Zhu Zhan did not seem to expect an answer from Lin Xia.
Lost in his own emotions, he spoke with a bitterness that sounded almost like a dream-filled murmur.
"Without the Hell Civet, she wouldn't have been branded as a future bride of the Star Luo Empire from the moment she was born. She wouldn't have been forced to learn those cold, merciless rules as soon as she was old enough to understand them. She wouldn't have had to face her own elder sister like two trapped beasts locked in the same cage, destined to fight until one kills the other."
A profound sorrow flashed through his eyes.
"Zhu Zhuyun, she's my daughter too! I watched both of them grow from tiny bundles in swaddling clothes into the young girls they are today. Yet this cursed destiny! These cursed rules! They've turned them into enemies! They've ground their blood ties and sisterly affection into dust!"
His gaze seemed to pierce through time itself, seeing a future far ahead, filled with despair.
"This is only the beginning. Once they grow older, once the struggle between Dai Mubai and Dai Weisi reaches its inevitable climax.
one of those sisters will die! The victor will survive by stepping over the corpse of the loser, while the loser won't even leave behind a trace. The family will erase every mark of her existence. That is the fate of the Hell Civet! That is the price of being bound to the chariot of the Star Luo Imperial Family!"
Suddenly, Zhu Zhan withdrew his gaze and looked directly at Lin Xia.
His deep-set eyes were bloodshot, filled with exhaustion that could not be concealed, along with a complicated emotion that bordered on pleading.
"Xia, tell me what am I supposed to do?"
"As the patriarch, I must uphold the rules. I must ensure the stability of the marriage alliance between the Zhu Family and the Imperial Family. I must push forward this cruel competition, even if the sacrifice is my own daughter."
"But as a father... I..."
His voice caught in his throat.
The words that followed would not come.
He simply closed his eyes in pain, his shoulders trembling ever so slightly.
The last traces of sunlight vanished beyond the horizon.
The pavilion at the center of the lake was swallowed by the dim twilight, and a chill gradually settled into the air.
Lin Xia listened quietly, watching the struggling man before him.
He understood that Zhu Zhan's confession was not entirely pure.
There was an element of lowering his guard to gain sympathy and draw closer.
There was an attempt to gauge Lin Xia's attitude toward Zhu Zhuqing.
And perhaps, buried deep within, there was even a faint hope that Lin Xia might become the variable capable of changing Zhu Zhuqing's cruel destiny.
Yet Lin Xia saw something else even more clearly.
Behind this sigh stood the crushing weight of family destiny and imperial law, unyielding as stone, cold as icemercilessly grinding down every individual caught beneath them.
Zhu Zhan's pain was real.
But his position would never change because of it.
He was still the patriarch who would not hesitate to throw his own daughter into the arena if it benefited the family.
Lin Xia lifted the tea that had long since gone cold and took a small sip.
The chilled liquid slid down his throat, carrying a faint bitterness.
Rather than responding directly to Zhu Zhan's pain, he gazed out over the quiet lake hidden beneath the dusk and spoke in a calm voice that seemed to cut through the darkness.
"Uncle Zhu, destiny is called destiny because it appears unbreakable, as though it were forged by the very laws that govern the stars."
"But have you ever considered this...?"
He turned his head.
His dark-gold eyes shone brilliantly in the darkness as he met Zhu Zhan's gaze.
"Even the stars are not eternal."
"Within a game of chess, the pieces naturally follow the rules set by the player."
"But what if one of those pieces gained the power to overturn the board itself?"
Lin Xia's words were like a stone cast into still water, sending violent ripples through Zhu Zhan's heart.
Overturn the chessboard?
What arrogance!
And yet...
What a terrifying possibility.
Zhu Zhan's eyes snapped open.
He stared in shock at the boy before him, a seven-year-old child who had already displayed talent so extraordinary that it defied common sense.
Lin Xia said nothing further.
He simply picked up a pastry, broke it apart at a leisurely pace, and fed it to the Larvitar beside him, which had already grown impatient from waiting.
