[Translation] Fate Chooses You (佳偶天成) by Shi Si Lang (十四郎): Chapter 4: Abducting a Maiden by Force

 

Xin Mei suddenly snapped her mouth shut. Looking around, she slowly moved behind a relatively thick tree and muttered:

“But it’s still raining outside, and the nearest town is over an hour away by flight…”

This man had a terrible temper. If he suddenly decided to strike her with a palm attack for no reason, hiding behind a tree would at least be safer.

He fastened the wooden sword to his belt and turned around. Seeing her entire body hidden behind the tree with only her head peeking out, she looked rather like a little rabbit.

“If you’re not afraid of dying, then suit yourself.”

He turned and walked away.

Wherever his sleeves brushed past, dense fog began gathering rapidly. Within moments, heaven and earth were engulfed in white mist so thick that nothing could be seen beyond three steps.

So he really was a demon!

Xin Mei was stunned.

A demon that could summon fog!

No wonder she had encountered strange mist that night near the imperial mausoleum — it had been his doing all along!

She looked around and decided to walk in the opposite direction. But after only a few steps, her foot suddenly kicked something heavy enough to hurt her toes.

Picking it up, she found a dark blue money pouch stuffed with silver pieces and banknotes, surprisingly weighty. Among the bills was tucked a multicolored jade tag of mediocre quality.

Oddly enough, the jade bore no decorative patterns. One side was engraved with the character “Lu,” while the reverse read “Qianqiao.”

Judging from the fresh mud on the pouch, it had probably belonged to that demon.

Was the jade tag his name?

Lu Qianqiao.

A demon actually had a human name.

Holding the pouch, Xin Mei thought for a long while. She hesitated, glanced back once, then finally steeled herself and decisively followed the direction he had gone.

The thick fog instantly swallowed her figure whole.

Rainy mountain forests were the absolute worst.

Xin Mei braced herself against a tree and struggled to yank her foot from the mud. She had been wearing newly made lambskin boots, perfectly clean and beautiful that morning, but now they were so coated in mud their original color couldn’t even be seen.

At some point thunder had begun rumbling overhead again. Several times the lightning felt frighteningly close.

This weather was far too abnormal.

She finally pulled one foot free and took another step forward.

Suddenly the air cleared.

The dense, impenetrable fog from before vanished as though erased instantly. Ahead beneath a tree she spotted what looked like a piece of white cloth and brightened immediately, hurrying over to wipe the mud from her shoes.

Someone nearby suddenly groaned faintly.

Startled, she walked around the tree and discovered more than ten people sprawled chaotically on the ground, all apparently unconscious.

And the “white cloth” she’d been using to clean her shoes was actually the hem of one man’s robe.

Xin Mei felt rather embarrassed and quickly folded the cloth back over him. The man she had wiped her shoes on seemed to regain slight consciousness, though all he could do was weakly groan.

She crouched beside him and asked:

“Why are you all lying here? Are you camping in the mud?”

The man stared at her tremblingly, his expression practically vomiting blood.

“Y-you… didn’t see… the thing over there…?”

Xin Mei turned around.

On a massive green stone opposite them sat an incredibly ferocious tiger demon in meditation. Thunderclouds churned above its head, bolts of lightning crashing down one after another.

It was actually a demon undergoing a heavenly thunder tribulation. If it survived successfully, it would become immortal.

“You all came to watch the tiger demon ascend?” she asked kindly.

The man fainted again from sheer rage.

Meanwhile the rain grew heavier beneath the storm clouds. Seeing the people lying miserably in the mud, soaked from head to toe, Xin Mei bent down and grabbed one by the arm, intending to drag them somewhere drier.

Suddenly footsteps sounded behind her.

Turning around, she saw the man from before approaching with the wooden sword at his waist.

The moment he saw her, a faint trace of something that could finally be called “surprise” appeared on his face.

“How are you here?” he asked, his expression unfriendly.

Xin Mei quickly glanced around, chose a sturdier-looking tree, hid behind it, and carefully placed the money pouch on the ground.

“…You dropped your money pouch.”

He fell silent for a moment before picking it up.

Just as he was about to speak, the tiger demon suddenly unleashed an earth-shaking roar that made the entire mountain forest tremble.

Apparently no longer able to withstand the heavenly lightning, it opened blood-red eyes and grabbed one of the unconscious people from the ground, opening its jaws to devour him.

Xin Mei instantly understood.

These people had been captured to strengthen the tiger demon’s power during the tribulation!

Lu Qianqiao kicked a stone forward.

It struck the tiger demon’s arm precisely, sending the captive flying away and crashing back into the mud.

Enraged, the tiger demon opened its huge mouth, firing countless black arrows.

Lu Qianqiao merely flicked the wooden sword lightly.

