Chapter 463: The Son-in-Law of the Sword Palace
Looking at Ye Liyou's cold, delicate face, filled with surprise and uncertainty, Shen Anyu's eyes flickered slightly as he asked with a light laugh, "What's wrong? Liyou, why are you so surprised?"
The air on the volcano's peak was thin and carried the sharp tang of salt and ancient sulfur. Ye Liyou, who had been relaxed and pliant against him moments before, had stiffened almost imperceptibly. Her gaze was fixed, not on the vast ocean view, but on something much closer. She hesitated, her lips parting and closing before she found her voice. Looking up at Shen Anyu, the uncertainty in her eyes gave way to a firm resolve.
"Senior," she said, her tone serious and unwavering, "I found some traces that shouldn't appear on this volcanic island."
Even though their bodies had been intertwined in the most intimate ways possible, she still addressed him as 'Senior.' It wasn't just a sign of respect for his power; it had become her unique term of endearment, a private name that held the weight of their first encounter and everything that followed.
Shen Anyu followed her gaze. His eyes, which could pierce through illusions and perceive the flow of qi, settled on a pile of scattered rocks a short distance away. He had already scanned this area meticulously upon their arrival. The stones were massive, each one a jagged pillar of black volcanic rock nearly ten feet tall, scarred by millennia of wind and rain. They were strewn about in a seemingly random, chaotic cluster, like teeth knocked from the jaw of a giant. He had probed them with his spiritual sense, searching for the tell-tale hum of a formation array, the subtle click of a hidden mechanism, or the faintest residue of true essence. He'd found nothing. They were just rocks, inert and unremarkable.
But Ye Liyou's reaction told him he had missed something fundamental. The focused intensity in her phoenix eyes was that of a predator who had stumbled upon the tracks of its own kind in a foreign land.
Sensing his confusion, she leaned closer, her voice a soft murmur against his ear. "Senior, this is a unique arrangement of my sect. It's not a mechanism, but a hint. It's normal that you couldn't tell."
Shen Anyu's brows, which had furrowed in thought, relaxed. He turned his head slightly, his interest genuinely piqued. "Your sect?"
"Mm." A flicker of profound pride ignited in her cool eyes, warming her entire expression. It was a deep, ancestral pride that ran through her very bones. "Liyou's sect is the Sword Palace, which has been passed down for a thousand years. The Lord of the Sword Palace five hundred years ago, Lin Xuanyan, was a Martial Dao myth in Yanxia. His legend is etched into the very soul of our nation's martial history. He entered the Land Immortal Realm through the Way of the Sword, becoming the undisputed number one person in the world at that time."
Shen Anyu offered a faint, knowing smile. He knew all of this, of course. He also knew the hilarious cosmic irony that this deified Land Immortal, Lin Xuanyan, had been reincarnated as the unfortunate protagonist Ye Linyuan. The very same Ye Linyuan who was currently being re-educated, enjoying a thorough curriculum of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, and manual labor, happily drowning in an ocean of exam papers.
Ye Liyou, oblivious to his thoughts, was lost in the glory of her heritage. Her sense of belonging to the Sword Palace was a fierce, burning loyalty. "Later, the Sword Palace went into seclusion, but its legacy never faded. It continued to produce generations of prodigies. The current sect Master and my Senior Sister, Pei Changli, is known as the Female Sword Immortal, Fairy Pei. She's a true genius who stepped into the Heavenly Human Realm at an astonishingly young age. They say she once single-handedly faced three Heavenly Human masters from the Martial God Hall and forced them into a full retreat."
At this point, her gaze shifted, and the reverence she held for her Senior Sister was eclipsed by something far more potent: adoration. Her beautiful eyes locked onto Shen Anyu, shimmering with a soft, admiring light. "Senior, you are even younger than my Senior Sister Pei Changli, and you've also reached the peak of the Heavenly Human Realm. If she ever met you, I think she would feel a sense of kinship, a deep respect. She would surely consider you a kindred spirit."
A strange, predatory smile touched Shen Anyu's lips. His mind, ever the calculating machine, immediately spun out the scenario. 'A kindred spirit?' He mused inwardly. What exactly would he say when he finally crossed paths with this legendary Female Sword Immortal, Pei Changli?
He could already picture it. The meeting would be beneath a moonlit pagoda or in a misty bamboo forest. She would be as cold and remote as her title suggested, her hand resting on the hilt of a legendary blade. And he would approach, his smile disarmingly charming, and say in a soft, reasonable tone:
"Fairy Pei, you wouldn't want the Sword Palace's thousand-year legacy to be destroyed, now would you?"
How would she respond? He could almost taste her shock, her righteous fury. The icy facade would crack, her eyes blazing with killing intent. 'Shen Anyu, you dare?' she might hiss. The thought sent a jolt of pure, villainous pleasure through him. It was a game he never tired of playing.
"Senior, come over here."
Ye Liyou's voice pulled him from his delightful internal theatrics. Still resting against his back, she raised a slender, jade-like hand and pointed, guiding him toward a higher point on the volcano's summit. He moved with effortless grace, her light weight nothing to him, his feet sure on the crumbling, porous rock.
After he adjusted their position a few times under her precise direction, stepping left, then forward a pace, she finally spoke. "There. Look down."
Shen Anyu's gaze followed her instruction, and his eyes immediately narrowed. The world seemed to tilt on its axis.
A look of vindicated triumph, of 'I knew it,' bloomed on Ye Liyou's cold, delicate face. A genuine smile touched her lips. "Senior, look. From this exact angle, don't those scattered rock piles look like a long sword being swung? You can even see the afterimages of its arc."
The change was staggering. What had been a meaningless jumble of volcanic pillars was now a breathtaking work of art, a sculpture of pure kinetic energy frozen in time. The rocks formed the distinct shape of a massive broadsword caught mid-swing, its trajectory leaving ghostly afterimages etched into the landscape itself.
"This is the sixth style of my Sword Palace's unique technique, the Sky Sword Nine Styles," she announced, her voice filled with the weight of her heritage. "Azure Dragon Dividing the Sea!"
Shen Anyu stared, his mind processing the sheer scale and ingenuity of the display. It was magnificent. The arrangement of boulders perfectly captured the awe-inspiring power of the technique—the coiling strength, the explosive release, the unstoppable momentum. It truly looked as if a colossal Azure Dragon had burst forth from the ocean to cleave the very island in two.
"Liyou, what kind of hint is this?" Shen Anyu turned his head, his lips brushing against her temple as he spoke. He gently kissed her cool, delicate skin. She had said it wasn't a mechanism, but a hint. A message left by an ancestor for those with the eyes to see.
A soft pink flush crept up Ye Liyou's neck and bloomed across her cheeks. The unexpected kiss left her feeling a little dazed, her heart skipping a beat. Despite her momentary distraction, she didn't hesitate or hide anything, readily revealing a secret that would have other sect disciples executed for treason.
"There is a high possibility of treasure in the lake at the top of this dead volcano. According to the starting point of the sixth move, Azure Dragon Dividing the Sea… the entrance should be right there!"
Following the direction of her pointed finger, Shen Anyu's gaze fell upon the crater lake. He had given it a cursory look earlier. It was an eerie, unnaturally still body of water. He remembered noticing numerous long, narrow cracks at its bottom, fissures that seemed to connect directly to the deep sea below. It was peculiar, but he had found no energy fluctuations and had moved on.
It seemed there were other mysteries hidden within.
"A Sword Palace treasure?" Shen Anyu asked, his lips curving into a playful smile. "Then, as an outsider, is it convenient for me to go and see?"
