The Tyrant's Pet Golden Lotus

Coming soon: The Dodder Vine Faked His Death and Ran Away. Please add it to your favorites. Blurb at the very bottom.

Yu Li was a lotus spirit, glowing with golden light and surrounded by a Buddha-like radiance.

It would have been one thing if he'd grown in an uninhabited mountain wilderness. But no, he had been planted personally by the tyrant Ying Xuandu and kept in the courtyard of the imperial bedchamber.

Palace attendants and officials were constantly coming and going. Even when he grew a flower bud, Yu Li didn't dare bloom.

If they found out he was a demon, wouldn't the tyrant have some old Daoist priest end his life in no time?

Yu Li shivered and wrapped himself tightly around his bud.

Spring turned to winter, and the lotus in the tyrant's courtyard still hadn't bloomed. Rumors began to spread throughout the palace.

One day, the suspicious tyrant threatened with a cold laugh, "If you don't bloom soon, I'll have someone rip you out!"

Terrified, Yu Li bloomed overnight.

Before long, the news that the tyrant had raised an auspicious golden lotus had spread throughout the capital.

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Ying Xuandu had seized the throne illegitimately. For every year he'd ruled, he'd been cursed as a tyrant. He never imagined that one day a lotus would make the people call him a true Son of Heaven.

He scoffed at the notion of an auspicious sign, thinking the lotus variety had simply mutated and that its so-called Buddha-like radiance was just light refracting off the petals.

That is, until the golden lotus transformed into a human right before his eyes.

Ying Xuandu: "So it really is an auspicious sign."

From then on, a beauty appeared at the tyrant's side. He was so precious that Ying Xuandu feared he might break if held in his hands or melt if kept in his mouth.

Everyone said the beauty was lucky to have won the emperor's favor, but Yu Li only wanted to go back to his pond and laze around.

Whenever he said he wanted to return to his original body, the tyrant would grit his teeth and threaten, "If you dare go back, I'll fill in that lousy pond and make you live in a water jar!"

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Ying Xuandu fell in love with Yu Li at first sight and wanted to tear out his own heart and offer it to the little lotus.

But Yu Li was completely oblivious. He paid no attention to Ying Xuandu's affection, leaving the emperor with a daily heartache and no way to deal with him.

He comforted himself with the thought that Yu Li was under his control, and that sooner or later he would come around.

Ying Xuandu never got to see Yu Li come around. Instead, Yu Li asked with eager anticipation, "When are you going to fill the harem and produce an heir? Could you make a few cute, pretty little ones for me to play with?"

Ying Xuandu laughed in anger. "You're right. I really should provide the royal family with an heir."

Yu Li, who had been caught completely off guard and tossed over Ying Xuandu's shoulder onto the bed: "???"

A sunny, airheaded beauty lotus spirit uke x A calculating, scheming tyrant seme

Coming soon: The Dodder Vine Faked His Death and Ran Away. Expected to launch in mid-October

Lin Qingwei was delicate and beautiful, and known throughout the Taiyi Sword Sect as a dodder vine.

He had nothing but an ordinary three-element spiritual root, yet his pretty face earned him a place at Sword Venerable Xuanhui's side from childhood. Xuanhui raised and taught him personally, and as soon as he came of age, they formally married and became cultivation partners.

Everyone wondered why. Had Lin Qingwei bewitched Sword Venerable Xuanhui and made him fall in love?

Lin Qingwei wanted to know why, too.

From the moment he was chosen, he was told he would be Xuanhui's one and only cultivation partner. Xuanhui cared for him in every way, cherishing him like a treasure and never letting him suffer the slightest grievance.

Xuanhui was the only person in Lin Qingwei's world, and Lin Qingwei loved only him, wholeheartedly.

But Lin Qingwei knew that Sword Venerable Xuanhui did love him. It was just that his favoritism was mixed with a plan.

Lin Qingwei was the tribulation of love in Sword Venerable Xuanhui's path of ruthlessness, destined to be cut down.

Later, a sword wearing the tassel Lin Qingwei had woven himself pierced his heart. The eyes that had once brimmed with love were now cold.

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A hundred years later, Sword Venerable Xuanhui had become the foremost figure in the immortal cultivation world, while Lin Qingwei was a nameless corpse who had just been resurrected and crawled out of a mass grave.

He changed his name and started over, only to discover that he couldn't do anything without Xuanhui.

No one had ever taught him how to survive in a cultivation world full of danger. Fortunately, a wandering evil spirit stayed by his side.

The evil spirit was fierce, yet respected and protected him, accompanying him as he stumbled through the cultivation world and sheltering him from wind and rain without asking for anything in return.

Everything about it made clear that the evil spirit loved him. Lin Qingwei knew he had nothing to offer in return, so he asked the evil spirit, "Would you marry me and become my cultivation partner?"

He thought the evil spirit would be overjoyed, but instead it stared at him with an expression he couldn't make sense of, dark and inscrutable.

The evil spirit asked, "Qingwei, if you marry me, won't you regret it?"

Lin Qingwei didn't understand, but he had no regrets. He married again.

Only when Xuanhui absorbed the evil spirit back into himself did Lin Qingwei realize there had never been an evil spirit at all. It had only been Xuanhui in disguise, manipulating him like a puppet.

All that seemingly unconditional love was nothing but a flower in a mirror, a moon reflected in water. He had never escaped Xuanhui's control.

Lin Qingwei turned and left without hesitation.

In this life, he would live only for himself.

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Later, the sword venerable, once as lofty as a god, descended from his altar. Jealousy and regret nearly drowned him.

Again and again, he asked Lin Qingwei, "He and I were originally one. Why could he do it, but I couldn't?"

Lin Qingwei simply smiled with relief. "No. You'll never measure up to him."

They were one and the same, but in the end, they were different.

A beautiful, decorative flower vase who awakens later and lives only for himself uke x A twisted, mentally ill, scheming seme with bizarre logic who is literally cheating with himself

Theme: Love is based on equality and restraint, and even more on mutual respect.