My Host Only Marries the Strong

Echo walked up the snow-covered mountain path toward the Taiyan Sect, her arms full of wildflowers, with Yu Xuefeitrailing somewhere behind her.

The vast sky stretched endlessly above, where an eagle soared with wings spread wide, its cry echoing through the mountains.

Echo tilted her head back, following the bird’s silhouette until it disappeared.

When she looked down again, Yu Xuefei had gotten far ahead of her.

She thought: Since our conversation, Yu Xuefei has been deep in thought. She seems excited about something.

Humans really are complicated creatures.

A system isn’t complicated. A system currently wants to build a snowman!

Echo’s heart secretly blossomed with the idea. She tucked the flowers into her storage ring and crouched down right there on the path, playing with the snow.

Her silver-white hair fell around her like a curtain, almost blending into the surrounding snows cape.

Yu Xuefei was walking ahead, laughing softly behind her hand, when she realized Echo wasn’t following.

She turned back to find Senior Sister Xi completely absorbed in her project on the mountain path, and called out her name.

Echo didn’t look up, calling out loudly: “You go ahead. I’m busy right now!”

She, Xi Lingren, was making another friend for Xi Snowmen and Coco.

Come to think of it, after she and Seraphine advanced to the second round of the Five Continents Competition, they’d gone straight to the Insight Academy Palace.

She wondered how Xi Snowmen and Coco were doing back at Luanyang Palace.

If she and Seraphine ended up together, Coco would be her child too. Making a few extra snowmen for her future child to play with wasn’t unreasonable, right?

Echo’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

Yu Xuefei stood there with a thousand words burning in her chest, desperate to share her thoughts.

She considered that Senior Sister Xi’s cultivation level was above hers, and they were on Taiyan Sect territory where nothing could go wrong, so she said: “Senior Sister Xi, I’ll head back to work on my alchemy. Remember, we’re staying at Azure Cloud Peak—Senior Sister Feng arranged quarters for us there. Come find us when you’re done, okay?”

“Sure, sure.” Echo nodded, waving at Yu Xuefei without looking up.

Yu Xuefei smiled warmly, took out her flying artifact, and rushed off—unaware of what she was missing.

The world suddenly fell quiet around Echo. She lowered her eyes, her fingers—pink from the cold snow—carefully patting and shaping until the snowball formed a perfect sphere.

She smiled in satisfaction, raised her hand to her lips, and blew on it. Then she carefully selected the most vibrant red flower from her storage ring to crown her heartfelt creation.

“You’re so pretty, I’ll call you Little Phoenix.” Echo decided.

She then crafted a companion holding a tiny wooden stick, Little Echo. She studied her work critically.

The two friends were holding hands—no, Echo carefully reconsidered, found a red string in her storage ring, and tied the two little snowmen together.

“You are best friends who are going to get married together in the wedding hall.”

Perfect!

Echo spent over half an hour crouched on that mountain path. When she finally stood up, her nose was pink from the cold wind.

She circulated her spiritual energy to warm her body, then carefully cradled her snowman couple as she headed up the mountain.

Looking down at the little figures in her palms made her heart feel warm and fuzzy.

When Echo reached the Taiyan Sect’s mountain gate, the guards recognized her immediately—after all, cultivators with her distinctive hair color and refined features weren’t exactly common.

After they paid their respects, one Taiyan Sect disciple said: “Senior, an envoy from Luanyang Palace arrived not long ago. They should be in the main hall discussing matters.”

An envoy from Luanyang Palace?

Echo was curious, so she said thank you and flew toward the main hall.

The meeting was just ending when she arrived. Echo stood outside, observing the expressions of everyone filing out.

Being stared at by Echo’s clear, direct gaze made several people who’d been planning to approach her stop short. They scratched their heads and hurried away instead.

Echo watched them go with a perfectly neutral expression until someone called out loudly: “Fellow Daoist Xi!”

Echo turned to see an unfamiliar man approaching. “And you are?”

He laughed heartily. “Zhao Qingcheng, the Lord of Sunset Glow City, is my family head—and my wife. I’m ZhaoHangyi’s father.”

He produced an extremely long golden scroll from his storage ring, presenting it to Echo with a beaming smile.

“During the second round of the competition, I was away on business and couldn’t properly congratulate Fellow DaoistXi and Palace Lord Velka on winning the Five Continents Championship.”

