Chapter 601: Wu Shenyun: Shen Anyu, You Win!
Wu Shenyun's expression kept changing.
Indeed, Shen Anyu was right. Even she had knelt and submitted to Shen Anyu, which meant the Shaman God Cult was a subordinate force of Shen Anyu's subordinates. Her leverage was nonexistent.
To breach the contract she had so willingly sworn? The very thought was a poison that soured in her mouth. She, Wu Shenyun, the Southern Border Goddess, had always been a woman of her word. Her promises were iron, her integrity the bedrock of her existence. To go back on her oath now would be to shatter the very core of her being. She was not a treacherous snake who spoke with a forked tongue. Her initial plan had been to leverage other conditions, to offer treasures or favors, to persuade Shen Anyu to grant her a measure of leniency—to bend the terms, if not break them. But his gaze, that infuriatingly calm and knowing smile, told her everything. He would accept no substitute. He demanded nothing less than her complete and utter submission, exactly as promised. Since he would not yield, she had only one path left.
Wu Shenyun's phoenix eyes, usually sharp enough to cut through steel, now blazed with a desperate, conflicted fire as she stared directly at Shen Anyu, challenging his gaze with her own. For a fleeting, heart-stopping moment, a flicker of vulnerability—a sentiment so alien to her it felt like a betrayal—surfaced in their depths. It was a silent plea, a last-ditch hope that he might see the proud woman before him and relent, that he might show a sliver of mercy.
Shen Anyu, however, saw it all and remained utterly unmoved. His smile never wavered, a mask of casual amusement that offered no quarter, no hint of softening. He was a mountain, and her silent appeals were but a gentle breeze against its granite face.
"Alright, Shen Anyu, you win!" Wu Shenyun finally said, the words torn from her throat. She took a deep, shuddering breath, the air burning in her lungs as if filled with ash. After speaking that simple, devastating sentence, a strange calm washed over her. The tension that had held her body rigid for what felt like an eternity suddenly drained away, leaving her feeling hollow but strangely liberated. She lifted her head high, straightened her back, and the indomitable sharpness returned to her phoenix eyes, now tempered with the cold steel of acceptance.
"I, Wu Shenyun, accept my defeat!"
As her declaration echoed in the tense silence, Wu Shenyun began to walk toward Shen Anyu. Each step was a deliberate, monumental effort. The distance between them was a mere seven or eight meters, a gap she could cross in a single breath with her cultivation. Yet, now, it felt like a vast, yawning chasm. Each footfall was heavy, weighted down by the crumbling remnants of her pride and the crushing reality of her subjugation. The ground seemed to drag at her boots, the air thick and resistant, pressing in on her from all sides. It took her a full ten minutes to cross that short expanse, a torturous pilgrimage of surrender.
Shen Anyu did not rush her. He remained perfectly still, a predator watching its prey finally cease its struggle. A faint, almost imperceptible smile played on his lips as he observed every nuance of her expression—the clenching of her jaw, the subtle tremor in her hands, the storm of emotions warring within her magnificent eyes. He savored her torment, drinking it in like the finest wine. This was the true prize, not just the physical submission, but the breaking of an unbreakable will.
Only when she was standing directly before him could one truly appreciate the breathtaking masterpiece that was Wu Shenyun. Her face was an exquisitely sculpted oval, a canvas of flawless skin. Her brows were elegant arches above those mesmerizing phoenix eyes, and at the corner of one, a single tear mole rested like a speck of ink, adding a touch of poignant beauty to her sacred, noble, and imposing presence. Her chin was delicate, tapering slightly, and when combined with her full, crimson lips, she radiated an aura of glacial coldness that was inexplicably tinged with a deep, smoldering allure.
An ordinary man would crumble under her majestic pressure, his gaze falling to the floor, daring not to meet the eyes of a goddess. His spirit would be crushed, his will turned to dust. But Shen Anyu was no ordinary man. In his eyes, a woman of such power and stature ignited a firestorm of ambition, the heroic spirit of a conqueror echoing through his soul. He felt the phantom weight of a crown upon his head, the whispers of Caesar in his mind: 'Veni, vidi, vici!' I came, I saw, I conquered!
Queens, after all, were born to be conquered.
