[Journey to the West] What Do I Do If My Senior Brother Is Made of Lotus Root?

Li Shuang is a carp spirit whose goal is to transform into a dragon.

Compared to her kin, she comes from a rather distinguished background:

She was raised by Taiyi Zhenren.

Except that when her intelligence first awakened, she was too immature to know better and ate too many lotus leaves and roots from the pond, so she was sent to the East Sea to reflect on her actions.

But if she could do it all over again, she thinks she would still be exiled to the East Sea.

Those lotus roots were just too delicious.

With her sights set on fighting her way back to Mount Qianyuan, Li Shuang struggled to resist the worldly temptations around her.

With the Zhenren watching over her, she really, really loved cultivating...!

Until that day

*

Thunder roared in the pouring rain.

Amid the waters surging backward and the crashing waves, Li Shuang could see nothing but a vast curtain of water.

It seemed as though that curtain of water was all that remained between heaven and earth.

A bolt of lightning streaked down, and the blade of a sword, bright as the moon, suddenly flashed.

It revealed the young man's fierce, icy gaze.

Li Shuang fell in love at lightning speed.

Then she saw blood spurt from the side of his neck, staining the sky red.

Li Shuang: .

Well, she had fallen out of love in less than three seconds.

It was her fault.

If she were as powerful as the Zhenren, saving a young man would be a piece of cake, wouldn't it?

After reflecting deeply on this painful lesson, Li Shuang found an ancestral leyline and decided to enter secluded cultivation for good.

It was true: she really, really loved cultivating.

*

Li Shuang went into seclusion for a thousand years.

The good news: thanks to her hard work, she was just one step away from passing through the Dragon Gate, and the Zhenren reluctantly agreed to let her return to Mount Qianyuan.

Another piece of good news: the person who had captivated Li Shuang at first sight all those years ago was the Zhenren's most treasured disciple, her senior brother in name.

Her senior brother was aloof, but undeniably beautiful.

And he smelled wonderful.

Li Shuang's heart wavered, and she couldn't control herself.

But there was bad news, too: her senior brother was a lotus-root incarnation, and she'd eaten lotus roots.

She was the culprit behind the shortage of materials when he was shaping his body, which meant that even now his true form still looked like a boy.

Even worse, her senior brother had a deadly grudge against the Dragon Clan, and his armor was strung together from dragon sinews and flood-dragon hide.

Li Shuang: ...

She was just a frail, pitiful carp spirit.

This wasn't fair.

[Reading Guide]

1. A lively heroine who's simply in love with handsome men, frail and pitiful but able to eat and fight, x a dashing, cold, ruthless killer of a hero. They might have a mutual crush (?). The heroine's true form is a little white carp.

2. A look back at the Investiture of the Gods, with a Journey to the West setting, but only brief mentions of the pilgrimage plot. The ancestral leyline where the heroine cultivates in seclusion is Flower-Fruit Mountain.

3. Lots of original worldbuilding.

Theme: Love can transcend species and prejudice