58: Chapter 58 Put down the knife first, I never said I wouldn't marry!

I don't know how much time had passed, but Leng Yuexi finally calmed down.

She released her hands from holding Xia Jin, looked at his still-confused expression, and sighed helplessly.

"Go! Come with me!"

Without waiting for Xia Jin to react, she had already pulled him to sit by a giant rock nearby.

"The events of twenty years ago, can you really not remember them?" Leng Yuexi was silent for a moment, then took an item directly from her bosom and gently placed it in Xia Jin's palm.

It was a concentric knot woven from red string, though it had aged and the red string had long since faded somewhat.

However, one could tell at a glance that Leng Yuexi had kept it perfectly preserved; aside from the fading, it had no damage at all.

"This item... you should still remember it, right?" Leng Yuexi sat to the side, her hands unconsciously clutching her skirt, her gaze filled with a trace of anticipation.

"This thing? A concentric knot? How could this thing exist in this world!?" Xia Jin looked down at the concentric knot in his palm, and suddenly, his pupils constricted!

"Wait, it seems... I really did weave this thing before!"

A memory surged up from the depths of Xia Jin's mind.

Twenty years ago, in order to break through the Bottleneck of the Innate Realm, he had traveled alone with only his sword to the Cang'ao Kingdom, known for its chaos and located at the border between the Central Region and the Eastern Region, to train.

Once, while venturing deep into the mountains, he was schemed against and severely injured by three Disciples from a Cang'ao School. After fighting his way out, he was so heavily wounded that he fell into a coma at the edge of a forest.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying in an exceptionally crude cave, with hay spread underneath him.

But his wrists and ankles were, for some reason, shackled with iron chains.

Being severely injured and not yet recovered, he had no strength to break free.

And just when he was feeling somewhat desperate, he saw a figure walk in from outside, against the faint light.

It was a scrawny, yellow-haired girl who looked only fifteen or sixteen, with an exceptionally thin and frail frame, wrapped in an ill-fitting, tattered hemp garment.

Her dry, knotted, yellow hair messily covered most of her face, but one could still see her delicate little face.

She held a chipped clay bowl in her hands, walked over cautiously, and squatted in front of him.

The bowl contained "porridge" that was so thin it was barely recognizable.

The other party looked at him for a long while before saying in a somewhat hoarse voice, "You, marry me. This bowl of porridge, I'll give it to you to drink."

Xia Jin was stunned at the time, then couldn't help but laugh bitterly.

He, a dignified prince of the Great Xia, was actually shackled and forced into marriage by a scrawny girl in the mountains?

However, he hadn't expected that this unremarkable scrawny girl would act with such exceptional decisiveness.

She actually took an axe from behind her back, pointed it at Xia Jin, and said, "Within three breaths, if you don't agree, I will kill you!"

At that moment, Xia Jin, still suffering from his severe injuries, could only feign agreement.

In the following days, this scrawny girl would go out every day to search for food, mostly wild vegetables and fruits, though occasionally, if she was lucky enough to catch a mountain rat or a small bird, she would always cook it and give him the larger portion.

She spoke very little, and most of the time she would just sit silently at the cave entrance, hugging her knees and watching Xia Jin.

Looking at her dazed and cute appearance, Xia Jin even suspected that this scrawny girl probably didn't even know what 'marry' meant.

Through intermittent conversations, Xia Jin learned that this girl had been raised in these deep mountains by her foster mother since she was young and had never left this mountain range.

Half a year ago, before her foster mother passed away from illness, she told her to find someone to marry so she could survive.

In these past six months, the little bit of stored grain left by her foster mother had long been eaten up. Saving Xia Jin unintentionally this time was the only variable she saw in her despair.

Xia Jin felt a trace of pity for the plight of the scrawny girl before him.

Half a month later, his injuries had recovered by seventy or eighty percent. Breaking the iron chains was no longer a difficult task for him.

But he did not leave immediately.

Instead, after his injuries healed, he took her with him and walked out of the deep mountains for the first time.

Xia Jin settled her in a small town closest to the mountain range, purchased a small courtyard for her, and left behind enough money and a Cultivation Technique.

Before leaving, he specifically wove a concentric knot and left a letter.

After all, as a dignified prince of a dynasty, he and she were ultimately not people of the same world. After handling the aftermath, he left that place.

The tide of memory slowly receded.

Xia Jin gripped the faded concentric knot in his hand, slowly raised his head, and his gaze landed on Leng Yuexi's face as he hesitantly asked, "Are you... the... scrawny girl from the mountains of Cang'ao Kingdom back then?"

Upon hearing this long-lost term of address, Leng Yuexi's nose felt sore again, and she nodded heavily, gazing at him with burning eyes.

"You bastard, you finally remembered me!!"

She punched Xia Jin hard in the chest, "Back then you said you would marry me, I have always remembered that promise!!"

"Uh..." Xia Jin was momentarily speechless, not knowing how to respond.

He recalled that he had indeed said those words, but at the time it was just an expedient measure.

Now, to ask him to marry a woman with almost no emotional foundation based solely on an old promise seemed... a bit unreasonable.

Wait, that doesn't seem right either.

His gaze drifted unconsciously toward Leng Yuexi; that figure wrapped in a purple dress seemed... no less impressive than Lady Lan.

Moreover, she was the Leader of the Xuanyin Sect, a top Sect in the Central Region.

Xia Jin couldn't help but swallow his saliva: It seems... marrying her wouldn't be a bad thing?

"What? Could it be... you don't keep your word?"

Seeing Xia Jin silent, Leng Yuexi couldn't help but sneer, "If that's the case, then don't blame me!!"

She actually pulled a dagger from somewhere, flipped her wrist, and placed it directly against Xia Jin's neck.

Although the action was fast, her eyes revealed her true thoughts; rather than a threat, it looked more like she was afraid Xia Jin would say something to refuse.

"Wait...! Put the knife down first!"

The cold sensation brought Xia Jin back to his senses. He sighed helplessly, looked at her slightly aggrieved gaze, and finally said with a bitter smile, "This Prince... didn't say I wouldn't marry you."

"Really?!" Leng Yuexi's eyes instantly lit up, she immediately dropped the dagger, and a look of relief bloomed on her face.

She grabbed Xia Jin's right hand, extended her own little finger, and hooked it without question, "Pinky swear! You are not allowed to lie again this time!! Otherwise, even if I die, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth!!"

Just as their fingers were hooked in a pinky swear, the System notification sound rang in Xia Jin's mind again.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the mission: Subdue the Leader of the Xuanyin Sect, Leng Yuexi.]

[Mission rewards issued: Shenxiao Lightning Technique (Entry-Level), 400 years of cultivation!]

Xia Jin shuddered, even feeling a bit dazed, "Ah?! This mission, it... it was completed just like that?"

Leng Yuexi seemed to notice Xia Jin's oddity, the hands holding his arm tightened involuntarily, and a trace of doubt flashed in her eyes: "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing... let's go, let's go back!"