Inside the room.
Moonlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, casting three shadows belonging to Chu Tian onto the carpet, enveloping the maiden’s figure curled up on the bed.
Three Chu Tians?
One sat on the edge of the bed—the main body that had just been talking to her.
One stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, looking down at her from a lofty height, his gaze filled with pure scrutiny, as if appraising an interesting collectible.
The third had somehow already circled behind her, leaning against the headboard, his fingertips idly brushing through the golden strands of hair scattered across her pillow.
‘I’m… I’m surrounded by that Horned Demon bastard?’
Su Nian’s mind stopped functioning.
Fear sent a cold, numbing sensation spreading through every inch of her limbs.
Yet, within this extreme terror, an even more absurd thought surfaced.
‘At least… at least all three are Chu Tian, not someone else.’
The moment this thought emerged, she wanted to slap herself.
‘What kind of self-comfort was this?’
One Chu Tian could already make her abandon her defenses and flee in defeat.
Three…
Just imagining that scene was enough to make her soul tremble.
No!
Absolutely not!
She’d be ruined…
‘Run!’
She had to run fast!
The moment this thought arose, Su Nian threw off the covers.
Her body sprang up like a coiled spring, trying to roll off the other side of the bed.
But then—
A cold, familiar sensation of restraint instantly appeared around her neck.
It was the [Lover’s Prison Collar] !
That force violently choked off her flow of magic.
Immediately after, a crisp metallic clinking sound came from her ankles, and a heavy pulling force yanked her back viciously.
“Clang—”
She fell back onto the soft mattress in a clumsy heap.
It was the leather anklets she had been fitted with earlier today.
‘Wah wah wah…’
There was no escape.
She was completely under the Horned Demon Master’s control.
Su Nian’s mind flashed with the thought of summoning her Contract Beast for a final resistance.
But then—
The scene of her defeat at Blackstone Gorge flooded her mind.
She couldn’t even beat one of them, and now there were three Horned Demons.
The numerical advantage was gone.
If she resisted now, it would only completely infuriate this man, bringing even more terrifying, boundaryless punishment.
Endure.
She could only endure.
Su Nian closed her eyes in despair and curled back up on the bed.
“What, scared stiff?”
The main Chu Tian on the edge of the bed spoke first, a hint of amused pleasure in his voice.
The doppelganger at the foot of the bed picked up the conversation, his voice identical to the main body’s: “Weren’t you wondering about my secret?”
But because of the different angle, it sounded more oppressive.
“This doppelganger ability is one of them.”
His gaze was sharp, carrying not a trace of lust, only the pure, predator-like appraisal of a superior toward his prey.
“Do you like it?”
‘Like hell I do…’
The doppelganger behind her whispered in her ear, his warm breath hitting her auricle, making her shrink her neck sensitively.
“This punishment I prepared for you… you could also think of it as a surprise.”
Three voices, coming from three different directions, completely enveloped all her senses.
Su Nian felt like she was going crazy.
‘More like I’m scared… Wait…’
Su Nian suddenly thought of a problem.
Three Chu Tians.
Didn’t that mean… her Humiliation Value would triple?
The moment this thought popped up, she was stunned herself.
At a time like this, she was still thinking about Humiliation Value?
But… if that were really true…
‘No, no! This wasn’t the time to think about that!’
Su Nian shook her head forcefully, forcing herself back to reality.
‘No… I can’t just sit here and wait for death.’
If force didn’t work, she’d use softness.
This was a hard-earned lesson she’d summarized from countless humiliations.
“I… I was wrong…”
Su Nian, her voice thick with nasality, peeked half her face out from under the blanket, looking up at the man before her.
Her sky-blue eyes quickly filled with tears, glistening with watery light.
Paired with that expression of both fear and pitifulness, it was enough to melt any heart of stone.
She began to act cute and beg for mercy, her voice so soft it could drip water.
“Master… please… don’t be like this…”
From under the blanket, she extended a trembling hand.
In the moonlight, it was as white as fine suet jade, the fingertips still carrying a lovely light pink.
She wanted to grab the hem of the Chu Tian in front of her, making one final struggle.
However—
Her hand was only halfway extended when another hand intercepted it from the side.
It was the doppelganger who had been standing at the foot of the bed, now somehow already beside her, grabbing her wrist.
His voice was very cold.
“Begging for mercy?”
“Too late!”
The moment the words fell.
All three Chu Tians moved at once.
The blanket was thrown off.
A chill instantly swept through her entire body.
Su Nian was forced to expose herself to the cold air and three scorching gazes.
On her ankles, the pair of delicate leather anklets, along with the small bells attached to them, let out a series of crisp clinking sounds as she unconsciously struggled.
“Jingle.”
“Jingle.”
In this overly quiet night, every single note turned into a brand of shame, engraving itself deeply into her soul.
‘Wah wah wah…’
Outside, in the eyes of the hundreds of thousands of citizens of Academy City, she was the “Star-Moon Saintess” who had saved the Floating Fortress, the revered Magic Tutor.
On stage, she was the radiant, inviolable super-popular idol.
But here, in this man’s presence, all her halos were torn to shreds…
She could only be completely manipulated by the man before her.
And what made her even more shattered than this was the huge floor-length mirror that had somehow appeared in the room.
Its surface was smooth as water, clearly reflecting everything inside the room.
From her restrained angle, she could see it all in one glance.
She could see her own face, crisscrossed with tear stains, written with humiliation and despair.
She could see the ambiguous red marks on her fair skin from struggling.
Even more, she could see… intertwined with her body, those three identical, handsome, tall men.
So dazzling…
‘Mm… so shameful.’
She tightly closed her eyes, trying to escape the scene that made her very soul tremble.
But her senses were infinitely magnified by the Collar.
Those sounds, touches, and scents surged into her mind like a tide, leaving her no place to escape.
No one knew how much time passed.
Su Nian gradually stopped her futile struggles.
The resistance of her body faded away in defeat after defeat.
She slowly became accustomed to the rhythm.
The beautiful face that had been full of fear and grievance gradually took on a layer of dazed crimson.
Her sky-blue eyes became veiled with a mist of water, turning shy and dazed.
“Ding! Obtained Humiliation Value 50000!”
“Ding! Obtained Humiliation Value 30000!”
“Ding! Obtained Humiliation Value 80000!”
System notifications rang wildly in her mind, but Su Nian no longer had the mind to pay attention to those numbers.
Just as her consciousness was about to sink…
The man before her—or rather, the three men—suddenly stopped all their movements.
This sudden stillness made Su Nian open her eyes in confusion.
“Why… did you stop…”
She asked without thinking.
Then she realized what she had said, and her cheeks instantly flushed so red they could drip blood.
‘Oh my god! What did I just say!’
The Chu Tians exchanged glances, a glint of triumph flashing in their eyes.
The next moment—
Three tricky, peculiar questions were hurled at her from three directions simultaneously.
The doppelganger behind her, leaning against the headboard, traced her profile with a fingertip, his tone full of playfulness: “Where do you like me to touch you the most?”
The doppelganger at the foot of the bed followed up: “When you were alone before, did you ever secretly fantasize about intimate moments with me?”
The last question was deadlier than the first two combined.
“Which identity of mine do you like the most?”
“Chu Tian… Mo Yuan Sir…”
“Or the Horned Demon Master?”