Chapter 99: Marriage Certificate

Zhao Yu lowered her head at the sound, her face as if stained with blood, already flushed through.

She had a straightforward nature and spoke her mind; she was by no means a hesitant or indecisive person.

At this moment, she had already made up her mind, but she felt a bit shy about speaking up.

She gazed at the hem of her garment for a long while before finally gathering her courage, rising, and throwing herself into Chen Mo's Huai.

She did not say much, but there was no longer any need to speak.

Truths are rare in this world; a woman's blush is worth more than a thousand words.

Chen Mo felt the lovely, delicate body in his arms; Zhao Yu's face could not be called stunningly beautiful, but rather gentle and charming, like a girl from a modest family.

Yet her figure was quite good, one could call it plump and exquisite, round and smooth like a pearl.

Chen Mo scooped her up by the waist and rose to walk toward the bedroom.

Zhao Yu could already guess what would happen next; she buried her shy, burning cheeks into Chen Mo's Huai, holding him tightly without saying a word.

This night was very long.

It was not until the warm winter sun spilled down, sneaking into the room through the window.

Many garments were scattered on the desk and under the bed, such as bodice and silk socks, all in disarray; clearly, these items had been taken off in different places.

Chen Mo slowly opened his eyes to the sunlight, carefully feeling the graceful body of the beauty in the bedding, and could not help but reveal a smile.

"I'll go get you something to eat in a moment," Zhao Yu had also awakened, saying with sleepy eyes.

"You rest; I'll go get something to eat," Chen Mo smiled lightly and pressed her back into the bedding.

She was not a Martial Artist and had just experienced human affairs for the first time; how could she recover so quickly? It was better to let her rest a while longer.

After changing clothes and washing up briefly, Chen Mo walked out of the house.

Zhu Niu Ji was quite lively in the early morning; Chen Mo bought some breakfast at random and ordered a table of dishes for noon from a restaurant, having them delivered to his home once prepared, before heading home with the breakfast he had bought.

On the dining table lay the mess of cups and plates from yesterday that had not yet been cleared away.

It seemed he really had to hire two maids to help Zhao Yu handle the household chores.

He was now a Seventh Rank Official; having no maids or servants at home and letting Zhao Yu do everything herself was indeed somewhat unreasonable.

After tidying up the table, he set the bought breakfast on it.

Zhao Yu also changed into a light cyan garment and walked into the dining room.

"You go hire or buy three or four maids later to help you, the mistress of the house, with some things. Now that I am a Seventh Rank Official, it is not appropriate to have no maids at home," Chen Mo brought over bowls and chopsticks and instructed softly.

"Alright, I'll go look for them later," Zhao Yu smiled and nodded in agreement; she glanced at Chen Mo, and for some reason, she blushed again.

"Don't busy yourself at noon; I have already ordered a banquet at Feiniu Lou, and someone will deliver it to the house later.

Hiring maids is not urgent; you rest a while after eating, and going in the afternoon is fine too."

Chen Mo poured her a bowl of soy milk and immediately followed up with instructions.

After a simple breakfast, Zhao Yu returned to the room to rest, while Chen Mo rose and headed straight for the town office.

He and Zhao Yu now lived in Zhu Niu Ji, so their household registration naturally fell here.

After walking around the town office, when he left, Chen Mo already had two red-sealed documents in his hand.

This was a Marriage Certificate; in Great Gan, when a man and woman marry, the Imperial Court issues a Marriage Certificate, stating the age and place of origin of the couple, and the date of the marriage.

This Marriage Certificate is in triplicate: one is kept on file, and the other two are given to Chen Mo and Zhao Yu respectively.

Strictly speaking, only when both the man and woman produce the Marriage Certificate can it be proven that they truly have the status of husband and wife.

But unless there is a real lawsuit, or the two parties want to divorce, or one party unfortunately dies and the other needs to take the Marriage Certificate to claim the property left behind, it is not needed most of the time.

Just like when Zhao Yu sold herself; as long as they both acknowledged it, they were husband and wife.

Returning home with the Marriage Certificate, Chen Mo could already see several cleaning maids in the courtyard, busy with household chores.

"These are the three maids I hired; our family provides food and lodging, and we pay one qian of silver per month."

Seeing Chen Mo return, Zhao Yu walked to his side and spoke softly.

Those who live on the mountain live off the mountain, and those who live by the water live off the water; Zhu Niu Ji has many Salt Mines, and most of the local people live off the Salt Mines, so their lives are quite good.

Basically, no one sells themselves as a Slave; wanting to buy maids is not easy, so they could only hire a few people.

Chen Mo did not say much and pulled her into the inner room.

"Here."

He handed one of the Marriage Certificates in his hand to Zhao Yu, who took it and began to look at it carefully.

She was actually literate, but just like Chen Mo back then, she did not know many characters; she was a bit of a novice.

And during this time, Chen Mo would occasionally teach her some characters.

As long as they were not obscure characters, Zhao Yu had no problem with simple reading and writing.

"I had already told others before that we were husband and wife; if we were to hold a wedding now, it would be somewhat inappropriate. I cannot give you a wedding for the time being.

But the Marriage Certificate and Phoenix Coronet and Rosy Dawn Robes that should be there, I will find them for you."

Chen Mo pulled her into his arms and spoke warmly.

"Mm." Zhao Yu's eyes were crystalline as she hugged Chen Mo tightly.

The two embraced for a long time before slowly separating.

Near noon, the restaurant waiter delivered the dishes Chen Mo had ordered to the residence one after another, and Zhao Yu took out silver to settle the bill.

After finishing lunch and resting at home for a short half-hour, Chen Mo gave Zhao Yu a few more instructions before leaving with a pair of large iron hammers.

