Devil Emperor Gu Chensha

"Don't... I don't want to go back..."

In a daze, Zhu Zhuqing woke up.

Her mind was still groggy.

A dense, aching soreness ran through her limbs, as if she had been exercising intensely day and night.

She blinked several times before her vision finally focused.

Before her eyes was a small room, clean and tidy, yet utterly unfamiliar.

Zhu Zhuqing was certain she had never been here before.

It looked nothing like the courtyard assigned to her at the Zhu Family estate in the Star Luo Empire, nor like any inn where she had rested on the run.

Where was this?

She pushed herself upright, and the thin blanket slid from her body, revealing the plain white undergarments she had been changed into.

She instinctively reached for her left shoulder.

It should have borne a grievous wound, pierced through by a killer's Soul Skill and deep enough to expose the bone. As she lay dying, she hadn't even had the strength to lift her arm.

But her fingertips touched only smooth, delicate skin, as white and warm as well-tended mutton-fat jade.

There wasn't a scar—not even the slightest trace of an injury.

In a panic, she felt along her waist, arms, and calves. The deep and shallow wounds left by her flight had all vanished without a trace.

Her mind rang, and countless memories surged up at once:

The killers arranged by her elder sister, Zhu Zhuyun, had pursued and ambushed her all along the way. She had fought to escape into the Star Dou Great Forest, already utterly spent...

Then she had encountered that dark-gold giant spider, so enormous it blotted out the sky—the Devil Emperor, the Demon Spider Emperor, whose name struck terror across the entire continent!

After that came the sacrifice, the Two-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, the Soul Bone, the Martial Soul Evolution, and the Second Martial Soul...

Zhu Zhuqing's pupils contracted sharply, and her heart pounded wildly.

But had any of it really happened?

A Fierce Beast Emperor who had lived for two hundred thousand years had willingly sacrificed itself to a Soul Grandmaster with only a little over twenty levels of Soul Power?

On the Douluo Continent, that was pure fantasy.

Soul Masters had always risked their lives to hunt Soul Beasts and claim their rings. How could a Ferocious Beast standing at the pinnacle of the continent willingly give everything to a young woman it had never met?

She raised a hand to her forehead. Her temperature was normal; she didn't have a fever.

She focused and sank into her sea of consciousness. It was perfectly still, without even a trace of any unfamiliar presence.

Then she called on her Soul Power and searched every part of her body, but couldn't find the slightest trace of the Demon Spider Martial Soul.

Could it be...

Had it all really been a dream she'd had as she lay dying?

The young woman's heart sank, leaving her feeling hollow inside.

It was as if she had lost the power to control her fate once more, plunging again into an endless abyss of helplessness.

She had gained it, then lost it completely. It had all been nothing but an illusion.

She clenched the bedding in her hands, her lips pressed into a taut line.

The faint light that had just begun to kindle in her eyes dimmed bit by bit, leaving only bewilderment and a bitterness she couldn't shake.

Had even Heaven refused to give her a chance to fight back?

Did even a dream have to offer her an ethereal hope, only for her to snuff it out with her own hands?

"You think that was a dream?"

A low, icy laugh suddenly sounded beside her.

Zhu Zhuqing stiffened and jerked her head up.

A phantom figure appeared out of thin air in the open space beside the bed.

The young man wore a dark-gold outfit. His features were cold and stern, and his eyes and brows carried the arrogance and aloofness tempered by five hundred years of slaughter.

Those dark-gold eyes regarded her with a faint, teasing smile.

It was unmistakably the Devil Emperor from her "dream"!

Zhu Zhuqing instinctively shrank back, pressing her back against the wall. She looked as if she'd seen a ghost, and her voice trembled.

"You? Didn't you already sacrifice yourself? Don't Soul Beasts die when they sacrifice themselves? How are you..."

"Die?"

Gu Chensha gave a low laugh and walked to the bedside, then leaned over.

His long, clearly jointed fingers gently lifted her smooth chin.

He seemed to be savoring the sensation.

"I, Devil Emperor Gu Chensha, have fought Heaven for my life for five hundred years. Did you really think I'd be so easy to scatter into nothing?"

He released her and straightened, looking down at the shocked young woman as he spoke in an even tone.

"Everything you received is real. Your Second Martial Soul, Soul Bone, and Two-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring are all inside your body."

"You couldn't sense them before because I concealed them, for a reason. Now that you're awake..."

Seeing the confusion still lingering in Zhu Zhuqing's eyes, Gu Chensha gave a cold snort.

Before she could speak again, Gu Chensha's figure became a streak of dark-gold light and shot into the space between her brows.

Zhu Zhuqing felt warmth spread through her sea of consciousness. Then an unfamiliar force took control of her body.

Her hands lifted the blanket on their own, and her legs swung down to the floor.

Her bare feet touched the cool ground. Her movements were fluid and natural, yet completely beyond her control.

"You... Why can you control my body?!"

Zhu Zhuqing cried out in terror.

Anyone who discovered that another being was controlling their body would feel this instinctive fear.

The next moment, her own throat gave voice to words in her cool, clear tone.

And yet... those words were wrapped in the cold, lazy arrogance unique to Gu Chensha.

"There's no need to be surprised. I'm just letting you experience for yourself what it is you possess."

"With an ordinary sacrifice, a Soul Beast burns its origin and divine soul, pouring all its power into a Soul Master. Naturally, its divine soul is extinguished. But what I gave you was a Wisdom Soul Ring."

"I offered my complete two-hundred-thousand-year origin as a sacrifice, and my divine soul resides within the Wisdom Soul Ring, bound completely to yours. We share life and death."

"If you die, I'll immediately be scattered into nothing. So don't worry that I'll harm you."

"I can share your five senses, and, when necessary, take control of your body to unleash the full extent of our power."

"As for the Second Martial Soul you couldn't sense before, I've just lifted the concealment. After all, plenty of interested people have been probing your body during the seven days you were unconscious."

Zhu Zhuqing fell silent.

The panic and fear in her sea of consciousness gradually subsided.

She could clearly feel that Gu Chensha's divine soul was indeed bound tightly to hers, without the slightest trace of ill intent.

If he had wanted to harm her, he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of sacrificing himself in the forbidden area of the Star Dou Great Forest.

He could have crushed her with a single hand while she was utterly spent. There had been no need to pour the origin of his five hundred years of cultivation into her petite body.

She drew a deep breath, and her tense body slowly relaxed.

"I understand, Devil Emperor... senior."

"Don't call me senior. It sounds awful."

Gu Chensha cut her off at once. "Just call me Devil Emperor, or... Gu Chensha."

Zhu Zhuqing froze for a moment, then asked hesitantly,

"...Gu Chensha? Is that your name?"

What ordinary Soul Beast had a name of its own?

"That's a trivial matter."

Gu Chensha's voice grew faint.

"Now I'll return control of your body to you. Release your Nether Civet Martial Soul and see how you've changed."

As soon as he finished speaking, the force controlling her body vanished, and control returned to her.