Chapter 1: Marrying a Crippled Husband in Her Place

Chapter 1: Marrying a Crippled Husband in Her Place

Lin Yu starved to death.

He died in a cramped, sealed rental room, with food just beyond a thin door—his only hope of survival.

But he didn't dare go out.

Crippling social anxiety had frozen his limbs, stifled his breath, and crushed his courage.

In the end, he could only curl up in a corner, slowly losing his body heat in the silence and fear until he quietly slipped away.

When he opened his eyes again, the world had turned upside down.

A cacophony of voices crowded around him, countless gazes pinned to his body.

"Lin Yu, this is your lucky break! You don't get to refuse this marriage swap!"

"You've always been the Lin family's most worthless cast-off son. Marrying into the Qingmu Sect in your brother's place is a gift!"

"It was supposed to be Jin who married, but now that Ling Xuance has become a cripple, your brother is too precious to marry a fallen demonic disciple. So it has to be you!"

The crowd surging toward him, the oppressive stares, the unfamiliar surroundings—

The fear of going outside that had haunted him in his past life surged up, shattering his fragile nerves.

Lin Yu's mind went blank, his vision went dark, and he passed out.

When he woke again, there was only the biting cold wind and desolate stone walls around him.

He lay on a cold, hard stone bed, surrounded by emptiness—not a soul in sight.

It took Lin Yu a long while to recover, and after absorbing the original owner's memories, he finally pieced together the whole story.

This was a world of cultivation.

The Lin family had originally arranged a marriage alliance, betrothing their most beloved youngest son, Lin Jin, to the Qingmu Sect's exceptionally talented senior disciple—the ice-element genius, Ling Xuance.

Ling Xuance was a once-in-a-century genius of the Qingmu Sect, highly respected with a brilliant future ahead of him.

But a single sect mission turned everything on its head.

Ling Xuance led his team into the depths of the demon realm by mistake. On the way back, the entire team was wiped out—only he survived, gravely wounded, while all his fellow disciples died.

When he returned, his most trusted fellow disciple falsely accused him of falling to demonic corruption and killing his brothers.

Demonic energy remained in his body, destroying his meridians, and his entire Foundation Establishment cultivation was ruined.

The sect was enraged. They sentenced him to thirty soul whips, shattered his foundation, and cast him into the Cliff of Reflection, imprisoning him for a hundred years—making him a cripple and a sinner despised by all.

The marriage contract became a hot potato no one wanted to touch.

The Lin family couldn't bear to send their precious youngest son, Lin Jin, to marry a man whose cultivation was destroyed and whose reputation was in tatters.

So they set their sights on the original owner—

Lin Yu, the Lin family's most neglected son born of a concubine.

They forcibly swapped the marriage, forcing him to take his brother's place and sending him to the desolate Cliff of Reflection to marry the cripple, Ling Xuance.

The original owner resisted with all his might, but couldn't withstand the family's pressure. At just sixteen, he was scared to death, and was completely replaced by him from the modern world.

Lin Yu finished going through all the memories and let out a soft breath.

Compared to the suffocating terror of being surrounded and pressured by that crowd just now—

He'd rather face an entire desolate mountain than a group of people.

The Cliff of Reflection was barren, desolate, and remote—no one set foot there year-round.

It was practically the peaceful haven he'd always dreamed of.

Lin Yu turned his head and looked at the ground a short distance away.

A person lay there, completely motionless.

Covered in blood and grime, clothes torn to shreds, his back a mess of hideous whip scars, flesh split open, blood darkening to black.

The young man's figure was tall and straight—even in such a sorry state, his refined bone structure was undeniable.

But his breathing was faint, and he didn't move at all, like a cold corpse.

This was the man he was to marry in his brother's place—Ling Xuance.

Lin Yu watched him quietly for a moment, feeling no fear—instead, a sense of calm settled over him.

Good.

Quiet. No noise, no fuss. He wouldn't force him to talk, wouldn't stare at him.

Ling Xuance lay motionless, his wounds shocking to see, dark blood soaking through his clothes, surrounded by an inescapable aura of death and cold. His breathing was so faint it was barely perceptible, as if it might stop at any moment.

He watched for a while, then raised his clean, pale palm and gently placed it over him.

The next instant, a soft, warm glow flowed from his fingertips, silently spreading through the cool air.

This was his own unique power—an ability that had come with him through his transmigration, completely intact.

In his past life, he had been timid and withdrawn, trapped in his own little world, never daring to get close to anyone.

This innate ability had remained a secret no one knew about.

