The Ruthless Cultivator Is Still Being Chased by a Lovesick Harem Sect Disciple into Marriage

Top: a saintly woman with selfish desires; Bottom: a rotten person with a sincere heart

Both are pure and have never been with anyone else.

Shen Jingli, the foremost disciple of the Ruthless Dao, is a famously cold-faced cultivator.

Her daily routine: cultivate the Ruthless Dao, slay demons, cultivate the Ruthless Dao, slay fiends, cultivate the Ruthless Dao, then slay more demons.

One day, she descended to the mortal realm to exterminate a demon and happened to rescue a woman from the jaws of a demonic beast.

The woman could not cultivate, had no spiritual roots, and was too weak to harm a chicken. Her only talent was clinging to people, and she was especially clingy.

"Benefactor, your clothes are dirty. Let me wash them for you."

"Benefactor, are you hungry? I'll make you some noodles."

"Benefactor, are you coming back tonight?"

Shen Jingli: ...

The woman was unbearably clingy, and Shen Jingli was genuinely worried that she might be attacked by another demon. So she picked her up and carried her back to the sect.

The Ruthless Dao's top junior sister brought a beautiful woman back to the sect, and the entire sect was stunned.

Senior Sister: "Junior Sister, are you sure you're cultivating the Ruthless Dao?"

Second Senior Sister: "Junior Sister, have you been possessed?"

Shen Jingli replied expressionlessly, "She has nowhere to go, so she'll stay for a few days."

A few days turned into a few months.

After a few months, Shen Jingli realized that the mountain where she lived was starting to look like a rural farmhouse.

Dried vegetables hung outside the door, clothes were draped over the windowsill, and two chickens clucked in the courtyard.

Every day, the woman squatted outside her cave abode and waited for her to come back, her eyes sparkling like a little dog wagging its tail.

The whole sect was taking bets: When would the ice finally melt?

Shen Jingli: I absolutely will not fall for her.

The woman: Doesn't cultivating the Ruthless Dao mean that if I want to be with you, then I'm your first love?

Until one day, Shen Jingli woke up and realized there was a blank spot in her mind.

She couldn't remember her name, that she was a disciple of the Ruthless Dao, her sword techniques, or her sect.

As she wondered why she'd woken up, she saw a woman asleep beside her bed, curled up in her arms. She looked very well-behaved, her clothes half-open, and utterly alluring.

"You're awake?" The woman rubbed her eyes and raised her head, her face full of delight. "Wife, you're finally awake!"

Shen Jingli: ?

"Wife, don't you remember?" The woman's eyes reddened, and she looked ready to cry. "We've been married for three years. How could you forget me?"

Shen Jingli: ??

She began to question her entire life.

She was married?

But she truly couldn't remember anything.

Every day, the woman made her medicine with red-rimmed eyes and cared for her with tender devotion. At night, she'd sneak into Shen Jingli's bed. Shen Jingli dragged her out several times, and at last she stopped trying, sitting by the door and looking at Shen Jingli with a pitiful, aggrieved expression.

Looking into those eyes, Shen Jingli felt as if she really had let the woman down.

Three days later, she asked, "How did we meet?"

The woman's eyes lit up, and she began telling their story.

She said Shen Jingli had met her while descending to the mortal realm to subdue demons, fallen in love at first sight, and pursued her relentlessly for a year before she reluctantly agreed to marry her.

Shen Jingli: ... Me? Pursuing someone relentlessly?

She said Shen Jingli had neglected her cultivation for her and been punished by the sect, but still refused to give her up and had eloped with her.

Shen Jingli: ... Eloped?

She said they had been poor, living in a tiny village in the mountains, and Shen Jingli had gone up the mountain every day to chop firewood and support her.

Shen Jingli stared at the hands that wielded her sword and fell silent for a long time.

These hands, chopping firewood?

But she believed her anyway.

Because she truly couldn't remember, and every time her wife spoke of the past, her eyes grew red.

She didn't want her to cry.

It wasn't until later, when Shen Jingli went into town to buy her a hairpin for their wedding anniversary, that she ran into a senior sister from her sect.

The senior sister saw her and nearly cried with excitement. "Shen Jingli! You're still alive!"

Shen Jingli: ?

Senior Sister: "The entire sect has been looking for you! You were kidnapped by a witch from the Hehuan Sect! Do you know who that witch is? The woman who's always following you around! You thought she was a mortal who couldn't cultivate, but she's an heir to the Hehuan Sect! She nearly bewitched our sect leader!"

Shen Jingli stood there in silence for a long time.

Then she lowered her head and looked at the silver hairpin she'd just bought.

It wasn't worth much, but her wife had glanced at it and said she liked it, so Shen Jingli had remembered.

On her way home, Shen Jingli's memories returned.

They came back in fragments, but enough for her to understand one thing.

The woman had been lying to her from the very beginning.

When Shen Jingli pushed the door open, the woman was cooking at the stove. Hearing her, she turned and smiled. "You're back? Dinner will be ready soon. I made your favorite stew today. What's wrong?"

Shen Jingli placed the silver hairpin on the table.

"My memories have returned."

The woman's smile froze.

"You're from the Hehuan Sect," Shen Jingli said, looking at her. "You were lying to me from the start."

The woman's face slowly turned pale. Her eyes were red, but she didn't cry.

"...Yes," she said softly. "I lied to you."

"Everything, from beginning to end, was a lie."

Shen Jingli didn't ask why.

She turned and walked out of the little courtyard, walking quickly without looking back.

So Shen Jingli never knew that, the moment she left, the woman gripped the stove and slowly sank to the ground, burying her face in her knees. Her shoulders shook, but she didn't make a sound.

It was the first time since Shen Jingli had met her that the woman didn't look back.

Only later did Shen Jingli remember that the soup the woman had made that day was her favorite.

It had taken her three years to learn how to make it.

Later, Shen Jingli searched all three realms before finally finding the woman.

"Wife, if one day you found out that I'd lied to you, would you blame me?"

Shen Jingli said she wouldn't.

The woman asked why.

Shen Jingli said, "Because you were such a terrible liar."

The woman had lied to her for three years, but the one thing she had never lied about was the way she looked at Shen Jingli.

Standing in the crowded street, Shen Jingli finally understood one thing.

The woman really had come to deceive her.

But in the end, she had deceived herself, too.

And it had taken Shen Jingli three years to understand that.

"What's your name...?"

They had been married for three years, and she still didn't know the woman's name.

The woman smiled radiantly, her beauty dazzling. "Li Xiangheng."

Jingli, I lied to you, but you lied to me, too.

Your Ruthless Dao: does it teach you to be heartless, or are you only heartless toward me?

Reading Guide:

One-on-one romance, happy ending.

A bittersweet romance, with plenty of sweetness.

Top: a saintly woman with selfish desires.

Bottom: at first, a clever con artist from the Hehuan Sect; later, she falls hard for the top and gives her rotten heart sincerely.

Shen Jingli after losing her memories: Every morning, the first thing she does is look for her wife and treat her well. Even though her wife deceives her every day, she willingly falls for it every day.

Theme: Girls' Love pre-order