Chapter 966: The Right Way to Trick Someone into Marriage

The two looked at the box. Long Qingyue began setting up a formation. Ye Wenxin didn’t dare delay either. She summoned Liuli and Ghost Mother, telling them to stay alert for sudden changes.

Once they had everything prepared, a tense atmosphere spread through the room. Seeing Long Qingyue stand at a safe distance, Ye Wenxin stepped forward with the key.

Opening the box revealed a massive rock. Unlike what they had imagined, there was nothing special about it.

Long Qingyue read the three words written on it. “Marriage Fate Stone?”

“Your emperor brother went through all that trouble to send this?” The gap between expectation and reality was so large that Ye Wenxin didn’t know where to begin complaining about the emperor’s logic.

“Maybe because we destroyed the real gift, my dear brother picked up a random rock on the road to fool me.” Long Qingyue caressed the rock. Suddenly, she noticed that this rock seemed different from an ordinary one.

There was warmth on its surface and a mysterious, unknown energy. It felt almost alive.

Watching Long Qingyue seriously examine the rock, Ye Wenxin revealed more information about it. “Marriage Fate Stone. According to legend, if two people drip their blood onto it, they will be bound together for eternity. Heavens, even if this is a cultivation world, who would be silly enough to believe such a thing?”

How could Long Qingyue, as clever as she was, be acting like a dotard at this critical moment?

Long Qingyue glanced at Ye Wenxin. Pulling out a dagger from her storage ring, she made a small cut on her finger. Her blood dripped onto the rock.

“……”

Ye Wenxin instinctively stepped back. She remembered that her blood was now different from before and didn’t want to try anything lightly.

But Long Qingyue was already looking at her. “We’ll know if it’s real once we try.”

She handed the dagger to Ye Wenxin.

“Besides, didn’t you say it was fake?” Long Qingyue used reverse psychology to goad her again. Ye Wenxin reluctantly complied.

For one, she didn’t believe in the power of a mere rock. For another, she wanted to lower Long Qingyue’s guard.

After all, Ye Wenxin preferred having Long Qingyue as an ally rather than gaining another enemy.

Thinking this, she nicked her finger and let the blood drip onto the Marriage Fate Stone. The rock absorbed both drops instantly and—

Nothing else happened.

“……”

“……”

An incense stick of time passed, and nothing happened. While Ye Wenxin applied ointment to her finger, Long Qingyue remained on the other side, observing the Marriage Fate Stone.

“Qingcheng, I know the reason now. We have to recite this passage.” Long Qingyue looked like a student driven by intense curiosity. Ye Wenxin recalled always being the unlucky one whenever she got curious.

“Qingcheng, come here quickly.” Long Qingyue’s death call persisted. Ye Wenxin walked over helplessly, only to see the line of tiny characters Long Qingyue must’ve been referring to.

“We recite these words together, and regardless of whether it succeeds, you can take one thing in this room,” Long Qingyue sweetened the deal.

Ye Wenxin finally perked up and began to recite, “I, Gu Qingcheng—”

“I, Long Qingyue—”

“Swear upon the Marriage Fate Stone to respect and love one another until death.”

Some cultivator probably made up the disgustingly sentimental vow to woo their beloved. Ye Wenxin felt a strong sense of disdain. This world wouldn’t be full of unrequited longing if love could bloom just from a few spoken oaths.

The Marriage Fate Stone suddenly began to glow, and an image materialized.

The projection was too blurry for them to make out a face, but surrounding it were various women crowding the entire room. The sight was overwhelming.

“I am the Celestial Matchmaker, and now I shall bestow my blessings upon— Wait, you two have incompatible fates. If you stay together, it would go against the natural order!”

The self-proclaimed Celestial Matchmaker suddenly panicked. He realized his powers didn’t affect the two women, so he improvised an excuse to save face. He claimed their fates were incompatible to bow out of matchmaking.

“Incompatible fates?” Having just been worrying about the worst, Ye Wenxin laughed in relief. “Hahaha, I knew it! Yue’er and I are only suited to be besties.”

Long Qingyue frowned slightly. Staring at the Celestial Matchmaker, she raised a hand and pulled out a turtle from the projection.

It called itself the Celestial Matchmaker but wasn’t the real one. Its true form was a turtle that had lived for ten thousand years. Realizing the jig was up, the turtle struggled frantically in her grasp.

“Matchmaker, kindly speak human words. Otherwise, I may be adding turtle soup to tonight’s dinner.” Long Qingyue spoke with composure, but her words made the turtle tremble.

Long Qingyue’s mind-reading worked on all beings, so she naturally saw through Turtle Sage¹’s attempt at bluffing.

“Ah, I heard grilled turtle is not bad. Please watch your words, Celestial,” Ye Wenxin helpfully added with a smile.

Turtle Sage was bitter beyond words. It had never imagined that after matching 9,999 couples to ascend, it’d run into such a bizarre pair.

Long Qingyue was born to be proud and solitary. She could have anything in the world except a lifelong partner.

And the other woman was even worse. She had a peach blossom fate. Counting on its finger, Turtle Sage could see that Ye Wenxin had enough women behind her to form a cuju² team.

The two possessed uniquely domineering fates, unaffected by Turtle Sage’s limited abilities. Seeing the two’s thoughts and intentions didn’t align, the despairing Turtle Sage finally gave up its lofty demeanor. Stretching out its stubby little legs, it kneeled in a rather human-like gesture and began begging the two for mercy.

“Great cultivators, I’m just a little turtle! Please let me go!”

Long Qingyue had learned the truth through her mind-reading but was still surprised. She was so gifted that no one was worthy of her, leaving her destined to be single.

Ye Wenxin’s fate was even more maddening. Even if she tried to stay devoted to one person, women would continue to throw themselves at her feet.

“But you’re a cute little turtle. Of course, we’ll eat you.” Unaware of the truth, Ye Wenxin threatened Turtle Sage with schadenfreude. Frightened out of its wits, the turtle wanted to shrink back into its shell and play dead.

Long Qingyue suddenly lifted him.

Worried that Long Qingyue might be up to something, Ye Wenxin quickly stopped her. “Yue’er, what are you doing?”

Wearing an elegant and composed smile, Long Qingyue gave the turtle a shake. “Oh, I’m just going to help this little turtle refine its cultivation until it can offer us a blessing of love.”

---

Footnotes:

1. 1. Turtle Sage’s Chinese title is 龟仙人, which is also the Japanese title for Master Roshi, an iconic character in Dragon Ball. ↩︎
2. 
   
   2. Cuju is an ancient Chinese football game.
   
   Source:
   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuju ↩︎