By the time Tianqi Yu reached the Heavenly Ascent Sect’s plaza, elders and disciples already dotted the flagstones like scattered stars.

No wonder; the visitors hailed from the Immortal Realm, lineage like carved jade seals, cultivation towering at the Great Vehicle Stage, a peak mortals rarely glimpse.

The Heavenly Ascent Sect dared not slight such guests; even the seldom-seen sect master lowered his summit-high pride, standing to greet them like a pine bowed by snow.

Silence pooled like cold water. Curiosity burned at the edges like foxfire, yet the power gap yawned like a black ravine, and no one dared whisper.

“Mortal, you’re late.” At the center, the white-robed leader lifted his chin, a hawk’s glance slicing at Tianqi Yu like steel.

His tone drifted cool as frost, yet it carried threads of Great Vehicle might, like thunder grumbling behind thin clouds.

Dao-given luck sheathed Tianqi Yu like rainproof lacquer, so the pressure slid off him like water off stone.

The elders and disciples suffered instead; Spirit Energy frayed like tangled silk, minds skidding toward deviation like carts on ice.

“Honored immortals, you didn’t cross ten thousand li just to punish me, did you?” Tianqi Yu drew back his gaze like a sheathed blade.

His breath stayed level, spine straight as bamboo before mountains of cultivation that loomed like storm cliffs.

“For a mortal, your bearing isn’t bad.” The leader didn’t bristle; he flicked a hand, sleeve spilling a white sheet glowing faint gold, like dawn on snow.

“A decree. The Emperor Immortal prepared a marriage contract for you. If nothing else binds you, depart now, like a boat catching tide.”

“What?!” A marriage contract?

As the words fell, elders and disciples reeled like reeds in a sudden gale, shock rippling across faces like wind on a lake.

Immortal envoys had descended to arrange a match for Tianqi Yu—by the Emperor Immortal no less, a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Even Tianqi Yu’s face shifted, a ripple on still water. “Why would the Emperor Immortal play matchmaker for me?”

Suspicion rose first, heavy as wet sand, before thought could settle; did they know a secret buried under his feet?

He hadn’t earned imperial favor. He had no wish to knot his path in cords of love; women were complications, mist that clings to sleeves.

So a betrothal from on high scraped his mind like flint, sparks of doubt falling into dry grass.

“By Heaven’s drift,” the white robe said, words clipped like stone chips. “Born in the mundane, yet you bore great fortune in the Immortal Realm before ascension.”

“The Emperor Immortal offers this marriage to smooth your path, like paving frost-slick steps with straw.”

“And who is this Azure Crow Fairy?” Tianqi Yu hadn’t seen the name in any ancient page, not even dust-laden scrolls.

“You also know this. A mortal bearing Great Luck splits it when paired,” he said, voice calm as a still pond. “How is that smoothing?”

Suspicion spread like ink in water. They’d scented the luck he’d hauled down like a comet, and staged a play to skim a share.

“Didn’t expect a mortal so young to know so much.” The white robe spared him a second glance, quick as a knife flash.

“You’re right—if only one bears Great Luck, it splits like a cracked mirror. When both are Heaven’s chosen, the woman transfers half to the man.”

“The remainder scatters on the wind like seeds, seeding future bearers across the world, rain for later springs.”

“So if this marriage concludes, no matter your children, in your generation your luck will align with mandate like a river finding sea.”

“Why would the Emperor Immortal gift me such a woman?” He had mapped the gains and losses like a go board in moonlight.

“If it’s just to curry favor for my luck, save it. I don’t befriend on debt hooks, even if they glitter like gold.”

“Heh. You mortals overthink,” the leader said, tone cool as a moonlit blade. “I won’t repeat myself; swallow the rest like bitter tea.”

“Miss the auspicious hour, and blame falls like hail; neither of us can bear it without cracks.”

Immortal might surged from him like a white tide, foam piling high, pressing against Tianqi Yu like the sea at a cliff.

“Go. Don’t keep the Azure Crow Fairy waiting,” he said, words sharp as a hooked star.

To be honest, Nana Toki had never imagined the brazen Protagonist Lord would try to steal a woman right off her doorstep, like a magpie snatching a jewel.

Steal was one thing—pit charm against charm under a clear sky—but the bastard skipped courtesy and went straight to grab, like a bandit kicking a door.

The instant he saw Blue Magpie behind Nana Toki, he fired every trick like a quiver emptied, lunging to seize her as if she were unclaimed mist.

