Gods, Keep Away

There is a strange antique shop in the old district of Linzhou.

The shopkeeper is a beauty with skin as smooth as ice and bones as delicate as jade. Seated behind the counter, she pours tea with elegant hands, like a lady in an ancient painting. She knows the antiques of every dynasty by heart. By all appearances, she is a gentle, learned beauty.

But Uncle Liu, who runs the mahjong parlor next door, just waves his hands. "You've got it wrong. Xiao Rong's a biker through and through in private. She drinks, she does it all!"

Auntie Zhang disagrees. "Xiao Rong is a master who keeps her true abilities hidden."

Rong Hegui lies on the second-floor terrace, sunbathing and sipping tea as she yawns. She has no idea what she really is, either.

Many years ago, she was a Daoist prodigy, praised by everyone.

Then, to seize the Jiuzhou Cauldron, she became a heretic hated by all and lost her life.

Later, she became a Ghost King, ruling over her own domain.

To repay a karmic debt from her life, she was drawn into worldly conflicts and ended up scattered, spirit and soul alike.

Now, she is neither human nor ghost, and she doesn't know what to call herself.

She had planned on living a quiet life, growing vegetables and drinking tea. But the antiques, gold, and silver she hid away years ago were confiscated, forcing her to take up her Demon-Slaying Whip and hustle for a living!

A little scene:

In a dilapidated, desolate house on the outskirts of town, Jiang Xingmou, dragged along on an exploration with his friends, is deathly pale. He still has to find a way to protect the friends behind him, who are about to faint from fright.

He holds aloft a protective talisman obtained from a Buddhist temple, trying his best not to look at the vengeful ghost floating from the rafters.

Just as the ghost spots them and swoops down, a motorcycle roars outside.

Its headlight nearly illuminates the entire house.

Rong Hegui removes her helmet, ruffles her short hair, and casually smacks the ghost aside with it. "You're Jiang Xingmou? I owed your grandmother a meal. We're even now."

Jiang Xingmou's legs go weak. He looks at Rong Hegui, who appears to be barely twenty, and his eyes roll back as he starts to faint.

His grandmother died over thirty years ago!

Notes:

1. The male lead isn't mentioned in the blurb. The female lead ends up single and thriving.

2. There is a romance. However, the romance between the heroine during her time as Ghost King and the hero in his previous life can be treated as a relationship between two separate people. (That's also why this isn't categorized as a no-romance story.)

3. The novel goes VIP on August 19, 2023, with a 10,000-word update on launch day.

Coming soon 1: Chang'an Without Night

In Chang'an, wrapped in a thin veil of mist, a disfigured fox wearing human skin sniffs the air from a rooftop. Its fox eyes narrow as it lets out a sly, crafty laugh.

A sorcerer carrying a human-skin drum walks through an empty alley, holding a clump of freshly gathered fortune in his hand and slowly breathing it in through his nostrils.

A foreign dancer's waist is supple as a snake. She bites through a patron's neck, then licks the blood from the corner of her lips with her delicate tongue.

And a young woman rides out through a side gate of the Daming Palace. She wears a veiled hat strung with rows of copper coins and carries an imperial decree, acting on the emperor's orders to investigate cases and hunt demons.

Beneath the gauzy veil is half a mask woven from specially made copper coins. Only her cool, clear eyes are visible.

In the tenth month of the second year of Linde, the emperor led his civil and military officials, while Empress Wu led the court ladies, to Mount Tai for the Fengshan sacrifice.

On the day of the ceremony, the emperor and empress discovered an infant girl on Mount Tai, wrapped in a golden swaddling cloth.

The baby could dispel Empress Wu's nightmares, delighting the emperor and empress. They had her raised in the palace, where she received treatment equal to that of a princess.

Coming soon 2: Song of the Frontier

In the fifth year of Wende, every member of the general's household was killed in battle, and the general's wife died by suicide out of grief.

All that remained of the vast general's residence was a baby girl still in swaddling clothes.

Moved by the general's valor, the emperor of Daliang kept the orphan, Meng Hanzhang, in the palace and bestowed on her the title of Princess Mingyue.

She was raised alongside the emperor's young daughter, Princess Hengshan, by the empress.

In the twenty-third year of Wende, the borderlands fell into danger. The grassland cavalry pointed their swords at the Central Plains, the people were terrified, and the court was shaken.

With the nation in peril, civil and military officials alike submitted memorials asking to flee the capital and escape disaster. Not one volunteered to go to the front!

Eighteen-year-old Princess Mingyue, Meng Hanzhang, cut off her long hair and brought her father's spirit tablet to the Golden Throne Hall. There, she won the tiger tally and went to war in armor.

At the time, no one believed that Princess Mingyue, raised amid the splendor of the capital, would return alive.

Yet victory reports kept coming. Daliang's star general had risen again, and the borderlands were peaceful once more.

Theme: Persevere with determination and never give up.