The villain's way to tame the protagonist

"I didn't force you to do these things in any way. On the contrary, you were very active in doing them."

"Although Luo is smart, she is a scholar. She never makes assumptions based on hearsay. She can't find evidence that I am the one driving all this. On the contrary... She can find the core that connects all the Donggang incidents from you."

Anser held Xin's hand tightly, his eyes and tone were so sincere:

"So, how can I not be grateful to you, Miss Saint?"

In return, now you finally understand what it means to truly... hide yourself.

The devil's voice was like chains pulled out of a furnace, entangling Xin. The heart-wrenching burning and pain made her body tremble constantly.

Is this all what I wanted to do?

No... No, this is not what I want to do! It's all...

"All of them, my hint to you?"

Hydra leaned forward slightly and whispered in Xin's ear:

"Do you want to just dump all the problems on me like this, so viciously, so despicably?"

"...No, no, that's it...that's your lie, Mr. Devil!"

Xin shook off Anser's hand and staggered back several steps, almost falling down. She murmured in a trembling voice: "It was you, Mr. Devil, who bewitched me, so I, I..."

"So I'm going to ask again - did I lie, Miss Saint?"

Anser supported his cane with both hands, admiring the saint's miserable appearance at the moment, and asked in an extremely confused tone:

"Haven't I been telling you from the beginning, from the beginning to the end, the purpose of my staying in Donggang?"

The corners of his mouth slowly rose. To others, it was the young man's intoxicating smile, but in Xin's eyes... it was the devil's cruel and malicious grin.

"From the beginning to the end, it was all for Luo."

No matter what he did, whether Xin knew it directly or guessed it, Ansher didn't mind telling her, it was all for Ming Furo.

He had been expressing this attitude from beginning to end - everything Ansir Hydra did in East Port was for Ming Furo.

But... some people don't want to believe it, some people think that all this is just a disguise, just a little trick of Mr. Devil.

"Ah...wait, Miss Saint."

Anser suddenly exclaimed: "I have clearly explained it very clearly, but you still think I am lying. You don't think... Luo is just covering up, and I am actually plotting against you in secret, right?"

"..."

"Why do you... have such an illusion?" The devil tilted his head slightly. "Just because I taught you some insignificant things and let you learn some new and unique skills, you think your position in my heart can be compared with A'Luo?"

The dense thorns on Xin's white robe began to wriggle. Facing this terrifying scene, Anser laughed even more happily and unrestrainedly: "I'm sorry to let you have such a misunderstanding, but please forgive me for being too talkative... Miss Saint——"

"Have you never experienced the feeling of being cared for and loved by others?"

"don't want……"

"Or is it not true? Do you really think that you were just bewitched by me? Then... why were you bewitched by me, Miss Saint?"

"Don't...don't..."

The devil walked forward and pressed down tightly on the shoulders of Xin, who was almost collapsing on the ground. The black thorns on the white robe tried to entangle Ansel's hands like a hound smelling blood, but the moment they touched his fingertips, it was as if he had touched something extremely terrifying, and he immediately clung to Xin's white robe and didn't even move.

"There's always a reason for being bewitched, isn't there? My words don't have any magic power, and it's impossible for me to make you do so many things for no reason. If you don't think I'm doing this for you, then... what else could it be?"

"Is it because you don't want to see me being so nice to Luo? Is it because you don't want to accept that I do so much for Luo? Is it because..."

The devil pressed his face against the saint's cheek, and the tip of his fangs seemed to be touching her snow-white neck:

"envy?"

A silent scream exploded in front of Anser, a mixture of fear, panic, and unwillingness... The extremely shrill howl of the soul was enough to tear a fourth-level transcendent into pieces. Even a fifth-level transcendent would suffer heavy damage if he was caught off guard.

Xin disappeared, and when Anser said the word "jealousy", she ran away as if she had encountered the monster she least wanted to face.

"Is that unacceptable? I was going to mention arrogance... What a shame."

Anser sighed helplessly: "It seems that I have overestimated the psychological defense of the Saint Lady."

However, looking at the dead fish washed up by the tide, a smile of extreme joy soon appeared on Mr. Devil's face.

"This is the true...perfect ending."

Changing Ming Furo's mind is indeed Ansher's fundamental purpose, but who can say...training Xin is just a by-product?

"It would be nice if Luo could see it, hmm... but she would probably call me a pervert, so forget it."

Anser looked into the distance, as if he wanted to take in the end of the world.

"I hope you won't get discouraged, Miss Saint. The next performance will be even more exciting than this one."

*

There is a small house in the snowy wilderness, a small house that looks strange no matter how you look at it, and it should not exist.

This cabin really shouldn't exist, and no one can detect its existence. That is why the two people in the cabin can talk without worry.

"Jiji...really, no problem?"

Bishop Mu, who had fled in a hurry after the East Port War and did not dare to appear in front of Anser, had a tired face: "After being tricked by Miss Zeger, His Royal Highness the Regent has already known that we are against him! Although he may not come to trouble us right away because of Ivora, what if——"

"Who told you that we were against him?"

With a blanket on his legs, he sat leisurely by the fire, holding a cup of coffee, as relaxed as if he was on vacation.

Mu was stunned by his answer. He thought over and over again about Ji's actions and the stance these actions represented, and then asked in even more confusion: "Aren't we considered to be against him? Is His Royal Highness the Regent not so generous as to do this?"

"Mu... I have been in the Empire for more than a hundred years. I am more like an Imperial than the Imperials themselves."

Ji took a sip of coffee and stared at the fire with half-closed eyes, just like an ordinary old man.

