Chapter 114: World Three [End] Part 2

“I know,” Jing Ke said. “But I doubt anyone thinks that way now.”

“What did you do?” Yin Honglian asked.

“The Leader of the Rakshasa Tower accepted a contract on us, so I paid a visit to their headquarters and borrowed his head to teach the other assassins a lesson: some people can’t be messed with.” Jing Ke said, smiling.

“As things stand, it worked quite well. None of the ranking assassin organizations are accepting any contracts related to us anymore,” Jing Ke added.

Yin Honglian stared at Jing Ke, at a loss for words. Finally, she could only silently extend her thumbs up in utmost respect.

After placating Yin Honglian with some local specialties brought back from their trip, life for Jing Ke and Luo Yuezhu became peaceful again.

The former whiled away her days leisurely, with no trouble actively seeking her out, living freely and lazily.

As for the latter, Luo Yuezhu had one hundred mu of farmland to check on occasionally, account books to flip through for a few pages each month, and the rest was seasonal gifts sent by local officials because of her noble title.

At first, Luo Yuezhu considered sending return gifts, but after her Master said those officials sent gifts simply for their own peace of mind, she quietly dismissed the idea.

Otherwise, it would become an unbreakable endless loop: you send to me, I send to you, you send to me again.

Spring passed, autumn came. Another year gone, and Luo Yuezhu finally welcomed the eighteenth birthday she had been waiting for.

Luo Yuezhu still had no intention of a grand celebration, nor did she ask her Master for any gift. Instead, she nervously handed over a sheet of red paper.

“Master, you said so. That you were willing to marry me, after I turned eighteen.” Luo Yuezhu spoke with a hint of tension. “I don’t know your birth characters, but mine are written on this, along with auspicious dates I had someone calculate. Master, when do you think would be best for us to get married?”

“Get married?” Jing Ke was stunned. She had already trampled her own principles and bottom lines into the ground back when her little disciple had turned seventeen.

“Didn’t Master say it? When I turned eighteen, Master would be willing to become my wife.” Luo Yuezhu licked her lips.

“Yes, I did promise you that.” Jing Ke chuckled softly, remembering the words her tipsy little disciple had knelt on the ground and spoken that day.

“I don’t remember my birth characters. As for the auspicious date, just pick one you like,” Jing Ke said. She’d already trampled her principles and bottom lines to nothing; how could she possibly refuse to marry her little disciple?

As for whether she loved her little disciple or not, Jing Ke had figured that out the first time her little disciple had gone on a long journey away from home. That was the reason her principles had wavered then.

“Master, how about this winter?” Luo Yuezhu asked. She always remembered what her Master had said: that her birthday was in the wintertime.

“Mm, that’s doable. But since we’ve already been living together for ages, shouldn’t we change up the wedding process a bit?” Jing Ke didn’t object.

“Master, don’t worry! I’ve already consulted matchmakers about the wedding process. We can skip some unnecessary steps, just perform the bows and then host the guests!” Luo Yuezhu’s joyful tone and the lift of her lips were both impossible to suppress.

“Fine. You’re an adult now. I’ll leave it in your hands.” Jing Ke chose to let go and wait for her little disciple to arrange the wedding.

“What? Getting married?!” Yin Honglian jumped up from her chair, instinctively glancing at Ye Wenxin beside her.

“Yes. I’m going to marry my Master. Here’s your invitation.” Luo Yuezhu said with a smile, handing over an invitation she had personally penned.

At eighteen, Luo Yuezhu’s calligraphy was now excellent. The Double Happiness character window paper-cuts she had learned over two years ago were finally ready for use.

“November ninth. I’ll definitely be there, gifts in hand.” Yin Honglian opened the invitation, glanced at it, and quickly agreed.

Thus, Luo Yuezhu personally delivered invitations to those she considered on good terms, and also sent one to the officials who regularly sent her seasonal gifts.

The official struggled to suppress his overflowing shock and sent the news to the Capital City via fast horse.

The Carefree Marquis, appointed two years prior, was getting married. And the partner? It was Jing Ke, a descendant bearing the Former Dynasty’s Imperial Family bloodline.

At this juncture, the Imperial Court couldn’t care less about it being a marriage between two women. They very graciously sent a mountain of congratulatory gifts and even added several honorary posts to Luo Yuezhu’s name.

A marriage between two women was perfect! As long as time went on long enough, the bloodline of the Former Dynasty’s imperial family would be severed!

Of course, the Imperial Court couldn’t state this openly. They simply expressed their approval of the marriage with congratulatory gifts worth ten thousand taels of gold, and specially dispatched the current Emperor’s full sister, the Eldest Princess, on a trip to Peace Offering City.

The arrival of an Imperial Family Member naturally meant no small fanfare.

But this Eldest Princess was rather interesting. After making a grand, ostentatious entrance into Peace Offering City, she attended Jing Ke and Luo Yuezhu’s wedding in plain civilian clothes, suddenly acting low-key.

Jing Ke didn’t bother investigating the reason deeply, but from the Eldest Princess’s somewhat familiar method of breathing, she could deduce a thing or two.

The Emperor’s fear of the Heavenly Derivation Sect was not just based on ‘hearsay.’ When the Emperor was young, he had likely witnessed firsthand how powerful a disciple of the Heavenly Derivation Sect could be.

