The Sword Rises at Dawn

Xie Fuxiao's life could only be called a complete defeat.

She was born ugly, with no divine bloodline. Every bit of her power came from years of hard cultivation in the mortal realm: a hundred years controlling floods, a hundred years taming the wilderness, and another hundred years slaying demons, before she finally earned a place among the immortals.

Yet the world was always comparing her to Zhu Luan, the immortal beauty renowned throughout the land. After all the comparisons, only two words remained:

Not as good.

At first, Xie Fuxiao didn't understand what those words meant. After all, she had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship, with no equal. But years later, when the great immortal sects executed her at the Underworld Terrace for a crime that never existed, she finally understood.

Not as good. She truly wasn't as good...

Her cold, unfeeling master gave Zhu Luan his own life-bound core to heal her injuries, sacrificing his cultivation without a second thought.

The young master of the demon clan gave up evil and joined the immortal sects just to make Zhu Luan smile. It became a celebrated tale across the Three Realms.

And then there was the person Xie Fuxiao had secretly loved as a girl...

He accused her of stealing the Soul-Attracting Lantern and shattered her Golden Immortal bones with his own hands. He had treated her well only because her eyes resembled Zhu Luan's by seventy percent. This elegant young immortal, so full of schemes, had done it all to prolong the life of Zhu Luan, whose soul had been frail since birth.

Zhu Luan. Zhu Luan.

As she lay dying, Xie Fuxiao thought that those two words had become the knot at the heart of her entire life. In a daze, an ethereal, distant voice suddenly sounded in her ear:

"Do you want to know why?"

"She's nothing but a wandering ghost from another world. Because she can foresee fate, she stole what should have been yours: your looks, your immortal bones, your fortune, and even... your beloved."

"Do you hate her? Everything that happened to you was secretly orchestrated by her."

"I can give you a brand-new body. Go take back everything that belongs to you."

"In exchange for your reincarnation through ten thousand lifetimes."

Xie Fuxiao was no saint. When that voice made her heart tremble, she knew she had already fallen into the deepest hell...

The Beauty Bones were born in ancient times and hidden across the Eight Wastes. Whoever possessed them could turn the hearts of all beneath heaven and throw the world into chaos. Xia's Mo Xi, Shang's Daji, Zhou's Baosi, and Jin's Liji had all been their masters, until the Beauty Bones vanished without a trace.

The world believed they were only a legend.

Until the year the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda broke and chaos engulfed the immortal realm. A peerlessly beautiful woman emerged, sword in hand. A flash of cold light, one sword at dawn, and every demon under heaven was slain.

Some joked that hundreds of immortal lords had fallen at her feet.

Those who had once hurt, harmed, slandered, and humiliated her knelt in the mud. "Fuxiao, please come back. I know I was wrong. I'll gladly die nine times over to atone for all my sins..."

But the woman gently shook her head. Those eyes could hold both the bright moon and the breeze, as well as every blade of grass and humble insect, but they would never again turn toward those people.

"I never wanted your love."

"I only wanted justice."

Theme: There is no divide between gods and demons; the heart is what matters.