Subjugation and Rescue

The jade-green pattern of three flowers blooming side by side between Yao Ming's brows slowly drew in its lustrous glow, eventually shrinking into an imperceptible green mark that quietly vanished beneath his dry flesh. Only that faint, strange connection remained, like invisible threads binding his soul tightly to Qing Lin.

As this energy settled, the dazed trance he had fallen into after his will had been torn apart gradually faded. The scattered light in his eyes gathered from haziness little by little, slowly regaining clarity.

When he opened his eyes again, his gaze almost uncontrollably fell upon the young girl in green before him. The shock, fury, resentment, and suspicion had faded from his deeply sunken eyes, replaced by an unprecedented, almost instinctive obedience.

Only pure submission remained in that gaze, as though this girl in the bloom of youth had always been the sole master to whom he was meant to bow in this life.

Yet beneath that obedience surged complex emotions too difficult to put into words.

Although Qing Lin had subdued him with the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, his memories had not been altered in the slightest by them.

Yet now, though he clearly knew that the girl before him had forcibly subdued him, though reason told him that her strength was far inferior to his at his peak, he could not summon even the slightest resentment or resistance.

A sense of submission originating from the deepest depths of his soul, like an inborn instinct, brutally suppressed every trace of unwillingness and grievance.

Even if he roared his resentment over and over within his heart, his body still instinctively regarded Qing Lin with reverence. The moment his eyes touched her, his gaze would involuntarily soften. That obedience was not a Disguise, but an absolute restriction branded