This Eldest Princess was probably an old acquaintance of her mother, and perhaps there had even been a short-term master-disciple relationship between them.

As for who her biological father truly was, Jing Ke didn’t want to dig deeper and even gave up pondering it.

“I have no other intentions. I simply came to take a look.” The Eldest Princess proactively raised her wine cup. “In addition, please rest assured, both of you. Neither my elder brother, nor my nephew, have any intention of being enemies with the Heavenly Derivation Sect.”

“I wish you a long and lasting union.” The Eldest Princess smiled.

Jing Ke smiled back. “Your blessings are most welcome.”

Luo Yuezhu didn’t recognize the Eldest Princess, assuming she was someone her Master had known before. She simply stayed by her side, clinked cups with the guest, and then took a shallow sip of the clear water in her cup.

Alas, Luo Yuezhu’s alcohol tolerance hadn’t increased with age. She still got drunk after just one cup.

After receiving over thirty guests, Jing Ke and Luo Yuezhu returned to their room together.

Neither of them wore a red bridal veil. Their wedding attire had been specially commissioned, designed to be slightly easier to move in than traditional styles.

They could use water to fool the guests during the toasting, but the nuptial cup of wine had to be genuine.

Luo Yuezhu downed a solid cup of potent, long-finish wine. Then, fueled by her drunkenness, she playfully tangled with her Master and new-wife. Only when the sky began to lighten did she close her eyes, satisfied, with a smile on her face.

After the wedding, Luo Yuezhu’s long-dormant ambition suddenly surged. She not only doubled the number of her shops but also proactively took her Master and wife along to start exercising her privileges as the Carefree Marquis.

It was written clearly in the Imperial Edict the Emperor issued: the Carefree Marquis could not meddle in politics, but could represent the Imperial Court in punishing Jianghu figures who used violence to defy the law.

Jing Ke guessed the reason. It was probably those Jianghu scum who’d been expelled by the Martial Arts Alliance but remained unrepentant, fleeing from Jiangnan to the relatively remote central region.

On the way, they robbed a shopkeeper on his way to purchase goods for the Luo family, costing the shopkeeper half his life. He had to recuperate at home for a long time before recovering.

Having been thugs right at her doorstep, Luo Yuezhu wasn’t the type to sit idle if she had any temper at all.

What’s more, Luo Yuezhu herself was a victim of such martial lawlessness. She couldn’t stand those with high martial arts treating common people’s lives as a game.

It was worth noting that even the Devil Sect had changed its habit of random killing by now. The common people’s lives were visibly improving.

“Do what you want to do. I’ll be with you,” Jing Ke chose to support her. Her little disciple was still under twenty. Getting serious about her career was a good thing.

And so, Luo Yuezhu threw herself into it, determined to drive those tumors of the martial world out of the central region.

Then, through Yin Honglian, she collaborated with the Devil Sect. They captured all those scum who were too wicked for even the Devil Sect, crippled their martial arts, and delivered them directly to their former victims.

It’s also worth mentioning that Yin Honglian and Ye Wenxin got married too.

They married when Luo Yuezhu was twenty. They didn’t make a big affair of it, only inviting close friends as witnesses. Wearing distinctive wedding gowns, they went through the formal three bows.

Thus, the only two possible bearers of the Former Dynasty’s bloodline both chose to marry women, causing the Imperial Court’s wariness to drop time and again.

But neither of the two concerned parties cared much about their lineage. Even after hearing the Devil Sect Leader had declared himself King, Yin Honglian still stayed in Peace Offering City as a idler who occasionally put in effort.

Ye Wenxin also had no intention of inheriting the Alliance Leader position, but she became Luo Yuezhu’s helper, occasionally cleansing the region within a hundred li of so-called Jianghu figures who committed indiscriminate murder.

When Luo Yuezhu was twenty-five, the person sitting on the Dragon Throne changed.

As a nominal Marquis, Luo Yuezhu went to the Capital City for the first time since receiving her title, and even entered the Imperial Palace.

The New Emperor was quite friendly towards Jing Ke and Luo Yuezhu, and even attempted to bestow upon Jing Ke the title of non-royal Prince.

Jing Ke wasn’t sure if the New Emperor did this because of the identity of her biological father, or because he wanted her to fight against the Devil Sect Leader, who was now the King of Zhou. Unwilling to bring trouble upon herself, Jing Ke bluntly refused the Emperor’s proposal. Looking at this Emperor, whose features bore a three-tenths resemblance to her own under close inspection, she reiterated the principle of non-interference.

However, Jing Ke didn’t refuse the additional titles he heaped upon her little disciple, nor did she stop the New Emperor from posthumously honoring Luo Yuezhu’s deceased family.

“Master, will we enter the Palace again in the future?” After leaving the Imperial Palace, Luo Yuezhu looked at her Master.

“Maybe. In thirty years, we’ll still be very young. We might even attend another new Emperor’s coronation,” Jing Ke smiled, meeting her little disciple’s eyes.

Practicing a good Internal Cultivation Method could prolong one’s life.

Her little disciple couldn’t live nearly two hundred years like the Ancestral Master, but living to one hundred twenty or thirty was no problem at all.

By that calculation, the time they had left together was still a full century.