Chapter 1: Wedding in the Rain

When Lou Xun opened his eyes, he discovered that his broken bones had grown back together.

He had been crushed by a gravity formation and thrown down from the three hundred and seventy-second floor, smashed into a pulp. The agony of being broken into pieces still lingered at the ends of his nerves, stabbing into every inch of his flesh and bone.

Lou Xun listened to the sound of granulation tissue rapidly growing inside his body. Lying on the operating table, he lifted his eyes. Cold sweat clung to his long lashes, blurring and blocking his vision.

Even so, the pale incandescent light above him still dazzled him.

The halo of light was like the cold, wan sun of winter, expanding and shrinking again and again in his eyes. Only after a black spot seemed to burn itself into his vision did Lou Xun finally manage to focus.

He looked around. Countless tubes were inserted into his body, helping him stay alive. Precise instruments were honestly transmitting his medical data to the holographic blue screen above.

Lou Xun saw his own information on the floating screen.

[Class: Semi-immortal]

[Spiritual Root: Medium]

[Medical Status:

Full-body comminuted fractures — self-repair completed

Excessive damage to spiritual meridians — spiritual energy infusion completed

...]

Lou Xun narrowed his eyes. He stared blankly at the words “self-repair” for two seconds before the memories from before he lost consciousness surged back like a tide.

He had been forced down from several hundred meters in the air and smashed into the ground. He had indeed died, and died in an exceptionally miserable state. But his body had put itself back together, forcibly repairing his life from that fatal fall at breakneck speed, dragging him back from the hands of the King of Hell.

After that, he had fallen into a severely injured coma. Because of the pain, he had drifted between sleep and waking. The first time he woke with a start, he saw scavenger robots dragging his body onto a cleanup cart. The second time, he vaguely realized he seemed to be in a noisy black market. The third time he woke, he was here.

Then where was this place?

Lou Xun moved slightly, trying to find information from his surroundings, but the moment he moved, he tugged at the medical tubes. The intelligent machinery immediately extended mechanical arms and pressed down on his limbs.

“...”

Lou Xun could only maintain his corpse-like posture, close his eyes, and think about another question.

Why had he come back to life?

Although semi-immortals could use the spiritual roots and spiritual meridians in their bodies to mobilize the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, stepping over mortals to rule the Mortal Realm in this prosperous neon age of technology, that power did not make them undying or indestructible. It merely granted them lifespans slightly longer than mortals and the authority to cast spells.

His body repairing itself was not an ability Lou Xun had ever possessed.

Nor was he some medical semi-immortal specializing in the healing arts. He had only learned a few basic healing formations. There was no reason he should have been forcibly saved under those fatal circumstances.

It was almost like some miracle hidden inside his body.

The thought had only just appeared in his mind when a “beep” entered his ears, which were still filled with a faint, crackling static.

Someone was here.

Lou Xun guessed it was a buyer from the black market. But he was being restrained by the machinery and could not turn his head. He could only hear footsteps quickly pounding closer, one light and one heavy.

It was a very strange rhythm, like someone moving a giant machine—placing the left side down lightly, then, after seeing the machine touch the ground, heavily slamming down the right side.

What kind of person made footsteps like that?

Lou Xun’s eyes turned, and a person wrapped from head to toe in a mechanical exoskeleton crashed into his line of sight.

The bright incandescent light drew countless snow-like arcs across the steel bones. Lou Xun could even see his own face reflected in them.

Long moon-silver hair lay scattered like withered grass. His pale face was thin and rough, his features half-covered by his messy bangs. Only his eyes were pitch-black tinged with red, astonishingly bright in color.

Red.

Lou Xun noticed the change in his eye color. His eyes had originally been black.

“You...” He met the person’s gaze, and Lou Xun suddenly froze.

It was an especially terrifying face. All five features seemed to have been squeezed together, crooked and misshapen, ugly to the extreme. Against the full-body mechanical skeleton, it almost looked as if that face had been twisted off a human body and forcibly attached there. The sense of disharmony was overwhelming.

“You’re awake?” the person said in surprise and delight.

Lou Xun’s breath condensed into mist inside the breathing mask. He narrowed his eyes and swept his gaze over the other person’s entire body without speaking.

