That Demoness Is Back for Blood!

A young woman clutches a long sword, squeezed into a carriage with the other cultivators heading to the Immortal Cultivation Tournament.

As they nod off, someone brings up a legend from the Immortal Realm.

“Did you know? There's an immortal locked up on the mountain we're headed to. They say that a thousand years ago, while undergoing a trial in the mortal realm, he was bewitched by a demoness, lost his cultivation, and was trapped there.”

“What happened to the demoness?”

“Her soul must have been scattered. She'll never be reincarnated.”

The young woman pauses when she hears this, then smiles. Her voice is so quiet that only she can hear it. “So that's what people say about me.”

She gazes at the starry sky and remembers a thousand years ago.

On the night before she was captured, she and the young immortal had sat in a tree, looking at the stars.

“I'm an immortal. I can't die, but what will happen to you?”

“It's fine. Since you're a high and mighty immortal, I'll be able to see you just by looking up after I'm reincarnated.” The girl points to the stars and smiles with confidence. “As long as I can see you, I'll find a way to save you.”

Carrying the memories of her past life, she is reincarnated. She crosses mountains and ridges, and finally stands atop the immortal mountain in a mortal body.

“All right, let's begin.” The girl stretches. “I'll give you the time it takes an incense stick to burn to run for your lives.”

The monsters on the mountain: “What's going on? That demoness has come back to slaughter us again!”

The monsters all clear a path for her. After all, this little girl looks exactly like the demoness from a thousand years ago. Nobody wants to mess with her.

[Reader's Guide]

1. Mountains of original worldbuilding, my own take on cultivation.

Theme: Love can span ten thousand years.