When I Was Young, I Didn’t Know How Good the Demon Lord Was

An audio drama adaptation has been officially signed. Follow @Jinjiang Shen Yuanyuan for production updates.

A sweet double-rebirth story about leaving a scumbag and finding a new love. Both leads are each other's first. The gong doesn't remember being reborn at first.

Also featuring a serialized story in the same series: The Young One Never Knew How Good the Immortal Venerable Was. Its blurb follows this one.

Blurb from the shou's perspective:

Feng Qingyun waited for his senior brother for a lifetime, going from burning passion to a heart turned to ash.

His senior brother won the world's praise and found a kindred spirit. Feng Qingyun, meanwhile, became the dull, lukewarm old flame in everyone's eyes.

Then the heavens collapsed, and the world fell into chaos.

He spent the last of his spiritual power sending the disciples in the palace to safety. In the end, he could only wait to die in a cave with his nemesis, the Demon Venerable, who had come to mock him.

Even though the Demon Venerable was trapped in the cave too and had become a laughingstock himself, that didn't stop him from taunting Feng Qingyun:

"Palace Master Feng, your man is probably whispering sweet nothings to that pretty boy right now, swearing they'll meet again in their next life. And you can only sit here and wait to die with a demon like me."

"The mighty master of an immortal palace is about to hang himself from a crooked tree. How does that feel, Palace Master Feng?"

Feng Qingyun treated others gently, but he and the Demon Venerable, whom the world called arrogant and unruly, were sworn enemies. His teeth ground with anger at the taunts, but he said nothing.

Faced with his icy expression, the Demon Venerable had kept quiet until the moment the collapse of heaven engulfed them. Then, in an almost casual change of tone, he said, "If I had known you were so devoted to that fool... I shouldn't have hesitated when I came to steal you away on your wedding day."

"...?!"

Feng Qingyun was stunned, but before he could ask anything, he saw the Demon Venerable's back as he stood in front of him while the heavens collapsed.

When Feng Qingyun opened his eyes again, he had returned to three hundred years earlier, the night before his wedding ceremony with his senior brother.

Amid the strains of immortal music and under the gaze of countless onlookers, the gentle, courteous junior brother of Sword Venerable Han Yang suddenly tore off his wedding robes without a word.

He stepped over the scarlet scraps of cloth and walked through the crowd's astonished stares toward a seemingly unremarkable man.

"You don't seem to be an invited guest," he said calmly. "May I ask why you've come?"

The other man was silent for a moment, then suddenly dropped his disguise. The moment they saw his handsome face, laced with wickedness, the whole world was stunned. "The Demon Venerable?!" "What is the Demon Venerable doing here?!"

Sword Venerable Han Yang flew into a rage and reached for his sword as soon as he came to his senses. But the Demon Venerable didn't even spare the number one expert of the immortal path a glance. Instead, he looked at Feng Qingyun with a teasing smile and said, "I've come to steal you away from your wedding."

The immortals in attendance erupted into an uproar.

Feng Qingyun, however, seemed not the least bit surprised. He raised an eyebrow, looking down at the man. "Steal whom?"

The Demon Venerable curled his lips. "You."

Sword Venerable Han Yang was furious. But the next moment, he heard his junior brother, who had never done anything outrageous and had always been gentle and refined, lower his eyes and say, "All right. I'll go with you."

Scumbag ex-husband's perspective:

When Mu Hanyang was seventeen, he fell in love at first sight with a woman. Only after waking up did he realize it had been nothing more than a fleeting dream in an illusion.

He swore he would remain chaste for the woman in his dream, but his junior brother's feelings for him left him in a difficult position.

In the end, though he wasn't attracted to men and couldn't return his junior brother's feelings, he agreed to become his cultivation partner out of guilt.

It wasn't until the Demon Venerable appeared at their wedding ceremony and took his junior brother away that he finally understood what his heart truly wanted.

Consumed by regret, he left the palace and swore to find his junior brother. In a small demonic realm, he spotted the figure he could never forget, but another man was at "her" side: the Demon Venerable, Long Yin.

As Mu Hanyang reeled in shock, he heard an even more startling exchange:

"Palace Master Feng, did your husband satisfy you just now?" the Demon Venerable teased. "How was I compared to your senior brother, who's all looks and no skill?"

The gentle, familiar "woman" in Mu Hanyang's memory flushed at the words and snapped, "How can the mighty Demon Venerable be so shameless... Shut up!"

"All right, all right. Don't be angry, dear." The Demon Venerable chuckled softly. "Call me husband, and I'll be a good boy and shut up."

The "woman"'s face turned icy as he looked at the Demon Venerable, but there was something in his eyes Mu Hanyang had never seen before. The Demon Venerable then added, "If you don't call me that, Palace Master Feng, I might just..."

Mu Hanyang froze in place. The next moment, a soft and thoroughly reluctant voice came from over there: "...Husband."

1. A scum-ex gets dumped and has to go through the fire of regret. Both leads are each other's first. At heart, this is a sweet story with mutual devotion and very strong feelings on both sides. Readers with extreme character preferences, please proceed with caution.

2. The shou wears women's clothing at one point.

3. The ex-husband is an atypical scumbag: a straight man who makes you want to yell, "Just get on with it already!" He thinks, "We're married, but we're just brothers. I'm not gay, so I only feel familial and friendly affection for you. But if you run off with someone else, you're heartless and unfaithful." Readers who feel sorry for this sort of ex-husband, please proceed with caution.

Older gong, beautiful snake-demon emperor shou x patriarchal, fatherly immortal venerable gong. Extra-bold mutual devotion and a lethal dose of patriarchal kink.

Blurb: Bai Yujing repaid a debt of gratitude by staying with one person through three lifetimes.

That person died young in his first life, drowned in his second, and finally lived past the age of eight in his third.

Bai Yujing was overjoyed. He immediately put aside his feud with his nemesis, faked his death, and went to the small world to become the boy's master, living inside a pot.

He used the rare treasures he had hidden away to raise his little benefactor to eighteen, watching him make friends and gather admirers.

But the good times didn't last.

At the celebration banquet for his beloved disciple's Nascent Soul formation, Bai Yujing drank a few extra cups in his happiness and revealed his true form. The youth he had raised with his own hands promptly put him in a cage and presented him to an immortal venerable from the greater world who had come to hunt demons.

What a load of nonsense. In Bai Yujing's eyes, only one person deserved to be called an immortal venerable. No one else was fit to tie that person's shoes.

Heartbroken and bitter, Bai Yujing paid no attention to this so-called immortal venerable. But on the day he was presented, he discovered that the immortal venerable was none other than his nemesis, the Xuantian Immortal Venerable, Xuan Lie.

Bai Yujing: "..."

Xuan Lie stood on the high dais, looking down at him, his eyes filled with a darkness that sent a chill through the heart.

The genius youth had thought presenting the snake demon would secure his rise to greatness. But on the day he offered up the demon, he was struck down by the Heaven-Slaying Immortal Venerable's sword. The world was in an uproar.

It turned out that going from being adored by everyone to falling into the dust took just one short day.

Meanwhile, the weakened beauty of a snake got lucky and temporarily enjoyed the lovely life of being the immortal venerable's bracelet.

Xuan Lie pretended not to recognize him. Every day, he nourished the little snake on his wrist with his heart's blood, occasionally parting its scales with his fingertips to gently stroke the soft underside of its belly.

The two of them played at being lovers in a relationship as patriarchal as it could possibly be.

Before long, in a life of quiet submission, Bai Yujing found his belly growing round at the hands of his old nemesis.

Terrified out of his wits, the naive beauty of a snake decided to fake his death and escape again, only to be caught and dragged back by the well-prepared immortal venerable.

The once bewitching and dazzling Demon Emperor, who had made every demon tremble, was now forced beneath his old nemesis to reveal a pure white snake tail.

With tears in his eyes, he could only beg half-heartedly while carefully curling his tail around the egg that had accidentally slipped out, drawing it toward his chest and thinking no one had noticed.

But the next moment, the immortal venerable, said to be cold as ice, picked up the egg as Bai Yujing looked at him in fear and supplication, then pressed it against the scales beneath him. His voice was chilling: "Still going to run?"

Scumbag disciple's perspective:

The day he offered up the snake demon, someone struck him down with a single sword stroke. He fell beneath the Immortal Cloud Terrace like a stray dog, shattered to pieces.

The person who had raised him since childhood, who had always worried he might so much as bump or scrape himself, had already been handed over by his own hand.

This time, no one would hold him close and gently soothe him as they healed his wounds.

Consumed by regret, he swore he would take his master back from that beast.

But after a stroke of fortune allowed him to rebuild his foundation, he hurriedly followed the other man's trail and found him. What he saw was his usually lazy and composed beauty of a master, now leaning against that man's chest as if boneless, his snowy white, magnificent snake tail curled up. He heard him sweetly coo, "My wonderful immortal venerable, my dear husband... I really can lay eggs, so just let me have one little taste."

"In the heavens stands Bai Yujing, with twelve towers and five cities.

An immortal strokes my head, and we tie our hair together to receive eternal life."

1. The shou is both powerful and beautiful, but his species makes him a little dim-witted. A lethal dose of patriarchal kink, so please don't read if that's not your thing.

2. The story is told mainly from the shou's perspective. The gong is handsome, the shou is beautiful, and their mutual devotion is extra-bold. The gong is a patriarchal, overprotective father figure and a jealous type, so readers with extreme gong preferences may want to pass.

3. The shou is a Demon Emperor outside the home, but seems like a silly, doting wife at home. He loves his husband so much that he lays eggs without realizing it, so readers with extreme shou preferences may also want to pass.

4. There is an egg-laying plot point, but the egg isn't a biological child of the two leads. Details would be spoilers. Readers who dislike pseudo-pregnancy, please don't read.

5. Thanks to all the lovely readers supporting the official release. I'll add anything else that comes to mind later.

Theme: Don't dwell on what is past; understand that what lies ahead can still be pursued.