The Great King Ordered Me to Marry – Chapter 51
by Little PandaSpeaking of Why Liangmeng Was Acting Strange
Outside the pavilion, assorted demons and immortals argued ceaselessly, among them some speaking up for the master of the Huangliang Dream Market.
“The market master’s cultivation is no less formidable than the Demon Lords of the various mountain realms. If she wanted spiritual power, why not head for a mountain realm? Why take such an enormous risk? Those who enter the market aren’t just demons—immortals from Kunlun Jade Capital come too. Stirring up strife between two realms for the sake of spiritual power—isn’t that breaking the oil vat to find a sesame seed1?”
“The Huangliang Dream Market has operated for years without charging a single coin. If you tell me she doesn’t profit from it at all, I don’t believe it!”
“Open up! Since the market master isn’t here, you lot can explain on her behalf!”
The small demons inside the pavilion had been frightened stiff, not daring to move, not even daring to approach the windows.
“Pay them no mind.” Longming shot a glance at the demon.
The small demon didn’t dare meet the Demon Lord’s eyes and stammered, “My Lord, I don’t know either why the master suddenly became like this.”
Zhuoxue slipped to Longming’s side. The market’s wooden token lay intact in her palm, without a single crack.
The token was still whole—proof enough that Longming hadn’t harbored lethal intent. When she’d given chase just now, she’d only meant to keep Liangmeng from leaving.
Too bad she hadn’t been able to hold her. Otherwise, Longming wouldn’t have returned alone.
Longming lowered her gaze, picked up the token, and rubbed it between her fingers, a chill in her voice: “Didn’t catch her. The Huangliang Dream Market was built by Liangmeng’s own hands. She knows this place better than any demon or immortal. Whether she wants to flee or hide, it’s effortless for her.”
“That person just now—was she truly the master of the Huangliang Dream Market?” Zhuoxue wanted to confirm.
“Her aura was unmistakably hers. She usually veils her face with thin gauze, but today she didn’t.” Longming looked around, walked over to the small demon who had fallen to the ground, and said with downcast eyes: “I noticed a faint, centipede-like scar near her mouth. It looked like a mark left by the Heart-Piercing Gu.”
“The Heart-Piercing Gu?” The small demon froze and answered in alarm: “The master always veils her face when receiving guests or going out. Two days ago, there was no such scar on her face.”
“Two days ago?” Longming frowned. “And these past two days?”
“These past two days, the master has stayed in her chambers and hasn’t shown her face.” The small demon repeated the same account—contradicting what Liangmeng herself had said earlier.
Longming asked further: “Before she appeared just now, she hadn’t received any guests either?”
“She hadn’t.” The small demon nodded.
The lie was riddled with holes—any random demon in the pavilion could have seen through it effortlessly.
Liangmeng had managed the Dream Market so well; she was no fool. A lie this transparent wasn’t a careless mistake. It looked deliberate.
The Heart-Piercing Gu—Zhuoxue had heard of it before.
Lan Hui had been cautious by nature and had repeatedly lectured her to be on guard against outsiders, running through every type of gu poison, curse, and hex she knew.
The Heart-Piercing Gu was a venomous insect that forced absolute obedience. The slightest defiance, and the host parasitized by the child gu would be pierced through the heart by hundreds of insects and killed.
Fortunately, the insect’s lifespan was short—the child gu lived no more than five days. And as long as the mother gu remained more than half a li from the child gu, the child gu would lose its vitality. In other words, the master of the Huangliang Dream Market could only be coerced for five days.
The fact that the Heart-Piercing Gu had been deployed meant this wasn’t a matter of substitution—consistent with what Zhuoxue had suspected.
She simply hadn’t seen the other half of the market master’s face beneath the veil and had assumed the scar was old.
“So it really is the Heart-Piercing Gu. Does that mean the one holding the mother gu was in the market just now?” Zhuoxue’s scalp went numb.
“Just now, they might have been right here in this pavilion with you and me,” Longming replied.
Goosebumps erupted across every inch of Zhuoxue’s skin. Thinking about how she’d hidden those torn pages and then sneaked into Liangmeng’s bedchamber—it was practically throwing herself onto someone else’s blade.
