Starting as a Grandmaster, all of my cultivation techniques are at max level.

After an unknown amount of time, Leng Yuexi finally calmed down.

She loosened her grip on Xia Jin, looked at the still confused Xia Jin, and sighed helplessly.

"Come on! Follow me!"

Before Xia Jin could react, she had already pulled Xia Jin to sit down on a large rock nearby.

"You really can't remember what happened twenty years ago?" Leng Yuexi was silent for a moment, then took out an item from her bosom and gently placed it in Xia Jin's palm.

It was a love knot woven with red string, though the red string had faded somewhat over time. However, it was immediately clear that Leng Yuexi had preserved it extremely well; apart from the fading, there was no damage whatsoever.

"This thing...you should still remember it, right?" Leng Yuexi sat to the side, her hands unconsciously clenching the hem of her skirt, her eyes filled with anticipation.

"This thing? A love knot? How could such a thing exist in this world!?" Xia Jin looked down at the love knot in her palm, and suddenly, her pupils contracted!

"Wait a minute, I seem to... I do seem to have made up something like this 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 traveled alone with his sword to the Cang'ao Kingdom, which bordered the Central Region and the Eastern Region and was known for its chaos, for training.

During one of his treks deep into the mountains, he was ambushed and severely injured by three disciples of the Cang'ao Sect. After fighting his way out, he fell into a deep coma on the edge of a forest due to his severe injuries.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying in an extremely simple cave, with dry grass beneath him. But for some reason, his wrists and ankles were chained.

Still recovering from his serious injuries, he was powerless to break free.

Just when he was in despair, he saw a figure walk in from outside against the dim light.

She was a young girl who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old, with a yellowish complexion, and an unusually thin and emaciated figure, wrapped in an ill-fitting, tattered linen garment.

Her dry, tangled hair covered most of her face, but you could still see her delicate features.

She carefully walked over, holding a chipped earthenware bowl, and squatted down in front of him. The bowl was filled with a thin, runny "porridge".

The other person looked at him for a long while before saying in a slightly hoarse voice, "You, marry me. This bowl of porridge is for you."

Xia Jin was taken aback, then didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He, a prince of the Great Xia Dynasty, was forced into marriage by a young girl from the mountains, chained up with iron chains.

However, he hadn't expected that the unassuming young girl with blond hair would act so decisively. She pulled an axe from behind her back, pointed it at Xia Jin, and said, "If you don't agree within three breaths, I'll kill you!"

At this moment, Xia Jin, who was still recovering from serious injuries, could only pretend to agree to the other party's request.

In the days that followed, the blond girl would go out every day to look for food, but mostly wild vegetables and fruits. Occasionally, if she was lucky, she could catch a mountain mouse or a small bird, and she would always cook it and share most of it with him.

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

Looking at the girl's dazed expression, Xia Jin even suspected that this blond-haired girl probably didn't even know what "marrying" meant.

Through their intermittent conversation, Xia Jin learned that the girl had been raised by her adoptive mother in these deep mountains since she was a child and had never left this mountain range.

Six months ago, before her adoptive mother passed away, she told her to find someone to marry so that she could survive.

Over the past six months, she had already eaten up the little food her adoptive mother had left behind. This unintentional rescue of Xia Jin was the only variable she saw in her despair.

Xia Jin felt a pang of pity for the young girl in front of her.

Two weeks later, his injuries had healed by about 70-80%. Breaking the chains was no longer a difficult task for him.

But he did not leave immediately.

Instead, after he recovered from his injuries, he took her out of the deep mountains for the first time.

Xia Jin settled her in a small town closest to the mountains, bought her a small courtyard, and left her enough money and a cultivation manual.

Before leaving, he specially made a love knot and left a letter.

After all, he was a prince of the dynasty, and he and the other party were not from the same world. After taking care of some cleanup matters, he left the place.

The tide of memories slowly recedes.

Xia Jin held the faded love knot in her hand, slowly raised her head, and looked at Leng Yuexi's face. She hesitated for a moment before asking, "You... are you that... young girl with yellow hair from the mountains of Cang'ao Kingdom back then?"

Hearing this long-unheard address, Leng Yuexi felt a lump in her throat again, nodded heavily, and gazed intently at him.

"You bastard, you finally remembered me!!" She punched Xia Jin hard in the chest. "You said you would marry me back then, and I still remember that promise!!"

"Uh..." Xia Jin was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to respond.

He remembered that he had indeed said those words, but it was only a temporary measure at the time. Now, to ask him to marry a woman with almost no emotional connection based solely on an old promise seemed... somewhat unreasonable.

Wait, that doesn't seem right either.

His gaze unconsciously drifted towards Leng Yuexi, whose figure, draped in a purple dress, seemed...no less impressive than that of Madam Lan. Moreover, she was the leader of the Xuan Yin Sect, a top sect in the Central Region.

Xia Jin swallowed hard: It seems... marrying him wouldn't be a bad thing?

"What? Are you... going back on your word?" Seeing Xia Jin's silence, Leng Yuexi couldn't help but sneer. "Since that's the case, then don't blame me!"

She somehow produced a dagger, flipped her wrist, and pressed it directly against Xia Jin's neck.

Although her movements were swift, her eyes betrayed her thoughts. Rather than a threat, it seemed more like she was afraid that Xia Jin would refuse.

"Wait...! Put the knife down first!" The cold touch brought Xia Jin back to his senses. He sighed helplessly, looked at the other's slightly aggrieved eyes, and finally said with a wry smile, "This king... never said he wouldn't marry."

"Really?!" Leng Yuexi's eyes lit up instantly. She immediately threw away the dagger and a relieved smile appeared on her face.

She grabbed Xia Jin's right hand, extended her little finger, and hooked it with hers without a word. "Pinky promise! No more lying this time!! Otherwise, even if I die, I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth!!"

Just as the two made a pinky promise, Xia Jin heard the system notification sound in her mind again.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, for completing the mission: Subduing Leng Yuexi, the leader of the Xuan Yin Sect.]

[Task Reward: Divine Firmament Thunder Technique (Beginner Level), 400 Years of Cultivation!]

Xia Jin was stunned, even somewhat bewildered. "Huh?! This mission... it's just like that?"

Leng Yuexi seemed to notice Xia Jin's unusual behavior as well, and her grip on his arm tightened involuntarily, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes: "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing... Let's go back!"