"I know the powerful even better than the so-called Grand Duke, and I also know His Royal Highness the Regent."

He turned his head and looked at Mu: "What do you think he wants in this war?"

"This... maybe, maybe it's just to defeat Ivora?"

"Wrong, he doesn't care about Ivora at all."

Ji said something casually that left Mu dumbfounded.

"He doesn't care about Ivora? How could he not care? Doesn't he still want to join forces with the Revolutionary Army—"

"That's because you don't see the true nature of this war, Mu."

Ji shook his head and sighed softly: "This war is just a tool for him, just a... melting pot."

He looked towards the southwest, as if he saw the woman revered as the [Mechanical Goddess], dominating everything with the authority of steel.

"Let the iron and stone fade away from their earthy color, reveal their true colors in the molten fire, and be tempered and sublimated in the furnace."

"Mu... Whether it's the Revolutionary Army or the Church, everything about this war is just a whetstone for that monster to sharpen his blade."

Mu screamed in disbelief, "This war happened just because he wanted to train Mingfuluo Zeg?!"

"That's why I said that we are not hostile to him, right?" Ji Cang's old voice was full of laughter. "Under my influence, the Revolutionary Army has fulfilled its duties as a whetstone very well. It has neither let Zeger lose miserably nor let her win too easily."

"If Youse's true identity is not revealed, then the defenseless Zeger will surely lose; but if she wins too easily... then the grindstone will lose its meaning of existence."

"Although I didn't realize this until the war was about to begin, but fortunately... our original plan was to let the Revolutionary Army and Ming Fuluo fight for a long time, so I accidentally fulfilled the role of the grindstone."

Mu was still somewhat shocked by Ji's casual words. He digested them for a long time before asking with great difficulty, "You also realized it later? When?"

"When rumors about Youse suddenly appeared inside, I realized that the entire revolutionary army had been quietly infiltrated by our Regent Prince."

Ji sighed: "I didn't realize this in advance, it's really scary."

"Anser Hydra didn't want Mingfuluo Zeg to win so easily, so he arranged one twist after another for this drama, so it was natural for me to promote the further spread of rumors. Otherwise, I actually had no reason to push Youse to the opposite side, right?"

Mu gradually understood: "So when you were talking to Lian De, you said that you were the only one who spread the rumor. This is..."

"Show goodwill to His Royal Highness the Regent, or... submit."

Ji shrugged, "Lie down like an obedient and loyal dog, wagging his tail to show that he had obeyed and completed his orders."

Only then did Mu understand the whole picture of the incident, and even felt extremely scared.

If Ji's original plan had not been almost the same as what happened before, and if His Royal Highness the Regent had not seemed very "merciful" to give a little reminder, it would be hard to say what would happen to the church, Ji, and him now.

The Imperials...are so scary!

Mu thought that his thinking ability and way of thinking were close enough to those of the imperial nobles, but he found that he was still too young and was nothing in front of real monsters.

"As for why he doesn't care about Ivora..."

Ji curled his lips and said, "Who do you think would encounter a bear in the wild and not choose to turn around and run away, or fight to the death, but instead slowly untie his knife and sit on the ground to start sharpening it?"

"…People who are not afraid of bears at all."

"That's right. Either he can take out a gun and blow the bear's head off, or he can rip the bear's heart out with his bare hands."

The old bishop looked at Mu with a teasing look in his eyes: "What kind of person do you think our Regent is?"

Mu was silent for a moment, then whispered, "I think he is the kind of person who would really commit suicide if he asked Xiong to commit suicide."

"This angle is quite novel...it seems like he left a deep impression on you." Ji raised his eyebrows.

"Because the Saint..."

"Because of me?"

The third voice that sounded in the room made Ji and Mu’s expressions freeze at the same time.

"What are you doing..." Mu just opened his mouth when Ji raised his hand to stop him.

"Your Excellency the Saint."

The old man stood up and saluted Xin: "I didn't expect you to come to us. It's really rare."

Xin looked at Ji calmly: "You and Mu are now the only two bishops who can move freely in the empire. I need your help."

She looked as if there was nothing wrong with her, still holy, still ethereal, still... elusive.

"Help means... saving Ansir Hydra?" Ji responded calmly.

Xin nodded.

Mu became anxious all of a sudden, and he couldn't help but say, "Your Excellency, regarding the Regent Prince, do you really--"

"We will provide all the help we can, Your Excellency the Saint."

Ji interrupted Mu again: "But please understand that we have more important things to do."

"I know, I won't trouble you with everything, I just need to be like Mr. Devil."

"Like him, hide yourself."

The next moment, her figure disappeared from Ji and Mu's sight.

"..."

The firewood crackled and the air was filled with an extremely solemn atmosphere.

"Just now..." Mu's throat moved, "Your Excellency the Saint was... laughing?"

"…if you consider that expression to be a 'smile'."

Ji whispered hoarsely, Xin's expression just now appearing in his mind.

That unnatural, even creepy... "smile".

*

In the wind and snow, a woman wearing only a white robe walked forward step by step, seemingly practicing some kind of spiritual practice.

But if someone could look directly into her eyes, they would definitely not think that she was some ascetic monk.

This is... a monster.

Mr. Devil... I know everything.

I know what you want in the end.

From the beginning to the end, the devil had been using her. The devil didn't care what she thought or how much she had paid. In the devil's eyes... there was always only Ming Furo.

But, so what?

Xin has been waiting for a reversal, just like the ending that Ming Fuluo is facing, she is also waiting for her own ending.

It seems that she has nothing, but in fact...she is the real ending of this drama.