Chapter 1 - The Bridal Night (1/2)

When the red veil was lifted off her face, Lin Qiu was struck dumb.

The face of the man before her was sculpted to perfection, and his eyes penetrated her like a predator’s. Even a naive girl could tell that he wanted to bed her.

For a moment, she thought she had traversed into the wrong place. The male protagonist, Wei Liang, was supposed to be cold, reserved and dispassionate—the type of person whom even the female protagonist, Liu Qing Yin, could not lure off his ice-carved throne. Could it be possible that this beautiful man, who was as cold as an ice-sculpture, wanted to devour her? She was the evil side character!

‘Did he drug their bridal chamber? That can’t be right,‘ Lin Qiu thought. Wei Liang held himself to a high moral conduct, and he wouldn’t have used such improper means.

As Wei Liang set down Lin Qiu’s red bridal veil on the sandalwood tray beside their bed, Lin Qiu found herself flipping through her memory banks, trying hard to remember the original storyline and matching it with the memory now embedded in her character’s mind. Her mind. Her memories matched, and she hadn’t traversed to the wrong place. This was the story Jade of Swords. And she was in the body of the tragic antagonist Lin Qiu.

In the book, no one got to see anything other than the main female protagonist’s perspective, who was Liu Qing Yin. Not to mention, any details of Wei Liang and Lin Qiu together in the bridal chamber were certainly omitted.

The plot should follow these set of events: Liu Qin Yin watched her beloved Wei Liang walking into the other woman’s chamber. Liu Qin Yin’s heart was shattered, and she ran to Wei Liang’s senior apprentice, who she knew as Big Brother. He had been severely injured and had slipped into a coma, and she had poured her heart out to him. Then, the apprentice died. His death had successfully stirred up a commotion and stopped the consummation on the bridal night.

‘Nothing… nothing will come out of this, will it?’ Lin Qiu wondered wildly. ‘Well, I should forget about it. The lead Liu Qing Yin is Heaven’s daughter, and her man… heh heh, I won’t dare to sleep with him.’

Lin Qiu rolled her stiffened neck, and gave herself a silent pep talk.  ‘Steady, don’t panic. It’ll be only a while until the apprentice dies!’

Wei Liang was gently straightening out the red veil, his back to Lin Qiu, when all of a sudden he laughed softly. Lin Qiu’s heart shuddered, and goosebumps trailed her skin.

Wei Liang turned, making only a small half of his face visible; the small movement so natural, every inch of his features was like cold jade polished a thousand times, refined with such detail to achieve the perfection he was now.

But from Lin Qiu’s perspective, everything about him was just boiled down to just two simple words—an exchange.

Trembling, she looked at her groom’s tall figure. As the male protagonist, Wei Liang’s appearance and temperament were naturally unparalleled, and his redolent red robe made him all the more handsome. He walked towards Lin Qiu, held her shoulders with both hands, and gently pushed her down the mattress.

With haste, he leaned close, his red robe shifting with the graceful motion.

“Wait!” Lin Qiu cried. Her head sunk deep into the soft, golden silk pillow, but she managed to hold on to her senses. “I know you didn’t want to take me as your wife. I won’t force you into this!”

Wei Liang simply inched his unearthly beauty of a face closer to her, their noses almost touching now.

“Who says I didn’t want to?” he murmured in a husky voice.

With Wei Liang this close to her, Lin Qiu felt his breath on her skin—like fresh air from the melted snow-capped mountain at the arrival of spring. His voice was cold, but strangely, it warmed at the end, which she found fascinating, and…soul-captivating.

Lin Qiu hurriedly raised her hands against his chest. “I’m not good enough for you. You, Wei Liang, are the figurehead of the Righteous Way. You are a man of cultivation unparalleled in this world. All the important sects bow before you. And I—I am just a loser, one who can’t even sense a sword’s intent. I’m really not suitable for you. If you have a sweetheart, I promise to let you go without protest. That’s why we don’t have to do this—”

At her words, Wei Liang’s gaze darkened. “This?” he said. “Don’t be impatient, my wife. This is it.”

Lin Qiu’s senses took notice of the expression he wore and saw that, at that moment, Wei Liang truly resembled a wolf—not the anxious type, but as one that regarded her as a delicious prey.

He was hunting!

He captured her wrists in one hand while his other hand was propped on the soft pillow. Then, this cold-hearted man began to unbutton her clothes.

Although his serious expression had a dangerous allure to it, Lin Qiu wasn’t interested in him at all. When she thought back to the plot in the book, she remembered that Wei Liang and Liu Qing Yin had long been in love with each other. The problem was that they were also master and apprentice, and he would forever be her master. In this world, intimate relationships between masters and apprentices were forbidden.

Wei Liang had a rigid personality, and naturally, he wouldn’t overstep the sacred boundary. Liu Qing Yin had to be the one to take the initiative in their relationship. The whole journey had been very cruel.

Lin Qiu got angry. This man really was a pig, and he would sleep with anyone he caught!

“You’re so pathetic! You like Liu Qing Yin! Why are you ruining the lives of other people!” Lin Qiu scolded. She had a straightforward personality, so once she got furious, she would speak her mind.

Wei Liang’s fingers halted on the outer layer of the other gown. The moment he heard Liu Qing Yin’s name, he froze. The air was still for a moment, and then he ducked his head as a strangled laugh escaped from his lips. He looked up again after his laugh ended, his narrow and deep black eyes staring right at Lin Qiu’s face. He wiped off all emotions from his face so that he looked like a cold jade sculpture once again.

His perfectly shaped thin lips softly moved as he spoke. “Then why did you try with all your might to get married to me?”

Lin Qiu’s breath caught. She didn’t know what to say.

Wei Liang and Lin Qiu, one from the skies, one from down below, were people from two different worlds with no ties whatsoever.

Their marriage came out of nowhere.

Lin Qiu’s father was the master of a small sect from the mountains 3000 kilometers away from here who had died in the ultimate battle against evil. On that fateful day, Wei Liang and the evil master unleashed their ultimate powers and collided in an attack, thinking they would each sacrifice themselves. Their power shook the world, and the shock wave could be felt for thousands of miles. An uncountable number of righteous and evil cultivators died, and Lin Qiu’s father was one of them.

The evil master disintegrated into dust while Wei Liang was seriously injured, but survived. The evil clan was driven into an even greater frenzy, and they continually attacked the lands of the humans. Because the humans didn’t have enough resources to defend against the ambushes, no one could protect the civilians. The world sunk into chaos and everything turned into waste.