Chapter 48

The sound of festive suona horns echoed throughout the entire street. Both sides of the road were hung with red silk flowers.

In the wedding procession, the musicians playing celebratory tunes – ones with drums hanging from their waists, ones striking gongs in their hands, ones swaying their heads blowing suonas, reed flutes, and clay ocarinas – their movements and expressions still revealed some liveliness and joy.

But the others, wearing red vests, shuffled along lightly underfoot, their eyes staring straight ahead lifelessly. Their cheeks were painted with bright red circles of rouge. Dressed festively enough, yet their expressions were utterly lifeless.

The eight-carrier sedan chair swayed back and forth, revealing the bride seated within it, covered by a red head veil.

Liuli crouched by the roadside, staring dazedly at the bride’s familiar back:

“Isn’t that Little Meng?”

Ye Zhenzhen stood beside her, confirming: “It’s Little Meng.”

“…” Liuli gnawed on her fingernail, her expression conflicted. “What do we do now?”

“How should I know?” Ye Zhenzhen said irritably. “Look at her posture. Weak and limp. She’s probably been controlled.”

Liuli sighed: “Just one moment of not keeping an eye on her, and Little Meng is getting married. Time sure flies…”

Ye Zhenzhen kicked her butt: “Get up, quickly. They’re about to walk away.”

Liuli slapped her behind and stood up. Following the wedding procession, as she walked, she said:

“I have an idea.”

“Speak.”

“Let’s crash the wedding and steal the bride.”

Ye Zhenzhen: “Okay, then now…”

“Then I’ll take her place as the bride.”

Ye Zhenzhen: “???”

“Haven’t you read it?”

“What?” Ye Zhenzhen didn’t understand.

“‘Dominant City Lord Falls For Me: The Stand-in Little Wife’.”

“…”

The story had to start from two days ago.

The three, Liuli and company, had slain the trouble-making Toad Demon in a small mountain village near Huishui City and picked up a Water Essence Stone.

No matter what, a Toad Demon carrying a tool used for detecting Water Spiritual Roots was just too strange.

“Water-born demonic creatures mostly have Water Spiritual Roots. Maybe he used it for himself. Don’t dwell on it, let’s go.” Ye Zhenzhen said.

Liuli rubbed the Water Essence Stone between her fingertips. It was ice-cold. “The next task isn’t urgent, why rush to leave? We’ve been traveling out here for so long, why not rest in Huishui City?”

“Fine with me.” Lin Mengxian said. “I need to buy some things anyway.”

Two votes for, one against. So the three asked the nearby villagers for directions and headed towards Huishui City.

The Huishui River was winding and full of twists and turns, with many branches. The widest main channel in the middle happened to cut right through Huishui City. Huishui City was the largest city within a hundred-mile radius, but compared to Mulberry City, it was more than just a little smaller.

Walking into the city, it was also clear it wasn’t as prosperous as Mulberry City. The residents inside the city were more mortals than cultivators. Cultivators were only a handful. Thus, when Liuli’s group of three, who weren’t even that conspicuous in Mulberry City, entered, they received a shower of gazes.

Liuli looked right back without any courtesy, until the common folk who were curiously sizing them up shyly looked away.

Lin Mengxian tugged Liuli’s sleeve: “Stop staring. Let’s find a place to stay first.”

Liuli said, “Don’t you think it’s strange?”

“What’s strange?”

“In this Huishui City, whether it’s the buildings or the people’s clothing, everything looks desolate and bleak. The passersby have no joy on their faces. Some even look rather gloomy and sullen. Yet everywhere you look, you can see traces of decorations with lanterns and colored banners.”

Liuli bent down and picked up a piece of red paper confetti stained with mud and ash: “Look, this is debris from burnt firecrackers.”

Lin Mengxian said, “That old lady in the village said her granddaughter married the City Lord. Maybe this is leftover decoration from the City Lord’s wedding.”

A great wedding for the ruler of a city—naturally, it would warrant the whole city to be decorated in red.

Liuli had to suppress her doubts: “You’re right. Let’s find a place to stay first.”

Though Huishui City couldn’t compare to Mulberry City, it still had its own unique charm. Liuli quite liked the local specialty pastries.

Having traveled hard for days, the three just wanted a good night’s rest. After entering the inn, they didn’t go out again.

But in the deep of the third watch, just as they were in deep sleep, Liuli was awakened by strange movements.

It wasn’t just her. Even Ye Zhenzhen and Lin Mengxian sensed it. When the three woke up to check, they only caught sight of a figure quickly disappearing. However, none of their belongings were missing.

Liuli had actually chased after it, but this person quickly vanished, their aura untraceable. She had no choice but to return to the inn.

“Could it be a thief?”

Whoever it was, the three were definitely not resting easy that night.

The next morning, Lin Mengxian said she was going out to buy things. Who would have guessed that half a day later, she still hadn’t returned.

Liuli had a bad premonition. She dragged Ye Zhenzhen out to look for her. Fortunately, they had casually asked earlier what she planned to buy.

Lin Mengxian had answered: “Wisdom Spirit Algae has a special attribute. It’s hard to find substitutes. My health is poor, I need this stuff to regulate my body. Usually, I buy it at the foot of the mountain. Mid-last year, I noticed the price going up and it starting to be out of stock. That’s why I thought of coming to its place of origin to buy some.”

They found the shop, but the stock was gone.

