Evil Seal Seizes the Heart, Ice and Fire Both Lose Control

After the second Fate Lock was rewritten, that night did not truly end.

The morning light had barely slipped through the window cracks into the Isolation Array when Wang Dong'er was still nestled in Huo Yuhao's arms, while Wang Qiu'er's hand still clutched his lapel. The three of them had finally managed to press their fear and desire into the same choice the night before, and the circle of golden afterglow created by the altered Fate Lock rested quietly outside their Spirit Seas like a gentle veil of light.

But Huo Yuhao woke first.

A faint blackish-red scorch mark was creeping along the outermost edge of the Ice-Blue Soul Seal in the depths of his Spirit Sea, like ash left after a fire had burned out. At first, it was so slight that it felt like lingering pain from the Fate Lock's backlash. Yet when Wang Dong'er's Light Anchor and Wang Qiu'er's Auspicious Beast Mark lit up beside him at the same time, the ash mark suddenly became like a spark that had smelled blood, viciously biting into that ring of golden afterglow.

A sharp pain stabbed through Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes, and his body stiffened.

Wang Dong'er immediately woke. "Yuhao?"

Wang Qiu'er opened her eyes as well, coldness flashing through her golden gaze. "Something's wrong."

Countless whispers surged up from Huo Yuhao's Spirit Sea. They did not fabricate lies from nothing; instead, they peeled back layer after layer of the things he had been most unwilling to acknowledge these past days: Dong'er's gaze whenever she suppressed her questions, Qiu'er's possessiveness whenever she drew close without retreating, Ju Zi's words—"Today, let it be a farewell"—Ye Guyi's almost prayerful kiss against his forehead, and the fire Ma Xiaotao approached time and again despite knowing the danger.

The golden afterglow trembled, as