Mu Hongyuan was speechless. She looked at Wang Mu, stunned, disbelief clear in her eyes.

"Impossible..." Mu Hongyuan shook her head. "Absolutely impossible. You couldn't have possibly known I was a woman at first glance. If you had, I should've realized it sooner... Unless..."

"Unless I pretended not to know," Wang Mu said slowly.

Actually, in the game, the protagonist truly didn't know. It was Wang Mu, as the player, who saw it at first glance. There was no helping it. Firstly, the player has a god's-eye view. Plus, this red-clothed young master was just too strikingly handsome. One look at the character portrait, and you'd instinctively know, ninety-nine percent of the time, that this was an incredibly beautiful girl. It was the kind of glance where you just felt this was your ideal 2D girl, disguised as a man. Of course, the protagonist in the game only found out after a whole series of events. Just like last time, what Wang Mu said wasn't just about the feelings of the game's protagonist. It was his own feelings as the player.

Hearing Wang Mu's answer, Mu Hongyuan's expression flickered, and she seemed genuinely shocked.

"Why... why would you pretend not to know?" Mu Hongyuan asked. "And how did you figure it out?"

"I didn't figure it out by looking."

"Then how..."

"A feeling," Wang Mu said with a slight smile. "That natural intuition, the kind of connection that feels like it spans lifetimes at first glance."

Mu Hongyuan was silent.

"As for why I pretended not to know..." Wang Mu thought for a moment. "Firstly, we weren't acquainted at the time, and you were disguised as a man for a reason. If I had revealed it, you might have felt compelled to kill me. Secondly, if I pretended not to know... perhaps I'd have a chance to get closer to Sister Mu later on. After all, it's much easier to become like brothers or friends than to become lovers."

Mu Hongyuan remained silent.

"Don't tell me that later on..." Mu Hongyuan said in a low voice.

"Exactly. After our encounter in the ruined temple, you only taught me the Four Seasons Yin Yang Palm then," Wang Mu said. "If I hadn't pretended not to know, you would never have trusted me enough to teach me."

This was actually the player's strategic mindset.

Mu Hongyuan squinted. "So, from that moment on, you started plotting against me, Sister?"

"No, not plotting," Wang Mu corrected. "I was thinking about how to get closer to you, Sister."

"You seem to have said something similar to Heroine Yan before. Quite impressive. Back then, didn't you say you'd even thought of a name for your child with her? What, have you thought of one here too?"

Wang Mu shook his head. "It's different. Heroine Yan, to me, is like a star in the sky—visible, but forever out of reach. But when you, Sister, appeared back then, saving me and teaching me such profound Martial Arts... you were a ray of light in my life." Wang Mu sighed. "That light is warm and touchable, not just something to be seen from afar, forever unreachable."

"Later on..." Wang Mu said in a low voice, "So, when you, Sister, assumed the identity of Xue Hong and entered my Leisure Cloud Valley... No... when you pretended to be pursued by men in black, and I encountered you... you designed that scenario deliberately. In fact, I knew at first glance... that it was Mu Hongxue. It was you, Sister."

Hearing this, Mu Hongyuan's face flushed slightly. Her hand clenched the grass mat, tugging at it twice before she snorted coldly. "You saw through it? You think you're so clever, do you? True, back in the ruined temple, I already noticed you were exceptionally sharp and quick-witted. So you saw through it, so what?"

"The moment I realized..." Wang Mu continued, "I initially thought you had come for me, Sister. Only after some thought did I understand that you must have had other motives. With your Martial Arts Realm, you had no need to join Leisure Cloud Valley, so there had to be a reason."

"And later, it turned out just as I expected." This was also the player's speculation when first trying to win over Mu Hongyuan. Coming under an alias definitely meant there was a hidden agenda.

"So, later, when I stole your Master's Carefree Divine Skill and found you, your pretense of being shocked to discover I was that Master Mu... that was also an act?" Mu Hongyuan pulled a slender stalk from the grass mat and viciously snapped it in two. "You brat..."

This gave her a feeling of being completely played by him. And to think... that scoundrel had been scheming against her even back then?

"Yes, it was an act," Wang Mu admitted.

"And later, when you let me go, releasing a thief who had stolen her sect's Divine Skill..." Mu Hongyuan narrowed her eyes. "Don't you feel any guilt towards your Master, towards Leisure Cloud Valley?"

"Of course, I felt guilty," Wang Mu said. "My Master punished me afterward, and I accepted it. As for letting you go, Sister, I felt at the time that if you were risking so much to steal the Carefree Divine Skill, it must have been a desperate, life-or-death situation for you, or perhaps not something you truly wished to do. You must have had your reasons."

Indeed, in that game scenario, if Mu Hongyuan hadn't successfully stolen the Carefree Divine Skill, or if the protagonist had abandoned that storyline and not let her go, then Mu Hongyuan would have ended up as an enemy of Piaomiao Palace. Or, she might not have appeared at all, having been dealt with by Piao Miaoxu. In any case, the outcome wouldn't have been good.

"Hmph." Mu Hongyuan turned away, seemingly unwilling to face Wang Mu. "Then, that later incident at Xin Wang's Tomb... you did that on purpose, didn't you? You knew you wouldn't die, so you pushed me forward to make me feel indebted and guilty towards you?"

"Quite the scheme. By then, you already possessed the Heavenly Poison Scripture and were already involved with that girl Bi You, weren't you?"

Wang Mu was silent.

"No..." Wang Mu shook his head. "Actually... when I left the mountain, I already knew that you, Sister, would definitely seek me out for Xin Wang's Tomb."