Meng Ruji looked at Mo Li before her, then at the paper in his hand, and finally at herself…

The ropes on her body had somehow been completely cut away, the stones that had been dragging her down had sunk to the river bottom, and she was being supported by Mo Li like this. Her body had already begun losing temperature, and her muscles were so exhausted they couldn’t exert even a bit of strength.

As long as Mo Li let go, she would sink into the Nai River and be sent directly to the afterlife.

Meng Ruji’s lips moved for a long time: “How did you get that paper into the water?”

An inappropriate question with a strange focus, yet Mo Li answered leisurely: “Contract papers from the lawless land are waterproof and fireproof.” He thought of something and smiled. “They just can’t withstand tearing.”

“Fine.” Meng Ruji nodded and finally said, “I’ll support you in your old age.”

Mo Li’s eyes suddenly brightened.

Meng Ruji emphasized again: “But! I won’t sign an indenture contract. Three conditions—we’ll write them when we get to shore.”

“Tell me the three conditions first,” Mo Li said. “Let me see if I can agree. If we can’t reach an agreement, I’m too lazy to save you.”

This was only possible because the Nai River’s surface was calm! If there had been any waves at all, Meng Ruji would have already choked to death on splashed water!

While being so angry, she gasped with cold air. Meng Ruji looked at the “Heavenly River” that seemed to be getting closer and closer, while rapidly summarizing her demands in her mind:

“First, I can only support you in old age within my capabilities. Anything beyond my ability is not acceptable.”

Mo Li pondered: “Acceptable.”

“Second, I respect the elderly; you love the young. We must be equal. You can’t rely on your age to be shameless.”

Mo Li nodded repeatedly: “I’ve always been most reasonable. Also acceptable.” He asked, “And the third?”

“Bring Mu Sui up with us.”

Meng Ruji spoke without hesitation.

Hearing this, Mo Li laughed outright: “Your husband—does he need me to save him?”

Meng Ruji was stunned. Just as she was about to ask if Mu Sui had already gotten out, Mo Li’s body began to change, and the strength of the hand supporting Meng Ruji began to gradually weaken.

“What are you doing!?” Meng Ruji panicked a little.

“Don’t be afraid,” Mo Li said leisurely. “I’m changing back into a stone. You can use my stone form to cast Wind Control techniques and reach shore.”

Meng Ruji suddenly understood. Mo Li’s stone form could shatter golden pearls. Yesterday, Mu Sui had also said his true form was more valuable than golden pearls, so naturally, techniques could be used on the stone, using the stone as a medium to drive magical arts.

“It works in the Nai River!?” Meng Ruji asked, grasping the last moments. As she asked, she glanced at the opposite shore of the Nai River.

Previously, she hadn’t directly used money to cross the river because all techniques would disappear in the Nai River. But if Mo Li’s stone form could use techniques in the Nai River!

Then couldn’t she directly…

“Don’t get any funny ideas.”

Mo Li instantly saw through her. “Without a boat, crossing the river means going to the afterlife. If you want to die, I won’t save you.”

Meng Ruji immediately grabbed Mo Li’s arm and opened her eyes wide, saying seriously: “I’ll listen to reason.”

“That’s your virtue.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Mo Li transformed into a gray-black stone. Meng Ruji grabbed him and held him in her palm. At the moment she lost support and her head sank into the river water, she chanted incantations in her heart. The gray-black stone in her palm also burst forth with dazzling crimson light!

With a “whoosh!” Like a sharp sword splitting mountains and breaking seas, the Nai River was directly severed by this red radiance, split in two.

The power of the technique was so great that Meng Ruji, who had been “poor” until now, was startled by herself for a moment.

Good heavens, she was one ten-thousandth as powerful as she used to be!

Meng Ruji didn’t hesitate. She formed hand seals to raise wind, riding the wind upward, instantly returning to the riverbank.

The crimson radiance disappeared, and the Nai River continued flowing quietly, as if all the previous commotion had been an illusion. The gray-black stone also transformed back into Mo Li.

