The wind from Heavenly Sword Peak rustled the pear tree branches.
Footsteps sounded outside.
Shen Mo lifted his face from between his knees.
Qin Shuying’s gaze, like a blade forged in ice, pinned him in place.
“Su Wan’er has come out of seclusion.” Her voice was colder than the night wind.
Those five words exploded like thunder in Shen Mo’s mind.
He shot to his feet, his face instantly turning deathly pale.
“What?”
“I just got the news.” Qin Shuying stopped in front of him.
“You…” His Adam’s apple bobbed, his voice trembling. “Did you tell her?”
“No need.” Qin Shuying stepped closer, the sound of her scabbard tapping the ground like a death knell.
“She found out on her own—your body is covered in my aura.”
Shen Mo looked down at his collarbone. The faint pink marks were glaringly obvious.
The Ice Soul Jade at his waist glowed with a deep blue light.
Even the hem of his robes was entangled with her crisp sword cultivator aura.
These were all flaws.
He stood up abruptly, staggering from the emotional turmoil.
Forgetting all decorum, he grabbed Qin Shuying’s sleeve.
“Wan’er… if she sees I’m not there, she’ll get suspicious! I… I can’t let her know… can’t let her find this place!”
Shen Mo lunged and seized her wrist, like a deer cornered by a hunter.
“I need to go back to Jiaoyue Peak, return to her side, just like before, be her husband. Between us… let’s pretend nothing ever happened! I promise, I won’t say a word! Please!”
His knuckles turned white from the force. “Can you… erase all these traces?”
“Erase the traces?” She repeated, her voice flat.
“Yes!” Shen Mo nodded frantically. “You have a way, don’t you? You must have a way—a high-grade Purification Spell would do it!”
Qin Shuying frowned and shook her hand, but he held on even tighter.
“Let you go back?”
“Yes!”
Qin Shuying looked at him.
She looked for a long time.
Then, she smiled.
That smile was different from usual, carrying an indescribable meaning—excitement, anticipation, the satisfaction of finally reaching this day—
Contentment.
“Shen Mo.” She spoke, her voice lowering. “I’ve waited a long time for this day.”
Shen Mo froze.
“What?”
Qin Shuying reached out and gently touched his face.
That face was still so handsome, even now when it was a mess of panic. It remained the face that made her heart stir.
“Su Wan’er.” She spoke the name, a complex light flickering in her eyes. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for this day?”
Shen Mo’s mind went blank.
“From the day I saw you at the marketplace, I thought to myself: one day, I’ll make her watch,” Qin Shuying’s thumb lightly brushed his lips, “and see whose person you are.”
Shen Mo’s heart sank heavily.
“I, Qin Shuying, have never given away someone I like.”
“No…” His voice trembled. “You can’t…”
“I can’t?” Qin Shuying let out a laugh. “Why can’t I?”
She released him, stepped back, and looked him up and down.
“She married you and then left you on that cold peak for seven years. Did she ever spend a single day with you? Did she ever step up to protect you when you were in danger?”
Shen Mo’s eyes reddened.
“She didn’t,” Qin Shuying answered for him. “She never did anything.”
“That’s between her and me!” Struck in his sore spot, Shen Mo was both anxious and furious, lashing out without thinking.
“You have no right to judge! You… you took advantage of my vulnerability, forcibly imprisoned me, and did… such unspeakable things…”
“I took advantage?” A storm gathered in Qin Shuying’s eyes.
She stepped forward until she was almost face-to-face with him.
“If not for me, that demoness would have swallowed you bones and all! If not for me, would you even be standing here arguing with me? Shen Mo, put your hand on your heart and ask yourself: these past few days, was it all my coercion? Did you not sink into it for even a moment? Did you not respond at all? Your body was quite honest!”
The blatant humiliation struck Shen Mo’s heart like a whip.
His face flushed red and white, trembling with rage and shame. “I am her husband! Her legally wedded husband! I married her! In this life, I—”
“This life?” Qin Shuying cut him off, her gaze turning cold. “Are you going to spend this life guarding someone who never cared about you?”
Shen Mo opened his mouth but couldn’t speak.
Seeing him like this, the fire in Qin Shuying’s heart burned hotter.
“Shen Mo,” she said, each word deliberate, “I’m going to make her see for herself what she missed out on these seven years.”
“No…”
“I’m going to make her understand: what she didn’t want, I want.”
“You can’t do this…” Shen Mo’s voice was hoarse. “You can’t…”
Qin Shuying suddenly grabbed the back of his neck and pressed him against the pear tree trunk.
Her aura bore down on him like an impenetrable net. “There’s nothing I can’t do.”
Then, unhurriedly, she took a bottle of medicinal liquid from her storage ring, dipped her fingertip in it, and to Shen Mo’s face, began to smear it on the most visible bite mark on his neck.
Shen Mo’s entire body went rigid; he dared not move.
“Once this Soul Locking Liquid is applied, the traces won’t fade—they’ll become even brighter, like blooming plum blossoms.”
Her tone was as gentle as if she were reciting a love poem, but the content plunged Shen Mo into an icy abyss.
“And it will lock in your body scent. No matter how many times you bathe, all Su Wan’er will smell is me.”
“You’re crazy! You’re insane!!” Shen Mo shook his head wildly, trying to dodge her hand, but her spiritual power suppressed him completely. “Why are you doing this to me! I just want to live in peace!”
Shen Mo struggled, but she tightened her grip. “Do you know who Su Wan’er is? She’s the Bright Moon Peak Lord! If she finds out I’ve been involved with you—”
A husband who transgressed would be divorced at best and have his cultivation crippled; at worst, he would be thrown into the heavenly prison, never to rise again.
For the partner of a peak master, the rules were even stricter. Even if Su Wan’er killed him, it would be justified.
But in the face of strength, all punishment was meaningless.
“With me protecting you, what are you afraid of?” Qin Shuying’s fingertip traced the teeth marks on his collarbone, the pressure as heavy as if she were carving into his bone.
In this female-dominated world, openly stealing another woman’s husband could never end well for the matriarch.
Shen Mo’s pupils contracted. “You want to fight her to the death?”
“What else?” Qin Shuying released him, stepped back half a step to straighten her sleeves, and regained the cold pride of the Tianjian Peak Master. “I’ll sign a Life-and-Death Contract with her, settle it in battle, and win the beauty.”
“Who do you think you are?” Shen Mo suddenly roared. “What gives you the right to decide for me? What gives you the right to treat me like your trophy?”
He grabbed the Ice Soul Jade from the ground and threw it at her. “You gave me this? Now I don’t want it! I just want to go back to the way things were! Even if it was lonely, even if it was stifling, at least… at least I knew what I was supposed to do!”
Qin Shuying caught the Ice Soul Jade, rubbing her thumb over its patterns. “The way things were?”
She sneered. “Back then, you didn’t even dare to cry out loud, afraid that people would say you weren’t virtuous. Back then, when Yun He assaulted you, you had to swallow your anger. Back then, you risked your life for Chao’er, but didn’t dare to say a single word about being worried—is that the life you want?”
“Shen Mo.” She walked up to him, reached out, and pulled him into her arms.
Shen Mo’s whole body stiffened, but he didn’t resist.
He no longer had the strength to resist.
“Don’t be afraid.” Qin Shuying’s voice sounded in his ear, low, with a sickly sweetness. “After today, you’ll be mine. Properly and openly, and no one will take you away.”