[A/N :- Mature content (Non-con.) Reader discretion is advised.]

Hei Chi's POV

After all that I had done to confirm that Wang YiJun was none other than my fallen brother, I was met with disappointment.

How could it be!?

It would be understandable for YiJun to fool Dong. YiJun was known for his cunning, bright mind. No, that was not what was bothering me. It was Xian, my blood, that was making me restless. I knew he could feel me. I could sense his desire to bend his knee to me. When I had possessed YiJun to know Xian's heart, he had not taken the bait. I had used my scent to speed up the process as well, even at the cost of hurting myself, and yet, after getting swayed for barely a moment, he had pushed YiJun away...pushed ME away.

I feel dirty. I never thought I would feel so disgusted with how low I had let myself fall. If I could undo what I had done, I would do it. But even I, the king of the underworld, couldn't turn back time.

So now I have to live with what I had almost done and what I probably would have succeeded in doing had Xian not pushed me away.

I will never put you through something like that ever again, Xian.

When Xian had punched me, I had realized that that was it. Xian didn't want YiJun. But if YiJun was not the one who had fallen from heaven, who had?

Had Zhen not done what I had commanded him to do?

No. My brother would never betray me. He loved me, just as I loved him. He had fought at my side, left heaven for me, ruled next to me and ultimately died for me...for our cause.

I feel a shiver run down my spine. I had exhausted myself, like a candle burning on both ends. I had known the consequences of my actions the moment I had chosen my path.

"Qíngyù," I call my subordinate, who was presently possessing Hua's sister. Qing enters the sauna, where I had collapsed out of exhaustion barely moments ago. She stands with her eyes lowered, waiting for my command.

I instruct her to send in the woman who had caught my eye when I had first set foot in the Zhu mansion. I close my eyes and try to channel my energy throughout my body, preparing myself to take what I knew would not be freely offered.

The woman was engaged. She was in love and about to be married. But after what I was going to do, she won't be able to have it.

Why should she get what I was denied?

The commotion outside the sauna pulls me out of my musings. I arch my back and catch a glimpse of a woman's bare back as she is being dragged towards her destination: me, by Qíngyù.

I approach the fogged-up glass wall that was keeping the heat in and the cold out and tap it. Qíngyù glances at me, and I reprimand her, "How many times have I asked you to be gentle, hum? If she exhausts herself now, there will be nothing left for me."

The woman turns to me and gasps. She looks away.

Was she under the impression that shielding her eyes from me would help!?

The silly woman will have to look upon my form eventually.

"Master," She falls to my feet as I step outside the warmth. Did she really think she could cadge her life back after I had set my eyes on her!?

"Please, anything but this." She continues to beg and plead as if human emotions would have any effect on my now stone-cold heart.

I grab her by her shoulders and lift her up, and when she struggles, I silently order Qíngyù to partially paralyze her and inject her with Mienide, which would help her survive in the sauna long enough for me to take what I wanted.

I hate asking this of Qíngyù. It was easy, but the ordeal with YiJun and Xian had left me with nothing more than the ability to use my voice and my scent. I needed both if I wanted to command Qíngyù and protect myself from anyone who might try to rise up against me.

My second-in-command obeys. It barely takes a scratch, and the fight goes out of my prey. Only her voice is unaffected. With the poison running in her veins, I pull her into the furnace-like sauna with ease.

She screams as I slide the door shut. The sound of her scared, hopeless voice is music to my ears. It helps with the energy circulating within me, pushing me to sin and become strong again.

The nameless woman continues to squirm and shout in my arms like an infant would in a monster's; it's exciting and pity-worthy, at the same time. I pin her arms on top of her head,  drown out her screams and feast my eyes on her petite, curvaceous form. Blood pools under my belly. I stroke my hardness before cupping her perfect round breast.

She abandons screaming in favor of begging again. "Please, master. This is wrong."

I laugh, and letting go of her breast, open her legs, "How is satisfying your master wrong?" I ask rhetorically and acquaint myself with the curves of her body. I stop just before I reach the dark curls that hide her most intimate part from me, "I know that deep down, you want me. Why are you pretending to be righteous and pure, hum? Look into your soul; haven't you ever carved more?" I ask, but I am not interested in her answers. I am just playing.

And then it happens.

She stops begging. Her eyes grow cold like ice. The frost in them reaches me. The determination in them is all too familiar. I look into her deep pools for the first time, really look. They are the shape and color of someone I had lost almost two decades ago.

"You sick pervert. Let me go!" The woman growls. The words feel like they are cutting through my flesh and digging into my heart. They are the words Xian had used. My resolve weavers. My hold on her arms goes slack. I don't expect her to do it, but I guess her will to save herself runs too deep; she frees her arms and pushes at my chest, making me lose my footing and slump against the glass wall. I watch her run out, but she doesn't get far.

"Where do you think you are going, bitch?"  Qíngyù grabs her by her mane and mocks. She peeks inside and finds me on the floor propped up against the glass wall. "Master, did she hurt you?" Her gaze drifts to the woman who is struggling once again, and Qíngyù's blade-like nails stop at her throat, waiting for my command.

"Make sure she doesn't spill what she saw here and...let her go," I instruct, for I had lost whatever desire I had to have her.

Qíngyù blinks confounded. "My King, are you sure?" She asks to confirm. I nod, and she leaves, taking the woman with her.

Letting the prey go was not a good move.  I would have to wait for days to regain all my bearings now. Yes, I could replace the maid with some other nameless woman or man, but I had lost my appetite for it. It wouldn't help even if I took a hundred of them.

Sweat trickles down my temples. My eyes glaze over. The years I had spent pretending to be unaffected by Zhen's death and the pain and anguish I had concealed deep within my dead heart show themselves in the saltwater that run down my cheeks.

I lock myself inside my little furnace and cry to my heart's content.
It was centuries coming. First Fei, then Zhen, I had lost them. Both had died because they loved me...because they believed in me.

Could I afford to lose Xian too?

Yes, I wanted to use him to take my revenge on my father and his precious mortals, but what if the cost was his life?

What if he refused me as father had?

Would I find it in my heart to kill my only family?

I lie down. My face kisses the almost scalding hot floor, hoping to draw enough heat to melt the frost that the nameless woman had left behind.
Zhen's almond eyes, innocent and bright, as he looked up at me grinning, dance behind my closed lids, taking me back to simpler times when we were father's beloved children, a time when lines dividing right and wrong were clear as crystal. There were no greys then. Everything was perfect.

'No, not everything was perfect.' I correct myself. Only after Fei had entered my life did I feel complete, and only then was everything perfect.

I stop my wandering mind and pull it back from venturing further, for, after those few moments of bliss, everything had come crashing down.

I had lost all I held dear. All, except Zhen.

I don't know how long I have been lying sprawled over the blistering floor when a knock on the door makes me aware of where I was and who I was supposed to be.

"My King, it's Xian. Would you like to receive the call, or should I?" Qíngyù inquiries.

Heat courses through my veins, pumping joy into my heart, melting the frost that felt like it had been there forever. A smile tugs at the corner of my lips even as I wonder the reason why he had tried to reach Qing so late at night.

Did it have something to do with what had happened?

The joy blossoming in my heart turns to ash when I recall what I had done...the marks I had left on him, the pain and humiliation I had made him suffer.

Had Xian guessed that it was me, the reason he had come into existence, that had tried to violate him?

Even if he doesn't know it now, what's to say he won't figure it out later?

What then?

{Note:- Please let me know how you felt about this update. Writing non-con is something I avoid, but it had to be done to show Hei Chi's fram of mind ☹️

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