Master is Also Running Away from Marriage Today (Transmigration) - Chapter 1

In the golden autumn of August, the sky was high and clear, and the air was fragrant with osmanthus blossoms.

“Go to the Guci Fang district and search again. If you find any suitable candidates, bring them along. We’ll set off back to the mountain at Shen hour.”

In the bustling teahouse, the woman’s voice was crisp and melodious, like a mountain stream flowing through a secluded ravine. The stifling air around her seemed to cool in an instant.

The waiter followed the sound and saw a plainly dressed woman sitting by the window. She wore a black veil over her face and a white wide-sleeved robe adorned with intricate patterns embroidered in pale gold thread. At her waist hung a jade-green sect token shimmering with an ethereal glow.

In recent years, immortal sects had begun interacting with the mortal world, and the waiter had seen many cultivators. Knowing this was not a woman he could afford to stare at, he was about to lower his gaze when she raised her hand to drink tea. Her fingers as slender and fair as jade. As her veil lifted slightly.

A fleeting glimpse left the waiter rooted to the spot. It was a beauty beyond even his wildest dreams!

This was the tallest restaurant in Hong’an City. Over the past three years, the Demon Palace had ceased its attacks, and the mortal world had gradually begun to recover. Today happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival, and though night had yet to fall, the streets below were already bustling with activity. Vendors lined the roads, pedestrians jostled shoulder to shoulder, and carriages crowded the thoroughfare. A glimpse of the prosperity that would come after dark.

It was a sight unseen in the modern world.

Mu Ling ordered a few signature dishes and handed the menu back to the waiter, who kept his head bowed. Her gaze swept past a certain spot outside the window, dimming slightly.

Unbeknownst to her, over a hundred years had passed since she arrived in this world.

Mu Ling had originally been an ordinary college student, orphaned at a young age and raised by her grandparents. She remembered that day she had been on her way to visit her ailing grandfather at the nursing home when, inexplicably, she woke up lying on an intricately carved bed. A clean-shaven man in ancient robes stood before her, looking at her with a mocking expression. “The envoy from the Demon Palace will arrive in half a month. The princess’s wedding attire must be prepared as soon as possible…”

Mu Ling enjoyed reading novels in her free time, and given the circumstances, she quickly realized she had transmigrated into a book and not just any book, but a popular, melodramatic novel she had read before.

The novel, titled The Tyrant Immortal’s Fierce Love, told the tragic and convoluted romance between Princess Mu Ling of the Mu Kingdom and Bai Junhao, a powerful immortal.

Blessed with talent and beauty, Mu Ling was envied by her younger sister, who schemed to offer her as a tribute to the infamous Demon King Yan Qi. In the Demon Palace, Mu Ling met Bai Junhao, an undercover immortal, and the two developed feelings before escaping together. What followed was a series of clichéd tropes—amnesia, substitute lovers, pregnancy and flight until, after Mu Ling lost three children, had her spiritual roots destroyed, and nearly had her face ruined, Bai Junhao finally realized his true feelings and stubbornly won her back.

Mu Ling had no intention of following the original plot or engaging in a toxic romance with Bai Junhao. Nor did she want to marry the bloodthirsty and cruel Demon King. After overcoming the initial shock and grief of transmigration, she decisively packed her bags, fled the arranged marriage, and traveled far to join the reclusive Qingyi Sect.

Though the Qingyi Sect was still obscure at the time, Mu Ling, familiar with the novel’s plot, knew that the sect would later nurture a prodigious genius who would turn the tide and slay the Demon King!

In this chaotic world, as long as she kept her identity hidden, lying low in the Qingyi Sect was the safest choice.

Only after joining the Qingyi Sect did Mu Ling realize how demanding the sect was in terms of cultivation. The entire sect devoted themselves to rigorous day-and-night training. Fearing discovery by the Demon Palace or the royal family of the Mu Kingdom, Mu Ling pushed herself even harder, unleashing astonishing potential: reaching the Golden Core stage in ten years, breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage in thirty, and just a month ago, she surged from Nascent Soul to the Deity Transformation stage, becoming the highest-ranking disciple in the Qingyi Sect after the sect leader. Even against the demon generals under the Demon King, she could hold her own.

This time, Mu Ling descended the mountain on orders from the sect leader to recruit new disciples.

Guci Fang was an orphanage in Hong’an City dedicated to taking in abandoned children.

Unlike other cultivators who preferred recruiting from wealthy and influential families, Mu Ling specifically sought out children from impoverished backgrounds or orphans with no one to rely on, and she had indeed found several promising candidates.

