Kai was consumed by a fit of rage.
He had never expected Isayat’s mental control over Luo Ling to be so absolute.
“Do you call that love? She is using you! She sees you as nothing more than a tool to oppose the Light and consolidate her dark rule! You, the former Hero of Light, have now become the Dark Demon King’s sharpest fang! Do you feel no shame?!”
“Shame?”
Ling Xiya looked as if she had heard the greatest joke in the world.
She raised her head and looked directly at Kai, her gaze cold and manic.
“Why should I be ashamed? To serve my Master and stay by her side is my greatest honor! Anyone who tries to hinder me and my Master … deserves to die!”
Her voice suddenly became shrill.
She thrust her spear forward, pointing it directly at Kai’s chest.
The faint light within her body seemed to grow restless, carrying an aura of pure destruction.
“That includes you, Kai.”
A cruel smile curled at the corners of Ling Xiya’s lips.
“If you intend to stand in my way, or my Master’s way … I will not hesitate to … kill you.”
Viviya hid a short distance behind Kai, watching the scene unfold in terror.
Although she knew nothing of the history between Kai and this madwoman, she could feel the powerful aura radiating from him — and the hair-raising insanity emanating from Ling Xiya.
She could only hope that Kai would be able to subdue her.
Kai stared at the face before him, a face that was both familiar and yet so strange.
His heart was a whirlwind of conflicting emotions: anger, disappointment, sorrow, and a faint, subtle trace of … heartache.
‘I once taught her and watched her grow. Must we face each other in battle now?’
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress the roiling emotions in his heart.
“You refuse to wake up …”
Kai’s voice regained its previous steadiness, but beneath that calm lay a surging undercurrent of power.
“Luo Ling, perhaps I did not teach you enough back then. Today, as your Mentor, let me give you one last lesson.”
As those words left his lips, the invisible barrier around Kai’s body suddenly vanished.
In its place, a majestic and heavy aura erupted.
Despite his ordinary grey robes, at this moment, he felt like a mountain that had been silent for a thousand years — slowly awakening and radiating an awe-inspiring pressure.
He did not strike immediately.
Instead, he continued to stare at Ling Xiya, his eyes filled with complexity.
“I know the power inside you. It is the power of the Hero of Light, Luo Ling. It has not vanished; it has only been twisted. Tell me, Luo Ling, is there truly not even a trace of hesitation deep in your heart? Have you really forgotten everything that the name ‘Luo Ling’ represents?”
He made one last effort to awaken the soul of the true hero buried deep within Ling Xiya.
The air seemed to freeze.
Kai’s massive, heavy aura pressed down like a mountain, yet it did not exert physical pressure on Ling Xiya.
Instead, it felt like a heavy call, a resonance echoing from the depths of her soul.
Ling Xiya — or rather, the former Hero of Light, Luo Ling — began to tremble slightly.
Those eyes, once filled with fanaticism and obsession, now looked like a deep pond into which a stone had been cast, sending ripples spreading out in every direction.
The infatuated smile on her face froze, replaced by confusion and bewilderment.
“Luo … Ling?”
She muttered the name as if tasting a word that was utterly foreign yet strangely familiar.
The name acted like a rusty key, awkwardly inserted into a long-locked heart, beginning to turn slowly.
Fragments of past memories rushed into her mind like a surging tide that had broken its shackles.
She saw a sun-drenched village, a childhood friend …
“I … I am … Luo Ling?”
Ling Xiya’s eyes grew clearer as her confusion faded, replaced by shock, agony, and a deep-seated, heroic resolve.
She reflexively raised a hand to touch her cheek.
The skin felt delicate, but it brought a sense of absurd strangeness.
‘This body, this face … this isn’t who I remember being.’
“Men … tor …”
She looked at Kai, her gaze filled with an unbelievable mix of emotions — pain, guilt, doubt, and a faint, flickering spark of hope.
Tears fell uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.
These were not tears of obsession for the Dark Demon King, Isayat, but the tears of Luo Ling, saturated with pain and struggle.
“Luo Ling!”
Kai’s heart leaped with joy, a glimmer of hope flashing in his eyes.
He could feel it; the ice encasing the hero’s soul was melting.
The true Luo Ling was finally coming back!
“Yes, you are Luo Ling! You are the Hero of Light who vowed to protect the world! Do not be deceived by false illusions! Remember! Remember everything!”
He took a step forward, his aura growing even heavier.
He attempted to use his own will to guide and strengthen that newly awakened spark of light.
If she could just hold on a little longer, if she could just break through those final shackles …