Mo Li looked at Meng Ruji, tilting his head this way and that to examine her: “Unfilial daughter, why are you crying?”

Meng Ruji covered her face, sobbing with emotion: “I feel like I’ve returned to my peak in a dream…”

Mo Li found this amusing. He sat down on the ground and pulled out the indenture contract paper again. He also took out a brush from his bosom, shamelessly licked it with his tongue, scratched on the paper a couple of times, crossed out the three characters “Indenture Contract,” and wrote “Contract Agreement” beside it.

Meng Ruji wiped away her tears and resignedly sat down quietly to watch Mo Li write.

She stopped struggling.

After experiencing a momentary return to her peak, Meng Ruji felt from the bottom of her heart that mixing with this “old timer” and supporting him in old age might be the fastest way she’d found so far to make money in the lawless land—Mo Li wasn’t money, but he could be used as money!

At least he could serve as a magical artifact. With him around, self-defense and taking jobs would all be easy.

It wasn’t a losing deal.

“First, Meng Ruji will support Mo Li in old age within her capabilities.”

Meng Ruji looked and hummed in agreement.

“Second, Meng Ruji and Mo Li will be equal and mutually supportive, loving each other, with no oppression.”

Meng Ruji also nodded.

“Third…”

“Wait.” Meng Ruji called a halt here. “You didn’t save Mu Sui…”

Mo Li listened, nodded, then continued writing without stopping his brush: “Meng Ruji’s relatives must also participate in supporting Mo Li in old age.”

Meng Ruji’s eyes widened: “I never agreed to this condition!”

“Three conditions—surely they can’t all be restrictions on me,” Mo Li said. “I have to get some benefits for myself. After you’re married, isn’t half his money your money? You supporting me in old age is him supporting me in old age.”

“That’s the logic, but I can’t control his half. You can’t write the contract this way—I can’t make promises for him.”

“Mmm…” Mo Li pondered for a moment, unexpectedly reasonable. He crossed out what he’d just written, then said to Meng Ruji: “Whether he supports me or not, I won’t demand. But you must at least guarantee he won’t kill me.”

Meng Ruji pursed her lips, thinking of how Mu Sui had looked at Mo Li earlier, feeling he might want to kill him…

“Will you guarantee it or not?”

Meng Ruji sighed: “Since I’ve agreed to support you in old age, not only Mu Sui—if anyone else wants to kill you, I’ll have to stop them too. Is that enough?”

Mo Li smiled with delight, then wrote on the paper: “Meng Ruji promises to protect Mo Li until irresistible death arrives.”

After Mo Li finished writing, he handed the brush to Meng Ruji: “Sign it.”

But Meng Ruji stared at the last condition Mo Li had written, somewhat dazed. She glanced at Mo Li strangely, then signed her name on the contract.

Watching her write her name stroke by stroke, an increasingly strange light rose in Mo Li’s eyes. Finally, his expression became gentle, almost tearful.

“Is it that serious…” Meng Ruji couldn’t help asking, “Why do you insist on having me support you in old age?”

Mo Li looked at the name on the contract, seeming immersed in his thoughts. He remained silent for a long while until Meng Ruji tilted her head and almost leaned in front of him before he came back to his senses: “Hm? What did you say?”

“Why me?” Meng Ruji thought of those strange images she’d seen in the Nai River. “Could it be that in my past life I was some legendary Heaven God? Are you here to repay a debt of gratitude? Do we have some karmic connection?”

Hearing Meng Ruji’s words, Mo Li was stunned for an instant, then let out a snorting laugh:

“Unfilial daughter, you want to be a Heaven God? Heaven’s Gods all died out in the immortal-divine conflicts thousands of years ago. If you were a Heaven God’s reincarnation, the cultivation sects of the world would hunt you down and exterminate you completely, even if they had to chase you to the lawless land.”

Meng Ruji pursed her lips: “I just saw some of my past in the Nai River, and some past that didn’t belong to me. In the memories that weren’t mine, you were there, little nightmare demon.”

