A Heart of Wood and Stone

[Complete. If you see updates, I'm just fixing typos and revising the text. Please add it to your collection!]

[My next story is decided: a martial arts novel with high martial prowess and low fantasy, The Order of Reward and Punishment. Find it on my author page and please add it to your collection!]

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As the founder of the Linghuan Sword Sect, the Sword Ancestor Qingcen brought back a little girl with an "Immortal Spirit Heart" from beyond the sect's gates just before ascending. He broke his rule against taking on more disciples and named her Cen Shige. After her master and senior brothers had all ascended or passed away, Cen Shige became the most senior ancestor in the sect.

Moqiyuan, one of the four great fiends among the demonic cultivators, launched a massive assault on the Linghuan Sword Sect to obtain the Immortal Spirit Heart.

Cen Shige: "I'll trade my heart for the lives of everyone else."

Moqiyuan: "This venerable one will take your heart."

The entire sect did everything it could to save Cen Shige after she lost her heart. They spent countless resources and favors to make her an artifact heart from heavenly treasures, allowing her to cling to life.

But without a real heart, Cen Shige's emotions were somewhat more muted than those of an ordinary person. Unless someone had earned her trust, no one could warm her heart of stone.

Cen Shige: "I don't even have a heart. How am I supposed to give it to you?"

After obtaining the Immortal Spirit Heart, Moqiyuan mastered his demonic arts and used an iron fist to unite the scattered demonic cultivators. He carved out territory in the cultivation world and declared himself the Demon Venerable.

A Heavenly Demon appeared, threatening to destroy the entire cultivation world. The other demonic cultivators all advocated joining forces with the immortals to fight it.

But when Moqiyuan helped seal a fragment of the Heavenly Demon's core, someone ambushed him and he fell into the Demon-Sealing Abyss, where he died.

Having prepared a contingency plan, he regained consciousness and discovered that his soul had been reborn in the body of a destitute young man whose meridians were all severed. But the person standing in front of him was Cen Shige!

Yun Youhe: "Master, why not take him on as a servant disciple?"

Shen Chunqian: "A single spiritual root? What a pity his meridians are shattered to bits."

Cen Shige: "No matter. What's your name?"

Moqiyuan: "Mo... Mo Yuan."

Reader's Guide:

1. The blurb makes up a very small part of the story, only 3% of the whole plot.

2. There are original worldbuilding details. A long, slow-burn story, somewhat ensemble-focused and plot-driven. Both leads are strong, but the heroine is stronger. Dual perspectives.

3. The heroine is decisive and ruthless, and the coolest character in the story. She also holds the highest seniority.

4. The male lead's true identity is revealed later, and there's a groveling arc. Happy ending, one-on-one romance.

5. The heroine's two disciples are a secondary couple, and there are also secondary couples in the individual arcs.

Cultivation levels: Mortal Realm → Yellow Realm → Mystic Realm → Earth Realm → Heaven Realm → Universe Realm → Primordial Realm → Ascension

Each level is divided into early, middle, and late stages.

The order is based on Heaven, Earth, Mystic, Yellow, Universe, Primordial.

The Order of Reward and Punishment

Ten years later, the Order of Reward and Punishment has reappeared in the martial world. The Punishment Order appears in front of each great villain, with their date of death written on it.

The method is exactly the same as that used by the Punishment Envoy ten years ago. Not one of the villains who received a Punishment Order survived. For a time, the evildoers of the martial world were in a state of panic.

*

As the saying goes, "The greatest hermits hide in the city." Luo Kui was a formidable martial artist who had grown tired of the martial world. After one mistake, she began her retirement early, spending ten years wallowing in idleness without drawing her sword.

She even opened a clinic called Medicine Hut in Wanshan Village, near the imperial capital.

As a half-baked doctor who treated patients with martial arts and made medicine from books, she had a way to keep her clinic open.

Her blood could cure all poisons and ease internal injuries.

So no one had ever exposed her as a fake miracle doctor.

Luo Kui thought she'd keep living this peaceful, numb life, but on the rare occasion she took action, she met a young man who seemed to be someone she once knew.

The youth wore red like a flame, bold and warm as the sun. He was so dazzling that he hardly seemed like an assassin.

He brought color to Luo Kui's utterly uneventful life, and she always had endless patience for him.

For example:

Every time Luo Kui came up with a new wound salve, it was gone the next day!

Every time she brewed a new medicinal decoction, it disappeared as soon as she turned around!

Every time she brought home fresh herbs, they were gone by the time she stepped out!

Every time she made a delicious meal, she hadn't even eaten a bite before she went to the kitchen for some soup and came back to find the entire table empty!

Luo Kui smiled helplessly and patiently played cat and mouse with the young man.

Luo Kui: "When did Young Master Duan San, the top assassin of the Yellow Springs Tower, become a thief in my clinic?"

Duan San: "Big Sister, have you heard of the Reward and Punishment Envoy?"

Luo Kui: "I have."

Duan San: "Besides being the top assassin in the Yellow Springs Tower, I'm also the Punishment Envoy. Since I'm helping the people, please let me off!"

Luo Kui: "?"

If you're the Punishment Envoy, then who am I?

An assassin male lead who has presumptuously inherited the title of Punishment Envoy × a female lead who is a doctor at a clinic and the retired, legitimate Punishment Envoy

Reader's Guide:

1. An alternate world with high martial prowess and low fantasy, an ensemble story centered on the two leads, one-on-one romance, happy ending.

2. Older woman-younger man romance. The heroine is 26, the male lead is 19.

3. Both leads use fake names at first.

4. Martial arts ranks: Martial Artist, Third-Rank Martial Artist, Second-Rank Martial Artist, First-Rank Martial Artist, Transcendent First-Rank Martial Artist.

Above Transcendent First-Rank are four realms: Beyond the Mortal Realm, Unrestrained Realm, Heaven-and-Man Realm, and Mystic Immortal Realm.

Theme: Stay true to yourself