Lin Xuan

1.

During the immortal sect's trial, Lin Xuan caught the mastermind behind the chaos in the mortal realm and tied him up. While waiting for the Inspection Office to take him away, she seized the chance to admire her idol's original handwritten notes.

Her idol was the strategist of the great war a thousand years ago, peerless through the ages at plotting and maneuvering, and at deploying troops. He once led fewer than a hundred people in forming a battle array at Tianmen Pass to hold off more than a hundred thousand members of the Spirit Clan.

Sadly, after the war, the strategist's mortal body succumbed to exhaustion, and he died.

Shang Cheshu, the mastermind behind the chaos in her mission, was bound hand and foot and slumped over a chaise longue. Too sleepy to keep his eyes open, he mumbled listlessly, "Hey, Immortal Master, I tried bribing you with all those treasures from my home, and you wouldn't budge, blah blah blah. But you picked this shabby notebook? What's so interesting about this boring thing?"

Lin Xuan gently stroked the pages. "You wouldn't understand. These are my idol's original notes."

Shang Cheshu's eyebrows twitched. He forced himself to wake up and opened his eyes, glancing at the ropes binding him before looking at her strangely.

He thought about it, then decided not to.

Back to sleep.

Seeing him nod off again, Lin Xuan tapped his head with another book and warned him sternly, "Still sleeping? Haven't you thought about how you'll talk your way out of this when the Inspection Office gets here?"

Without even opening his eyes, Shang Cheshu squeezed out his words one by one in a muffled, sleepy voice. "Do you know your idol's name is Shang Cheshu?"

Lin Xuan immediately looked over and scanned him from head to toe.

Shang Cheshu had dark circles under his eyes and was slumped over with no trace of good posture. He looked utterly listless and despondent. Only his handsome face had any appeal. He seemed like a good-for-nothing playboy, all show and no substance, raised amid heaps of gold and jade.

Lin Xuan's mind stalled for a moment.

Then, annoyed, she tapped him with the book again. "No! Way!"

2.

It was all like a beautiful dream, with plants growing wildly all around.

A wisp of soul had drifted out of the Soul Refining Array, indifferent and languid, with neither love nor hatred for the world. He only thought that life was nothing new.

Later, he met a young woman. In the depths of despair, Shang Cheshu thought that A Xuan was still so young. He didn't want the two of them to be trapped in some tired old tragedy about star-crossed lovers torn apart by their families.

So, in the Demon-Slaying Water Prison that day, his whole body drenched in blood, he sat cross-legged with his chin propped on one hand and smiled with ease, decisively cutting things short.

"At most, you and I could be called half teacher and student. You'll have your own life, friends, family, and love in the future. We traveled together for a while, now we each go our own way. Lin Xuan, keep moving forward. Don't let your heart be burdened, and may nothing stand in your way."

After his body died and his soul was once more suppressed at the bottom of the Demon Spirit Sea, time was nearly erased amid endless demonic flames and lightning patterns. The darkness at the bottom of the sea was boundless, and only one person remained vivid in his mind.

One day, he heard a few spirits who had accidentally wandered in chatting.

"Is that Venerable Lin Xuan, who inherited the strategist's legacy, really looking for a new cultivation partner? Didn't Venerable Lin lose her partner and then hunt down the three sects and four academies to avenge them? What devotion!"

Shang Cheshu's eyes flew open.

"Word is, someone saw Venerable Lin happily offering incense at that cenotaph. She said she'd finally avenged him, and she'd do as he told her and keep moving forward!"

Shang Cheshu couldn't help mulling it over. He didn't even know when he'd become her cultivation partner, but he had to hurry and throw open the coffin lid to climb out. A dead partner was still a partner, and he wanted to see if he could somehow hold on to his position.

3.

For the first time, Shang Cheshu hated Lin Xuan's nature: once she decided something, she always followed through and never looked back.

Martial power defies the law; take revenge as you please. A high-martial-power world, with my own take on cultivation.

At heart, it's about fighting monsters and falling in love.

Theme: Though thousands stand in my way, I will go forth.