A Choice of Her Own

The sensation of falling into a bottomless abyss came almost at the same moment.

Hao Nhien’s physical body remained standing inside the cavern, yet his entire awareness seemed to be dragged forward. The stone walls, the pale blue light of the minerals, and Quan Nha’s figure rapidly receded until everything was swallowed by a darkness so deep that direction itself became difficult to determine.

He had experienced something similar when Quan Nha lost control of her Charm affinity in the small cave before, but this time the force was far greater. There was no garden, no false scene wrapped in tenderness. Only darkness remained, along with a cold pressure that continuously pulled his consciousness deeper.

Hao Nhien held firmly to a single understanding.

He was Hao Nhien.

Possessing the Spirit Wings did not make him Garuda, and the foreign emotions flooding into his mind could not turn him into the enemy of an ancient existence he barely understood.

The embryonic cycle of the Soul Art circulated steadily within his Divine Soul. It could not dispel the surrounding darkness, but it was enough to preserve the boundary between his own mind and the influence pressing in from outside.

After some time, a pair of eyes slowly appeared in the darkness ahead.

They were nowhere near large enough to cover heaven and earth like the eyes of the Great Python God in Garuda’s remnant vision, yet the sensation they gave him was frighteningly similar. Deep vortices turned within the pupils, drawing waves of fear, anger, and the instinct to retaliate into his mind.

Hao Nhien did not regard those eyes as an enemy that needed to be destroyed at once.

He was looking for Quan Nha.

If his earlier hypothesis was correct, whatever was affecting her had attached itself to emotions and instincts that already existed within her, amplifying them before slipping its own intent among them. If that was true, then somewhere beneath all this chaos, the part of her consciousness that truly belonged to Quan Nha should still remain.

He continued forward within his perception. Each step felt like wading deeper into thick black water, where direction, distance, and even the concept of having a physical body gradually became indistinct.

A faint whisper came from somewhere in the darkness.

The sound was too unclear to form words, but the emotions accompanying it were intense. A nearly instinctive possessiveness came first, followed by the fear of losing something precious, and finally a surge of anger strong enough to want to crush anything that might take it away.

Hao Nhien stopped.

Those feelings were not entirely unfamiliar.

He had sensed traces of them in the earlier illusion, when Quan Nha’s Charm affinity had first awakened and the imprint from the Python King’s Beast King core had thrown everything into disorder. This time, however, those emotions were deeper and stronger, guided by another colder layer of intent toward a single target.

The Spirit Wings.

Only then did Hao Nhien truly understand why Quan Nha had wanted him to leave the cavern.

His presence, or more precisely the Garuda aura carried by the Spirit Wings, was likely provoking the imprint that had taken hold of her. Yet that same reaction also forced the hidden influence to reveal itself.

If he could remain clear-headed, perhaps he could follow that reaction and find Quan Nha within it.

Standing in the darkness, Hao Nhien neither summoned the Spirit Sword nor deliberately stimulated the Spirit Wings. He simply maintained the Soul Art and continued observing the changes within the tangled emotions surrounding him.

He did not know how much time passed before he finally caught something tiny amid the chaos.

It was so weak that the surrounding darkness nearly swallowed it completely, yet it was unlike all the other fluctuations. There was no hatred within it and no desire to attack him. Instead, it was trying to push him away.

A faint intent reached him.

Go.

No actual voice sounded, but Hao Nhien understood.

His attention immediately turned toward the source.

At last, he had found her.

He did not retreat.

Within the connection created by the Charm affinity, an image slowly took shape in his perception. Hao Nhien did not believe Quan Nha’s Divine Soul had literally left her body and entered his Sea of Consciousness. The figure before him felt more like a form created by the connection between them, allowing his awareness to perceive her condition in a more direct way.

Quan Nha still wore her familiar pale pink robes, her long hair falling over her shoulders. Her appearance had hardly changed, but her eyes were so dark that their depths could not be seen. Countless gray-black strands curled throughout the image, sometimes visible, sometimes fading like smoke stretched thin by the wind.

As she drew closer, the sensation surrounding Hao Nhien changed.

The coldness and killing intent no longer came alone.

A softer, more seductive influence began slipping into the gaps of his mind, pulling at emotions that truly belonged to him and magnifying them. His concern for Quan Nha, his desire to protect her, the instinct to approach, even the willingness to lower his guard before someone he had already chosen to trust, all of it became stronger than normal.

Hao Nhien began to understand another layer of the Charm affinity.

Perhaps its true danger had never been limited to making someone see a woman so beautiful that reason disappeared. It searched for emotions that already existed within its target, touched the most vulnerable places, and expanded those feelings until judgment became obscured.