The arrows seemed to collide with an invisible wall and all fell harmlessly three feet before him.

Anyone ignorant of the truth would have assumed he wielded some divine weapon.

Only Xin Mei knew the sword had been carved from ordinary wood right before her eyes.

The wooden sword floated in midair above his palm. With a light flick of his finger, it shot forward like a beam of light, emitting an ear-piercing hum as it flew around the tiger demon like a living creature.

Moments later, it suddenly halted midair—

Bang!

The sword exploded into powder.

An ordinary wooden sword simply could not withstand such immense power.

So powerful…

Xin Mei stood there gaping as the tiger demon — one step away from immortality — silently split apart into chunks of flesh and died without even a final cry.

Stepping over the scattered blood and flesh, Lu Qianqiao retrieved a blood-red core the size of a fist from the demon’s remains.

It was the tiger demon’s inner core.

He was a demon himself, yet he killed his own kind to seize their inner cores!

He was so powerful that even Qiuyue would probably be reduced to scraps in front of him.

And if he decided to silence her permanently…

That would be extremely bad.

Xin Mei glanced around carefully, deciding that slipping away at the first opportunity was her top priority.

Without warning, he suddenly appeared before her.

The world darkened overhead as he stopped directly in front of her and seized her wrist.

“You’ve broken through the Cloud Mist Formation twice. I can’t leave you outside. Come with me.”

What Cloud Mist Formation?

Did he mean the fog he created?

Xin Mei desperately wrapped her free arm around the tree trunk, practically wishing she could climb it like a monkey.

“It’s just fog! Anyone with a good sense of direction could walk out!”

Unfortunately, her sense of direction happened to be exceptionally good. She had never gotten lost in her life.

“You’re lying.”

He tightened his grip.

If the Cloud Mist Formation were so easy to break, it wouldn’t be considered one of the Three Great Formations.

Her arm felt like it was about to dislocate.

Xin Mei suddenly turned to glare at him.

“I only came back to return your money pouch!”

If she’d known, she would’ve kept it!

Why was being a good person so difficult in this world?!

Lu Qianqiao saw tears glimmering faintly in her stubborn, furious eyes.

She really had crossed all that mud just to return the pouch. The yellow mud on her boots hadn’t even dried yet.

Slowly, he loosened his grip slightly, though he still refused to let go.

“No matter what, you’re coming with me.”

“Why should I go with you?!”

She struggled hard, but his fingers were like iron clamps.

“The area surrounding the imperial mausoleum is protected by my Cloud Mist Formation. Aside from me, no one may enter or leave. Since you can break the formation, I cannot allow you to remain outside. It will cause trouble. I’m taking you back to the imperial mausoleum.”

Xin Mei was horrified.

“Y-you’re abducting an innocent maiden by force…”

Lu Qianqiao no longer wished to waste words.

He grabbed her around the waist, hoisted her up, and strode away.

Xin Mei remained frozen in shock. Looking up at his face, she suddenly thought of something even more terrifying.

“You’re not planning to make me your bandit chief’s wife, are you?!”

That was how it always happened in plays.

A maiden would be abducted by force and locked in a stronghold as the bandit chief’s wife. If he liked her, they became husband and wife; if not, she’d simply be beaten and abused.

Surely her fate wouldn’t be this tragic?!

Lu Qianqiao’s eyebrows twitched twice, but he said nothing.

Xin Mei racked her brains and struggled to explain:

“I-I won’t marry you… I don’t like demons, and I don’t like expressionless men either…”

He stopped walking.

Looking down at his own hand, he seriously contemplated whether he should knock her unconscious with one slap.

Or perhaps knock her unconscious with one slap.

Suddenly the sound of mooing came from overhead.

A battered ox cart descended beside the trees, and Meishan climbed out while muttering:

“Wasn’t the tiger demon here supposed to ascend through heavenly tribulation soon? How did it suddenly die…”

Xin Mei reacted as though seeing salvation itself.

“Lord Meishan!”

He looked up blankly.

First at her.

Then at Lu Qianqiao.

His face instantly turned green.

“War Ghost…”

Without another word, he dove straight back into the ox cart and immediately flew away at top speed.

Lu Qianqiao looked up at the ox cart shrinking into a tiny black dot in the distance.

Then he suddenly asked:

“You know that immortal?”

Still stunned by how absurdly fast Meishan had fled, Xin Mei only nodded blankly.

“Earlier you called him Meishan. Could he be Lord Meishan from Meishan Residence — the one who spends all day collecting other people’s secrets and gossip?”

Xin Mei silently turned her head aside and shed tears.

So Lord Meishan was actually that kind of cowardly gossip-loving immortal.

No wonder he had run faster than a rabbit.

“Is it him?”

“…I’m not telling you.”

Lu Qianqiao said nothing further.