Everyone knows that Immortal Venerable Qingxu once had a beloved, whom he personally killed to prove his Dao.
He failed to prove his Dao, and from then on Immortal Venerable Qingxu went mad for years. He was just one step away from ascending, but instead slaughtered his way through the Three Realms and became the new ruler of the Demon Realm, all to resurrect that person.
One day, the cultivation world saw the Venerable bring back a young man. Aside from looking a little younger, he was almost identical to the Venerable's old beloved, even down to his smile.
The young man adored the Venerable.
Even though the Venerable treated him coldly from the moment he brought him back, and anyone from the Demon Realm or the cultivation world could bully him; even though he knew he was a substitute and wasn't even allowed to have his own name.
The young man was happy to accept it all.
Because, as the Venerable put it,
he was a lowly mortal, incapable of cultivating immortality and useless in every way. The only thing he had going for him was his face.
What else could he do besides serve the Venerable?
The young man thought the Venerable was merely a little cold by nature. If he just tried hard enough, he could eventually win him over and make him see a little of his worth, even if it was only one ten-thousandth of the other's.
No one knew that the Venerable had brought him back from the very beginning to cut out his heart one day and save his beloved.
Because a perfectly pure heart could save all things in the world.
On the day the young man died, blood stained the entire Demon Realm, and a rain of blood fell without end.
No one knew whether the Venerable's beloved had come back to life. They only knew that the Venerable had gone even madder.
*
Yu Li was a little carp demon.
After cultivating for eight hundred years, he still hadn't attained human form. One day, the Heavenly Dao told him that if he helped Immortal Venerable Qingxu overcome his tribulation and sever his inner demon, he would be rewarded with eighty thousand merits. Not only would he get a human body, he could also become a river god and govern a region.
What an incredible deal. Yu Li agreed without hesitation.
Every day, Yu Li had to endure the nausea in his heart while pretending to love the Venerable. In the fourth year, he was finally killed by the Venerable.
With his new body, Yu Li grew a pair of legs and happily splashed about in the river. He cheered at the sky, "I'm finally free of that disgusting man! Hahahaha! If I have to look at that face again, I'll throw up!"
"It's a shame I lost a heart, but this face is pretty good. Much better than the one I had before!"
The Venerable had just come close when he heard this. The young man's voice, manner, and radiant smile were all just like the person in his heart.
The love interest is the beloved. An unfeeling love interest who only pretends to care x a mad dog of a pursuer. Bad ending.
Bring on the melodrama.
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