Coughing Blood, Yet Still Number One Under Heaven

Hua Zhuoyue was frail from birth. Every physician said she wouldn't live to see eighteen. So even though she was born into a family of martial artists, her parents forbade her from learning swordsmanship or practicing martial arts. Hua Zhuoyue was obedient. Every day, she sat in the courtyard with her medicine pot, watching her senior brothers and sisters practice their sword forms. She never once said how envious she was. Until her nineteenth birthday, when she took a wooden practice sword and challenged the entire Hua family. She beat up every one of them, from the youngest senior brother to the eldest senior sister, knocked out her father, and fled. She was coughing up blood the whole time, and barely able to stand. But she could fight. She could fight very well. From then on, the Hua family lost its frail, pitiful young lady, while the jianghu gained Hua, the heroine, whose swordsmanship was peerless. Only, this heroine wasn't in the best of health. She was always coughing blood and seemed to be on the verge of death... How pitiful. - Hua Zhuoyue was the most dazzling sword star in the world, and the most brilliant shooting star. Everyone loved her, but no one could keep her. Shi Huan was no exception. Even though he had practiced swordsmanship since childhood, become famous at a young age, and earned the title of Sword Immortal from the jianghu; even though he had defeated the former greatest swordsman in the world at eighteen and been unmatched for years... Her swordsmanship was too beautiful. Her eyes were too bright, blazing with a fire that could steal the soul. Shi Huan decided to challenge Hua Zhuoyue to a duel. He was the strongest swordsman in the world. Only he could put enough pressure on Hua Zhuoyue to help her grasp the truth between life and death, allowing her to complete that final sword strike. Before she walked into death. He could not keep Hua Zhuoyue by his side. But his life would pave a smooth road, helping her reach the absolute peak of the sword path. A place no one but her could ever set foot in. "The birth of the greatest sword path must be consecrated with the blood of the greatest swordsman." "Let me witness your sword." *Zhuoyue means "shooting star." The Erya, in the section on the heavens, says: "A swift star is called zhuoyue." A few miscellaneous notes: *There are two endings: the BE ends with both of them dying, while the HE ends with them ascending after death. *The heroine is sick, gravely ill, born with an incurable condition. She is injured in battle, coughs up blood, and faints many times throughout the story. But her talent for swordsmanship is astonishing, and her strength is at the very top. That's the thing: my thing is a frail, battle-worn, beautiful, powerful, tragic, peerless white moonlight. What's the problem? *BE ending: The male lead challenges the heroine to a duel and dies by her sword, helping her bring the final strike she envisioned to life. After completing that final strike, the heroine dies of exhaustion. HE ending: In their duel, both of them comprehend a sword path that transcends this world. They die, but their souls ascend. *Even in the HE ending, they won't know in advance that this duel might let them break through the void and ascend. I mean, they aren't fighting for the sake of ascending. They just want to witness the birth of that sword strike. *Living toward death and living toward life have different flavors. This story is about the former. *Wuxia. There is inner power and qinggong, but no miraculous elixirs, marrow-cleansing, resurrection, past lives, or similar settings. Breaking through the void only happens in the extras. Theme: Live with all your strength until the very end.