Synopsis
Maybe updated daily, but more likely updated whenever inspiration strikes. Originally titled "Caught in the Dusty Web, Why Not Return?"
Early on: A fake innocent noblewoman vs. a blind former crown prince who's just a tool
Later: A decisive Wu Nuo leader vs. a new emperor who's sweet on the outside and scheming within
*
On a winter night, a crossbow bolt jolts Shan Yu awake. She's just arrived in Panchi and is already facing an assassination attempt, and now her identity is under suspicion. Could they at least give her time to take a mission and establish her persona?
The System is malfunctioning. Disaster! Her golden finger is gone just like that.
A father who died young, a mother at the front, a broken brother, a blind fiance, and she has to pretend to be innocent. This is a disastrous start.
How is she supposed to complete her missions to protect the world and the person chosen by fate?
Her brother offers to protect her, while her fiance asks to work together. A or B? Of course she'll choose neither!
Even with only three chances to start over, she has to take control of her own life!
*
After finally making it through a mountain of corpses and a sea of fire, Shan Yu turns away kindness, concern, and protection... She has learned to become indifferent.
She simply doesn't want to become a mindless shell with no memories.
But why should she let the people of Youdu toy with her again and again?
They watch her sink into the mire over and over, struggle, and find no hope.
They erase her memories, make her turn against her own family, force her to say the cruelest things and commit every kind of evil.
"Shan Yu, isn't this what you wanted? Your memories, everything you once had, is right here beside you."
She remembers the look of disappointment on Shan Qiao's face. "A Yu, you once said he was your little brother. He hasn't even come of age. Are you really going to kill him?"
Xu Xian's striking face appears before her too. "Shan Yu! Didn't you say human life matters? Shan Yu! That's a human life!"
She seems to hear her parents laughing. "A Yu, come to your mother. Don't be afraid! You're home, A Yu. You're home..."
She has fallen into the cage of the mortal world. Can she still go home?
*
Everyone praises his virtue, but no one knows that on a quiet snowy night, he lost the right to be himself.
Arguments, fighting, anger, curses, all incessant. Why can't he die?
When Xu Xian wakes up choking, he sees that the room's decorations are unchanged. Because of his double pupils, he has become more valuable than ever. From now on, he can live as long as heaven and earth, never aging or dying.
He longs to die, and at last finds the key: Shan Yu, the Shan family's Wu sorceress.
But Shan Yu dies in front of him again and again. All he can do is sift through his unremarkable memories of the past, pass the rest of his life, and await the next cycle of the world.
So he no longer wants to die. He wants to stay by Shan Yu's side, and experience the beauty of being alive. At least that's what he thinks, until Shan Yu's double blades stab into him.
If his obliteration fulfills his old wish, then will the Heavenly Dao hear his prayer to follow Shan Yu?
*
Shan Qiao never wanted to become the Shan family's Wu medium. The world is vast, so why not travel it? That's why he's always hated the Wu Nuo blood in his veins.
Until his sister dies in his arms. He is powerless to stop their father's death, and even less able to protect their mother at the front.
He goes mad studying everything he once looked down on.
At last, he brings his sister back, repeating the process again and again, but she still never lives past twenty.
So he performs Wu Nuo rites over and over, watching his sister return, then watching her die before his eyes.
It doesn't matter. He can just try again...
[Reading Guide]
1. Original settings: Youdu (System space), Tianyue (System), Panchi (world plane). The story is a slow burn, and the System plot comes in the second half.
2. Not a traditional System story. The dynasty is fictional, with official systems and customs blended from different dynasties.
Theme: Take your fate into your own hands
