The Sword Venerable’s Capture Plan

Yun Xiao would probably never forget the first time she saw the Sword Venerable.

Yan Qingye stood in a sky-blue robe amid a river of blood, utterly out of place, sword in hand. He was as still as a Buddha, serene and free of sorrow or joy. At a single glance, it was impossible to look away.

At his feet lay the senior brothers and sisters from her former sect. Each had been dispatched with a single clean stroke to the throat, their blood spraying three feet before they fell silent forever.

Yes. She was going to kill this man. That was what Yun Xiao thought.

She was going to take the life of the Sword Venerable herself, the man who could face a million foes with a single sword.

-

[Yan Qingye: Xiao A Xiao, come here. Where did the grapes and ganoderma I planted go?]

[Yun Xiao: ... The geese pecked at the grapes, wild dogs dug up the roses, and the weasels stole all the melons outside. And Sword Venerable, how many times have I told you? That's not ganoderma, it's a poisonous mushroom! It's toxic!]

-

What is the infinite? What is delusion? Why does a swordsman take up a sword?

A wretched journey, a journey of blood and tears, burying every love and hate, every sorrow and joy, with her own hands.

Yun Xiao could not bear to look. She could not see through it.

In a daze, she heard someone calling her "Xiao A Xiao" by her ear.

That's right. She was Xiao Yatou, Xiao A Xiao, the sharpest sword on Swordforge Peak, protecting the thousands of disciples behind her with the three-foot blade in her hand.

Yan Qingye once told her that the martial world had never been a place of clear skies and bright moons.

Then she would use this sword to pierce through the demonic haze before her.

Yun Xiao stood alone before hundreds of enemy soldiers, her red robes fluttering like a brilliant flower in full bloom.

"The young sword master of Swordforge Peak is here," she declared.

"Who dares make trouble?"

-

[The sly, reserved heroine who plays dumb to catch the tiger x the Sword Venerable hero who likes to slack off]

[Not quite the typical older-master-and-younger-disciple pairing]

[The heroine grows over the early chapters. The hero first appears in Chapter Seven, and his full introduction comes later. The story leans toward serious drama.]

[The characters are not flawless saints. Please don't compare them to real life.]

[The martial arts and other settings in this story are entirely fictional. Nitpickers, stay away.]

Theme: Let go of obsessions and focus on life in the present