Dragon Monarch System Chapter 1294:- Is That Really You, Ren?

"What are you planning to do with all these corpses?" Ren’s lover finally asked while looking at the bodies of the fallen cultivators that had been gathered inside his personal tent. Although she had been trying to remain silent and avoid disturbing him, her curiosity had eventually gotten the better of her.

After all, she had been watching the soldiers bring one corpse after another into the tent, yet Ren had not offered even the slightest explanation for his strange actions.

After spending an entire night inside the storage rings, some of the corpses had already begun showing signs of decay. Although storage rings were convenient for carrying large quantities of items, ordinary storage rings did not completely stop the passage of time.

As a result, the bodies had already begun releasing an unpleasant smell. The smell of blood, decaying flesh, and other unpleasant odours had gradually filled the tent, making it increasingly difficult for Ren’s lover to remain there without feeling sick.

She had already covered her nose with a handkerchief, but even that was not enough to completely block the terrible smell. Every now and then, she would glance toward the entrance, wishing that she could step outside and breathe some fresh air. However, she did not want to leave Ren alone, especially considering how strangely he had been behaving since last night.

Unfortunately, Ren did not respond to her question. He remained seated in his chair with his eyes tightly closed, seemingly completely unaware of his surroundings. His breathing was slow and steady, and his expression was unusually calm. If someone had entered the tent without knowing what was happening, they might have assumed that the Emperor was simply resting before the upcoming battle.

However, his lover knew that this was not the case. She had been sitting beside him long enough to realize that he was doing something, although she had absolutely no idea what it was. She had tried sensing the flow of Mana around his body, but she could not detect anything unusual. At least, not at first.

Seeing that Ren had no intention of answering her question, she decided not to disturb him any further. Instead, she quietly moved a little farther away from the corpses and waited for him to finish whatever he was doing.

Around fifteen minutes passed in complete silence. During this time, Ren did not move even once, nor did he open his eyes. However, just as his lover was beginning to wonder whether she should ask him another question, she suddenly noticed something strange happening around him.

The aura surrounding Ren had slowly begun changing.

At first, the change was so small that she almost failed to notice it. However, as more time passed, the difference became increasingly obvious. The familiar aura that she had sensed from Ren countless times before was gradually disappearing, only to be replaced by something much darker and more sinister.

It was difficult for her to explain exactly what she was feeling. The Mana surrounding Ren did not simply feel stronger or more threatening. Instead, there was something deeply uncomfortable about it, something that made her instincts warn her to stay away from him.

The atmosphere inside the tent also seemed to change along with his aura. Although nothing around them had physically changed, the air suddenly felt heavier, and an unpleasant sense of pressure began spreading throughout the surroundings. Even the terrible smell coming from the corpses seemed less important compared to the strange feeling that was slowly taking over the tent.

Ren’s lover stared at him with a confused expression. She could clearly sense that something was happening to him, but she could not understand what he was doing to himself. As far as she knew, Ren had never possessed an aura like this before. She had been by his side for many years and had seen him cultivate, fight, and use his abilities on numerous occasions. Yet this was the first time she had ever witnessed such a frightening change in him.

She wondered while carefully observing his expression. Despite the increasingly sinister aura surrounding his body, Ren continued sitting there with his eyes closed, looking completely unaffected by the strange changes taking place around him.

What confused her even more was the timing of his actions. The final battle was approaching, and as the Emperor, Ren should have been standing before his troops, giving them an encouraging speech and trying to raise their morale. After everything that had happened yesterday, the soldiers desperately needed to see their Emperor acting confidently and assuring them that victory was still possible.

Instead, Ren had spent the entire night behaving strangely, and now he had ordered the corpses of powerful cultivators to be brought into his personal tent. Rather than preparing his army for the upcoming battle, he was sitting quietly among dead bodies while doing something that she could not even begin to understand.

She wondered with growing concern. Ever since Ren had contacted Leo and learned that the organisation would not provide any additional support, his behaviour had become increasingly unusual.

At first, she had believed that he was simply angry and frustrated because of the situation. However, after watching him throughout the night and witnessing what was happening now, she was beginning to suspect that something much more serious was taking place.

For some reason, she felt as though the man she had fallen in love with had completely changed. The Ren she knew could be arrogant, ambitious, and even cruel toward his enemies, but she had always been familiar with those sides of his personality. She understood his ambitions and knew how important the throne was to him. However, the person sitting before her now felt like someone entirely different.

It was almost as though the man she had known for so many years was slowly disappearing, and something unfamiliar was taking his place.

As this thought appeared in her mind, she unconsciously tightened her grip around the handkerchief in her hand. She wanted to approach Ren and ask him what was happening, but something inside her strongly warned her against getting any closer.

A few more moments passed before Ren finally showed signs of movement. His fingers moved slightly against the armrest of his chair, and the strange aura surrounding his body gradually became more noticeable. Then, without any warning, he slowly opened his eyes.

The moment Ren opened his eyes and looked directly at her, his lover felt her entire body stiffen.

She had been looking at him the entire time, yet when their eyes finally met, she suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of fear. It was so unexpected that she instinctively took several steps backwards before she even realised what she was doing. Her breathing became uneven, and small beads of sweat began forming on her forehead before slowly rolling down her cheeks.

For a brief moment, she could not understand why she was reacting like this. The person sitting before her was Ren, the very man she loved with all her heart. She had spent countless nights beside him, shared many private moments with him, and trusted him more than almost anyone else. Yet now, simply having his gaze fall upon her was enough to make her entire body tremble.

"Serena, this is crucial for our victory against my cursed brother Aditya and his group." Ren finally spoke in a calm voice while looking directly at her. However, his words did nothing to calm her down.

If anything, hearing him speak so calmly while releasing such a sinister aura only made her feel even more frightened. There was something about his eyes that she could not recognize. Although his face and voice remained the same, the feeling she received from him was completely different from anything she had experienced before.

As a cultivator herself, she was certainly not someone who became frightened easily. She had participated in numerous life-and-death battles and had personally witnessed some of the most gruesome scenes imaginable. She had seen people being torn apart, watched powerful cultivators slaughter their enemies without mercy, and experienced situations where her own life had been hanging by a thread.

However, none of those experiences had ever made her feel as terrified as she did at this very moment.

Even when she had been surrounded by enemies who wanted to kill her, she had never experienced this kind of fear. It was not simply the fear of being injured or losing her life. Rather, it was an overwhelming feeling that something was terribly wrong with the person standing before her.

Her instincts were practically screaming at her to run away, yet her heart refused to accept that the man she loved could possibly be the source of such terror.

She wanted to believe that this was still the same Ren she had always known. However, as she continued staring into his eyes, she found herself unable to recognise the man sitting before her.

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