Wu Shenyun stopped less than half a meter from him. The space between them crackled with unspoken tension. She could smell the clean, masculine scent radiating from his body, a scent that was now inextricably linked to her defeat. Gritting her teeth so hard her jaw ached, she gathered what remained of her resolve, preparing to fulfill her vow. She bent her knees, the fabric of her clothing rustling like falling leaves. She was about to kneel.
"Wait," Shen Anyu's voice cut through the air, calm and unhurried. He stopped her.
Wu Shenyun's phoenix eyes instantly lit up. A wild, desperate hope surged within her. 'Is he… is he going to let me go?' Had her silent plea, her reluctant surrender, finally moved him?
But Shen Anyu simply pulled off his jacket. It was an expensive, high-end custom-tailored piece of formal wear, its dark fabric immaculate. With a casual flick of his wrist, he tossed it onto the ground in front of him, where it settled over the dirt and small stones like a shroud.
"There are pebbles on the ground. Your skin is delicate, it wouldn't be good if you bruised it," Shen Anyu said, his voice a gentle murmur that was a thousand times more insulting than any shout.
Wu Shenyun stared at him, then at the jacket. The hope that had flared within her moments ago was extinguished as if doused by ice water, leaving behind only the bitter taste of humiliation. "..."
She had gotten excited for nothing.
Bai Bing, who had been standing by, a silent and anxious spectator, had to turn her head slightly to hide the sudden, irresistible urge to laugh. Moments ago, her heart had been pounding in her chest, a frantic drumbeat of fear for Shen Anyu's safety. She had been fully prepared to die, her mind set with a firm resolve to charge forward and throw herself in front of Wu Shenyun's attack, to buy him a precious second to escape. In that critical, life-or-death instant, Bai Bing couldn't quite untangle the knot of her own feelings—was it a simple desire to repay his kindness, to settle the debt she owed him? Or had she, somewhere along the way, fallen in love with this infuriating, brilliant man and couldn't bear the thought of him dying? Perhaps it was both.
Later, when Shen Anyu had achieved his stunning victory, forcing the mighty Land Immortal to yield, she had breathed a sigh of relief so profound it left her dizzy, feeling as if a mountain had been lifted from her shoulders.
Bai Bing could see with perfect clarity what Shen Anyu was doing now. He wasn't just defeating Wu Shenyun; he was taming her. And watching it unfold, she felt an indescribable mix of resentment and displeasure. It was a possessive, territorial pang. If she weren't so weak, if she had the power, she would have been the one to imprison Shen Anyu, to put him in shackles and keep him for herself.
But now, looking at the once-powerful and majestic Land Immortal—the Southern Border Goddess herself—with that conflicted, hesitant, and utterly humiliated expression, she found the situation darkly hilarious. 'So what if you're a Land Immortal? You still have to submit at the feet of the stinky master!'
'The stinky master is so powerful,' Bai Bing thought, a sigh escaping her lips. 'It will be a long and arduous task to imprison him.' A flicker of determination ignited within her. Perhaps her only chance lay within the Main God Reincarnation Game. Only in that incredible, boundless space of Reincarnation could she hope to acquire power far beyond Shen Anyu's reach and finally achieve her audacious dream.
"Hmph~" At this moment, Wu Shenyun took another deep breath, glared hatefully at the smiling man before her, and once again prepared to kneel.
Shen Anyu's expression was one of pure, unadulterated pleasure. The corners of his mouth curved upwards in a triumphant arc as he drank in the scene. What could possibly invigorate a man's spirit more than this? Having a peerlessly beautiful Land Immortal, the revered Southern Border Goddess, the Venerable of the Shaman God Cult, kneel in submission before him? This was a conquest of the highest order.
Ding-a-ling!
Just as the moment reached its crescendo, the sharp, intrusive ring of a cellphone suddenly erupted from the pocket of Shen Anyu's trousers.
Wu Shenyun's movements instantly froze, her body locked in a half-kneeling posture. She looked up at Shen Anyu, a new flicker of hope in her eyes, praying for any turn of events that might postpone this ultimate humiliation.
Shen Anyu glanced down at her, then pulled the phone from his pocket. He looked at the caller ID, a name he had assigned to one of his assets, and raised his eyebrows slightly. He answered the call.
"Young Master, a strong individual intends to harm Miss Zhang Yaqian, suspected to be an Artificer True Person."