This was a mortal. A cyborg mortal.

Mortals lived under the rule of semi-immortals and were often oppressed and threatened. In order to protect themselves, they had invented prosthetic bodies, replacing their original limbs with mechanically modified ones to increase their ability to survive. Ordinary mortals would usually modify parts of their bodies, and Lou Xun had long been used to seeing cyborgs.

But no mortal had ever undergone such a high degree of cybernetic modification.

From head to toe, aside from his face, he had almost no original body parts left. His entire body had been filled out into a mountain of mechanical bones. If he were equipped with military weapons, he would be an unstoppable war platform.

Lou Xun lowered his breathing.

Perhaps sensing Lou Xun’s wariness, the cyborg’s expression changed. He withdrew the gaze that had fallen on Lou Xun’s face and hurriedly took several steps back.

“D-don’t be afraid. I don’t mean you any harm. I came to save you. Right, I came to save you!”

“...”

Lou Xun still said nothing.

The cyborg became even more at a loss. “This is the Xu Clan’s underground palace. You remember, right? The Xu Clan bought you back from the black market. This is the confinement room in the Xu Clan’s underground palace. I came here because I was planning to...”

“Who are you?”

A dry, hoarse voice interrupted him.

The cyborg’s complicated gaze returned to Lou Xun’s face, as though he were looking through him at someone else.

“Xu Sheng. My name is Xu Sheng, the young master of Wanxiang Xu.”

A son of an aristocratic clan.

Only aristocratic clans could be addressed by combining a place name with a surname.

But how could the young master of an aristocratic clan be a mortal?

“Why save me?” Lou Xun struggled against the mechanical arms locking his limbs. His voice was muffled inside the breathing mask, like a faint drifting mist.

The cyborg was silent for a moment. “The Xu Clan saved you so you could marry in place of Miss Xu... I can’t explain this matter in detail. The substitute marriage is being pushed very urgently. The wedding ceremony is tonight at midnight, and even the procession is already in place. If you don’t leave with me now, you will definitely die.”

“...”

Lou Xun glanced at the camera on the medical machinery, then looked at him without a trace of emotion in his eyes.

“I asked why you are saving me.”

The cyborg grew anxious. “Does saving someone need a rea—”

“Why must a semi-immortal waste time on suspicion?”

A clear, elegant voice interrupted Xu Sheng. The instant those words fell, all the mechanical arms pressing down on Lou Xun’s limbs retracted.

He looked toward the voice and saw a woman in a short jacket and skirt, with black hair and graceful eyes, appearing before him.

His gaze swept over her brows and eyes, and he suddenly understood why that cyborg’s gaze had kept sticking to his face.

The person before him looked extremely similar to him. It would not be too much to call them blood relatives.

“You are the Xu family’s young lady.”

“Yes. Xu Yanran.” Miss Xu dipped in greeting. “I first apologize to the semi-immortal on behalf of the Xu Clan.”

Lou Xun weakly sat up. After taking a moment to recover, he pulled out the treatment tubes filling his body and raised his eyes to look at the two people in front of him.

A man and a woman, standing neither too close nor too far apart. They had appeared inexplicably, and everything they said sounded like a lunatic’s fantasy.

Lou Xun had a sense of how long he had been unconscious. Up until now, no more than two days had passed. In such a short time, not only had the Xu Clan found him in the black market and treated him, they had also prepared a wedding procession for midnight.

That meant the other party was urging them with extreme urgency, and the Xu Clan did not dare disobey.

What kind of marriage alliance would be this rushed? Rather than calling it a forced marriage, it would be more accurate to call it a death sentence.

Since it was a death sentence, forget whether or not he could escape. As long as he fled, Miss Xu would die without a doubt.

How was he supposed to believe that the people before him could help him?

Especially when both of them had the surname Xu.

“I understand the semi-immortal’s concerns.”

Before Lou Xun could speak, Miss Xu took a step forward first. She met Lou Xun’s gaze. Lou Xun had never known that this face could wear such an expression—gentle and dignified, yet like a sheet of fake skin.

“But, Semi-immortal, if you do not leave, you will die without question.”

Xu Yanran only said this one sentence.

Lou Xun looked at her for a moment, then curled the corner of his mouth.

“Fine. What do you want to do?”

