Chapter 584: Marriage Fraud!

Huá Sāng had no idea how Lu Yibei had managed it, transforming into a beautiful young girl in the blink of an eye.

But harboring ulterior motives and using such a bizarre ability to impersonate someone else’s wife was just outrageous.

“……”

Why would she do this?

Could it be that she wasn’t impersonating at all, but actually had some connection with Senior Qing Ji’s great-grandson…

Certain unspeakable images flashed through Huá Sāng’s mind, and she instantly broke out in goosebumps, her body shuddering violently.

No, no, the more I think about it, the weirder it gets!

Huá Sāng steadied herself and looked at Qing Ji, using this as a way to divert her attention and stop her thoughts from spiraling further in that strange direction.

Beside her, Qing Ji paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself and sighing deeply.

“Sigh—! My granddaughter-in-law learned at least fifty or sixty percent of my skills. By all accounts, her strength should be quite impressive. How could she have run into an accident?”

“Even though now, well… there’s more than one, but at the very least, we need to figure out if the person is dead or alive. Leaving things in this limbo isn’t a solution either.”

As he spoke, Qing Ji gazed thoughtfully at the sky, looking at the new moon shrouded in a dark red haze, like frosted glass, and let out a heavy sigh.

“Even though that impostor, even if she got the Pure Lotus Sword, can only use it as a sharp Broken Sword, the real problem is if something happened to the person… This is driving me to death with worry.”

Hearing this, Huá Sāng suddenly froze. She stepped forward and pressed, “Wait, Senior, did you just say that Juejuezi, even with the Pure Lotus Sword, can only use it as an ordinary weapon?”

“Wrong!” Qing Ji halted his steps, turned slightly to glance at Huá Sāng behind him, and corrected her, “Not an ordinary weapon—a supremely sharp one!”

Huá Sāng thought, “……” The thing you’re fixating on is a bit strange.

After a pause, Qing Ji turned around and explained to Huá Sāng, “Due to certain special reasons, only my descendants, or the spouses of my descendants, can truly control the Pure Lotus Sword.”

“Of course, others aren’t completely unable to use it, but using it is not the same as controlling it. If someone else holds the Pure Lotus Sword, they can’t unleash its divine properties.”

After saying this, Qing Ji seemed to recall something. He furrowed his brows slightly, turned away, and sank into thought.

He suddenly realized that he couldn’t remember why the Pure Lotus Sword was restricted to use only by members of the Lu Family or their spouses.

He only vaguely remembered that this restriction came into effect after the Pure Lotus Sword was recast, but the specific details were a complete blank.

Could it be that the faint sense of loss I feel every time I “die” and wake up again is because I’ve forgotten about this matter? Qing Ji wondered.

He had a vague feeling that the details of recasting the Pure Lotus Sword were very important to him, and it seemed to be connected to Little Yanzhi.

“Hmm?”

Huá Sāng tilted her head and quickly ran through the information she had gathered so far in her mind.

In the next moment, a sudden clarity, like a jolt of electricity, shot through her mind, making her eyes tremble.

Uh, did I just stumble upon something incredible?

When that ferule had been stored in the Great Pure Palace was hard to trace.

In the past, countless disciples had used it to temper their minds, but no one had ever heard of anyone taking the ferule out of the Great Pure Palace.

According to the elders, the reason predecessors couldn’t take the ferule away was that none of them had gained its recognition.

It was like the legend of the sword in the stone—those who weren’t recognized couldn’t pull the sword out.

However, at this moment, after hearing Qing Ji’s explanation, Huá Sāng suddenly realized that her ability to carry the ferule with her might not be as simple as just gaining the recognition of the remnant soul within it.

The spouse of a descendant… would an engagement count? If it does, could the reason I can carry the ferule out of the Great Pure Palace be because of that betrothed I’ve never met?

As for its divine properties…

When carrying the ferule, it was indeed easier to clear her mind of distractions, calm her spirit, and resist the negative emotional effects brought on by the night erosion within her body. She wondered if that counted as a divine property.

After mulling it over for a while, Huá Sāng felt she had figured out what Lu Yibei had been up to.

Lu Yibei had probably used the identity of “Miss Wang” to enter into an engagement with Senior Qing Ji’s great-grandson, all for the sake of being able to control the Pure Lotus Sword.

Uh, so does that mean my betrothed was taken by a man?

Even though I had no intention of fulfilling the engagement, thinking about it this way still feels… strange.

Tsk, so gossip ends up involving myself? How amusing.

At this thought, a faint anger welled up in Huá Sāng’s heart, and her impression of Lu Yibei worsened even further.

Of course, this anger wasn’t because Lu Yibei had some unspeakable relationship with her betrothed—she didn’t care about that at all. Her anger stemmed from Lu Yibei’s utter lack of moral boundaries.

If a person lives without boundaries, how are they any different from a beast? Deceiving a hundred-year-old man was already outrageous enough. To think she’d even resort to marriage fraud?

If she’s capable of such shameless acts, who knows how many swindles and cons she’s pulled behind people’s backs using that strange ability!

I have to expose her. I can’t let Senior Qing Ji be kept in the dark by that person!

With her decision made, Huá Sāng immediately turned to Qing Ji and said seriously, “Senior Qing Ji, there’s something I feel I need to tell you.”

