Lian Yu was a delicate white lotus formed from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, pure and flawless, carrying the world's most innocent wonder and kindness.
After ten thousand years, she took human form in a celestial paradise. There she met a young general who had stumbled into the lotus lake, clad in blazing red robes and black armor.
The young general's red robes blazed, a cinnabar mark between his brows. When he smiled, he was full of youthful spirit, uninhibited and carefree. He was the most ardent joy in Lian Yu's heart.
He died in Lian Yu's arms, a mortal to the end, and whispered, "You and I are destined to be together for ten thousand lifetimes. We must never regret it, never part..."
"In my next life, I'll find you again."
His voice faded into the wind.
Lian Yu stripped away every lotus bone in her body to guide him into becoming an immortal. She tore out her stem and peeled away her leaves, suffering a pain that pierced her very soul. When she awoke again ten thousand years later, she saw a white-jade immortal lord in the heavens.
He had the young general's face, yet his eyes held neither sorrow nor joy. He pitied all living beings but remained indifferent to the world. Dressed in ethereal white, he was as cold and pristine as jade, a pale blue lotus marking adorning the space between his brows.
He was not her young general.
She rested in a bamboo grove, dead drunk, her eyes innocent and soft with desire. Then the immortal lord stepped beneath the moon and bent down, lightly touching the bead of wine at the corner of her lips with his fingertip.
Ripples stirred in his eyes. He asked in a hoarse voice,
"Who are you looking at through me?"
She could just make out the young general's fading silhouette, swaying, his red robes blazing like fire, his passion burning bright. Unable to hold back her feelings, she kissed his lips and murmured incoherently,
"...Only you."
But she never imagined that, through the sea of her consciousness, the young general would watch the impostor kiss her, then secretly hold her at night, burning like fire as he whispered through his sobs,
"Don't fall for him. It's me. I'm your husband."
When the immortal lord fell to demonic ways and slaughtered every living being across the fourteen realms of Cangzhou, he stood amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood, with resentment surging behind him like clouds.
His face remained expressionless, as cold and aloof as an immortal.
His white robes were stained with blood until they blazed like fire, rippling in the wind like the fierce sun.
Heaven and earth changed color. The gods were all aghast.
He wiped away the lotus mark with the blood on his fingertip, leaving a red cinnabar mark between his brows. Then he turned to her and wept, his face blank as he asked in a hoarse voice,
"Now, do I look like your young general?"
I'm my own substitute. Two men, sliced up inside one body, fight and brawl for affection.
Theme: The ultimate form of substitute romance