novelraw Chapter 18: My Husband, the Magpie Bridge is About to Open (1)
Chapter 18: My Husband, the Magpie Bridge is About to Open (1)
Jiang Man had no idea what his wife's name was.
Her strength, methods, and identity remained completely unknown to him.
He only knew she was absolutely not simple.
Just the Peerless Prodigy Fate alone carried an eerie quality.
He had never heard of something like this falling upon someone just from performing a marriage ceremony.
Now Old Yellow Ox said her methods were coming.
Though not as formidable as her coming personally, it was still concerning.
After all, throughout this entire affair, she was nominally the victim, while he and Old Yellow Ox were the vicious evil demons.
Even though he was also a victim, she wouldn't see it that way.
Once her power came attacking,the odds of survival would be slim.
"Since her methods are coming, does that mean our location will be exposed?" Jiang Man immediately asked.
Old Yellow Ox shook its head. "It's not enough to find us yet. Even if her strength is sufficient, she couldn't locate us this quickly."
"It's just that when I made my move against her before, now she's following the traces of my methods to exert influence on me."
Jiang Man observed Old Yellow Ox.
He noticed something flickering on its body, alternating between brightness and darkness.
"Is this her method?" Jiang Man asked.
"This is the price for getting you a wife," Old Yellow Ox corrected.
Jiang Man was taken aback and immediately said, "Senior, I'm the one bearing the Peerless Prodigy Fate. I'm the one who lost the most in this marriage affair, facing potential death at any moment. You can't pin the blame for your injuries on me."
In this marriage ceremony, she only gained a nominal husband while her purity remained intact.
He not only gained a nominal wife but also acquired a fatal fate.
He was the most tragic one.
He wouldn't shoulder the blame for Old Yellow Ox's troubles.
"She's trying to find her way to us through me," Old Yellow Ox glanced at Jiang Man and spoke calmly.
Jiang Man remained silent for a moment before asking, "What should I do?"
"Use your spiritual energy to respond to the thing on my body," Old Yellow Ox explained. "Her method has to cross too great a distance."
"Even in my weakened state, I can resist it."
"Right now we're evenly matched."
"But to resolve this, I need you to resonate with it and then draw it out."
Jiang Man didn't have any doubts, since both man and ox were grasshoppers tied to the same string.
He then placed his hand on Old Yellow Ox's head and began using his spiritual energy to communicate with the flickering substance.
Because his improvement had been too rapid, the weight of his spiritual energy made his body quite uncomfortable.
So he operated it very carefully.
Soon he could perceive the flickering substance.
It indeed carried an aura of destruction, and remaining within Old Yellow Ox's body was very dangerous.
Immediately, Jiang Man connected it together, then gradually drew it out from the body.
Finally, all the flickering substance gathered in his palm, transforming into a ball of light.
Jiang Man was quite astonished - what kind of thing was this?
But before he could do anything, the light ball began to spread, and then a voice broke into Jiang Man's mind: "Husband, the Magpie Bridge is about to open. I'll find you soon. What kind of funeral do you prefer?"
Jiang Man lowered his gaze, feeling somewhat panicked.
"What's wrong?" Old Yellow Ox asked, breathing a sigh of relief.
Jiang Man truthfully relayed the content to it, then asked, "Didn't you say the Magpie Bridge opens only once a year? How is it suddenly about to open?"
Old Yellow Ox also fell silent for a moment before saying, "She's deceiving you. Don't worry about it."
Jiang Man wasn't sure who was telling the truth, but he asked curiously, "Senior, aren't you a match for her?"
"Hard to say. If I were in good condition and launched a sneak attack, I'd have a chance of winning," Old Yellow Ox pondered for a moment before continuing, "But she's probably looking for my true name. If she finds it, we'll be in even greater danger."
"What should we do then?" Jiang Man asked.
"The toad has already eaten the swan meat, what else can we do?" Old Yellow Ox said coldly. "You should be thinking about whether you can survive beyond the hundred days."
Jiang Man sighed - he hadn't actually eaten any meat.
But indeed, there was no point in overthinking.
Because in his current state, he couldn't do anything.
"By the way, if you manage to survive later and join a sect, remember to bring me along," Old Yellow Ox said.
It then explained the reason.
Saying that if that Immortal Maiden could strike once, she could strike a second time.
If Jiang Man hadn't helped draw out those light balls, then it would have been in danger.
Jiang Man had thought he could grasp the other's weakness.
But Old Yellow Ox added that if they hadn't been drawn out, while it would have been damaged, their location might also have been discovered by her.
No one would have escaped.
For this reason, Jiang Man agreed.
But at least he had gained some initiative.
"Brother Ox, leave it to me from now on," Jiang Man said seriously.
Old Yellow Ox glanced at Jiang Man, seemingly unaware of the downgrade in address.
The next day.
Jiang Man arrived early at the Sixth Courtyard.
Today was the day for updating scores and rankings.
He was curious about how many points he would get.
Although he had some guesses, if something went wrong with the Qi Refinement Method aspect, his score might be one or two points higher.
Then there was the ranking.
At the third level of Qi Refinement, his ranking wouldn't be too high, given the two-year gap with others.
But watching his ranking climb upward
was still quite something to look forward to.
And those concerned about rankings and scores weren't just him.
Everyone felt the same way.
Basically all the cultivators from Azure Cloud Pavilion's Rear Courtyard had come.
"Little Jiang, you're here?" Little Fatty greeted with a smile.
He still maintained his confidence and excitement.
"Have you estimated your score?" Jiang Man asked curiously.
"Of course," Little Fatty nodded seriously, a smile on his face. "My score will be at a height you can only look up to, but these are small matters we needn't dwell on."
"Let's see what scores the top four have instead."
Jiang Man smiled and nodded.
Little Fatty never asked Jiang Man about his estimated score from beginning to end, and Jiang Man wasn't in a hurry to speak up either.
Once the rankings came out later,
he figured Little Fatty would come asking.
Soon, under everyone's expectant gazes, Zhao Leming entered.
Just like the first time he came in, he carried several papers in his hands.
On them were recorded the information of everyone in the Sixth Courtyard.
Scores, rankings, comments - everything was there.
Even cultivation levels and technique proficiency were recorded.
The Sixth Courtyard was very quiet at this moment, everyone watching Zhao Leming at the front.
After a month's time, they had all made some progress.
They wanted to confirm their improvement.
Zhao Leming was somewhat surprised. Part of the scores came from the books themselves, while another part was determined by each teacher.
But there shouldn't be too great a discrepancy.
So when he saw Jiang Man's score, he was extremely surprised.
His earlier conjecture felt increasingly likely to be true.
And he felt fortunate he hadn't done anything more to him.
Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Then he began distributing the papers.
He handed them out according to the previous rankings.
Soon everyone had received their papers.
Only then did Zhao Leming speak: "At noon, Azure Cloud Pavilion will announce the rankings in each courtyard, while the Rear Courtyard will also announce the top fifty rankings."
Hearing this, everyone grew expectant.
Especially those with high rankings - they all wanted to see if they could make it into their courtyard's top ten, and Azure Cloud Pavilion's top fifty.
At this moment, Little Fatty came over and gently nudged Jiang Man. "Little Jiang, what's your score? Let me see."
Jiang Man came back to his senses. Since he couldn't make the external rankings yet, he didn't need to focus too much on them.
And he felt fortunate he hadn't done anything more to him.
He smiled and said, "I haven't looked yet. How about you?"
Little Fatty followed along: "I haven't looked either. How about we exchange and look? Let you experience what a high score feels like?"
"Sounds good," Jiang Man readily agreed.