*

A drop of water fell onto Lou Xun’s lashes.

He lifted his head and saw countless silver-white threads descending from the pitch-black sky.

The light drizzle dampened Lou Xun’s bangs. He lowered his eyes. The cyborg was curled up on the ground, trembling in agony. Electric currents kept exploding from his crushed prosthetic limbs, sending thin streams of black smoke into the rain.

Lou Xun could also smell cooked flesh.

“You can’t go...” The cyborg was barely alive, using all his strength to grab the corner of Lou Xun’s clothes.

In the ruined street, dark-red neon lanterns cast down a filthy light, falling over Lou Xun’s silver-white hair.

He stared at the cyborg’s pained expression. A long while later, he finally said expressionlessly, in a low voice, “...I knew it.”

“Run...” The moment the cyborg opened his mouth, blood flowed out in streams. “Hurry and run...”

Blood-red color spread silently through Lou Xun’s eyes. His originally ink-black pupils revealed a trace of wickedness. He glanced at the prosthetic limb clutching him, then slowly bent down closer to the cyborg.

The cyborg was still repeating, “Run...”

“You became like this less than half an incense stick after we escaped. Run where?” Lou Xun interrupted softly. “If you want to live, shut up.”

The cyborg struggled to breathe. “What...”

Lou Xun looked at his smoking prosthetic limb.

Even pale and thin, he still had a pair of very beautiful eyes. Their shape was slender, cold, and unmatched.

Especially when he lowered them.

The next instant, the cyborg’s scream tore through the sky.

The prosthetic arm that had been clutching Lou Xun’s clothes was completely severed, and blood gushed from his shoulder.

The spiritual light on the back of Lou Xun’s hand faded. Blood dripped down along his fingertips. He gave one last look at the unconscious cyborg, then coldly lifted the hem of his clothes and turned around.

“What happens if this man dies?”

Lou Xun raised his head. Not far away stood a wedding procession.

It was the Xu Clan’s bridal procession.

Amid the sea of bright red, a man in black walked out from the group. He sauntered over to Lou Xun and handed him a handkerchief.

“Then this lowly one will inevitably be in trouble.”

Lou Xun took the handkerchief and unhurriedly wiped his fingertips.

Before his eyes, red silk stretched out in all directions—ten li of bridal splendor.

A two-meter-tall bridal sedan stood in the center of the procession. Flickering neon lights, barely clinging to life, hung from the four corners of the sedan, illuminating countless gaudy paper figures in front of it.

The weak light passed through the paper figures’ bodies and cast a warm glow over their pale, horrifying faces, making their round, flushed cheeks appear even more eerie.

“The semi-immortal still left this lowly one a little room to maneuver.” The man in black walked up to the unconscious cyborg. “After all, though this man is a useless mortal, he is still the young master of the Xu Clan. If he died, it would be difficult for me to explain.”

“You are a semi-immortal.” Lou Xun casually tossed the handkerchief at his feet. “And you would be afraid of killing a mortal with nothing but an empty title?”

A teleportation formation flashed past the corner of his eye. Lou Xun glanced sideways, and the cyborg had already disappeared.

The man in black strolled to his side with a kind and pleasant expression on his face.

“Semi-immortal, you had best not ask too much.”

After saying that, he extended his hand toward the bridal sedan and said faintly, “Semi-immortal, we have delayed long enough. We must not miss the auspicious hour. Otherwise, it will be even harder to explain things to the groom’s side.”

Hearing this, Lou Xun’s eyes curved faintly beneath his silver-white hair.

He lifted his skirt and stepped up the stairs into the bridal sedan.

“You’re right.”

The interior of the sedan was dim. The instant he sat down, electronic locks snapped around Lou Xun’s wrists. Talismans circled the hovering electronic locks. Lou Xun frowned and struggled with spiritual power. The clasps immediately tightened even more, as if they were about to snap his wrists.

The formation on the back of his hand also flickered twice like a bad signal before dying out like a candle in the wind.

Lou Xun simply leaned back against the sedan chair.

“The Xu family truly has sincerity to spare for this marriage.”

“Please bear with it, Semi-immortal.” The man in black’s voice came through the curtain. “Who told the other side to rush us so urgently? This is also for the semi-immortal’s own good.”

