Chapter 462: I'll Fight For You To The End
By the bonfire, shadows intertwined.
The night passed in a flash.
Early the next morning, Ye Liyou nestled in Shen Anyu's embrace. The first rays of dawn painted the sky in soft shades of rose and gold, filtering through the dense canopy of the jungle. The air was cool and heavy with the scent of damp earth, salt from the nearby sea, and the fading, smoky perfume of the embers that still glowed faintly in the fire pit. She was cocooned in his warmth, her head resting on his solid chest, the steady, powerful rhythm of his heartbeat a soothing drum against her ear. Her jade hand, usually so steady whether holding a blade or a sniper rifle, now trembled slightly as she gently caressed Shen Anyu's face. His features, perfect and sharp, were softened by sleep. Her phoenix eyes, which had witnessed countless scenes of death and chaos without flinching, were now brimming with an affection so profound it felt like a physical ache.
She had to know. The uncertainty was a knot in her stomach, a stark contrast to the blissful exhaustion that hummed through her limbs. With a hesitant breath, she asked softly, her voice barely a whisper, laced with a trepidation she hadn't felt in years, "Senior… Liyou still doesn't know your name."
Even though her heart had long since surrendered, and every inch of her body was now intimately familiar with his, Ye Liyou still didn't know the name of the man who had shattered her world only to rebuild it.
A slow, lazy smile spread across Shen Anyu's lips as his eyes fluttered open. He didn't seem surprised by the question. He playfully captured a strand of her silky black hair, twisting it around his finger, the dark thread a stark contrast to his pale skin. His voice was a low, warm rumble that vibrated through her.
"I told you before," he said, his gaze locking with hers, "that destiny would bring us together again. And when it did, I would tell you my name."
He paused, letting the anticipation build, a flicker of amusement dancing in his dark eyes. "My surname is Shen. My given name is Anyu."
"Shen… Anyu," she repeated, the syllables feeling foreign yet perfect on her tongue. "Shen?" Ye Liyou looked at him, her eyes wide with curiosity, a thousand questions suddenly forming in her mind. The name felt significant, weighty.
Shen Anyu chuckled, a sound that was both charming and deeply confident. "The Shen of the Yanxia Shen Family."
The name hit her with the force of a physical blow. Ye Liyou's pretty face registered pure, unadulterated surprise. Even though she had operated abroad for many years, building her bloody reputation as the Blood Shadow Rose, the name of the Yanxia Shen Family transcended borders. They weren't just a powerful family; they were a towering force, a thousand-year-old aristocratic dynasty whose influence was deeply ingrained in Yanxia's history and power. They were legends.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place. No wonder this man, this 'Senior,' possessed such overwhelming Martial Dao cultivation at such a young age, a power comparable to the legendary state of Heavenly Human Unity. For a prodigy of the Yanxia Shen Family, such a feat wasn't just possible; it was almost expected. The initial shock quickly gave way to a wave of understanding.
But just as quickly, she dismissed it. Ye Liyou didn't care about his background. Her feelings were for Shen Anyu, the person—the man who had saved her, teased her, and then claimed her with a fierce passion that had set her soul alight. She had already fallen for him, completely and irrevocably. His status was irrelevant. As she'd told him before, all her wealth, the fortune she'd amassed through a career of violence and death, was his to use as he pleased.
And yet… a new anxiety began to coil in her heart. Thinking of him as a scion of the Yanxia Shen Family, Ye Liyou found herself pursing her lips. The cold, aloof Blood Shadow Rose, a top-tier assassin from the Dark Rankings who could kill a target from a mile away without her heart rate rising, felt an almost crippling sense of insecurity. A man with Shen Anyu's impossibly handsome looks, his god-like Heavenly Human cultivation, and a family background that could shake nations… he couldn't possibly be unattached, could he?
Her mind raced, picturing elegant ladies from equally prominent families, groomed from birth to be the perfect bride. Ye Liyou had heard that these ancient aristocratic families loved arranging marriages, forging alliances through unions that had nothing to do with love.
The thought sent a shard of ice through her.
But timidity was not in her nature. Hesitation was a fatal flaw in her line of work. She met his gaze directly, her voice regaining a sliver of its usual firmness. "Senior, are you married?"
Shen Anyu simply shook his head, the smile never leaving his eyes.
