Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Rich Beauty Seeks a Husband

The moment everyone heard, they lit up.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course. My uncle’s wife’s younger brother’s wife’s older brother’s daughter-in-law works at the Yin family. I heard they’ve already tested all the Yin family’s male servants, and every single one got reward silver!”

“If that’s true… then why don’t we go tomorrow!”

“This brother, don’t be so hasty. For now it’s only being passed around inside the Yin family. A few noble houses close to them have gotten wind of it too, but there hasn’t been any official announcement yet… you all understand, right? The Yin family’s Eldest Miss is choosing a husband. Naturally she’ll pick someone of matching status first. Only if she can’t find one will she look outside—to strangers, and to worldly mortals like us…”

Everyone nodded hard.

“That’s only reasonable!”

After all, the Yin family’s Eldest Miss was already at mid Foundation Establishment Stage. That meant a lifespan well over five hundred years. If a mortal man married her, wouldn’t that mean she’d be leaving him behind for centuries? Cultivators might not care about reputation, but she was still a proper miss from a great family. “Married once, then married again” wasn’t exactly a nice thing to hear.

Still, none of that was what the room cared about most.

“Then when will they announce this groom-seeking to the public?”

The man puffed up, pleased as could be. “If you ask anyone else, they definitely can’t answer. Only me…”

He jabbed a finger at his own nose.

“Only someone like me, who knows the Yin family’s inside news, can tell you…”

He reached for the wine pot on the table with slow, deliberate flair—only to find it empty. He sighed and set it down with a tragic shake of the head. Someone among the listeners immediately caught on and waved the shop assistant over.

“Go, go! Bring a pot of your best wine. I’ll treat this brother!”

The shop assistant answered and ran. The speaker’s eyes brightened at once. Smiling, he clasped his hands to the man buying the drink.

“Much obliged, this brother!”

When the wine arrived, the speaker poured himself a cup, took a long, satisfied slurp, and swayed like a connoisseur finally reunited with destiny.

“Good wine!”

He put on a full performance, stretching everyone’s patience until it squealed. Only then, under a roomful of murderous stares, did he finally say, slow as molasses:

“Relax. I’ve already heard it’ll most likely be announced on the eighth day of next month.”

“The eighth of next month? Isn’t today already the twenty-seventh?”

Someone counted on their fingers. The man nodded.

“Exactly… there aren’t many days left…”

He paused, then leaned in as if sharing a secret that might explode.

“From what I know, plenty of people who heard early have already gone to the Yin family to sign up. If you don’t want to miss your chance, you can go line up in advance.”

That did it. The room stirred like a pot about to boil over. Sure, by the man’s telling, the Yin family wanted a special physique that appeared only once in ten thousand—but what if the Yin family got insanely lucky and found it in the first two days? Then everyone who arrived late would miss out on the reward silver.

Voices broke out all at once.

“Then we have to go ask around!”

“If there’s a way, we should sign up early!”

The man smiled and nodded, basking in it.

“Exactly.”

In the corner, Gu Shi Yi only sneered. She finished the food on her table in a few quick bites, left the main hall, and returned to their little room. Inside, Li Yan Er was listening to Great King’s retelling.

“They were saying the Yin family is seeking a groom,” Great King reported, “and that the Yin family’s Eldest Miss is unbelievably beautiful—perfect face, perfect figure…”

Once the serious part was done, men huddled together were never going to stop at “business.” And this time the main character was the Yin family’s Eldest Miss, a famous great-family miss in Twin Sages City—beautiful, well-born, and the kind of name people liked to roll around their mouths.

Gu Shi Yi shoved the door open and heard them mid-discussion. Her scalp tightened.

“Great King… you went out to eavesdrop?”

This wasn’t some tiny backwater where nobody noticed anything. Twin Sages City had plenty of cultivators. If Great King slipped up, it could be discovered. And if someone meant harm, she wouldn’t be able to protect it.

Great King shook its little treetop, smug as a cat who’d stolen fish and gotten away clean.

“Relax. I didn’t dare run around. There were flowers in the main hall, right? Last night when we came in, I split off a bit of spirit and attached it to one of them. The hall was packed with people, full of human presence—my tiny trace of aura won’t be noticed.”

Gu Shi Yi finally breathed out. “Good.”

Li Yan Er’s eyes were bright with curiosity. “Shi Yi, is the Yin family here really that powerful? And is their Eldest Miss truly that pretty?”

