Unspoken

A self-love redemption story: the same person with the same experiences. The protagonist has a very rough time early on, so please skip this if that bothers you.

Ye Buyan was an orphan.

His childhood was wretched. He lived on food given to him by kind neighbors, sleeping in a leaky, ruined temple or a tattered thatched hut. Even at fifteen, he spoke like a baby, unable to pronounce words clearly or string a sentence together. Wherever he went, people mocked and ridiculed him.

That was why he named himself Buyan, meaning "does not speak."

The first half of his life was filled with hardship. He was falsely accused of stealing, beaten, and driven out of his village. He endured scorn at every turn, until he wandered, by sheer chance, to the foot of Wenxin Sect's mountain and collapsed. A passing disciple carried him up the mountain. He entered the outer sect and became the most ordinary sweeping disciple.

He thought this was the first glimmer of hope. He never imagined it was the start of his nightmare.

He was used as a sparring partner and punching bag, treated as a test subject for medicine, and had his bones scraped and tendons torn out. He endured every pain under the heavens.

When he was on the verge of death, someone descended from the sky and rescued him from the mire. They encouraged him to stand on his own and patiently taught him everything they knew.

That person said his name was Ye Qi.

Only after Ye Buyan rebuilt his meridians, surpassed himself, and became a mighty cultivator who trampled everyone who had once bullied him beneath his feet did he learn that the person who saved him was the only Divine Lord in all creation.

That person had another name: Ye Buyan.

The exalted Divine Lord saw his former self as a precious pearl buried in mud, cherishing and loving him as if he were a priceless treasure.

He was his own savior.

Premise: Never give up.