The Righteous Hero Has Two Faces

People say that Pei Qilian, the demon of Tianding Mountain, descends from a bloodline of ultimate evil. His parents were two great fiends from hundreds of years ago, utterly devoid of humanity and responsible for countless deaths.

The righteous sects made exterminating demons their duty, and the Immortal Cultivation Sect sent its most prized direct disciple to infiltrate their ranks.

But... righteous disciples were far too easy to recognize. That gaze that loathed evil, that upright figure like a pine or bamboo, that handsome face like the moon... And after being teased, those eyes, red with embarrassment and anger.

The handsome man's charms had struck Pei Qilian right in the heart.

After Pei Qilian teased and toyed with him,

retribution came.

The sects joined forces, the heavens trapped him, and seventy-two crimson thunderbolts struck. From that day on, Pei Qilian was no more.

*

One miscalculation brought Pei Qilian a lifetime of bad luck.

His remnant soul entered a plant, and it took a full century for him to finally cultivate a body made of plants.

The great demon, alive again, stretched lazily, slung a bundle over his shoulder, and headed off to seek refuge with the Immortal Cultivation Sect. He planned to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

But he discovered that the righteous disciple he had toyed with a hundred years ago had become a grand elder of the immortal sect.

Thinking of the tricks he had once used on him, Pei Qilian packed up and ran away again, back to his old hideout.

Then he discovered that his old hideout had been taken over.

Under the new demon's leadership, demons and monsters were running rampant, driving the immortal sect into a frenzy of endless work.

To keep his options open, Pei Qilian shuttled between the immortal sect and the demon sect. Then he discovered he wasn't the only one doing it. That grand elder of the immortal sect was at it too.

By day, he was the exalted master of the immortal sect, devoted to cultivation.

At night, he was a merciless, ruthless demon.

So, Master, are you running between both sides to try out different roles?

Only later did Pei Qilian learn that the young disciple who had glared at him with furious, reddened eyes in the bathhouse and on the bed had split off a second personality after Pei Qilian died.

Feng Huang was born into an exceptionally prominent cultivation family. He possessed a rare heavenly spiritual root, and at his birth an astronomical omen appeared, one seen only once in a century. From the Immortal Academy to the Immortal Sect, he was the center of everyone's attention, with a smooth and successful path ahead of him. In the eyes of the world, he was heaven's favored child, a shining, coldly upright star of the cultivation sects.

At the age of twenty, he lay in wait on Tianding Mountain for three months, then helped the righteous factions eliminate the most troublesome great demon of the demon world.

The instant the demon's soul was destroyed, his long sword let out a soft ringing.

His hair flew in the wind. Blood ran from one eye, and tears from the other.

"Master, I will remember your words. I swear to take Pei Qilian's head and offer it to the spirits of our ancestors!"

"Master, I understand. Pei Qilian is best at feigning affection and deceiving people's hearts!"

"Master, I am confused. Pei Qilian isn't a fiend who does every evil under the sun. Why must he be put to death?"

"Mas... Hongdao Zhenren, you deceived me."

"Child, the demon has led you astray. I will help you eliminate your inner demon. Pei Qilian is dead. Once you erase your memories of him, your inner demon will dissipate too."

* A bewitching, carefree beauty as the shou x a righteous gong with two personalities (upright and staid + twisted and mad after falling to darkness)

* The gong's second personality split off after the shou died.

* At first, the two personalities are unaware of each other.

Theme: Reform, mend your ways, and persevere