Pure Yang Lord was jolted awake, gently coughing up water from his lungs feeling someone helping him. His heaving chest slowly settled and he opened his eyes to find a beautiful young lady staring at him with her large and expressive blue eyes which makes people want to get lost in them. She had long eyelashes which accentuated the effect of her eyes.
He shook the enchanting feeling he had when looking at her eyes with some effort creating wariness in his mind. She had a delicate, heart-shaped face, cherry lips, and a firm nose with a fair complexion hinting at a gentle blush on her cheeks. She stood at an average height, with a slender and graceful build that hints at a well-developed body despite her young age. She looked almost mature but he could determine that she was probably around 15 years of age.
Pure Yang Lord had encountered many beautiful women in his lifetime, yet he still felt an inexplicable tug in his heart which further heightened his vigilance. Unexpectedly, his instinct were screaming as if he was facing his greatest adversary.
Before he could think through, his ear was mercilessly grabbed by a surprisingly firm yet soft, small hand.
"Why the hell did you jump off the cliff?" she asked, pinching his ear.
Caught off-guard by this gentle attack, he could only make a bitter face. "Oei, Oyi! Take it easy…"
His body was at its weakest—drained and exhausted. He forgot to shake her hand off.
"Speak! Why were you trying to commit suicide?" the lady was looking at him with a threatening face.
Watching her immature ways of handling a person trying to commit suicide, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"I uhh… I wasn't trying to commit suicide… My leg slipped… the cliff stone broke…" he tried to explain weakly.
But an explanation like this could only make matters worse.
In matters related to girls, Pure Yang Lord had zero experience. He had spent his entire life dedicated to pursuing higher cultivation using his Pure Yang physique as the foundation, avoiding any contact with women —rigid, pure and disciplined. In fact, this might be his closest experience with a female in his entire adult life.
He had difficulty having conversation with normal women let alone the one unreasonable as the girl in front of him. His mind didn't work as usual and words seemed to be stuck in his mouth.
"You liar!! If you didn't want to commit suicide then why did you consume poison?" the lady released his ears but only to flick his head instead.
"Ahh —!"
Something unexpected happened, he felt a jolt in his body as if zapped by electricity — a black light had appeared on her fingers as it made contact with his head.
"I— I didn't mean to hurt you!" she quickly blurted in apology.
A strange expression appeared on her face as she didn't expect to lose control of her energy while giving a small flick.
An apprehensive and hostile look appeared in the Pure Yang Lord's eyes as he realized this energy all too well—Pure Yin energy.
Before he could react, she hurriedly apologized, trying to diffuse the situation.
He was going to retort with some harsh words, but the system's familiar voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.
[Pure Yin Physique Detected!]
[Mission: Enslave Princess Sara through any means possible.
Duration: Three days
Punishment for failure: Death…]
'Who is Princess Sara?' he asked internally for confirmation, though he already had a guess.
[The girl in front of you is Princess Sara.]
He furrowed his brows in anger.
'Damn you, System..' he snarled inside. 'You want me to enslave a benefactor who just saved my life?' But the system coldly added three more words:
[Punishment for failure: Death of Princess Sara]
He sighed knowing he had no way to deal with this system right now. He didn't even know the extent to which the system could influence him… or her.
As he processed the information he got and the familiar-sounding name of the princess, his mind was suddenly jolted by a certain realization.
'Same name as the Evil Tyrant… Beautiful princess Sara… similar childhood' he thought as his eyes widened and he stood up–an absurd conjecture forming in his mind.
"Oh shit!" he exclaimed, startling the lady in front of him.
'Hey, evil system. Tell me, did I transmigrate into the past era? Into this body of the real Evil Tyrant?' he asked, growing more frantic.
[The system cannot confirm the future events. However, based on the hostage's thoughts and the current event. There is slight probability that the hostage's conjecture is accurate but it's beyond the system's capability to discern further.]
'Damn you parasite! Stop reading my thoughts and memories!' he seethed internally.
'Did I really end up in the body of the luckiest and most notorious badass in history?'
Pure Yang Lord's mind whirled as he compared all the information about this body and the stories related to the Evil Tyrant. He had a strong impression of this character—being his most hated figure in history due to his evil deeds. He also had extreme jealousy towards him due to his absurd luck.
While nurturing his righteous nature in his childhood, he dreamed several times to go back in history and slay the Evil Tyrant before he could grow and destroy the world.
He could not confirm his conjecture right now but the implication… they were enormous. Just the mere thought about arriving at the same era of the Tyrant, not to slay him—but to live in his body where he could enjoy both his absurd luck and correct all his evil deeds –was beyond anything he had ever imagined.