A person who failed to recognize the process might believe every decision afterward had come entirely from themselves.

Hao Nhien remained still.

The embryonic cycle of the Soul Art continued at an even rhythm. Whenever an emotion became unnaturally strong, he quietly separated its origin.

He truly was worried about Quan Nha.

But the impulse to abandon every defense at once did not belong to him.

He wanted to save her.

Yet the possessiveness trying to attach itself to that concern was foreign.

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He cared about her, but the almost instinctive hatred directed toward the Spirit Wings certainly did not belong to Hao Nhien.

The more clearly he distinguished those layers, the more he could sense the different influences wrapped around Quan Nha’s image.

One part belonged to her.

Another came from the newly awakened Charm affinity.

And beneath both lay something colder and far older, constantly trying to insert its own intent between the others.

Hao Nhien could not separate those influences for her.

What he could do was refuse to be swept away himself.

Through the connection between them, that stability gradually became an anchor, giving Quan Nha a point of reference from which she could begin distinguishing what was truly hers.

Her image trembled.

The dark eyes continued trying to draw him in, but behind that darkness Hao Nhien began to sense another gaze.

Weak.

Blurred.

But watching him.

That was Quan Nha.

The Charm affinity and the foreign imprint had covered her, but they had not completely erased her awareness. Hao Nhien did not know how much she could hear or understand. He only knew that each time he maintained the boundary between himself and the invading emotions, that faint light grew a little clearer.

Time moved with agonizing slowness.

Cold sweat began running down his forehead in the physical world. Maintaining such a deep connection exhausted his Divine Soul quickly, while the embryonic cycle of the Soul Art, still incomplete, gradually became heavier.

Hao Nhien did not force himself beyond what he understood.

He did not absorb the fluctuations coming from Quan Nha, nor did he attempt to transform them into his own strength. The only thing he did was remain conscious, refuse to let the foreign imprint steer his emotions, and use that stability to help her recognize the boundary of her own identity.

The effect was slow.

But it was real.

The light behind those dark eyes became clearer.

Within it, Hao Nhien sensed relief at recognizing him, fear that she might hurt him, and a deep attachment he was unwilling to name too quickly.

Those feelings were completely different from the cold possessiveness of the foreign imprint.

They belonged to Quan Nha.

The moment he recognized that difference, her resistance became stronger.

The gray-black strands surrounding her image began to tremble.

Quan Nha seemed to finally understand what she had previously been unable to distinguish.

Some emotions were hers.

Some instincts came from the Charm affinity itself.

But the urge to turn Hao Nhien into a target, destroy the remnant of Garuda within the Spirit Wings, and seize what lay within his Divine Soul did not belong to her.

Recognizing that difference became the first step toward taking back control.

Hao Nhien sensed another change almost immediately.

The gray strands were not made entirely of harmful influence.

Within them were purer fluctuations carrying fragments of insight into Charm affinity, methods of affecting the Divine Soul, and ways of using that power that he could not fully understand. Those useful parts had become entangled with darker emotions and foreign intent, making the entire inheritance dangerous.

Quan Nha began separating them herself.

At first, the process was painfully slow.

A strand she managed to pull from the darkness would almost instantly be dragged back into the surrounding mass. Yet after several failures, she seemed to find a method.

Hao Nhien could not tell exactly how she was doing it.

He could only observe through the indistinct connection between them.

Whenever she retained one of the purer fluctuations, the aura around her image became slightly more stable. The colder intent was pushed aside instead, prevented from blending back into what she was absorbing.

Hao Nhien suddenly understood.

Quan Nha did not need him to purify the inheritance for her.

She only needed enough clarity to recognize what should be kept and what had to be rejected.

Once that boundary became clear, she knew what to do.

He continued circulating the Soul Art, maintaining that anchor for her.

But the cost was becoming increasingly obvious.

His Divine Soul grew exhausted. The embryonic cycle that had once moved smoothly became heavy, as though every circulation had to push through thick mud. Hao Nhien knew he was approaching his limit.

At that moment, the Spirit Sword trembled inside his Sea of Consciousness.

The sword intent within it naturally sharpened in response to the foreign imprint. With a single thought from Hao Nhien, the Spirit Sword could strike the region of influence connecting to him.

He did not give that command.

Quan Nha was still inside that darkness.

The foreign imprint had already become deeply entangled with the emotions and inheritance she was absorbing. A strike now might destroy something dangerous, but it might also injure the part of her Divine Soul that truly belonged to her.

Hao Nhien restrained the Spirit Sword with his intent.