“...For my own good, so you seal my spiritual power.” Lou Xun sneered. “Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were afraid I would resist and were dead set on sending me to my death.”

“You jest, Semi-immortal.” The man in black’s tone remained warm and familiar. “The Xu family spent great effort reviving you. Surely we would not ask for nothing in return. As for—”

“Why your eye color has turned red, I will not ask. I only ask that Semi-immortal Lou not do anything unnecessary again.”

His last sentence was spoken in a lowered voice. The warning against running away was obvious.

Lou Xun’s face was expressionless. He ignored him.

The other party did not need Lou Xun’s response either. After saying everything that needed to be said, he pinched his voice thin and shouted:

“Lift the sedan—”

The sound of gongs and drums shook the sky. Outside the sedan, the paper figures swayed as they lifted the bridal sedan and moved forward, wandering along the ruined streets and ancient towers.

Very quickly, the gongs and drums grew quieter, while the rain became heavier, striking the sedan roof in a messy rhythm.

The fine rain and muddy wind blew open Lou Xun’s sedan curtain. Lou Xun glanced sideways and met the gaze of the paper figure attendant outside the sedan.

The paper figure’s ink pupils were stained into a murky mess. Its waterproof paper body reflected the faint glow of the machinery inside as it stood in the rain. Lou Xun swept his gaze over its empty eyes and noticed its sharp teeth.

Why would a paper figure meant to fill out the procession need teeth so thin and dense?

As he was thinking this, the corner of his eye suddenly caught the paper figure’s eyes moving.

A muffled thunderclap abruptly exploded amid the rain.

The red lantern in the attendant paper figure’s hand went out.

The cold wind kept blowing Lou Xun’s sedan curtain open. Every time it did, several more red lights outside would go out, as though a pack of dark beasts were slowly surrounding him, ready to devour him.

A vicious chill crawled up Lou Xun’s spine to the back of his neck like a venomous snake.

The creaking movement of the bridal sedan and the sound of rain fell together into Lou Xun’s ears. The red in his pupils crept wider and wider, his gaze fixed straight on the attendant paper figure.

“Pa.”

One of the neon lanterns at the four corners of the bridal sedan went out.

As the beaded curtain swayed, the paper figure lowered its head obediently. Its sharp teeth were hidden inside its plastic skin and flesh, and its side profile was reduced to a silhouette in the rainy night.

“Pa.”

Two more went out.

Half of Lou Xun’s body was hidden in the gloom of the rainy night. A faint light flickered in the scarlet depths of his eyes.

“Pa.”

The last lantern went out.

The fine rain silently lifted the beaded curtain of Lou Xun’s bridal sedan—

He met the paper figure’s empty eyes once again.

In that instant, Lou Xun made a decisive move and slammed toward the sedan door.

With a loud bang, splintered wood flew from the sedan window. Lou Xun steadied himself in the corner of the sedan and looked over. The paper figure that had been incomparably docile just now had opened its bloody maw wide and was stuck in the sedan window, madly biting at him like a beast pouncing on prey.

The electronic locks around his wrists tightened further and further. Lou Xun’s spiritual meridians were blocked, leaving him with almost no ability to resist.

It was clearly a nearly hopeless situation, yet Lou Xun’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, almost bloodthirsty.

The paper figure pouncing like a starving tiger kept using its hands to shove itself into the sedan. The corners of its mouth split all the way to its ears. The skin and flesh of its face tore open, revealing dense, fine teeth filling its entire mouth.

The next moment, the sedan suddenly tipped over and crashed to the ground.

Following the sound of wind cutting through the air, Lou Xun dodged another paper figure lunging at him from the sedan door. That paper figure’s sharp teeth missed him and, in the blink of an eye, bit clean through the head of the paper figure at the window.

Mechanical parts shattered all over Lou Xun. After slaughtering its own kind, the paper figure twisted its head backward at an unimaginable angle. Its ink-stained eyes stared at him, full of greed.

Muffled thunder rumbled, but Lou Xun could not see the dark clouds.

His gaze fell out through the bridal sedan, and he saw that, at some unknown point, countless paper figures had gathered outside.

They pressed shoulder to shoulder in the darkness of the rainy night, all staring at him quietly.

Why?

