"No!"
"NO!!"
Terror twisted across the demon dragon's face as the dreadful lightning came crashing down upon its heads.
With a savage snarl, it hurled the beauty in its arms skyward and dove aside.
But it was already too late.
The lightning descended like a five-clawed golden dragon, carrying a vast divine majesty too blinding to look upon — unstoppable, inescapable.
"BOOM—"
"Why is this happening?!!" The beauty's face contorted in a final struggle before she was reduced to ash beneath the golden lightning. The demon dragon's shrill, defiant roar cut off as its body disintegrated with her.
Su Jiu'er's beautiful eyes went wide, staring in disbelief at the scene before her.
"This..."
The dazzling golden light faded, leaving only a deep crater in the ground.
The lightning's sheer power left Su Jiu'er's heart pounding. For a transformed soul beast like her, nothing was more terrifying than the heavenly tribulation. She crept carefully toward the crater — and her pupils shrank.
Inside floated two crystalline miniature bones: a purple-black skull and a leg bone of white jade.
Beside them hovered two rings of uncanny light, one blood-red, one orange-red.
These were the rare treasures left behind by the deaths of the three-headed demon dragon and the beauty — prizes that would drive powerful humans to slaughter one another. That much did not surprise Su Jiu'er.
What truly made her cover her red lips, her very soul trembling, was the baby lying at the bottom of the crater, watching her with tiny open eyes.
Su Jiu'er's expression gradually turned grave. She was silent for a long while, then finally looked up at the sky and murmured:
"Is this... the will of Heaven?"
She gathered the baby into her arms and glanced downward.
"A boy... very well."
Her cold countenance suddenly bloomed. A jade finger tapped the baby lightly on the forehead as she smiled, radiant.
"Little one, from this day on, you are the husband of Su Jiu'er."
"Fallen from the heavens, come down to the mortal dust — then, husband, you shall be called Luo Fanchen. I wonder if you'll like the name."
"Oh, silly me. How could a baby understand a word I'm saying?" Su Jiu'er shook her head, her adorable beast ears twitching, long hair drifting in the wind.
Luo Fanchen, who had been sinking into depression over becoming an infant, caught sight of that breathtaking face mere inches away and froze.
He had seen countless women in his lifetime, but never a celestial beauty so cold and so alluring at once.
His heart seemed to skip a beat.
Su Jiu'er... so this is my Demon Empress wife?
Human, soul beast...
Actually, you know what? I can work with this.
[Well, well, my dear Lord Host. Singing a different tune already? That's not what you said before.]
Su Jiu'er extended a fair hand, gathering the two rings of light from the crater into two treasure pearls, and collected the two crystalline miniature bones as well.
She let out a cold snort. "Those two beasts deserved worse than death — but these are supreme treasures of the mortal world. I shall keep them for my husband."
"Rest easy, husband."
"I will raise you to manhood, I promise."
Before Luo Fanchen could react, he was crushed into an embrace, subjected to a forcible face-scrubbing, buried in a view both ferocious and heart-stopping.
Then a slightly wistful voice drifted to his ears.
"I wonder what kind of man my husband will grow into. Only a peerless powerhouse would be worthy of Su Jiu'er, after all."
This was not arrogance. Across the whole Soul Martial Continent, the peak experts who admired and pursued her were beyond counting — humans and soul beasts alike — and not one had ever caught her eye.
Just as Luo Fanchen was on the verge of being smothered, he was finally released.
"Enough of that." Su Jiu'er let out a long breath, looked at Luo Fanchen, and spoke earnestly. "The instant you appeared, every ounce of my humiliation and despair vanished. I will never forget how that moment felt."
"Whatever you become — tall or short, fat or thin, poor or rich, even an ordinary mortal — I, Su Jiu'er, am your wife. I'm yours, and that's final."
"All I ask is that you grow up safe and happy. That is enough."
Hearing this, Luo Fanchen sighed inwardly.
What a good woman.
In his past life he had been a master of the female heart — why else would so many beauties have shown up to weep at his deathbed?
So of course he could see the journey Su Jiu'er had just traveled in those few short moments: hesitation, confusion, and finally, unshakable resolve.
By all logic, she could have killed him right there and no one would ever have known. She hadn't.
A Demon Empress this powerful, this peerlessly magnificent — of course her pride reached the heavens; of course she longed for a world-conquering hero. And still, she had chosen him.
Luo Fanchen silently made a vow in his heart.
I may be a scoundrel with women, but...
If you do not fail me,
I will never fail you.
Are kings and nobles born to their station? Like hell they are.
Soul Martial Continent — I, Luo Fanchen, have arrived!
His heart surged with emotion.
And he peed.
Su Jiu'er suddenly felt a draft of cold across her chest. Her blue eyes clouded with confusion — then she saw the wet stain, and let out a shriek.
"Hey! How could you just piddle wherever you please!"
"SLAP!"
