Mind Bewitchment (Part Two)
"Because in my heart, you've always been the beautiful, mysterious princess locked away in the castle. Most people never get their fairy-tale moment — never get to whisk the princess away and run. I thought we'd have our share of adventures on the road together. Who could have guessed we'd be dragged back so soon after it started?"
Mu Ningxue was silent.
After a long pause, she finally spoke. "You're strange. Just like the rest of them."
"I think so too, honestly." Mo Fan gave an indifferent shrug, his smile never shifting — impossible to tell whether he was teasing or genuinely confessing.
"Then there's no need to say any of this." Mu Ningxue was more concerned with the present: the unsettling situation they currently found themselves in.
"But what I've promised, I always see through to the end."
"Does that mean anything to you? You know perfectly well it's as childish as a fairy tale. The Mu Household today is not what it once was — stop inviting trouble on yourself. And besides, I have no interest in you." Mu Ningxue said it plainly.
So much time had passed since all of that. Mu Ningxue had buried herself in cultivation and long since wiped the memories of her youth clean. What she felt toward Mo Fan was little more than guilt over a youthful mistake — nothing else. She didn't want him reading something into it that wasn't there.
"That's because you haven't yet discovered the personal charm hiding beneath my easygoing surface." Mo Fan said it without a shred of shame.
"You're strange, truly. But perhaps those words came from the heart — so I'll give you a real answer: they've already arranged a fiancé for me. I don't feel a single thing for him. But honestly, love has never been all that sacred to me. So don't go thinking I'm some tragic figure dutifully suffering through a Noble Clan marriage arrangement out of family obligation. I simply don't care either way."
Even as the words left her mouth, Mu Ningxue found them slightly odd — she never ordinarily revealed her inner thoughts to anyone. But when she considered it more carefully, letting Mo Fan give up was the better outcome. He'd been born with Dual Elements; his future was limitless. There was no reason to throw himself against such an enormous force over a youthful fixation.
Mo Fan couldn't help clicking his tongue.
*With that attitude of hers, if she isn't already practicing some heartless cultivation art, she's squandering that peerless beauty and untouchable aura.*
Still, it was refreshing in a way. Direct and unambiguous.
*Wasn't that always how it went with legendary beauties throughout history? The one who rises to the top wins the heart.*
A surge of towering ambition swelled in Mo Fan's chest.
To be honest, what he felt for Mu Ningxue was the ache of a first love. Could he let it go if he had to? Of course he could.
*But why should he?*
*A person fights, claws their way up, builds strength and wealth and power — all for the sake of having choices. Not being ordered around like a servant just to keep food on the table. Not agonizing over whether to abandon your livelihood to chase after someone across the country. Not being forced to give up something you can't bear to lose, then convincing yourself you never really wanted it that badly.*
*So what if Mu Ningxue was engaged to someone else? With enough power, you could choose to fight for her — or choose not to. That was the whole point. Not being forced to walk away and hide in some corner, swallowing your grief alone.*
*And besides — a certain someone had just said herself that it made no difference to her. Whether she spent her life with the man chosen for her or the one who came and took her away — no difference at all!*
*A man should be bold. A man should reach for what he wants.*
*Only a toad too timid to dream of swans deserves to stay in the mud. And he was no toad — he was dashingly, undeniably—*
...
...
All through the night, the atmosphere inside the church had been deeply, inexplicably strange.
Just as Mo Fan was about to bury that surging tide of ambition back down into the depths of his heart, the pendant at his neck trembled with a faint ripple.
It was barely perceptible — a hair-thin disturbance — yet it spread through his mind like a stone dropped in still water.
The ripple carried a profoundly strange spiritual force. In an instant, the blazing fervor that had been consuming him went cold — as if he'd been plunged into ice water — and he snapped free from that strange, restless, agitated state he'd been in.
His eyes cleared. The dark irises grew calm and steady once more.
He looked at Mu Ningxue's graceful, beautiful back. It seemed his obsessive rambling had made it impossible for her to continue the conversation.
"Ningxue, wait." Mo Fan called after her.
Mu Ningxue turned. The arrogant, boasting Mo Fan from moments ago was gone — he looked instead like someone who had just jolted awake from a nightmare.
"What else do you want to say?" she asked, uncertain.
"Something is genuinely wrong here." Mo Fan's voice was steady and serious.
Mu Ningxue noticed he seemed to have regained his senses. She nodded. "It seems you were just like the rest of them, a moment ago."
"Set that aside for now — this has to be some form of mental enchantment. I'm wearing a Focus Pendant around my neck. It just Released a spiritual ripple on its own, shielded my mind, and snapped me out of that strange state." Mo Fan's expression was utterly grave.
Mu Ningxue's face went solemn. She had already been suspecting some kind of psychic interference, and the fact that Mo Fan's Focus Pendant had reacted confirmed it — everyone had fallen under some form of mental enchantment.
"Mingcong attacked Bai Tingting — that would be because he already had feelings for her, darker ones, and the enchantment drove him to act on them."
"Liao Mingxuan is jealous of you, and harbors resentment toward Lu Zhenghe, so he erupted in that string of angry outbursts."
"Bai Tingting has feelings for you. After being frightened, she instinctively clung to you for comfort."
"And you, just now..." Mu Ningxue paused. "You already know what that was."
A flush of acute embarrassment washed over Mo Fan. Something he'd kept buried for years had just been dragged into the open — and he'd been performing such a convincing act of carefree indifference all this time.
*Forget it.* He pushed the feeling aside. *Deal with the problem in front of you first.*
"Mingcong was the first to lose control, wasn't he? I'll go ask Bai Tingting where he ended up," Mo Fan said.
Mo Fan walked toward Bai Tingting, but her gaze was fixed on Mu Ningxue — openly, without any attempt to conceal the hostility in her eyes. There was clearly some resentment in Bai Tingting's heart toward Mu Ningxue, though the exact reason was hard to say.
Mo Fan came up beside her and drew out the Focus Pendant, placing it in her palm.
The pendant's peculiar ripple spread once more. Bai Tingting's body gave an involuntary shudder; as her eyes refocused, the haze lifted and her gaze became clear and bright again.
She must have recalled how she'd been acting, because her cheeks flooded crimson and she couldn't bring herself to meet Mo Fan's eyes.
"It's all right, it's fine — I've got a rough idea of what's going on. I just want to ask you: do you know where Mingcong went? By all logic this church is nearly sealed off, and there's no sign of any Demon-Beasts anywhere..."