Wedding Prelude

Let's get married.

The girl savored the sudden surge of heat and the almost tooth-sweet taste of those words in her chest, as if she were surrounded by a sea of flowers and clouds. The gloom and unease in her heart vanished completely, and she suddenly smiled.

She thought that perhaps she was too greedy, or perhaps she underestimated the maturity the other person had gained through all the trials and tribulations they had gone through to get to where they were today.

However, looking back, one can see that Su Qing'an in the post-era era had already made the decision and had the courage to confess her feelings even when her days were numbered, but at that time she was unable to give the other person enough opportunity to say it.

At that moment, the immortal knew exactly what the other person wanted to say...

She thought that even she herself back then wouldn't have refused.

Time has passed, and now we are here.

The boy returned to his side once again.

The entanglement between the fragmented Manas consciousness and the Planetary-class essence will exist based on the outer shell of this mortal body.

In other words, this is the only medium through which his consciousness and self as a human being can rely, and he can only preserve himself through a balance between the two.

However, the limitations of our time have already proven that even hundreds of years are not enough to fully replenish the nutrients needed for that Planetary-class gene to reach sublimation.

The result is that after the theoretical lifespan of this body is reached, its Planetary-class essence will be exposed, and the broken Manas consciousness will automatically enter into oneness with the heavens, completely eroding the so-called self and personality, akin to death.

She thought that Su Qing'an must have been clear about his physical condition after fully regaining his memories. Even so, he did not hesitate or shrink back like she had in the past. He never had any doubts or hesitations about being with her, as if he was determined not to be bothered by these external things and only wanted to face the choice in his heart.

But this is not surprising at all.

Even with that boy's life hanging by a thread due to the Artificial Stigmata, and perhaps not even surviving for ten years, he still managed to muster the courage to speak out.

In today's more mature world, the mere fact that one cannot achieve immortality naturally eliminates any concerns or hesitation.

The girl gazed at the man's gentle eyes and brows, her lips slightly upturned:

"Alright, let's ask Rongyue and Shishi to help with the preparations."

So what if one cannot live forever?

Even if it's only a century, it's an unprecedentedly long period of time for the two of them.

Before we face this reality, the beautiful dream bubble can continue for a very, very long time...

Moreover,

She said softly:

"Qing'an, before your life ends, come and take a nap."

"Until I can collect enough demon corpses, until I am confident that I can truly save you."

The immortal walked step by step to the young man. She lowered her head and kissed the tip of his nose with her cool, gentle lips. Her thick, curly eyelashes fluttered, and her eyes, shimmering with light, met his gaze. She uttered each word slowly, like jade beads falling onto a plate, clear and resolute:

"When that time comes, I will wake you."

"If we do that, we can be together forever and never have to be apart again."

Fu Hua will not give up.

She doesn't consider whether the other person wants to live forever, nor does she dwell on whether a hundred years is enough.

Now that their memories have been restored and their feelings for each other are certain, both believe they have the right and the privilege to twist each other's lives.

Therefore, once an immortal decides that he is unwilling to spend a hundred years with the person in front of him, he will forcefully impose his desire for immortality on him, and Su Qing'an will gladly accept it and regard it as his own vision.

Just as Fu Hua had thought, from the moment he fully regained his original personality, he should have been aware of the predicament and situation he was facing.

Indeed, when Su Qing'an was contemplating the fact that Li Shishi and Jiang Rongyue reach the end of their lives, she also realized that she was in a similar situation.

Even if ten more Lostbelt appeared that it could devour at will, it still wouldn't be enough to satisfy the appetite of Planet-class Honkai Beast.

Just imagine it, and you'll understand. In this day and age, even Chi You would only choose to devour continents to convert into Honkai Energy, rather than devour his own kind. The reasons for this, besides the issue of the ecosystem, also include pure efficiency.

To be honest, Su Qing'an was able to define himself as Planet-class Honkai Beast entirely because he had never seen a Honkai creature that surpassed the End-of-Law class.

As for whether being one or two levels higher than the end of Dharma would allow him to be on par with himself, he himself was not quite sure.

In other words, whether Planet-class Honkai Beast truly conform to the original conceptual definition can be upgraded to a higher dimension is a very mysterious matter.

Everything is unknown, which means it's not surprising that his appetite is enormous.

Su Qing'an used his Manas consciousness to make a rough calculation: if [Chaoxian] and Taixu Sect started to collect the corpses of demons from this era and continued into later eras, considering that the accumulated remains would inevitably be destroyed and dissipated layer by layer, it would require natural technological iteration to truly achieve the effect of lossless accumulation.

Even if the time is delayed until St. Freya Academy is established, it may not be enough to satisfy his appetite.

The reason is simple: the demonic corpses within that World Bubble, condensed by the [Stigmata] to resemble a star core, would require at least all the demons born worldwide over the past few decades to equal it, even if converted to a later era.

With this algorithm, one can imagine how difficult it would be to feed this bottomless pit. No wonder the first thought of the Immortal Chi Yuan upon hearing this was to prepare to build a power base.