Mo Li’s eyes deepened slightly at this form of address.

He glanced at Meng Ruji, and his expression showed a trace of coldness and killing intent: “I don’t want to hear others use that form of address. You’d better be careful in the future.”

Meng Ruji raised an eyebrow, feeling that Mo Li suddenly had some of the “Yan Tianjun” appearance from when she first met him.

“I have no intention of challenging your boundaries,” Meng Ruji leaned back. “I’m just curious why I saw those things in the Nai River. A nightmare demon that’s half human, half monster, and a Human God, and… your destiny…”

“What you saw were my memories,” Mo Li said. “You don’t need to investigate deeply. You could see them only because I touched you in the river.”

“Oh, fine.” Meng Ruji nodded readily. “I won’t investigate your past, but you’re so persistent about having me support you in old age—you should give me a reason.”

“Because…” Mo Li took the brush and wrote his name on the other side of the contract, “I took a fancy to your ordinariness and mediocrity.”

For a moment, Meng Ruji felt she’d heard wrong: “Huh?”

Who could have imagined such an answer!

Who was ordinary and mediocre!?

She had once been a Demon Lord!

As if reading the shock and anger in Meng Ruji’s eyes, Mo Li smiled and said softly: “There are plenty of unscrupulous power-seekers. They’re not like you—they wouldn’t be constrained by morality and conscience.”

As his words fell, his name was also completed on the contract. The moment he lifted his brush, the contract transformed into golden light, floating toward the Nai River, then flowing against the current toward the sky.

The golden light finally disappeared into the misty waves, no longer visible.

“Marriage contracts fly toward the Marriage Tree. Where do lawless land contracts fly to?”

“Heaven,” Mo Li said. “If you don’t support me in old age in the future, you’ll be struck by heavenly lightning.”

Meng Ruji: “…As you said! I still have morality and conscience. Having made a promise, I’ll keep my word.”

“That’s good…”

As he spoke, Mo Li suddenly coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood.

This blood came suddenly. Meng Ruji stared in shock: “What’s wrong with you?”

“My chest… hurts a little…”

Meng Ruji’s gaze fell to Mo Li’s chest area, and only then did she see a tear in his dark clothing. Through that opening, a trickle of fresh blood was continuously flowing out.

It was because his clothes were too dark, and both of them had gotten wet, that Meng Ruji hadn’t noticed.

Meng Ruji was stunned: “When were you… Who did… ” Meng Ruji thought of something. “This couldn’t be Mu Sui…”

“This was indeed Mu Sui…” Mo Li spat blood while emphasizing calmly, “Who stabbed me?”

Meng Ruji and Mo Li’s eyes met in a silent, awkward confrontation.

After brief shock and speechlessness, Meng Ruji avoided eye contact, feeling somewhat guilty, like knowing her child had caused trouble, inexplicably guilty…

Meng Ruji rubbed her forehead: “How could he…”

“When we went into the river,” Mo Li continued, spitting blood, calmly recounting. “I was floating together with him. Before I could transform into a stone, he had already cut the ropes on his body.”

Meng Ruji felt speechless.

So…

What was this…

Before being thrown into the Nai River to drown, everyone, whether human or ghost, had escape methods, and she was the only one sinking and floating in the river with her life hanging by a thread?

“I estimate he rubbed his remaining money into thin blades. The moment he was thrown into the river and the techniques disappeared, he immediately cut his ropes.”

Meng Ruji continued pinching her forehead, recalling Mu Sui’s calm, cold expression before being thrown into the river…

Yes, at that time, Mu Sui should have already thought about what he would do after entering the river…

“Then he grabbed my shoulder and gave me a stab in the river.” Mo Li pointed to his chest. “Ruthless and accurate. Fortunately, I saw you in the river water and immediately kicked you, letting the Nai River’s undercurrent sweep you away, making you lose focus. He wanted to fish you out, so I took the opportunity to escape.”

Meng Ruji’s mouth twitched: “I… thank you! The first heavy blow I took was your kick!”