“When I heard you were visiting the Taiyan Sect, my family head specifically sent me to deliver this gift.”

“She also declared that from now on, whenever you two visit any Sunset Glow City business, we’ll give you a 2% discount on everything!”

The Xi Lingren and Seraphine Velka championship victory was still the talk of every cultivator.

Zhao Qingcheng was practically dancing with joy—as the house that took all bets, Sunset Glow City had made a fortune.

She’d been so excited she’d added an extra egg to her dinner, then spent considerable time calculating the perfect terms to curry favor with the champions.

Echo accepted the scroll. “Thank you.” Looking at the man’s slightly pained expression, she said sincerely, “That’s really wonderful.”

Zhao Hangyi’s father nodded, his face a mixture of pride and regret. That’s a 2% discount, a 2% discount!

But then Echo surprised him by adding: “I really like how you said ‘my wife’ That sounds nice.”

“?” The man’s pained expression shifted to confusion.

“Peak Master Yan, hello there!” Echo spotted someone approaching behind him.

Yan Qingluan, the peak master of Benevolent Central Peak at Luanyang Palace, walked over with a respectful bow.

Despite her naturally stern appearance, she managed a slight smile. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. I came looking for Fellow Daoist Xi.”

“No problem at all, Peak Master Yan. I’ve long heard of your name.” Zhao Hangyi’s father said courteously.

Yan Qingluan smiled briefly—choosing not to dwell on whether his so-called ‘long’ acquaintance was only as long as this very meeting.

She went directly to her point: “Palace Lord Velka and Fellow Daoist Xi entering the Insight Academy Palace is cause for great celebration. City Lord Zhao is being quite generous, but……”

“But……the Academy doesn’t allow students to leave freely. Who knows when those two will emerge? Why don’t you transfer Palace Lord Velka’s share of that discount to Luanyang Palace instead?”

She smiled slightly at Zhao Hangyi’s father’s raised eyebrows. “Luanyang Palace has extensive holdings and a large family to feed. We have thousands of disciples, inner and outer, with diverse needs. Sunset Glow City’s Immortal Ascension Commerce Association network spans all five continents. If Luanyang Palace and Sunset Glow City were to cooperate……”

Zhao Hangyi’s father matched her smile. “That’s not a decision I can make alone. I’d have to discuss it with my family head.”

“Good things are worth waiting for.” Yan Qingluan laughed.

Zhao Hangyi’s father laughed too.

Echo looked between them and decided to join in. “Hahaha.”

The other two couldn’t help but grin at Echo’s earnest participation. Zhao Hangyi’s father, knowing Yan Qingluan had business with Echo, excused himself with promises of future meetings.

Once he left, Yan Qingluan’s smile faded and her mouth returned to its natural downward curve.

Whoa!

“Your expression right now is very un-Siyi-like.” Echo observed.

“……” Yan Qingluan stared at Echo.

“When I was managing Luanyang Palace, that little brat was still crying on Phoenix Roost peak!” she snorted coldly.

Wait, Siyi used to cry?

“I don’t believe you.” Echo said immediately. “Tell me more details.”

Yan Qingluan clasped her hands behind her back, glanced at Echo, and smiled. “Elder Si is now a student of the Insight Academy Palace. How could I dare speak carelessly about her?”

“But back to business—I came here on Elder Siyue’s orders to discuss matters with the Taiyan Sect. Unfortunately, I sat through hours of their bickering and scheming without hearing a single coherent plan!”

Each one’s cultivation level rises along with their talent for underhanded tactics, she thought grimly.

If demons attacked tomorrow, half these people would probably spend the battle arguing about proper procedures.

She mentally scoffed, then addressed Echo directly. “I’m looking for you to pass along a message to the Palace Lord.”

“Please go ahead.”

Yan Qingluan paused, seeming to choose her words carefully. “Earlier, the Palace Lord ordered me to escort that useless Xue Bushui back to the Xue family and consolidate the Lianshan Sect while I was at it.”

“But when I arrived at Lianshan Sect, I found their sect leader—Xue Bushui’s father—dead. Died suddenly. The rest of the sect panicked, grabbed whatever they could carry, and scattered to the winds. No one even stayed to bury the old bastard.”

“I examined his spiritual veins carefully but found nothing suspicious. No idea how he died.”

“Understood. I’ll pass that along to Seraphine.”

“And Xue Bushui?”

