As the Nine Provinces descended into chaos, Ling Chao went alone to Boundless Lake, fighting her way through a bloody path to seek an audience with Ji Sui, the legendary lord of the realm.
Ji Sui's cultivation was unfathomable. He was a mysterious recluse, yet he saw through all the affairs of the world. Countless visitors from every province wanted to recruit him.
When Ling Chao arrived, rain poured down from the heavens. She stood in the middle of the lake, facing a man wearing a black jade thumb ring. He used a sandalwood folding fan to lift one corner of the curtain, revealing a handsome, refined face. His peach-blossom eyes seemed to smile and yet not, his nose was elegant, and his features striking. His gaze met hers as she stood there covered in blood.
He seemed to have known her for a long time.
"Ling Chao, who are you seeking an audience for?"
"Xie Zi, the third princess of the royal family of Jing Province."
"All right," he agreed with surprising ease, pushing the curtain aside. His long, graceful fingers and dark eyes were fixed on her. "But you'll have to give something up."
"May I ask, Miss Ling Chao, do you bear the surname Xie now?"
"Or are you still called Cui Ling Chao?"
The words sounded teasing, but Ling Chao staggered back three steps.
.
For a thousand years, the Cui clan had stood above the Nine Provinces. Ling Chao was the daughter of a slave in the Cui household.
She was exceptionally gifted, and ten years ago, she was granted the rare privilege of serving at the side of Cui Zhao, the young master. He taught her cultivation, swordsmanship, and how to love, until he plunged his sword through her chest in a valley.
Xie Zi saved her, while Cui Zhao perished in a calamity three days later. Overnight, the Cui clan collapsed, and its followers scattered.
She thought she had forgotten all that love and all that hatred.
Now, in the rain, a man meeting her for the first time approached her calmly beneath a cloud-patterned jade umbrella and told her:
"Cui Zhao has returned from the Abyss of Extreme Cold."
Note:
A reverse-harem story where every male character falls for the female lead, with a tragic love and revenge plot from Ling Chao's perspective, a fated-love-and-devotion-to-death plot from Cui Zhao's perspective, and a palace scheming story with a male interloper from Ji Sui's perspective. But at heart, it's a Mary Sue story. There are other male rivals I couldn't be bothered to list; anyway, they all behave themselves. There's a yandere inside. Readers who insist on a chaste female lead, stay away.
Theme: Without weathering the storm, how can you see the rainbow?
