The World-Weary, Sickly Beauty Doesn't Want to Be Saved

Ji Xuefeng is a familiar kind of senior disciple in xianxia stories.

This kind of senior disciple usually suffers from a hidden illness, making him gloomy and withdrawn. He lives in a little house in a bamboo grove and sees no one.

But he used to be a heaven-favored prodigy, until one fall sent him tumbling into the mud. The protagonist can't stop thinking about him and would risk everything to heal him.

But characters like this usually end up being killed by the villain just when there's finally hope of seeing the light of day again, becoming one of the sparks that ignite an irreconcilable feud between the villain and protagonist.

Due to an accident, Ji Xuefeng died before ever meeting the protagonist.

But that wasn't much of a problem. His days as a heaven-favored prodigy had been so dazzling that the protagonist still couldn't forget him.

And the protagonist wasn't the only one. The villain couldn't forget him either.

The bigger problem was that no one could forget him and move on.

*

Ji Xuefeng was once the ultimate goal that every sword cultivator in the cultivation world strove for their whole lives to reach.

He became famous at a young age, full of ambition and roaming the four corners of the world. In several hundred years, he never lost a battle. He was the youngest Sword Venerable in history, and the Sword of the Heavenly Dao willingly acknowledged him as its master.

He studied under the previous Sword Venerable, traveled the mortal world with his childhood friend, the young master of the Medicine Sect, and befriended the Demon Realm's crown prince, who was training in disguise. They were evenly matched, both rivals and friends.

Later, he became the leader of the righteous path and led cultivators in the fight against the demons. He won his decisive battle against his old nemesis, who had become the Demon Venerable, but did not take his head. Afterward, he asked to be punished and had his peerless cultivation crippled, then shut himself away in a bamboo hut and never appeared in public again.

Ji Xuefeng thought that at last he would find release after enduring such a long torment, but he never expected to be reborn, back at the time when his heart illness was incurable and his body was broken beyond repair.

Ji Xuefeng: ... I'm laughing because I'm so angry.

If he was going to die anyway, and death would be a release, Ji Xuefeng decided to cut ten years off the road and simply end his own life.

But a mysterious voice stopped him.

The mysterious voice that awakened him said: After you died, someone turned the whole world upside down trying to save you. So now you have to return and find that person, then stop them.

Ji Xuefeng: Can I die only after I find them?

Mysterious voice: Yes.

"That might be difficult," Ji Xuefeng said with a smile. Even with his weary, sickly face, he was still so beautiful that no one could look away. "There are many who hate me in this world and few who love me, but there are still a few people willing to die for me."

*

Mysterious voice: The search has been narrowed down to four people: your master, your childhood friend, your nemesis, and your junior disciple.

While he had shut himself away, his devoted fatherly master had transformed into an anxious, overprotective man, and his gentle, kind childhood friend had grown into a sweet-faced black-hearted schemer. His nemesis, who loved chasing him down to cut him up, was still as eager as ever to do just that...

Wait, who is this junior disciple?

*

Jiang Yuyun knew from a young age that he was probably special to this world, some so-called child of destiny.

Before he was old enough to understand what that meant, he had already endured every hardship the world could offer. He was not yet as tall as the reeds by the roadside when his bones and sinews were shattered, and he died once already.

Fortunately, he met that person.

From then on, all Jiang Yuyun ever wanted was to see him, catch up to him, and follow him.

But when he finally saw that person again, he accidentally glimpsed the man's inner world.

Amid endless darkness, killing intent raged like a fierce wind. The man sat peacefully, his eyes lowered as he watched a candle flame no bigger than a bean...

So at some point, the immortal-like man had already let the fire in his heart turn to ash.

And Jiang Yuyun didn't even know why.

Only then did he suddenly realize how great the distance between them was.

In the first century, someone had raised him. In the second, someone had kept him company. By the third, someone had already become his kindred spirit.

He couldn't claim that first century, and by the time he waited for the next one, it seemed there was no chance left for him.

Ji Xuefeng, Ji Xuefeng...

Jiang Yuyun murmured the name, dazed.

Thus was born his inner demon, burrowing into his heart meridians and binding him tight, with pain like a parasite clinging to his bones.

*

One winter several years ago, two things happened.

One was known to everyone.

The youngest Sword Venerable in history fought the new Demon Venerable. Though victorious, he did not take the Demon Venerable's head. Later, the Sword of the Heavenly Dao rejected him, and he asked to be punished and have his peerless cultivation crippled.

From then on, he shut himself away in a bamboo grove and never appeared before the public again.

The other was unknown to everyone.

Before his punishment, the Sword Venerable once wandered through the world. In the snow, he helped a small boy to his feet, took his scarred little hand, and led him up the stairway to immortality.

This was a trivial thing, and the man himself had probably forgotten it.

*Sickly but invincible and beautiful older gong x super-devoted younger shidi bottom

*The gong's master was the previous Sword Venerable. The gong was the youngest Sword Venerable, but for certain reasons, he stepped down and brought his master back to take over. The youngest Sword Venerable in the last paragraph of the blurb is the gong.

*The only official bottom is the junior disciple. One-on-one romance, a fated match and a bond of destiny.

Theme: Live life with optimism.