The Spirit Wings also responded more strongly to the ancient aura, but he suppressed that resonance as well.

Neither one would choose for him.

Hao Nhien would decide.

The pressure continued to increase.

For a moment, the sensation of being crushed beneath a will far beyond his own reminded him of the Quan Family Inner Secret Realm, where invisible rules had once pressed down upon his consciousness until he had nearly been forced to submit.

Rules.

The Divine Soul.

A thought flashed through his mind.

The Cosmic Ark.

Hao Nhien immediately directed his awareness toward the deepest part of his Sea of Consciousness.

“Old Ark...”

There was no response.

He was almost accustomed to that silence.

“Help her.”

He paused, feeling his own Divine Soul nearing its limit, then added,

“And help me a little too.”

The Cosmic Ark still did not answer.

It had never behaved like an obedient artifact that responded whenever commanded. Most of the time, it simply rested in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, as though everything happening outside had nothing to do with it.

But this time, it moved.

Only once.

A profoundly stable fluctuation spread through the Sea of Consciousness.

No overwhelming power poured into Hao Nhien’s body, nor did a new source of spiritual qi appear for him to use. Yet the tremors running through his Divine Soul immediately eased, and the slowing cycle of the Soul Art gradually found its rhythm again.

It felt like someone on the verge of falling finally finding firm ground beneath one foot.

That was enough.

Hao Nhien maintained the connection.

The rest was up to Quan Nha.

Her image trembled more violently.

The gray-black strands wrapped around her began to separate. The portions carrying insight and power compatible with her Divine Soul were retained and gradually absorbed, while the colder intent, hatred, and destructive instincts were pushed aside.

The process was clearly difficult.

Several times, the darkness she had forced down surged back almost immediately. The deep eyes behind her image also became clearer, as though whatever lay within them had realized that control was slipping away.

But Quan Nha was no longer merely enduring it.

She was absorbing.

Choosing.

Rejecting.

Hao Nhien saw the hands of her projected image rise slowly. Dark strands twisted around her wrists, shoulders, and body, trembling violently, but she did not try to tear them apart through force.

Instead, she stood there and reclaimed what belonged to her, piece by piece.

Behind her, the vague outline of an enormous pair of serpent eyes appeared in the darkness. Their deep red pupils carried a pressure heavy enough that even Hao Nhien, standing outside the core of the struggle, felt his Divine Soul sink.

Quan Nha did not turn around.

She closed her eyes.

Her lips moved.

Hao Nhien heard no sound, yet through the connection between them he felt the intent with perfect clarity.

No.

A single word.

This time, it belonged entirely to her.

It did not come from the Charm affinity, the ancient imprint, or any inheritance.

It was Quan Nha’s choice.

The change began at that moment.

The gray-black influence surrounding her contracted more quickly, while the purer fluctuations she had chosen to retain entered her Divine Soul with increasing stability. Hao Nhien could not see the internal process clearly. He only sensed that her aura was gradually becoming less chaotic.

The darkness was not destroyed completely.

Quan Nha forced it deeper instead, compressing it into a tiny imprint in a region of her consciousness that Hao Nhien could no longer perceive clearly through their current connection.

He knew the danger had not vanished entirely.

But control had returned to her.

For now, that was enough.

Quan Nha’s image became clearer.

Her long hair fell down her back, pale pink robes standing out against the surrounding darkness. Her face was still pale with exhaustion, but her eyes were no longer covered by that foreign shadow.

She opened them.

And looked at him.

Hao Nhien looked back.

For that moment, he felt no deliberate enchantment pulling at his mind, no pressure from the ancient imprint, and no terrifying eyes lurking behind her.

There was only Quan Nha.

The woman who had endured that influence alone for days, changed direction again and again while trying to return, and eventually chosen to go deeper into danger rather than bring what was inside her close to him.

Relief spread through Hao Nhien.

He smiled, though his Divine Soul was so exhausted that even the expression felt difficult.

“You’re back.”

Quan Nha’s lips moved as though she wanted to answer.

But Hao Nhien no longer had enough strength to wait for the words.

The tension he had maintained for far too long suddenly collapsed, bringing all the exhaustion he had been forcing aside with it. The embryonic cycle of the Soul Art gradually slowed. The Spirit Sword withdrew its sharp intent, and the Spirit Wings returned to stillness. The fluctuation from the Cosmic Ark disappeared as though it had never been there.

The world before him darkened.

Before consciousness vanished completely, Hao Nhien sensed Quan Nha’s physical body in the cavern tipping toward him and a cold hand grasping the edge of his robe.

Then he knew nothing more.