[Worldbuilding]
In the Ninth Heaven, where clouds roil across the sky, the Celestial Court established order in the name of "cleansing the six directions," hiding its bloodstained scepter beneath the jade steps of its glazed palace. For a thousand years, no one dared question the lie wrapped in gold leaf, until a cat demon who scorned the celestial laws and a master of disguise tore apart this pompous sacrifice.
[Character Profiles]
The dual male leads are bound together by a battle of light and shadow:
- An Hu
- A paradox of identity: Though an emissary of the Celestial Court, he lives in seclusion atop Mount Cangwu. When his waterfall of white hair hangs over the cliff, he is a cold and distant immortal Venerable; when his dark tail sweeps over dead branches beneath the moon, he becomes a black-eyed cat demon.
- A symbol of contradiction: A coin around his neck is engraved with "Fate cannot be defied," while the safety charm at his waist is embroidered with "I make my own fate." His bone fan slices the throats of pursuers, yet his bamboo flute gently heals the wounds of mortals.
- A twisted aesthetic: Whenever a dragon pattern appears in his catlike eyes, he loses control and rips apart his fine robes, revealing beastly claws. Yet when Cheng Leshi approaches, he wraps his white hair around the other's wrist to keep himself lucid.
- Cheng Leshi
- A double disguise: With a drunken smile, he looks like a simple-minded strongman; with silver threads in his sleeve strangling rebellious immortals, he becomes a demon of slaughter. Beneath his white-and-gold brocade robes, he hides three thousand human-skin masks.
- A game of intrigue: For five years, he handled the Celestial Court's "dirty work" while secretly making rubbings of the Book of Life and Death. On the eve of his defection, he dropped a merfolk's tear into An Hu's wine, capable of breaking the Celestial Court's curse seals.
- A fatal entanglement: Though he knows the cat demon's claws are steeped in poison, he deliberately presses his Adam's apple against the other's fingertip. "Master, you're quite mad. Still, you're more interesting than the fake bodhisattvas in the Hall of the Celestial Emperor."
Using the elegance and ferocity of felines to dismantle the order of an Eastern fantasy cultivation world, this grand tale of gods and demons asks how two "abandoned children of the Celestial Court" can walk the tightrope between betrayal and protection, and find a third path to eternity.
Theme: Life comes first.
