Chapter 191 : Mingzhu’s Troubles
Chapter 191: Mingzhu’s Troubles
The moment Mingzhu unfolded the letter, she felt a chill shoot straight up her spine.
The fingertips holding the paper turned slightly pale, and she nearly tore the absurd letter to shreds on the spot. When Long Tao leaned over and read the contents clearly, he too looked completely caught off guard.
“This… this is way too rushed, isn’t it?” Long Tao blurted out uncontrollably. “We’ve only been in this damn place for three days!”
Du Yiluo had somehow approached them silently at some unknown moment. Tilting her head, she finished reading the contents of the letter, and the smile on her face grew even more flamboyant.
“Congratulations, congratulations! Looks like your parents are even more anxious than you two are.”
Mingzhu shot her a vicious glare, yet the tips of her ears flushed red despite herself.
She forced herself to stay calm as she folded the letter, her voice still cool, though it carried an almost imperceptible tremor.
“This is clearly forcing us to…”
“Fulfill your marital obligations,” Du Yiluo said with a grin, cutting in cheerfully. Her crimson pupils sparkled with the gleam of a successful prank. “I told you before—this village doesn’t give you an identity for free. Since you’ve hung up the husband-and-wife nameplate, you have to act like a real married couple.”
She cast a teasing glance at Long Tao, her smile deepening.
“Besides, the only one being forced here is probably you, Mingzhu. I bet Long Tao here is secretly quite happy about it.”
Hearing that, Mingzhu immediately threw another glare like a flying dagger at Long Tao. Seeing the expression on his face—trying to laugh but not daring to, deliberately putting on a conflicted act—only made her even angrier.
She was a dignified Golden Core Great Perfection cultivator who had lived eight hundred years. Yet here she was, in this damned place, being forced to pretend to be husband and wife with a Qi Refining disciple—and worse, they might even have to carry out the act for real. It truly felt like a tiger fallen to the plains being bullied by dogs.
She would rather have been teleported into some perilous Secret Realm, fighting her way out with Long Tao through endless dangers, than remain in this bizarre place.
“Oh, come on, Mingzhu!” Du Yiluo said deliberately in an exaggerated tone. “Look on the bright side. A Golden Core cultivator like you would normally have great difficulty having offspring, right? Now that you’ve become a mortal, maybe you can finally have a child of your own. Isn’t that something to be happy about?”
“A… biological… child…?”
I still have to give birth to a child!?
The sudden realization struck Mingzhu so hard that she felt dizzy. She had originally assumed that the talk in the letter about “holding grandchildren” was merely an excuse to force her and Long Tao into the bridal chamber. But now it seemed that she might actually conceive a child?
What she found even harder to accept was that, upon hearing the word “child,” a faint ripple of emotion had actually appeared in her heart.
She had been a genius since childhood. Although she was not as outrageous as True Person Zhiying, she had still formed a Top-Grade Golden Core in her forties and was considered a prodigy. Because of that, matters between men and women were practically a blank page in her life.
When she was young, she had focused entirely on cultivation and never had the mind for such things. By the time she reached the Golden Core stage and thought she might finally enjoy life a little, she discovered that there were no suitable men around her.
Even her parents had stopped urging her to marry by then. After all, the greatest wish of parents was for their children to live safely through life. For an immortal woman destined to live over a thousand years, what was the point of urging marriage? The entire extended family combined might not even live as long as she would alone.
But if someone asked whether she wanted a lover and a child, she herself did not really know.
Her first three personally transmitted disciples had all failed to form the Golden Core and died when their lifespans ran out. That had made her emotions increasingly distant and indifferent, and she had become even less willing to grow close to others.
It was not until her fourth personally transmitted disciple—her current eldest disciple, Su Muzhi—successfully formed her Golden Core that Mingzhu slowly regained a sense of familial warmth. Over time, the relationship between them evolved into something special: part master and disciple, part mother and daughter, and even a hint of sisterhood.
She had thought that she no longer needed the kind of blood ties and emotional anchors that mortals valued.
Yet just now, upon hearing that she might truly give birth to a child, she still felt a slight emotional fluctuation.
Long Tao had once told her that she carried a certain maternal aura around her.
