The Gloomy Beauty Everyone Hates Refuses to Give Up

Lin Fuyue was a prodigy beyond compare. He reached Foundation Establishment at seventeen and the Golden Core realm at nineteen. He was young, radiant, and eternally beautiful, dazzling in every way.

But because of his painful past, he had an obsessive desire to become stronger.

As the sect's esteemed senior disciple, he scoured the place for heavenly treasures like a starving ghost, leaving nothing behind wherever he went.

To prove his strength, he always charged straight into danger.

Afraid others would see the ugly, twisted face his obsession had given him, he always kept his distance, silent and cold...

He knew his fellow disciples despised him for hoarding spiritual medicine, taking all the credit for their achievements, and never showing them a kind face.

But he refused to change. His obsession had become incurable.

He would rather endure the insults and hostile stares around him, walk alone beneath the shadows, and return to his lonely little hut behind the mountain to rot away.

Meanwhile, the fellow disciples whose lives he had saved, their arms full of spiritual treasures the senior brother "wouldn't need," watched his cold retreating figure with admiration and pity in their eyes.

"What a wonderful senior brother. It's just a shame the bright moon shines high above and never down on the mortal world."

*

The sect's founding patriarch, Yan Li, had completed his cultivation technique. When he emerged from seclusion, the world had changed beyond recognition. Even his grand-disciple had become a white-bearded old man and sect leader.

Still young and handsome, Yan Li didn't want the old man calling him "Grandpa" all day, so he simply took on the identity of a "senior brother" and spent his days lazing about.

The whole sect readily accepted this senior brother who had fallen from the sky, except for one strange junior who "wouldn't drink anything but bitter water and wouldn't stand anywhere but in the shadows."

The junior was white as snow all over, with a beautiful face cold as ice and a deep hostility toward him.

Yan Li snuck off to investigate behind the mountain, only to find Lin Fuyue slumped among a pile of well-worn cultivation manuals, expressionless as he sobbed. "...I'm not number one anymore. Waaaah."

The old patriarch's heart bloomed. "Oh my god, he's adorable."

*

Lin Fuyue couldn't bear to be second to anyone, so he and Yan Li clashed at every turn. He lost again and again, fighting until his face was red and tears streamed down his cheeks.

Yan Li wiped the moisture from the corner of his eye and looked down at him regretfully. "You have potential, but this sword technique doesn't suit you."

Lin Fuyue: "What the hell do you know? When I first joined the sect, I happened to see someone perform this dazzling sword strike. It was only a fleeting glimpse, but it's still the most beautiful sword strike I've ever seen."

Yan Li: "Which bastard was it?"

Lin Fuyue murmured, "The sect's founding patriarch, the Revered Swordmaster Huaiguang."

Yan Li, the actual patriarch: "Yikes..."

·

Everyone knew that Lin Fuyue worshipped the "Patriarch Huaiguang" he spoke of with near-obsessive devotion. That is, until a crisis forced him to witness Yan Li perform that one-of-a-kind dazzling sword strike with his own eyes.

Lin Fuyue: "...Do I still have a chance to make up for it?"

Yan Li: "I don't take disciples, but I'm looking for a cultivation partner. Interested?"

P.S.:

Pure love, 1v1, both virgins, happy ending.

The origin of the bottom's name: "Do not neglect the snow beside the bamboo, nor the moon beside the willows."

Theme: Hard work pays off.