Chapter 57: Arranged Marriage
Chapter 57: Arranged Marriage
Jian Chen took in a deep breath to calm himself down before walking towards the bookshelves. His eyes swept over the shelves one by one before finally taking out a single book. He walked towards the center of the floor to a table and sat down. The book was for those who gained insights as well as techniques for breaking through a bottleneck. Even Earth Saint Masters could benefit from the notes clearly written on it
Although there weren’t many books on this level, but the quality of the content inside was of the utmost quality. If any one of these books were to be released to the common populace, then it would cause a widespread reign of carnage for it.
Jian Chen slowly flipped the pages of the book one by one as he read it. Soon the book was finished off by him, causing Jian Chen to sink into meditation. Whatever book he grabbed had led to his eyes being opened wide to the world of possibilities. The cultivation system in this world had already long since toppled the system in his previous world. With this book, Jian Chen felt like he had a stronger understanding of this world’s cultivation system now.
Not too long after, Jian Chen had finished reading a dozen book from the shelves. Half of the books talked about insights on cultivation as well as the problems a cultivator might experience. The other half were books about cultivation techniques, but the strongest of these techniques were only at the Upper Earth Tier level. What Jian Chen had found most helpful was the personal letter from Kargath Academy’s first headmaster Brian.
Jian Chen’s eyes swept over to the Purple Coin box; according to the headmaster, the Purple Coin box contained a Primary Heaven Tier technique. Although Jian Chen didn’t have a clear idea of how valuable a Heaven Tier technique was, but he did know that it was still quite the priceless treasure.
After all, the Heaven Tier techniques was the second strongest type of technique on the Tian Yuan continent. There was only one other tier higher than it–Saint Tier.
Jian Chen slowly opened the Purple Coin box only to see a hand sized book inside. On top of the cover of the book had words–Collecting Heart Sutra written on it in bold cursive. The moment the book touched his hand, Jian Chen felt a soft sensation enter his arm. It was almost as if there was a sense of warmth to the book despite it never being touched before.
The book was made of some kind of magical beast leather. It was extremely supple and strong, and hard to damage in any way.
He slowly took the book out of the box and carefully started to flip through the pages to read it. He was reading it with a serious face since Jian Chen knew that such a strong cultivational technique was extremely rare to come by. Although he didn’t initially plan to practice this technique, just looking at it would bring him some benefits at the very least. Though he wasn’t sure if he would be able to find something of value within the book to help him with his problem.
4 hours later, Jian Chen’s eyes finally moved away from the book as he bowed his head in contemplation. After he was sure he committed the contents of the book to memory, he returned it to the original box and then walked back to the table.
His eyes looked at the bookshelves before he let out a sigh. With no small amount of regret, he began to head down the stairs, however, Jian Chen had profited greatly today in the 7th level of the library.
On his way down, Jian Chen took a look at the 6th level of the library. Although the books within the 6th level was not as valuable as the 7th level, the profits in the knowledge gained from them were still great. To Jian Chen, the predecessors had imparted their knowledge and insights in those books, so the knowledge would prove to be extremely beneficial.
Jian Chen had learned much about the many different spiritual treasures of the Tian Yuan continent, something that couldn’t be found anywhere on the first 5 levels of the library.
By the time Jian Chen had walked out of the library, the sky had already darkened. Unknowingly, he had already spent the entire day inside the library. He’d even forgotten to eat.
“Growl….” At that moment, Jian Chen’s stomach unexpectedly made a loud sound.
Jian Chen reached down to rub his stomach that was currently so empty that it had begun to hurt a bit. He smiled helplessly, and then started to walk towards the dining hall.
After quickly finishing his dinner, Jian Chen went straight back to the dorms. En route, he managed to attract quite a few students’ gazes; there were envious, respectful, jealous, and all other types of expressions in their looks.
Jian Chen didn’t pay any mind to the surrounding attention, and walked to the dorm without a sideways glance. After he entered the dorms, he could see that in the distance, there was a familiar figure standing in front of his room. He felt relieved as he realized it was his older brother, Changyang Hu.
“It’s so late, and yet Big Brother is waiting for me to return here. Could it be he has something urgent that he really needs to tell me?” Jian Chen inwardly guessed. He quickened his pace, and rushed over.
“Big brother, it’s already so late. Why are you waiting for me here? What is there that cannot wait until tomorrow to discuss?” Jian Chen asked as he walked up to Changyang Hu.
Seeing Jian Chen approach, Changyang Hu’s face turned bitter, and he said with a sigh, “Ai…fourth brother, you’ve finally returned. Where did you run off to today? I pretty much searched the entire school, yet I couldn’t find you, so I have been waiting here for the entire day now.”
Jian Chen said apologetically, “Big brother, were you looking for me for something extremely important?”
Hearing this, Changyang Hu smiled happily and said in an excited voice, “Of course there’s something. Moreover, it’s something major. Come, fourth brother, let’s enter the room to talk.”
Jian Chen nodded, and took out the key from his Space Belt to open the room’s door. This room’s door was newly replaced, since the old one had been turned to rubble by the vice headmaster.
