Chapter 101: The Golden Lion Son-in-Law

Thank you for your generous tips; happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all our friends, and may every household be filled with reunion and joy.

Jinshi wore a grave expression, Lian Fengying’s eyes were wet with tears, and Cui Cui was crying so hard she seemed made of tears. Because Lin Zhan’s life was hanging by a thread, everyone feared for the Nightingale as well.

What was stranger still was that the whole Fuyang Inn had become a ruin, yet no other bodies were to be seen, no scattered relics either. Still, with all of them now carrying Lin Zhan to safety, there was no time to dwell on that.

The people sent by Heavenly Goods Hall and Jinshi’s assistants worked together in flustered haste, lifting Lin Zhan and hurrying back to Heavenly Goods Hall.

By then it was midnight. Heavenly Goods Hall blazed with light, and many shadows darted in every direction.

Everyone there who could heal wounds, whether trained physicians or not, had been summoned to the council hall.

A temporary warm jade bed had been laid out in the hall; Lin Zhan lay upon it while a ring of people stood around. Uncle Lian, Jinshi, Lian Fengying, Cui Cui, and others held their breath and watched one physician finish his diagnosis in silence.

He was the last healer to take Lin Zhan’s pulse.

After a while, the physician finally withdrew his hands. He sat still for a long time, apparently thinking in tension, nodding now and then and shaking his head at other moments.

Then he stood and, facing all those eyes full of hope and questions, gently shook his head and sighed. “Ah!”

“What are you sighing about?” Jinshi asked loudly.

“What’s so strange… truly strange,” the physician snapped at him, suddenly severe.

“You were going to speak and then held back, pretending to be mysterious.” Jinshi stepped forward and seized the back of the healer’s robe at the collar. “Just give it to me straight, not like the previous fellows, mumbling and swallowing your words as if this young Master Lin looks fine, yet also not fine. Then I’ll throw you out at once. Tell me plainly whether you can treat him. No need for any extra nonsense. If you make me a fool of this, when I become your future son-in-law you’ll see what becomes of you.”

At those words, even Uncle Lian turned pale. This boy truly takes himself for someone’s future son-in-law, he thought with annoyance.

But with so many people present and Lin Zhan’s fate uncertain, the physician only coughed twice and said nothing.

Lian Fengying, blushing hard, pinched the soft flesh at Jinshi’s side and snapped, “What nonsense are you talking? Which household’s son-in-law are you now?”

Only then did Jinshi release him.

Cui Cui, standing nearby, half-laughed and half-wept at Jinshi, narrowing her eyes in playful defiance, nearly raising her arm to shout, “Son-in-law, son-in-law, Cui Cui supports you!”

The doctor, shaken by Jinshi’s grip, was red-faced and furious, his beard bristling. Yet he seemed to realize this young man was formidable and had an easy rapport with the young lady, so he spoke in a trembling voice.

“To speak plainly, I truly cannot discern this young Master Lin’s condition. By my own assessment, and by what the previous practitioners found, besides several surface wounds, his body itself…”

“What about his inner condition?”

“Not a single internal injury. On the contrary, his inner reserves are a hundred times stronger than a normal person.”

“What? How can that be?”

A stunned silence rippled through the room.

If two physicians, and then others, all came to the same conclusion, one had to accept it as true.

Yet Lin Zhan still looked so close to death that everyone could not help but worry.

“Very well. Young Master Lin is surely one marked by Heaven. For now, seal this hall. Only attendants may remain; everyone else should leave and give him space to rest.”

It was Uncle Lian who made the most sensible arrangement.

He called, “Young master Jin, come with me to the side hall. Fengying, stay here with Cui Cui and attend to Master Lin.”

Jinshi’s face lit up instantly, thinking Uncle Lian had finally come to discuss betrothal matters.

In the side hall, as Uncle Lian sat down with a dark face, Jinshi still buzzed inwardly, imagining, *As a legitimate heir to the Jiangnan Dao-Robe lineage, I spent two decades as a bachelor. At last, maybe I’ll have a wife.*

“Jin Young Master!” Uncle Lian’s stern voice made him shiver.

“Yes, Master Lian.”

Inwardly, he muttered, *So the old man is being formal now. Of course he is.*

“Jin Young Master has roamed the martial world for many years. After the turmoil at the Fuyang Inn, the Wei Estate’s best fighters were likely all wiped out. In this changed situation, what is your view?”

“Ha,” Jinshi thought darkly. *This old fox is testing me, and he didn’t even ask me to sit.* He dragged a chair and sat anyway, then nodded and began his analysis.

“Master Lian, as I have observed, Fuyang City has long been under the Wei Estate’s control. Though it is only a small town, it is an important transport hub. I have not stayed long in Fuyang, but I have watched quietly. Everything here—from daily livelihoods to caravan escorts and trade—is done by the Wei Estate or done under its strict control. They squeeze people dry; what passes is theirs by default.”

