Chapter 4: After a Hundred Years, I Shall Leave Him

Jiu Jiu never imagined that things would develop into the current situation.

Because she truly never expected this human to make such a request of her.

At first, she really only wanted to tease this "Young Master" before her who seemed somewhat kind-hearted.

Unknowingly, she had already lived with him for four years.

Of course, for a great demon with a specific title like Jiu Jiu, four years was nothing.

However, these four years.

The days Gu Jiangming spent with her, morning and night, made her feel a long-lost sense of ease.

He would brew tea for her.

When the tea grew cold, he would refill it for her.

He would give her hairpins.

Even if she didn't particularly like hairpins, she would still be happy to receive a gift prepared with such care by someone else.

Although she was ostensibly a so-called "Slave," this human never seemed to truly treat her as one or order her to do anything.

Unfortunately, demons and humans could never be united.

Jiu Jiu had witnessed everything her mother went through; she refused to repeat those mistakes, nor did she believe in the results of such impulsive decisions.

【You prepare to reject the other party's request.】

【But through your life together, day and night, you have developed a certain reliance on him; your rejection fails.】

【You ultimately accept it by default.】

【However, you still believe this is not love; it is merely you teasing him.】

【Anyway, he can only live for a hundred years at most.】

【You think to yourself.】

【After a hundred years, I will leave him.】

Jiu Jiu saw the last line of text and, after thinking about it, felt there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it.

Humans are humans.

He cannot live too long; he will die in a hundred years at most.

But I am a demon.

Playing along with him won't affect anything.

【You are married.】

【On the day of the wedding, he sincerely confessed to you that he is not actually an ordinary person.】

Jiu Jiu felt a sudden sense of nervousness as she looked at this passage.

【He narrated the entire sequence of events in detail.】

【Coming to Guanzhong this time was to find the whereabouts of his father, Gu Zhangqing; perhaps it is a journey of nine deaths and one life.】

【Gu Jiangming gave you the Jade Bracelet left behind by his mother; he said this was a gift his mother intended for her daughter-in-law.】

【For some reason, you are slightly moved.】

【As you took the Jade Bracelet, it seemed you did not want this relationship to be as frivolous as the teasing you spoke of.】

【You ask him.】

【"If... if I marry you, one day—I mean one day—a group of sanctimonious people who claim to represent justice comes knocking and demands you do something that wrongs me, will you do it?"】

【He did not understand the deeper meaning in your words, nor could he grasp the implication.】

【He simply said calmly: "I will not let anyone harm my wife."】

【"If anyone truly dares to come knocking, they will have to ask the sword in my hand first."】

【The 36th year of the Tianming Calendar, this is the first year after your marriage; he continues to care for you as meticulously as ever.】

【But after you were married, you secretly cast a spell to share a bed without consummating the marriage, simply because you had not yet learned how to completely control the Demon Power within your body to prevent it from rampaging inside you.】

【As a great demon with vast Mana, a mortal body cannot withstand your surging Demon Power.】

【You are not yet a great demon like your mother who can easily mobilize Mana, and furthermore, you are still very afraid of that situation happening again.】

【And he is unaware of this matter.】

At this moment, Gu Jiangming was still immersed in the joy of successfully taking a wife; having reincarnated so many times, Gu Jiangming had actually had opportunities to marry before.

But he had strict requirements for character portraits.

Although Jiu Jiu was a beggar by origin, under his meticulous care, her Heavenly Human Appearance had already been unearthed bit by bit.

Every day, Gu Jiangming prepared all sorts of beautiful clothes for his wife, like skins in a game, changing them for her incessantly.

However, as the days went on, time was becoming increasingly pressing.

Gu Jiangming decided to pass on all of his family's sword techniques and internal heart methods to Jiu'er.

Gu Jiangming certainly had an accurate judgment regarding his search for his father, and what worried him greatly was whether Jiu Jiu, a woman, would be able to take care of herself after he died.

Beyond just sword techniques and heart methods, Gu Jiangming also wanted to leave some of the Gu family's assets to her.

【You taught the sword technique Zhetianbir and the Gu Family Heart Method "Facing the Heavens" to Jiu Jiu.】

【To your surprise, the other party has extremely high martial talent; she understands almost everything you teach at a single hint.】

【In just one year, she has learned seven or eight-tenths of what you imparted.】

？

Gu Jiangming widened his eyes.

