Contracting Three Down-and-Out Dragon-Aura Protagonists at Once

Before transmigrating at sixteen, Lin Huaiyue had only read the kind of power fantasy novels where the male lead rises to the top. He'd never read a single web novel from Jinjiang.

That was where he went wrong. He had no idea that you shouldn't pick up battered men who fell from the sky.

Now Lin Huaiyue had not only picked one up, but happily taken in three.

After all, he'd transmigrated into the body of a pitiful, down-and-out country boy with no talent for cultivation. The only basic ability his farming System offered was making crops taste better.

In a place where strength was everything, their pure farming build seemed to have fallen out of the meta.

Lin, the frail little village chief, had been squeezed and kneaded by life like a soft, springy rice cake. After two years, he'd finally saved a little money and bought an expensive contract stone. All he wanted was to find an honest, obedient cultivator to protect his small farm.

He'd heard that several of the strongest tribulation-transcending cultivators of the age had died together in a fierce battle, and that the world was gradually falling into chaos. By sheer coincidence, he'd found three down-on-their-luck rogue cultivators in a forgotten corner of the world. And, by another coincidence, he contracted with all three at once.

One was a sword cultivator who'd lost his sword, named Xie Xuan. Another was an odd-tempered rogue cultivator who called himself Lin Ye. The last was some kind of beast, so Lin Huaiyue named it Xiao Bai.

They all seemed a little strange, but at least they were good value for money.

“Don't look down on a poor young man. I'm definitely going to make a lot of money someday.” Lin Huaiyue trotted out the classic line. “As long as you listen to me, we'll all live well from now on!”

He wasn't the kind of boss who only knew how to make empty promises.

The System had just updated. If he completed his tasks, he could exchange rewards for precious new seeds imbued with spiritual power. His System skills had leveled up, too, unlocking a tractor, a flour mill, a sugar maker, a harvester... He was sure he could soon turn his luck around and make a fortune!

All Lin Huaiyue cared about was figuring out how to grow more crops. It never crossed his mind that what he'd bought wasn't an ordinary contract stone, but a marriage contract stone. He wasn't the employer of these three “rogue cultivators.” He'd become their shared “wife.”

What he hadn't imagined was that the three down-and-out, rather peculiar rogue cultivators who'd signed contracts with him were none other than the three fearsome, violent, merciless top-tier tribulation-transcending cultivators who were said to have “died together.”

Scene One:

Not long afterward, Lin Huaiyue discovered that the three rogue cultivators were actually his husbands. Stunned, he let out a disappointed sigh.

He thought, This can't be right. What kind of world is this, where people get married so casually? What he wanted was an honest farmhand to help him work the land, not husbands like these.

But Lin Huaiyue soon changed his mind.

Because he quickly figured out how to put his husbands to good use. All he had to do was soften his voice and sweetly say, “Come help me, would you?” or “Wow, you're so amazing! I've never met anyone as impressive as you!” and the three men were even more useful than the tractor in his System inventory, even when they kept a straight face.

Oh, having a husband is wonderful. Having three husbands is three times as wonderful. ☺️

Scene Two:

The Sword God, the Demon Venerable, and the Beast Emperor had never gotten along. After a great battle, they found themselves in dire straits and had no choice but to hide their identities here while they healed and lay low. They'd always been bitter enemies, and now the only thing they agreed on was that they could never fall for some country boy.

Lin Huaiyue would never learn who they really were. Their power was so far beyond his that, once they gradually recovered, the marriage contract would grow fragile and eventually be dissolved. This relationship was doomed to go nowhere.

So no matter how they protected and helped Lin Huaiyue, how helpless they were when he pouted or looked sad, and how much they gradually wanted to indulge him, it was all just an act. They absolutely weren't falling for him. They were simply following their own pace and sticking to their plans.

Later, when the three mighty tribulation-transcending cultivators had truly regained their strength, they wondered: What on earth had we been pretending for?

They'd completely forgotten how they'd looked down on him at first. Now they carefully guarded their fragile marriage contract, terrified of accidentally breaking it. Each of them thought the other two were shameless homewreckers bent on ruining his relationship with his wife, and spent every day thinking about one crucial question:

How could he get rid of the other two eyesores and keep his little wife all to himself?