Because this is a truly hopeless goal that cannot be reached even in a thousand years, given an individual's ability to control it, only a large power like the Schicksal, which almost controls the whole world, has the qualifications to support it.

The reason Su Qing'an didn't realize this problem at first was because the Planetary-class bodies would eventually interfere with some aspects of this body—for example, the strange phenomenon of never being able to get enough to eat and the way food was converted into energy and stored indefinitely.

Whether it's the intuition and self-examination ability given by the Manas consciousness, or the martial arts honed to the point of clarity, one can understand the true functional state of one's body by using past self-observation data.

Assuming one takes into account the health preservation methods in the [Immortal Decree] and the special ability to avoid contracting diseases, it's easy to live several decades longer than the average person, but not by much. To live directly from the Song Dynasty to the time when St. Freya was founded is simply a pipe dream.

Therefore, Fu Hua's suggestion is the only solution Su Qing'an can think of at the moment: to put his body into deep hibernation to pass through an era that his theoretical lifespan cannot reach, thereby reaping the fruits of time that has been passing by and thus breaking free from this constraint.

Unlike his previous solitary journeys, this time he had companions and lovers with whom he could entrust his life.

Therefore, although the road ahead seemed difficult, no feeling of despair ever flickered in my heart.

When Su Qing'an understood this situation, he couldn't even feel regret or anxiety. The only thing he found hard to accept was that if this plan were to be implemented, Chi Yuan would have to be left to walk alone for a thousand years.

The boy will be unable to weather the storms together, to face the passage of time and the departure of loved ones, as the altered worldline continues to spread along its original path, as if swept up by a corrective force, following the general trend.

Therefore, Su Qing'an found it difficult to propose this solution. He had been thinking about whether there were other methods, but found that unless he actively mastered the ability to use [Personal Record] to embellish the past and distort the present, even actively raising the overall technological environment of the world and conducting entrapment operations could not fill this bottomless pit.

He had originally intended to find an opportunity to be frank with the other party and discuss the issue together, but now that the immortal had directly brought it up, it was somewhat unexpected.

The boy pinched her cheek and nodded in response:

"Does Hua feel it won't be hard for her to spend the rest of her life alone?"

Fu Hua said softly:

"We should both understand that this is the only feasible and lowest-risk method."

"The fact that SU, Kevin, and I were able to successfully travel through hibernation to an era 50,000 years in the future, an era of renewed civilization, not only proves the superiority of this technology, but also represents the existence of tangible objects that can be directly used."

That hibernation chamber was a product forged from soul steel; otherwise, it could not have remained completely intact for fifty thousand years, nor could it have ignored the unexpected events and numerous anomalies that occurred in the world during that time.

The dormancy period set by Dr. Mei was only an approximate reference number. No one knew when the new civilization would truly take root and sprout. The time when these pioneers truly awoke depended entirely on the information collected from the outside world by instruments to determine whether their consciousness should be awakened.

Therefore, 50,000 years is not the upper limit of the hibernation chamber's tolerance. So even if thousands of years have passed, as long as we try to use the instruments left behind by Mount Taixu for testing, there is a high probability that it can still be activated today. At present, this is the only feasible solution with few implementation difficulties.

As for the rest, to be honest, they're all too vague and unrealistic.

Or to put it more bluntly, neither Su Qing'an nor Fu Hua could find a better way. The shackles involving dimensional ascension cannot be broken by any currently known technology.

Therefore, filling this bottomless pit is the unavoidable key and fundamental solution.

However, it is impossible to artificially increase the number of demons to a large enough level to satisfy the appetite of Planetary-class beings in a short period of time, nor is it possible to bypass the means of extending lifespan or preserving consciousness, and to remain in a state of soul steel or similar state. The means available to it are almost zero.

Currently, only the option of going into a state of dormancy seems feasible.

The girl's resolve to carry it out strengthened upon thinking of this, and she continued:

"Even if your physical abilities are not as good as those of Fusion Warrior, you can still remain unharmed after only a thousand years in the incubation chamber."

"Even if the incubation chamber I used is broken, it doesn't matter. The soul steel sphere in Chi You's stomach is a quantum computer left behind by Cang Xuan. She once said that it could be used as an external module for Xiao Xuan when necessary, to help him digest knowledge, organize it, and implement it."

"We have plenty of time, nearly a hundred years. It's not difficult to replicate a hibernation pod that can operate for a thousand years."

Fu Hua smiled and said:

"As for whether it's hard or not?"

"Qing'an, your arrival has changed a lot."

"For me, being able to move forward numbly without following the usual path, and even if my sword heart is shattered, I am still on the path of fighting against the Honkai, is already a great fortune and a pleasant surprise."

The immortal embraced her, her chin resting on his shoulder, her slender arms tightening around the boy's back, her cherry-blossom lips parting to reveal the truth of her heart:

"But that's not enough; maybe I'm being too greedy."

Even though I've gained so many things beyond fate, I still don't want you to only live this long. I hope you can stay with me to witness the end of this world. I want you to stay with me forever, doing all sorts of boring or interesting things.

