The Cunning Treasure Hunter - Chapter 67: Shadows Ascend the Moonlit Peaks

Tang Qiu was a substitute bride–forced to take her half-sister’s place and marry the young master of the Jiang family, a deformed cripple with less than 6 months left to live.

“Who would have thought that even a sickly whelp like Jiang Shaocheng would find himself a bride?”

“I hear that he’s practically on his deathbed and he’s only marrying the Fengs’ daughter to improve his lifespan.”

Tang Qiu ignored the whispers around her and focused on her husband-to-be, who coughed violently in his wheelchair. At the altar, after they had said their vows, she lifted her veil and knelt in front of Jiang Shaocheng, pressing a hesitant kiss to his lips.

The marriage contract was signed. No matter his physical deformities, he was now her husband.

She wasn’t afraid of the scars that marked his face, nor was she repulsed by him being confined to a wheelchair. Every morning, she made him breakfast, attended to his needs, and thought of little else beyond her duties as a wife.

“Young Master Jiang is a cripple who can’t get it up,” her best friend argued. “When he dies, you’ll still be untouched. You should set your sights higher.”

“A sickly invalid like Jiang Shaocheng can’t give you happiness,” her ex-boyfriend insisted. “I’ll wait for you.”

But Young Master Jiang only scoffed. “I have plenty of time left to be with her.”

Later in their marriage, Jiang Shaocheng wanted to enjoy his little wife in all ways–the press of her lips against his, the brush of skin on skin; the way a husband and wife were supposed to. But Tang Qiu refused him, blushing. “No, we can’t. The doctor says you can’t exert yourself.”

Jiang Shaocheng’s desire was surging through him, a heat in his core that demanded to be satiated. He cursed, I should have gotten rid of that doctor and the wheelchair long ago.

But he yearned to make love to his little wife, and so he revealed his true identity. In the blink of an eye, the deformed cripple transformed into a powerful businessman–tall, dark, and handsome. He quieted Tang Qiu’s protests, his body positioned over hers, his arms caging her as she lay on the bed. His voice was low when he asked, “What about now?”

In the darkest and most cruelest dungeon is the birth of a specie who lives his every day life trying not to fall prey to the claws of the predators.

To survive amongst predators, one most shed off the flesh of a prey and take on the skin of an even bigger predator.

Power Ranking

Note

The numbers refer to existential value, and all lifeforms has it.

ADVENTURER GUILD POWER RANKING

Lv 1 - 20 = F (1 - 49)

Lv 20 - 30 = E (50 - 99)

Lv 30 - 50 = D (100 - 499)

Lv 50 - 60 = C (500 - 999)

Lv 60 - 80 = B (1,000 - 4,999)

Lv 80 - 100 = A (5,000 - 9,999)

Lv 100 - 200 = S (10,000 - 19,999)

Lv 200 - 500 = SS (20,000 - 29,999)

LV 500 - 900 = SSS (30,000 - 49,999)

LV 900 - 1000 = XS (50,000 - 99,999)

SPIRITUAL ENTITY RANKING SYSTEM BELOW

■MONSTERS AND OTHER NON-HUMAN LIFEFORMS

●Apocalypse > 100,000,000 - 1,000,000,000

●Armageddon > 10,000,000 - 99,999,999

●Cataclysm > 1,000,000 - 9,999,999

●Disaster > 100,000 - 999,999

■HUMAN

●Transcendent > 100,000,000 - 1,000,000,000

●Warlord > 10,000,000 - 99,999,999

●Mystical > 1,000,000 - 9,999,999

●Heroic > 100,000 - 999,999

This was the great era of vast warships and the Star River, a time when the multi-universe was shattered and countless Cosmic Fragments were scattered across the void, forming the boundless Shattered Starry Sea.Immortal Domain Dao soldiers, mechanical gods, golden giants, wizard Dominators…An endless array of strange civilizations.Starry Sea Oddity, Genetic Potions, exoskeletal armors, Floating Land Origin…Treasures that could be found everywhere.Spectral Shuttle, Spectral Airship, Spectral Warship, Escort Ships, Battleships, Star-Annihilating Starships, hyperdimensional mother ships…The clearly stratified Xinhuo warships.Song Chi held a Zhu Tian Ruins Market in his hand and engaged in interstellar trade with the countless peoples of the Starry Sea.What? Titanium Crystals are worthless in your Star Domain? I’ll take them all, damn it, this is a strategic resource!You call this a chunk of iron? This is Mixed Elemental Copper, the ultimate Enhancement resource!Ordinary ship cannon? Isn’t this a golden Star-Annihilating Cannon? Quick… I’ll buy it!…Stretching across the stars, starting from the flame of human civilization.

In her last life, Qu Zhi tried her best to be a good wife who was sensible and did not cause trouble, a filial and good daughter who helped her family, and a good mother who accompanied her children. However, Qu Zhi worked hard and suffered all her life. When she was about to die, she realized that in the end, all she got back for her hard work were complaints. Her husband complained that she was an idle, rich wife all day long who wasn’t satisfied with her happiness at home, and that she was a greedy woman.

But after decades of marriage, her husband had a firm, deadly hold on all her money, and she didn’t even have a dime to her name, nor a property to call her own. Every time she asked for money, he would trample all over her self-esteem. Her husband’s cold and sarcastic words made her unable to lift her head, and his friends would demean her while drinking wine, making her tremble with anger. This man had once said he would take care of her, yet he turned a blind eye! Those people focused on her happiness as a topic, and made a joke out of it.

Even her three children resented her for her uneven love towards everyone, and their relationship only became more strained as time passed. She had spent her whole life as a loner, and she had nothing. Lying on the operation table, Qu Zhi thought that if she could do it all over again, she wouldn’t be a housewife. She wouldn’t have given her second daughter away, and she wouldn’t take care of her blood-sucking relatives.

She wouldn’t marry her indifferent, cold husband either! When she next opened her eyes, she was back to twenty years in the past. Her eldest daughter was still in elementary school, and her second daughter had been in her belly for several months…