But now, in this unfamiliar cultivation world, he had broken free from the constraints of his past life and the shackles of crowds, securing a peaceful, quiet corner for himself.

A thought he'd never had before arose in his heart—he wanted to try.

The soft glow enveloped Ling Xuance's body, seeping into his scarred flesh and spreading slowly through his damaged meridians.

Lin Yu held his breath, keeping his hand raised, quietly and earnestly healing the man before him.

But his power was too weak—against Ling Xuance's severely wounded body, it couldn't make any visible difference.

The young man on the ground remained weak, the vicious whip scars showing no sign of fading, his broken meridians and ruined dantian looking exactly the same as before.

Lin Yu blinked, a bit disappointed, and looked at the still, unmoving Ling Xuance.

He didn't dwell on it, silently withdrawing the glow from his fingertips.

The wind on Sigua Cliff was biting cold, and the stone ground was hard and piercing—it was too cruel to leave a severely wounded person lying there.

Lin Yu carefully bent down, moving with the utmost gentleness, fearful of causing any pain.

He hauled the tall young man, inch by inch, onto the stone bed, then carefully smoothed out his disheveled and tattered robes, so he could lie a little more comfortably.

Only after finishing all this did he survey the cliffside dwelling where they would live day and night from now on.

The stone hut was crude and dilapidated, with wispy cobwebs clinging to the corners, dead branches and rubble scattered across the floor—the whole place radiating desolation and decay.

Looking at the cluttered surroundings, Lin Yu felt no trace of irritation; instead, a sense of solid, grounded calm settled in his heart.

He turned and picked up a dusty, worn broom from the corner, sweeping away the rubble and dust little by little, diligently wiping down the stone table and stools, and clearing the cobwebs and dead branches from the corners.

Outside the hut, the wind howled bleakly; inside, only the soft swish of the broom across the floor broke the silence—the only sign of life on this deathly still Sigua Cliff.

Meanwhile, Ling Xuance lay on the stone bed, eyes tightly shut, his consciousness not fully submerged.

From the moment Lin Yu had drawn near, his remaining divine sense stayed taut, coiled in extreme vigilance and wariness.

He knew full well how dire his situation was—carrying the world's rarest treasure, the Innate Sword Bone, the ultimate treasure countless cultivators dreamed of.

This sudden marriage alliance, this youth who had appeared out of nowhere on Sigua Cliff—in Ling Xuance's eyes, it all reeked of suspicion.

Beneath his ruined shell, his lingering malice and killing intent had long since coiled tight. If the other made any move to probe, even with his cultivation utterly destroyed, he would burn his last shred of divine soul to die together with the other!

But the harm he had anticipated never came.

He only felt a pair of cool hands brush over his body, followed by a warmth completely unlike any spiritual energy in this world, seeping into his ruined body.

He could clearly sense his dantian—long shattered into countless fragments and completely beyond repair—slowly, almost imperceptibly, knitting itself back together under that gentle force's nourishment.

The change was minuscule, so subtle it was nearly undetectable; an ordinary person could never have noticed it.

This youth he had judged as harboring ill intentions neither probed nor harmed him, but was instead healing his broken, ruined body.

The rustling sound of sweeping continued outside.

On the stone bed, Ling Xuance's emotions churned. The vigilance and wariness in his heart began to crack, and for the first time, a new, unfamiliar doubt took root.

—From that day onward.

The long-desolate Sigua Cliff gained a quiet presence.

Lin Yu grew accustomed to the cold and silence here, even losing himself in this peace undisturbed by others.

Day after day, rising with the sun and resting with its set, he kept the shabby stone hut spotlessly clean.

He carved out a small patch of flat land beside the hut, scattered vegetable seeds he had found in the mountains, and tended the little garden at a leisurely pace, adding a touch of vitality to the monotonous cliffside days.

His most constant daily task was channeling his healing ability.

Dawn and dusk shifted, wind and rain came and went through the seasons, yet Lin Yu never once stopped.

After each healing session, he would pick ripe vegetables from the garden, nourish and purify them with his ability, and carefully feed them to the unconscious Ling Xuance, sustaining his fragile life force.

Ling Xuance's consciousness had remained awake within his body the entire time.

He clearly perceived every glimmer of light each day, every treatment, every feeding.

His heart shifted from initial wariness to gradual confusion.

One day could be an act, but over these three years—a thousand days and nights—even he could not have maintained such a flawless facade.

He had long grown used to the coldness of human nature, yet this youth who had appeared through an arranged marriage treated him with such gentleness, so pure and so sincere.