“The auspicious hour has arrived, the Saintess should board the bridal sedan.”
The junior disciple of Profound Jade Sect slowly pushed open the wooden door.
However, before she could even hand over the red bridal veil in her hands, her entire body froze on the threshold.
“Someone come quick! The Saintess has hanged herself!”
The junior disciple’s scream split the morning mist wide open.
A strip of white silk hung from the beam, and beneath it dangled a figure.
Bai Yao, the fourteen-year-old Saintess of Profound Jade Sect, was gently swaying in midair, her toes three inches off the ground, eyes rolled upward, tongue lolling out.
Warm moisture could even be seen dripping from her toes.
The white silk was cut down by the frantic hands of servant disciples who rushed in carrying a ladder, and the girl’s body crashed heavily onto the hardwood floor.
Bai Yao opened her eyes and instantly began coughing from oxygen deprivation, every breath scraping her throat with burning pain.
Several old men in cyan Daoist robes quickly gathered around her.
They didn’t check her pulse, nor did they feed her any pills. Instead, they first patted the dust off their sleeves.
“Good, as long as she’s not dead yet.” The Law Enforcement Elder stroked his beard, his gaze utterly devoid of warmth. “Bai Yao, if you just up and left, that’d be convenient for you, but what about us old bones?”
“Profound Jade Sect’s debt to the upper sect has been dragged on for three years now.”
The Alchemy Hall Elder chimed in.
“Chivalrous Manor is willing to settle our accounts for us, and Old Chivalrous King’s condition is that our sect’s Saintess marry into the family. Since you are our sect’s Saintess, having eaten the sect’s offerings for three years, you still want to die at a time like this? Doesn’t your conscience ache?”
Bai Yao leaned against the ice-cold pillar, her chest heaving violently, the memories in her mind churning like a muddled paste.
In her previous life, he had been both a top-tier scholar and a veteran otome game player.
After finishing his thesis, he’d been planning to continue pursuing his beloved 2D waifu, but then he stayed up all night grinding the game, and just… died.
The sudden transmigration had left her dangling from that beam, nearly getting reborn a second time.
“Elder, you mean…”
Bai Yao cleared her throat, not even having had time to be surprised at becoming a sect’s Saintess.
“The sect is about to be swallowed by the upper sect due to bankruptcy, so you’re using me as a lifeline and marrying me off to Chivalrous Manor?”
The Law Enforcement Elder paused, his brow furrowing slightly.
Clearly, he hadn’t expected her to use such wording.
“Bankruptcy?! This is a marriage alliance! This is Profound Jade Sect’s grace!”
He let out a cold laugh.
“Xiao Yi, the young master of Chivalrous Manor, is dashing and romantic, a royal prince of the mortal realm of Xuan Kingdom. Countless people are dying to marry into that family. You’ve gotten a bargain, so why the sour face?”
Bai Yao nearly laughed out of anger: “Elder, even if Chivalrous Manor is royalty, they’re still mortal powers. We are a cultivation sect…”
The Alchemy Hall Elder’s face darkened, clearly growing irritated: “How insolent! The Dao of cultivation must not interfere in mortal governance—this is an iron law of Xuan Kingdom, and an iron law of the world. The Sect Master has already settled this matter with Old Chivalrous King. If you refuse the marriage and flee, the law demands your execution. And others will say Profound Jade Sect broke its word, making the sect lose face throughout Nanling Yunzhou. Do you think you can face the ancestors of Profound Jade Sect?”
“Forget the fact that I’m aå ‚å ‚ man who just transmigrated and is now being told to get married… why do these old bastards all talk in such a grating way?”
Bai Yao cursed inwardly, but could only push herself up from the floor.
Her knees were still weak, yet she stood tall, and lowered her voice: “I understand… I’ll marry. This disciple won’t disappoint the sect’s nurturing…”
The Law Enforcement Elder let out a sigh of relief, though his eyes seemed to see not a living person, but a bad debt that could finally be settled.
