A Guide to Raising the Righteous Heroine

A cool and reserved yet warm-hearted, gentle and resilient sword arts champion × a brash, passionate young hero with a pure heart and unwavering devotion

* New life after ruin | The moon shines high | Mutual devotion | Adventures in the martial world

[Main Story]

Murong Ming, young mistress of Sword-Ask Valley, is a once-in-a-century sword arts prodigy, graceful and aloof, so enviable that everyone thinks she was born lucky.

But she is only a pretender to the title, a substitute for the valley master's own daughter.

She lives to take the blows, and when she dies, no one will care.

Murong Ming diligently plays her part as young mistress of Sword-Ask Valley. One day, this renowned sword arts master is walking down the road when a young hero, newly arrived in the martial world, mistakes her for a frail woman and comes to her rescue.

Xiao Tiao finishes his heroic rescue, then flashes her a bright smile with his handsome face. “It was nothing, miss. No need to thank me.”

For the first time, Murong Ming is being guarded like a helpless little chick. She rubs her forehead and asks, “Um... do you know who I am?”

In these troubled times, it is rare to find someone so kind and innocent.

*

She is a substitute, and her life is destined to be short.

Since she is going to die anyway, Murong Ming decides to give her life for the righteous cause of the martial world. At least then, she will have died for something worthwhile. One day, she receives a mission: to hunt down the traitor from Northern Tower Sect who murdered his master and fled.

At the execution ground, Murong Ming approaches with her sword. The snowy blade lifts the traitor's chin, and at last she sees the face, grief-stricken yet refusing to accept his fate.

...It's the kind young hero from that day!

Their eyes meet, and both cry out in shock, “It's you!”

But everyone watches as Murong Ming sheaths her sword and insists on sparing him. “He is innocent. If anyone objects, come and tell it to the sword in my hand.”

The next day, an explosive piece of news spreads through the martial world: the usually impartial and cold-hearted Young Mistress Murong has shown mercy to a man!

She spared his life, and she spared a place for him in her heart.

Murong Ming just smiles and lets the rumors pass. She could die at any moment, so how could she risk holding someone else back? Better to focus on her work and try to become a legend of the martial world after she dies!

But Xiao Tiao gets dead drunk and corners her against a wall, his eyes red as he says hoarsely, “A Ming, you're like the moon in the sky, so very far away from me. Your heart belongs to the righteous cause of the martial world, Sword-Ask Valley, and the common people. Is there any room in it for me? Could you look at me, just once... Don't leave me.”

Murong Ming is baffled. “I'm not Chang'e or the Jade Rabbit. How did I end up on the moon?”

As Xiao Tiao makes his timid plea, Murong Ming suddenly realizes that she means something important beyond being someone's substitute, and that someone cares whether she lives or dies.

...So be it. Her heart has always had room to spare. There's certainly room for him.

[Reader's Guide]

1. The main plot is set in the martial world. The romance is one-on-one, with both leads devoted only to each other, and has a happy ending. The romance develops gradually alongside the plot.

2. Both leads are strong, with the heroine even stronger. No rivalry between women.

3. The male lead appears in Chapter 7.

A preview of my next upcoming novel. Visit my author page to save it if you're interested

"Dragging the Cold and Aloof Celestial Lord Down to the Netherworld"

A bold and passionate Ghost King heroine × a cold, calculating, obsessive divine official hero

* Female-led, male-written | Love after marriage | Reunited after heartbreak

A legend has been passed down among mortals.

Seven hundred years ago, Yue Shifeng, the most notorious traitor in the Kingdom of Liuyue, petitioned the emperor to arrange a marriage for him, asking for General Chu Lanying's hand.

On their wedding night, the newlyweds both died in their bridal chamber, leaving behind an unsolved mystery.

Chu Lanying killed Yue Shifeng with her own hands, ridding the Kingdom of Liuyue of this great villain. It was truly cause for celebration.

But then she died too.

When Heaven and Earth were first divided, the ill-fated pair met opposite fates: one ascended to godhood, while the other fell and became a vengeful ghost.

Who would have thought that the one who ascended was Yue Shifeng, who had committed countless evil deeds and was reviled by all, while the upright and greatly decorated Chu Lanying became a ghost?

*

Chu Lanying suddenly appears and becomes one of the Four Ghost Kings guarding the Netherworld. The Celestial Realm is shaken and braces for disaster.

The Three Realms buzz with gossip about the new Ghost King and Lord Ximo, Yue Shifeng, and the love and hatred between them. Meanwhile, Chu Lanying is sharpening her tools, ready to build a life for herself in her domain.

She's busy reclaiming the Underworld's land, left dead and barren by the ghostly miasma. She farms, plants crops, and opens a restaurant, settling into a peaceful life away from battle.

In her blissful days in the Netherworld, Chu Lanying occasionally looks up at the sky and remembers the only person she has ever felt guilty toward in seven hundred years.

Her not-so-familiar husband, Yue Shifeng.

She hears that he ascended to the Celestial Realm, became a high-ranking divine official, and is revered by mortals and honored with offerings. He shines with divine radiance and cuts an impressive figure... Perhaps he has long since forgotten her.

But when Chu Lanying meets Yue Shifeng again, she realizes that he still holds a grudge over the knife she plunged into him seven hundred years ago.

When she was alive, Chu Lanying was as hard as iron toward Yue Shifeng. After becoming a ghost, she instead keeps softening and giving way to him.

Mortals and spirits belong to different worlds. She wants to repay what she owes him, then go their separate ways and have nothing more to do with each other.

“Pay me back...? Chu Lanying, don't even think about it!” He closes in step by step, relentless as a storm, leaving her no room to breathe.

“I'll make you think of me for a thousand years, ten thousand years, until the moment my soul is destroyed... my wife.”

Only then does Chu Lanying realize that she has caused a catastrophe: she has provoked a male deity even more ghostly than a ghost.

Theme: My path is clear, and I do not walk it alone