Is he the sword genius, or is Jiu Jiu the sword genius?

It took him eighteen years of effort to surpass his father in this reincarnation, Gu Zhangqing, and become the new generation's Sword God of Northern Wei.

A wife he picked up at random surpassed him in a year?

Who exactly is the genius?

But this is fine too; with the martial arts she has learned now, there shouldn't be anyone who can bully her.

Gu Jiangming clicks on the main event on the screen and begins to continue investigating the truth behind the extermination of the Du Family.

【In the 38th year of the Tianming Calendar, you bid farewell to Jiu Jiu at the residence in Guanzhong and set off to investigate the truth behind the extermination of the Du Family.】

【You left your own estate.】

Jiu Jiu looks at this fool who has just bid farewell and is preparing to leave.

She stares at the two options provided on the screen.

【1: Follow Gu Jiangming.】

【2: Ignore him.】

On an impulse, Jiu Jiu chooses to follow Gu Jiangming.

This human must accompany her for at least one hundred years before she will permit him to die.

Thinking of this foolish human who, fearing she might be bullied, both handed over his family's martial arts and urged her to be tough and not let others take advantage of her easily, Jiu Jiu feels somewhat amused in her heart.

But as she laughs, Jiu Jiu also feels a bit reluctant to let him go.

Because she can sense that this guy seems to be going to his death; if things go poorly, he might not come back after leaving this time.

Follow him, and if he encounters any danger, take him and run away together.

【In the same year, several massacres similar to the extermination of the Du Family suddenly occurred in Northern Wei, and for a time, the entire Northern Wei was in a state of panic.】

【Gu Jiangming followed these traces bit by bit, and in this line of work, he also made many friends in the pugilistic world.】

【In the 39th year of the Tianming Calendar, the Wang Family of Yongliang was exterminated; like the Du Family, they died in their ancestral lands in the same manner, and of the entire family, only the second young lady of the Wang Family, who was away learning martial arts, survived.】

【Upon learning the news that her entire family had been slaughtered, the second young lady of the Wang Family rushed home in a panic.】

【Gu Jiangming took the initiative to approach her.】

【"I am a successor of the Northern Wei Gu Family Sword Sect, Gu Jiangming, son of the Sword God Gu Zhangqing," you say, cupping your hands to introduce yourself: "My father previously went missing while investigating the case of the Du Family's extermination."】

【"Over these years, I have been traveling everywhere, also investigating this matter. Your family has suffered this disaster, and I suspect it was the work of a monster, and furthermore, the same monster as the one from the Du Family's extermination back then."】

【Gu Jiangming says with extreme certainty: "Besides this, I cannot think of any other possibility. May I ask, if it is not too presumptuous, has your Wang Family offended anyone?"】

【The second young lady of the Wang Family, whose given name is Wang Qinghe, is immersed in grief and unable to move on.】

【After the Wang Family was exterminated, people grew cold and distant, and most of the prestigious families who were previously on good terms with them had no news.】

【She says with great resentment: "Prove that you are a successor of the Gu Family first, don't be another con artist here trying to swindle people."】

【You say nothing more, draw the long sword at your waist, and unfold the Zhetianbir technique right there; watching the continuous shadows of the sword, Wang Qinghe finally believes your identity.】

【"What about the Tingshui Pavilion? Without that heirloom sword of yours, Heaven-Veiling Blade cannot unleash its full power."】

【"That sword, I left it with my wife," you say, and at this moment, you suddenly think of your father, Gu Zhangqing, who left home.】

【Perhaps, when Gu Zhangqing left, he had already thought that this was a departure from which he would not return.】

【That sword was the final farewell.】

【Wang Qinghe sneers: "This matter is dangerous, you aren't really kind enough to be willing to help me, are you?"】

【"I am doing this to find my father," Gu Jiangming says simply and straightforwardly.】

【She pauses for a few seconds and says: "I will trust you for now, but my Wang Family has always been kind to others, so seeking revenge is unlikely."】

【"If we want to find clues, I'm afraid we can only start looking elsewhere."】

【Gu Jiangming falls into deep thought: "Is there any connection between the Du Family of Guanzhong and your Wang Family?"】