A brilliant, breathtaking joy erupted in Ye Liyou's heart, a feeling so potent it was almost painful. The relief was visible on her face, a radiant delight that made her look years younger, erasing the cold mask of the assassin. Hope, fierce and demanding, surged through her. She pressed on, her voice a little breathless.
"Senior, do you have a fiancée?"
Shen Anyu's handsome face broke into an even wider smile. He shook his head again, a gesture that sent another wave of euphoria crashing over her. "I don't need arranged marriages," he explained calmly. "So, I don't have a fiancée for now."
His parents, he elaborated, were very open-minded. They never pressured him to enter a political marriage to secure the family's interests. Besides, he added with a touch of casual arrogance that she found utterly intoxicating, the Yanxia Shen Family had reached a status where they no longer needed to forge alliances through such means. They were the alliance others sought.
Hearing that he didn't even have a fiancée, Ye Liyou felt light-headed with happiness. The world seemed sharper, the colors more vibrant. The knot of anxiety in her stomach completely dissolved, replaced by a bubbling, ecstatic hope. There was only one more hurdle. One final question.
"Senior…" she began, her phoenix eyes locking onto his, shining with raw, unguarded expectation. "Do you have a girlfriend then?"
If he didn't… if this perfect, powerful man was truly available, then she would not hesitate. She would become his girlfriend. She would claim him, just as he had claimed her.
At this, Shen Anyu fell silent. The playful smile on his face faded, replaced by a look of profound hesitation. He looked at Ye Liyou, his lips slightly parted as if he wanted to speak, but the words wouldn't come. His expression was a mask of pain and guilt.
Of course, he was acting.
The light in Ye Liyou's eyes instantly dimmed. Her soaring spirits plummeted, crashing back to earth with brutal force. The vibrant world faded back to gray. Of course. It was a stupid question. How could a man like him, a man so utterly magnificent, not have a girlfriend? She should have known. She should have prepared herself. The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating.
But then, the assassin reasserted herself. The Blood Shadow Rose had not survived this long by succumbing to despair. She took a deep breath, and a slow, deliberate smile bloomed on her pretty face. It was not the radiant smile of moments ago, but one of fierce, unyielding resolve. She met his guilty gaze without flinching.
"Senior," she asked, her voice steady and clear. "Do you like Liyou?"
Shen Anyu nodded without a moment's hesitation, his eyes sincere.
The smile on Ye Liyou's cold and beautiful face deepened, blooming with a dangerous, predatory beauty, like a mandrake flower—exquisite but deadly. "Then it's nothing," she declared, her voice ringing with newfound conviction. "Even if Senior has a girlfriend, Liyou will fight for you to the end."
If Shen Anyu had a wife or a fiancée bound by family law and ancient tradition, Liyou admitted to herself that she might have hesitated. For a moment. But ultimately, her decision would have been the same. She was a woman who took what she wanted, who carved her own path through the world with blood and steel.
But a mere girlfriend? That wasn't an obstacle. That was a target.
As a top-tier female assassin on the Dark Rankings, Ye Liyou was not without a sliver of kindness, but she was certainly not a woman bound by conventional morality. She loved fiercely and hated with equal passion.
'I didn't die in the plane crash,' she thought, a cold fire igniting in her soul. 'The heavens saved me and delivered me to him. Our destiny will not be denied. It will continue, and it will bear fruit.'
Her resolve was as hard as diamond.
A hint of a hidden smile flashed in the depths of Shen Anyu's eyes, gone as quickly as it appeared. He was thoroughly enjoying this. He idly wondered what kind of expression this determined, possessive woman would have if she were to ever see Second Senior Sister Liu Ruyan dressed in that provocative demon fox maid outfit.
The thought alone was highly entertaining.
Rumble!
Just then, the very ground beneath them shuddered. It was a deep, guttural tremor that vibrated up through the earth, shaking the trees and rattling their bones. From the surrounding forest, a massive flock of birds erupted into the sky, their panicked screeches tearing through the morning calm.
Ye Liyou's head snapped up, her expression shifting instantly from romantic determination to professional alertness. She saw a plume of dark, greasy smoke rising from the peak of the volcano in the distance. Her face paled slightly.
"Is the volcano about to erupt?"
This was an isolated island in the middle of the vast, unforgiving sea. If the volcano blew, there would be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
"It's alright. I'm here."
Shen Anyu's calm voice cut through her rising panic. He gently patted her fragrant shoulder, his touch steady and reassuring.
The tension immediately drained from Ye Liyou's body. She turned to look at him, her phoenix eyes filled with a soft, trusting tenderness. She was right. She wasn't alone anymore. She had a man she could rely on, a man whose power defied logic. With Senior's Heavenly Human strength, even a catastrophic volcanic eruption was probably just an inconvenience. At worst, they could simply walk across the sea to leave this place behind.
"I have a feeling there's something wrong with this volcano," Shen Anyu said, his gaze fixed on the smoking peak. "Let's go take a look."
Ye Liyou, of course, wouldn't refuse.
Shen Anyu's gaze was deep, his thoughts turning inward as he stared at the distant mountain. He hadn't been idle in the hours before he revealed himself to Ye Liyou. While walking three thousand li across the sea would have been a simple matter for him, he had spent that time conducting a meticulous search of this mysterious island.
He had suspected from the moment the plane went down that this island held an Opportunity, a hidden treasure or legacy waiting to be claimed. However, after several hours of sweeping the island with his spiritual sense, he had found nothing. No ancient ruins, no strange energy signatures, no hidden caves. He had even flown to the volcano and descended into its crater. It was dormant, holding a deep lake of crystal-clear water that was as still and silent as a mirror. Shen Anyu had searched the very depths of that lake and found absolutely nothing.
Had he guessed wrong? Was there no Opportunity here after all? Or perhaps, was it an Opportunity that could only be activated by a Child of Destiny, like the original protagonist, Ye Linyuan? If Shen Anyu hadn't intervened, it would have been that fool playing the hero and saving the beauty right now.
Hmph.
A cold snort escaped Shen Anyu's lips. He had played the Child of Destiny Ye Linyuan like a fiddle; he would not be thwarted by a mere Opportunity. If there was nothing here, so be it. But if there was something, he would not miss it. He would seize it. Besides, while the Child of Destiny Ye Linyuan was absent, the Destined Heroine, Ye Liyou, was right here in his arms. Perhaps she was the key.
Ah—
A soft, pained cry from Ye Liyou broke his train of thought.
"What's wrong?" Shen Anyu looked down at her, his expression one of genuine concern.
Ye Liyou's cold and beautiful face flushed an attractive shade of crimson. She shot him a glare with her phoenix eyes, a look that was both accusatory and shy. "My legs are weak," she whimpered. "I have no strength." She seemed to be blaming him for not being more gentle in his passions.
Shen Anyu raised an eyebrow, his eyes filling with a teasing smile.
Last night, by the flickering firelight, Ye Liyou had been unexpectedly passionate, her inhibitions shed as she took the initiative. Shen Anyu, naturally, hadn't held back. Ye Liyou's physique was comparable to a Martial Dao Grandmaster, strong and resilient, so he hadn't treated her like a fragile flower. The wild, untamed setting by the bonfire had only fueled his own unrestrained nature.
And now, this was the result.
The top-tier female assassin on the Dark Rankings, the infamous Blood Shadow Rose, didn't even have the strength to stand up on her own. The irony was delicious.
"I'll carry you," Shen Anyu said, bending down with that same easy smile.
Ye Liyou gave him another fierce glare, but there was no heat in it. She bit her lip, a shy, pleased expression softening her features. Wrapping her slender, jade-like arms around his neck, she settled onto his back. As he stood up effortlessly, a sweet, contented smile graced her lips. Clearly, she was happy in her heart.
Feeling the soft, delicate, and yet powerfully toned body pressed against his back, Shen Anyyu's mood was exceptionally pleasant. He began walking towards the dormant volcano, his pace unhurried, as if he were on a leisurely stroll through a park.
There was an old saying that looking at a mountain can exhaust a horse, implying that the perceived distance is always far shorter than the reality. But for a cultivator of Shen Anyu's level, such distances were meaningless.
In what felt like a short while, Shen Anyu carried Ye Liyou to the summit, standing on the rim of the volcano's crater.
Shen Anyu's gaze swept the area. Despite the tremor they had felt moments ago, the vast crater and the lake within it showed no abnormalities. Everything was as still and silent as it had been during his first inspection.
Just as Shen Anyu was about to descend and continue his investigation, Ye Liyou, who was looking over his shoulder down into the crater, suddenly gasped, her voice sharp with disbelief.
"How is that possible?"
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