Back to the Days When My Archrival Was Young

In the tenth year of the war between Kun and Ying, Li Quechen, young lord of Kunxu, died in battle.

When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the age of eighteen.

Back then, she had only just managed to enter Pengying Academy. Her nemesis had yet to cultivate the Path of Ruthlessness, shatter her Dao Heart and go mad, or turn her gloomy gaze on Li Quechen's fine head.

Given a second life, Li Quechen no longer wanted to be Kunxu's young lord or shoulder the damned task of restoring its glory.

She stopped competing with her nemesis for first place and spent her time playing with cats and dogs, waiting to become an immortal official after graduation and govern a little corner of the world in peace.

Who could have guessed that her nemesis would knock on her door in the middle of the night?

Li Quechen: "?"

·

Xie Wenxian couldn't understand.

Why had Li Quechen stopped crossing swords with her?

The first time Li Quechen turned her down, she said her hand had cramped.

The second time, she said she'd pawned her sword.

The third time, Li Quechen simply refused to see her.

So Xie Wenxian had no choice but to corner her in the middle of the night.

·

"Why?" the young Xie Wenxian asked.

"Because I look down on the Path of Ruthlessness," Li Quechen replied with a smile, no longer the child she once was.

She had yet to return to Kunxu and become Pengying's greatest threat, and Xie Wenxian had yet to become Pengying's aloof and merciless Holy Lord.

But Li Quechen didn't want to compete with Xie Wenxian anymore.

Who knew Xie Wenxian would toss aside the Supreme Jade Slip and say, "Then I'll stop cultivating it."

Li Quechen: "...I don't believe you. To break free of ruthlessness, you have to fall in love first."

Xie Wenxian asked seriously, "With whom?"

Li Quechen blurted out, "With me."

It wasn't until Xie Wenxian came to see her every day to talk about love that Li Quechen learned what it meant to bring trouble upon herself.

They talked love at dusk and cultivated together at midnight. When the purple qi rose in the east, Xie Wenxian would get dressed and politely ask her to draw her sword. Was that appropriate?!