[Pure romance + powerful male and female leads + brooding, obsessive male lead + healing + push and pull + happy ending]
Shi Jian became the top genius in the cultivation world by stealing other people's talents. Not only did she fail to cherish that gift, she used it to slaughter innocent people at will, becoming the most hated villain in the cultivation world.
In the end, Su Qingzhan, the sworn sister she had protected for years, killed her with a single sword strike, piercing her dantian and exposing the truth. Everyone cheered.
Su Qingzhan turned her bad reputation around and became a celebrated figure in the cultivation world, rising step by step on the strength of what she had taken from Shi Jian.
No one but Su Qingzhan knew that Shi Jian had never willingly stolen anyone's spiritual roots. Her family had forced her dantian open and shoved them inside to satisfy their own selfish desires. The evil deeds she committed had all been under the control of the Soul-Leashing Technique.
*
When Shi Jian opens her eyes again, she has returned to the day before she was three years old and before the spiritual root was forced into her dantian.
She crawls out of the woodshed, and the first thing she does is save Yan Mochuan, the owner of a supreme spiritual root.
After rushing back to deal with her evil parents, Shi Jian somehow enters a strange realm. The divine beast Yuxu Beast clings to her and calls her its master, while a powerful phantom kneels and addresses her as young master.
The strange old man who runs the fortune-telling shop also says she does not belong to this world. “This is the life in which you were born,” he tells her. “You must become strong.”
Before Shi Jian can make sense of any of it, a powerful force lurking in the shadows begins hunting her, determined to crush her in this world.
She survives by grasping at the one sliver of hope revealed through divination, but as a result, she falls into a deep sleep for fifteen years.
She has no idea that Yan Mochuan believes his unlucky constitution caused her death, driving him to become cold and obsessive.
*
Later, Yan Mochuan finds her and brings her back. Propping his face on one hand, he watches her with a dangerous look.
“Come here.”
