Life as a Rogue Cultivator

Chapter 302: The One I Married

Liu Xiaolou blinked, totally thrown. He frowned, genuinely confused. “Can’t you just tell me, Altar Mistress?”

She pressed his lips into a smile. “Alright then. Xue Bu, that girl is twenty-eight. She’s been cultivating the Azure Wood True Scripture for twelve years and is now at the tenth layer of Qi Refinement. Her starting meridians are the Foot Yang Bright, Hand Lesser Yang, and Hand Faint Yin. Sheng Han, that girl is twenty-five. She’s cultivated in the Cloud-and-Rain Technique for thirteen years and is now at the ninth layer. Her starting meridians are the Foot Faint Yin, Foot Lesser Yang, and Hand Lesser Yin. I raised both of them myself. They’re the standouts among the younger disciples of Qingyue Altar. I couldn’t think of a better pair to offer.”

The moment Liu Xiaolou heard this, he felt completely let down. Their cultivation methods didn’t match his at all.

He hurried to ask, “Is there anything else?”

The Qingyue Mistress paused. “You don’t like them? Why not?”

Liu Xiaolou said, “Honestly, none of their starting meridians match mine.”

The Qingyue Mistress blinked, confused. “You choose a wife based on starting meridians?”

Now Liu Xiaolou was the confused one. “A partner? What partner?”

Her gorgeous eyes lingered on Liu Xiaolou’s face for a long moment, the warmth draining out of them. “Since you didn’t come to Qingyue Altar to propose marriage… which means you’re just here to screw around with my sect?”

The second he heard the words “propose marriage,” Liu Xiaolou’s brain short-circuited. It was like someone yanked him ten years back in time. Back when his younger self accidentally stumbled into the marriage trials at Red Conch Manor

he thought to himself.

Seeing him frozen and silent, the Qingyue Mistress grew even more displeased. Her face hardened with frost. “Liu Daoist, if you don’t explain yourself clearly today, I’m afraid—”

“The fault is mine,” Liu Xiaolou snapped out of it and gave a pained smile. “A friend told me your honorable sect held an opportunity of great value, so I rushed over. I had no idea it was this kind of ‘opportunity.’ I would never mess with your sect. I’m just a rogue cultivator. I have no right, no qualifications, to toy with your reputation.”

The Qingyue Mistress kept staring daggers at him. After a long moment she finally said, “Han Jiuxian told us you might come to propose! He left just yesterday, and you show up today!”

He rubbed his forehead. “Brother Han really misunderstood me.”

The Qingyue Mistress still hadn’t cooled down. “Then what kind of opportunity are you looking for?”

Liu Xiaolou replied, “I have a close friend whose sect’s inheritance is incomplete. Some of the mental formulas and oral teachings were lost. He asked me to help him find a chance to make up for it. I came hoping your sect might have a suitable cultivation method. I’m willing to pay a high price.”

The Qingyue Mistress gave him a mocking look. “This ‘friend’ of yours is actually you, isn’t it?”

Liu Xiaolou gave an awkward little laugh.

After thinking for a moment, the Qingyue Mistress said, “In that case, this works out too. Between Xue Bu and Sheng Han, choose one. Marry her, and from then on we’re family. All the techniques and scriptures in Qingyue Altar will be open to you. Wouldn’t that solve everything nicely?”

Both women were excellent cultivators. For a moment, Liu Xiaolou was genuinely tempted.

Being allowed to take her away and also learn their cultivation arts... could anything in the world really be that good? Back when he left the Su family, he couldn’t even take Susu, a mere servant girl. So how could Qingyue Altar possibly let him walk off with one of their most outstanding female disciples?

“If I could marry one of them, of course that’d be great,” Liu Xiaolou said, glancing at the Qingyue Mistress. Out loud he continued, “I just don’t know what you need me to do. Is there some service I can offer your sect?”

There’s no such thing as a free spiritual pill. Liu Xiaolou understood that much.

The Qingyue Mistress’s expression warmed at once, her smile blooming again. “Having a Foundation Establishment cultivator like you join our altar is already the greatest service. Why would we need anything more from you?”

“Join the Altar?” Liu Xiaolou’s stomach dropped like a rock.

The Qingyue Mistress hurried to clarify, “Of course not. Nothing like what happened to you back at Shenwu Manor.”

Seeing his face go stiff, she quickly added, “Friend Liu... all the troubles you’ve had in the past, Friend Han told us everything yesterday. Don’t worry, this is absolutely not about marrying into the family. It seems you don’t really understand the rules of our Qingyue Altar.”

Of course Liu Xiaolou didn’t know, so the Qingyue Altar Master explained it right there on the spot.

The ancestral rule of the Qingyue Altar is that the altar is always led by a woman. This rule originally followed the practices of the Hengshan Sect during its golden age. Back then, the Hengshan Sect was a sect of female cultivators, and all three of its altars were headed by women, not just Qingyue, but also Guangtian and Dongling.

Over time though, for various reasons, the three altars drifted farther and farther apart in how they passed down their traditions.

The Guangtian Altar followed the female-only lineage strictly. There wasn’t a single man in the entire altar.

The Dongling Altar, on the other hand, took a different path and stopped caring whether a cultivator was male or female. Men and women were treated the same, and whoever had the skill rose to the top. The current altar master is actually a male cultivator.

As for the Qingyue Altar, while it protects its tradition of female leadership, it allows men to join to a certain extent. The altar still accepts only female disciples, and the altar mistress is still chosen from the most outstanding among them. But to strengthen the sect’s influence, they also help their female disciples choose Dao partners, bringing in talented male cultivators from outside.

That is why the Qingyue Altar hosts a marriage gathering every seven years. Anyone interested can climb Zhurong Peak, and as long as one of the female disciples takes a liking to him, he can join the Qingyue Altar and become one of its members.

Still, no matter how gifted these men are, the Qingyue Altar is and will always be led by women. Because of that, cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage rarely bother to take part. Even if it isn’t exactly the same as marrying into the family, it doesn’t feel much better.

That was why the three altars eventually went their separate ways. When the paths differ, there’s no working together.

Back in the day, Han Jiuxian came close to becoming the Qingyue Altar Mistress’s husband. Unfortunately, when the final selection came around, he lost out to the Transmission Elder and the Enforcement Elder, and he was eliminated. Even so, he and the altar mistress had shared a brief romantic connection, and over time they became close friends.

This winter happened to be another Qingyue Altar marriage gathering. Han Jiuqian thought of Liu Xiaolou and decided to recommend him.

When word spread that a Foundation Establishment cultivator might actually come up the mountain for the selection, even if he was only a rogue cultivator, the Qingyue Altar felt incredibly fortunate. They sent out the two candidates preparing to compete for the next altar mistress position to meet him. It was mostly a formality. The truth was that the altar had already agreed that whichever woman Liu Xiaolou chose would become the future mistress of the Qingyue Altar.

The Qingyue Altar Mistress sweetened the offer even more. “All you need to do is join our altar. You won’t only have access to the techniques stored in Qingyue. I’ll also request permission from Guangtian and Dongling so you can study their collections as well. Altogether there are no fewer than thirty techniques. You’ll definitely find one that suits you.”

Liu Xiaolou locked eyes with those glossy, almost-dripping-wet eyes staring back at him. “You mentioned earlier that when Brother Han came for the selection back then, he lost to the Transmission Elder and Enforcement Elder... so who did you end up marrying? Or… are you still single?”

The Qingyue Altar Mistress pressed her lips together in a smile. “Friend Liu, my two disciples are both far more beautiful than I am. As for me, I married the Transmission Elder and Enforcement Elder. Both of them.”