Gu Shi Yi nodded. “There’s a reason this place is called Twin Sages City. There are two great families here—one surnamed Yin, one surnamed Zhong. They’ve been rooted here for a thousand years. At first they were just small cultivator clans, but they grew, then married into each other. Over the years, the Yin and Zhong families formed three husband-and-wife pairs through marriage. The first pair advanced to Nascent Soul Stage. The second pair advanced even further, to late Nascent Soul, and I heard they’re preparing to challenge Divine Transformation Stage together. The third pair are the true stewards of Twin Sages City now, already at mid Nascent Soul… meanwhile, among the people who didn’t marry across, very few can cultivate to Nascent Soul at all.”

“So strange,” Li Yan Er murmured. “Do they have some special physique—something that makes them especially suited to become husband and wife and dual cultivate?”

Gu Shi Yi gave a cold, humorless laugh. “Special physique? That’s nonsense they feed outsiders who don’t know the truth…”

She cut herself off, stood, and cracked the door open to check the corridor. Left, right—empty. She shut it again and leaned in, lowering her voice.

“Behind Twin Sages City there’s Twin Sages Mountain. The city is named after the mountain. But a thousand years ago, that mountain wasn’t called Twin Sages Mountain. It used to be called Devil-Burial Ridge.”

Li Yan Er blinked. Even Great King stilled, as if the air itself had changed.

“This is something Old Daoist Priest dug up after he came here and asked around,” Gu Shi Yi continued. “Before he took me to hide in the mountains, he stayed in Twin Sages City for a few months. He heard there was a spirit spring in Twin Sages Mountain, and that the Two Elders of Twin Sages cultivated in it. He got the idea to sneak a look—he was hoping that spring might help him hide the aura of the Mystic Profundity Bright Mirror.”

She let out a short, incredulous breath. “But that spring was within the cave abode of two Nascent Soul cultivators. A mortal like him had no business going anywhere near it.”

And yet—

“Old Daoist Priest was the type who wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted,” Gu Shi Yi said, voice flat. “He disguised himself as a servant doing odd jobs and worked in the Zhong family for three months. Then he used some small tricks so that the servants who took turns every half month going into the mountain to attend the Two Elders kept falling sick, one after another. The Zhong family is a cultivator clan, and they didn’t notice a thing. They let him replace one of the servants and enter the mountain.”

Li Yan Er’s mouth parted. “He actually got in?”

Gu Shi Yi nodded. “He stayed half a month. When he came back, he spat and said—”

Her voice shifted, imitating the old man’s dramatic flair.

“‘Pah! I thought it was some blessed paradise, a natural spirit spring. What spirit spring? That place is clearly a Devil Clan burial ground left behind from an ancient immortal war…’”

Back in the primordial era, immortals fought, and the Devil Clan didn’t sit out—they jumped in to stir trouble too. Those events were so long ago that very few mortals knew the details now. But Old Daoist Priest had wandered for years, seen things, heard things. The moment he stepped into that place, he knew it was wrong.

“‘That land should’ve buried the corpse of a high-ranking Devil Clan,’” Gu Shi Yi quoted, “‘but after all these years the body’s long since decomposed. Still, the ground keeps traces of Devil corruption. If a righteous cultivator can come out of a place like that, then this Daoist Master will cut off his own head and let them kick it like a ball…’”

Great King let out something that sounded suspiciously like a snort.

Gu Shi Yi’s expression didn’t change. “He said he snuck into the secret realm in the middle of the night. Inside was like a maze—tunnels corroded out when that high-ranking Devil Clan died and Devil Qi overflowed. Each tunnel went down a hundred zhang, all leading deep underground. The Devil Qi has dispersed now, but a mortal body still can’t take it lightly.”

She swallowed once, then continued.

“He found writing on one cave wall. He read it carefully, and it seemed to describe a Devil Clan dual-cultivation method.”

Li Yan Er’s eyes widened. “So… they can keep producing Nascent Soul cultivators in pairs because they cultivated Devil Clan methods?”

Gu Shi Yi nodded. “Old Daoist Priest was smug about it. He said, ‘Worthy of being my apprentice,’ and then he added that the method probably had a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“In the half month he was inside,” Gu Shi Yi said quietly, “he noticed that out of the twenty people who went in with him, three went missing.”

Li Yan Er sucked in a breath.

Gu Shi Yi’s laugh was sharp. “If Devil Clan methods are cultivated by the human race, how could there not be problems? No need to wonder. It’s probably their handiwork.”

Cultivator clans treated lives like grass. If they were unhappy, tossing away a person or two was nothing. If they were cultivating Devil methods… three missing people in half a month was almost “careful.”

“And after that?” Li Yan Er asked.

“After that, they ran,” Gu Shi Yi said. “Old Daoist Priest was only a mortal. He didn’t want to be tangled up in cultivator clan business. Once he’d discovered the secret behind Twin Sages City, if he didn’t flee, he’d just be waiting to be silenced.”

