Lin Ye: Fate? Fate was meant to be severed!

"Why are you here? Did you need something?"

Zhu Zhuqing pressed her lips together slightly and said, "About what happened earlier... I'm sorry for the trouble we caused you."

Lin Ye waved a hand, opened the door, and stepped aside. "It's fine. Shall we talk inside? It's chilly at night."

Zhu Zhuqing hesitated for a few seconds, then stepped inside.

After Zhu Zhuqing entered the room, Lin Ye left the door open. He casually sat down beside the table and motioned for her to sit.

Once she was seated, Lin Ye picked up the teapot and poured two cups of water, pushing one toward Zhu Zhuqing.

"You don't need to take Dai Mubai's words to heart. His anger comes from his own powerlessness and... choices."

At those words, Zhu Zhuqing gripped her cup, her knuckles turning slightly white.

"Powerlessness? Choices?"

Lin Ye looked straight at Zhu Zhuqing. "He's powerless to change his circumstances, powerless to face who he truly is, and even more powerless to bear the consequences of his choices. So all he can do is lash out at others and drown himself in cheap comforts, rolling around in the mire while still believing everyone owes him something."

He dissected Dai Mubai without mercy. Every sentence was another blade, slicing away the last remnants of hope and fantasy Zhu Zhuqing held for him.

Zhu Zhuqing looked up at Lin Ye. For the first time, something other than coldness and wariness appeared in her eyes.

"What... do you know?"

Lin Ye did not answer immediately. Instead, he tapped the tabletop lightly with his fingertips and gazed at the cold moonlight beyond the window.

"I've seen many people bound by the chains of fate. Some submitted and became part of those chains. Some struggled until they were covered in wounds. And a very few..."

Lin Ye paused, then turned his gaze back to Zhu Zhuqing. "Were like a cat that still held its head high despite being chained, with defiant eyes and sharp claws and fangs. Even knowing that struggling would make the chains bite deeper, it refused to bow its proud head."

Zhu Zhuqing's breath suddenly caught. Lin Ye's words were like a key, unlocking the tightly barred door to her heart in an instant.

That "defiant cat," that "head that refused to bow," was the truest reflection of her heart!

Her eyes reddened instantly. Her long-suppressed emotions seemed to have found an outlet, and her voice caught with a hint of a sob.

"You know?! You know about the Star Luo Empire? The Zhu Family? That... marriage contract?!"

Rather than answering immediately, Lin Ye let out a quiet sigh. "What I know isn't a cold family name, or the terms written on a marriage contract."

"What I know is... a girl branded with a name from birth, whose worth lies only in whether she can become someone else's subordinate and tool."

"Her joys and sorrows, her talent and hard work, even her life—in those people's eyes, none of it matters more than so-called 'family interests' and 'Martial Soul Fusion.'"

"She's like a piece of merchandise already reserved for someone. Even the thought of resisting could bring utter ruin down upon her."

Lin Ye's words struck Zhu Zhuqing's heart like a heavy hammer, blow after blow, laying bare the humiliation, resentment, and fear buried in its deepest reaches.

At last, she could no longer hold back her tears, and they slipped from her eyes.

At that moment, she was no longer that cold, stubborn girl, but a pitiful soul burdened with heavy shackles who had finally found someone she could confide in.

"Yes! That's exactly it! I can't accept it! Why?!"

"Why do they get to dictate my fate like this?! Why do I have to spend my whole life bound to a... a man like that?! I train desperately, harder than anyone else, just to prove I'm more than a tool! I want to control my own fate! But... but..."

She sobbed too hard to speak. All the repression, despair, and loneliness she had endured erupted at that moment! This was the first time she had laid her heart bare so openly to an outsider!

Lin Ye listened quietly, neither interrupting nor offering comfort. Only when her emotions gradually settled did he slowly speak.

"But you discovered that, before the towering behemoths of your family and the empire, one person's strength is like a mantis raising its forelegs to stop a chariot."

"You fled here, only to find him even more disgraceful than before. Even your last faint glimmer of hope shattered. Am I right?"

Lin Ye precisely filled in the words she had left unspoken.

Zhu Zhuqing lifted her tear-blurred face to look at him, her eyes filled with confusion and pain.

"Then what else can I do? Go back? Be like my older sister..."

"Go back?"

Lin Ye's gaze suddenly sharpened.

"Back to that cage where they treat you as a tool and your life as a chessboard?"

"Or stay here, watching the man destined to bring you despair sink further and further, until you lose everything?"

Zhu Zhuqing's face went deathly pale. Lin Ye's words left her nowhere to hide. He ruthlessly tore apart all her illusions and laid the worst possible outcome right before her.

This was exactly the effect Lin Ye wanted. He intended to break through Zhu Zhuqing's defenses.

Seeing that he had done enough, Lin Ye abruptly changed his tone. "Zhu Zhuqing, look at me."

"There has never been only one path! Submission is one. Despair is another. But there's one more, and that is... smashing your shackles and forging your own way out!"

Zhu Zhuqing's pupils contracted slightly. "Smash my shackles? I... how could I possibly stand against them alone..."

Lin Ye stood, walked over to her, and held out his hand.

"Who said you were alone?"

The corners of Lin Ye's mouth lifted into a powerful, confident smile.

"You have exceptional speed and a talent for agility attacks! You also have unwavering determination and patience!"

"What you lack has never been strength itself. It's a stage truly your own, where that strength can finally erupt! Someone to stand behind you and shield you from the pressure of the Star Luo Empire and the Zhu Family! A partner who will fight beside you, rather than treating you as a tool or an accessory!"

After laying all that groundwork, Lin Ye finally offered the olive branch he had carefully prepared for Zhu Zhuqing!

"Leave this mire called Shrek. Leave that good-for-nothing Dai Mubai and join us. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect can become your shield, blocking those spears in the open and arrows from the shadows. And I..."

At that point, Lin Ye paused and summoned his Martial Soul. "With my abilities, I can provide you with the resources to grow stronger, an environment where you can train without restraint, and most importantly, the key to controlling your own fate!

"From now on, you won't be anyone's fiancée or anyone's tool. You'll simply be you, Zhu Zhuqing! A powerful warrior who deserves freedom, dignity, and a boundless future!"

"So finally, tell me, Zhu Zhuqing..."

"Will you choose to remain that chained cat, able only to hone its claws and fangs in despair, or... break free and become a Hell Spirit Cat with razor-sharp claws and fangs, charging forward without hesitation?"

Lin Ye's words exploded one after another in Zhu Zhuqing's heart. She jerked her head up without speaking, simply staring hard into his eyes, as though trying to determine whether this hope was real.

Finally, she drew a deep breath and asked with a slight tremor in her voice, "Then what's the price? What do I need to... give in return?"

Lin Ye withdrew his hand and answered with an open, honest smile. "Your trust, your loyalty, and your determination to become the strongest Agility Attack System Battle Spirit Master! Nothing more."

"And your strength will belong only to you, and you'll fight only for things worth protecting. How does that sound?"

By then, the scales in Zhu Zhuqing's heart had tipped completely.

The strength Lin Ye had displayed, the future he described, the respect he offered her, and his utter rejection of Dai Mubai and the fate her family had imposed on her—all of it combined into reasons she could not refuse.

Zhu Zhuqing, the opportunity is right before you. Why not stake everything on your own future?

At last, she hesitated no longer. Facing Lin Ye, she solemnly and clearly spoke a single word: "Yes!"