After Binding the Deceased Wife System, She Became the Moonlight of the Entire Cultivation World

[Since many readers felt that the cast got too large later on and the relationships between characters were handled too hastily, I've learned my lesson. My next novel will be a widow-focused story, but with a one-on-one romance. If you're interested, scroll down and check out the blurb for How to Help the Leader of the Righteous Path Move On from His Late Wife. I'm focusing on a two-person story this time, and I'll make sure to give their bond real depth!] [Synopsis] Breaking news: The Heartless Dao is expanding its enrollment, and the Heavenly Dao is about to be hacked apart by a horde of madmen with neither heart nor conscience! The Late Wife System found me and asked me to give these lunatics a knack for romance. The payout for completing the job is pretty good. Me: #Former Number One of the Heartless Dao# #Confirming Again# System: You got it. (OK hand sign) So I was sent a hundred years into the past, before the Heartless Dao's enrollment boom, and became the richest person in the mortal realm. At this point, the great medicine cultivator was just a guy rolling pills in a pharmacy. The master weapon smith was just a blacksmith in an ironworks. And the one who switched from the Joyful Union Dao to the Heartless Dao had it even worse: this once peerless prodigy had fallen into the mud and been thrown into the pleasure quarter, where he was learning all kinds of seduction techniques... System: "Go show them some compassion! Let them feel that true affection is the most beautiful thing in the world, and make them give up on cultivating the Heartless Dao!" The System issued a mission: "Become someone's wife." I stared blankly. "Whose wife?" "Everyone's." ...? The System stopped me from having any dangerous ideas and explained, "Not all at once! You do it once every so often." "Then how am I supposed to do it once every so often?" "Easy. Once you're dead, your schedule will open up." The System reassured me. "Don't worry, a dead wife is the most beloved kind." The Late Wife System's true purpose was to weave the most intense love and hate together, letting love cover the shadow of death and never fade, while death gilded hatred and transformed it into love. Every time, I died very cleanly. A hundred years later, the Heavenly Dao and I watched the prodigies pick their majors. Good news: Because their late wife said she loved watching them roll pills with their slender fingers, hammer iron with their sleeves rolled up, or wear red bellybands (?)... they gave up cultivating the Heartless Dao. Bad news: They were even crazier now because they wanted to resurrect their late wife. The trembling Heavenly Dao: Um, sis... [From the Widower(s)' Perspective] Before I became a cultivator, I suffered every kind of abuse in the mortal realm. My fate was harsh, my future bleak, and my life as dark as night. A lowborn man like me should have lived and died as insignificant as a fly. But someone said to me, "Hey, things aren't all that bad, are they?" "You won't always have to live under other people's thumb." I didn't believe her. All I could see were cages, shackles, and darkness. But she believed. Allow me to introduce her properly. She is Shen Xixi, my treasure, my life, the very root of my existence. Yes, she is the best person in the world. I've been cultivating for over a hundred years. Everyone calls me a natural-born genius and honors me as their superior. But I miss my wife. At midnight, whenever I gaze into the desolate shadows of the night, I think of my beloved Xixi again and again. She was a girl who took everything seriously. When she loved me, she couldn't see anyone else. When she died, she was so busy experiencing death that she couldn't see me. Yes, she passed away many years ago. I heard that the former leader of the Heartless Dao had died and vanished from the world over four hundred years ago, and had now awakened again. A spark of hope suddenly lit up my ashen remaining years. I cut down every obstacle in my path to meet this leader. I was willing to give up anything. I only wanted to ask her how to bring someone back to life. I met her. She didn't recognize me. She asked who I was, then said her name was... "Shen Yingxi." I think I smiled. #A Truly Heartless Female Lead x A Group of Heavenly Prodigies Whose Unrequited Love Tore Their Hearts Apart# Third-person narration --- Blurb for the upcoming novel How to Help the Leader of the Righteous Path Move On from His Late Wife --- World-Weary Wooden Saint x Formerly Cold-Faced, Now Adorably Awkward, Later Brooding and Macabre Ghost ★1★ Shen Yuansheng had spent a hundred years in the cultivation world, working tirelessly to save it. In the end, she lost her family, her friends, and her dog. She was like the protagonist of a hot-blooded ensemble anime, spending her whole life fighting for justice, only for the people around her to die, die, die... Shen Yuansheng flopped down