What's more, I know myself very well—I'm naturally a lustful man.
His blade had yet to strike, and Yin Tingxue stiffly turned her face.
"Killing you would be too much of a waste."
Chen Yi said with a faint smile.
No, I don't enjoy killing. I prefer taking wives and concubines.
After surviving the calamity, Yin Tingxue was dazed for quite a while.
After a long pause, she took a deep breath, mistakenly thinking he could be reasoned with, and asked softly:
"What... do you want?
Do you intend to join the Divine Sect?... If so, they would surely grant you a position of tribute."
[Negative Emotion: 35]
A trace of mockery flickered through Chen Yi's eyes.
"Why on earth would I abandon my position as a Centurion at the West Factory, forsake my greed for easy plunder, and come to this backwater to be some so-called tribute?"
Hearing this, Yin Tingxue froze, her breath coming fast and sharp.
An indescribable despair began to rise within her.
"What exactly do you want...? To see the entire household of Prince Xiang executed?"
Yin Tingxue paused for a moment in silence before tremblingly asking.
"Sending you to the Underworld as well? That would be too tragic; I told you, I won't kill you."
Chen Yi smirked and said.
"Instead, I'll give you a proper place to go."
Yin Tingxue's gaze instantly filled with alarm and unease. But soon, the precocious girl, raised in the Prince Mansion, realized something.
Her demeanor slowly steadied as she lowered her eyes and cautiously asked in a soft voice:
"You intend... to take me as a concubine, bringing me into your household?"
Chen Yi couldn't help admiring the girl's intuition.
Faced with this woman who, in his past life, shattered his meridians, against whom he retaliated by breaking her Longevity Bridge, he lightly patted her back and said calmly:
"You're perceptive, even smarter than most women."
"Without me, you would be taken by the Demon Sect, consecrated as their Saintess, and emerge as a force to be reckoned with."
Chen Yi spoke, his eyes glancing at the system panel.
With these words, the negative emotions surged significantly, climbing straight to an astonishing sixty.
Yin Tingxue stubbornly raised her gaze and glared fiercely at Chen Yi.
"No, no!
I would rather die than let a beast like you succeed!"
Chen Yi chuckled in response.
"Right now, you have no choice."
He wasn't joking—whether or not he had transmigrated into "Heavenly Realm," in this perfect save file, he was destined to claim nearly all noteworthy female characters.
At this precise moment, as the Demon Sect had yet to arrive and Yin Tingxue had yet to grow stronger, it was the ideal time to integrate her into his household.
What's more, his chosen cultivation technique was the Resentment Yin-Yang Technique.
Looking at the resolute Yin Tingxue, Chen Yi said softly:
"Consider your options—do you genuinely wish to become the Demon Sect Saintess, committing horrors, slaughtering innocents, and deceiving believers?"
His placating words left her unmoved, and her reaction remained vehement.
"Even that..."
She choked briefly.
"Even that would be better than submitting myself to humiliation, living in disgrace!"
Chen Yi looked directly at her and said evenly:
"And with that attitude, how would you dare face the former Princess?"
Yin Tingxue froze, recalling the sight of her feeble mother laboring for breath upon her sickbed.
At that time, her mother could no longer speak, only able to trace words with her fingers on the bedding to convey her thoughts.
Yin Tingxue still remembered—the last words written were...
"Be good, be a virtuous person."
The girl shuddered slightly, repeatedly questioning:
"How do you know this..."
The man before her seemed to possess an inexplicable power, able to see straight into her heart. He called her the Demon Sect Saintess, yet he resembled a demon lord incarnate.
"I know far more about you than you imagine."
Chen Yi chuckled and said:
"And as I've said before—you have no choice."
The girl fell silent; she had nothing left, almost nothing at all. Those three thousand silver taels had been completely burned away, reduced to ashes. She had long lost any retreat.
The flames surged as if threatening to break through the doors, reaching for the sky.
"I have no choice..."
Yin Tingxue murmured blankly, as if she wanted to ask something, but the Bodhisattva remained silent.
"Yes, I... have no choice."
Chen Yi slowly extended his hand, intending to comfort her. But as soon as it rested upon her, she forcefully flung it away.
She shuddered, gasping for air. Then, abruptly, she raised her head, grabbed Chen Yi's hand, and pulled it tightly into her embrace.
She stared fixedly at her enemy, her defiance unyielding, and declared:
"I am your concubine now!"