[Rebirth + slow-burn revenge + gradual satisfaction + a touch of ensemble cast]
It's not that this story isn't satisfying. The payback comes gradually, at a deliberate pace.
Tianhua Sect has an incomparable junior sister, Lin Qingyao. On her first journey down the mountain, she is disfigured and loses her virginity.
Fortunately, the whole sect dotes on her. Meanwhile, Lu Shuang'er, the senior sister responsible for her ruin, is targeted by the entire sect and punished by being sent to the Cliff of Reflection.
Lin Qingyao resents Lu Shuang'er, who is engaged to the eldest senior brother. She and the eldest senior brother are expecting a child, but the baby will have to be sent away and raised as an illegitimate child.
Though the sect dotes on her after her disfigurement, Lin Qingyao is still considered inferior without her peerless beauty.
She makes herself small and takes care of her fellow disciples. Every day she massages her master's shoulders, sews heavenly robes for the eldest senior brother, searches for secret manuals for the second senior brother, concocts pills for the third senior brother, brings weapons to the fourth senior brother, and makes desserts for the junior brother.
She becomes the sect's biggest doormat.
In the end, none of it matters when the powerful Lu Shuang'er returns and declares that she has no way to defend herself. She produces a memory stone from the time in question, revealing the truth.
Everyone accuses Lin Qingyao of framing her fellow disciple and says she deserves to be expelled from the sect.
Her master rejects her, her fellow disciples condemn her, and her beloved curses her.
Only after she's locked in a dark room does she discover that her child was killed long ago and their so-called affection was all a lie. They intend to drain her of everything she has.
Lin Qingyao detonates her Golden Core, hoping to take them all down with her, and uses a forbidden technique to get the chance to be reborn.
She turns to the Ruthless Path and severs her ties to the mortal world.
The day she cuts off her affection for her fellow disciples will be the day she completes her cultivation of the Ruthless Path.