He didn’t even put Nana Toki, the legit spouse, in his eyes; he looked past her like smoke in sun.

“Are you kidding me? Of all the women in the world, you come for my idiot? Did your brain fall in a latrine?”

After using the System as a meat shield to block a Great Vehicle blast, Nana Toki jabbed a finger at Tianqi Yu in the sky like a spear.

“You moron, if you’ve got guts, get down here! Let me beat you dead right now and end this farce!”

She’d been in the middle of tempering, fire steady as a kiln; they popped out like ghosts, spooked her, then tried to haul Blue Magpie off to marry Tianqi Yu.

Who could swallow that? Anyone’s temper would ignite like dry pine.

“Azure An, you think this peak master wants to marry a woman who can’t count to ten?” Tianqi Yu’s words cracked like ice.

“If not for my future path, I wouldn’t look twice at your stupid sister,” he added, pride standing like a spear in snow.

That kind of straight trash talk draws hate like blood draws sharks; almost before Nana Toki finished, Tianqi Yu’s face darkened like stormcloud.

Damn it, this marriage wasn’t his idea; he’d thought the Azure Crow Fairy was some lofty mystery like a moon behind clouds.

Turned out it was those two damn sisters who kept crossing him, a twist sour as vinegar in his gut.

“Can’t stand her but still want to force a wedding? Why not drop dead!” Nana Toki’s fury crackled like a brushfire.

“Quit yapping and get down here so I can kill you, you bastard!” she shouted, voice like a gong.

If her strength allowed, she’d already have flown up to cut down the Protagonist Lord, blade-first and no ceremony.

“Host, calm down! If this wheel fight keeps spinning, we’ll be the first to break,” the System said, voice quivering like a kettle lid.

“I can feel more Immortal Realm Spirit Energy closing in like storm fronts. And Tun-jie can’t endure a long fight without her body burning out.”

“Afraid of what?” Her anger blazed, iron in her blood singing like a forge; the Protagonist Lord tried to steal her wife—who could endure that?

“I never stole his heroine. Why does Tianqi Yu get to steal my woman?” she snarled, words like thrown stones.

“Have Tun-jie grab Blue Magpie and run. I’ll butcher these idiots, then rendezvous,” she said, plan snapping into place like a drawn bow.

System: “...” The host only loses her head over Nesting Phoenix, huh, it thought, a sigh like a thin reed in wind.

“Enough chatter. Let’s go greet these idiots,” Nana Toki said, stepping forward like a blade leaving the scabbard.

If the Protagonist Lord wouldn’t come down, she’d go up and knock on heaven’s door.

“Eh?” the System managed, thought still lagging like a lantern in fog, when its collar tightened and the world blurred like rain.

By the time it focused, Nana Toki had rammed it right into the faces of Great Vehicle cultivators like a thrown shield.

Forced to tank raw pressure with its body, the System fell silent, a flat ellipsis hanging like a dead fish.

“Damn you for trying to snatch a woman! Damn you for trying to cuck me in broad daylight!” Nana Toki roared, voice like a drumline.

“If I don’t thrash you today, you can call it luck from rotten gods!” she spat, eyes bright as sparks.

Her Colossal Axe whirled wide arcs, a black moon sweeping fields; though she swung one-armed, her ferocity sent white-robed Great Vehicle experts stumbling back like leaves before wind.

“What monsters are these two women?” voices cracked, fear crawling like cold ants.

One, with only Nascent Soul and a strange Black Great Axe, ripped Great Vehicle Spirit defenses like silk under a knife.

The other showed not a wisp of Spirit Energy, yet blocked every Spirit strike like a cliff against waves.

If these two grew to full height, they’d stride the Three Realms sideways, like crabs across the tide line.

“Leave these two to me,” the white-robed leader said, eyes sinking like stones in a well. “The rest of you chase the Azure Crow Fairy.”

“I don’t care who falls today like stars from a torn sky. Bring her reincarnated vessel back to the Immortal Realm.”

His hands rose like a sky-hook lifting the moon; in the next breath, a forest of phantom arms bloomed before Nana Toki like a sudden grove.

Fist-seals hammered down like rain, each blow packed with roaring Spirit force, explosions coiled inside like thunderheads.

Boom—

The blast cracked the air like a thunderclap, shaking the earth into a shiver; mountains shattered like pottery, and even the riverbed sank like a collapsed lung.