Lou Xun grabbed a long wooden piece from the shattered window that had fallen beside his hand.

He had not even seen the groom yet. Why would the Xu family want him dead at this moment?

“Rumble—”

A sudden thunderclap exploded.

Almost at the same time, Lou Xun thrust the piece of window wood fiercely into the paper figure’s throat, piercing straight out through the back of its neck.

The paper figure’s internal system immediately fell into disorder. Lou Xun gave the system no chance to adjust. The next second, he ruthlessly kicked it, sending it flying into the pile of paper figures.

The monsters outside did not care what it was. Without another word, they surged up. Their bloody mouths split to the corners as they tore that mechanical body apart.

Thunder deafened the ears. Amid the pour of white light, Lou Xun climbed out of the bridal sedan and saw countless paper figures crawling toward him.

Yet in the end, his gaze did not land on the paper figures.

He saw a person in the rain.

The sedan had reached the drum tower. That person was sitting in the main hall of the drum tower, propping his chin with one hand, his posture relaxed, as if he were watching a play.

His features were blurred in the heavy rain.

Sensing Lou Xun’s gaze, the person inside the drum tower stood. His deep purple robes rippled with flowing light, and the silver bells at his waist rang clearly amid the vast rain, their sound bright and cold.

The bloody maw of a paper figure was almost above Lou Xun’s head, but Lou Xun lowered the wooden stake in his hand.

The sky was gray and dark. The rain fell in dense threads. Lou Xun stood atop the abandoned bridal sedan, his robes so tattered they were barely intact, revealing the dirty white inner garment beneath.

His face was as pale as his clothes. Beneath his feet, countless paper figures surged like a tide. He was clearly in an extremely sorry state, yet when he met the eyes of the master of purple robes and silver bells through the curtain of rain, his scarlet eyes were frighteningly bright.

“The way your Xu family...” That person looked at Lou Xun and laughed. “Marries off a bride is rather unique.”

Before his voice had even fallen, a thunderclap exploded from a clear sky.

Purple spiritual light burst from the center of the paper figures’ encirclement. In the blink of an eye, all the paper figures were destroyed. Their bodies turned to ash, struck down by the rain, becoming corpses scattered across the ground, leaving behind a field of charred mechanical skeletons.

Lou Xun was also caught in the shock of the thunder. His lone figure stood above the scorched bones, both hands mangled and bloody.

The hovering electronic locks around his wrists flickered twice, barely alive, then smashed to the ground.

From somewhere, the man in the drum tower took out a pale oil-paper umbrella and opened it into the rain.

Ashes formed rivers. Dead bones formed mountains. The man stepped through the rainwater and came before Lou Xun. The edge of the umbrella lifted slightly, revealing his full appearance to Lou Xun.

It was an exceedingly delicate face. His brows and eyes were unruly yet open and bright. His long hair was styled in a slightly curled wolf tail, naturally carrying a clear, foreign, youthful air, like a curved purple crescent moon.

“My bride must have been frightened.” The man’s smiling eyes curved, his voice clear as jade. “Please.”

Lou Xun lowered his head slightly. Rainwater mixed with blood and dripped from his jaw.

He gathered his ruined clothes around himself, stepped down from the tall sedan on the skulls of the paper figures, walked up to that person, and looked up at him.

“Those red eyes of yours are quite pretty,” that person teased. “This father-in-law of mine really doesn’t know how to handle things. With your clothes torn like this, how are we supposed to bow to Heaven and Earth?”

“...”

With the restraint on his wrists removed, Lou Xun sensed his spiritual power flowing again and said coolly, “I am not Miss Xu.”

“Naturally.” That person took Lou Xun’s hand and led him into the drum tower. “This venerable one is not blind. Do you think I can’t tell the difference between men and women?”

“Then Demon Lord...” Lou Xun glanced at the hand holding his. “What is the meaning of this?”

Having his identity exposed, the other party’s smile did not lessen. He still held Lou Xun’s hand and led him beneath the eaves of the ancient tower. Closing the umbrella, he pointed at the two shabby prayer cushions in the main hall.

“You and I are husband and wife. Naturally, we are to bow in ceremony.”

“...”

