The One of Legend

Legend says Lin Qingluo was the sharpest blade among the human race.

They say she was once an ordinary mortal, but stumbled upon a rare opportunity and burst onto the scene, becoming invincible. With a single dagger, she robbed the world's heroes of their fighting spirit. At seventeen, she made the evil spirits terrorizing the four seas bow in submission.

She wore purple, rode a fiery steed, and even the spring breeze had to give way when she passed through the mortal world.

She was arrogant and cruel. If she took a dislike to someone, she would wipe them out. If she stole someone's divine weapon, she'd sneer that it was nothing special. She had none of the generosity or compassion expected of a master.

Yet a figure like her met an unceremonious end.

They say she later fell into depravity of her own accord, killed her friends and family, destroyed her sect, and even betrayed the human race to join forces with the Lord of Evil Spirits. She started a war between both sides and plunged the world into ruin.

In the end, she enraged the Heavenly Dao, and her body and soul were utterly destroyed.

When later generations spoke of her, they felt seven parts fear and three parts regret.

"Someone like that? Thank goodness she's only a legend."

"A bloodthirsty warmonger! She deserved it. If she hadn't died, those monsters would have swallowed the human race long ago. We wouldn't have the peaceful golden age we enjoy today."

.

New Era Festival, by the river.

People released lanterns to celebrate the end of the chaotic age and pray for peace in the coming year. As usual, they also took the opportunity to curse that great villain from the past.

Lin Qingluo, who had completed her mission to save the world and retired in glory:

Keep it down. I can hear you. ^_^

[Reading Guide]

1. A cultivation progression story with a small amount of romance, and an apocalypse story with a loose approach to the setting.

2. Early on, the heroine may occasionally act like a naive sweetheart because she's inexperienced with the world and limited by her cultivation level.

2. The cover and character cards were commissioned for the heroine. The lighting makes her look pink-haired, but she's actually white-haired.

[Please save my upcoming novel, No Conquest of the Righteous Paragon]

Blurb:

The full-dive martial arts game Red Dust, Nine Provinces became a sensation as soon as it launched.

Players could not only experience roaming the world with a sword and explore the path to becoming a legendary hero, but also pursue nine highly popular characters, each with their own unique appeal.

Well, except for the ninth, Lan Zheng.

Lan Zheng, a disciple of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect, fought her way onto the Heroes' List at sixteen. After that, she punched the United Martial Academy and kicked the Guardians of Righteousness Alliance, restoring the Ten Thousand Swords Sect to its former prominence. At eighteen, she single-handedly flattened the demonic cult in the Western Regions. She was recognized as the greatest fighter under heaven.

She ranked first on every list of characters that power-seekers wanted to romance.

Players tried everything, but couldn't make her affection meter budge.

The forums exploded, and #LanZhengConquestGuide# stayed at the top of the trending list:

[Giving her chance encounter items really doesn't work. Lan Zheng just hands them to her junior disciples. I hate this.]

[Don't try to play hero and save the beauty! She can take on ten people with one sword. What use would you be?]

[What? Force her into a relationship? Sigh, you... sigh, are you trying to get yourself killed?]

[Can I say it? Either Lan Zheng is a bug, or she's a gimmick the developers made to attract players.]

Server-wide announcement:

[Congratulations to player Xie Xuan for reaching 99 affection points with Lan Zheng. Keep it up!]

Players: ?

.

Xie Xuan knew why he had succeeded.

The other players were acting lovesick, while he was acting broken.

A young swordsman whose sect had been wiped out, a dying man poisoned and on death's door, a fiercely independent person who became insecure only in front of Lan Zheng: every look of his struck exactly at her vulnerable heart.

As for the final affection point, he would earn it tonight by pretending to die from a poison relapse, turning all his life's power into a flower, and letting it drift timidly onto her lapel.

Wait, what? Why was Lan Zheng drawing her sword at him?!

The long sword pierced Xie Xuan's chest, and the System's shriek dissolved into static:

[Warning! Player permissions being transferred]

[New player identity confirmed: Lan Zheng]

.

The plan had gone so smoothly that Lan Zheng found it utterly boring.

Had no one noticed? This wasn't a game at all. It was a cage imprisoning the greatest villain in the Nine Provinces.

She tampered with Xie Xuan's player chip. His skills, items, save permissions, and the false affection between them all vanished into thin air.

"Xiao Xuan, now it's your turn to be an NPC."

The once-righteous paragon tore away her disguise. Sword energy split the sky screen, and her bloodstained fingers truly touched the world beyond the crack.

The trembling main System met her smiling gaze.

"And I have regained my freedom."

Theme: Keep striving to improve.