Hye Won stiffened. "There what is?"
"The bond." His voice was eerily calm. "You both feel it now, don't you? That pull. That certainty. Like something inside you is aligning ourselves."
Yue Lan's hand flew to her chest as she sat down again. "You—"
"You didn't question it," Han Chen continued. "Why didn't you consider that I could've fabricated those memories Yue Lan? That my goal is to influence with my abilities? You felt more confident in trusting the abilities of a stranger?"
Yue Lan's nails bit into tablecloth. "You wouldn't—"
"Wouldn't I?" His gaze sharpened. "My death wasn't the precursor to this rebirth. I walked a long path alone. Saw many things. Learned things. And one of them was this: You always pay your due."
" In a time like this, I could be a sage saying time heals everything and leave you a nice impression.... but I am not one myself. You see my regret is my inaction. Is helping you overcome first disaster is just enough? Or would it even work .... as you are but, just a variant of my wife?" He slowly turned to Hye Won.
He smiled "Think of my help as release of assets equally...Unlike before, my power now can shield her from any storm possible... So, I would need to account far more to avoid greater backlash of heart demon from incomplete karmic ties that might present." The explanation was for Hye Won.
Hye Won interrupted " I don't get it..."
"I prepared for contingencies," Han Chen replied lacking the previous warm tone. "You were a variable I couldn't ignore, Yue Lan. I needed to know what would happen if helping you indirectly didn't set me free or to what extent I should help you. And if it didn't, then I had to make sure that fate couldn't use that to destroy what I would become. "
Yue Lan's voice came out hollow. "Are you manipulating me using fake visions, then why tell me? ....I don't understand what demons, you talking about, but you sound like one."
"Doubt me if you will, but what you saw were true memories. Raw, unfiltered. I can't fabricate that depth of emotion - you felt his, didn't you? I can't do that, at least for now."
Hye Won's fingers tightened around her glass. "Then what now? What exactly are you going on about?" Han Chen saw through their emotions "I intended to be exactly as you imagined - your mysterious benefactor Yue Lan, helping in exchange for playing the villain or devil when needed. You would have learned this truth eventually but Hye Won had other plans."
"No more suspense," Han Chen said, his voice final.
"That connection we three share connects ourselves in a way beyond what you two can imagine...Our souls and consciousness are interwoven. Should one perish, the others can restore them. Memories, power, senses, even essence - all can be shared. You don't feel anything other than communication because you are weak. I don't feel anything more than what I told you because I am also weak to take full advantage of it. We three are one for eternity, it won't even lose its effects upon time reversal, if it were to happen. It's no symbol you can place it and take away later."
"You can live your life," he said. "Have friends. Lovers. Children. Chase dreams. But you'll always feel this pull—this greater bias towards ... us than them. You won't be able to help it. Neither of you will. We matter ourselves. None other in the end."
He looked to Yue Lan again. "You can sleep with whoever you like. But your feelings won't deepen beyond a point. Your soul is tethered to us."
"And if we try to break it?" Yue Lan asked, losing the previous intimacy created over the vision, trembling.
"How? You literally can't," Han Chen replied. "The connection is seamlessly merged with your consciousness, built to preserve itself and is woven into the fabric of your being. Any conscious or unconscious act that threatens the bond will be recognized as harm—and prevented. Even revealing it ~ explaining it or anything that could lead to it or us is restricted. Try, and the words won't leave your subconscious thoughts before it fully forms."
Yue Lan's voice grew sharp. "You really don't see how twisted that is?"
"I do, I see clearly," he said. "But this creation of mine doesn't belong to me of this lifetime and now I don't fully understand its essence. I am the controller but not fully. That's the cost of freedom for now. Your freedom. My prize. Why, do you think this would be a fairy tail? You needed an escape?..."
His attention shifted to Hye Won, his gaze softening. "Forgive me," he murmured, gently enclosing her hands beneath his own, even as they threatened to slip away. "For letting you believe this was simple and one way transaction. It wasn't. I guided you into this because I decided you would be part of my journey, and I had no other path forward other than to engineer you into this bond with her. But even if everything else was artificial—this part isn't."
He leaned closer, his voice quieter now. "I love you now, as you are for all its flaws...and it was no design for me to fall in love with you."
Hye Won didn't speak. She kept looking back at him. Yue Lan watched them—watched him—and the ache in her chest deepened. Hye Won was long sobered up under the tenseful atmosphere...She didn't had the usual carelessness in her voice, but told him quietly,
" Trust ones lost, is very ....." She sounded like someone drowning ~ too deep in betrayal to even fight it anymore. He interrupted " I know. My speech wasn't me spilling out in a moment of vulnerability. This was what I intended to reveal. A meeting with her, just advanced its delivery to bit earlier... Trust is very hard to maintain too..."
" You are victimizing yourself Han Chen. Do you only have this method? You are unfaithful. Wishing for two boats and keeping ourselves as your possessions..." Yue Lan got angry.
"She can curse me all she wants. Not you. Now shut up." Han Chen stopped her anger with a finger pointed at her.
Yue Lan recoiled as if struck. "What—"
"Am I truly playing victim?" He spread his hands, the gesture almost mocking. "Let me be perfectly clear - I owed you nothing, I am just seeking my own salvation. Yue Lan not even explanation. I could have let you live your insignificant mortal life and simply harvested your soul at death's door. The choice was either to make you stay willingly, or, at the end of your life, to merge with you through a soul corridor, transforming you into an avatar within me for a final attempt to confront my regrets. Hye Won would never have known. We would have continued peacefully."
