· An evil sword spirit who kills chickens and sucks their blood x an unreliable, fired office worker who owns an evil sword
· Reading Guide:
1. Younger male lead
[Three feet of sword to quell danger, one pond of autumn to cast off sorrow]
Frostflower Mountain lay in the northwest of the Fourfold Heaven, far from Cloud Capital Mountain. It was also small and remote, so people often forgot there was even a mountain in the northwest corner.
But the people living on Frostflower Mountain were good, simple, and kind.
Qu Linqiu grew up here.
Orphaned when she was young, she was raised one meal at a time by the aunties of Frostflower Mountain.
Most of the people on the mountain let Wind Guides take their children away to seek a wider world, while they themselves stayed behind to watch over the small ancestral graves, unable to bear leaving.
Qu Linqiu saw it all. To repay the kindness of those who had raised her, she packed her bags and headed straight for Cloud Capital Mountain, where she became a Wind Guide, just as she had hoped.
Being a Wind Guide meant traveling freely between the mountains and helping the people of Frostflower Mountain send things out.
She was so used to scraping by that even after becoming the head of the Wind Guide Lodge, she still liked bringing home junk. A sword covered in rust was clearly a discarded piece of scrap, and its blade would not even come out of its scabbard. So she brought it home to use for poking the firewood while she tended the fire.
Back then, listening to the firewood crackle and feeling its warmth, she had thought this peaceful, happy life would go on forever.
Dressed in red, with bloodstains all over her that she could barely make out, her neck shackled, Qu Linqiu thought bitterly.
*
The divine sword Canqiu lit up the entire Sword Pavilion with golden light when it came into the world.
The elders of the Sword Pavilion forgot the pain in their eyes from that dazzling light and rejoiced as if they had just passed the imperial examination.
When the golden light faded, their smiles froze. Canqiu was a little child, and a girl who neither spoke nor showed any expression.
As they had guessed, divine swords generally had strange temperaments. But one that neither thirsted for blood nor craved slaughter was truly a marvel among divine swords, an oddity among oddities.
As a murderous sword, this would never do. The elders ordered the senior disciples to teach her to thirst for blood.
The senior disciples tossed Canqiu out along with a chicken.
A while later, roast chicken was brought out, and the senior disciples were nearly swept off their feet by its fragrance.
They even patted Canqiu on the head and praised her work.
Seeing that the senior disciples could not correct Canqiu's bad habits, the elders discussed it and then threw the rusty Canqiu down the mountain to discover the way of the Sword Pavilion on her own.
When Lu Canqiu opened her eyes again, she found her lower half all warm. She was in a bonfire, bringing disgrace upon her sect.
She struggled out of her scabbard and saw a woman. The woman could not hear her, so Lu Canqiu gently cut a small wound into her hand: Don't put me in the fire.
In the end, she successfully transformed back into human form and told the woman her name.
“Canqiu is no good. It's too bloodthirsty,” the woman remarked.
“Keep the people in your heart, quell danger and stop chaos.”
“Come with me. From now on, your name will be...”
“Lu Pingwei.”
[Note added 2026.5.23]
Theme: Keeping kindness in your heart
