I am the Main Character? No Thanks!: Epilogue (Volume 2)

“Congratulations! Big Brother Da Wei!!”

“How quickly time flies!”

“This brat is really lucky!”

I just laughed as the men and women around me congratulated me after the ceremony while the older men grumbled good naturedly.

The ceremony went without a hitch as Yin Lingxi and I solidified our engagement through the old-fashioned way.

While most ceremonies in this world involve an oath to the Heavens or making a vow with the Heavens as the witness, the engagement ceremony is the only one that does not have such powerful bindings placed on it, at least, in the modern era of this world.

This is because of how marriages work in this time period.

In simple words, marriage is a convenient tool for most people to gain political or economic power by trading their daughters or sons to an influential clan or sect.

A disgusting and heartless practice, but one that I can’t criticize since it is one of the many tools that the mortals, commoners, and loose cultivators use to survive in this cruel world.

Such is the case even in the top powers of the continent.

The happiness of the children is nothing worth considering in comparison to the benefits that the clans or the sects would gain in exchange for their hand in marriage.

However, I would never accept something like that happening, and neither do I want Yin Lingxi to think that our bond is something that can be easily broken even if I know that she would never think of such things because of her status and her experience in such things.

That is why, I asked the village to prepare an old-fashioned engagement ceremony from the previous era, the one where we take our oaths with the heavens as the witness.

This kind of ceremony is heavily binding, so much so that Yin Lingxi and I can never even entertain the thought of betraying our vows to each other unless we want our cultivation to be destroyed and our souls to be scattered to the winds.

However, I did take the liberty to change the vows a little bit and remove the caveat where the husband is allowed to take in multiple wives or the wife can take in multiple men.

Like I told Yin Lingxi, I am strictly monogamous and I expect the same from my wife-to-be. So, we might as well make it official so that we won’t be driven apart by the poisonous words of others who would seek to divide us for their own advantage.

An extreme and unnecessary precaution? Yes. But it is better to be safe than sorry.

Chief Chen acted as the representative and the Elder of the family on my side while Yao Xingchen did the same for Yin Lingxi as we took our vows, vows that the heavens acknowledged in a rather unusual way.

I mean, I have never heard of the thunder boom of acknowledgment being accompanied by an auspicious golden light that fell on the prospective bride and groom after the ceremony.

Even the countless ancient texts that Chief Chen, Old Fang, Old Li, and I went through in preparation for this ceremony did not talk about such a phenomenon so it caught us all flat-footed, but we decided to just roll with it.

Once the ceremony was done, we were both showered with gifts and compliments, with one exception.

Yao Xingchen never stopped glaring at me throughout the ceremony and staring with a mix of love and anguish toward Yin Lingxi.

I understood that she hated me and was very worried for her niece, but I must admit that I am starting to get annoyed with her actions.

In the end, after the ceremony, she begrudgingly nodded at me while secretly threatening to end me in various creative ways should I ever harm Yin Lingxi in any way.

A baseless threat that she could never carry out, but one that I acknowledged all the same since I understood where she was coming from.

I am a father as well, and I will do anything for Da Ling. Should she be harmed in the future by anyone or anything, there is nothing in this world that will stop me from unleashing the madness and violence that I keep hidden within me.

“Master! Here, I got this for you.”

Jin Tianrui walked forward with his parents and gave me a small ring with various inscriptions on it.

Just looking at them on the surface, I could not help but feel shocked at what I was seeing.

This ring is made with inscriptions that share similar concepts to my Trains but are applied in a way to protect me from harm.

Somehow, Jin Tianrui managed to unlock the secrets of magnetism from my levitating trains and improved upon them, shooting straight into the concepts of electromagnetism.

Putting it simply, the ring uses Qi to manipulate macron particles and then uses electromagnetism to create a cloud of them around the user's body. In effect, he created a Macron cloud shielding that was only theorized about back in my world, just by studying the trains that I created.

How he did do it? I don’t know. The only thing I know is that this boy is a terrifying genius and one that I must pay extra attention to from now on.

If he is able to achieve such terrifying heights with just a small sample of my knowledge, I can’t even imagine what kind of craziness he can come up with when I teach him everything I know.

And frankly, I can’t wait to see such a day.

“…Tianrui. I must say, you have outdone yourself with this.’

He blushed a little at my proud smile while his parents beamed at my words, taking pride in the talent of their child, just like any parent should.

I patted the boy’s head which instantly annoyed him like always as I continued to speak my mind.

“With this, I can state with confidence that you have broken straight through the ranks of the Master level and touched upon the realms of Grandmaster level. You just need to increase your cultivation and gain True Qi before I take you to the capital and get the Grandmaster rank officially.”

“Thank you, master. But, I want to wait a bit before we go to the capital.”

“…Ah! That trip you’ve been talking about. Alright. We will go to the capital after you return.”

“Thank you, master.”

I just chuckled at Jin Tianrui’s happy words but I could not help but worry a little as he and his parents left to indulge in the banquet.

When I learned about Jin Tianrui’s plans to go on a trip to the South for personal reasons, I knew instantly what he was planning.

He was using his attempt to gain a Dao Familiar as an excuse to hunt for the heir of the Phoenix Clan, Fenghuang Jinyan, the target of Jin Tianrui’s revenge.

