Just as Chu Tian wore a smiling expression, eagerly waiting to hear the girl in front of him say she wanted him to stay—
Her soft cherry lips, carrying a faint smoky aroma from the roasted meat mixed with the girl’s own unique sweet fragrance, pressed clumsily yet decisively against his.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze.
Chu Tian’s dark eyes—always brimming with hidden thoughts—suddenly contracted.
He clearly felt the string in his heart called “reason” snap with a crisp “pa” the instant it met her soft lips.
The urge to tease the girl.
The plan to let Su Nian recover properly.
All of it was thrown to the back of his mind in an instant.
The next second.
The large hand that had been gently stroking her hair abruptly seized the back of her delicate little head.
Turning passive into active, he deepened the kiss with an irresistible force.
Su Nian—who had still been thinking of using her “enchanting little trick” to take control—lost all initiative in a heartbeat.
She was like a small boat tossed in a raging storm, swept into a vortex with no hope of breaking free.
But this was exactly what she wanted.
Having once been a man, Su Nian naturally understood the lethal power of beauty after becoming a girl.
Absolute beauty was a weapon.
She hadn’t used it before… not because she couldn’t, but because there was no need!
From now on, she would ruthlessly grip this horned…
‘Eek!! Don’t bite me.’
The dim yellow light of the magic lamp had somehow grown even darker.
In the cold dungeon, only an increasingly thick, blush-inducing fragrance lingered and fermented in the air.
Along with faint, seductive sounds that could not be fully concealed.
At this very moment.
In Academy City, in the human world, and even among the temporarily retreated Demon Race, countless forces were secretly searching for the “Star-Moon Saintess” who had ridden a giant dragon, saved the city, and turned the tide.
Countless powers were going mad over any trace of her.
Envoys from the Redmaple Royal Family carried decrees of ennoblement.
Red-robed cardinals from the Holy See bore sacred crowns.
All of them wished to welcome this embodiment of miracles as an honored guest.
Yet no one knew that right now, the Holy Lady was deep inside the dungeon of Shadowmoon Manor…
Making sounds that were utterly unbelievable.
“Husband…”
A mosquito-like whisper slipped from her throat—carrying a sob, yet somehow adding fuel to the fire.
Hearing the girl’s murmur, Chu Tian grew even more ferocious!
“Goodwill +1.”
“Husband, husband, husband!”
Her mind went blank.
It felt like her brain was melting.
Only the system’s cold notifications echoed wildly in her head.
“Goodwill +1.”
“Ding-dong. Humiliation Value increased by 80,000.”
“Ding-dong. Annoyance Value + 80,000.”
“Ding-dong! Completed quest [Call Master Husband] Stage Two. Received 50,000 Humiliation Value.”
“Ding-dong. Humiliation Value increased by 80,000.”
“Ding-dong. Annoyance Value +80,000.”
“Goodwill +1.”
“Good husband…”
Her consciousness began to blur.
The way she addressed him shifted chaotically.
“Horned demon husband!”
“Ding-dong. Humiliation Value increased by 70,000.”
“Ding-dong. Annoyance Value +70,000.”
“Ding-dong! Completed quest [Call Master Husband] Stage Three. Received one hundred thousand Humiliation Value.”
“Goodwill +1.”
“Ding-dong. Humiliation Value increased by 70,000.”
“Ding-dong. Annoyance Value +70,000.”
“Master husband!”
“Ding-dong. Host’s mental resilience decreased by one percent. Corruption Value reached forty percent. Enchantment Mark Stage One triggered.”
She had no idea how much time had passed.
The all-consuming storm finally subsided slowly.
Su Nian was drenched in fragrant sweat.
A deep soreness seeped into her very bones.
Powerlessly, she collapsed into the horned demon master’s firm, scalding embrace.
She couldn’t even be bothered to lift a single slender finger.
The man held her sweat-soaked delicate body tightly in his arms.
He wrapped them both in the silky-smooth velvet blanket, blocking out the dungeon’s chilling air.
Those strong, powerful arms and that broad, warm chest actually gave her—in the midst of extreme exhaustion and humiliation—a sense of unprecedented security and belonging.
The dungeon was very quiet.
The air was filled with a complicated scent: the cold, crisp dragon saliva perfume on him, the faint body fragrance of the girl, and the even more aggressive aroma born from their mingled sweat.
All that remained by her ear were their intertwined breaths and her own uncontrollable heartbeat pounding like war drums.
Each thump seemed to accuse her of her fall.
A thick unwillingness, mixed with a deeper shame and annoyance, rose naturally from the bottom of Su Nian’s heart.
‘Damn it! So damn infuriating!’
Clearly, in their earlier verbal sparring—when she had deployed those carefully designed “enchanting little tricks”—she had felt she could completely take control of this damned horned demon.
Especially that sudden kiss.
For a moment she had even believed she could turn the tables and make the horned demon the prey toyed with in the palm of her hand.
But why…
Why was it that the moment this guy really pounced on her, she collapsed in almost no time at all—completely passive?
Her brain couldn’t think at all.
Wasn’t it supposed to be that girls were better at this kind of thing?
‘Damn it— I have been set up by capitalism!’
