Chapter 59: Matters of Marriage
Yang Xu sat cross-legged on the East side of the training ground.
He held a gourd in his right hand, and a red fan in his left.
All of a sudden, he closed his fan, took a sip from his gourd, and then shouted, "stop for a while."
Yu Nianzhen heard his master’s voice and immediately stopped.
He put his sword away and straightened his clothes before walking toward his master.
"Master." He greeted and bowed.
Yang Xu looked at his disciple and sighed.
Since returning from the war, Yu Nianzhen had trained tirelessly.
In the first week, he broke through to the sixth origin forging realm.
After two months, he comprehended sword intent and refined his body and soul.
Yang Xu did not know what refinement techniques his disciple used, but he didn’t need to know to realise that they were extraordinary.
At the origin forging realm, Yu Nianzhen’s body was comparable to a qi transformation realm cultivator.
Even his qi had transformed ahead of time.
As his master, Yang Xu was happy but at the same time worried.
At first, the sect didn’t pay attention to Yu Nianzhen because his cultivation was low compared to Jiang Yue and other sect geniuses.
However, that had changed when he ranked first during the war.
Although being noticed was a good thing for most disciples, it wasn’t for Yu Nianzhen.
If Nianzhen was another elder’s disciple, things would be much easier.
Unfortunately...
Yang Xu clenched his hands and looked at his disciple.
"Take a seat."
Yu Nianzhen did as he was told and sat across from his master.
"This is what you asked for."
Yang Xu removed something from his storage ring and handed it over.
Yu Nianzhen grabbed the wooden box and lightly caressed it.
He was about to open it when Yang Xu reached over and stopped him.
"Nianzhen..." Yang Xu sighed, and his face was very complicated.
"Master?"
Yu Nianzhen could tell that something was on his master’s mind.
However, he didn’t rush the man and waited patiently for the other to speak.
"From the beginning, your mind has never wavered about disciple Jiang. I can tell that your mind is made up."
Yu Nianzhen frowned when he heard that.
He didn’t expect that his master wanted to speak about his relationship with Jiang Yue.
However, he didn’t interject and only looked at his master solemnly.
Yang Xu sighed again and then began to speak.
"Your master has a fiancée."
Yu Nianzhen looked at his master in surprise.
They had lived together for five years, but this was the first time he heard anything about a fiancé.
However, he didn’t ask any questions and waited for his master to get to the point.
"She is less than five hundred, but she is already an origin tempering realm cultivator."
Yang Xu clenched his hands when he said this.
His eyes were looking at a distant image, and a trace of sadness flashed in his eyes before he suppressed it.
"Look at this."
He threw a jade tablet, and Yu Nianzhen hastily caught it.
He sunk his consciousness into the jade and quickly scanned it.
As he read, he realised that the jade tablet was an invitation to a birthday party held by the Ice Palace.
Like the Sea Cloud Sect, the Ice palace was a regional ruler.
It was located in the Northern part of the Cangxing world, and all its disciples cultivated ice based techniques.
From what Yu Nianzhen knew, the Sea Cloud sect and the Ice Palace were relatively equal in strength.
"In ten years, the Ice palace master will turn four thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine years. This invivation to celebrate her birthday has been sent to all notable sects, and cultivators in our Cangxing world." Yang Xu said.
However, the birthday party was not so simple.
The party doubled as a conference that would last for seven days.
On the first day, the palace master would receive gifts and celebrate her birthday.
On the remaining days, cultivators from around the world would compete to gain resources unique to the Ice region.
However, this was not all.
The top ten winners of the contest would be allowed to marry selected Ice palace disciples.
"They gave me a little face by including other disciples as prizes."
Yu Nianzhen immediately understood what was happening.
His master’s fiancee was a core disciple of the Ice palace.
Because his master’s realm had fallen, the Ice Palace wanted to break the engagement.
However, they had some scruples and didn’t turn their face crudely.
By holding the martial contest, the fiancée could naturally be handed over to another cultivator with better prospects.
"Master..."
Yang Xu lifted his hand and stopped Yu Nianzhen from saying anything.
"Do you understand what I want to say?"
Yu Nianzhen looked at the wooden box in his hands, and his hand tightened around it.
He took the top rank in the war, and as agreed, the sect had given him a place token.
As planned, Yang Xu had sold the token for one million low-grade spirit stones in the underground market.
After collecting the spirit stones, Yang Xu gave them to his disciple.
However, Yu Nianzhen did not keep them.
Although spirit stones were useful for cultivation, he didn’t need them for the time being.
More than cultivation, Yu Nianzhen wanted to do something for Jiang Yue.
Since arriving in the Sea Cloud sect, Jiang Yue had made too many sacrifices for him.
Five years ago, he shared his contribution points when Yu Nianzhen spent all of his on-sword arts.
In the war that just ended, Jiang Yue intentionally let him win and even proposed to him as soon as they returned.
They didn’t have lines between them, but Yu Nianzhen wanted to show his sincerity.
Because of this, he used his one million spirit stones to buy a special jade.
He planned to personally forge two rings from the jade and use them as engagement tokens.
"Master means to say that Jiang Yue and I may encounter opposition?"
"If you had a low aptitude, no one would care about your marriage. However, both of you are very talented. It won’t be long before someone has an idea about your marriages."
Although it was less common than in the mundane world, sects still used the marriage of talented disciples to form alliances with other regions.
Yang Xu was especially concerned because Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen were male.
In normal cases, no one would care about gender.
However, the rules that applied to ordinary cultivators, and genius cultivators were different.
When the time came, Yang Xu expected that the sect would be opposed to the union of yang and yang.
"Master, this disciple understands, but I don’t mean to give up."
Yang Xu chuckled.
He had expected this answer, and he would have been disappointed if he got a different one.
"If that’s the case, you must promise me two things."
"Please say."
"First, you must not forget the promise to wait until twenty-one before losing your origin yuan."
"This disciple remembers."
"Second, the two of you must conceal your relationship until you have a way to protect yourselves."
Yu Nianzhen didn’t immediately agree at this time.
However, he had no other choice but to agree.
"This disciple remembers." He clenched his hands, and Yang Xu rubbed his head.
This was the first time since he lost his realm that he felt real regret.
Before this, he always felt comfort in that his loss had earned a few years of peace for the Cangxing world.
However, he felt regret when he couldn’t even help his disciple to live an honest life.
"Your master is useless." He mumbled in a low voice, but Yu Nianzhen still heard him.
"It will not always be like this." He said.
Yang Xu saw the confident look on his disciple’s face and smiled.
"You are right. Thirty years in hell and thirty years in heaven."
After saying this, he felt a lot better.
"You have broken through to the seventh level of the origin forging realm." He stated.
"This disciple broke through half a month ago."
"Good, good. You do not disappoint me."
"How is your sword intent? Let me see how much you have comprehended."
Yu Nianzhen stood up, and a sword appeared in his hand.
He walked to a rock that was several metres away and swung his arm.
Almost simultaneously, a sword light struck the rock, and it crumbled into dust.
"Your intent has matured since last time."
"It’s thanks to master’s teachings."
"Sit down."
After Yu Nianzhen sat down, Yang Xu removed a bamboo book from his storage ring.
"Sword intent has nine levels. "He began.
For several hours, Yang Xu taught everything he knew about sword intent.
Because he wasn’t a swordsman, he had spent the past several months going through books and sword arts.
After much effort, he couldn’t say he was an expert, but his knowledge of the sword couldn’t be ignored.
