"Chen Fan, well, have you thought it over? Do you want to marry Li Lingyu or not?"
A middle-aged woman stood in front of a sturdy, powerful man, asking away.
"You go and ask around, the matches I, Matchmaker Li, arrange are famous throughout all the surrounding towns and villages. Stop wearing such a miserable face."
"Don't blame me for speaking bluntly, but you're already well into your thirties. You should stop chasing those illusory dreams of becoming an immortal. If you don't take a wife and have children now, you'll end up with a miserable, helpless old age."
Seeing how things stood, the matchmaker continued to persuade him.
"Choosing you to marry that Li girl is because people know you're honest and steady here, and they know you won't bully her after you're married. Otherwise, do you think they'd ever fancy you?"
Pausing for a moment to observe Chen Fan's expression, the matchmaker went on.
"After all, her family is a wealthy one in these parts. I'll make the decision for you—just go back and get your preparations done properly."
Without giving Chen Fan a chance to respond, Matchmaker Li turned around and left.
Chen Fan sat inside his bedroom, turning the matchmaker's words over in his mind, his expression rather gloomy.
He had transmigrated to this world more than thirty years ago. An ordinary life was completely different from what he had imagined—after all, when someone first arrives, who doesn't dream of being the protagonist?
Yet after decades of bustling and toiling, his cultivation realm remained so low that he couldn't even step out of this ordinary village.
But could he really...
"If I take a wife and settle down, and part of the resources I earn has to go toward supporting a family, there'll be even less chance of breaking through in my cultivation. Am I really going to spend my ordinary life like this?"
Chen Fan sighed, shook his head, and muttered, "It really does match my name."
He thought of the cultivation technique he had practiced since childhood. Although its grade wasn't very high, its greatest advantage was being gentle and steady, which meant it wouldn't be too difficult to switch to another technique later on. That was why most rogue cultivators practiced this type of technique—after all, who hadn't harbored dreams?
Besides, ever since Chen Fan came to this world, his cultivation progress had been slow. To give himself room for future advancement and speed up his progress in the Qi Condensation stage, he had practiced diligently day and night for decades.
Now, in his thirties and burdened with the lowest grade of Spirit Root, he had only reached Level 4 Qi Condensation. Although he had learned basic skills like alchemy apprenticeship and spiritual farming, his strength had remained stagnant here despite years of diligent cultivation. This meant he had touched the bottleneck of his own innate talent.
If he were to take a wife on top of that, he would have to worry about two people's lives, and how could he make progress with such divided attention?
Years ago, just after he was born into this world of cultivation, his parents had tested his Spirit Root when he was a child. Although he knew his talent wasn't great, he still believed he was the protagonist of a mortal-cultivation tale, thinking he could carve out a name for himself in this cultivation world, living a life of unbridled gratitude and grudges, free and unrestrained.
It was just a pity that day after day, year after year, his progress in strength had been agonizingly slow, eventually reaching a state of complete stagnation. And now, he had even sunk to this point.
"It seems it's time to consider settling down, just as the matchmaker said. I can't possibly leave no trace of my existence in this world before I die!"
Chen Fan shook his head. While the matchmaker had painted a pretty picture that morning, he understood the reality well enough: if not for his talent in alchemy, no amount of effort on his part would have ever persuaded the Li family to marry their daughter to him, not even to a collateral branch.
*Sigh!* Chen Fan let out a sigh, yet he didn't give up on cultivation. After all, decades of ingrained habits were not something a person could change on a whim.
"It's just that I haven't even laid eyes on that Li girl a single time yet."
"And the matchmaker said she only has a Level 1 Qi Condensation cultivation, with a Spirit Root talent just as mediocre as mine."
"Sure enough, no matter how nicely the matchmaker talks, reality is still right here."
Well, after all these years, it was time to accept his fate. He lacked peerless talent, so why on earth should anyone hand him the best of everything?
Chen Fan let out a long breath. Having reached middle age, it was time to face reality.
Sitting on the bed, he took stock of all his assets.
"It seems that after wandering aimlessly for half a lifetime, I, Chen Fan, haven't sunk so low that I can't even afford the bride price for the wife I'm marrying and the matchmaker's introduction fee."
The place where Chen Fan currently lived was a village.
Yixin Village was a well-known settlement in the vicinity, if only judged by the number of cultivators living here. Ordinary villages might have a few individuals with a trace of cultivation—some places even had people with meager spiritual power trying to pass themselves off as immortals.
This situation existed because beneath the village lay a pseudo-Spiritual Vein, the lowest grade of its kind. To put it simply, it was tasteless to keep yet too much of a waste to discard; it had no major uses, but it could slightly elevate the spiritual energy in the air. This had naturally given rise to a few wealthy families. After all, low-tier cultivators were only such in relative terms; to mortals, anyone possessing spiritual power could already be called an immortal.
Thanks to his status as an alchemy apprentice, although he couldn't produce grand treasures, he could certainly afford a decent bride price.
He handed everything over to the matchmaker and instructed her to handle all the arrangements properly.
On this day, the entire Yixin Village was adorned with red lanterns and festive decorations, bustling with excitement.
"This village is neither too big nor too small, but ordinarily, people would never let anyone set up all sorts of displays right in front of their houses."
"It really helps to have the status of a cultivator!"
He then sent out the wedding invitations he had prepared one by one, to acquaintances and strangers alike. In the past, he had devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation, considering unnecessary socialization a complete waste of time, but now...
A few days later...
Chen Fan, dressed in a bright red groom's robe and wearing a large red silk flower on his chest, rode on horseback at the head of a boisterous crowd of onlookers.
If the person he was marrying hadn't also been a cultivator, there would have been no way he could have brought the whole village out to watch the festivities.
Chen Fan turned his head to look at the wedding procession trailing behind him. Once the bridal sedan chair was set down, people already waiting on either side stepped forward to help the bride, whose head was covered with a red veil and who was adorned in a phoenix coronet and formal robes, out of the chair.
"So this is going to be my wife from now on."
Chen Fan couldn't quite put his finger on what he was feeling. He thought about how this was the person he would spend the rest of his life with, yet he had never laid eyes on her even once before today. Everything felt so sudden that he still hadn't fully reacted to it.
A thousand thoughts swirled in his mind, and only at that very moment did it truly dawn on him that he was getting married.
He handed over the large red silk flower and went through every single local wedding custom step by step, before finally bowing to heaven and earth under the guidance of the village elders to become a married man.
When everything was over, the bride was escorted into the bridal chamber, while Chen Fan stayed at the banquet to drink congratulatory wine with the guests.
Cup after cup of wedding wine was drained, and blessing after blessing was offered. Chen Fan's consciousness gradually began to drift.
Although he had no living relatives left in the village, as a member of the community—especially after Chen Fan had personally extended invitations—anyone who had the time came over to share a couple of drinks at the wedding banquet.
Looking at these people before him greeting him warmly, Chen Fan's heart could not help but trace a bitter smile. No matter how pleasant his thoughts might be, who could ever truly be content with living a life like this?