Reborn as the Short-Lived Childhood Friend of a Dragon-Proud Hero

[Opening this year, please add to your reading list 🥺]

Oblivious blockhead x sunny male ghost

At fifteen, Xie Mingche joined Tianheng Sect. He formed his Core in half a year and his Nascent Soul in two, becoming the youngest Nascent Soul cultivator in the Nine Provinces.

The youth plucked flowers and wielded them like swords, his sword aura sweeping across mountains and rivers. In the eyes of the world, he was unquestionably a peerless prodigy.

When people spoke of Xie Mingche, they would sometimes mention Yu Jiao.

That little alchemy cultivator who got to sneak into Tianheng Sect's inner sect thanks to her connection to Xie Mingche.

Yu Jiao and Xie Mingche had grown up together. They depended on each other, and Xie Mingche treated her very well.

When an immortal master passed through their town on his travels, saw Xie Mingche's extraordinary talent, and wanted to take him back to his sect, Xie Mingche had only one condition:

Take her along.

For three years after joining Tianheng Sect, Yu Jiao stayed by her alchemy furnace and diligently made pills. She was very happy to see Xie Mingche make a name for himself and be accepted as the Sword Venerable's personal disciple.

One day, a voice claiming to be the "Book of Heaven" sounded in her mind.

Only then did Yu Jiao remember that she had transmigrated into a book: an underdog-to-overpowered-hero cultivation novel, where she had become the short-lived childhood friend of the story's domineering protagonist.

According to the plot, she was supposed to die at the hands of evil cultivators early on, becoming an everlasting wound in Xie Mingche's heart and spurring him to cultivate harder until he ultimately attained the Great Dao.

But the plot had gone completely off the rails.

Seeing that the world's storyline was about to veer off course, the Book of Heaven asked Yu Jiao to follow the plot points. Otherwise, Xie Mingche would never attain the Great Dao, and the world would collapse along with him.

If she was willing to help, the Book of Heaven would give her a new identity and let her be reborn once everything was done.

Yu Jiao sat beneath a tree and looked at Xie Mingche beside her.

The future Saint Venerable of the Nine Provinces, holding a pale yellow sachet with a little flower skillfully sewn onto it, looked up and smiled brightly at her. "Yingniang, look. I mended it."

Yu Jiao looked seriously at Xie Mingche. "What's your wish?"

"That's a strange question to ask all of a sudden." The youth leaned back against the tree trunk, making a sword gesture with two fingers as he waved them through the air. "Of course it's to attain the Great Dao and shake the Nine Provinces with a single sword!"

"Oh." She answered softly and clasped the sachet in her hand.

*

Yu Jiao was his closest family, his little sister, and his very best friend in the world. He had a duty and an obligation to protect her.

At least, that's what Xie Mingche thought.

They ate and lived together, relying on each other. They were the closest people in each other's lives.

But Xie Mingche realized that Yu Jiao had been keeping her distance from him lately.

Something must be bewitching her from behind the scenes.

Xie Mingche smiled faintly and clenched his fist.

Once he found the bastard responsible, he would grind it to pieces, bit by bit.

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads' first relationship, happy ending

2. A sweet childhood-friends romance. The male lead seems sunny on the surface, but is a male lead obsessed with women, an ultimate male ghost

Blurb written on 2026.08.25, screenshot taken and saved as proof

Theme: To be determined