The Demoness's Male Attendant Master

When Chen Tianxiang is sent on a mission to the Nether Realm, he discovers that the leader of the Demon Cult is none other than his long-lost junior sister. And the least favored male lover of the Demon Cult's leader turns out to be his own master.

The female demon, Nie Xiaofeng

Her master, Luo Xuan

Her senior brother, Chen Tianxiang

1. I love melodramatic Mary Sue stories, but I also despise mindless melodrama. So I rack my brain trying to give these vulgar, melodramatic stories a logical foundation.

2. I want to challenge the stereotype that ancient societies must always be patriarchal. I want to show that a society led by women is not just childish wish fulfillment in the form of a female-dominance power fantasy.

3. I love writing intensely emotional stories. I like extremes, and love that is both passionate and tragic.

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This story is mainly my own indulgent romantic melodrama. But romance isn't the only thing that interests me. To me, wuxia is a very useful framework. How is my wuxia fiction different from what came before? First, I focus on creating female supporting characters who aren't consumed by romance. Second, my stories focus on the southwest. Wuxia rarely used to focus on the southwest. Usually, it was about deserts and heroic men from Yan and Zhao, stories aimed at men. The southwest was generally just a place for exotic cults that played with snakes, like the Five Poisons Sect or the Miao witchcraft tribes.

I focus on the southwest because I want to write stories for women, and explore different systems and cultures. Just think, the southwest had the Eastern Women's Kingdom and the Luo Women's Tribes even in the Tang dynasty.

I like ancient settings, but I dislike the same old patriarchal setup. I'm interested in matriarchal societies, and I really want to challenge the stereotype that ancient worlds must necessarily be patriarchal.

The Nether Realm draws on cultural elements from the Supi Women's Kingdom, the Mosuo, the Minangkabau, the Khasi, the Iroquois, the Akan, the Arawak, and the Amazon warriors.

I hope readers will come away knowing that an egalitarian ancient society led by women is entirely possible.

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To put it in popular terms, this story is:

"A passionate, tragic love story between an aloof master and his ambitious, powerful female disciple."

The difference between this heroine and the cookie-cutter "female demon" is that, although she is called a "female demon," she is not a "delinquent girl," not "evil" in the orthodox-versus-evil sense, not someone "waiting to be reformed and guided by the male lead," not "morally inferior to the male lead," and certainly not the so-called "rebellious, passionate woman who bravely pursues love." The limitation of the typical "female demon" character is that she is an "other." Readers naturally side with the "righteous male lead," looking down on the "female demon" from a position of moral superiority as they watch him tame and guide the "naive, cruel female demon" back to the right path. This story doesn't do that.

I'm not saying the heroine is a perfect person. In fact, she is still a self-interested person with her own limitations. But she is an "extraordinary, capable ordinary person" illuminated by the light of idealism.

She is sharp and ruthless, but she also has a tender side.

She may seem unreasonable, but she has her own logic for dealing with things.

She has "keen insight" grounded in her own interests. Through her and those around her, we see a distinctive facet of the world.

What I really want to write about is the different little world the heroine inhabits.

The difference between this hero and the cookie-cutter "aloof, cold master" is that I try to portray him as a humanist. He is given to philosophical reflection and holds himself to high moral standards, yet in reality he has fallen into a degrading situation and is full of moral stains. He is clear-eyed, yet lost.

All right, I admit I also idealize the male lead too much.

To balance that out, I gave him a "flaw" and made sure he doesn't take advantage of the heroine, so I won't make you frustrated~

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The master is detached, gentle, and perceptive about the ways of the world. Believing he has little time left, he returns to the place where his mother and younger sister are buried, only to unexpectedly encounter his long-lost female disciple. Years have passed, and his disciple has become the leader of a Demon Cult that stands against the orthodox sects. As the head of the Demon Cult, she acts by her own moral code, at times seemingly capricious and cruel, at others wise and astute, making her impossible to read.

And she doesn't remember him.

The female disciple who once stayed by his side and repeatedly confessed her ardent love for him has now become the supreme ruler of a realm, and has completely forgotten him.

He struggles to hold back and restrain himself in every way, yet in the end he cannot accept it. He draws closer, step by step, and falls deeper, until he somehow becomes his disciple's male lover!

Heroine: The leader of the Demon Cult, a young leader in a matriarchal nation

Hero: A reserved, aloof, and highly respected divine physician

Master-disciple romance + reunion after a long separation.

The master becomes his disciple's male lover, and their positions are reversed.

An ancient setting that is not patriarchal.

Theme: Exploring equality and love