Immediately after they entered the room, Changyang Hu closed the door, and then urgently said, “Fourth brother, the clan just sent a message. You’re so lucky, your big brother is really envious of you.”
Hearing this, Jian Chen was puzzled, and he asked in confusion, “Big brother, exactly what has happened?”
Changyang Hu sat down on Jian Chen’s bed, and said with a happy smile, “Fourth brother, I guess you don’t know yet. Father has already arranged for your marriage.”
Hearing this, Jian Chen’s expression clearly became startled. After finally returning to his senses, he asked in an incredulous and shocked tone, “What! An arranged marriage?!”
Changyang Hu fiercely nodded, and excitedly replied, “That’s right, fourth brother. Moreover, your partner is the emperor’s third princess —— Princess Ge Lan. I’ve heard that this arranged marriage had even been the emperor’s own suggestion.”
Hearing this, Jian Chen’s expression immediately grew more serious. He felt that this situation was extremely abnormal, and moreover, he hadn’t agreed to it. He felt dissatisfied by the fact that his own marriage had been decided by his clan without him. Having such a fate decided by others made Jian Chen feel extremely disgusted.
Seeing Jian Chen’s expression, Changyang Hu thought that Jian Chen was worrying over Princess Ge Lan’s appearance. He couldn’t help but laugh, “Fourth brother, don’t worry. Although I’ve never seen Princess Ge Lan, I’ve heard quite a few things about her. Princess Ge Lan is the emperor’s third daughter. She’s naturally beautiful, and her looks are enough for cities to fight over her. Since she was young, she’s been a gifted genius. She has not only mastered the four fine arts, she’s also quite a well-known talent in cultivation. At the age of 15, Princess Ge Lan had reached the 7th Saint Force layer. She has been doted on quite a lot by the emperor; she is the emperor’s beloved person, the emperor loves her dearly in every possible way.”
Hearing this Changyang Hu sighed, “Princess Ge Lan’s identity isn’t her only good point. With just her gift at cultivation, even your own older brother couldn’t compete with her. Fourth Brother, His Majesty has betrothed the princess to you; this is a stroke of good fortune, so don’t have such a sour look on your face.”
Jian Chen could only let out a sigh inwardly, Changyang Hu couldn’t understand his thoughts at all. Despite Princess Ge Lan’s beauty, Jian Chen wasn’t moved at all. All he wanted to do right now was to improve his own strength, he couldn’t afford to waste time with a girl at the moment. Jian Chen also knew that the emperor was aware of his own achievements within Kargath Academy, otherwise, there was no way the emperor would have been so firm on his decision to betroth his daughter to him.
Because this arranged marriage was proposed by the emperor, Jian Chen was absolutely powerless to go against the marriage. His parents wouldn’t even dare to give up the chance to establish a friendship with the royal family, let alone a relationship with them. Aside from the emperor taking back the proposal, there would be no way for Jian Chen to refuse it, so he would have to quietly accept it.
The only thing that put Jian Chen to ease was the fact that this decision was only just recently made. The official date for the marriage had not yet been announced, meaning the marriage was being put off indefinitely for the time being. This gave him a good time period to breathe. Jian Chen after all did not want to talk about this at all; in his previous life, Jian Chen was a wanderer who loved traveling around the world. Without a permanent residence to live in and using the mother earth as his bed, with another person by his side, he wouldn’t be able to continue to that lifestyle anymore.
After Changyang Hu left, Jian Chen sat on the bed by himself and contemplated deeply. One had to admit that the news from his clan had been too sudden, catching Jian Chen unprepared.
“Ai, I might as well spend the rest of my time cultivating. Power in the end decides everything after all. When my strength grows strong enough, even the emperor would not be able to say anything.” Jian Chen sighed as he continued to cultivate.
Jian Chen took out a Class 1 Monster Core from the pile of them within his Space Ring. He slowly closed his eyes, and began to absorb the power from within the monster core to cultivate it. Ever since he had broken through Sainthood 2 days ago, this was the first time he was cultivating. The past 2 evenings, he had been familiarizing himself with how to use and control the Saint Weapon.
Just as Jian Chen started to absorb the energy from within the monster cores, the speed in which the monster core was being absorbed from him was growing faster and faster; almost as if all control was lost as the energy rushed into him. As the energy frantically rushed into him, the rate had instantly increased to a speed several hundred times faster than normal.
The sudden rush in cultivation speed caused Jian Chen’s face to twitch in surprise. Although every cultivator greatly desired for their cultivation speed to be increased, but Jian Chen’s cultivation speed had already reached a frightening level. With this absorption rate of the energy from the monster core, Jian Chen simply didn’t have enough time to refine it which serve no purpose for him at all since energy that wasn’t refined by him was not controllable and would only serve to rebel against him within his own body. An end result like that would lead to consequences in which Jian Chen would have a tough time resolving.
Jian Chen immediately stopped absorbing the power from the monster core. The only thing worth rejoicing about was that his process of stopping his absorption of the monster core’s energy had gone very smoothly. No frightening and uncontrollable scene had occurred. Otherwise, he was afraid that he really would’ve gotten into deep trouble.