Chapter 17: The Cold Morning After
The Star-Devouring God screamed. The galaxy burned. The thrill of absolute power coursed through my veins as I held the "Narrative Scythe," ready to rewrite the cosmos. Su Qingxue was laughing beside me—a partner in crime, a queen of chaos.
"I am the Author!" I roared into the void. "I am the—"
*Drip.*
A drop of freezing water hit my forehead.
The galaxy didn't explode; it dissolved. The stars turned into moldy spots on a low, stone ceiling. The "Narrative Scythe" in my hand felt heavy and cold. It wasn't a scythe; it was the rusted iron chain of my cage.
I blinked. The high-definition universe of the dream was gone. The smell of divine ambrosia was replaced by the stench of mildew and damp straw.
**[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:]**
**[STATUS: AWAKE.]**
**[DIAGNOSIS: DISSOCIATIVE EPISODE ENDED.]**
My mind had snapped. To protect itself from the torture of being Su Qingxue's "beloved" prisoner, my brain had created an elaborate fantasy where I was the Master of the System. But I wasn't. I was a man in a box, and the woman who put me there was currently sharpening a fruit knife in the corner of the cell.
"You were talking in your sleep, husband," Su Qingxue purred, her violet eyes curving into a smile that promised both love and a lobotomy.
She unlocked my chains because the Sect required my presence at the Holy Tournament. I was "free," but as I stumbled out into the sunlight of the Jade City, I felt the invisible leash tightening. I headed straight for the **Pavilion of Ten Thousand Flowers**—the most decadent brothel in the realm. I would drown her memory under a mountain of sin.
As I stepped into the golden hall, tossing a bag of high-grade spirit stones to the floor, the System—the *real* System—finally chimed in.
---
### **[URGENT VILLAIN MISSION: THE PATH OF DEPRAVITY]**
**[MISSION OVERVIEW]:** Your mental breakdown revealed a truth: You cannot defeat Su Qingxue with "Heroism." You must become a Villain so irredeemable that the "Heroine's Obsession" logic begins to glitch.
**[PRIMARY TASK]:** Establish the "Palace of Sin." Recruit at least three "High-Quality" women into your personal harem within 24 hours.
**[HIDDEN TASK]:** When Su Qingxue comes to retrieve you, openly embrace another woman and declare her "The New Head Wife."
**[REWARDS]:** **Skill: [Heart of Stone]**, **Item: [Script-Eraser Ink]**, and **Instant Origin Core Breakthrough**.
---
I was halfway through a bottle of expensive wine, with an emerald-eyed dancer draped over my lap, when the screen flickered again. A second notification appeared, pulsing with a dark, sinister red light.
**[ULTIMATE VILLAIN SCHEME: THE LONG CON]**
**[NEW TASK]:** To fully regain control and break the "Destiny" that binds you to Su Qingxue, you must execute the **Ultimate Betrayal**.
1. **Phase One:** Agree to marry Su Qingxue.
2. **Phase Two:** Perform a perfect "Change of Heart." Pretend to slowly fall back in love with her. Show her "sincerity" until she lowers her guard completely.
3. **Phase Three:** Once you have seized her political power and neutralized her cultivation via the "Marriage Bond," file for a **Public Divorce** and banish her.
**[REWARD UPON COMPLETION]:** **The God-Villain Throne** (Absolute immunity to Narrative Fate).
I choked on my wine. *Marry her?* The thought made my skin crawl. But the logic was sound. If I fought her now, I'd end up back in that cage. But if I gave her exactly what she wanted—my devotion—I could dismantle her world from the inside out.
"Young Master?" the dancer whispered, nibbling my ear. "You're shaking."
"I'm not shaking," I growled, pulling her closer as the System's timer began to tick. "I'm calculating."
*Click.*
The front doors of the Pavilion didn't open; they turned to solid ice and shattered into a million diamonds. The music stopped. The air turned so cold that the wine in my cup began to slush.
Through the frost walked Su Qingxue. She wasn't angry. She was wearing a delicate silk veil, and in her hand, she carried a tray of homemade soup—the same soup she had fed me in the dungeon.
"Feng'er," she said, her voice sweet enough to cause cavities. "The girls here are so... messy. I've come to help you pick the ones worth keeping. After all, a King needs a Queen to manage his... concubines."
She looked at the emerald-eyed girl in my lap. The girl's skin began to sprout tiny frost crystals.
**[SYSTEM WARNING: HIDDEN TASK TRIGGERED!]**
**[DECLARE THE NEW HEAD WIFE NOW OR DIE.]**
I felt the biological terror rising, the urge to push the dancer away and beg for Su Qingxue's forgiveness. But then I saw the **[Long Con]** icon glowing in my vision. This was the start.
I tightened my grip on the dancer's waist. I leaned down and kissed her neck deeply, right in front of Su Qingxue.
"You're late, Qingxue," I said, my voice steady despite the frost crawling up the bedposts. "I've already made my choice. Meet the new Head of my household."
The room went so silent you could hear the molecules of oxygen freezing. Su Qingxue's smile didn't falter, but the tray of soup in her hands cracked down the middle.
"Is that so?" she whispered.
I stood up, pulling the dancer with me, and looked Su Qingxue directly in the eye. I didn't look at her with hate. I looked at her with a fake, weary tenderness—the first seed of the **Long Con**.
"But," I added, my voice softening, "she's just a companion. She could never handle the 'official' title. If you truly want to manage my affairs, Qingxue... perhaps we should stop playing these games and actually set a wedding date."
The frost stopped spreading. Su Qingxue froze, her violet eyes wide with genuine shock.
"A wedding date?" she repeated, her voice trembling—not with rage, but with a terrifying, manic hope.
"Yes," I lied, stepping toward her through the shattered ice, my heart as cold as the floor. "I'm tired of running. Let's get married."
**[MISSION UPDATE: PHASE ONE INITIATED.]**
**[HEART OF STONE SKILL: UNLOCKING... 50%]**
---
Su Qingxue dropped the broken tray. She stepped over the shards of ice and pulled me into a hug that felt like being wrapped in a blizzard.
"I knew you'd come around, Feng'er," she sobbed into my chest, her grip tight enough to crack my ribs. "I'll kill everyone in this building as a wedding gift for you."
"No," I whispered, stroking her hair while looking over her shoulder at the terrified harem girls. "We'll need them for the ceremony."
I looked into the camera of my mind, talking to the System, or the Author, or whoever was watching.
*Just you wait, Qingxue. I'm going to give you the happiest wedding of your life. And then, I'm going to take everything you've ever loved and burn it in front of you.*