Chapter 3

Xie Qinghe’s “little while” lasted eight whole hours.

He extracted it with painstaking care, terrified of damaging the spirit root he meant to give his beloved junior sister.

Peeling it away bit by bit. Pulling it out strand by strand.

The pain in my limbs climbed through the gaps between my bones: knees, waist, spine, then up into the back of my skull.

My meridians shifted. My sea of spiritual energy contracted.

I couldn’t breathe in.

I couldn’t breathe out.

Several times, I nearly fainted, but Xie Qinghe’s spiritual power kept me conscious.

Just conscious enough to feel that piercing agony. Just conscious enough to remain awake. Just enough for the spirit root to be stripped away along my meridians.

When the final filament came free, Xie Qinghe at last let go of my hand.

He stood. Even his hair crown had come a little loose.

But from beginning to end, none of his anxiety had been for me.

“Thank you for enduring it.”

With those words, he turned and carried the spirit root out through the door.

Cheers surged in from outside.

The door closed again.

I was alone in the room.

I lay collapsed on the bed.

Before leaving, Xie Qinghe had placed a few pain-relieving pills beside it.

I had no strength to reach for them.

The carvings in the ceiling spun before my eyes.

Before I lost consciousness altogether, I weighed up the bargain I had made.

Not a loss.

The first time I met Xie Qinghe, he had come down the mountain to gain experience.

His cultivation had been sealed, and he ran into enemies midway through his journey.

He was a famous prodigy in the cultivation world. Even with his cultivation sealed, he could fight his way out of an encirclement alone, with a single sword.

I was the last person he saw before he passed out.

And the first person he saw when he woke.

Later, he promised to marry me.

He would take me back up the mountain to meet his master.

That day, he held my hand, every word earnest.

“Nian’er, I will never fail you. I will keep you safe and see that your life goes smoothly. I won’t let you suffer the slightest wrong.”

…

Now he was sitting beside my bed again, holding my hand.

“Nian’er, when Ah Zhao woke up, she cried and demanded to marry me. Otherwise, she said she would take her own life.”

“The spirit beast in the hidden realm violated her chastity. Word has spread through the sect.”

“My master has done so much for me, and her injury was ultimately my fault. I truly don’t know which way to turn.”

“Nian’er, marrying Ah Zhao is only a temporary expedient. I have no improper feelings for her. I’ll continue to treat her as a younger sister.”

“You will still be the only wife in my heart.”

The only wife in his heart.

Which made me a concubine in public.

I listened idly and said nothing.

Shen Zhaozhao had already told me yesterday.

She had come to my room carrying her scarlet wedding dress and insisted I embroider a pair of mandarin ducks on it.

I’d never learned embroidery. Everything I stitched looked like some ghastly scrawl, but apparently she didn’t mind.

“Gu Jinnian, you’re nothing but a cripple now. What makes you think you deserve to be Qinghe’s wife?”

Discarding people once they had served their purpose was a Qingfeng Sect tradition. As the sect leader’s daughter, Shen Zhaozhao had naturally perfected the art.

When I said nothing, Xie Qinghe reassured me. “Nian’er, trust me. I will never fail you.”

I thought he treated those words like a soothing pill.

Like those sanctimonious, wicked monks who recited “Amitabha” every time they killed someone.

Oh, forget it.

I had no interest in that promise. I merely asked, “Qinghe, your master, all the elders, and your fellow disciples have entered a life-and-death pact with me.”

“But today I realized how absurd my idea was. Can the pact still be dissolved? I don’t want to trouble all those venerable masters.”

Xie Qinghe raised a hand and smoothed the hair at my temple.

“Once a life-and-death pact is made, it cannot be dissolved. Anyone who forces it will suffer the backlash, and their soul will be destroyed.”

“Nian’er, you worry too much. You’re only an ordinary independent cultivator. Who would go out of their way to trouble you?”