Although he had been busy with official business during this time, he had already selected which Mirage Seas he would visit each month.

Ninety li east of Zhu Niu Ji, there was a town named San Jiaokou Town, and the military camp next to the town usually stationed eighty-five Soldiers.

The number was higher than the military camp in Zhu Niu Ji, but not by much, just enough for him to go and visit to improve his strength.

He would also test the strength of the Mirage Beasts inside the Mirage Sea of these eighty-plus people.

If it were relatively safe, he could visit it often in the future, or even attempt to enter Mirage Seas where more people were located.

Leaving the market behind and arriving at a sparsely populated area, Chen Mo's pace quickened.

Although he was carrying two large hammers weighing over a hundred catties each, this bit of weight was not heavy to him at all.

Therefore, Chen Mo had no intention of hiring a carriage; traveling alone was more convenient.

He deliberately controlled his speed to ensure that by the time he reached the three-way intersection military camp, the sky would be completely dark.

This military camp also had people arranged to beat gongs, but there were still many blind spots; as long as he walked into one, he could quickly sink into the Grey Mist.

And the security of this military camp was not even half a bit better than the Zhu Niu Ji military camp.

The soldiers responsible for patrolling, although carrying lanterns, suffered from night blindness due to a lack of nutrition, which meant they could see at most what was within a zhang in front of them; anything further was just pitch black.

As long as Chen Mo did not make too much noise, they might not even discover him even if he walked right past them.

Chen Mo's thoughts stirred, his Blood Qi circulated, and his eyes once again saw patches of Blood Moon.

The lantern-faced people on the side were still floating; discovering that Chen Mo was looking at them, they also continuously rushed toward Chen Mo.

However, when Chen Mo withdrew his gaze, even though he could still see the Blood Moon, those lantern-faced people acted as if they had lost their target and wandered aimlessly once again.

These lantern-faced people only discover the observer when they are being observed, and they will want to attack the observer.

It is the same regardless of the method of observation; even through the reflection of a mirror, the lantern-faced people will discover it.

According to the information he obtained from Xiaqi Valley, once a lantern-faced person succeeds in an attack, the deceased themselves will also turn into a lantern-faced person.

And the lantern-faced people that are killed do not die; they will evolve from the Mirage Sea again and continue to float in this world.

Therefore, as time passes, the number of lantern-faced people will become greater and greater, and it is impossible to ever clear them out completely.

However, the human skin dropped by these lantern-faced people also has a certain value and can be used to make certain Talismans.

But it cannot supplement the Qi and Blood for a Martial Artist, and coupled with his Inner Qi cultivation not being strong, Chen Mo did not intend to hunt these things.

As for the remaining piece of human skin in his hand, he could find an opportunity to sell it.

There was also the Dutian Great Dao Scripture that came with that set of human skin; even if he couldn't read it later, he could resell it.

Chen Mo stepped into the military camp before him, and the Grey Mist surrounded him at an extremely fast speed.

But in an instant, he arrived within the Mirage Sea.

Boundless Grey Mist surrounded him; everything here seemed very quiet.

Chen Mo further stimulated his Eye of Blood Qi to allow himself to observe more clearly.

Here, there was no need to worry about seeing the black shadow on that moon, and further stimulating the Eye of Blood Qi held no great danger.

Immediately, Chen Mo activated his own body; he had already tested the Nose Consciousness, which was far safer compared to the Eye Consciousness.

Stimulating the Nose Consciousness, he could smell many completely different scents, and each one was distinguished extremely carefully.

Even if the object or living creature emitting the scent was more than ten miles away, he could still smell it clearly.

With the help of these scents, long-range tracking and searching for enemies was the most useful.

With the activation of the Nose Consciousness, in just one breath, Chen Mo smelled thirteen types of scents.

The Mirage Spirits evolved from the Mirage Sea were all incomparably real, and even scents existed.

Thirteen different scents indicated that in this Mirage Sea, there were at least thirteen Mirage Spirits.

Following that, the Ear Consciousness was also stimulated; in the vast and boundless sea of fog, wanting to quickly find the Mirage Spirits, this was undoubtedly the fastest way.

Of course, Chen Mo was clear that within the Mirage Sea, he was not just a hunter, but also prey.

Mirage Spirits could also follow his footsteps and take the initiative to come and hunt him.

At that time, whoever was strong would be the hunter, and whoever was weak would be the prey.

Taking a step, Chen Mo searched for prey in this vast fog.

Regardless of whether the methods or forms of the vast majority of Mirage Spirits were strange, under his pair of large hammers, they only had the fate of becoming meat paste.

Chen Mo also harvested several pieces from various strange Mirage Spirits.

He even obtained an Origin True Stone, which could be considered a quite good harvest.

With these harvests, the matter of forging his own weapon could be put on the agenda.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!" The fog surged, and several sounds of heavy objects stepping on the ground came, yet it also sounded as if someone was shouting in a battle.

Chen Mo stopped to look; in the Grey Mist appeared an extremely tall figure, over a zhang in height, seven feet wide at the waist, with arms like water buckets and legs like a wild elephant.

Moreover, the whole body was wrapped in heavy armor, holding a weapon in hand, which was a giant axe the size of a door panel.

This person stood there, looking like a small iron tower, giving people an extremely strong sense of oppression.

The opponent seemed relatively normal compared to other Mirage Spirits, except for one point that was wrong: there was no head.

Only on the armor exposed at the chest was there a grey-white eyeball the size of a fist, rolling around and constantly scanning the surroundings.

"Kill!" Although he had no head, he still made a sound, roared, and swung the board axe to charge toward Chen Mo.

(End of chapter)