This could also be called
The Villain Was Reborn, and He's Still a Villain
Reborn: Becoming a God by Going AFK
The Wretched Old Immortal of the Demon Sect Personally Taught and Led the Rising Star of the Orthodox Sect Astray
Little Friend, Do You Think Our Relationship Is Fake?
Old Habits Die Hard
I Think I've Changed
Surprised? Didn't See That Coming?
Across the four seas and eight wastelands, ascending to the heavens has become a legend. No one has done so for tens of thousands of years.
The Myriad Calamities Patriarch, Tantai Wanjie, had reached a standstill in his cultivation. To seek the path to immortality, he laid a plan that would take ten thousand years. After plunging the eight wastelands into chaos and rivers of blood, he finally gathered the jade fragments said to be capable of opening Heaven's Gate.
By then, his cultivation had reached the pinnacle, and every ancient Daoist sanctuary except the Tantai family's had been destroyed by his hand.
Across the four seas and eight wastelands, I alone reign supreme.
But just as he was about to break through the barrier to ascension, Xue Xuanwei, son-in-law of the Nanhai Sanctuary, with whom he had a blood feud, slew him beneath Mount Luojia.
At Wanjie's death, the eight wastelands celebrated as one.
With a single stroke of his blade, Xue Xuanwei cleaved open Heaven's Gate, and divine energy from the upper realm flooded into the world.
Only as he lay dying did Tantai Wanjie finally realize the truth.
Xue Xuanwei, who had clawed his way up from the very bottom, was the one chosen by Heaven's Gate.
As he died, the jade fragments unexpectedly absorbed divine energy and performed a reversal, taking Tantai Wanjie back four thousand years.
At that time, the young Xue Xuanwei was still unknown, struggling in the mire at the lowest rung of society and traveling alone to hone his skills so he could avenge his family.
With his heart set solely on ascending to the heavens, Tantai Wanjie decided to lie flat and wait to become a god.
The only problem was that Xue Xuanwei would become the son-in-law of his old enemy, the Nanhai Sanctuary, and Xue Xuanwei's master had a grudge against Tantai...
So, at the right moment, Tantai Wanjie watched with a smile, his hands clasped behind his back. With a casual pinch of his fingers, he made Qianqiu, the woman who had accompanied Xue Xuanwei out of Shenzhou in place of the Nanhai girl's, vanish from the world, her soul destroyed without a trace.
That day, Xue Xuanwei used his blood to sacrifice his blade and cleaved the world open, bringing down a mighty blow upon the Nanhai Sanctuary.
As Xue Xuanwei's aura faded, Tantai Wanjie braced him by the shoulder and sent him spiritual power, leaning close to his ear as he said politely, “I'll take care of the minnows following us. Just remember Qianqiu's death. One day, use the entire Nanhai Sanctuary to honor her.”
And so Xue Xuanwei ended up firmly on the opposite side of Nanhai, alongside Tantai.
Become a god by going AFK, without shedding a drop of blood.
Unfortunately, Xue Xuanwei eventually learned everything: Qianqiu's true identity, and that Tantai Wanjie had manipulated, schemed against, used, misled, and courted him from beginning to end.
They met again in the upper realm.
Xue Xuanwei stood in the wind, his figure as sharp as a blade. His expression was unmoved, his face cold, almost icy, and utterly unfamiliar.
Tantai Wanjie was just as he had always been, holding a book and wearing a restrained smile. One of the most powerful cultivators in the eight wastelands, the Myriad Calamities Patriarch, was elegant and refined, like a scholar.
Tantai Wanjie: single-mindedly pursuing godhood, with the ways of the Demon Sect. Reborn, yet still a great demon with the same old ways.
Xue Xuanwei: strong-willed, with a clear sense of right and wrong. A born killer, further led astray by the great demon.
Tantai Wanjie is the gong, Xue Xuanwei is the shou. Two equally strong leads.
A love-hate relationship in the literal sense: love, then kill. They torment each other without end. It hurts. So much.
Perhaps a scumbag old demon who has lived forever, and a fearsome killer who might count as a scumbag.
Two equally strong leads. Probably not angsty, with a happy ending.
Since they're a demon and a descendant of a demon, a little scummy and wicked is only natural.
Theme: Free things are often the most expensive.