Truthfully, I understood his obsession with that man and his thirst for revenge. No man can ever accept what happened to him.

I know for a fact that I would have gone insane if what happened to Jin Tianrui, happened to me and Yin Lingxi, I would have stopped at nothing and done nothing to get revenge. There is a high chance that I would lose everything that makes me, me, and become just like Xiang, killing anyone that got in the way of my revenge and destroying the lives of countless creatures across the continent.

It spoke of Jin Tianrui’s character and his loyalty that he chose to stay with his family who needed him at that time even though his very soul was burning with hatred and was urging him to hunt down the monster that took his love from him.

And even now, he still held onto that loyalty, his loyalty towards me and our little piece of heaven that we carved out in this wilderness.

However, just as much as I understood his motivation, and supported his actions to an extent, I am also extremely worried that he will get himself killed in his quest.

The Phoenix clan is not known as one of the strongest families in the Barbarian Clans for no reason, and the young master of that clan is known as the most powerful person in the younger generation of the Barbarian Clans as a whole.

There is a very high risk that Jin Tianrui will lose his life in his quest for revenge and I cannot bear that thought.

With a deep sigh, I turned away from his retreating figure and looked at the large crowd of villagers enjoying themselves.

All the kids were playing amongst the large gathering. The teenagers were talking and laughing with each other, enjoying the wine and being their reckless selves.

The older men and women were busy chatting and indulging themselves in the festivities as a particularly large group of women surrounded Yin Lingxi and indulged in gossip and other topics that made them laugh occasionally.

Everywhere I turned, I saw my precious people having a great time filled with happiness.

‘There is no doubt about it. Jin Tianrui is much, much stronger than me when it comes to mental strength.’

‘Debatable. I doubt you would become like me should something go wrong.’

I smiled wryly at those words from Xiang as, for a split second, horrifying thoughts and nightmarish scenarios passed through my mind which I deliberately allowed Xiang to see.

‘Still think the same? Even after seeing all that? Face it Xiang, you and I, we are the same. The only thing separating me from becoming you is my loved ones. Should something happen to them, I might become a monster much worse than you ever were.’

‘Again. Even with those thoughts that you deliberately showed me just now, I still doubt you will become like me.’

‘Why are you so confident?’

‘Because I will not allow you to repeat my mistakes, to live in misery like me for the rest of eternity.’

For a split second, I felt a crushing pressure emanate from the Heavenly Reversal Bead, much to my surprise, as I instantly recognized that Xiang’s soul cultivation had already surpassed the Soul Transformation realm and had already entered the Void Refinement realm.

‘In the years we have spent together, you have shown me what it was that I did wrong in my life, you showed me just what I had become in my thirst for revenge and indulging in my anguish. It was thanks to you, that I realized the error of my ways, and learned to accept my past for what it was.’

‘However, I also vowed to myself that I will repay you for this favor by making sure you never become like me and live a life of regrets. It was for that reason alone that I worked so hard on my soul cultivation.’

‘Take this as my vow, David, as long as I am here, you will never have to become like me. That, I promise you.’

‘….Thanks, Xiang. Truly.’

‘Although, I got to ask, how did you break through to the Void Refinement realm without me noticing? You did not even go through the tribulation?’

Xiang chuckled at my question as a flash of memories passed through my mind.

‘I used your Primal Qi to refine my soul and advanced into the Void Refinement realm recently. It seems our theory was right. Your unique Qi is the reason why you never underwent any tribulations till now.’

‘Huh, I guess that’s one mystery solved.’

‘Hmm. Anyways, enough chit-chat, go and indulge in these celebrations, you deserve it.’

I smiled at his words and walked towards the banquet.

I truly hope that Xiang is right and I never become like him, but I know myself all too well and know for a fact that my first instinct upon losing someone precious to me is to lash out violently.

That is why, I must prepare. Prepare for such a day and make sure that nothing in this world can ever take away my loved ones from me.

With those thoughts, I continued walking, intent on enjoying this little celebration of ours.

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Within the Capital of the Yin Long Empire, various cultivators shot toward the Royal Palace as the various ministers of the capital along with the various Noble families and Martial families called for an urgent meeting.

As the various influential people and cultivators of the empire trickled in one after another, it did not take long for the massive halls of the throne room to fill up to the brim.

With Yao Xingchen leaving the capital for personal business, and the third prince missing as usual, the responsibility of acting as the proxy of the Empress fell upon the prime minister.

As the aged man solemnly sat with the rest of the nobility and the higher-ups of the Empire, the scout that had caused this massive and urgent gathering in the first place knelt down on the floor, waiting for permission to speak.

The moment the Prime Minister gave said permission, he spoke out words that plunged the room in pure pandemonium.

“The forces of the Baihu Empire are mobilizing and an army of more than two hundred thousand along with twenty thousand cultivators is heading towards the borders. It is estimated that they will reach the border within the week.”

The scout looked up bitterly at the stunned face of the Prime Minister and continued speaking.

“The war has begun in earnest, lord Prime Minister.”

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Author Notes:

Volume 3 begins next week. Thanks for all the support people, we are now at the halfway mark for the entire story.