“Marriage is a major life event! How can it be treated as child’s play!”

“How could I sell my marriage prospects for money?”

“No matter how difficult worldly affairs become, I, Meng Ruji, will never sell my true heart!”

Cursing and grumbling, Meng Ruji walked from the forest to the market, then stood in front of what looked like a rather run-down shop. A plaque hung on the door with three characters boldly inscribed: “Yinyuan Hall.”

Mo Li had said that to get married in the Realm of No Retention, one needed to buy a set of paper and brush from this “Yinyuan Hall.”

The paper had “Marriage Certificate” written on it, along with various terms and conditions. The brush was a special type made specifically for newlyweds in the Realm of No Retention. The brush could only be used once. After writing both newlyweds’ names, the brush would disappear, but the two names written on the marriage certificate would be remembered forever by the Realm of No Retention. They would become a married couple recognized by the Realm of No Retention, sharing life and death, honor and shame, and naturally wealth as well.

However… looking at the shabby “Yinyuan Hall” plaque, Meng Ruji could probably guess that these half-dead people in the Realm of No Retention, who had all “died” once before, generally had no interest in love and marriage. Compared to sharing honor and shame, they preferred to rise to success alone.

Who would still want to love even after truly dying?

In this godforsaken place, earning money alone and spending it alone was already hard enough. Why find another person to spend money together?

Unless…

It was to find another person to help earn money.

Meng Ruji stood with her arms crossed, pacing back and forth in front of Yinyuan Hall, her mind full of her rambling thoughts:

Did she have to go this far?

She had lived until now, counting the eight hundred years of slumber, she was over a thousand years old. In the mortal world, she was definitely considered an “old immortal.” At her age! After coming to the Realm of No Retention, she had not only experienced “elderly” labor, living beyond her means, going hungry, and even sitting in prison, but today she finally had to resort to marriage fraud for self-preservation!

A mighty Demon Lord – who would believe it if word got out!

However, by the time her internal rambling was complete, she somehow had a set of paper and brush in her hands.

The paper was the marriage certificate paper, and the brush was the one for writing the newlyweds’ names.

She had already completed the task of obtaining the paper and brush almost subconsciously while internally berating herself and finding it too unseemly to watch.

No one forced her, no one threatened her.

People always subconsciously make choices that benefit themselves most.

So be it!

Take it back!

Let that little fool Mu Sui sign it!

Meng Ruji decided to abandon her conscience.

In a while, if he remembered everything, things would be even worse!

Not only would she get nothing, but she’d also have to continue earning money painstakingly on her own. By the time she saved up a thousand gold pieces, who knew how many cycles of change the mortal world would have gone through? Forget about her Five Guardians – it was uncertain whether Hengxu Mountain would even still exist.

Moreover, she might be killed directly by Mu Sui after he recovered his memories before she could even save up the thousand gold pieces!

By writing the marriage certificate now, her finances would be secured in the future. With financial security, her spiritual power and magic would be guaranteed. Then, when Mu Sui recovered his memory and wanted to kill her, even if he disregarded the laws of the Realm of No Retention, he’d have to consider whether he had the ability.

She had to make him sign!

Meng Ruji made up her mind and put away the paper and brush, but her conscience still felt somewhat uneasy.

Thinking about how, at her age, she was going to deceive a young man’s feelings…

Although she had deceived him before.

But this situation was different. Previously, when she deceived him, it was all to get back her Inner Core. The Inner Core was originally hers, so wanting it back was justified, regardless of the methods used.

But this young man’s feelings and marriage contract…

Meng Ruji touched the ten copper coins remaining in her pocket and decided to go to the market to buy something good for Mu Sui. Since they were going to get married, let him eat whatever he wanted.

Meng Ruji stood in front of a noodle stall in the market, planning to use these ten coins to buy some noodles for Mu Sui to take back. She didn’t need the boss to cook them, nor would they eat there. The boss found this convenient and voluntarily gave Meng Ruji a slightly better price.

While the boss was preparing the noodles and seasonings for Meng Ruji, Miaomiao had been observing her from the side. After hesitating for a long time, she finally approached and took out five coins from her bag, handing them to Meng Ruji: “Sister Ruji, here’s the money I’m returning to you.”

“Returning to me?” Meng Ruji was puzzled.

“Yes, yesterday… You asked me to buy something and go find Young Master Mu Sui. I didn’t buy anything and went directly, so this money wasn’t used.”

“Oh.” Meng Ruji responded, only taking four coins and leaving one in Miaomiao’s palm. “Still, thank you for making that trip for me. This one coin is a token of my appreciation.”

Miaomiao looked at the coin in her palm, her expression showing hesitation again. After pondering for a long time, Miaomiao asked: “Sister Ruji, do you think Young Master Mu Sui treats you well?”

“Hmm?” Miaomiao’s question was sudden. Meng Ruji thought for a while. “Not at first, but he’s quite good now.” Meng Ruji smiled. “Mu Sui looks rather fierce, but his heart is soft.”

Miaomiao stiffly forced a smile: “Is… oh… as long as he treats you well.”

Miaomiao said nothing more and went back to her own business.

Meng Ruji didn’t think much of it either, just obediently stood by the noodle stall waiting for the boss to wrap up the noodles.

She was waiting peacefully when suddenly a hand reached over from behind Meng Ruji, attempting to rest on her shoulder. Meng Ruji’s gaze sharpened, and she was already gripping one of the copper coins Miaomiao had just returned to her. She didn’t rush to act because she sensed no killing intent from behind.

Following the force of that hand, she turned around and saw three men in gray robes standing behind her. All three wore identical clothing and accessories, and the swords at their waists were also of the same style.

Each person’s sword sheath was engraved with the two characters “Linlan.”

They appeared to be from the same sect.