It had been over a month since she came down the mountain. Mu Ling, who loved lively gatherings, had originally planned to return to the sect after the Moonchase Festival. But…

Her gaze swept once more over a certain spot outside the city, and her lips pressed together slightly.

…

Soon, the disciples sent to Guci Fang returned.

The usually composed and steady lead disciple hurried ahead, his face etched with anxiety.

“Peak Master, four girls are missing.”

“Those four girls all had mixed spiritual roots, mediocre talent. Even if they entered the Qingyi Sect, they’d only be outer disciples. It’s unlikely other sects would poach them.”

Once entering the immortal sects, worldly ties were severed. Mu Ling had given the girls a few days to bid farewell to their families, and they were supposed to meet at the inn today.

What had happened?

Mu Ling recalled the sheer joy on the faces of the girls’ families when they learned their daughters had been chosen by an immortal sect. It seemed improbable that these families would suddenly change their minds.

Almost instinctively, Mu Ling looked up at the blood-red clouds hovering over the outskirts of the city.

This was an anomaly only visible to those at the Nascent Soul stage or above. The demonic sects were cunning, often setting traps in the mortal realm. Ordinary cultivators would turn a blind eye even if they saw it.

Mu Ling knew her own weakness: though her cultivation was high, she lacked real combat experience. She yearned to investigate, but as a Peak Master, she was responsible for protecting dozens of defenseless new disciples and couldn’t simply leave.

She hoped the disappearance of these girls had nothing to do with those blood-red clouds…

Mu Ling sighed.

Unnoticed, a wind had risen. The afternoon sun blazed fiercely, yet its light seemed unable to penetrate the thick layers of clouds.

The sky gradually darkened.

The Moonchase Festival celebrations officially began. The city was alive with the clamor of gongs and drums, dazzling fireworks, and lanterns. The city gates stood wide open, teeming with visitors, their shadows flickering under the glow of countless lights.

Mu Ling suppressed her aura, blending in by carrying a flower lantern and wearing a mask, a red talisman in hand. As she let her divine sense sweep the area for any sign of the missing girls, she allowed the crowd to carry her toward the city outskirts.

After investigating all afternoon, Mu Ling had uncovered some clues: according to the families, all four girls had left home early in the morning. Moreover, Hong’an City had seen disappearances before. Over the years, many young women from unfortunate backgrounds, unmarried and vulnerable, had vanished without a trace.

Following the threads, Mu Ling found a common link among the missing girls: before disappearing, they had all gone to pray for blessings in the Eastern Woods on the city outskirts.

The Eastern Woods was a forest east of the city, backed by the moat precisely beneath those blood-red clouds. The four missing girls would have had to pass through the Eastern Woods on their way into the city.

Mu Ling didn’t want to alert the enemy. After disguising herself and following the crowd to Eastwood Forest, she quickly noticed the area’s gloomy terrain. A perfect gathering spot for baleful energy and a favorite haunt for demons.

Numerous ghosts drifted at the forest’s edge.

Most of them trembled like sifted chaff and hid at the sight of the crowd. Only one ghost, an old woman, for some unknown reason, kept weaving through the throng, peering around anxiously.

Mu Ling found a secluded spot and summoned the old ghost for questioning.

“Immortal, I truly saw four young maidens enter the woods,” the old woman said nervously. “They couldn’t see me. I couldn’t stop them.”

Though her suspicions were confirmed, Mu Ling remained wary. “What were you doing lurking around Eastwood Forest?”

“Immortal, can you take me inside?” The old woman suddenly knelt before Mu Ling, weeping. “I need to find my granddaughter, but there are demons in the forest; we ghost can’t enter.”

“Not long ago, I was gravely ill, on the verge of death. My granddaughter went to Eastwood Forest in secret to pray for blessings.”

“About a hundred paces into the forest, there’s a hollow locust tree. Legend says if you write your birth date and wish on a prayer slip and place it in the hollow, the demon will choose someone to make a deal with. My poor granddaughter was picked. The demon cured my illness, but she vanished! I hanged myself to give up this wretched life, but my granddaughter still hasn’t returned…”

Mu Ling glanced around. A barrier preventing ghosts from entering had been set up around Eastwood Forest. No wonder the old woman couldn’t get in.

Who had laid this formation, one only cultivators at the Golden Core stage or above could cast?

Her spiritual sense swept across a ten-mile radius, but she found no trace of the missing girls.

After a moment’s thought, Mu Ling stored the old woman’s soul away, concealed her presence, and perched on a tall tree beside the locust tree, waiting in this eerie forest to see what would come.

