Hearing his words, Yu Xiang blinked slowly, her mouth parting as her lips began to tremble.

Her teeth found her lower lip, biting down gently as she realized she could no longer sugarcoat her feelings. His eyes were looking at her with such genuine emotion pouring out that it made her chest tight.

She clenched her dress fabric in her fists, looking down at the rough wooden floor as the words finally escaped her.

"I hated you," she said quietly, the words falling into the silence between them like stones into still water.

As those words left her lips, Tianlong's eyes blinked in surprise, but then a small, rueful smile formed on his face.

"Indeed I did that," he muttered, more to himself than to her as painful clarity washed over him.

He recalled how he had used her as a tool to get to Zhao Chen from the very beginning. Naturally, he had wanted to use her body to cuck his grandson or so-called son of heaven, something he had seen glorified in many web novels from his previous life.

The thrill of breaking, of claiming what belonged to another man in front of them.

Even going as far as to forget how a woman would feel being displayed as such in front of another man in a state where she is giving herself to a man she thought cared for her.

He thought about it all as how he would have felt as a reader.

Uncaring of how she would feel, he had tried to touch her body inappropriately, had spoken to her with casual vulgarity, had treated her like an object rather than a person.

Of course she hated him.

But what felt strange was that somewhere along the way, he had genuinely expected her to love him despite his behavior. His eyes flickered to the system window in his peripheral vision, showing her favorability value at 90%.

How could numbers lie when her heart spoke so clearly?

"But then I realized you were different," Yu Xiang continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "Somewhat making me angry, at the same time confused, and at the same time..."

She paused, searching for words. "I don't know."

She shook her head, clearly frustrated with her own inability to articulate the complex emotions he stirred in her.

She had never expected a man to make her feel like this—such a contradictory mixture of emotions that defied her usual analytical approach to relationships.

If he had been purely manipulative, she would have simply found one way or another to counter him, but she never would have submitted to him willingly.

After all, pure manipulation would have just shown his nature was to objectify women, as he had done initially with those crude words and inappropriate touches.

But she recalled how he looked toward his wives so lovingly—genuine affection that couldn't be faked, the kind of expression that normally a man who just looked toward one wife with superficial lust could never display.

The idea that he could have multiple wives and still love them all equally was something that should have been impossible, yet she had witnessed it with her own eyes.

That contradiction had made her feel strange, caught between what she thought she knew about men and what she was actually seeing.

Looking toward him now, seeing his eyes lift to meet hers with that same vulnerable expression, she took a shaky breath.

"Then I fell for you," she admitted, the words tumbling out before she could stop them. "I don't know... was it because I saw I didn't have any other option?"

She halted suddenly, even though she did not want to accept this, as in one corner she had this fear.

But seeing how there were more women in his life who could love him more than she ever could, and how he could love them more than he would ever love her, she confessed.

The thought that crossed her mind: "Maybe I am just ambitious, manipulating you, wanting your power."

As she muttered these possibilities, she found herself questioning her own motives.

Maybe the reason she thought she loved him was because her ambitious side had seen how he could pour power into women, transforming them from ordinary cultivators into forces of world-breaking power that defied the laws of nature.

But even as she considered this explanation, it felt hollow somehow.

"You know that's not the reason, right?" Tianlong said quietly, his voice carrying a certainty that made her look up sharply.

He was right, and they both knew it.

Due to her unique physique—the Pure Yin Celestial Body that would transfer all her cultivation to the first man who claimed her virginity—she could never gain power the way his wives did through dual cultivation.

Her constitution made her fundamentally different, a giver rather than a receiver of strength—at least for now, how she thought it all worked.

So ambition for power couldn't truly explain her feelings, even though he had initially planned to use that very desire as a means to manipulate her.

Somehow, despite his original intentions, he found that he didn't want to lose her.

Even if he had planned to use her against Zhao Chen, abandoning her afterward had never truly been an option.

It was impossible that he would let her go afterwards. When he slept with a woman, there was a bond that formed in his heart that he couldn't break no matter what.

He didn't know if it was his naiveness, not like those chad macho main characters of harem stories, but he couldn't act cold nor could he genuinely treat the women he slept with like tools that he could forget on his journey.

It felt strange, which was why he still hadn't claimed her—because he wanted to make sure that she loved him truly, not because he had manipulated her.

Or else, didn't he have a system? What did it matter to even have that shity bloodline of hers when he could pour more power than her bloodline could give him?

The thought of simply discarding her after achieving his goals felt... wrong.

"Do you hate me?" Yu Xiang asked suddenly, her voice small and uncertain.

Tianlong chuckled despite the serious atmosphere. "Wasn't that my question? Why are you asking me that?"

She looked down at her hands, fidgeting with the fabric of her robes. "No, I just realized... I really am greedy. I want those powers too."

His eyes flickered, blinking in surprise as he realized her ambitious side had surfaced again.

Not that it was entirely unexpected—after all, the foundation he had laid by demonstrating his lustful side and how it granted women incredible power would naturally lead to such desires.

So he had known this would likely be the case eventually.

But seeing how genuine she was in confessing it, how she didn't try to hide or dress up her motivations in prettier language, made him feel something he couldn't quite name.

Looking at her with eyes that seemed to see himself in her—after all, he was also doing dual cultivation with various women to gain power. It was another thing that until now he hadn't gotten his hands on someone stronger to benefit him.

Until now, he was acting as the giver to his women, the provider, like how a man should be—not on the gaining side, which clearly showed how in one way or another he was also ambitious and greedy. Because that's how this world worked.

Even though he joked around, made fun of things, did not take things seriously, but after arriving here, he had died so many times. If not for him taking things calmly, he might have gotten depression or something.

So yeah, she was like him and maybe that was also the reason her words seemed to make him fall for her as he confessed, "You know... this is the reason I love you."

The simple declaration caught her off guard.

thump thump

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, her eyes widening as her lips trembled uncontrollably.

She saw that same genuine loving expression he wore when looking at his wives—those soft, almost dog-like eyes, that face that made her feel genuinely weak in the knees.

The vulnerability and sincerity in his expression was too much to bear.

Instantly, she climbed onto the bed with panicked urgency, grabbing the thin sheet and pulling it over his face to cover those devastating features.

"Haah... Haa... Never," she gasped, her breathing becoming heavier as she held the fabric in place. "Never... show that face to any woman. Never."

Her eyes moved frantically around the empty hut before focusing back on him, on his nose and eyes still visible through the thin sheet.

It was strange, as if she felt possessiveness flare in her body as she realized how precious it was.

"Never, did you hear me," she repeated, her voice thick with possessive emotion, as she felt her throat getting dry, realizing how much she wanted him to not show that side to anyone else.

It was as if she wanted to monopolize that side of him, that face that made her feel genuinely treasured.

Her ambitions had taken an unexpected turn—instead of craving power for its own sake, she had become greedy for seeing aspects of him that no one else would ever witness.

The exclusivity of his affection had become more precious to her than any cultivation technique or magical artifact.

Did she love him? She didn't know. Maybe she was just ambitious for his power.

But one thing was clear: he was too open for any woman to fall for, and that made her protective instincts arise.

From beneath the sheet, his muffled voice came through with amusement: "Hey, I'll suffocate, you know."

Then, as if unable to resist making light of the situation even in such a moment, he added with a chuckle, "If you're going to suffocate me, shouldn't it be with your perky boobs?"

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