A Longing That Cannot Be Soothed

In the nineteenth year of the Tianyuan era, the third year after Li Ping joined the Wuji Sword Sect, he suddenly understood something. The exalted Sword Master of the Wuji Sword Sect, Gong Wuwang, was not the same person as A Qiao, the little fool he'd picked up years ago. Gong Wuwang had been ambushed while traveling beyond the sect, scattering his soul and leaving him in that foolish state. This low-born mortal had picked him up and taken him as a wife. Those few years of tenderness were a blessing Li Ping had earned in a previous life. The moment the people of the Sword Sect awakened Gong Wuwang's mind and he became the stern, noble immortal again, the A Qiao who had clung to Li Ping and couldn't bear to be apart from him for even a moment disappeared. The only person left in this world was Gong Wuwang of the Wuji Sword Sect. Li Ping's A Qiao was gone. Li Ping should never have entertained the delusion that he could turn Gong Wuwang back into his little fool, A Qiao. Over the years since joining the Wuji Sword Sect, Li Ping's attempts to pursue Gong Wuwang had been nothing but a thorough humiliation. It was only natural that Gong Wuwang loathed and treated him with such cold disdain. Once he understood all this, Li Ping felt a sudden sense of relief. He bade farewell to his fellow disciples in the outer sect, wrote a letter of parting, and left Gong Wuwang the keepsake A Qiao had given him back when he knew no better. Then he waved goodbye without taking a single cloud with him, ready to leave the mountain and return to the mortal world, parting from Gong Wuwang for good, with no ties left between them. Then he died. The demon clan's attack came too quickly. Li Ping was caught unprepared and died outside the mountain gate. ...Li Ping became a ghost. As a ghost, Li Ping watched the Gong Wuwang who had been so cold and distant to him return to the mountain gate and pick up his battered corpse. He watched Gong Wuwang hold the corpse close, keeping vigil day and night. He watched Gong Wuwang avenge him by slaughtering the entire sect and razing the demon realm, until he became a madman feared by everyone across the Jiuxiao Continent. Li Ping finally realized that something seemed to be very wrong. Wasn't Gong Wuwang supposed to have no interest at all in an ordinary person of such poor talent as him? Then why did Gong Wuwang seem... as if he had long since gone mad with love for him? Theme: Better to rely on yourself than on others