Lin Wan's fingertips pinched the golden hoop, and her divine sense surged into it like a tide. In an instant, a cold glint flashed in her eyes.
This golden hoop was carved all over with eerie runes, and its function was to brainwash and control the mind!
"This isn't my father's handiwork..." she muttered to herself, her brows furrowed. The crafting method of this golden hoop was vicious and sinister, completely different from her father's upright and righteous path.
Clearly, someone had secretly added it to the profound ice later.
What chilled her heart even more was that since someone had gone to such lengths to use the golden hoop for brainwashing, the thing sealed within the profound ice was likely already tainted.
And for the other party to go to such great lengths...
"Could it be a living thing? Or even... a person?"
This thought made Lin Wan's fingertips tremble. She hesitated for only 0.01 seconds before decisively increasing her immortal yuan output.
Cracks rapidly spread across the surface of the profound ice, emitting crisp cracking sounds.
Crack—
Another object dropped from the melting ice layer. Lin Wan reached out to catch it; it was soft and light, and turned out to be... a marriage contract?
She froze.
The material of the marriage contract was special, neither silk nor paper, but jade-white all over, with exquisite golden cloud patterns embroidered on the edges. There were no names of the bride and groom, only a scant few lines of text.
But it was these few lines of words that struck Lin Wan as if by lightning—
The familiar handwriting was forceful and expressive, carrying a hint of casualness and playfulness, unmistakably in her father's hand!
[My daughter, seeing this letter is as if we meet]
[This is a wife your father painstakingly found for you!]
Lin Wan: "..."
She stared at these two lines of text, at a loss for what expression to make. Ten thousand years of waiting, the split of the Northern and Southern Witch Clans, all for... a marriage contract?
Father's Marvellous Idea
Lin Wan flipped the marriage contract over and, as expected, found a neatly folded letter on the back. The letter paper had yellowed, but the handwriting was as clear as ever, carrying her father's unique tone of being flippant yet profound in meaning:
[To my dear daughter, to be opened personally:]
[Your father has truly struck it rich recently!]
[A few days ago, while wandering along the shores of the East Sea, I happened upon a five-colored stone. According to those old geezers, this stone is of the same origin as the spirit stone that nurtured the Monkey Brother back in the day, its wonders are endless!]
[Your father had a flash of inspiration—my son, whom I've never even met, doesn't have a wife yet!]
[In this day and age, scoundrels are everywhere, and green teas are as common as dogs. What if my son is deceived by those bewitching vixens? After much thought, I decided it's better to do it myself than to rely on others!]
[And so, your father spent three hundred years of effort to nurture this stone with immortal arts. When it takes form, it will surely be a peerless beauty!]
[The most wonderful thing is, this five-colored stone can change according to its master's will. Daughter, what kind do you like? A cold fairy? A cute loli? Or a gentle onee-san? It's all up to your heart's desire!]
[But remember—]
[This stone has not yet fully taken form and needs to be nurtured in the profound ice for another ten thousand years. I have ordered the Witch Clan to guard it for generations. By the time you come to claim it, I'm sure it will be perfectly formed.]
[If by then the stone has not yet awakened, try dripping blood to recognize the master. It's guaranteed to work immediately!]
[—Your brilliant and heroic father]
Lin Wan: "..."
She stared at the letter, the corner of her mouth twitching uncontrollably. What on earth was all this about? Ten thousand years of waiting, the split of the Northern and Southern Witch Clans, all for... an unformed "stone wife"?
Even more absurdly, her father had thoughtfully considered "aesthetic diversity"?
She rubbed her temples, and suddenly the marriage contract in her hand felt unbearably hot.
If the Witch Clan were to learn that the promise their entire clan had desperately guarded was just this... the thought was too terrible to contemplate.
Lin Wan stared at the golden hoop in her hand, and her heart suddenly lurched.
"Father..." she murmured to herself, "You chose this daughter-in-law... has she probably already been brainwashed and beaten you to the punch, haven't you?"
The more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt. The golden hoop was for controlling the mind, yet the five-colored stone in the profound ice was gone.
It meant that not only had someone found this place, but they had also successfully brainwashed the five-colored stone that was about to take form. They might have even set up a "soul-stirring" fake drama for her!
"Such a clever scheme..." Lin Wan sneered.
Although she had no intention of actually taking this five-colored stone as a wife, it was after all something her father had left behind. She couldn't just ignore it.
She took a deep breath and continued to channel her immortal yuan, completely melting the final thin layer of ancient profound ice.
However—
"It's empty?"
Lin Wan was stunned. The inside of the profound ice was completely empty. Where was the five-colored stone? And even more so, where was the brainwashed "wife"?
She immediately bent down to inspect it and finally discovered a small hole, about the thickness of a thumb, at the very bottom of the profound ice. The edge of the hole was smooth, clearly worn down by years of friction.
"It escaped after taking form?"
This discovery made Lin Wan both surprised and amused. Father had calculated everything, but he probably never expected that the "daughter-in-law" he had so carefully prepared would actually run away on its own, did he?
She crouched down, her fingertips lightly tracing the edge of the hole. There were still some faint traces left there, as if left by some creature struggling to crawl.
The traces were winding, vaguely resembling the characteristics of a snake's movement. More worryingly, there were also a few pitch-black scales scattered near the hole's entrance, gleaming with a luster under the light of the stove.
Lin Wan picked up a scale and examined it carefully in her palm. The scale was hard, its edges sharp, with peculiar patterns on its surface, and it felt cool to the touch.
Even stranger was the aura from this scale... it actually made her feel a faint, inexplicable familiarity.
"Ten thousand years ago... black scales... snake..."
She murmured to herself, and a ridiculous thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
"Fuck, it can't be this big a coincidence, can it..."
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