with a thud. "I don't want to live anymore." The System sprang back to life at the sound. "You don't want to live? Perfect! There's a one-death speedrun mission. In five years, the cultivation world will face an apocalypse. Sacrifice yourself, raise a new protagonist, and save the whole world. Interested?" Shen Yuansheng stared with dead-fish eyes. "No." "What if the reward for completing the mission is bringing back your family, friends, and that dog of yours?" ★2★ The System popped out and shouted, "It's here, it's here! The new protagonist is here!" Shen Yuansheng looked at the new protagonist the System had mentioned. It was none other than Cong Jue, the newly appointed leader of the Righteous Path. The cultivation world sure restocked quickly. One leader of the Righteous Path died, and another appeared just ten years later. The new protagonist was nothing like her. He was a Heavenly Demon, but a great cultivator had sealed his demonic nature with a special technique. After only ten years of teaching, he had swiftly replaced her as the light of the Righteous Path. The System said, "This is the chosen, beautiful-and-tragic protagonist! Unlike you people, he has no friendships or bonds. Everyone around him could die, and he wouldn't shed a single tear! He's already beautiful and strong, so all he's missing is tragedy! But this new protagonist was born a lonely ghost, without family or friends. And since you're destined to die in five years, you'd be the perfect family and friends for him!" Shen Yuansheng was numb. "Not a chance." "Complete the mission and you'll also get a memory-loss package deal. Your family, friends, and dog will all come back to life, forget you, and live happily ever after!" "..." So Shen Yuansheng became Cong Jue's wife. ★3★ During their five years of marriage, she made half-hearted attempts to be his family and friend. Her mediocre teaching skills met an impossibly difficult student, and the outcome was inevitable. This Heavenly Demon, born cold and heartless with a bloodthirsty nature, had never known love. Even on the eve of her sacrifice, the two of them were still as taciturn as they had been when they first met. Teaching a Heavenly Demon how to love was just too hard. Shen Yuansheng couldn't teach him. With her death date approaching, she silently gave up and stopped trying to force it. "Since that's how it is, I won't be there with you for the rest of your life." Her husband, Cong Jue, was as he had always been: lips tightly pressed together, expression cool, showing no hint of emotion. ★4★ The day she sacrificed herself, everything went smoothly. The sacrificial ritual succeeded. Shen Yuansheng held a sword to her neck, looking completely at ease, and drew the blade firmly to the right... The thin blade sliced her neck. The droplets of blood that flew out happened to splash onto Cong Jue's face as he returned to the sect after exorcising ghosts. He was carrying an armful of flowers, the first gift he'd ever prepared after finally understanding his own feelings. He wanted to make up for quarreling with his wife the night before. He had rehearsed the words, "I was wrong. I'm sorry," over and over on the way back, carefully considering his tone. As he imagined his wife's reaction, a faint blush crept across his face... Until the hot blood from his wife's neck splashed into his eyes. A thousand thoughts collapsed into one bewildered question: "...Yuansheng...?" In the glow of the vivid flowers, the young man's handsome, stern face had taken on a brilliance he had never shown before. Then, as his wife's soul scattered, that light slowly dimmed and shattered, veiled by a blood-red shadow... At first, he thought she had died out of spite over his coldness... ★5★ A Heavenly Demon of the most evil and wicked sort lives in the Abyss of Heavenly Demons. They say he was once the famous leader of the Righteous Path, but after his wife died, his demonic nature erupted. He tore off a century's worth of pretense, killed his master, destroyed his sect, and turned a splendid immortal sanctuary into a demonic lair. The Heavenly Demon's bloodlust and power made everyone tremble at the mere mention of demons. At the mere sound of the name "Shen Yuansheng," everyone grew fearful. For a hundred years, that name had been taboo, because speaking it would summon the most wicked Heavenly Demon to hunt you down. ★6★ Three hundred years after faking her death, Shen Yuansheng returned. Just saying her own name earned her the pursuit of a certain evil demon. At last, unable to take it anymore, she slapped him. "Cong Jue, are you insane?!" The demon's sword hovered above her head, motionless. Then the blade began to tremble, letting out a low, sobbing hum. Shen Yuansheng was suddenly pulled into a cold, broad embrace. Above her, the evil demon's voice fell, rough and stilted as if he hadn't spoken in a hundred years. His anguished confession sounded like blood and pain: "...I'm sorry..." Theme: Love and hate intertwined