Mistaking the Great Demon for Dad

Ming Zhi was born with a beautiful face: scarlet lips and features so delicate he could have been mistaken for a girl. He always looked pitiful and vulnerable.

He spent his days with his mother aboard a pleasure boat on the human world’s rivers, playing the pipa and singing for passing cultivators.

Because he was a "bastard" and far too beautiful, people often bullied him.

His mother said he wasn’t a bastard at all. His father was a man of noble status, handsome and dignified, as if a god had descended into the mortal world, with an air of extraordinary nobility.

His mother also said his father hadn’t abandoned them; he had his reasons. Once the time was right, he would surely come for them and take them away from this wretched place so they could live well together.

Day after day, year after year, she kept dangling that promise in front of Ming Zhi. In the end, she never saw the faithless man again.

Before she breathed her last, his mother spat out the half of her demon core she had left. It transformed into half a jade pendant, which she pressed into Ming Zhi’s hand.

She also told him that his father had the other half.

Ming Zhi bawled his eyes out. After taking care of his mother’s funeral, he set off on the long road to find his father.

But he met with setbacks at every turn, and was beaten until he was barely clinging to life.

Through blurry eyes, Ming Zhi saw a young man in white step lightly down from the sky, golden light beneath his feet.

As soon as he appeared, the jade pendant around Ming Zhi’s neck began to hum. Realizing what that meant, Ming Zhi wept with excitement and crawled toward him with both hands and feet.

Leaving a trail of bloody handprints behind him.

With a grimy little paw clutching the man’s robe, Ming Zhi struggled to call out, overjoyed, "Daddy!"

Then he passed out.

The great demon lord had merely stolen his sworn enemy’s jade pendant and happened to be passing by, planning to settle a score while he was at it: ???

Theme: Out with the old, in with the new.