Rainwater still dripped from Lou Xun’s soaked silver hair. Hearing this, he swept a faintly mocking gaze over the mountain of mechanical corpses.

“But you clearly wanted me dead,” Lou Xun said in a low voice.

A muffled thunderclap exploded beside the two of them.

The next instant, spiritual light flared brightly on the back of his hand. He flung out a formation as a blade and slashed horizontally at the person beside him.

That person turned and dodged, bells ringing in a clear burst.

He was startled and pointed at Lou Xun, shouting, “My bride, how can you repay kindness with enmity?!”

Another formation disk mercilessly cut toward his face. The Demon Lord’s expression did not change. In the blink of an eye, the formation shattered into a stream of light.

He took two of Lou Xun’s full-force moves as if playing around with a child, and his mouth did not stop either.

“All right, all right.” The sound of rain mixed with the chaotic ringing of bells, yet the Demon Lord’s voice was exceptionally clear. “This venerable one admits that at first, I really didn’t plan to save you. Hey, take it easy!”

Lou Xun did not answer. His hands came together, and his eyes had already been completely filled with scarlet.

“But in the end, I changed my mind very quickly, didn’t I?” The Demon Lord stepped closer to Lou Xun.

The next instant, a blazing golden light formation surrounded him, trapping him within that square inch of space, unable to move.

The Demon Lord looked left and right, then asked with genuine sincerity, “Do you really need to be this angry? You even want to trap me and run away. I won’t do it again next time, all right...”

Before his words fell, countless chains pulled free from the golden light formation and locked firmly around him. The glow of spiritual power illuminated half his face, making his features appear extraordinarily handsome.

“Why make such a fuss over a small thing?” the Demon Lord sighed.

A sudden chill struck Lou Xun’s heart. In the blink of an eye, he forcibly suppressed the surging killing intent in his chest, turned without hesitation, and ran into the rain, using all his spiritual power to open a teleportation formation.

Then came the rumble of thunder.

Everything stopped.

The teleportation formation within arm’s reach scattered. Behind him, the crisp sound of chains shattering rang beside his ears.

Lou Xun’s limbs went stiff. He could not move even half a step. He looked at the countless severed arms and broken limbs before him and panted violently, suppressing the killing intent that spread through his chest like a bone-piercing blade.

He was going to die.

Lou Xun struggled to maintain his clarity.

Cold sweat seeped into his rain-soaked clothes. Fear, killing intent, and a desperate, unscrupulous desire to survive ignited from the depths of his heart, burning away all his reason.

The last trace of black vanished from his eyes, replaced by chaotic blood-red.

The sound of bells approached with someone’s leisurely footsteps, like the announcement of death with every ring.

But what he imagined did not happen.

Instead, someone held an umbrella over him, took his hand, and pulled him into a bow toward the corpses.

“First bow...”

“To Heaven and Earth.”

The rain was blocked away. Lou Xun’s mind was in chaos, and he was forced to raise his head. Illusions from his memories kept flashing before his eyes, and he could not even see the person in front of him clearly.

He only knew that they were standing together in the rainy night, corpses scattered everywhere beside them, dirty neon glowing above them.

“Do you know under what circumstances a semi-immortal’s eyes turn red?”

The pleasant voice was distorted, falling into Lou Xun’s ears no differently from tinnitus. Dazed, he only gritted his teeth, his lowered eyes filled with surging killing intent.

“Usually, it happens to semi-immortals whose spiritual meridians are about to self-destruct, or who are about to suffer qi deviation. From the looks of you, you’re not far off.”

The Demon Lord held the umbrella and leaned a little closer.

“Speaking of which, do you have elders?”

What answered him was Lou Xun’s struggle on the verge of mental collapse.

“I thought so.” The Demon Lord answered himself, then placed a hand on the back of Lou Xun’s head and pressed their foreheads together.

“Then we’ll skip the second bow.”

Lou Xun could not hear clearly. The killing intent was about to drown him.

Severed arms, a scene full of broken limbs, powerless unwillingness—everything pressed down on his mind, trying to drag him back to a past he did not want to remember.

The person before him spoke as if his voice had crossed ten thousand mountains to reach Lou Xun’s ears.

“The third bow.”

Lou Xun lifted his lowered eyes.

And saw the Demon Lord lower his head and kiss him.