“I suspect that is what you care about: the balance of Fuyang now, after the Wei Estate collapses. Heavenly Goods Hall has suffered deeply as well, entangled by the Wei family’s grasp. If someone were now to raise his voice and gather men, wipe out the remaining remnants of the Wei Estate, and bring a clear sky to Fuyang, he would be welcomed by everyone.”

Jinshi secretly agreed. Though he claimed to be the young master of a great robe clan, his own family had long since fallen into ruin. His father, Jin Shigong, spent years in seclusion, obsessed with his studies of garments, living by old connections but letting the household wither.

Since Jinshi took over family affairs, he had returned to a life of travelling under the guise of selling Dao robes. He was not foremost among martial adepts, but some opportunities came his way. The Lion’s Roar and the intricate art of disguise were both gains from that wandering life.

This upheaval in Fuyang was exactly the kind of moment Jinshi needed to rise.

He could have devised even bolder plans of his own, but because this turmoil was tied to Lin Zhan—and Lin was still unconscious now—he would hold off any further moves for the time being.

“Young man, one should keep a lofty ambition. Fengying will indeed favor a man with ambition.” Uncle Lian said coolly.

Jinshi understood at once and asked, “If it is nothing but straightforwardness, say so. Anything I can do, I will try with my full strength.”

“Good,” Uncle Lian said. “Then a condition. When you have taken Fuyang City in your hands, then and only then will I consent to betrothing Fengying to you.”

“Is that truly your word?”

“The men of Heavenly Goods Hall do not make empty promises.”

“Done! Then I’ll take care of it at once. I’m already your house’s future son-in-law—settled.” He laughed boisterously.

At first, Uncle Lian had expected Jinshi to back off, or at least fail this test. If Jinshi truly succeeded, Heavenly Goods Hall would gain huge convenience in Fuyang instead of being constrained at every step as before. But Jinshi’s confidence in that exchange made Uncle Lian feel his resistance had already failed.

“Fengying is likely to marry this boy after all.”

As soon as Jinshi stepped out, he became fierce and alive, all his former weakness forgotten. His earlier injury had already healed; under Lin Zhan’s advice he had only exaggerated it before Lian Fengying.

He then rushed at top speed back toward Fuyang City where Lin Zhan was, stirring his old wounds a little more, though nothing serious.

The pressure from Uncle Lian did not strike him as unfair. Who would not wish to find a worthy husband for a treasured daughter? If he truly established himself in Fuyang, not merely as a wandering robe merchant but as a man with true power, everything would become far more complete.

*Would this old man keep his promise if I master the Wei Estate in the guise of Wei Xiaoran?* Jinshi had long been thinking such thoughts in secret.

After saying goodbye to Lian Fengying, he left Heavenly Goods Hall with two assistants, moving with speed.

In the Blue Ice world, daylight and night did not follow a normal rhythm. It all depended on the whim of nameless stars above; sometimes if one suddenly flared bright, day arrived at once.

For a day and a night Lin Zhan remained unconscious, then finally woke.

The first thing he did was send his spirit-sense into the Nine-Star Space, remembering that the Nightingale, transformed into a small purple-gold luan, had last been brought there.

There, within the largest mass of spirit-stone essence, Lin Zhan finally saw the small purple-gold luan. She was curled up, her tiny head resting on her own wings, plumage half-spread, a beautiful sight despite everything.

Only her aura was faint, and she was sunk in deep sleep.

“Nightingale,” Lin Zhan murmured, “I’ll wake you one day. I’ll make sure you receive even finer inheritable blood than before.”

In that space, aside from a few clumps of spirit marrow, there were the star-moon divine furnace, the white ancient tower, and medicinal spirit vines for alchemy and other implements.

But all of the vast stores of high-grade spirit stones and the many spirit herbs used simply to replenish spiritual power were gone—every one of them.

Lin Zhan pressed his brow and sighed with pain. That had been the foundation of his rise in wealth. He had squandered it all.

Yet in that kind of crisis, to enlarge himself, he would spend even heavenly treasure before him without a second thought.

“Ah… this treasure-hunting, money-making venture cannot stop.”

He withdrew his spirit-sense and opened his eyes. Lian Fengying and Cui Cui were seated off to the side, speaking to each other in loose, aimless chatter.

“Miss, when do you think Master Lin will wake?”

“I don’t know either, so I’m worried.”

“Why did the son-in-law leave now? What did he go out to do?”

“Don’t ask about things you don’t know. A man should go out and do what must be done.”

“Hey, Miss, you don’t mind me calling Master Jin a son-in-law at all, do you? Hee, hee.”

“Cui, if you keep this up I’ll kill you. She’s worried about the Nightingale; she’s not even hearing your ‘son-in-law’ nonsense.”

Lin Zhan could not help but smile. He shifted a little. The two women only then realized their charge had woken, and with delighted shouts, careless of manners, cried out together, “Come quickly! Master Lin is awake!”