Reader's Note: The shou is a cheerful little ray of sunshine and the lead of a standard farming novel. He's actually a stunning beauty, with a complete farming-business growth arc and a crowd-pleaser quality. The gong is three-in-one, split into three aspects.

--Coming soon: The Substitute Groom Maxes Out His Combat Stats. Please add it to your list!--

Mu Yingxue first met his “husband,” Zhou Fuzhen, on their wedding day.

He'd heard that the president of the Zhou Group had once been a brilliant, ambitious man. But after becoming disabled in a car accident, his temperament changed completely. Anyone who displeased him met a terrible fate, and even his own father didn't dare get close to him.

So Mu Yi, the younger brother originally meant to marry into the Zhou family, ran away from the wedding, leaving Mu Yingxue, who desperately needed money, with no other choice.

Fortunately, Zhou Fuzhen didn't mind the change of bridegroom.

He only needed a temporary wife as a tool. The first time they met, he handed Mu Yingxue a prenuptial agreement and said coldly, “I'll give you a sum of money. In three years, our marriage will automatically end.” They didn't have a wedding. They signed the agreement, registered their marriage, and called it done. It was very convenient.

The second time Mu Yingxue saw Zhou Fuzhen was three months later, at a Zhou family banquet.

The small circle of high society in Yunhai City had been discussing Zhou Fuzhen's “wife” for some time. Word was that he was the child of the crazy ex-wife who'd married into the Mu family before it made its fortune. He'd been raised in the countryside, and the Mu family didn't like to talk about him. People also said he was dull and awkward, and would embarrass them in public.

But when Mu Yingxue appeared, the people waiting to laugh at him fell silent.

The young man they called “an embarrassment” simply stood there, yet he was so strikingly handsome and tall. His bearing was open and unrestrained, his posture straight as a bamboo stalk. He was truly breathtaking.

At the table, one of Zhou Fuzhen's business rivals deliberately provoked him, assuming he was all looks and no substance. He asked Mu Yingxue what he was good at, considering he'd spent so many years in the countryside.

Mu Yingxue thought for a moment and said, “Martial arts.”

“You can dance?” the man laughed. “Why don't you show us on the dance floor? Too bad President Zhou can't accompany you.”

Whether he went or not, everyone there was ready to laugh at Zhou Fuzhen, who could only sit in a wheelchair.

Mu Yingxue went out alone and put on a remarkably impressive performance.

Using playing cards, he performed a move known as “plucking leaves and hurling flowers,” smashing a whole row of liquor bottles one after another. Glass shards flew everywhere, and one card shot past the man's neck. Terrified, the man forgot all about looking dignified and threw himself onto the floor to hide. He really did become the joke of the evening.

No one else knew that Mu Yingxue had lived in the countryside and studied under a reclusive old Daoist. He'd practiced martial arts since childhood, and his master had said he had exceptional natural aptitude. Now he could perform a complete, authentic Eight Trigrams Palm routine, and there wasn't a weapon among the eighteen traditional types that he couldn't use. No one could bully him to his face.

After that, Zhou Fuzhen came home more and more often, and Mu Yingxue kept seeing him.

Three years later, while Zhou Fuzhen was undergoing surgery on his legs, Mu Yingxue thought that the agreement would expire once he recovered, and this would be the last time they saw each other. He took attentive care of him, but whenever he brought up divorce, Zhou Fuzhen would turn deathly pale and lie in his hospital bed, saying that he was a useless cripple whom nobody wanted.

Years later, after starring in a martial arts film that became a box-office hit, Mu Yingxue won a new Best Actor award and rushed straight onto the set of a period drama by a renowned director. The remote location had poor reception, and he didn't get a chance to check his phone all day. After the shoot wrapped that evening, he turned it on and found dozens of voice messages, calls, and texts from Zhou Fuzhen. The last message read, “I'm at the entrance.”

Mu Yingxue: “...”

As expected, the man had promised just a few days ago to be less controlling and give him more freedom, but apparently he couldn't manage it at all.

Marriage first, love later. A ten-year age gap, with an older husband and younger wife. Mutual salvation and healing. The shou is a resilient, cool beauty who has mastered traditional martial arts and maxed out his combat stats; the gong is a gloomy, possessive CEO who dotes on his wife.

Theme: Lush green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver.