Thousands of bright lanterns brightened the night of the city blessed by the god of the full moon river. People crowded the streets full of stalls that had dumplings, sweet and sour candies, beautiful accessories, seashells, calms, pearls, and so on. One could see fireworks exploding in the sky, brightening it up, and hundreds of lanterns taking flight, reaching the magnified sky as people celebrated the wedding of the youngest son of the honest, rich, and most-liked city lord.
The city lord was a strong and wealthy man who had contributed a lot to make this city what it was today. Helping families in trouble, providing work to the disabled cultivators and the city orphans were also some of the many good deeds City Lord Xie Yong had performed. He was so well-liked that when the people heard his youngest child, who was terminally ill and soon to die, was getting married, they used what they had on their hands to create the beautiful view tonight.
All the lanterns high in the sky had the same wish; Let Young Lord Xie Yang live for a year longer so that he can spend the happiest days of his life with his wife and see his child before ascending to heaven.
Xie Yang, just like his name and surname combined that meant the setting sun, this person was born terminally ill. A week after he was named and fell terribly ill, the best doctor told City Lord Xie Yong that Young Lord Xie Yang would not live a single day past 18. As fate would have it, today was his eighteenth birthday and also the day of his marriage.
"I've done as the mysterious expert said and married my youngest son to the disabled daughter of the Lin family. I hope everything goes well, that Xie Yang gets better with time and gain enlightenment as prophesized by the mysterious expert," said City Lord Xie Yong.
In the past, he had gone to many places to find the cure for his youngest son.
He didn't find any cure for many years.
However, on one of his travel, he found himself lost in a mountain and mistakenly stumbled upon the cultivation grotto of a mighty being who treated him pretty well and even told him how to save his son's life.
The way was to get Xie Yang to marry a woman with the surname Lin on his eighteenth birthday.
The mysterious expert told him that his son would become better and gain immense cultivation talent if he did that.
The mysterious expert also told him that his son's temperant would become different too, but will always be his son and that he shouldn't alienate himself from his son.
City Lord Xie Yong had done everything in his power to accomplish that.
The rest was up to fate and how accurate the expert's words were.
The person in question just opened his eyes wide and looked around with a bewildered gaze. He found himself in a room with a magnificent carved wooden table and many luxuries. Paintings defining longevity covered the walls so did calligraphy of the exact nature. He wasn't familiar with this room. His scrutinizing gaze swept the room again in suspicion before stopping at the spot beside him.
There was a beauty sleeping by his side, and when he saw her, his eyes widened. He was so shocked that he sat up.
The silk blanket slipped down, revealing that he was wearing wedding attire, so was the beauty, and the end of their robe appeared tied into one.
Xie Yang's eyes narrowed as he wondered what in the world was going on. The last thing he remembered was fighting off the Lord of Hell. The latter was intent on invading the spirit world to corrupt it, intent on taking away all the resources for cultivation, intent on enslaving the cultivators. To make sure that won't happen, Xie Yang and his partners self-destructed to close the gate of hell and kill the lord of hell.
He was sure that he had died at that time, leaving not as much as a single grain of his body.
But now, he had inexplicably awakened in a bed with a lady next to him.
'Can anyone tell me what is going on?!!'
As if someone had heard his wish, the memories of the real Xie Yang entered his mind, nearly giving him a headache. It took a while for him to process it. He found out that after he self-exploded, his soul shattered apart and fell all over the spirit world. One such soul was Xie Yang. As the soul was too weak, Xie Yang was born ill!
He was born to die after living 18 years because by then, the soul would extinguish. But something unbelievable happened. He married Lin Hua, who was wearing a solidified fragment of his soul.
It looked like a bracelet and felt no different than a temperature-altering jade; she thought it was an accessory, and she wore it every day because it was beautiful and kept her body warm in the winter and cool in the blistering summer.
Xie Yang was so tired that he fell asleep without changing into his nightwear, performing his nuptial task, and without fulfilling the duties of a man.
While the two of them slept together, the condition that one soul needed to be near the other or in direct contact with it so that the two could fuse into one got met. The bracelet around her soft, white ankle had vanished, becoming an ethereal fragment of soul that entered Xie Yang's body and combined with his ever-dimming soul. As a result, he managed to remember what had happened in the past, got his lifespan expended by a few years, and also obtained the talent to cultivate!
"I have struck good fortune!" Lord Xie Yang exclaimed. He was overflowing with happiness as he got a second chance to live his life. It seems like it was true that heaven blessed those who do good.
Xie Yang's eyebrows arched. He remembered that someone was sleeping beside him. He turned to her and saw that his shout hadn't disturbed her. He thanked heaven and gently patted her head.
"You're my lucky charm. I promise in my name that I will treat you well for the rest of my life."
Xie Yang gazed at his wife with gentle eyes. Since they were already married and she was also, in a way, his benefactor, he wanted to love her and take care of her until their three thousand strands of hair turned white.
Lin Hua was a beauty. She had peach blossom eyes, a small lovely nose, and small red lips that would entice a person into kissing them. Her features were three-dimensional, beautiful in all sense. The only sad thing was that she had gotten paralyzed down her waist three years ago, becoming a waste.
Xie Yang knew all that because his second soul fragment had lived with Lin Hua for six years!
As she was useless, her father didn't hesitate to sell her to the Xie family in exchange for gold and making connections. Truly a disgusting man. Lin Hua, who was worried about her mother, accepted and married Xie Yang without a complaint, hoping that her husband would treat her well or at least not harm her.
Xie Yang felt even more sorry for Lin Hua.
He placed a kiss on her forehead and gently caressed her face.
"I will help you recover your legs, and if you want, I will also let you get back at the Lin household and also let you take your mother out of that hellhole. Whatever you so desire, I will give to you." Xie Yang said, his words soft and gentle but carrying so much confidence that one could fill an entire ocean with such a vast amount. "But first, I will help you stand on your two feet."
Who was Xie Yang?
He was the God of Alchemy and the king of the spirit world!
He was above all and below none.
A casual wave of his hand was enough to set off waves across the three realms, living, ghost, and the underworld!
Treating disabilities was his specialty!
Because he had the memories of the time he had lived as Xie Yang and also had the memories of the soul fragment that had remained with Lin Hua, he knew ten thousand years had passed since the great war in which he sacrificed himself to protect his world. Many things have changed, but resources are still abundant in this world. He didn't doubt that he could get resources to treat disabilities by trying hard.
He just needed some spiritual energy to inspect what was wrong with Lin Hua, what kind of disability she was suffering from.
However, to get that, he needed to step on the path of cultivation!
He decided to do that after a nap.
The night was cold as it was the first month of winter. He covered her lithe, somewhat malnourished body in the warm blanket and then hugged Lin Hua, burying her in his warm embrace. He gently patted her back, placed a kiss on her head, and closed his eyes to sleep.
Lin Hua, who was a deep sleeper: Zzz