The Azure Flame Sect had turned its grand courtyard into a sea of red.
Silken banners embroidered with phoenixes rippled in the mountain wind.
Crimson lanterns hung from carved jade poles, swaying as though they too wanted to bear witness to this spectacle. Rows of stone seats circled the stage, filled with elders and honored guests.
The courtyard floor had been scrubbed until it gleamed, and petals of crimson spirit-roses rained gently from above, released from hanging baskets by unseen servants.
Today was not just another day of cultivation, training, or lecture.
Today was a wedding.
My wedding.
I, Lin Feng, stood at the center platform, dressed in ceremonial robes heavy with gold thread. The fabric was stiff against my skin, the collar tight around my throat. My palms were already damp with sweat, though the mountain air was cold.
In my hand, I clutched nothing, because I had nothing. Not a weapon. Not a treasure. Not a shred of pride left to grip. Only my own trembling fingers, curling and uncurling, as if unsure whether to hold on or let go.
The sect had gathered in force. Disciples filled the square in neat rows, their whispers buzzing like a thousand stinging insects. Servants stood at the edges, eyes darting between the stage and the guests. Even visiting envoys from allied clans had come to see the spectacle.
The spectacle of my humiliation.
"Lin Feng, the cripple, marrying her?"
someone muttered, not quietly enough.
"Hah! It's a disgrace to the sect."
"Three years, and he hasn't even broken through the first realm. What goddess would bind herself to trash?"
The words reached my ears as clearly as a sword drawn from its sheath.
I clenched my jaw and stared straight ahead. Endure, I told myself. Endure. After today, once the contract is sealed, everything will change.
Across from me stood the bride.
Su Xian.
Her beauty was otherworldly.
She wore robes of phoenix silk, red and gold, embroidered with threads that shimmered like flames under the lantern light.
Her long black hair fell like a river down her back, and her eyes—dark, cold, and merciless—swept over the square as if all beneath her were ants. Her lips, painted crimson, curved in the faintest of smirks, but it was not for me.
To the sect, she was their goddess.
To me, she was supposed to be my salvation.
We had been betrothed since childhood, our clans binding us together in a contract that promised unity.
She had been the dream of every man, but promised to me. It was the one thing, the only thing, that had kept me walking forward despite the whispers, despite the laughter.
Today was supposed to be my redemption.
The elder in charge of the rites, an old man with a beard that brushed his chest, unrolled the marriage contract. His voice boomed, deep and steady, across the courtyard.
"Today, before the heavens and before the sect, we bind two disciples as husband and wife. Do you, Su Xian, take Lin Feng—"
"I refuse."
Her voice was clear, cutting, and cold as winter frost.
The elder froze mid-sentence. The drums stilled. The laughter that had been simmering below the surface hushed. For a heartbeat, even the banners seemed to freeze in the air.
Then the silence shattered.
The disciples erupted like wolves smelling blood.
"HAHAHAHA! At his own wedding!"
"Abandoned by the goddess herself!"
"Lin Feng, you are truly the greatest joke this sect has ever seen!"
I staggered, the words striking me harder than any sword or fist ever had. My ears rang, my breath caught in my throat.
"Why… why here? Why now?" My voice cracked, pathetic even to my own ears.
Su Xian stepped forward, her veil fluttering in the wind. Her eyes met mine with the coldness of a blade sliding between ribs.
"Because you don't deserve me," she said. Her voice carried across the courtyard, clear and merciless. "You don't deserve any woman."
The words were worse than poison. They stripped me bare before the sect.
The crowd howled.
"I told you he wasn't worthy!"
"Even Su Xian sees him for what he is—trash!"
"Three years and still nothing. Even pigs cultivate faster!"
I wanted to run. To scream. To tear down the banners and lanterns and smash the stone beneath my feet.
But my legs would not move.
My fists clenched until my nails carved blood into my palms. My vision blurred, my chest burned, and every drop of hope I had clung to for three long years shattered.
Then, as if fate wanted to grind salt into the wound, another voice rang out.
"Young Master Li! Did you see that?"
The crowd shifted, and he stepped forward.
Tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in ceremonial robes stitched with golden thread, Li Tianhao, the sect's golden genius, strode into the center.
His qi flared, radiant, pressing down on me like a mountain. His smug grin cut deeper than any blade.
"Don't cry, Lin Feng," he said, voice dripping with amusement. "Perhaps in the next life, you'll be born with more than trash talent. Then maybe a real woman would look at you."
The crowd roared again, disciples laughing, elders shaking their heads. Some even clapped as though they had witnessed fine theater.
Su Xian didn't deny it. Her gaze lingered on Li Tianhao for a moment—long enough that the crowd erupted with winks and whispers. She had humiliated me not only to dissolve our bond, but to show the world who she would rather stand beside.
I was nothing.
The sect's laughingstock.
The cripple without talent.
The man even his bride rejected at the altar.
And then—
---
Ding!
---
A chime, sharp as lightning, rang in my mind.
Before my eyes, golden characters blazed into existence. No one else reacted. The crowd still laughed, Su Xian still sneered, Li Tianhao still smirked.
But to me, the world had changed.
---
> Supreme Harem System Activated.
Host detected: Maximum humiliation value.
Rule 1: Every beauty who joins your harem raises your cultivation by one great realm.
Rule 2: Higher-tier goddesses unlock unique powers.
Rule 3: Protect them, conquer the world, and become the Heaven's Husband.
Initial Mission: Conquer your ex-bride Su Xian, or claim a new goddess within 7 days.
Reward: Foundation Establishment + Divine Sword.
Failure: Eternal humiliation event triggered.
---
The glowing words carved themselves into my vision. I could not look away.
My humiliation burned away like mist under the morning sun. The crowd's laughter blurred into meaningless noise. Su Xian's disdain no longer pierced me. Even Li Tianhao's aura, pressing like a mountain, felt distant and light.
My breath steadied. My blood surged. A fire I had never known before roared through my veins.
Trash? Cripple? Laughingstock?
No.
This was no end.
This was the beginning.
---