"Other methods?" His lips twisted. "Of course. There was an investigator once, who I controlled years ago. When her purpose ended, I offered freedom. She begged to keep our connection, to feel that voice ordering her as I unknowingly become some sort of lord of her will - until it twisted her mind and insecurities exploded into worship, and objectifying herself. I had to erase myself completely from her memory forcefully." His eyes gleamed in the dim light. "Would you prefer that alternative? To be hollowed out into a perfect, adoring puppet for eternity?"
Yue Lan's "No" came too quickly, her voice loud.
Hye Won's breath caught in her throat, her fingers twisting the fabric of her dress. "You still haven't answered...do you actually want us both? Or are we just—"
"After all this time together, you still need to ask?" Han Chen's voice carried an edge of disappointment that cut deeper than anger. His gaze dropped to her trembling lips before hardening. "I never would cast you out," he said coolly, "nor did I suggest turning our relationship into some...team sport named love league from today."
Yue Lan shot to her feet, her chair screeching against the deck. "You said I would always feel bias for you? Then what am I?" she demanded, her outstretched hand shaking with barely contained rage. "Some eternal backup? A consolation prize bound to you against my will?"
"And?" Han Chen's voice was level. "Do you think that's a sacrifice you made for me? Do you think that was some romantic gesture?"
"Gods, listen to yourself!" Yue Lan's bitter laugh carried across the water. "How magnanimous of you - keeping us like prized mares in your private stable, breeding us for—"
The air cracked with sudden pressure. Before Yue Lan could finish, an invisible force slammed her back into her seat. The wood groaned beneath her. Only then did she remember ~ this was the man who had turned an entire cult and beasts into scarlet mist with a glance.
" Lusting after you?? Given my status and abilities tell me do you think I need to go through all this trouble. I can fundamentally manipulate you to be eternally loyal to me, if I wish.... Hye Won taught me some things in this short time we were together ...."
Han Chen stared at them both like idiots. His expression was still analyzing, the dim light of the yacht's private cabin casting sharp shadows across his face. The hum of the distant city beyond the water was a faint murmur, swallowed by the quiet luxury of the room.
He leaned back against the polished mahogany desk, folding his arms. The pause stretched, deliberate. "I also said you could live your life as you desire." His voice was low, measured. "You both conveniently left that part out, didn't you?"
A slow tilt of his head as his gaze flicked between them. Hye Won shifted under the weight of it. Yue Lan's fingers twitched at her side.
***
"If you feel like I am asking a sacrifice from you in any way—" He pushed off the seat and stood up, unfolding his hands to gesture dismissively. "—don't worry. It's not. I said Yue Lan would feel a bias toward me. Not that I'd induce lust or love and turn her into some toy."
Both women stiffened, eyes widening in unison as they had a moment of realization. Han Chen exhaled through his nose, almost amused. "And your sacrifice? Please." His lip curled. "If anything, it's boundless favor."
Another pause. He let the silence and his words linger, watching their confusion mount before delivering the blow. "837 years." The number dropped like a stone into still water. "That's my current lifespan. And it's still growing."
Hye Won's breath hitched. "…What?" she whispered, as if she'd misheard. "What now?"
Han Chen stood close behind Hye Won's seat, his hands resting on its shoulders. His movements were unhurried. The soft light played across the sharp contours of his jaw. "I mean," he said, his voice taking on a lower, more significant tone. "when I claim something, whether it's a wife or a sword ~ I intend for it to remain with me until the very end."
A step closer. Yue Lan instinctively leaned back.
"My life essence can keep you both young. As your cultivation increases, and I want it to ~ it will be mutually beneficial. Our lives will stretch beyond what this world can offer." His fingers flexed, then stilled. "Soon, this mortal drama will end. And eventually, you'll understand—our fates are not tied to Earth."
_______________
Yue Lan's mouth fell open. "What?!" Han Chen's gaze returned, sharpening like a blade onto her.
"And you." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I don't like being pointed at. Especially by people weaker than me." A slow, deliberate tilt of his head. "What do you think I am? Your subordinate, waiting for your opinion?" A pause. " For that favor I give, you would be with me, be it a puppet, a partner, or a servant...its my decision. Currently I chose it as partner. So do you need a change? "
Yue Lan flinched. Her pulse jumped in her throat.
"I jumped out of mortal fate long ago." He took another step. The floorboard almost groaned beneath his power he unintentionally released. "I can kill grandmasters with my mind. Walk into a nuclear blast and feel only… inconvenience. A sunburn, at best." A humorless smile. "Dive into the ocean's deepest trench without harm. Stay there for hours. And that's now. Soon, even that effort will be beneath me."
His voice turned lethal. "Use that tone again," he said aloud, "and I'll replace your free will with strings of puppet" Yue Lan's breath came shallow. A sudden, sharp panic, and she quickly averted her gaze, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
Han Chen turned his head slightly toward Hye Won, his tone flattening again. "The deal with me was never a hundred-year arrangement." A pause. The yacht's engine thrummed beneath them. "Lifespan beyond mortals. Strength on demand. Your cultivation's growth. Rebirth in case of death. Ventures into realms you can't even fathom."
His eyes narrowed. "Do you still think I'm asking you to sacrifice?"
Another beat. The air thickened.
"Be grateful, you two." His voice was ice. "If anything, I'm the one sacrificing my time and energy. Coddling both of you ~ across two lifetimes."