Chapter 1: Calling Off the Engagement

“More than a dozen times in one night. What are you, an animal?”

“You take what happened last night to your grave. If a third person finds out, I’ll hunt you down, no matter where you hide.”

Lu Wanqing lay on the hotel bed, anger and embarrassment coloring her beautiful, fair face. She tried to sit up, but she felt as though every bone in her body had come loose. She could barely muster any strength.

Who would have imagined that Jiangcheng’s famously aloof, ice-cold beauty of a CEO had spent the night with a complete stranger?

“Have you got that backward, beautiful? You were the one who forced yourself on me last night. I’m the victim here.”

“It’s bad enough that you won’t apologize. Now you’ve got your clothes back on, you’re pretending you don’t know me and giving me a lecture?”

Lin Feng curled his lip, looking thoroughly put-upon.

Lu Wanqing clenched her teeth in fury.

Last night was supposed to have been an ordinary business meeting. But after she drank the wine her prospective partner had prepared, her entire body had felt as though it were on fire.

Her mind had begun to cloud, and the so-called business partner had immediately shown his true colors.

Had this infuriating man not rescued her, she dreaded to think what might have happened.

But the powerful drug had soon overwhelmed her reason. When she woke again, she and this stranger were lying naked together.

Lu Wanqing let out a long breath and shot him a glare. “Turn around. I need to get dressed.”

Lin Feng shrugged. He had already seen everything there was to see. Turning around wouldn’t change what had happened last night.

Still, he had the sense to turn his back.

Clothes rustled behind him.

A little later, Lu Wanqing was fully dressed. She seemed a different woman. The forbidding air that warned strangers to keep their distance returned in an instant, nothing like the uninhibited woman of the night before.

She took a stack of cash from her handbag, tossed it onto the bed, and turned to leave.

“What’s that supposed to mean? What do you take me for? I don’t make a living selling my body.”

“And even if I did, I’d be worth more than that pocket change.”

Lin Feng folded his arms and leaned against the headboard. Money wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted her to make things right.

Lu Wanqing’s expression darkened. So much for not selling his body. He was just angling for a bigger payout.

She pulled a bank card from her bag and flung that onto the bed too.

“There’s a million yuan on this card. Whatever there was between us ends here.”

“Don’t get any unrealistic ideas.”

With that, Lu Wanqing left the room without looking back.

Her scent still lingered in the air when Lin Feng’s eyes suddenly flashed.

An immense surge of power rose within him.

“How is that possible?” he exclaimed. “The side effects of my Nine Dragons Sacred Physique are gone? And it’s unleashed even more power?”

…

Eighteen years ago, nine masters had adopted Lin Feng. He had grown up in Immortal-Severing Valley, mastering everything they had to teach him and even surpassing them.

All of it was possible because his body was unlike other people’s.

He possessed the Nine Dragons Sacred Physique, an exceedingly rare constitution for martial cultivation.

But that gift cut both ways. He could make extraordinary progress in anything he learned, yet every day he endured pain like a fire burning through his heart.

Three days ago, his nine masters had produced a marriage agreement. They told him he had a fiancée down in the outside world, a woman who could suppress, or even eliminate, the side effects of his Nine Dragons Sacred Physique.

Years earlier, his masters had scoured the world for rare medicines to relieve his suffering. At last, in Jiangcheng, they had found a girl with a special constitution that could counteract those side effects.

To eliminate them completely, however, the two would have to wait until they reached adulthood and consummate their union.

Because of Lin Feng, the girl’s family had risen from barely being able to feed themselves to become one of Jiangcheng’s prominent clans.

His masters had sent him down the mountain to marry into the Lu family and end the torment his constitution caused him.

Yet after one night with a stranger, the side effects had vanished.

That meant there was no reason to marry a woman he had never even met.

Lin Feng made up his mind.

He would call off the engagement.

To make it up to the family, he wouldn’t mind bestowing another great stroke of fortune on them.

…

At the Lu residence in Jiangcheng, the head of the family, Lu Zhengguo, studied the marriage agreement in his hands. His expression shifted uncertainly.

He couldn’t help remembering the extraordinary man he had met eighteen years ago. The man had promised his family wealth and prosperity if his granddaughter married the man’s disciple.

At the time, Lu Zhengguo had been at the end of his rope. His family was on the verge of starving, and he had agreed without a second thought.

Within a single year, the Lu family had become one of Jiangcheng’s established clans.

So many years had passed. He was no longer an ordinary man struggling to put food on the table. He was the man at the helm of the Lu family.

Looking at Lin Feng’s plain, almost shabby clothes, he found himself deeply opposed to the marriage.

Yet the thought of how the young man’s master had transformed the family’s fortunes still made him wary.

He was caught in a dilemma.

Lin Feng could see his reluctance. He decided there was no point beating around the bush and was about to bring up ending the engagement when two people hurried in: Lu Zhengguo’s son, Lu Jianwei, and his wife, Jiang Ying.

“Father, you called us back. What’s so urgent?”

Lu Zhengguo cleared his throat and looked at them. “You both know that our family owes everything it has today to the help of an extraordinary man all those years ago.”

Lu Jianwei and Jiang Ying exchanged a glance. Of course they knew.

To escape poverty, they had readily agreed to marry their daughter to the man’s disciple.

But after all these years, they had put it completely out of their minds.

Now their father was bringing it up again, and there was a strange young man sitting before them. Their hearts gave a jolt.

“Father, do you mean…?”

Lu Zhengguo answered before Lu Jianwei could finish. “Yes. This is Lin Feng. He’s here to fulfill the agreement we made eighteen years ago.”

Lu Jianwei and Jiang Ying stiffened. They kept looking Lin Feng up and down, disgust plain in their eyes.

They had grown so accustomed to comfort that they had long since forgotten whom they owed it to.

As far as they were concerned, everything the Lu family had achieved was the result of their own hard work. That extraordinary man might have played a part, but not much of one.

More to the point, their daughter was a pampered young heiress. Now she was supposed to marry beneath her station, to this penniless country bumpkin?

Never mind their daughter’s objections. Neither of them would agree to it.

“Father, what century are we living in? How can a casual remark from eighteen years ago decide Muxue’s marriage?”

Lu Jianwei didn’t say it outright, but his meaning was unmistakable. He would never let his daughter marry a pauper like Lin Feng.

“Muxue is my precious girl. How could we marry her off to someone we know nothing about?” Jiang Ying protested.

“Grandpa, I’m the Lu family’s eldest young lady. How could I possibly marry some penniless nobody?”

The voice that rang out was icy.

A tall, fair-skinned young woman in a long dress stood glaring at Lin Feng. She made no attempt to hide the contempt in her eyes.