“Good, good. As they say, a wise man adapts to circumstances. Go change into your bridal gown—the sedan is already waiting outside the mountain gate.”
Bai Yao ignored them, turning and walking behind the folding screen.
While changing, she felt her lower abdomen. Her dantian was completely empty.
Aside from the Qi Condensation technique from Profound Jade Sect stored in her mind, she had neither true qi nor any other innate talent—only the fragile flesh and blood of a mortal.
“Damn it… am I really the sect’s Saintess? With this four-attribute mixed spiritual root that’s even missing one of the five elements?”
Bai Yao’s mood nearly sank to the bottom of a cold, dark lake.
Never mind that she had zero interest in being a girl, and never mind that she had to get married right away—she could tolerate all that.
But the one thing that could change her fate, her cultivation talent, was this pathetic.
Yet she only took a deep breath, quickly organizing the original owner’s remaining memories.
Chivalrous Manor possesses a family heirloom technique: [Purple Yang Grand Harmony Art].
Legend has it that it’s a fragmentary scroll left by a great Sage of the Confucian Sect.
Even the most talentless mortal could potentially transcend the mundane and enter immortality by cultivating it.
As the legitimate wife, she naturally held the right to inherit her husband’s family’s orthodox technique.
Based on the original owner’s residual memories, this technique could grant three years of entry access to the [Cangjie Grotto-Heaven] within Xuan Kingdom’s borders.
That was the only immortal secret realm in the mortal lands of Xuan Kingdom within Nanling Yunzhou. Entry conditions were harsh, but the resources were overflowing with wealth.
“Tch… so this isn’t me marrying down at all. This is basically a legal ticket to milk immortal resources.”
Bai Yao stared at the pitiful fourteen-year-old girl’s face in the bronze mirror.
It was one of the beautiful girl types she’d loved most in her previous life—but it was about to be ruined by this sordid transaction.
Suona horns pierced through the mountain gate, blasting to the heavens.
The tune was cheerful, yet carried a chill like a funeral procession.
The bridal sedan traveled south, passing through Chuyi City, the largest city in Xuan Kingdom’s mortal realm.
Crowds had long since packed both sides of the streets.
Mortal commoners, low-rank rogue cultivators, even wealthy merchants in silk robes.
But these people, who’d come to witness Chivalrous Manor’s wedding festivities, paid no attention to Bai Yao in the sedan at all. Instead, their gazes were all fixed on a tall building across the street.
There stood Liu Linglin, the Saintess of the Joyous Union Sect.
She was leaning against the railing, her thin, translucent crimson gauze dress making her graceful curves tantalizingly visible.
Seeing Bai Yao’s sedan pass by, she sat down and placed her hands on a zither.
The melody that drifted out was elegant yet rich with romance and allure—it was unmistakably a piece called [Bronze Sparrow Terrace].
The music and the flowing glances of her eyes complemented each other perfectly.
Who needs the Two Qiao beauties of Jiangdong to dwell deep in the Bronze Sparrow Terrace? Liu Linglin alone is more than enough.
“Saintses Liu is a living Bodhisattva descended to earth.”
A plump cultivator at the Hundred Tempering stage trembled with excitement.
“Yesterday at the southern part of the city, she was handing out congee, casually doling out over a hundred taels of silver, and even personally massaged an old cultivator’s legs and shoulders.”
“Exactly! This isn’t the Joyous Union Sect at all—it’s the Jade Maiden Sect!”
A young man dressed as a scholar chimed in, waving his folding fan, his gaze drifting toward the building.
“Saintess Liu said it herself: cultivation is about going with the flow. Dual cultivation is the grand Dao of heaven and earth! Those who keep clutching their collars and prattling about purity and desirelessness are all hypocrites, ruining the harmony of yin and yang.”
“Exactly. That thing Profound Jade Sect sent over, calling her a Saintess?”
A vendor spat, his face full of contempt.