The more he thought, the more it felt overwhelming that this would truly be the case of dreams coming true if his guess is real and before he knew it, an odd-looking grin crept onto his face which was followed by a small laugh that escaped his lips.
Watching him frown in anger at one moment, sighing at another, then exclaiming and finally smiling and laughing like a creep, Princess Sara looked really scared.
"My goodness! Did I really hit him so hard that he became senseless and lost his mind?" she exclaimed with wide eyes, clearly distressed.
"What do I do? How do I fix him?"
She panicked trying to find ways to bring him to his senses.
Watching her panic amused Pure Yang Lord and he laughed even harder. This girl… was too amusing.
Then–
SMACK!
She had jumped and flicked him hard on the same spot, this time with even more force which ended his daydreaming.
He yelped and rolled on the ground for a few meters before stopping.
He snapped, "Ouch! What was that for?"
"Looks like it worked, you're not laughing like a lunatic now. (hehe)" Princess Sara giggled, pleased with her quick thinking and ideas.
"You… You're the insane one here," he snapped, rubbing his forehead. A small bump formed on his head which slowly enlarged to become like an oddly-shaped horn.
Looking at him and his horn, she looked like she was barely holding her laughter.
He became speechless at the action of this immature girl in front of him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. In all his thousands of years of living, he had never faced such amusing and awkward situations.
'She's definitely not the intelligent, caring and loving princess Sara mentioned in the stories. There are also several things that don't add up like the tyrant was supposed to be talented from childhood and supremely lucky not some trash from a declining clan. Damn, I got excited for nothing here,' he thought.
"Now will you answer my questions or do I need to flick again?" she said, her expression returning to being serious and threatening, her finger positioned as if ready to flick.
A cunning glint flashed across Pure Yang Lord's eyes.
"I'm really telling the truth. I accidentally consumed an elixir which was unfortunately laced with poison," he insisted. "I didn't come here to commit suicide."
"Then, why did you come to the edge of the cliff?" she pressed on, not convinced by his words.
Pure Yang Lord fidgeted as if struggling to tell the truth but internally he was thinking of coming up with an excuse.
She gestured with her eyes, urging him to reply.
He took a deep breath and said with great struggle, "I… came here in search of a great treasure."
"You came in search of a treasure? In this raging river?" she repeated his words in an amused tone, not believing his excuses. "Tell me, what is it, and how did you find out about it? Perhaps, I'll help you find it."
"I can't tell you how I learned of it," he replied in denial.
'Because I myself am not sure if it's real, based on those shitty history books. But this at least makes a great excuse and confirm something while at it,' he added in thoughts on a whim.
"But, it's a bead-shaped treasure… it's somewhere along the banks of this river. Please help me find it. It's very important to me. I'll be forever grateful to you if you can find it for me," he pleaded in a helpless tone.
If the people from the Crimson Flame World saw him right now, they wouldn't believe their eyes—the proud and arrogant Pure Yang Lord asking for help in a humble tone.
"Alright," she said with a smirk. "I'll help you find it."
Still suspicious, she was going along with him for now, planning to expose him later.
She released her spiritual sense to scan the flowing river and the bank areas but strangely, she couldn't perceive things beyond a few dozen meters in the river which was barely one-tenth of what she could sense normally. This greatly aroused her suspicion and she moved up and down along the riverbed to observe further.
She realized the further upstream she travelled, the lesser the distance of her perception became upto a riverbend after which it started increasing.
Realizing the oddity in this place, her expression turned grave as she realized there is definitely something odd here though she's not convinced that it's a treasure.
Alister followed her and found the fog above the river at this bend was very thick. After observing further, he realized something along this portion of the river bend might be the cause of river flowing with great turbulence which was unnatural.
Now, it was Ali's turn to feel surprised, 'I'll be damned. There's definitely something unnatural going on here. What if it really turns out to be that treasure? What if she takes it? Why did I had to blurt out the damned excuse?'
After hesitating for some time, she flew and plunged into the river, determined to find the cause of this anomaly.
Based on the stories about some major events in the early years of Evil Tyrant, Princess Sara and his childhood circumstances matched. The major thing missing was the godly treasure that Evil Tyrant had discovered after entering a powerful evil creature's lair with his absurd luck.
He had no way to confirm since he knew that finding a powerful creature's lair and escaping with the treasure was nearly impossible with his current cultivation level especially when he had no idea of its location but he used it as inspiration to make up an excuse.
But his excuse had unexpectedly revealed an anomaly in the river which could possibly be a great danger or a great treasure.
He stared at the spot where she dived in with great anticipation, silently praying for her to find a treasure while harboring a small evil thought in the corner of his mind hoping for her to fail so that he could somehow secure the treasure in the future.