Out in the wilderness, the Holy Son would have encountered fortuitous events, ancient inheritances, and near-death experiences that would have catalyzed his cultivation base to terrifying new heights.

He would return to the sect no longer a promising junior, but a bona fide powerhouse ready to challenge the established hierarchy.

And naturally, a protagonist returning with newfound power required obstacles to overcome.

The universe demanded conflict.

The ’World Will’ of the novel required stepping stones for Gu Zhiwei to crush beneath his boots to prove his dominance.

In the original timeline, that major, overarching villain, the cruel, insurmountable obstacle that Gu Zhiwei had to overcome during the tournament arc, had been Xie Wangchen.

The Ice Demon was supposed to be the antagonist.

He was supposed to brutally humiliate the other male leads, torture Gu Zhiwei in the arena, and serve as the terrifying, final boss of the sect before the plot moved on to larger, continental threats.

But the timeline was shattered.

Ji’an looked across the table at Wangchen.

The supposed "villain" of the arc was currently meticulously picking a stray tea leaf out of her cup with his pristine chopsticks, his ruby eyes soft and entirely devoid of malice, looking at her as if she were a delicate pastry he didn’t want to break.

Wangchen wasn’t going to torture Gu Zhiwei.

Wangchen didn’t even care that Gu Zhiwei existed.

The Ice Demon’s entire worldview had shrunk down to the circumference of her outdoor kitchen.

Unless Gu Zhiwei actively tried to steal her spatula or insult her cooking, Wangchen was completely removed from the antagonist roster.

’The villain void,’ Ji’an realized, a cold, creeping dread settling over her shoulders, heavier than the mountain mist.

A story cannot exist without a villain.

If the designated antagonist abdicates his role, the World Will doesn’t just cancel the conflict.

It creates a new one.

It shifts the malice to another vessel.

It empowers a new enemy to challenge the protagonist and, by extension, the protagonist’s allies.

Who was going to fill Wangchen’s shoes?

Was it going to be Lu Jianheng, the Sword Lord, pushed to madness by his own obsession?

Was it going to be Mu Wuchen, striking from the shadows?

Or was the universe going to elevate someone entirely unexpected, a hidden elder, a forgotten disciple, or a demonic infiltrator?

Whoever it was, they were going to be powerful, ruthless, and highly motivated by the plot armor of the narrative.

And Ji’an, as a highly disruptive anomaly who had actively befriended both the protagonist Zhiwei and the former villain Wangchen, was standing squarely in the crossfire.

"We need a contingency plan," Ji’an muttered aloud, completely lost in her own tactical spiraling, tapping her index finger rapidly against the jade table. "I need to stockpile high-tier poison-neutralizing herbs. I need to reinforce the wards on the Drunken Peak. If the plot tries to force a confrontation during the tournament, I need an exit strategy that doesn’t involve me getting my internal organs pureed by a rogue sword-wave..."

Across the table, Xie Wangchen had gone completely still.

The soft, tender warmth that had illuminated his ruby eyes slowly fractured, replaced by a sharp, cutting shard of distress.

He had spent the last hour simply basking in her presence.

He had listened to her recount her absurd, exaggerated tales of flipping tables in the capital and running from gossip-mongering noblewomen.

He had loved every single second of her vibrant, chaotic energy.

But now, he watched as the light in her silver-flecked eyes dimmed.

He watched the heavy, suffocating shadow of an unseen burden drag her shoulders down.

He saw the genuine fear and anxiety tightening the lines of her jaw.

She was looking right through him, staring into a future that terrified her.

And the most soul-crushing part of it all was that he had absolutely no idea what she was afraid of.

’What ghosts are haunting you?’ Wangchen thought, a surge of frustration and helplessness clawing at his chest.

He was the youngest disciple to reach the Soul Transformation stage in the history of the Celestial Sword Sect.

Even Ji’an was a bit jealous of him, since she trained so hard, yet only reached the Nascent Soul stage.

As for Wangchen, he had conquered the Flawless Ice Root.

He could freeze a river with a single thought.

He could shatter the bones of a Golden Core master without breaking a sweat.

He possessed the power to slaughter armies, to topple empires, and to plunge the world into an eternal, quiet winter.

But all of that apocalyptic power was entirely useless against the secrets locked inside Ji’an’s mind.

She carried a universe of burdens that she refused to share.

She spoke of strange concepts, of knowing things she shouldn’t know.

She reacted to mundane events with the terror of a seer who had witnessed the end of the world.

And no matter how closely he watched her, no matter how desperately he tried to shield her, she remained fundamentally isolated in her fear.

’I cannot protect you from an enemy I cannot see,’ Wangchen agonized, his long, pale fingers clenching into tight fists beneath the flowing sleeves of his robes.

A dark, possessive whisper echoed in the deepest, most unstable corner of his mind.

«Lock her away. Freeze the pavilion. Keep her here, where the world cannot touch her. If she is afraid of the outside, remove the outside from the equation.»

It was a tempting, intoxicating thought.

The urge to encase the Moon Lotus Pavilion in a dome of impenetrable ice and keep her safely by his side for eternity was overwhelming.

But he looked at her face.

He saw the fierce, unyielding, stubborn fire that burned beneath her anxiety.

If he caged her, the fire would go out.

The vibrant, loud, foul-mouthed chef who had saved him from the dark would wither and die in the cold.

To possess her body at the cost of her soul was a compromise his love refused to make.