The Tenderness of a Sword Bone

[Polished main text in progress. It differs from pirated copies, so thank you for supporting the official version.] My next novel will be the one next door, "God Schemer." Please add it to your reading list~

Only after Zhiyao died did she learn that she was a cannon-fodder character in a book.

In her previous life, she worked hard and took everything seriously, but even after years in the sect, her swordsmanship had made no progress. Her fellow disciples could not even remember her name.

Yun Xing was the exact opposite.

As Guiyi Sect's sole cultivator of the Heartless Sword Dao, everyone knew his name. In just one year after joining the sect, his swordsmanship had reached the level of a grandmaster.

Zhiyao had once seen him up close at the sect's initiation ceremony. He stood tall and graceful as a jade tree, radiant as the bright moon. Their eyes met, and the man's gaze was cold and stern. It felt like ice striking stone, making Zhiyao's heart tremble as she hurriedly looked away.

For the next year, Zhiyao kept her distance from Yun Xing.

One day, the young lord of the You Clan took her hostage and killed her. The righteous and demonic factions were locked in battle, and no one cared what happened to a mere cannon-fodder character.

Her soul drifted free, and she saw Yun Xing flying through the air with his sword, cutting straight for the young lord's head amid the throng.

*

Zhiyao was reborn. When she opened her eyes, she was still in the sword cultivators' sect.

Knowing she had no talent for swordsmanship, she decided to study talismans as well.

By chance, she ran into that aloof cultivator of the Heartless Sword Dao again in a narrow corridor. She wondered whether she ought to greet him, but his terrifying aura still frightened her, so she stepped aside, lowered her head, and waited for him to pass.

But those cloud-patterned soft boots stopped right in front of her.

Beneath the pristine wide sleeves, long fingers as finely carved as jade held a piece of malt candy, her favorite treat when she was little.

*

Yun Xing had finally steeled himself to cultivate the Heartless Dao, tempering himself into a sharp sword. He did not mind spending his life alone.

But when he entered the sect, one glance at the woman he had thought of for so long was enough. She hurriedly looked away and avoided him. He knew then that he probably could not cultivate the Heartless Dao after all...

(If I'd known we'd meet again, I wouldn't have cultivated the Heartless Dao.)

(When I look at you, you become my protagonist.)

Theme: Sometimes the choices you make matter more than how hard you try.