Chapter 53: [Outrageously Absurd!]

To speak of Chen Yan's mood at this moment…

Fear? No, not really.

A little puzzled, a little curious, a little excited, and a little complicated.

A marriage pact?

The child-betrothal his own father had arranged for him back in the day?

So this Gu Qingyi before his eyes, so beautiful she was almost bewitching… she had come here from another world, sought him out…

Bringing a wife across a thousand miles?

Chen Yan couldn't help but raise his head and take another careful look at Gu Qingyi.

Big eyes, a small face, skin delicate as silk, every feature lovely in its own right—and with the outer corners of her brows tilting ever so slightly upward, what should have been a face of pure, gentle beauty gained a few parts of an alluring, seductive air.

To certain men, that air added an extra measure of allure—yes, Chen Yan was precisely that kind of man.

By looks alone, every woman he had met in his life or seen on television—whether the various female stars hailed as god-tier beauties, or the real-life beauties he had actually encountered, Lu Sisi, the proprietress, and the like…

All of them were outshone, and without the slightest suspense at that.

A betrothed wife from a child-betrothal?

So this is a little Sister Gu falling from the heavens?

As Chen Yan drifted into daydreams, a trace of inner turmoil crept in as well.

He himself…

Had never thought he'd be getting married this early!

Damn it… he's only twenty-two, just barely at the legal age for marriage.

Having gotten the Old Grandma's secret manual, he was on the verge of rising step by step into a transcendent master. From then on, wealth and fame would roll in by the cartload… women? Would he ever be short of those?

Wouldn't he have to roll around in the mortal world for a good ten or twenty years first?

Where would he find the time to get married!

Still, this Gu Qingyi's looks…

Chen Yan swallowed.

It's not like it would be impossible… right?

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With a head full of wild and tangled thoughts, Chen Yan blinked hard, then said in a complicated tone: "I understand what you've come here for…

But I hope you can understand, this matter is far too sudden for me as well.

I'm only twenty-two years old, and I've never once thought I'd be marrying this early… Miss Gu Qingyi, to be frank, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on, and what's more, we have our marriage pact right here…

But, please forgive me, I have no intention of marrying for the time being. If you don't mind, we could actually try getting to know each other first, and build some feel—"

Gu Qingyi's face had been fairly calm as she listened to Chen Yan begin to speak. But as she listened on, the words grew less and less like proper human speech, and her face instantly darkened.

Hearing the end of it, Gu Qingyi's face suddenly flushed red, and a flash of fury shot through her eyes.

In a flash, she leapt up from her chair and went straight at him with a kick that landed squarely on Chen Yan's body.

Crack!

The bamboo chair beneath Chen Yan shattered on the spot. A breath he couldn't catch, and he sat down hard on the ground. The spot on his chest and abdomen where the kick had landed felt as if his primordial Qi had been shaken apart, his vision went black, and he nearly coughed up blood.

"Hey, even if I don't want to marry you, you don't have to hit me, do you?" Chen Yan cried out loudly, clutching his chest and abdomen.

Gu Qingyi raged: "Are you blind!"

She hauled Chen Yan up off the ground in one grip and tossed him beside the translucent golden register: "Open your eyes wide and look properly! Me marry you? You—how dare you spout such monstrous, against-all-human-decency nonsense!"

Chen Yan was stunned and hurriedly looked closely. The golden characters flowing across the half-transparent golden register plainly read:

…The seventeenth-generation heir of the Chen Clan, Jue, pointing to his mate and first swearing the oath, hereby sets this pact. He betroths the seventeenth-generation legitimate daughter of the Gu Clan, that hereafter they may join in blessed union, be matched as a fine pair, bound early by the red cord, and walk hand in hand to the end of their days…

Chen Yan read it with his own eyes, then read it through two more times…

The seventeenth-generation heir of the Chen Clan, Jue…

The seventeenth-generation heir of the Chen Clan, Jue…

Chen Jue? My own father?

Chen Yan looked up at Gu Qingyi standing before him.

Gu Qingyi gave a cold laugh, pointed at the line 【the seventeenth-generation legitimate daughter of the Gu Clan】, and said coldly: "That line refers to me!"

Chen Yan swallowed: "So this marriage contract isn't a child-betrothal between you and me…" The moment the words left his mouth, he saw fury flare in Gu Qingyi's eyes again, and quickly blurted: "The marriage pact—this marriage pact is between you… and my father?"

Gu Qingyi clenched her teeth: "Yes!"

Chen Yan: "……"

Hold on, hold on a moment… this is a bit muddled!

Let me, the great philanthropist Chen, sort this out!

Chen Yan widened his eyes: "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

"I'm already twenty-two! Which means, when this marriage pact was set, you hadn't even been born yet, right? And my father, Chen Jue… for him to have sired a fine strapping son like me, he had to be at least forty, no?"

Gu Qingyi said coldly: "So what? When this marriage pact was set, it was indeed still many years before I was born.

It was your father, Chen Jue, when he was young—your Chen Clan ancestor and my Gu Clan ancestor struck this pact. As for age, we cultivators have long lifespans; a difference of twenty years counts for nothing."

Hearing this, Chen Yan actually let out a breath of relief—so it's not making me get married? Then there's no problem.

But…

Blinking a few times, Chen Yan said with a wry smile: "You crossed from another world into this one just for a marriage pact like this? For an arranged marriage like this, couldn't you just not honor it? And from what you're saying, you don't seem to have any fondness for Chen Jue either—so why bother?"

"If it were that simple, that would be wonderful." Gu Qingyi gritted her teeth, her face frosty: "This marriage contract was even inscribed by a Great Heavenly Honored One in person, with supreme dharma-power, and has already been woven into my fate. You are a cultivator as well, you should know—once it is written into one's fate, then…

It is a tribulation, and must be answered."

"If it's fate, then it must be answered all the same!"

Chen Yan couldn't help but secretly purse his lips at this.

Damn, you invited the Grand Celestial… and used supreme divine power to write it into destiny?

That Grand Celestial of yours—have you run out of things to write?

If you've got that kind of power, why not write something useful?

"I broke through to a new realm into the Heavenly Human Realm at nineteen, and after that, no matter how I cultivated, I never advanced a single step further! The realm above the Heavenly Human Realm requires severing all emotion and severing all ties—it's precisely because my marriage fate remains unfulfilled that the Heavenly Dao won't permit me to enter a higher realm, unless I… settle this marriage fate."

Gu Qingyi said this, glanced at Chen Yan, and sneered coldly: "Otherwise, do you think I'd be very willing to marry that Chen Jue—a Chen family son whose reputation is notorious across the entire Domain Realm?"

Chen Yan watched Gu Qingyi bristling with anger, then carefully scrambled up from the ground, took two steps back: "But… my father Chen Jue is already dead. The man isn't even here anymore—how are you going to complete the wedding?"

Upon hearing this, the cold sneer on Gu Qingyi's face slowly, bit by bit, turned strange and eerie.

"I've already thought this through before coming. If I can find him, we complete the wedding; if he's dead…" Slowly, the girl uttered a single sentence:

"A ghost marriage is still a marriage!"

Holy—? Chen Yan was dumbfounded!

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After staring blankly for a good several seconds, Chen Yan finally goggled and said: "Wait, the pace of what you're saying—I can't quite keep up… what do you mean?"

Gu Qingyi narrowed her eyes: "Even if Chen Jue is dead, as long as you, a Chen family descendant, serve as the wedding witness and help me hold a ghost marriage—on the marriage contract, you write the wedding testimony in your identity as a legitimate direct-line descendant of the Chen family… then I will have fulfilled this destiny!"

Chen Yan's eyes went wide, his heart greatly shaken!

"Um, big sis, you are seriously out of your mind!!"

Chen Yan rarely admired anyone in his life, yet at this moment he couldn't help but sincerely want to give this Miss Gu Qingyi a thumbs-up.

Gu Qingyi, upon hearing Chen Yan's heartfelt remark, suddenly frowned: "What did you call me?"

"Huh?"

"You may not call me 'sister.'"

Gu Qingyi took a deep breath, slowly retreated two steps, sat back down on her bamboo chair, looked at Chen Yan, and slowly began: "Very well, the words have been made clear—you may now pay your respects to me."

Chen Yan: "What respects?"

Gu Qingyi waved a hand, and on her young face she put on a few parts' worth of an obviously forced posture, cleared her throat, and in her thin little pinched voice, feigning composure, slowly said: "The marriage contract between me and your father was personally written by the Grand Celestial, and has already merged with destiny.

Therefore, no matter how many other women your father later had in this world, even if he had ten thousand women, those women, at best, could only be considered concubines.

Destiny is supreme—I, Gu Qingyi, am the proper wife of the Chen family's seventeenth-generation son.

And you, Chen Yan…"

At this point, Gu Qingyi paused to think, and Chen Yan immediately felt something bad coming.

Sure enough, he heard Gu Qingyi continue: "…Chen Yan, you were born of a concubine, and count as a son by a side branch.

According to ritual law, you, a side-branch son, upon meeting me, your father's proper wife, should call me 'legitimate mother'!"

Chen Yan: "……………………"

What the hell kind of legitimate-versus-bastard cult is this!

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Chen Yan had lived for twenty-two years.

In the blink of an eye, he had become the legendary side-branch son?

And there's a girl younger than himself, sitting there, telling him to bow and acknowledge her as his mother?

Good, good, good! This world really has gone mad!

"No way!" Chen Yan rolled his eyes: "Are you really not aware how absurd what you're saying is?"

Gu Qingyi slowly stood up: "I myself also feel this matter is far too absurd. But who asked that this matter requires you and no one else?

I need you, Chen Jue's descendant, to acknowledge me as your legitimate mother. I need you to help me complete the ghost marriage rites, and even more, I need you to prick your finger and write your name in blood, recording the testimony on the marriage contract in your identity as a Chen family son—so I'm afraid I have to make things difficult for you…"

She took a deep breath, then stood there and loosened up her wrists.

"Wait, wait! What are you trying to do?" Chen Yan immediately retreated, his hands swiftly formed finger seals, the incantation for the Law Decree · Escape Character Art already prepared to chant at any moment: "Let's just talk nicely—no fighting!"

Gu Qingyi narrowed her eyes, then extended one finger and pointed it from afar toward a corner of the courtyard.

"I told you earlier that I'm at the Heavenly Human Realm—you probably don't understand what the Heavenly Human Realm means."

Chen Yan stared wide-eyed at Gu Qingyi!

Under his Heavenly Eye Qi-Reading, he "saw" that the primordial energy fluctuations around Gu Qingyi's entire body were faintly like rolling thunder!

With a tap of Gu Qingyi's finger, a streak of light shot out from her fingertip.

In the northeast corner of the courtyard, there had originally been a Taihu rock placed as a decoration.

A Taihu rock nearly three meters tall, weighing at least over a ton…

At Gu Qingyi's single pointed finger, that streak of light whooshed straight into the Taihu rock… then, under Chen Yan's gaze, this boulder weighing nearly a ton crumbled away bit by bit, turning to powder like dry flour!

Chen Yan: "…"

Gu Qingyi's tone seemed perfectly calm: "I told you before—you may not believe, and you may not listen. To me, in the end it's nothing more than beating you until you believe, beating you until you submit."

Chen Yan: "…"

Gu Qingyi, however, suddenly relaxed her tone and slowly said: "Before I came out, my family's Third Uncle told me that doing things requires method and approach—one needn't always use force to pressure people.

I thought about this too, so… if you don't comply, then I'll beat you.

If you're willing to comply, then the situation will be very different.

From now on, you and I are mother and son. If you run into any troublesome matters, tell me, and I, as your legitimate mother, will naturally shield you from everything—even if the sky falls, I can hold it back up for you!

From this day forth…

The people you don't dare to provoke, I'll provoke!

The people you don't dare to beat, I'll beat!"

No taboos, maternal love as vast as a mountain!

This is the promise I, Gu Qingyi, make to you!"

Chen Yan's tone was numb: "What do you mean?"

"I can let you walk with your head held high."

"..." Hearing this, Chen Yan suddenly wiped his face, his expression becoming utterly sincere:

"I, Yan, have drifted for half a lifetime... if you do not reject me..."

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【Hmm... no one guessed this twist, right?

Blink an eye, a childhood betrothal turns into a stepmother.

Alright, so I actually wrote a stepmother story? (Manual dog head)】

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