I will never give up on the master-as-top trope!
Zhou Wuyi of the Hehuan Sect vs. Qixuan of the Heartless Dao (top), with angst and melodrama galore
Zhou Wuyi was a disciple of the Hehuan Sect, and his spiritual form was a begonia flower. By a twist of fate, he became Qixuan's disciple and learned swordsmanship under him.
He loved Qixuan with all his heart, but knew that Qixuan cultivated the Heartless Dao and was a revered Sword Immortal, while Zhou Wuyi was destined to become a cultivation furnace.
Every year during the holidays, he wrote his three wishes on river lanterns.
First, may begonias bloom all over the world.
Second, may Qixuan look upon me with kindness.
Third, after I die, may I be buried in warm soil and return to the world.
His senior and junior brothers despised him. Right in front of him, they cut down every begonia on Mount Tianshan.
He desperately protected the last flower and held it up to Qixuan like a treasure, only for Qixuan to crush it into scattered petals with one sword strike.
When his junior brother fell ill, Qixuan sent Zhou Wuyi to the bitterly cold lands to gather lingzhi for him. Zhou Wuyi was still weak, and there was no doubt he would die there.
Not one of his life's wishes came true.
From then on, begonias still bloomed on Mount Tianshan, but Zhou Wuyi was gone from the world.
And the Tianshan Sword Sovereign, whose sword chilled the fourteen provinces, was gone too.
Qixuan secluded himself for ten years atop a snow-covered mountain that had known ice and snow for ten thousand years. The handsome young man in the ice coffin beside him remained unchanged, while begonias bloomed brilliantly across the frozen wilderness.
From then on, no one would practice the sword with him or ask whether his porridge was warm.
In the end, he understood that a thousand years of strict discipline and ten thousand years of cultivating the Heartless Dao could never outweigh the floral scent that lingered on that man's palm.
-
After being reborn, Zhou Wuyi was utterly disillusioned. He never expected that the people who had once hated and despised him would now go mad trying to please him.
Qixuan took a fatal sword strike for Zhou Wuyi. His meridians were shattered, his cultivation destroyed, and his blood soaked into the earth. Begonias bloomed for miles, as bright red as blood.
But he no longer liked begonias,
and he no longer loved Qixuan.
Happy ending
Theme: Cherish life and value your relationships