“I heard she doesn’t even dare wear a dress that shows her shoulders. Walks around with a sour face all day like a wooden post. Marrying a woman like that, there’s not even any fun at night. Pure loss of appetite. That poor young master of our Chivalrous Manor!”
“I don’t know what Old Chivalrous King was thinking. Marrying her is Chivalrous Manor’s greatest misfortune for eight generations.”
The plump cultivator echoed, his tone full of regret.
“If you ask me, the young master should just marry Saintess Liu directly. Now that would be romantic and thrilling—that’s what a true Saintess looks like!”
Raucous laughter erupted across the street.
Countless gazes swept over the bridal sedan like it was trash, then quickly glued themselves back to the crimson figure on the high building.
A corner of the sedan curtain was lifted by the wind, and Bai Yao heard every single word.
Her first reaction was shock at this world’s value system, and then she suddenly found it rather amusing.
“Whoever provides emotional value becomes the cherished jewel pursued by thousands. Whoever holds to rules and principles becomes the fool everyone spits on. Isn’t this exactly like my internet-surfing habits in my last life?”
Bai Yao’s face was full of helplessness, but for now, all she could do was helplessly complain.
“Saintess…”
The matchmaker outside the sedan whispered through the curtain,
“Up ahead is Chivalrous Manor’s main street. The young master’s bridal procession… is waiting.”
Bai Yao opened her eyes, and there was not a trace of a bride’s shyness in them.
“Let’s go.”
She said calmly.
“Time to meet my dear husband.”
The bridal sedan stopped before Chivalrous Manor’s vermilion gates.
No red carpet, no firecrackers—only two rows of sword-bearing guards, cold light glinting off their blades.
Outside the curtain, a man in dark martial robes dismounted from his horse.
A standard-issue long saber hung at his waist.
He raised his head toward the sedan, his eyes carrying undisguised contempt.
“I am Zhao Qi. The young master says the hour has not yet come, so Saintess Bai will wait here for now.”
Bai Yao, inside the sedan, heard every word crystal clear.
Without a doubt, this was both a test and an intimidation tactic.
“Old Chivalrous King was the one who brokered this marriage in the first place. He wouldn’t go out of his way to test me like this. I wonder if this young master Xiao Yi really dislikes me, or if there’s another reason? Do these bastards really think I’m dying to marry some man?”
A cold smirk curled at the corner of Bai Yao’s lips.
Clearly, she was genuinely starting to get angry.
…
Back in that tall building, Liu Linglin—whose smile could charm a hundred—was raising a wine cup, swaying seductively toward the cold, handsome young man before her.
“My lord, it’s not that your servant wishes to block you on this happy day. I was originally the one your own mother set up for you, so how could you take someone else as your legitimate wife and toss me aside?”
The moment she spoke, Liu Linglin’s tone alone could soften the hardest man, and harden the softest one.
A flicker of disgust crossed the white-robed young man’s face as he recoiled from her alluring figure like it was a viper:
“That was the old man’s arrangement. I have no intention of interfering. From the day I was born to now, I’ve exchanged fewer than ten words with that woman from the temple. Don’t you dare use her to pressure me. Besides, if I could actually beat you in a fight, you wouldn’t dare humiliate me like this!”
Liu Linglin laughed, her whole body swaying with charm: “Oh my, my lord. I know that because of my senior sister, you’ve kept your distance from me since the very first glance. Fine then. Your servant won’t force you. Go on home and bow with your new bride!”
Seeing that Liu Linglin genuinely released her pressure, Xiao Yi gave her a suspicious look, then left the building without looking back.
—Character Design (drawn according to the author’s labor and time availability)—
Protagonist: Bai Yao (Opening arc and Grotto-Heaven Mingzi arc design. New design will debut in Chapter 39.)
Female Lead #2: Liu Linglin
Male Lead: Xiao Yi (Chivalrous Manor arc design. The Demon Lord design awaits future novel updates.)