"Therefore, all the hardships you perceive are, in my eyes, the price we must pay to achieve happiness."

So it's okay no matter how hard it is.

Su Qing'an gently stroked the strands of hair that fell across her slender back, feeling the firmness and fearlessness in her words that spoke of the long years. He felt a long-lost sense of the feeling and sensation of being protected by her during Ganesha's roar.

He was always in a situation where he could only struggle, work hard, and resist alone. He had only been in this world for about three or four years, but it seemed that he had experienced all kinds of suffering. He stumbled and crawled in a thorny swamp, and the experience of being protected by others was very rare.

This is also why he accepted Murata Himeko so quickly back then; like Jiang Rongyue, he was initially a person who lacked love to the point of being somewhat withdrawn.

Now that he has realized his problem, Su Qing'an has not thought about how to improve it, partly because of the special nature of [Nian] life, and partly because it is no longer necessary.

The boy hugged her back, as if trying to meld her into his very being. He took a deep breath and whispered:

"Thank you."

Thank you.

It makes me feel that it's okay to keep trying to live in this kind of world.

That same afternoon.

At Fuyun Temple, the four sat on the bluestone slabs facing the courtyard, gazing at the still-blooming roses nearby, their pure white petals drooping in contrast to the verdant green leaves.

Su Muxi and Xiao Xuan were playing Connect Four at another table. Although their backgrounds were not exactly normal, for some reason they were both strangely bad at this game.

Li Shishi sat next to Jiang Rongyue, with a young man carrying a bowl of watermelon beside her. She naturally took a piece from the watermelon with a bamboo skewer and put it in her mouth before saying:

"So, Su Su, now that you've suddenly grown up, you feel you can marry Sister Chi Yuan, and you're thinking about how to hold this important life event?"

Su Qing'an nodded and said:

"Hmm, I don't quite understand this. Although holding a ceremony directly on Mount Taixu and letting the villagers watch seems like a good idea, I still feel like we should treat this matter a little more seriously."

The immortal held an ivory folding fan of unknown age, fanning the boy with it. Her eyes crinkled with a smile, her lips slightly upturned, and she softly said:

I think either is fine.

Li Shishi seemed to understand something. She glanced back and forth between the two of them a few times, feeling that if she and Rongyue didn't take this matter seriously, it would likely turn into something done carelessly.

He then said seriously:

Even if you live a long time and spend many years together, marriage will be a precious memory in the future.

"Even if it's a grand and spectacular event, it's not excessive at all. Isn't the [Chaoxian] organization created by Rongyue precisely for similar situations?"

"So we definitely can't just spend our time idly on Mount Taixu. Let's pick a good day first, and then think about how to proceed in detail."

Jiang Rongyue continued:

"Yes, Master doesn't care whether he has the blessings of the world."

"But Shishi and I think this is very important."

"So if Master doesn't find it disgusting, your wedding ceremony will probably not be very quiet."

Su Qing'an and Fu Hua exchanged a glance, and then, unusually, Su Qing'an nodded in agreement.

Based on their personalities, they wouldn't actually like an overly lively and grand spectacle to appear just for them.

In a sense, neither of them wanted to wrong the other in this matter.

--Even if neither of them actually cares, it's the same.

When Li Shishi saw that the two had agreed, she became genuinely interested. However, after carefully considering the complicated procedures for getting married in the present day, she began to feel a headache coming on.

In this era, marriage generally involved six steps: discussing the marriage, proposing, tying the knot, betrothal, preparing for the wedding, and the wedding ceremony itself. Only when the wedding ceremony was held could the wedding be considered complete.

Normally, the first step is to draft a proposal, which can be understood as a draft for the man and woman to discuss marriage, listing information such as their family background.

Only after both parties agree to the marriage proposal will the detailed engagement letters begin to be sent.

That is, a post should provide more detailed information about the family background and related details than a simple grass-roots post.

This was the official signing of the agreement.

Therefore, it is necessary to tie a thick net with a rope knot to the wine bottle, tie eight large flowers, and silk strips such as gauze or silk cloth, or use eight silver-white flower ornaments, and tie red flowers to the wine carrying pole, and then send it to the woman's family, which is called "paying the red pole".

Later, the woman's family would return the fish and chopsticks in the original wine bottle, along with two bottles of fresh water, three to five live fish, and a pair of chopsticks. This was called "returning the fish and chopsticks".

These customs vary from region to region, but they are generally not simple. The process involves asking about the birth dates and times, calculating the birth charts, exchanging betrothal gifts, and setting a date, which are considered major procedures. Further details include "door-worshiping," "warming the bride," "washing her hair," "full moon celebration," and some other customs that are considered outdated in later generations but are now taken for granted.

However, after careful consideration, Li Shishi realized that she shouldn't be thinking about whether these procedures were too many or too complicated. Instead, she should be thinking about what procedures to include in order to make the wedding less monotonous.

The reason is simple: neither Sister Chi Yuan nor Su Su... has any family.

The two are each other's one and only.

The procedures and etiquette associated with it lose their meaning if they are based on this condition.