Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom - Chapter 55: Maverick’s identity

What if something made Naruto the dead-last that everyone perceives him to be? What if he really wasn't as weak as he appeared? The true Naruto, unleashed upon the shinobi world! AU story starts at the Konoha Invasion arc and continues from there..

“I can’t do it anymore. Stop it…I can’t take it anymore!” The second young master stopped in his tracks and raised his brows as he stared at Miss Jiang. “All you had to do was jog, so—”

This year, Ji Jingqiu is 16 years old.To survive, he envisions the Fire House Buddha Prison, plants a bodhi treasure tree, and embarks on the path of martial arts.Many years later,A brilliant light arises, illuminating endless darkness.A towering ancient tree, with emerald green leaves and a canopy like a pavilion, rises with glass-like clarity into the sky, supporting a divine realm of pure land, spanning countless ages, illuminating the three realms and ten directions.On this day,All martial artists under heaven look up to it, like mayflies seeing the blue sky.......“Within there is a bodhi tree, which I planted when I set foot in martial arts, and now it has grown to provide a canopy.”“I see everything in the world, and nothing is like me.”“That year, I scoured history books, this history without era, I looked horizontally and vertically, and saw those characters – ‘The world’s storms come from us.’”...— Excerpt from the autobiography of Ji Jingqiu, the proud sun of the martial arts world of today.

“I’ll clear your mother’s debt entirely. In return, you’ll marry me.”“Are you out of your mind? Do you really think I’d agree to such an absurd proposal?”“Possibly. But it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. You keep your shop, and I get what I need.”“And what exactly is it that you need?”“That’s none of your concern. All you need to know is that this deal benefits both of us.”Two years ago, Lunara entered a marriage she never wanted. Desperate to save her mother’s flower shop, she was cornered by Eryx, a man with a hidden agenda. With no other choice, she agreed, and found herself bound to him in a transaction of convenience—he needed something from her, and she needed him to prevent her world from falling apart.But after the papers were signed, he disappeared without a word, leaving her with nothing but unanswered questions and lingering bitterness.Now, fate has thrown them together once more but with a cruel twist, Eryx doesn’t remember her at all.Lunara believes she’s long since moved on. But when she sees him again, a stranger who has no recollection of their past, old wounds resurface. What was the truth behind their marriage? And why, despite the resentment, does her heart still stir when he’s near?