Ye Liyou bit her lower lip, a nervous but determined habit. She pressed herself more firmly against his broad, powerful back, drawing strength and courage from the solid wall of his muscle and his commanding presence. Her delicate face flushed a deeper crimson as she spoke, her voice a soft, breathy whisper that was for his ears alone.
"You are the son-in-law of the Sword Palace. You are not an outsider."
The declaration hung in the air, a vow as binding as any oath sworn in a grand hall.
She rushed to justify her decision, perhaps as much for herself as for him. "This treasure has been here for who knows how many years. If we hadn't arrived here by a twist of fate, it might have remained lost forever." Her voice grew steadier, more confident. "Since that's the case, then its discovery is our destiny. It belongs to us."
"Let's go and see," Shen Anyu said, his tone casual, but his mind was sharp with satisfaction.
As expected, he thought. Ye Liyou was a woman who dared to love and dared to hate. Once she committed, she held nothing back. Her loyalty was absolute, and for him, she would willingly betray her sect without a second thought. He briefly compared her to the others. If it were Zhong Lingyin, she would certainly be torn, hesitant, and indecisive for a long while before ultimately, reluctantly, agreeing. If it were that simple-minded Yang Luoluo, who had only her 'Master Brother' in her heart, she wouldn't even think to refuse. And as for Liu Ruyan? That seductive enchantress was all bark and no bite, completely and utterly under his control.
With a thought, Shen Anyu's true essence surged. A faint, golden shield of Protective Aura materialized, enveloping both of them in a warm, shimmering bubble. Without another word, they plunged into the crater lake.
The water was shockingly cold, but the golden aura repelled it completely, creating a pocket of warm, dry air. Both of them possessed extraordinary cultivation, so even as the sunlight rapidly faded and the lake's depths descended into murky twilight, their vision remained as clear as if it were broad daylight.
Before long, they touched down on the silty bottom. Just as he recalled, a dark, narrow fissure split the lakebed, leading down into an even deeper, more profound darkness.
"Senior, this is it. Let's go in."
Shen Anyu didn't hesitate, swimming directly into the maw of the crack. The passage was tight, the rock walls slick with algae.
"Senior, this way."
Ye Liyou, still clinging comfortably to his back, smiled and raised her hand, pointing out the correct path within the submerged labyrinth. She suddenly felt a wave of profound contentment wash over her. This moment felt incredibly warm, incredibly safe.
She had known Shen Anyu for less than twelve hours, yet in that short time, she had smiled more than she had in the past several years combined. In the shadowy circles of the international underground, Blood Shadow Rose was a name whispered with fear and awe. She was famous for her cold, detached demeanor, a renowned ice queen who killed without a flicker of emotion.
But even the coldest beauty melts in the arms of the man she loves. And if she doesn't melt, well, friction generates heat.
In truth, Ye Liyou had already recovered most of her strength. She was, after all, a powerhouse on the very brink of breaking through to the Martial Dao Grandmaster Realm. Even if Da Shao hadn't cherished her, tormenting her relentlessly through the night, her legs wouldn't still be weak.
She simply liked the feeling of lying on Shen Anyu's back. She felt she could stay there for a lifetime.
[Ding! Detected destiny value +1 for Destined Heroine Ye Liyou, plundering +3000 destiny value!]
Shen Anyu, of course, noticed that she had no intention of getting up. But only a fool would point it out. The soft, supple weight on his back was an extremely pleasant sensation.
Following Ye Liyou's continuous guidance, they navigated the underwater maze. The path wasn't straight; it twisted and turned, mimicking the fluid, dazzling sword-art of the Azure Dragon Dividing the Sea. They banked sharply left in a wide arc, tracing the dragon's coil, then plunged straight down in a narrow tunnel, simulating the sword's unstoppable thrust. The terrain inside this dead volcano was impossibly complex, a web of countless cracks and passages.
If an ordinary person were to try and search this place, they would likely spend a lifetime here and find nothing but a watery grave.
"Senior, we've arrived!"
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