Yan Qingluan kept her hands clasped behind her back. “He was scared witless, meek as a quail. Since the Palace Lord had spared his life and he was connected to Old Lady Xue’s bloodline, I couldn’t just kill him arbitrarily.”

“I brought him back and found him a family in a small village outside Luanyang City. I gave him twenty silver coins and arranged for him to marry into that family as a live-in son-in-law.”

“Though his spiritual root is destroyed, he did cultivate for over a decade. He’s got a decent face and stronger bones than ordinary mortals.”

“If he stays honest and works hard, he can eat for the rest of his life. If he doesn’t……” Yan Qingluan’s tone grew cold. “Well, that’s beyond our concern.”

Something in her expression suggested old memories. “People make their own paths. As long as you don’t die, you can survive somehow.”

Echo blinked. “Marry into…… live-in son-in-law, huh?”

Yan Qingluan glanced at Echo. “Speaking of which, that man from earlier—City Lord Zhao’s husband came from nothing, had a rough background. He married into Sunset Glow City and now lives quite well.”

“Oh!” Echo said. “Are you giving me advice? Suggesting I should marry into? Thanks for the tip!”

After all, she didn’t have any assets in this world either! She was basically living off the allowance Seraphine gave her.

Yan Qingluan: ???

What advice? What suggestion?

She stared at Echo in complete bewilderment, then found something cold shoved toward her face—a pair of snowmen tied together with red string.

“If you’re heading back to Luanyang Palace, please take this snowman couple to Phoenix Roost Peak and put them with the other little snowman and ceramic dolls. Just tell the palace servants—they’ll know where they go,” Echo smiled warmly. “Thank you.”

“……” Yan Qingluan accepted the childish snowmen, glanced toward the main hall, and thought wearily: What’s wrong with everyone?

The people in there are all scheming manipulators, but this Xi Lingren doesn’t seem to have a single devious bone in her body.

Building snowmen? What Soul Transformation cultivator has time for snowmen?

She held up the figures for inspection, shaking her head in disdain.

And they’re so small.

Tsk.

Unaware of her thoughts, Echo opened the gift scroll from Zhao Hangyi’s father.

It was even larger than any she’d seen before, and when she unrolled it across the plaza in front of the main hall, it gleamed gold in the light.

Someone curious enough to fly up for a better look could see elegant, flowing calligraphy spelling out “Attract Wealth and Good Fortune” in characters larger than Echo’s entire body.

“How much money did they send to Sunset Glow City for this!” someone exclaimed in admiration.

“Really impressive.” Echo murmured, genuinely awed. As a little system who still couldn’t write human characters with proper form, seeing calligraphy with strokes four times her size filled her with deep respect.

She’ll show this to Seraphine tonight!

“Peak Master Yan, please make sure you get those snowmen back safely. They’re very important to me,” Echo handed Yan Qingluan a small handful of jade pearls. “Thank you for your help.”

“……Unnecessary!” Yan Qingluan’s face twitched. She placed the snowmen in a jade box, sealed it with a technique, then departed with a cold snort.

Echo waved gratefully at her retreating figure, satisfied that she’d accomplished something important. Then she spent the rest of the day leisurely exploring the Taiyan Sect.

The scenery was beautiful. All the major immortal sects were built in places with abundant spiritual energy.

The snow-covered mountains stretched endlessly, dotted with hardy pines and spiritual flowers that sparkled like stars against the white landscape. She picked a few choice blooms to add to her collection.

Throughout her wandering, she observed everyone she encountered. The demon cultivation crisis hung over their heads like storm clouds, but Echo was the only one strolling around carefree, stuffing plump pine cones into her sleeves as souvenirs for friends.

By the time she reached Azure Cloud Peak, it was already dark. But with snow covering everything, it never gets completely pitch black.

She whistled a little tune as she entered the courtyard, greeting the tall pine tree in the center before glancing toward the guest room with its lit window.

Yu Xuefei sat at her desk, completely absorbed in her work. She was so focused she didn’t even notice Echo’s arrival. Echo gave her a thumbs up through the window, then headed to her own room.

She took out a piece of letter paper and drew two stick figures holding hands. On the stick arms, she carefully added tiny bow ties with the finest lines she could manage.

She needs to be subtle—can’t make them into red silk bridal balls just yet.

“One is me, one is Seraphine. Seraphine is really smart, so she’ll definitely understand what I mean!” Echo smiled, pressing the brush handle to her forehead and whispering, “How embarrassing!”