Foxes loved digging holes. She’d very nearly dug herself a grave.
She had torn those pages from the Destiny Register right under someone’s nose. If she hadn’t been sharp enough to call Longming up, she might well have drowned in the privy.
What a miserable way to die that would have been.
At least when she’d sneaked into Liangmeng’s bedchamber, Liangmeng had already departed with the Destiny Register, and the villain secretly controlling the gu insect must have followed along.
“From what you’re saying, my Lord, our master is being controlled by some evildoer?” The small demon trembled. “Everyone who enters or exits the market must give blood to verify their token. Without a token, you can’t even push open the market gates—even with the master’s verbal permission. We can check the entry and exit records right now—how could we not find him!”
“May not be able to find him,” Longming said mildly. “Has she had any contact with Nightmare demons recently?”
The small demon shook its head uncertainly, then scrambled to shout: “Lock the pavilion doors tight! Then come up here, all of you, hurry!”
The demons in the building heard the shout, locked the pavilion doors, and scrambled up the wooden stairs. One by one, they looked at Longming, not daring to speak.
Longming’s gaze swept across their faces. Calmly, she said: “I am asking you—has the market master seen any Nightmare demons these past few days?”
The demons exchanged glances, clearly uninformed.
“Since yesterday’s market opening, the master hasn’t seen a single demon. She hasn’t even left her chambers. Only just now did she finally appear.”
“But whenever we called to her from outside the door, the master would answer.”
“I’ve been on duty guarding the pavilion doors these past two days. The only honored guests who entered were your Lordship and this fox demon Lord.”
Longming asked again: “Before the market opened, where did Liangmeng go?”
The demons fell silent.
After a long pause, one said: “Before, even when the master went out to fetch goods, she’d bring along at least one or two attendants. But the day before yesterday, she went out alone. We don’t know where.”
“She most likely encountered a Nightmare demon.” Longming spoke thoughtfully. “But why didn’t she bring you along?”
“We don’t know that either.”
Zhuoxue looked at Longming, utterly bewildered. “How can you be so certain it was the Nightmare Tribe’s doing?”
“Very few in the demon realm know that the master of the Huangliang Dream Market isn’t solely of Feather Tribe blood.” Longming surveyed the demons present. “In truth, she also carries half Nightmare Tribe blood.”
The demons’ expressions didn’t change—they’d followed Liangmeng for years and clearly knew this already.
Longming continued: “Within the Nightmare Tribe, Liangmeng could fairly be called the Third Princess.”
“So this Huangliang Dream Market—is it a Nightmare Dream?” Zhuoxue had found it strange from the start. How could such an incongruous expanse of streets and shops appear out of nowhere in a mountain city?
Longming met Zhuoxue’s golden eyes. “It is a Nightmare Dream, but this realm differs from the Nightmare King’s nightmare arts. It is dream, yet not dream.”
Zhuoxue looked out the window. Crimson flames roared as demons banded together to extinguish them with spells.
Water sprayed and great waves materialized from thin air, yet they couldn’t fully douse the flames blazing across the market.
Here in this place, every demon and immortal was real. They had no script to follow—only this street scene itself was unusual.
“This is Soft Red Dust, the Nightmare Tribe’s supreme treasure.” Longming’s lips curved slightly. “Roughly two hundred years ago, the previous Nightmare King lay dying. Nightmare Lady Wushuang and Nightmare Prince Wuni vied for the throne. Though Wuni ultimately succeeded and became king, the supreme Nightmare art was taken away by Wushuang.”
“So Nightmare Lady Wushuang is the market master’s birth mother?” Zhuoxue said.
“Indeed.” Longming channeled spiritual power. A gale burst through the window and abruptly condensed into black clouds above the fire.
Torrential rain poured down. Once the flames died, only charred ruins remained.
Longming spoke unhurriedly: “The construction method of Soft Red Dust is known only to Liangmeng and her mother Wushuang. But it is, after all, the Nightmare Tribe’s supreme treasure. The Nightmare King should know its inner workings well enough to know how to slip in silently and ensure the two gu never stray more than half a li apart.”
