The image of the Withering Lily, Wang Xia, would not leave Su Wan. It haunted the edges of her mandated serenity, a ghost of fragility in her world of enforced strength. Days after the visit, she moved through her duties as Overlord like a beautiful automaton, the memory of that faint, ethereal connection a persistent itch in her soul that the Ancestor's dominating presence could not completely soothe.
He observed her quiet distraction with the air of a spider watching a fly tremble at the edge of its web. The time for manipulation was ripe.
He summoned her to the highest balcony of the Citadel, a place that overlooked the entire Luo Domain, now ostensibly hers. The night sky was vast, strewn with cold, distant stars.
"You have been preoccupied, my Queen," he stated, his back to her as he gazed out at his kingdom. His voice was not accusatory, but… thoughtful.
Su Wan stiffened. "The burdens of rule require contemplation, Master." It was the safe, automated response.
He turned, his boyish face illuminated by the starlight, his green eyes holding a depth she had never seen before—a semblance of ancient sorrow. "Do you ever feel," he began, his voice dropping to a whisper that seemed to pull at the very strings of her being, "as if this is not your first life? As if your soul remembers a melody it cannot quite name?"
The question was so unexpected, so contrary to his nature of absolute, present-tense possession, that it disarmed her completely. She could only stare.
"I have lived three thousand years," he said, taking a step closer. "I have clutched at immortality, not just for power, but for… love. For a connection that transcends a single lifetime."
He reached out, not to grab her, but to gently trace the line of her jaw. His touch was unnervingly tender. "The first time I felt your energy—not the Phoenix power, but you, the core of Su Wan—it was like hearing a forgotten song. A melody I had ached for for centuries."
Su Wan's breath caught. This was a new kind of violation, more subtle and more dangerous than any physical claim.
"You…" she whispered, unable to stop herself. "You knew me… before?"
A sad, beautiful smile touched his lips. "Knew you? I loved you. In another age, under another name. You were my dawn, my first wife. Your spirit was a flame of unwavering loyalty and passion." His eyes seemed to look through her, into a past he was meticulously constructing for her alone. "And you were not alone. You had a twin sister. A spirit of gentle life, of nurturing growth. Your perfect mirror. Where you were fire, she was the earth that grounded you. Where you were the noonday sun, she was the gentle moon."
The description was a key turning in the lock of her heart. Fire and earth. Sun and moon. It resonated with the conflicting energies she felt within herself—the Phoenix's power and her own innate nurturing nature.
"What… what happened to her?" Su Wan asked, her voice barely audible, her carefully constructed walls beginning to crack under the weight of this poisonous, beautiful fantasy.
"A tragedy," he murmured, his voice thick with a grief that felt terrifyingly genuine. "A cruel fate tore you both from me. I have searched the millennia for your souls. I thought I would never find you again." His hand cupped her cheek. "And then I felt you. Your defiance, your spirit… it was her. It was you. My dawn had returned."
He leaned closer, his forehead almost touching hers. "And when you touched that girl in the Wang family… when I felt the echo through our bond…" He paused, letting the suspense build. "I felt it again. The same gentle, life-giving energy. Faint, dying… but unmistakable. It is her. Your sister's soul has been reborn in that broken vessel."
The revelation struck Su Wan like a physical blow. Wang Xia? Her… twin sister? The idea was insane, blasphemous. And yet… the connection she had felt. The way her own energy had responded. The deep, irrational pull of pity and protectiveness. It felt true. He was offering an explanation for the inexplicable, a purpose for her pain.
"She is dying," the Ancestor whispered, his voice laced with a desperate passion. "Without me. Without us. Her soul is scattered, withering away in that frail body. She needs the energy that only we can provide. The energy that once sustained her. She needs to be whole again. With her family."
He looked into her eyes, his gaze burning with a fervor that blurred the lines between manipulation and genuine belief. "Don't you feel it? The emptiness without her? The half-remembered song of your shared soul? We can save her. We can be together again. The three of us. As it was always meant to be."
The manipulation was masterful. He was weaponizing her loneliness, her suppressed maternal instincts, her shattered sense of identity, and offering her a new one: a tragic heroine, a lost queen reunited with her beloved sister and her eternal husband.
Tears, real and unbidden, welled in Su Wan's eyes. The lie was more beautiful than her truth had ever been. "How?" she breathed, already half-consumed by the fantasy. "How can we save her?"
This was the moment. He drew her into an embrace, not of domination, but of shared purpose. "We must bring her here. To the Citadel. To the source of our power. My energy, combined with yours… it can anchor her soul, nurture her body back to health." His hand stroked her hair. "You must use your authority as Overlord. Command it. Have her brought to us. Tell them it is the only chance to save her. It is not a command… it is a rescue."
And then, the final, brilliant twist. He pulled back, his expression one of sudden, fierce desire that seemed to eclipse even the past-life narrative. "But know this, Su Wan. Even if she were not your sister… even if this were all a dream… my fixation on you would be no less. Your energy is a drug. The defiance in your eyes, even when you kneel… it is a fire that my millennia-old soul cannot resist. I would burn worlds to keep you. Your sister's soul is just… a fortunate key to making you completely, eternally mine."
He was giving her two reasons to believe—one poetic and tragic, the other raw and desired—allowing her to choose the one that suited her heart best.
Su Wan, her mind reeling, clutched at the fantasy. The idea of having a sister, of being part of a destined triad, of saving someone instead of being a tool for destruction… it was a lifeline.
"I… I will see it done," she said, a new, frantic light in her eyes. "I will issue the decree myself. We will bring her home."
The Ancestor smiled, a thing of devastating triumph. He had not just captured her body or her obedience. He was on the verge of capturing her narrative. He had given her a story to believe in, a reason to willingly help him acquire the next piece of his collection. The Withering Lily would be plucked by the very hand that pitied her most.