Twilight deepened.
Silence settled over the lakeside pavilion.
The evening breeze carried a chill, sweeping away the tangled emotions in Zhu Zhan's heart, leaving behind only unprecedented shock and a tiny spark of hope that even he himself had not realized existed.
He looked deeply at Lin Xia.
Without another word, he slowly rose to his feet.
His tall figure merged with the growing darkness of the night as he departed along the corridor.
His steps seemed heavier than before, yet somehow lighter as though he had laid down a burden.
Lin Xia remained seated alone in the pavilion, listening as the footsteps faded into the distance.
His fingers lightly tapped against the cold stone table.
Larvitar happily chewed on its pastry, producing faint crunching sounds.
"Destiny? Rules?"
Lin Xia muttered softly to himself, a cold smile curling at the corner of his lips.
"Just wait."
"I'll use the hardest ore in existence to forge a pickaxe capable of shattering every chain."
The night was as black as ink, thick and oppressive, blanketing the endless rooftops of the Zhu Estate.
The conversation in the lakeside pavilion was over, like a stone that had sunk to the bottom of a deep pool.
The ripples had faded, but in Zhu Zhan's heart, it had carved open a crack unlike any before.
Inside the core district of the Zhu Estate stood Zhu Zhan's study.
The windows were tightly shut, blocking out the cold moonlight.
Only a Soul Tool lamp upon the desk cast a dim yellow glow.
Its light projected Zhu Zhan's towering shadow onto walls covered with star charts and family genealogies, making him appear especially heavy and alone.
He was neither cultivating nor handling family affairs.
Instead, with his hands clasped behind his back, he paced across the study's thick beast-hide carpet.
Each step seemed to land upon invisible thorns.
"Even the stars are not eternal..."
Lin Xia's calm yet earth-shattering words echoed repeatedly in his mind like a curse.
Every syllable struck his deeply rooted beliefs like a heavy hammer.
He stopped before the enormous map of the Star Luo Empire.
His fingers unconsciously traced the emblem symbolizing the close bond between the Dai Clan and the Zhu Clan.
This alliance had endured for centuries.
These "rules," forged and maintained through the blood and sacrifices of countless generations were they truly unbreakable?
The potential Lin Xia had displayed was simply too terrifying.
Larvitar's inconceivable abilities, slaying a thousand-year soul beast at the age of seven, repairing a national treasure.
Everything pointed toward one conclusion:
This boy possessed the potential to overturn common sense itself.
"Overturn the chessboard..."
Zhu Zhan silently repeated those words.
An extremely complicated expression flashed through his eyes.
There was instinctive resistance toward such an outrageous idea.
There was also a hidden stirring of emotion, one he scarcely dared acknowledge, even to himself.
But above all else, there was profound fear.
He did not dare gamble.
The Zhu Family had weathered countless storms.
The reason they had remained standing at the pinnacle of the Star Luo Empire, becoming a great clan whose fate was intertwined with the Starcrown Imperial Family, was their absolute obedience to the rules and their unwavering loyalty to the Imperial Family.
The destiny of the Hell Civet was both a shackle and a shield.
If he, Zhu Zhan, were the one to break it...
The consequences would be unimaginable.
The Imperial Family's wrath.
Division within the Zhu Family.
The countless rival forces waiting hungrily for an opportunity to strike.
In his mind, he could already see the Zhu Family collapsing, its foundations shattered amid rivers of blood.
"For the sake of my two daughters..."
He closed his eyes in pain.
Images surfaced before him.
The adorable sight of Zhu Zhuyun taking her first unsteady steps as a child.
And Zhu Zhuqing's eyes, those quiet black eyes that increasingly resembled those of his late wife, calm on the surface yet concealing a stubborn determination beneath.
His wife's untimely death had always been the deepest wound in Zhu Zhan's heart.
And Zhu Zhuqing's eyes were a constant reminder of that pain, a continuation of the sorrow he had never been able to leave behind.
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