“The second one was also me.”

Meng Ruji’s expression completely collapsed. She stared coldly at Mo Li, watching him calmly spit blood.

Mo Li spat blood while saying, “He wanted to save you. I turned into a stone and knocked you away. He was very angry but still wanted to pull you, so I knocked him away again, separating you two. Only then could I come save you.”

Meng Ruji felt dead inside, listening to this. She was so angry she couldn’t say a word, only looking up at the Nai River flowing backwards in the sky.

“No use going back,” Mo Li continued with his final blow. “The contract has taken effect. You have to support me in old age and protect me, or you’ll be struck dead by lightning.”

“Then let me be struck dead by lightning.” Meng Ruji raised her hand to strangle Mo Li’s neck. When her killing intent arose, heavenly thunder struck with a “crack” right beside Meng Ruji!

“Crack!”

Such a loud sound!

Meng Ruji stared at the patch of blackened earth beside her, stunned.

“That was a crime of passion—Heaven spared your life,” Mo Li vomited blood and said. “Don’t let there be a next time.”

Meng Ruji looked at Mo Li’s paper-white face, her fists clenching tighter and tighter.

Mo Li sighed and slowly fell backward: “Somewhat tired. Father will rest for a while. People are watching from above—unfilial daughter, you must behave properly.”

He collapsed on the ground and truly fell into deep sleep, his breathing becoming even. Soon, he transformed back into a gray-black stone.

Meng Ruji looked at this stone with no thoughts at all, only feeling regret! Dismay! Hatred!

She hated that Mu Sui wasn’t reliable!

She hated that his stab in the Nai River had goddamn missed!

How detestable!

Meng Ruji picked up another stone, wanting to smash it down on Mo Li’s true form. But after raising her hand high and holding it there for a long time, she put down the stone that would serve as a weapon.

Silently reciting: Don’t get angry, don’t get angry. He’s a magical artifact; he’s money. Meeting him is fate. Endure momentary anger for a stable life. Don’t get angry, don’t get angry…

Her wildly beating heart slowly calmed down.

Meng Ruji took a deep breath and stabilized her emotions. She picked up the gray-black stone again. This time she didn’t stuff it inside her clothes but put the stone in her sleeve.

Meng Ruji observed her surroundings and found the environment somewhat familiar. Looking upstream along the Nai River, she could faintly see a mountain peak that seemed to be where bandits had once gathered. Below that mountain, near the Nai River, was exactly where she and Mu Sui had killed the bandit leader.

Meng Ruji didn’t know where Mo Li had knocked Mu Sui, but she decided to search upstream along the Nai River, because the only place they were both familiar with was that mountain peak.

If Mu Sui wasn’t stupid, after getting to shore, he would also head in that direction to search.

Moreover, that grass hut—if bandits often lived there, perhaps they would have hidden some food, water, and even medicine for treating injuries. Though Mo Li was detestable, she had to keep this stone for future great use.

No matter what, she still had to save him.

Thinking this, Meng Ruji searched along the riverbank and walked to the grass hut.

Then!

Meng Ruji discovered two things.

One fortunate thing and one unfortunate thing.

Fortunately, Mo Li could be saved. In the grass hut, there was a wound medicine left by the bandits.

Unfortunately, Meng Ruji was doomed. Her remaining money was gone. More importantly, that small green pill bottle was also gone. Most troublesome of all, Mu Sui still hadn’t been found…

All her important things had been washed away by the Nai River…

The fortune belonged to others, the misfortune was her own.

How wonderful.

Meng Ruji placed the stone on the wooden table in the house while she sat on the threshold of the grass hut.

She looked up at the sky, counting time. In half an hour, the last small green pill she’d taken would lose effect, and she would soon start feeling pain.

Meng Ruji felt no panic, no fear, no unease. Her expression showed only transcendent calm.

Her face was written all over with the desire to give up on life.

Forget it all. She’d just throw herself in the river and go directly to the afterlife.

She was tired.