【"No, Guanzhong is Guanzhong, Yongliang is Yongliang. What connection could the great clans of Guanzhong and the great clans of Yongliang have? Our greatest similarity is probably that we are both well-known martial arts families of Northern Wei," Wang Qinghe says: "Wang Gate Blade, Du Gate Dart, Yue Gate Spear, Gu Gate Sword."】

【With Wang Qinghe saying this, Gu Jiangming suddenly realizes that among the Eight Great Families of the Northern Wei martial arts world, the Wang Blade and Du Dart have already been completely exterminated.】

【Why would a monster want to exterminate the entire families of these people?】

【Suddenly, Gu Jiangming's expression changes slightly: "What it is looking for might be the experts of the Northern Wei martial arts world."】

【"The Wang Gate, the Du Gate, my father is an expert of the Gu Gate, and he has gone missing; it is highly likely that he is also dead."】

【"Your Wang Family has been exterminated, the Du Family has been exterminated, and my father is missing. As long as we find the other families, we might even run into that guy."】

【You voice this possibility.】

【Wang Blade, Du Dart, Yue Spear, Gu Sword, Song Halberd, Huo Fist, Li Whip, Zhang Staff.】

【You list the names of the Eight Great Families of Northern Wei one by one.】

【During this year, you have been rushing on the road to these families.】

【But that monster seems to have calmed down and has not appeared for a long time.】

【In the 41st year of the Tianming Calendar, the Yue Family of Kaifeng was also exterminated, but when you arrived at the scene, it was already too late.】

【Only one old man survived from the entire Yue Family; he had been completely frightened into madness and could only repeat one sentence: "This blade technique, what a good blade technique."】

【"This sword technique, what a good sword technique."】

【"Hahahaha—"】

【Seeing Gu Jiangming, his expression is filled with extreme terror.】

【"You—aren't you on him?"】

【"He is here, he is here again—"】

【The clue is broken once again.】

【Both you and Wang Qinghe's moods sink to the bottom; after a bout of heavy drinking, Wang Qinghe becomes drunk.】

【You carry her to the bed and fall into deep thought about what the old man of the Yue Family said.】

【"Continuing to search like this is too dangerous, Gu Jiangming. You should take good care of yourself."】

【Wang Qinghe murmurs on the bed, her eyes unable to hide the worry in her heart, and she says to you: "Some things are no longer for us to continue investigating."】

【After several years of chasing the murderer together, Wang Qinghe has come to regard you as her best confidant; the sense of security brought by your presence makes her cherish you, this friend, immensely.】

【She seems to know something, which is why she has always wanted to keep you from touching danger.】

【That is why, all along the way, she has been trying to persuade you not to keep risking your life to seek the truth, and that you should know when to stop when it is time to stop.】

【A faint tenderness flowed within the gaze of Wang Qinghe, and, using the "drunkenness" welling up in her heart, she said, "Do I still have hope?"】

【You silently tidied up the room and said calmly, "My wife is still waiting for me at home; Miss Wang, you have had too much to drink, so get a good night's rest."】

【Saying this, you leaped onto the eaves and gazed into the distance.】

【Looking at the brilliant, brightly lit river surface, you suddenly missed her a little.】

【When I am missing you, if you were also missing me, how wonderful that would be.】

【You picked up the Wine Gourd at your waist and took a drink, looking up at the sky.】

Seeing this line of text.

Jiu Jiu was lost in thought for a moment.

【In the forty-second year of the Tianming Calendar, after the Yue Family was wiped out, the others among the Eight Great Families of Northern Wei finally realized that something was wrong, sensing that this was a premeditated targeting. After corresponding with one another, they decided to gather in one place and invited Gu Jiangming, the successor of the Gu Sect, and Wang Qinghe, the sole survivor of the Wang Family, to meet together.】

【In the fifth month of the forty-second year of the Tianming Calendar, they finalized a meeting together in the outskirts of the Northern Wei capital.】

【At the foot of this capital city, there is the aura of the Son of Heaven; even if it might be a demonic entity at work, it must yield three parts to them here. This place seems to be the last safe haven for them.】

(End of this chapter)