Li Zhi, the youngest disciple of Qingqing Peak, the top sect in the cultivation world, is one of the personal disciples of Qingchu Sword Venerable, the greatest sword immortal. While gathering herbs, she encounters an ancient ferocious beast gone berserk. On the brink of death, she unexpectedly recovers a fragment of memory and realizes she is nothing more than one of the most inconspicuous cannon-fodder passerby C characters in a sweet romance cultivation novel.
Vaguely remembering that she is just a plot device, Li Zhi chooses to ignore it. After all, she's just passerby C. One more or one less makes no difference. Her own cultivation path is already difficult enough. Why should she have the time to worry about anyone else?
It isn't until the heroine, on the verge of falling into demonic cultivation, blocks her path one day that Li Zhi learns the truth:
That aloof, beautiful senior sister, as cold and remote as a mountain flower, is actually a man. He will fall into darkness and become a demon after failing to win the heroine's love, then imprison her with him...
That taciturn, upright sword cultivator who grew up with the heroine will become her attentive "older brother" after she joins the sect, only to die by the sword he loves most for the sake of her opportunity...
And Li Zhi's long-missing companion spirit is the heroine's guardian...
And the precondition for all this is:
Li Zhi is already dead.
Looking at the resentment in the heroine's eyes, Li Zhi is stunned. Since when can people just change the script in this world?
She thinks it over, then nods.
"Thanks for telling me. I understand. Could you move aside? I'm in a hurry."
Heroine: "..."
The heroine completely falls into demonic cultivation, black energy swirling around her as she charges at Li Zhi.
Li Zhi's gaze turns cold. She draws the Qisu Sword and flashes forward, shattering ten thousand obstacles with a single strike.
Watching the heroine's disbelieving expression, she sticks a teleportation talisman with a restrictive seal onto her and sends her back to the sect.
In the few seconds before it activates, Li Zhi says to the heroine earnestly, "You have to rely on yourself."
Heroine: ...I'm the heroine of a sweet romance novel, damn it!!
Content warnings: This isn't orthodox cultivation. The worldbuilding is mostly the author's own. The heroine follows an upgrade-focused path and has a golden finger. Everyone has a one-sided crush on someone. It can be self-indulgent and a bit naive. There will be fights against stronger opponents, and there will be romance, but there may not be one fixed couple. Choose your favorite pairing and see how it goes.
Theme: Independence and self-reliance.
