The Top Assassin's All-Consuming Love

[Jinjiang Coin Giveaway] Starting today, if you spot a typo in this story and point it out with a correction in the comments, you'll receive 100 Jinjiang Coins per typo, up to a maximum of 50,000. Please don't bankrupt me.

A fatherly young hero who dishes out damage and tanks hits, shielding the heroine while she stealthily grows stronger.

The Sikong Sword Sect has a second young master, Sikong Ershao, a notorious womanizing swordsman in Yuyang City. They say he keeps a book called The Twelve Beauties of Yuyang, with a main volume, a supplementary volume, and a second supplementary volume. It records all sorts of information about the city's beauties, including their height, weight, likes, and even shoe size. The Qingling Sect only accepts female disciples, making it a gathering place for Yuyang's beauties. Among them is Xia Lin'er, who is unusually plain-looking but exceptionally talented. Sikong Ershao asks Miss Xia to help him deliver a love letter. Seeing that he is, at least, an heir to the Sword Sect, Miss Xia sets a condition: spar with me. She seems to take the opportunity to punish the philandering scoundrel, striking him without mercy. After that, Sikong Ershao is often covered in welts and bruises from her bamboo sword.

There is always plenty of gossip about Sikong Ershao. For instance, these past few days, people have been saying he drove away every other customer and reserved every girl at the Chunlai Courtyard for himself, carousing for a whole day and night. Then there's the story about how he barged into an unmarried young lady's bedroom in broad daylight and was caught by her father. If the young lady hadn't stopped him, he might have been beaten to death.

Xia Lin'er thinks these outrageous rumors are probably true, because today, while she was practicing swordplay with Sikong Ershao, he screamed for her to stop the moment her bamboo sword touched him.

"What's wrong with you today?" Xia Lin'er asked, though she already knew. "Can't take a hit?"

Sikong Ershao rubbed the places she'd struck and stubbornly denied it. "It's nothing. I just didn't sleep well last night."

"Went to the Chunlai Courtyard again?"

Sikong Ershao smirked. "Are you jealous, Miss Lin'er?"

Xia Lin'er looked puzzled. "Why would I be jealous?"

"I don't know," Sikong Ershao said with a grin. "But you look jealous."

Yet the womanizing swordsman, who seems to bask in the spring breeze and neglect his studies, is secretly a ruthless assassin firmly controlled by a Gu poison.

And the plain-looking girl from Qingling Pavilion is actually the Butterfly Sword Immortal, an unattainable beauty admired by every young martial artist.

The two, each harboring their own secrets, see through one another's disguises. From then on, they work toward a shared goal: Sikong Ershao tanks hits and deals heavy damage, shielding Xia Lin'er as she quietly grows stronger, while also... getting himself out of all kinds of messy romantic situations.

Watching Xia Lin'er put on makeup, Sikong Ershao can't help exclaiming, "You're really good at that. Even better than Huai Shuangshuang."

Huai Shuangshuang? Which girl is that?

Uh... She's a cousin of mine.

Didn't Miss Jiang from the Xingcao Clinic threaten to kill herself if you wouldn't marry her? Why don't you marry her?

Uh...

Ming Yunyi, the young lady of the Ming family, is hoping to share a passionate romance with you. Why don't you go see her?

Uh...

PS1: I'm terrible at writing blurbs. This will have to do for now.

PS2: The male lead gets beaten up all the time.

PS3: He behaves like a decent person around the heroine, but in reality, he's a lunatic. His womanizing ways are a cover for another motive.

Entry for the Growth and Comeback Writing Contest, theme "I Was Born with a Purpose": Xia Lin'er has an unusual background. Her family was massacred when she was young, and she escaped alone before being taken in by a master who loves nothing more than applying makeup. Unaware of her origins, her master turned the plain-looking girl into a mysterious, stunning beauty and doted on her. He taught her to win men over with her charms, insisting that a woman could only beat a man by relying on her looks. Xia Lin'er believed him, too. For ten years, she trained in the bewitching sword art her master taught her, until she met Sikong Qifeng.

The young woman breaks free of her ingrained beliefs, grows quickly through adversity, and kills her enemies with her own hands.

Theme: Unwavering mutual trust defeats hypocrites.