Could it be… that deep down, she still longed for a child?
No. Impossible. She had lived for eight hundred years—surely she could control such impulses. She was not some mortal woman…
Wait…
Suddenly, Mingzhu realized something.
Her body had turned into that of a mortal. Perhaps her thoughts and state of mind had been affected as well.
Yes… that had to be it.
How could she possibly want a child?
While True Person Mingzhu was lost in her chaotic thoughts, Long Tao raised a far more practical question.
“If someone gives birth to a child in this place… what would happen?”
“No idea.” Du Yiluo shrugged. “I’ve never seen it happen. Besides, people trapped here usually don’t live that long anyway—they don’t even make it through a pregnancy.”
She delivered the cruelest truth in the most casual tone, and both of the others’ expressions dimmed.
Only then did Du Yiluo seem to notice the unusually heavy atmosphere beneath the Banyan Tree. She turned her head and asked,
“By the way, why do those kids look so dejected today? What happened?”
Long Tao briefly explained what had happened to Ji Boxiao.
After listening, the smile on Du Yiluo’s face also disappeared.
“Sigh… that foolish kid.” She let out a soft sigh. “In a place like this, how could the way out be so easy to find? There are only eight of them left now. Who knows how long they can last?”
Originally, Long Tao had also thought this group of young people would not last long. But after speaking at length with Shi Wenyuan earlier, he had changed his mind.
Most of those who had died before either did not understand the rules or had actively sought death like Ji Boxiao in their eagerness to escape. But those who had grown up in an environment close to an apocalypse probably possessed mental resilience stronger than one might expect.
If they truly chose to play it safe, they might be able to survive here for a very long time.
From the way Yingxia—who had impulsively fired an arrow earlier—had quickly swallowed her pride and apologized to Mingzhu, it was clear that this group knew when to bend and when to yield.
“Forget it. I’ll go comfort them. As for you two—take your time discussing what position you’re going to use tonight, hehe… happy little couple.”
Before Mingzhu could even flare up in anger, Du Yiluo had already run off laughing toward the group of young people. No one knew what she said to them, but the atmosphere gradually seemed to improve.
Meanwhile, Mingzhu had completely lost the mood to wander outside. She stormed back alone in irritation, while Long Tao could only follow behind, not knowing what to say.
However, when the two of them returned to the small courtyard, they discovered that the strange Village Chief was already waiting at the entrance.
The kindly smile on his face now looked not only frightening, but also somewhat punchable.
“Village Chief, is there something you need?”
“You two have been married for quite a few days now, haven’t you? As you can see, our village population has always been small. The government has been urging us to increase birth rates. You two are both young—one eighteen, the other eight hundred. Both are perfect ages for childbearing! You should hurry and expand the family and add more people to the village, haha.”
Long Tao and Mingzhu were both completely speechless.
The strangeness of this village was not only reflected in its bizarre rules, but also in the speaking style of this Village Chief.
Eight hundred years old, good for childbearing, and young—how could those words even appear in the same sentence?
Although most things in the village were twisted into ordinary mortal forms, the fact that a “young woman” could be eight hundred years old—something completely beyond mortal common sense—was still spoken by him in the most natural tone possible, which only made it feel even more eerie.
However, both of them knew that this was merely another way for the Village Chief to remind them to fulfill their marital obligations—just like the letter earlier.
So they simply responded perfunctorily and did not take it too seriously.
After confirming their Nameplate and preparing to enter the house, the Village Chief’s voice suddenly rang out again behind them.
“Wait!”
Both of them were startled, because this time the Village Chief’s tone was no longer leisurely and relaxed, but strangely urgent.
They turned back at the same time—and were immediately shocked.
The Village Chief was no longer wearing his usual calm and kindly puppet-like expression.
Instead, he was sprawled on the ground, his face twisted in pain as he tried to crawl toward them. Yet it seemed as though some force was restraining him, making every inch of movement unbearably difficult.
“Wait! I… I have something to say… it’s about… le– le– leaving this place… the me– me– tho—AAAH!!”
Before he could finish the sentence, the Village Chief—who now seemed far more like a real person—appeared to suffer even greater agony. His entire face twisted and contorted, yet he still struggled desperately to continue speaking.