“So even if he appeared in the market, no one would know.” Zhuoxue’s back turned cold.
Longming’s eyes darkened. “Liangmeng shouldn’t have known that you and I went to the Yellow Springs Bureau to retrieve items. Yet just now, she stated it directly—she most likely learned it from the Nightmare King’s mouth. Every irregularity she displayed tonight was meant to alert us that she’s being coerced.”
The demons looked ashamed. They’d served by Liangmeng’s side for years, yet hadn’t noticed anything amiss with their master.
The Huangliang Dream Market had operated for as long as they’d felt secure. They’d momentarily forgotten that the demon realm was inherently treacherous.
Zhuoxue leaned close to Longming’s ear and whispered: “While you were away just now, I sneaked upstairs to investigate and found something off in the market master’s chambers.”
“You really are—” Longming frowned, about to say something about her audacity, but one look at the fox’s bright, spirited eyes beneath the ghost mask and the words died in her throat.
“Shall we go up and look?” the fox urged.
Longming stepped past the demons and ascended to the upper floor. The small demons trailed behind, and even when they saw Longming push open the door, none dared stop her.
The door creaked open, revealing the chaos within. The demons grew even more uneasy.
Zhuoxue suddenly raised an arm, pointing at the carpet on the floor, and called out: “Catch it!”
Longming merely flicked her hand. The carpet that covered the entire room rolled up instantly, revealing a tiny hedgehog curled on the wooden floorboards, panicking and unsure where to run.
They’d thought it would be some powerful demon. Instead, it was just a…
Little hedgehog?
Zhuoxue could hardly believe it. Surely this was a disguise?
The hedgehog covered its eyes with both paws and trembled out human speech: “I don’t know anything, it wasn’t me!”
The demons had already pounced, piling on top of each other to pin the hedgehog firmly to the bottom, making escape impossible.
The hedgehog, thoroughly smothered, seemed to anticipate what it would be interrogated about and wailed: “I haven’t even learned to shapeshift yet! How could it be me!”
“Where did you come from?” one of the demons asked.
The hedgehog answered truthfully: “A few days ago, I was still at the outskirts of Jueming Ridge. I happened to run into the master of this Huangliang Dream Market. An elder in my tribe egged me on to follow her—said if I could get into the market, I could buy spiritual medicine to help me shapeshift.”
“Liangmeng shouldn’t have failed to notice you,” Longming said coldly.
The hedgehog hurriedly added: “I don’t know either! The market master was suddenly entangled by a dark shadow and couldn’t move at all.”
“A dark shadow?” Longming fixed it with her gaze.
The hedgehog spoke muffledly: “My demon power is weak, I couldn’t tell what it was, but the pressure was strong enough to reduce me to dust.”
“Continue,” Longming said.
The hedgehog continued: “I—I was scared to death, and I saw the market master’s expression go blank, like she’d been stupefied. So I scrambled onto her back to shield myself from the shadow’s pressure. And somehow I just followed her right in.”
“And after that! Did you see if our master showed anything unusual?” a demon asked frantically.
The hedgehog pulled a long face. “After we came back, she locked herself in and wouldn’t come out. Occasionally she talked to the mirror—and there was a dark shadow in the mirror. I don’t know if the creature that attacked her had crawled inside.”
“Who ransacked this room?” Zhuoxue asked in confusion.
The hedgehog fell silent for a long time before admitting in a trembling voice: “I saw she’d gone out, so I hurried out to search for spiritual medicine. But all those bottles and jars had no labels at all—I couldn’t tell which one was the miracle cure. I was afraid she’d come back midway, so I rushed and hid under the carpet again.”
It paused, then shrieked: “She must have been coerced by the Demon Lord of Jueming Ridge! That demon wears a skull on their head all day—one look and you can tell they’re no good demon!”
“It wasn’t Kunyu.” Longming denied it without haste. “The culprit is the Nightmare King. He knew Liangmeng and Kunyu had long been at odds and sought to frame Kunyu. Little did he know, those two demons had once harbored feelings for each other.”