Su Nian kept her eyes tightly shut.
The long lashes still held unshed tears that trembled faintly under the dim magic light.
Right now, her sense of shame had climbed to an entirely new peak.
It wasn’t just because her body had been utterly defeated.
It was even more because… her Corruption Value had actually reached forty percent.
Fortunately, this damned horned demon hadn’t gone too far.
He seemed to still remember that her body hadn’t fully recovered.
He hadn’t tormented her endlessly and without restraint as usual.
Because of that, she barely retained enough strength to think and check the system prompts.
As the Corruption Value rose, the system’s cold notifications still seemed to echo in her mind.
“[Enchantment Mark Stage One]: When the host is possessed by the Master, she becomes far more likely to develop goodwill toward the Master. Sensitivity increased by fifty percent.”
“(Corruption reaching thirty percent triggers Stage Two)”
‘Enchantment Mark…’
Just now, in her most muddled state of consciousness, she had vaguely felt a faint prickling itch and heat in her lower abdomen.
That must have been it.
Looking at the system prompt now, Su Nian almost laughed from sheer anger.
‘Damned system!’
Still, she already had plenty of negative statuses when facing the horned demon—one more didn’t really matter.
It just meant that, for a while, her goodwill toward him might skyrocket.
But that… probably wouldn’t affect her too much.
Anyway, all these statuses were temporary.
Once she obtained one hundred million Humiliation Value, she could remove them all.
She seemed to have heard a soft chuckle from the horned demon.
‘He wouldn’t have seen that strange pattern, would he? It was so obvious—he definitely saw it!’
‘Mmm… My husband wouldn’t think that I am some weird woman, right?’
‘So humiliating…’
On the other side.
A brand-new notification popped up on Chu Tian’s system interface.
“Ding-dong. Congratulations to the host for triggering the [Conquer the Fated Heroine] quest and establishing a special contract (Stage One).”
“[Special Contract Stage One]: …”
‘So that’s how it is.’
A flash of understanding passed through Chu Tian’s mind.
‘No wonder… No wonder!’
He had wondered why the girl in front of him was so powerful and beautiful, and why her strength grew at a terrifying pace.
That mysterious space-magic cat that seemed to appear out of thin air.
And that terrifying giant dragon—something that only appeared in legendary epics—capable of crushing everything.
She had used holy light to slay a necromancer and purify the plague in Bai Shui Town.
Then, under the eyes of countless people, she repelled the Demon Race vanguard in Academy City and saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
Every single one of these feats radiated the dazzling halo unique to a fated heroine.
If Su Nian really was this world’s fated heroine, then all the seemingly bizarre and unreasonable things suddenly had the most perfect explanation.
Chu Tian lowered his head.
His gaze lingered on that expanse of snow-white, delicate skin.
Under the dim yellow magic light, the faint pink patterns seemed almost alive.
With the girl’s steady breathing, they rose and fell slightly—exuding a bewitching yet holy beauty.
These patterns were the mark of his conquest over this fated heroine.
From now on, she would remain proud and saintly in front of others—the shining hope of the human race—while in private, she belonged completely and utterly to him alone.
At that thought, Chu Tian’s dark eyes flashed with a thick, unshakable satisfaction and possessiveness.
He lowered his head to gaze at the girl curled up like a little cat in his arms.
Her cheeks still carried a touching blush.
Crystal tears still hung from her long lashes.
The corners of her eyes and brows held the moist look of someone thoroughly cherished.
Her cherry lips were slightly swollen—looking pitifully and thoroughly bullied.
Yet the more fragile she appeared, the more it ignited that primal, conquering madness in his heart.
He clearly felt the extremely faint trembling of the delicate body in his embrace.
He knew the girl was awake.
She was just pretending to sleep.
The curve of Chu Tian’s mouth grew even more pronounced, carrying a knowing, wicked amusement.
Slowly, he raised his hand.
That broad palm—clear-knuckled and bearing thin calluses—accurately covered her flat, smooth lower abdomen.
The warmth of his palm passed through the thin silk nightgown and directly touched that bewitching pattern.
Su Nian’s body instantly stiffened like iron.
She could no longer pretend.
She suddenly opened her sky-blue eyes—filled with panic and shame she had no time to hide.
“Don’t touch… wuuu…”
Her voice was hoarse, carrying the nasal tone of someone who had just been crying.
It held no intimidation at all; instead, it sounded more like a spoiled complaint.
A moment later.
Su Nian’s gaze locked dead-onto the handsome face right in front of her—the one wearing a smug, infuriating grin.
‘This guy’s expression… So annoying!’
An uncontrollable fury mixed with humiliation surged straight to the top of her head.
‘Mmm. Now wasn’t the time to be angry.’
She had many questions right now.
Why was the horned demon at odds with the Demon Race?
What was his true goal…?
‘This guy wasn’t like the big villains in manga and novels, aiming to conquer the world, was he?’
‘Could he actually be… the legendary final boss? Mmm… Thinking about it was useless. Why not just ask him directly?’
Right now, after such intense activity, the horned demon’s thinking ability would be greatly reduced—the so-called… sage time.
This might… be the perfect opportunity to probe for information.