Where There Are Dragons, There Is Magic

Blurb:

Ze Ling’s obsession was tiny, so tiny that it amounted to just one mountain, one temple, and four people.

During that time when she was fighting for her life, many people came after her: former fellow disciples, partners who had once fought beside her, and enemies she had made along the way.

Without exception, they all asked her, “Ze Ling, what is it you really want?”

Her answer was always the same, but no one believed her.

They couldn’t accept that a prodigy with ninefold talent, destined to become a saint at twenty-five, would murder her master, betray her sect, destroy her own future, and commit an unforgivable, monstrous crime for such an ordinary obsession.

Unforgivable? Ze Ling wiped the blood from her face. She had only done what needed to be done.

A very, very long time ago, she had been an ordinary mortal who could not cultivate. Her home was on that mountain, in that temple.

Later, some of them died and others disappeared. She defied fate and entered the cultivation world.

Yan Youshi gained a little junior sister who had appeared out of nowhere, a prodigy blessed with extraordinary talent.

The little junior sister was sweet and obedient, smiling warmly at everyone with her eyes curved into crescents.

Only Yan Youshi knew how cruel she really was: a liar who harmed her fellow disciples and disposed of the bodies. Her deeds sent a chill down his spine.

And yet she put on such a pitiful, innocent act that no one would suspect her.

All the senior brothers and sisters in the sect liked her very much. Yan Youshi scoffed at them for it.

But when he saw Ze Ling smiling at everyone else, while treating him with nothing but cold indifference, he felt inexplicably annoyed.

He knew Ze Ling was no good person. So what? He wasn’t a good person either.

They were senior brother and junior sister, and they were born for each other.

Content warnings:

1. Told in chronological order. This is the heroine Ze Ling’s coming-of-age story, with a cultivation-and-growth progression, so it won’t be exciting right from the start.

2. A little ensemble cast. The story and romance get equal focus, and it’s very long.

3. The heroine is not a good person, and the story doesn’t demand high moral standards of her. She has a golden finger, but it isn’t a System. It’s a magical treasure within a fantasy setting.

4. My own take on fantasy, and a writing exercise. It’s written in plain language throughout, so don’t force yourself to read it if that bothers you.

5. Highlighted: clean 1v1 romance. The entire story uses my own private setting, so please don’t nitpick. I’m writing this for myself.

Cultivation stages: Qi Induction, Perception, Qi Condensation, Star Gathering, Core Formation, Divine Illumination, Saint.

Divider

Below is my upcoming novel, The Male Lead Regrets It After His Redemption Arc. If you like it, please tap the button and add it to your collection~

Zhong Liyi had a dream.

In it, she spent her whole life competing with her half-sister, Lan Fuyu, and lost utterly.

Lan Fuyu was a prodigy, while Zhong Liyi had only mediocre talent. Even the Xiushui Token left behind by her mother abandoned her and chose Lan Fuyu as its master.

Lan Fuyu was gentle and lovable, while Zhong Liyi was proud and haughty.

All of Zhong Liyi’s family, friends, and even subordinates were drawn in and won over by Lan Fuyu, and abandoned her.

Even Zhong Liyi’s fiancé, Yan Langsheng, schemed against and deceived her for Lan Fuyu’s sake, personally pushing her into a hopeless death.

After waking, Zhong Liyi didn’t take the dream to heart. She was the only blood relative of Immortal Lord Fuyu, the young lord of Xiushui City, and the most dazzling jewel in the Western Sands.

How could she end up betrayed by everyone and dead without a body?

But as time passed, everything that happened before her eyes began to match the dream exactly.

Before long, Yan Langsheng and Lan Fuyu would plot against her together, leaving her to fall into a sea of flames. In her miserable state, she would beg a stranger to end her life and put her out of her misery.

Zhong Liyi would never allow any of that to happen.

Yan Langsheng had reached the peak in his youth and was cold by nature. Over the years, he had never been able to forget the sight of Zhong Liyi falling from the Star-Seizing Tower and burning alive in a sea of flames.

During the Yuanshuo era, a young man came alone, sword in hand, fighting his way through Xiushui City and leaving a trail of blood. His sword stopped three inches from Yan Langsheng’s throat.

Yan Langsheng asked him, “Why have you come?”

He replied, “For the young lady of Xiushui City.”

As he faced death, Yan Langsheng suddenly remembered those eyes, bright as the stars, and understood in an instant: the one he had truly loved all along was that proud young lady who would rather die than bow her head.

Perhaps Heaven took pity on him and let him live again. In this life, he would do everything in his power to protect her and ensure she lived safely and without worry.

But Zhong Liyi avoided him before they could meet, making Yan Langsheng realize that she had been reborn too.

He hoped she would remember, yet feared that she would.

Yan Langsheng had imagined their reunion a million times: she would hate him, curse him, or even draw her sword and kill him. He had never imagined that his enemy from his previous life would be standing at her side, while she looked at him without the slightest interest.

In that instant, Yan Langsheng felt as if his heart and guts had been torn apart. He was in such agony that he nearly went mad. After that, he used every means at his disposal, all just to make her look back at him once.

The first year after leaving Zhong Liyi, Xie Qingwei hated her with all his heart.

The seventh year after leaving Zhong Liyi, Xie Qingwei killed her with his own hands.

The tenth year after Zhong Liyi’s death, Xie Qingwei loved her.

In the winter of the tenth year, Xie Qingwei massacred Xiushui City, killed Yan Langsheng and Lan Fuyu, and was annihilated in body and soul, vanishing from the world.

The male lead’s story is old-school angst; the second male lead gets the full regret-and-redemption treatment.

Posted on 2026.7.18. Screenshot saved as proof.

Theme: I was born to be a mountain, not a stream