Chapter 61: Guilt? Wu Ruyue’s Words of Loyalty
Splash…
The dark river shimmered with a chill as icy air rose from its depths. From time to time, the current surged against the rocks, scattering a few splashes of foam.
The return journey was made in silence.
Wu Ruyue suddenly thought of those adventurer companions who had turned against each other for the sake of secret realm treasures, their blades crossing as they parted ways. A faint heaviness lodged in her chest.
It felt as though, because of this Martial God’s inheritance, there now existed an unseen distance between Shen Yanzhou and herself—something faint yet unmistakably real.
Scenes from last night flashed before her eyes. Back then, the two of them had been so close—almost intimate. They had spoken of everything; she had even told him many embarrassing stories from her childhood.
“How can I make up for it… This inheritance should have been his to begin with…”
Wu Ruyue clenched her hand. She had never been one good with words.
But there was nothing she could change now.
The moment she accepted the Martial God’s inheritance, she could no longer freely pass it to anyone else.
Still, her chest felt tight, a hollow emptiness settling within.
The two returned in tacit silence to the same cave as before.
Shen Yanzhou once again gathered the dry branches to start a fire.
Finally, Wu Ruyue couldn’t hold back any longer. “Young Master Shen, is the Martial God’s inheritance… very important to you?”
Yet the instant the words left her mouth, regret washed over her.
What kind of question was that?
This was the Martial God’s inheritance—the supreme realm pursued by countless martial cultivators across the land.
Even the greatest experts from other cultivation systems would shed blood to claim it.
How could it not be important? Husbands and wives would turn against each other, fathers and sons become enemies for its sake.
Shen Yanzhou paused, lowering the firewood and looking up at her. “It is indeed very important.”
“In fact, I’ve spent half my life thinking about how to obtain it.”
His voice was uncharacteristically soft.
Wu Ruyue dared not meet his gaze. His eyes seemed heavy, filled with things left unsaid.
She could understand.
It was like struggling for years toward something, only to see it fall effortlessly into another’s hands.
As a child, her younger brother had been the same—able to easily gain from their parents what she could never earn no matter how hard she tried.
Hadn’t she also felt that same loss, that same unwillingness?
“If you hadn’t saved me that day, if I had fallen to my death beneath that cliff, this Martial God’s inheritance would have been yours.” Her gaze dropped, her hands tightening unconsciously.
Shen Yanzhou froze for a moment—then laughed softly.
Looking into her eyes, he said, “There are no ifs. Even if I could do it all again, I would still save you.”
Wu Ruyue stared at him, startled. Something stirred faintly behind her gaze.
“Then why… have you ignored me all the way back?”
She couldn’t help but ask.
Yet as soon as she said it, she felt strange—it sounded almost like a complaint, tinged with something… ambiguous.
Shen Yanzhou blinked, then smiled. “Do you know what your tone just now sounded like?”
“Like what?” she asked curiously.
“Like a wronged little wife.”
Wu Ruyue’s face flushed crimson in an instant. Her heart panicked. The hand that had been clenched at her side instinctively tugged at her sleeve—then she remembered she was still wearing his outer robe.
“What nonsense are you talking about…”
She turned her gaze away, her heart beating faster in her chest.
“Anyway, you don’t need to feel guilty. I don’t blame you for anything.” Shen Yanzhou’s tone softened. “It’s just that I suddenly realized how powerless I am. Schemes, plans—they’re useless. Before true fate, all of it crumbles.”
“I hate my own weakness.”
He sighed quietly.
“Why would you think that way?”
“You had everything planned in advance. If it weren’t for my unexpected appearance disrupting your original plan—”
“The result shouldn’t have been like this,” Wu Ruyue quickly said, trying to comfort him.
Shen Yanzhou looked at her, amused by her simplicity and kindness. He shook his head. “You don’t understand what I mean.”
Wu Ruyue bit her lip. Suddenly, she didn’t know where the courage came from, but she stepped forward and grasped his wrist. “Young Master Shen, why do you belittle yourself so much? In my eyes, you’ve endured humiliation for years, never caring about the world’s mockery, hiding your strength and refining your heart. Just that alone places you above countless others.”
“I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with fate, but if it’s the Martial God’s inheritance you seek to become stronger, then I can help you. Whatever you need me to do—I’ll do it.”
Words of loyalty, is it?
The corner of Shen Yanzhou’s lips curved upward briefly before he let the smile fade. He met her gaze directly. “Anything?”
Wu Ruyue nodded earnestly. She didn’t believe Shen Yanzhou would ever do something immoral.
“What if what I want… is your body?”
“…”
Wu Ruyue froze. Why had he suddenly turned to that? It was obvious he was testing her. She hurriedly tried to change the subject. “Young Master Shen, please be serious. Now’s not the time to joke about such things.”
“Didn’t you say ‘anything’? Isn’t that included?” He sighed softly, as though unsurprised.
“How could that be the same…”
“To me, it is the same. If you can’t do it, then don’t promise lightly.”
“…”
Wu Ruyue didn’t know how to respond.
Who talked like that right from the start? Before, she would have thought he was being lewd, teasing her.
But now… she felt he was doing it on purpose—to test her sincerity.
After all, compared to the Martial God’s inheritance, countless women in this world would trade their bodies without hesitation.
She took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly, as if trying to convince herself. Her face turned red as blood. “If Young Master Shen truly wishes it, then when the time is right, I will agree… It’s just… not here, in this cave…”
After all, her whole life was devoted to the Martial Path. She had no heart for romance, nor did she regard a woman’s chastity as something sacred above all else.
Even Shen Tian had once expressed his affection for her—and she had turned him down.
Of course… deep down, she still believed Shen Yanzhou didn’t truly want her body. It was merely a test.
“Really?”
Shen Yanzhou seemed surprised by her answer, staring for a moment before asking again.
“Really.”
After saying that, Wu Ruyue finally felt a little relieved. The tightness in her chest eased. She didn’t know how else to make it up to him—but a woman’s purity was no small thing.
She had shown her sincerity.
“Heh…”
Shen Yanzhou suddenly chuckled. “Miss Wu, do you trust me that much?”
“Of course.”
Wu Ruyue frowned slightly, a little angry. This wasn’t the first time he had asked her that.
Did he really think she was that naïve?
No one who had trained on the frontier and walked the rivers and lakes could be so simple-minded.
“But what if I told you—I’ve been lying to you all along?” Shen Yanzhou interrupted her, meeting her eyes.
“What do you mean?”
Wu Ruyue froze.
“What if I told you… I’m not the heir of the Demon Suppression King—not the ‘Young Master Shen’ you think I am?”
He spoke each word slowly, his tone indifferent.
“What…”
Wu Ruyue stood there, stunned. Her mind went blank.
He wasn’t the heir of the Demon Suppression King? But that was something everyone in the capital knew!
Shen Yanzhou gently withdrew his wrist from her grasp. His voice turned cold. “From the very beginning, I’ve been deceiving you—using you. I’m not the humble, self-restraining heir you thought I was. The real heir… is someone else.”
“This…”
Wu Ruyue’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“The things you said to me that day at Yuxian Pavilion…” Her head spun.
“All lies,” Shen Yanzhou said calmly. “Even the so-called decree from the Demon Suppression King I gave you—it was forged. I was only using you.”
“That’s impossible…”
Wu Ruyue’s beautiful eyes trembled as she took several steps back.
He had to be joking—but his expression showed no hint of deceit.
The revelations came too fast, too shocking to believe.
“Young Master Shen, you’re lying to me… aren’t you?” she murmured.
“I’m not lying now.”
His voice was quiet, detached.
“Then… why?” Wu Ruyue whispered, confused.
“Why tell me all this now?”
“Because,” Shen Yanzhou said with a faint laugh, “I’ll be dead soon anyway.”
“Why?”
Wu Ruyue’s eyes widened in shock.
“Because I’m just a false heir. I have no value left.”
“I wanted to struggle, to fight fate, but in the end—fate only mocked me.” He smiled faintly, as though at peace.
Wu Ruyue forced herself to accept the truth.
After a long silence, she pieced it together.
If Shen Yanzhou was a false heir, then the real one was hidden somewhere in the shadows.
He was merely a puppet used to buy time for the true heir.
Wu Ruyue couldn’t help but say, “Even so, you’ve lived in the Prince’s Mansion for twenty years. With the Demon Suppression King’s sense of honor, he would surely save you, protect you.”
She thought Shen Yanzhou was simply despairing, believing the Prince’s Mansion had abandoned him.
And now, she finally understood why, back on Hidden Moon Mountain, Daoist Qingfeng and the other retainers had shown so little urgency to rescue him.
But at her words, Shen Yanzhou suddenly laughed—loudly, coldly. His eyes sharpened.
“Shen Jingxiao would save me? Protect me?”
“That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard this year. The righteous, loyal Demon Suppression King you admire so much—he’s nothing like what you imagine.”
“On the contrary, he’s a traitor to the throne—a usurper filled with ambition. He hid his real son away to raise in secret, while throwing me out front as a decoy in the capital. I was the scapegoat—the target of suspicion and assassination. He crippled my bones, forbade me from practicing martial arts, from even reading or writing, forcing me to bear every humiliation in silence.”
“He even feared I might live too long. So he planted a Nether Gu in me—letting it gnaw away at my life day and night for twenty years.”
“You think he’d protect me? No—he’s praying I die here, on Hidden Moon Mountain, at the hands of the so-called Nether Cult.”
Wu Ruyue stood frozen, completely stunned.
The sheer weight of what he said left her scalp tingling, her mind reeling.
So that was why Shen Yanzhou had viewed the Martial God’s inheritance as his only chance to defy fate.
…
The cave fell into deep silence.
Wu Ruyue’s chest ached—not from anger at being deceived, but from something else entirely.
Now that he had laid bare the truth, she only felt sorrow for him. There was even a trace of something she couldn’t name—perhaps pity.
To live as a false heir, a puppet—it must have been unbearable.
“Rest well. Tomorrow morning, the Bureau of Immortal Inspection and the Chilin Guards should arrive.”
Shen Yanzhou broke the silence first.
If he wished to win her complete loyalty, then revealing his true identity was a necessary step.
After all, he had deceived her—using a forged decree to trick her.
Sooner or later, she would have found out.
And with the bond between them now deepened, this was the perfect moment to tell her.
“All right.”
Wu Ruyue leaned lightly against a slab of blue stone, glancing at Shen Yanzhou as he sat by the fire with his eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
She closed her eyes as well, pretending to rest.
But that night, she couldn’t sleep at all.
Countless truths resurfaced in her mind, and the threads gradually connected.
Even without his saying, she already had her guesses about who the real heir was.
At dawn, they left the cave and made their way down Hidden Moon Mountain.
Perhaps because the Martial God’s inheritance had already been taken by Wu Ruyue, the wild beasts outside had quieted.
Through the thin mist, they followed the mountain path toward the outer ridge. The journey was calm, without danger.
“It’s Miss Wu.”
“And Young Master Shen!”
As they stepped out of the dense forest into a more open area of the mountain, a surprised voice called out—one of the Chilin Guards searching nearby had spotted them.