I Led the Coldhearted Sword Cultivator Astray

[Full novel completed]

Ji Yun was sent to the Spirit Sword Sect at the age of eight to be disciplined. The person assigned to teach her was the sect's beloved sword prodigy.

She thought Xie Huaiqing was aloof, cold, and difficult to get along with. Later, she realized that this prodigy seemed to have something wrong with his head.

Ji Yun made things difficult for him and lost her temper, but he never got angry. He even sewed her a doll to soothe her to sleep, thinking she was having trouble adjusting to her new surroundings.

She crossed swords with him, striking fiercely with every move, but he thought she loved sword practice and invited her to spar every time.

-

Only later did Ji Yun learn that he was cultivating the Ruthless Dao.

As the saying goes, stay away from those who cultivate the Ruthless Dao, or you'll end up miserable. Once her obligation was fulfilled, Ji Yun repaid her debt and immediately ran off.

But he kept following her, helping clear her meridians and drive out demonic energy.

Ji Yun always thought Xie Huaiqing was only looking after her because his master had told him to. It wasn't until later, when he stood in front of her with his white robes stained red, threw away his sword, and abandoned his path to become a demon, that she understood.

This supposedly unfeeling sword cultivator, who knew nothing of human affection and had no desires, might, perhaps, have liked her just a tiny bit... maybe.

#Gentle, lonely, powerful, straight-laced senior disciple and sword cultivator#

×

#Fierce, haughty, vengeful, black-hearted little girl#

Notes:

1. They are six years apart. They first meet when the heroine is eight and the hero is fourteen.

★ The romance between the leads only truly begins after the heroine turns fifteen and comes of age. There is no romance or romantic development when they are children! At that point, the hero only looks after the heroine as a child. The heroine is usually wary of him, and on the rare occasions she isn't, she only briefly depends on his affection. It's like a child deprived of love yearning for someone to treat her kindly!

2. They save each other, one-on-one pairing, happy ending.

3. The heroine is not a good person and has plenty of flaws.

4. Everyday emotional drama, with a slower pace at the start.

5. My take on cultivation, with lots of original worldbuilding.

6. Cultivation stages: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Tribulation Transcendence, and Deification. Each stage has lower, middle, and upper levels.

The following is a preview of an upcoming novel

Reborn to Save My Villainous Fellow Disciples. See my author page.

[Heroine's blurb]

In her previous life, Zhao Suzhi cultivated desperately but was never able to escape the demonic mark.

She dissipated all her cultivation in a bid to die, but when she opened her eyes, she had returned to the day she first joined the sect.

Everything was as it had been, except that every so often, scenes would flash before her eyes.

They showed the future, and her fellow disciples.

She saw

Her carefree, endlessly talkative junior brother becoming a brutal, bloodthirsty murderer, eventually beheaded and displayed amid the people's curses.

Her kind and gentle, saintly second junior brother becoming a manipulative, two-faced schemer, inciting conflict between humans and demons before his own family sacrificed him to the Xuanming Tower.

Her spoiled, overbearing junior sister, the little firecracker, becoming the wicked supporting character who framed the heroine in a romance novel, only to be stabbed through the heart by the man she loved on her wedding night.

And her righteous, impartial senior brother, the most principled of them all, bringing ruin to the world for his own selfish desires, only to die a gruesome death under the Heavenly Dao's lightning punishment.

-

That's right, every single one of her fellow disciples was evil.

But before she went into seclusion in her previous life, they hadn't been like this at all.

Zhao Suzhi tried everything to stop it.

Just when she thought she had succeeded, her junior sister's chest wrap was thrown in front of her.

They said, "A furnace is a furnace. She died after just a few rounds."

They said, "Beheading that murderer in public was too good for him."

They also said, "It's true that half-demon flesh nourishes the body and helps improve one's cultivation."

Zhao Suzhi smiled and slaughtered them all with her sword.

She killed her way from the human realm to the demon lands, then stormed the immortal sects.

By the end, even Zhao Suzhi thought she might as well become a demon.

The demonic mark was about to take shape when lightning suddenly flashed.

Her senior brother stood beside her, demonic patterns spreading across his face and demonic energy roiling behind him,

while she remained unharmed.

Only then did Zhao Suzhi understand that her senior brother had died under Heaven's punishment because he had defied fate to change her destiny.

And the thing she should have opposed all along was the Heavenly Dao.

[Hero's blurb]

Pei Ji had actually met Zhao Suzhi long ago.

The first time, she was the only daughter of the Grand Princess, gifted and brilliant, riding past in red with a confident flair that drew gasps of admiration.

At the time, he was the most insignificant person among those admiring her.

The second time, she was the Commandery Princess Zhaohua, appointed by imperial decree to put down a rebellion.

He was the sole survivor of that rebellion.

Surrounded by piles of corpses, she spotted him at a glance and dragged him out from among the dead.

She gave him food and clothes, allowing him to keep living aimlessly in the world.

When they met again, she was being hunted and had nowhere to go.

-

He had seen Zhao Suzhi riding proudly in fine clothes, radiant and bold. He had also seen her bleeding, gritting her teeth, and refusing to yield even in the face of death.

Pei Ji thought she would bloom among the thorns like a wild rose.

So he followed her, for many years.

Until, in the end, she took her own life on his sword.

She said, "Senior Brother, I'm so tired. Let me die."

And afterward, what happened afterward...?

He vaguely remembered setting up a formation and drawing down heavenly lightning, all to beg for another life.

Theme: Love and redemption