"Alright, I understand. Protect Zhang Yaqian first, investigate the situation thoroughly. If she's not in immediate danger, don't act rashly. Wait for me to arrive."
Shen Anyu hung up the phone. With a thought, he accessed the live feed from the nanometer monitoring robots he had placed on Zhang Yaqian; she was temporarily safe, surrounded by his hidden guards.
The caller just now was one of the elite assets Shen Anyu had dispatched to protect Zhang Yaqian—a female Martial Dao Grandmaster, a formidable warrior formed by combining the power and experience of ten System-generated Grandmaster guards. She was more than enough to protect Zhang Yaqian from most conventional threats.
The Destined Heroine, after all, wasn't that unlucky; she was shielded by the very will of the heavens. Unless she encountered another Child of Destiny, a fellow Destined Heroine, or a special existence like Bai Bing, she was practically immune to mortal danger. It would be hard for her to die even if the plane she was on fell out of the sky or if she jumped off a cliff. As long as her brother, Zhang Zhiyun, didn't foolishly pick up the Yin Corpse Devil Sword ahead of schedule and become estranged from everyone, Shen Anyu wouldn't even need to act personally.
Of course, a golden opportunity for a heroic rescue had just fallen into his lap. Shen Anyu would naturally not miss such a chance to score points and plunder destiny.
"You have a woman in danger. Do you want to go first?" Wu Shenyun said, her tone dripping with feigned considerateness. Being so close, her hearing as a Land Immortal was exceptional; she had naturally overheard the entire conversation.
Wu He and the other experts from the Shaman God Cult exchanged bewildered glances. Their expressions were strange, a mix of shock and disbelief. The Southern Border Goddess, who was always strong, domineering, and brutally decisive, had she ever been so considerate and thoughtful in her entire life? They still remembered her previous order: find a man in Hangzhou, a sprawling new first-tier city with tens of millions of people, with the only defining characteristics being that he was young and handsome. It was an impossible task, like looking for a single specific needle in a nation-sized haystack, and she had never once considered their difficulties.
But now, she was being far, far too considerate!
Shen Anyu looked at Wu Shenyun with a half-smile, his eyes glinting with amusement as he said leisurely: "Do you think that's possible?"
He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a low, mocking whisper. "How did I not know that the great Southern Border Goddess is such a person who likes to procrastinate?"
He straightened up, his smile vanishing, replaced by a look of cold command. "Kneel. Submit. Don't you want to honor your word?"
Wu Shenyun glared fiercely at Shen Anyu, her chest heaving with a wave of indignation. Finally, she spat out the words: "Alright, I'll honor it!"
At this moment, something within Wu Shenyun seemed to snap. She was no longer as sharp and domineering, nor was she aloof and indifferent, looking down on all beings from an untouchable pedestal. There was a touch of a young girl's anger and petulance in her voice, a raw emotion she hadn't displayed in centuries. Her life experience was deceptively simple: when she was young, her entire family was mercilessly slaughtered by the Blood Gu Sect. She fled alone into the deep mountains, stumbled upon the ancient inheritance of the Wu Sect, and began her long, solitary journey of Cultivation. Most of her life had been spent in secluded training, a cycle of meditation, breakthroughs, and consolidating her power.
Although she was not younger than Shen Anyu's Aunt An Zhiyue in chronological age, she actually had very little real-world social experience. It was just that her talent was too terrifying, and her strength grew so great, so quickly, that she never needed it. Why learn diplomacy or manipulation when a single move was enough to instantly kill any opponent and obliterate any obstacle?
Shen Anyu was the only man who had ever repeatedly made her suffer such profound setbacks. In the dream world of love he had crafted, she had lived and died through hundreds of Reincarnations, each one leaving an indelible, soul-deep mark upon her. And now, in the real world, just after she had broken through to the legendary Land Immortal stage, she had suffered another, even more crushing defeat.
Under Shen Anyu's half-smiling, expectant gaze, Wu Shenyun gritted her silver teeth and knelt straight down, her knees coming together with a soft thud, landing squarely on the expensive formal jacket he had laid out for her.
"I, Wu Shenyun, honor my promise and accept my defeat. Having lost, from today onwards, I submit to Shen Anyu. If there is a command, I dare not disobey. Through mountains of daggers and seas of fire, we shall share life and death!"
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