The Substitute Arrives with Sword in Hand [Reborn]

In a darkened secret chamber,

a man hangs from the stone wall, his hands bound by Immortal-Binding Ropes. His left eye is now an empty socket, weeping blood, and his dantian is utterly dark.

He knows he is near death. He sobs, unable to utter a word, and only then remembers that his tongue was pulled out long ago.

Summoning all his strength, he raises his right eye, hoping to look once more at his cultivation partner, Lord Fuhua.

The man is still as cold and aloof, as immaculate as ever.

Just as he was when he first joined Mount Shu, the exalted senior brother above everyone else.

He lowers his head with a faint smile, laughing at the absurdity of his life. He had thought that because he, Xiao Heng, resembled the man by eighty percent, his senior brother would fall in love with him.

But he was only Xiao Heng's stand-in. The moment Xiao Heng returned to the sect, he had lost, utterly and completely, and was left with nothing.

The man opposite him speaks slowly: "Ji Ning, you should not have fallen into demonic ways. You should not have injured Xiao Heng's eye."

"That's right," Ji Ning thinks. "If I hadn't fallen into demonic ways, the righteous cultivators wouldn't have joined forces to hunt me down. If I hadn't injured Xiao Heng's eye, I wouldn't have suffered the punishment of having my own eye gouged out."

Lord Fuhua points a finger. Ji Ning's soul is wracked with pain. He never thought the cultivation partner he loved for a lifetime would use the Immortal-Slaying Finger to erase him from existence.

In the instant his soul is torn apart, he sees Xiao Heng ambush Fuhua, gouge out his golden core, and sneer, "This golden core belongs to Ji Ning. It wasn't me who saved you. It was him!"

Ji Ning uses a secret technique to be reborn thirty years in the past. In this life, he will never again be anyone else's shadow!

This time, the only thing he can rely on is the sword in his hand!

Coming next, historical fantasy: The Mute Slave

On the day of the grand wedding, Ning Yun, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Ning's household, goes missing.

Everyone is frantic. Marquis Ningyuan died on the battlefield, and the Duke's only legitimate son is still young. The family's honor and disgrace now rest on Ning Yun's husband, the Eighth Prince, Li Qian.

But Li Qian can hardly be called a complete man.

Li Qian was born of low status. His mother was a palace maid to the Empress, and the Emperor disliked him from childhood. After his mother's death, Consort Xiao adopted him. When he grew up, the Xiao family even pushed for him to become the Eastern Depot's Grand Director.

The price was that he could never have children. Consort Xiao knew full well that a man without his manhood could never threaten her own son.

After taking charge of the Eastern Depot, Li Qian kills anyone who stands in his way, be they gods or Buddhas. The tutor who taught him died by his blade, the wet nurse who raised him was poisoned by him, and even Consort Xiao was executed by imperial decree because of him.

Everyone calls him the "Blood-Handed Yama," a man without a heart.

On the wedding day, the illegitimate daughter Ning Shu is forced by Madam Wang to marry in her sister's place.

People only know Ning Shu as a mute girl raised in a side courtyard. They don't know how cruel Madam Wang is, or that none of the Duke of Ning's illegitimate sons live past the age of three. Concubine Zhu first disfigured herself, then raised her son as a girl, making him pretend to be mute.

Ning Shu trembles beneath the red bridal veil, picking at his fingers as he wonders whether that man will tear him limb from limb if he discovers that he isn't his elder sister, but a man.

Blurb uploaded on 2020.9.20. Weibo: @Jinjiang Anyeliuhuo

Theme: Be your one and only self. Never be anyone else's substitute.