Meng Ruji raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised that there were sects in the Realm of No Retention. But thinking about it, there were government offices, bandit lairs, and Zhuliu City, so why couldn’t there be sects?

She looked at the newcomers indifferently and asked: “What do you want?”

The three Linlan sect members examined Meng Ruji but said nothing else, directly beginning their interrogation: “What martial arts have you learned? How do you make a living in the Realm of No Retention?”

Meng Ruji let out a cold laugh, not indulging them, and directly slapped away the hand on her shoulder: “What business is it of yours?”

One of the three disciples raised his sword toward Meng Ruji. He didn’t draw the sword from its sheath but displayed the “Linlan” characters on the sheath, saying confidently: “Linlan Mountain is investigating. You must cooperate!”

Meng Ruji raised an eyebrow but didn’t act impulsively. Instead, she turned to ask Miaomiao: “Linlan Mountain?”

Miaomiao immediately came forward, first pulling Meng Ruji aside and explaining in a low voice: “It’s a very powerful place, like Zhuliu City… we can’t afford to offend them…”

Meng Ruji pondered this and nodded.

She indeed couldn’t afford to offend them right now.

Then Miaomiao turned to explain to the three disciples: “The three masters have misunderstood. Sister Ruji came here to buy food…”

“We can see she’s buying food.” The leading disciple said sternly. “But observing her posture, she’s a martial artist. Today, we received orders to investigate martial artists. Please cooperate, miss, and voluntarily explain what martial arts you’ve learned, what you usually do, and where you went yesterday.”

“She just arrived in the Realm of No Retention not long ago…”

“Let her speak for herself.”

Meng Ruji stopped Miaomiao, who was trying to help her, and put on a gentler expression: “I have learned some martial arts. I usually help people with odd jobs in the Realm of No Retention. What’s wrong? Have I violated some law of the Realm of No Retention?”

“Where were you yesterday?”

“At the market.”

“You never left?”

“I left to make a delivery.”

“Where did you deliver to?”

“The outskirts.”

Thinking of the person who had been scared to death by Mu Sui yesterday, Meng Ruji deliberately concealed information. That villain was dead, and they had gotten ten silver, not a small amount. Although the money was now completely spent without a penny left, she still didn’t want to be noticed.

“Where in the outskirts? What did you deliver, and who received it?”

Meng Ruji smiled: “You’re asking so many details. What are you gentlemen trying to do? I can’t just tell others about my clients’ information.”

The leading disciple’s gaze turned fierce as he directly drew his sword: “Speak truthfully.”

The sword gleamed coldly. Once drawn, people in the market gasped in shock, including Miaomiao.

In this small market, when did they ever see such scenes of drawn weapons?

But Meng Ruji didn’t panic either. The stone she had been carrying in her waistband gently bounced once, not violently, as if asking her: “Need help?”

Meng Ruji pressed down on the stone.

She still smiled as she stared at the person in front of her: “Just delivered to a wooden hut in the outskirts. There was a young man with mobility issues inside. Yesterday I delivered a big bag of copper, iron, and wood to him. Very heavy.”

The three gray-robed disciples exchanged glances, seemingly comparing the truth and falsehood of Meng Ruji’s words. But she was indeed mixing truth and falsehood – the true parts were what the market people had seen: she received goods and went to make a delivery. The false parts were what people couldn’t see: where she delivered and who received the goods.

After the three disciples conferred for a moment, the leading disciple sheathed his sword and said, “Don’t wander around these next two days. We need to verify your information.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Meng Ruji answered casually and even asked back: “Are the three masters investigating some wanted criminal? Making such a big fuss – I do odd jobs in the market and see many people. If there’s a reward, I’d be willing to provide information to the masters.”

“This is not your concern.”

Leaving this cold remark, the three disciples left. Further ahead, they grabbed another burly man and began interrogating him.

Meng Ruji watched their retreating figures, pondered for a moment, and inquired: “Did something big happen yesterday? Some wanted a criminal to kill someone important here?”

“No, it’s about that den of bandits in the northern outskirts…” The boss, who had finished packing noodles for the female protagonist, handed her the items while leaning close to her ear and whispering: “I heard they were wiped out!”

Meng Ruji was stunned, somewhat surprised: “Just yesterday? Weren’t they said to be very difficult to deal with? Wasn’t it the government officials who did it?”

“No, I heard it was one person who went alone, fighting one against a hundred! He killed so many that the entire mountain was stained red with blood! From a thousand zhang away, he shot and killed seven or eight people! All with arrows through the chest!”

Meng Ruji nodded repeatedly: “…That sounds quite exaggerated… How much did he earn from this?”

“Who knows?”

Meng Ruji glanced at the three people walking away in the distance and continued asking: “…But isn’t bandit suppression a good thing? Why are these people from that whatever mountain investigating?”

The boss pursed his lips and said nothing more.

Miaomiao picked up the conversation, whispering in her ear: “I also just heard from the market people today that the bandit leader was the sworn brother of the Linlan Mountain master. That’s why the government office never wiped them out all these years – Linlan Mountain has been protecting them.”

“Is this Linlan Mountain also very wealthy?”

“They have money, but not as much as Zhuliu City, and they’re not as rule-abiding. They do many strange businesses. In everyone’s hearts…” Miaomiao shook her head, making her attitude clear.

Meng Ruji nodded, indicating she understood. Every place had to have some groups operating on the edge of crime, and the Realm of No Retention was no exception.

“It seems this rotten mountain master quite cares about his sworn brother.” Meng Ruji murmured. “The hero who suppressed the bandits is in trouble.”

At the same time, Meng Ruji was also grateful in her heart that although she didn’t earn money from this wave, she also didn’t offend these troublesome people.

This matter had nothing to do with her.