Zhuoxue’s expression turned incredulous. “What kind of feelings?”
Longming looked at her. After a long while: “Feelings are feelings. There’s no ‘kind’ to distinguish.”
Zhuoxue’s ear tips grew warm. She mumbled: “Then why do the two of them bristle like drawn swords whenever they meet?”
“Liangmeng had wandered for a long time, with no fixed home. She wanted Kunyu to abandon Jueming Ridge and join her in living freely. Kunyu wanted to live freely too, but refused to forsake Jueming Ridge. The two fell out.” Longming spoke with unhurried deliberation, her tone perfectly even as she recounted this piece of demon realm gossip.
The small demons clapped their hands over their ears, not daring to listen. If their master found out they’d heard this, they’d never hear the end of it.
“Living freely?” Zhuoxue had read plenty of romance novels but never any so veiled. “Free in what sense?”
Longming watched the fox expressionlessly, saying nothing.
The hedgehog, eager to please, volunteered everything it knew: “My Lords, I know this one! It’s that you and I, oh so deeply in love, where love runs deep, hot as fire2 business!”
Zhuoxue felt inexplicably warm. An itch crept up from her bones—a sensation as though something had traced its way across her body.
The hedgehog, seeing her silence, stated bluntly: “Oh, you know—matters of the bedchamber and such!”
“Quiet,” Longming said.
Zhuoxue blinked and murmured: “The market master went to Jueming Ridge alone—could she have been hoping to rekindle things with Kunyu?”
Longming said: “Or perhaps she only went to mock her.”
“And the Nightmare Tribe took advantage of the opening.” Zhuoxue sighed. “The Nightmare King and the market master are blood kin, after all. To even use the Heart-Piercing Gu on her—truly heartless.”
“The Nightmare King and Emperor Tianji are the ones truly joined at the hip. Why would he regard Liangmeng as kin?” Longming hooked a finger and fished the hedgehog out from under the pile of demons.
Light as thistledown, the hedgehog drifted erratically in midair. The moment it saw Longming, it curled into a ball—a little spiky sphere.
Longming held it in her palm, studied it for a long while, and said: “Demon power is thin indeed—not yet able to shapeshift. It seems Liangmeng left it here deliberately.”
“Please don’t kill me! I really don’t know anything!” The hedgehog trembled. “I only wanted to get a shapeshifting pill.”
“The master of the market left you, so you’ll stay right here in the pavilion.” Longming bent down, set the hedgehog atop one small demon’s head, straightened up, and said: “May Liangmeng be safe and well.”
Zhuoxue drew a breath, tugged at Longming’s sleeve, and said: “Let’s leave quickly. We shouldn’t linger here.”
Longming turned. “First you needed the silk pouch, now you’re urging us to leave.”
Zhuoxue glanced at the demons around them, golden eyes narrowing slightly.
The demons averted their gaze—one covering its eyes, another burying its head.
At this point, Zhuoxue couldn’t keep hiding it anymore.
When she’d torn those pages, she’d already known Longming would discover she’d lied beforehand.
Slowly, she pulled a few pages from her sleeve. The torn edges were unmistakable, and faint ghost qi clung to their margins—pages torn straight from the Destiny Register.
Longming stared, startled.
Zhuoxue quickly tucked the pages away and nudged Longming’s side. “Let’s go. If the Nightmare King notices pages missing from the register, he’ll surely come back for us.”
The author has something to say:
“You and I, oh so deeply in love, where love runs deep, hot as fire.” — Guan Daosheng 【Yuan】
Footnotes
- 打破油缸寻芝麻 | da po you gang xun zhi ma | A Chinese metaphor meaning to risk immense loss or cause massive disruption for trivial gain, like smashing an entire oil vat to retrieve a single sesame seed.
- 你侬我侬，忒煞情多，情多处，热似火 | ni nong wo nong, te sha qing duo, qing duo chu, re si huo | Lines from 'Wo Nong Ci' (My Song) by Guan Daosheng (1262–1319), a Yuan dynasty poetess and calligrapher; a celebrated love poem between spouses describing passionate devotion and intimacy.
0 Comments