48: We're getting married.

That section of golden vine felt as slippery as an electric eel fresh out of the water in Su Chen's hand, carrying a searing heat.

Without any hesitation, Su Chen flipped his hand and gripped Lin Mengyao's wrist, which was as cold as a dead fish.

Taking advantage of the momentum, he applied heavy pressure, slamming the severed vine hard onto that fragment of the Blood-colored Marriage Contract.

Buzz—!

Two completely different auras collided violently on the windshield.

The pure Yang Energy gushing from the vine was like a red-hot branding iron.

Meanwhile, the black blood within the marriage contract was like cold, thick ink; the moment the two merged, they actually let out a piercing hiss.

Su Chen felt a wave of numbness in his palm.

In his line of sight, that blood-colored paper, which originally exuded the aura of death, began to twist and fade.

Finally, as if bleached in strong alkali, it transformed into a translucent, blank contract!

"If it's a fake marriage, then so be it, but the rules will be set by me!"

The corner of Su Chen's mouth curled into a cold arc as his gaze swept over several lines of tiny script emerging at the bottom of the blank contract.

[Once the heart's blood is in place, the contract is formed.]

[Special Note: The primary party holds unilateral decision-making power and can abolish the contract at any time.]

Su Chen cursed inwardly.

This wasn't a marriage contract; this was clearly an apocalyptic version of a labor dispatch agreement.

However, he liked these kinds of unequal treaties.

As an egoist, what he hated most was the so-called 'sharing life and death'.

Holding the power of control in his own hands was what he called a sense of security.

"Su Chen, I'm joining in too."

Qin Ya's voice came from behind, carrying a reassuring steadiness.

Su Chen turned back and saw her pull a yellowed sheet of paper from that worn-out teaching folder.

It was the Graduation Pledge for Class 1, Senior Grade 3 that hadn't been handed out yet; on the back was a group photo of the whole class smiling brightly on the playground.

In this broken world, it was the only thing that still carried the lingering warmth of 'civilization'.

Qin Ya didn't waste words; she wiped the blood from the corner of her lips with her slender finger and quickly sketched at the end of the pledge.

"Qin Ya is willing to use her Teacher's Soul as a covenant to protect Su Chen until the final exam ends."

A golden light flashed across the paper, and those youthful faces in the photo seemed to come alive at that moment, turning into dots of starlight.

The originally ordinary report card was violently extracted in the void, actually condensing into a second blank marriage contract.

Su Chen glanced at it and was amused.

In the signature column of that marriage contract, four large words were strikingly pulsing: Invigilating Teacher.

"That works too?"

Su Chen raised an eyebrow.

The logic of this altar's rules was truly 'abstract' enough.

It could actually create an Invigilating Teacher out of thin air?

If that was the case, they really stood a chance of breaking through this area!

"The altar recognizes 'form' but not 'sincerity'!"

Zhao Wanting's translucent phantom was almost pressed against Su Chen's back as she pointed urgently at the car window.

On the glass, white marks scratched by fingernails automatically combined, forming a simple flow chart.

"Su Chen, it's a dead program; as long as we complete the progress bar for 'Bowing to Heaven and Earth', we can trick its identification system!"

Su Chen glanced at the flow chart: drinking the nuptial cup, exchanging tokens, and crossing the brazier.

It was as simple as playing some crudely made RPG mini-game.

"Where's the wine?"

Su Chen patted his empty tactical bag.

These steps seemed simple, but in this dilapidated bus, where was he supposed to find those things?

"Drink this."

Lin Mengyao expressionlessly pulled out half a bottle of leftover purified water from under the seat; it was what Su Chen had rewarded her with earlier.

Her movements were ruthless as a silver needle flashing with an eerie light slid from her sleeve, and she plunged it into the side of her neck without hesitation.

Su Chen's eyelid twitched; that was the location of the palace maiden mark.

As the silver needle entered her flesh, the Yang Energy inside Lin Mengyao's body was instantly coated in a layer of gray frost.

She tilted her head back, took a large gulp of the cold water mixed with blood and medicine, and then handed it to Su Chen.

That look in her eyes was as cold as if she were drinking arsenic.

Su Chen took the bottle, his fingertips touching the body of the bottle, and he could even feel that forcibly suppressed chill.

He knew what Lin Mengyao was thinking; this woman was using self-mutilation to balance the backlash of the marriage covenant.

"The token."

Qin Ya took the previously broken fragment of the pearl hairpin, threaded it with a red string, and handed it into Su Chen's palm.

As for the so-called 'brazier'... Su Chen's gaze shifted around, finally settling on the brown liquid constantly dripping near the driver's seat.

It was fuel leaking from the bus's gas tank during the violent collision just now.

The pungent smell of gasoline filled the narrow cabin, mixing with the fishy scent of mud, keeping one's nerves constantly on edge.

"Get ready, we're getting 'married'."

Su Chen gave a self-deprecating laugh and pulled Lin Mengyao and Qin Ya over.

He never expected there would be a day he'd get married in such a way, even if it was a fake marriage.

However, the moment the three of them stepped over the gasoline flame ignited by True Qi, Su Chen's expression suddenly changed.

He didn't land obediently as Zhao Wanting had said; instead, he violently kicked over the nearby spare fuel drum while in mid-air.

"Go!"

More than half a drum of gasoline followed the broken exhaust pipe, splashing like a fire dragon toward the giant tower made of bus wreckage outside the window.

Immediately, the flames began to burn fiercely.

At the moment the fire soared into the sky, the Small Purple-gold Bead in Su Chen's dantian began to spin frantically.

Sacred Yang True Qi actually followed his fingertips and the two blank contracts, reverse-invading the altar's sensory network like a greedy virus.

Su Chen immediately saw that the Blood-colored Marriage Contract runes flying all over the sky had changed.

Like a school of startled fish, they were being attracted by the True Qi fluctuations he had mixed into the 'nuptial water', and were being sucked into the bus's exhaust system in large batches.

"Fake marriage complete, now it's time to collect interest!"

It worked!

Su Chen felt the rule permissions skyrocketing frantically within him; he was about to laugh out loud when he heard an unprecedentedly shrill and mournful wail from beneath the bus.