damned fate!

She slowly raised her right hand, reached inside her collar, and tugged hard!

She pulled out a mutton-fat white jade tiger-claw pendant tied to a red cord.

Zhu Zhuqing lowered her head and glanced at the white jade tiger claw in her palm, which had once weighed on her so heavily she could hardly breathe. Her five fingers suddenly tightened!

The hard, smooth mutton-fat white jade pendant cracked in her palm, crushed into a pinch of stone powder!

Zhu Zhuqing opened her hand, letting the night wind scatter the powder between her fingers.

Having done all this, she took a deep breath, straightened her torn black collar, and then solemnly dropped to one knee once more!

"The second young lady of the Star Luo Zhu Family is dead. Dai Mubai's fiancée no longer exists in this world."

The girl's crisp, decisive voice rang out forcefully through the dark alley:

"Had you not intervened today, I would already have been nothing but dry bones in this alley; had you and the two ladies not opened my eyes, even if I had clung to life, I would have been nothing more than a puppet in a cage. From this day forward, Zhu Zhuqing's life belongs to you, my lord! Wherever my lord's sword points, my claws shall strike. Even if I am ground to dust, I shall never waver in my loyalty!"