Qing Ji, who had been trying hard to recall the details of recasting the Pure Lotus Sword, withdrew his thoughts at the sound of Huá Sāng’s voice. “Hmm? What is it? Go ahead and say it.”

Huá Sāng pursed her lips. “I wanted to say, after hearing what you said earlier, I realized that Wang Buliuxing is Juejuezi.”

“Oh? So you’re saying…” Qing Ji furrowed his brows slightly, but then his eyes lit up as he nodded. “I think I understand now.”

My granddaughter-in-law probably faked an identity to retrieve the ferule, disguised herself, and used it as a way to get close to disciples of the Great Pure Palace, right?

“Tsk tsk, pretending to be Zhang Huainan’s Senior Martial Sister? She’s got some nerve!”

“Senior, that’s not the main point.” Huá Sāng continued, “The main point is, Wang Buliuxing’s real name is Lu Yibei, and under normal circumstances, that person should be male. I suspect she might be committing marriage fraud!”

“Uh, even if that’s the case, it’s not necessarily fraud…” Qing Ji was halfway through his sentence when his mind suddenly buzzed. He snapped back to attention, wide-eyed, and looked at Huá Sāng in shock, pressing, “Wait, what did you say her real name was?”

“Her real name is… #@*%!”

Qing Ji, “???”

Huá Sāng heard the sound coming from her own mouth turn into a burst of noise, like the static from a damaged audio file.

She froze for a moment, opened her mouth to repeat what she had just said, but just then, her vision suddenly blurred.

Her body twisted strangely.

Like thick fog being blown apart by the wind, Huá Sāng’s figure began to distort, blur, and fade, vanishing from the rooftop in the blink of an eye.

“……” Qing Ji stared at the spot where Huá Sāng had disappeared, his brow furrowing, his gaze growing cold.

Did she just say that Wang Buliuxing’s real name was Lu Yibei?

I knew something felt off all along… If it weren’t for my real great-grandson’s wife telling me, I’d probably still be in the dark.

You little brat, you actually dared to deceive me? Just wait till I get my hands on you!

As Qing Ji thought this, a terrifying psychic energy fluctuation erupted from his body. With a muffled “boom,” cracks began to spiderweb across the rooftop.

————

Inside Room 306 of the Chenyi Inn.

“Huff—!”

Huá Sāng woke up, opening her eyes and staring at the ceiling as she let out a long breath.

Why did I suddenly wake up?

It felt as though some force had forcibly severed her connection to the ferule.

Deep in thought, Huá Sāng raised the ferule and examined it closely.

The ferule still looked the same as before—pitch black, without markings, gleaming with a metallic luster, as if forged from black iron.

It seemed fine? Was it just the effect of the resonance between the ferule and the Broken Sword weakening over time?

That should be it, right? After all, I wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.

But, something still felt off.

Huá Sāng continued to scrutinize the ferule for a while longer, her brow gradually furrowing.

The ferule was still the same ferule, with no visible abnormalities, yet she inexplicably felt a sense of unfamiliarity.

“Is it just my imagination? Forget it, I’ll reconnect with the ferule later and confirm.”

Muttering to herself, Huá Sāng rolled over, face down, and sprawled out on the bed. In no time, the room was filled with the sound of her steady breathing.

She had already been exhausted today.

After the sudden disconnection from the ferule and waking up, she felt dizzy, with a dull ache in her temples and sore muscles all over her body.

So, the moment she closed her eyes, she couldn’t hold on any longer and quickly drifted into a deep sleep.

————

On the other side, in the backyard of the Chenyi Inn.

Elder Wang clutched the ferule he had swapped to his chest as he hurried back to his quarters.

Entering the room, he locked the door behind him and cast a spell formation to block detection. Then, he quickly walked to the bedside, pulled out the emblem from under the pillow, and infused it with psychic energy.

As the emblem trembled lightly, Elder Wang heard that featureless voice in his ear.

“Oh? Has it already succeeded? Truly worthy of Elder Wang—efficient and reliable!”

“Let’s skip the nonsense.” Elder Wang said in a low voice, “What do we do next? This won’t cause any problems, will it?”

He had carefully inspected the two ferules before making the swap. They were indeed identical, without any differences.

But that was only on the surface!

Every disciple of the Great Pure Palace knew that the ferule housed the remnant soul of a senior sage. Even if that lord could perfectly replicate the ferule, there was no way they could replicate the sage’s remnant soul. Over time, it was bound to cause issues.

“Elder Wang, are you worried that if this is exposed, it’ll affect your standing in the sect?” The voice from the emblem mercilessly exposed Elder Wang’s thoughts. “Haha, don’t worry. That ferule is now held by Huá Sāng. If something goes wrong, as long as she doesn’t say anything, how would anyone else find out?”

“But what if she…”

“No what-ifs!” The voice from the emblem interrupted. “That ferule is a grace bestowed by that lord. As soon as Huá Sāng tries to use it, she will feel the grace. If she’s lucky, she might even glimpse the lord’s beautiful sleeping form!”

“……”

Elder Wang recalled the scene when he first communed with his fly whisk, his gaze sharpening slightly, and his anxious heart finally calmed a little.

Yes, once she feels that lord’s grace, Huá Sāng will surely be ensnared, unable to extricate herself.

By then, even if she detects something unusual about the ferule, she won’t leak a single word!