Part 1: The Fatal Suspicion
Myra, Lian's fiancée, was a cultivator with a "Low-Tier Allure" talent. While it wasn't a destructive power, it granted her an uncanny ability to sense emotional pheromones and minute fluctuations in a person's energy. When she visited Arthur in his private chambers, the practiced smiles he wore weren't enough to deceive her heightened senses.
"Lian, your scent has changed," Myra said, stepping closer, her eyes shimmering with a strange, analytical light. "The smell of fear and laziness no longer clings to you. Instead, there is something dark... cold... like a void deep within your soul."
Arthur tried to deflect using Lian's memories. "Myra, dear, the mines change a man. I have looked death in the face."
But Myra didn't flinch. She placed her hand over his heart and whispered, "Your heartbeat is too steady for a man claiming trauma. You... you are not Lian. Who are you?"
Part 2: The Final Farewell
The moment the truth left her lips, Arthur's face shifted from manufactured warmth to the absolute stillness of death. He gave her no chance to scream or activate her charms. In a blurred movement, his hand clamped around her throat, and the black flames of the "Void-Flame Palm" erupted from his palm.
"Your intelligence was your true talent. A pity," Arthur whispered into her ear as she gasped her final breath. He didn't just kill her; he used his bloodline to Devour her "Allure" talent. He felt a surge of pale pink energy mingling with his internal darkness. Now, he could manipulate the emotions of others, making his lies nearly impossible to detect.
Myra's body turned cold and limp, but Arthur didn't simply dispose of her. He needed a "Scapegoat."
Part 3: The Masterful Performance
With terrifying efficiency, Arthur staged the room to look like a desperate struggle. He placed a small lock of hair—which he had previously stolen from Chu (Lian's rival friend)—into Myra's lifeless hand. He then inflicted shallow wounds upon himself and used his newly acquired "Allure" power to infuse his voice with a heart-wrenching tone of weakness and grief.
"Help! Someone help! Myra! NOOOO!" His scream echoed through the pillars of the Inner Sect.
When the guards and Elder Moa burst into the room, they found Arthur on his knees, cradling his fiancée's body, weeping with a fake, soul-shattering agony. "It was Chu! He was blackmailing her... I tried to protect her, but he was too strong! They killed her because of what I discovered in the mines!"
Part 4: The Dark Harvest
Enhanced by the stolen "Allure" talent, his performance was flawless. Everyone fell for the ruse. Chu was immediately arrested under charges of high treason and murder, while Arthur was treated as a tragic hero who had lost everything. Elder Moa, driven by pity and guilt, granted Arthur full access to the "Secret Treasure Hall" to compensate for his loss.
The next night, Arthur sat in his room, coldly wiping away his lingering fake tears. His eyes were fixed on a new target: The Lightning Disciple.
"Thank you, Myra," he muttered, looking at his hand which now shimmered with a faint pink light laced with black. "Your death was a small price for my ascent to the peak of this Sect."