My eyes slowly opened and everything was dark.
I sat up, rubbing my face. I was wearing a cheap red wedding robe made of thin, scratchy cloth. Suddenly the Memories that were not mine suddenly came into my head. I was dead in my old life. Now, I was Lu Chen, a nineteen-year-old outer disciple of the Ashen Cloud Sect. The other disciples always beat me up and treated me like a slave.
And tonight was my forced wedding night.
"Do not come near me," a voice said from the dark corner.
It was a girl’s voice. It sounded small, but it was sharp and angry.
I looked over. A girl was sitting on the dirty dirt floor, hugging her knees. Her red wedding dress was torn at the sleeves, and I could see purple bruises on her arms. This was Ye Xinyang. A month ago, she was the greatest martial arts genius in the region. But an enemy master brutally smashed her cultivation core, turning her into a cripple.
She was holding a sharp piece of broken wood from a window, pointing it right at her own neck. Her hand was shaking violently.
"If you touch me, I will kill myself," she whispered. Tears were running down her face. "I am a cripple now, but I am still Ye Xinyang. I will die before I let a trash servant humiliate me."
Before I could say anything, another voice spoke from the side wall. It was quiet and steady.
"Xinyang, put the wood down. It is useless."
That was Gu Qinghan. She was sitting straight against the wall with a dirty white cloth tied over her eyes. She was completely blind. Her enemies had destroyed her family’s sword school and cut her eyes out. She was hugging an empty wooden sword case tightly. She turned her blindfolded face toward me. "I can hear his breathing. He is weak. He is not moving toward us."
From the corner near the empty fireplace, a small voice come.
"It is too cold," whispered Chu Ning’er. She was curled into a tiny ball, shivering so hard her teeth clicked together. Through her torn robes, I could see the veins on her chest glowing with a faint, sickly blue light. She was infected with ice rot poison that slowly turned her bones to ice. "Sister Xinyang, please don’t fight... I think I am going to freeze tonight anyway..."
Slumped against the wooden door was the fourth girl, Mo Ran. She was a shadow assassin, but her enemies had used a poison needle to cut the nerves in her lower spine. Her legs were completely dead and stretched out straight on the floor.
She didn’t look at us. She just stared at the ceiling and spoke with a bitter voice. "Let her kill herself, Qinghan. Let us all die. The sect elders forced us to marry this trash boy just to laugh at us. When our enemies find us, we are dead anyway. Why wait?"
I looked at all four of them.The sect elders forced this marriage to mock these girls and use me as a cheap shield. When their enemies come to finish them off, I will be the first one to die.
Looking at them shaking and trying to hide their terror behind angry words, I didn’t feel mad. I just felt a deep ache in my chest. They had lost everything. They were terrified.
I am going to protect them, I thought. I won’t let them die.
Then Suddenly—
[system loaded.]
[10,000x investment system is active.]
[give care, food, or items to your wifes will target a multiplied return for yourself.]
I stared at the words. I didn’t care about becoming a god right now. I just wanted to help these girls survive.
I reached into the pockets of my cheap red robe. My fingers found one single thing: a tiny, wrinkled brown pill. It was a low-grade Qi Pellet. The sect gatekeeper had thrown it at my feet this morning to mock me. It was garbage medicine, barely enough to cure a mild cold.
I stood up very slowly, keeping my hands where they could see them.
Ye Xinyang flinched against the wall, her knuckles getting tighter around the wood spike. "Stay back!"
"I am staying right here," I said quietly. My voice was calm and soft.
I walked two steps, knelt down a few feet away from her, and gently tossed the small brown pill onto her lap.
"I know you hate me," I said, looking at Ye Xinyang, then at Gu Qinghan’s blindfold, Chu Ning’er’s blue veins, and Mo Ran’s dead legs. "But I am not your enemy. The elders want us to die here. I won’t touch you. Eat that pill, Xinyang. It won’t fix your shattered core, but it will give your body a little bit of warmth. Let me help you."
Ye Xinyang stared at the pill, then at my face. She didn’t find any cruelty in my eyes. She only saw a tired guy who wanted to keep her safe.
Slowly, her shaking fingers picked up the pill. She put it in her mouth and swallowed it.
For one second, a tiny spark of warmth lit up her chest. But as soon as it hit her shattered core, the warmth leaked out through the cracks and disappeared. She shivered again, dropping her head into her knees as quiet tears fell.
"This—Thank you," she whispered into her arms.
[ding! investment successful.]
[you gave: [low-grade qi pellet] x1.]
[triggering 10,000x multiplier...]
[reward received: [spiritual warming jade] x1.]
[note: this item slowly gives off a gentle warmth. it cannot heal her core instantly, but keeping it near will stop her from freezing.]
A small, smooth piece of green jade appeared directly inside my hand. It immediately felt warm, like a hot stone from a campfire.
I stood up, walked over to the shivering Chu Ning’er, and gently placed the warm jade stone near her frozen hands. "Here. Hold this. We will figure out tomorrow, together."