The entire store’s good stock had been swept clean. Of this Spiritual Algae, only a small handful of yellowing, blackened, inferior quality remained.

Liuli and Ye Zhenzhen inquired whether a girl wearing green clothes, with a frail appearance, looking like a medicine jar at a glance, had come to buy Wisdom Spirit Algae.

“Yes, but that young lady arrived too late.” The shopkeeper endured the stench assaulting his nose as he replied. “Before the New Year, the City Lord ordered that as soon as Wisdom Spirit Algae is harvested, it must be delivered to the City Lord’s Mansion first. Now, there’s probably no stock left in the city. If you want it, you’ll have to go out of the city to the towns to see if there’s any left. Otherwise, you’ll have to figure out how to harvest it from the river yourselves.”

“Why is the City Lord buying so much water algae? To make cold salad?” Liuli casually cracked a lame joke.

Wisdom Spirit Algae had few uses, but for Lin Mengxian, it was an indispensable ingredient in her medicine. Having finally traveled here, they couldn’t leave empty-handed.

Ye Zhenzhen said: “Could she have gone to the town to buy it?”

But Liuli shook her head: “If she went to the town, she would have told us first. She’s not that careless of a person.”

“Then where did she go?” Ye Zhenzhen asked the shopkeeper. “Did you see which direction she left in?”

The shopkeeper smiled: “That young lady wasn’t willing to give up. She asked about other Spirit Herb shops and also asked for directions to the City Lord’s Mansion. But it was busy in the morning, I didn’t pay attention to which way she went.”

Liuli glanced outside the shop and turned back: “Maybe she went to the City Lord’s Mansion.”

The shopkeeper said, “Ladies must be new to this area. You don’t know, our City Lord hasn’t received visitors for a long time.”

“That is strange.” Liuli pointed to the red silk flowers hanging on the street outside. “Didn’t your City Lord just get married not long ago?”

Hearing the words “get married,” the expression on the shopkeeper’s face became visibly odd. He hesitated, sighed, and said, “He did.”

“Could it be he’s so lost in the pleasures of the honeymoon that he’s refusing visitors?”

Shopkeeper: “It’s not that either… well… the matter is a bit complicated…”

Liuli took out a Middle-grade Spirit Stone and placed it in his hand.

The shopkeeper put away the Spirit Stone with a grin, saying, “This matter, well, it’s not something that can’t be spoken of. Ladies could go out and ask around, but what those mortals know isn’t the full story. A humble person like me, however, frequently delivers Spirit Algae to the City Lord’s Mansion and knows a bit more.”

“Alright, cut the chatter. Out with it.”

As they say, taking someone’s money makes your hands soft. The shopkeeper quickly revealed the reason. It turned out that in the middle of last year, the Huishui City Lord began shutting his doors to visitors. At the same time, he ordered the purchase of Wisdom Spirit Algae and several other Spiritual Herbs and Spiritual Ores.

Everyone was clueless about the City Lord’s intentions. But he was the City Lord, the person with the highest cultivation in the city. The people could only follow orders. Several days later, the City Lord suddenly announced he was taking a wife.

Originally, there wasn’t even a single favored concubine within the Huishui City Lord’s Mansion. He’d been single for several hundred years, then suddenly says he’s getting married—how could that not spark curiosity and excitement? And his marriage partner was merely a minor cultivator at the Qi Condensation stage.

Well, after all, she was still a cultivator. Let’s just say it was true love, the City Lord didn’t mind the cultivation gap. But after the grand wedding day and seven days passed, the City Lord actually married another woman. From then on, it was unstoppable. Every seven days, another marriage. The status and cultivation of the brides became more and more indiscriminate, even marrying uneducated country girls from the villages.

“Others say the City Lord held it in for too long and once he let loose, he couldn’t rein in his heart. But I, on the other hand, feel it’s not so simple!” The shopkeeper mysteriously glanced outside the door twice and lowered his voice. “When I delivered spirit herbs to the City Lord’s Mansion, I found it extremely quiet inside. I didn’t even see a shadow of those brides.”

He hinted further: “All three of you ladies are cultivators. More words need not be hinted at by a humble person.”

Indeed, just hearing these words, Liuli immediately thought of “Cauldron.” Just, if they wanted Cauldrons, why marry ordinary people?

“Really, it makes me more and more interested in this City Lord.”

The shopkeeper warned: “The City Lord hasn’t seen visitors for a long time. I’m afraid even if you ladies knock on the door, you won’t be able to enter.”

“How could that be? Didn’t you just say he gets married every seven days?”

“Even for the grand wedding, apart from the wedding procession inside the City Lord’s Mansion, outsiders are unable to enter it.”

“…” Liuli furrowed her brow and rubbed her chin. “So that means, the only outsider who can see the City Lord is just the bride?”

Shopkeeper: “Correct.”

“Then might I ask,” Liuli pressed another Spirit Stone into the shopkeeper’s hand. “How is this bride chosen?”

The shopkeeper, smiling from ear to ear, accepted the Spirit Stone and said, “Truth be told, it’s quite simple. The new bride only needs three requirements: First, must be female. Second, must be alive. Third, must have a Water Spiritual Root.”

Liuli and Ye Zhenzhen exchanged a glance, thinking the same thing.

Thanking the shopkeeper, the two walked outside to a deserted area.

Ye Zhenzhen crossed her arms: “To the City Lord’s Mansion?”

Liuli gave an “Mm” sound, then added: “What if she hasn’t gone there yet?”