Su Jiu'er's palm came down indignantly on her little husband's bottom.
"The shame of it all." Luo Fanchen's tiny soul rolled around on the floor in mortification.
***
Time flew. Sixteen years later.
The Azure Dragon Empire, Dachuan Province, Cloud Village.
"Auntie Su, I'm home."
A tall, strikingly handsome young man in plain clothes returned to the small village courtyard, a brown wild boar slung over his shoulder.
In the courtyard, a fiery beauty of perfect curves was bent over a wooden table setting out dinner — four dishes and a soup, a properly balanced meal.
A pert bottom, a slender wasp waist, sensuous and bewitching.
At the sound of his voice, the beauty's coolly elegant face broke into a brilliant smile. "Fanchen, go wash up. New dishes today — come see if they suit your taste."
The corner of Luo Fanchen's mouth twitched. Time to taste-test for poison again, no doubt.
An exalted Empress — when would she ever have cooked for anyone before? No one had been worthy of it.
Do you people have any idea how I've survived meals for the past sixteen years?!!
***
Sitting at the dinner table, gazing at the flower-shaming beauty across from him, Luo Fanchen marveled inwardly. She had veiled a good seven or eight tenths of her true looks, and she was still this stunning. Truly a calamity-grade nine-tailed heavenly fox.
"What are you staring at, you brat?" Su Jiu'er said with a mock glare.
"Auntie... you're beautiful."
Su Jiu'er raised her chopsticks and tapped him on the forehead, her face cold. "Tch. How many times must I say it? Call me Auntie when others are around. When we're alone, call me wife."
"But Auntie sounds so nice." Luo Fanchen grinned, entirely unafraid of her cold face. He knew perfectly well that his heavenly fox wife was ice on the outside and fire underneath.
"Remember your place. You are my husband-in-training." Su Jiu'er glowered fiercely. "Others could beg for the privilege and never get it."
"Anyone else dares call you that, I'll beat him to death," Luo Fanchen huffed.
Su Jiu'er's red lips curved upward. "Such an overbearing little man. Then you'd best work hard, or you'll never be able to protect me. Far too many people want to steal your woman."
"I will become a soul master. The strongest in this world." Luo Fanchen's voice was calm, but there was light in his eyes.
Sixteen years ago, Su Jiu'er had decided the baby should grow up in the human world, so she had brought Luo Fanchen to this village and veiled the greater part of her beauty.
Even so, there was no counting how many of the village's young men — and old men — secretly pined for Auntie Su.
As for the ones who pined openly?
Their legs had already been broken.
What Su Jiu'er had never expected was that Luo Fanchen would mature far, far earlier than a normal human. His looks hadn't grown crooked in the slightest — he shot up tall and straight, more handsome by the day.
A husband-in-training like this was a delightful surprise indeed.
"Stop boasting and eat. Your wife only wants you safe and happy." Su Jiu'er placed a piece of meat in his bowl.
As he ate, Luo Fanchen turned things over in his mind. Sixteen years had given him a basic understanding of the Soul Martial Continent: this was a world where the strong devoured the weak, where power was everything.
Only those who awakened a powerful martial soul and became soul masters could be said to have set foot on the path of the strong.
Martial souls came in endless varieties — scythes, hammers, lizards. Most soul masters awakened beast souls, weapon souls, or plant souls; things like flame or meteor counted as special martial souls.
On the Soul Martial Continent, one first tempered the body, and at sixteen, when the body was fully grown, underwent the martial soul awakening ceremony.
"The Divine Temple comes to the village tomorrow to awaken your class's martial souls. What do you think you'll awaken?" Su Jiu'er added more food to his bowl.
Luo Fanchen shook his head. "How would I even guess? We'll know tomorrow."
The System hadn't shown itself in sixteen years. His body tempering had all been Su Jiu'er's teaching, and he had already reached the peak of body tempering.
Killing a giant wild boar with one hand — that was something not even a beginning soul master could do.
Even Su Jiu'er marveled at his gift. She had never heard of anyone tempering their body to such heights before awakening.
Luo Fanchen wasn't surprised, though. He still remembered the System saying it had rewarded him with the Immaculate Immortal Physique and the strongest twin martial souls.
The immortal physique had been delivered. Now it was just a question of what the martial souls would be.
He could hardly wait.
[Ding! As Heaven maintains vigor through movement, a gentleman ceaselessly strives for self-improvement.]
Hisss—
Scared the hell out of me.
The System, dead silent for sixteen years, had suddenly risen from its grave...
[The Host has trained bitterly day and night, reaching the peak of body tempering through his own effort, triggering a hidden special reward: Heaven Rewards the Diligent!]
[Please claim your reward!]
TL Notes:
TL Note: Husband-in-training (童养夫) — An inversion of the old Chinese custom of the "child bride," a girl adopted young and raised by a family to marry their son when grown; here it is the boy who was taken in and raised to be the husband.