Many in Hong’an City had heard the legends of Eastwood Forest. The bold youth, taking advantage of the festival, flocked beneath the locust tree, laughing and joking as they tossed prayer slips into the hollow.

Mu Ling watched these ancient fools scribble their saccharine, love-struck wishes, her teeth aching from the sheer cheesiness.

People came and went beneath the tree, a microcosm of human life. Some were wealthy revelers, but others were women with faces full of sorrow, clutching their slips like their last hope, reverently placing them into the hollow.

Mu Ling sighed and quietly slipped some silver into their pockets.

Only when the moon hung high did the forest finally grow quiet again.

Mu Ling lounged idly on the branch, unsure how much time had passed when several crows suddenly cawed and took flight behind her. Deep in the woods, a faint light flickered like a bean’s glow.

It was here!

Mu Ling straightened.

The light drew closer, revealing a middle-aged male cultivator carrying a lantern. Dressed shabbily with a mean face, his cultivation barely at Qi Refining stage, clearly a lowly underling.

“Quit dawdling! Open the damn door!”

The man dragged a shadowy figure behind him, kicking and beating it the whole way. When he reached the tree, he sneered and kicked the shadow to the base of the locust.

The shadow hit the trunk with a muffled groan, trembling as it struggled to stand.

Only then did Mu Ling see clearly. The shadow was a child!

The child was painfully thin. Disheveled and emaciated, his frail frame draped in tattered, dust-covered clothes, one leg dangling limply. The exposed skin was crisscrossed with scars both old and new, and around his neck was a tightly knotted rope.

This male cultivator clearly didn’t regard the child as human at all.

Seeing that the child seemed too weak to even stand, the man spat impatiently, grabbed the child by the hair, and began shoving him into the hollow of a tree as if trying to force him inside alive!

The child must have been in excruciating pain. Blood trickled down the gnarled bark as his body was bent into an impossible angle, his flesh torn and mangled. Yet, out of fear of the cultivator, he didn’t even dare to whimper.

What a monster!

Mu Ling clenched her fists.

Soon, the man succeeded in stuffing the child into the hollow.

A sharp crack echoed from within as the locust tree split open, revealing a staircase descending into the earth. A heavy aura of death seeped from the depths below.

So, there was a hidden mechanism here! No wonder no one could be found, they were all concealed underground.

But Mu Ling had no time to examine the passage. With a quick illusion spell, she transformed a rock into the likeness of the child and swiftly moved the real child to safety.

Just in time, too. The man immediately leapt into the passage, tightening the rope around the neck of the bloodied “child” with a vicious glare. “You wretched little freak, life’s been nothing but misery for you. Since you’re no longer of use, I’ll send you off tonight!”

The “child” crumpled lifelessly to the ground.

The man kicked the “corpse” to confirm its death before striding deeper into the tunnel.

Silently, Mu Ling slipped down from the tree and hurriedly checked the pulse of the child hidden behind it—

The child’s pulse was bizarre, but now wasn’t the time for treatment…

“Don’t be afraid!” she whispered soothingly.

The child’s face was filthy, his eyes filled with wariness as he stared at her.

“I’m not a bad person!” Mu Ling quickly slipped a life-sustaining pill into the child’s mouth, then pressed a qiankun pouch into his arms with a pang of pity. “Hold on a little longer. Have some candy—I’ll be back to save you soon!”

Without waiting for a response, she dashed toward the passage just as the staircase began to close.

The locust tree sealed shut once more, the breeze scattering the faint fragrance from the woman’s robes as if nothing had happened.

The bloodied child shifted slightly. When he lifted his head again, his entire demeanor had transformed, as though he had become a different person. Slowly, he leaned against the tree trunk and sat up, gazing at the moonlight with a sinister expression, his eyes gradually darkening with a crimson hue…

The world has deceived me, humiliated me. The heavens have never shown me kindness!

Crows cawed ominously as they circled above him, while rustling sounds emerged from the dense forest. Centipedes, scorpions, snakes, a writhing carpet of creatures gathered at his feet.

Agony seeped from his bones once more.

Clenching his fists, the child commanded the poisonous swarm to slither into the hollow through the passage.

With great effort, he pulled a piece of candy from the qiankun pouch and placed it in his mouth. The sweet flavor bloomed on his tongue, mingling with the metallic tang of blood as it slid down his throat; an oddly pleasurable sensation!

The crows had long since alerted him to the woman’s presence. Uncertain whether she was friend or foe, he had suppressed his vengeance, enduring the man’s torment as usual.

“Come back to save me?”

The child’s cracked lips twisted into a humorless smirk. “Too bad you won’t be coming back either!”