It was proof, really. Even without a spirit root, Old Daoist Priest had been a rare talent—slipping in and out of a cultivator clan’s secret realm with nothing but tricks and nerve, and nobody noticed. If he’d stayed in the Mystic Profundity Sect and cultivated properly, he might’ve become their number one. He might’ve even surpassed that cheap martial nephew of his. Instead, greed had dragged him into hiding and running, year after year, wasting his gift.

Gu Shi Yi finished her story and frowned.

“So when you hear the Yin family’s Eldest Miss is seeking a husband… no matter how you look at it, it stinks of trouble.”

She thought for a beat, then waved it off. “Forget it. It’s not our business. Even if it’s a spectacle, don’t go. Keeping your head down is safer.”

Old Daoist Priest used to say it all the time: the ones who died on the road were the ones too quick with their mouths and hands. When trouble came, the best survival skill was knowing how to hide.

Li Yan Er and Great King both understood. Their curiosity cooled fast.

They stayed another day in Twin Sages City. On the second day, Gu Shi Yi went out to buy supplies and found the streets oddly crowded. She grabbed a roasted sweet potato vendor and asked what was going on. The vendor grinned and gave her a once-over.

“This young fellow looks strong,” he said. “Why not go try your luck too?”

“Try what?” Gu Shi Yi asked, playing dumb.

“The Yin family is seeking a groom,” the vendor said, delighted to explain. “Word got out, so half the unmarried men in the city have already gone to sign up. Young fellow, are you married or not? Why not register too? They’ll test your physique. Even if you don’t get into the Yin family, you can still take home silver!”

His gaze slid over Gu Shi Yi’s chest, bold as daylight.

“You’re tall, too. Those chest muscles are solid. You a fighter?”

Gu Shi Yi burst out laughing and thumped her chest. “Naturally. I trained these. But… I’m already married. At home… my wife won’t allow it.”

The vendor immediately treated her like a fellow traveler and stuffed a roasted sweet potato into her hands.

“Ah, brother,” he sighed, full of worldly wisdom, “when you marry a wife, looks don’t matter. Temper does. You can’t marry one that’s too fierce. If you could marry someone like the Yin family’s Eldest Miss—beautiful as a flower, gentle and virtuous, and a cultivator too—that’s the kind of blessing you earn in eight lifetimes!”

Gu Shi Yi raised her brows. “Brother, you’ve seen the Yin family’s Eldest Miss?”

“I’ve sold sweet potatoes on this street seven, eight years,” the man said proudly. He lifted a soot-black finger and pointed ahead. “The Yin family residence is right there. Sometimes Eldest Miss Yin comes back to the city and passes along this road. I’ve seen her twice.”

“Oh?” Gu Shi Yi leaned in, as if she were a devoted listener. “Then she’s really as stunning as people say? The kind of beauty that makes fish sink and geese fall?”

The vendor laughed. “Absolutely. I saw it with my own eyes. She’s so pretty my wife could reincarnate a hundred and twenty times and still wouldn’t catch up to a single hair of hers…”

He thought for a moment, then hesitated. “But…”

“But what?” Gu Shi Yi asked.

“She’s too pretty,” he said, lowering his voice as if discussing something sacred. “She doesn’t look quite like… a normal person.”

“You mean like an immortal maiden?”

The vendor shook his head slowly. “She does look like an immortal maiden, sure, but… it’s like the bodhisattvas in temples. She’s missing… missing a bit of human warmth.”

He brightened at once, eager to correct himself before fate struck.

“But no matter what, Eldest Miss Yin is wonderful. Especially wonderful-looking. Anyway, she’s better-looking than my wife—”

“Mm.” Gu Shi Yi took another bite of sweet potato, eyes turning distant. “Brother, how about you pick a few softer ones for me? I’ll buy a few.”

The vendor beamed. He hurriedly wrapped several in oiled paper. While taking her coins, he asked, “Brother, are you buying these for lunch?”

Gu Shi Yi shook her head solemnly. “No. I just thought you probably won’t be able to do business later today, so I’ll buy a few from you.”

Before the vendor could ask what she meant, someone behind him seized his ear in a vicious pinch. A rough voice snapped, loud enough for the whole street:

“What did you just say? Your wife can reincarnate a hundred and twenty times and still wouldn’t catch up to a single hair of hers?”

A heartbeat later, the street filled with Sweet Potato Brother’s screams. Gu Shi Yi hunched her shoulders, hugged her warm loot, and hurried away.

When she passed the Yin family gate, she saw a long, long line—already stretching from inside the residence out into the street.