The Counterfeit Deity

[The ultimate act: Pretending to be a god until you become one] There are countless cultivators, some strong and some weak. If cultivation were just a job, then Lin Fengzhi would be a low-level cultivator who had only recently entered the profession. Since the age of fifteen, she and her childhood friend Feng Mo had struggled to make their way in the cultivation world. Then one day, Feng Mo was taken as a personal disciple by a powerful cultivator from a great sect. Their days of facing life and death together came to an end. She chose to travel alone, only to be abducted and taken back to an ancient sect because she looked like Qiu Yueming, a missing High God. For a reward of ten thousand high-grade spirit stones, she sells herself to Kunxu Mountain and becomes Qiu Yueming's stand-in, taking charge of Kunxu, once hailed as the greatest sect in the immortal realm but now in ruins. She thought it would be an easy job, just putting on an act. How could she have known that being a stand-in would mean dealing with powerful cultivators and earning money to keep the sect afloat? Lin Fengzhi regrets it bitterly. [He once loved the world, his heart as bright as the moon and as fierce as the sun. He gave his own flesh and blood to save the people, but the person who promised to save him never came. In the long years and lightless darkness, his compassion finally crumbled to ash.] [The cover was hand-drawn and hand-lettered by my friend Tianya Paicaocao. Thank you!] Reader's Guide: 1. One-on-one romance, one male lead, and three and a half male supporting characters. 2. The heroine grows stronger from a weak beginning, but she's not the strongest fighter in the world. 3. All the characters have flaws. No one's perfect. 4. I've never practiced cultivation, so I don't know how real immortals cultivate. This is my own cultivation world, full of made-up details, and what I say goes. Upcoming story: Her Beautiful General Word has it around the capital that Pei, the young master of the Dingyuan Marquis's household, is in love with Lu Sanniang, daughter of the Imperial Tutor, but can't have her. So he keeps Li Shaohuan, a flower-growing girl who looks just like her, by his side, lavishing her with fine clothes and food just to provoke Sanniang. Beautiful jade earrings are placed in her ears; lovely pearl-embroidered robes are put on her back. Today it's the chilled lychee cake from Qingfeng Tower, tomorrow the crystal dumplings from Luming Pavilion... Everything is something Sanniang likes. Everyone says Li Shaohuan is trying to marry up, but she only knows that this fearsome young master is generous, a spendthrift who lets silver slip through his fingers. She has a three-year contract. When the time is up, she packs up and heads home without even leaving him a goodbye. With the money she saved at the marquis's estate, she opens a little restaurant and sets up a flower garden. Business is booming, and she forgets all about the handsome young master of the Pei family, who once left her stunned at first sight like Zhou Yu in the old story. Who could have imagined that the marquis's household would be framed, convicted, and stripped of its possessions? When she sees him again, he is unconscious in her woodshed, an escaped convict on the road to exile. She saves him and dresses him in women's clothes, passing him off as a maid in the restaurant. She doesn't treat him particularly well. As for clothes, he wears what she likes. Whether he likes them or not doesn't matter. As for food, he eats what she decides. Whether he enjoys it or not doesn't matter. When he learns that the clothes are in the colors favored by the man she loves, and the food is what that man likes to eat, he clenches his fists, and a trace of his old ferocity returns to his eyes. Perhaps he's fallen in love with her for real? But so what? Glorious scenes are like dreams. In the end, spring must be allowed to depart. Years later, he returns, leading a horse. Now a young general with many military victories to his name, he pins her against the wall and laughs coldly. "That's what they say in the capital? Everyone knows it? Then why am I the only one who doesn't know that I'm in love with the third daughter of the Lu family?" "Li Shaohuan, you don't know what's good for you!" Check out my author page for my other completed stories, including historical romance, cultivation, online gaming, and more. Theme: Live well and work hard.