(Undergoing a major revision)
[Eastern fantasy, food, coming of age, plot-driven with romance]
Jiang Nanyin is a pipa immortal who cultivated to immortality in a tomb. Free-spirited by nature, she is determined to sample every delicacy under heaven.
But then Changli, an immortal lord of the Jade Realm, tells her, "Come with me to the Jade Realm, and I can help you gain a thousand years' worth of immortal power."
So the carefree rogue immortal goes to the Jade Realm, a place where rules govern everything. Because of her beauty and the fact that her immortal bones are unlike those of the immortal clans, she is made to suffer at every turn.
Su Chen, an immortal maiden who has always admired Lord Changli, offended the Demon Venerable Wuhuan. Wuhuan tore out her immortal bones, leaving her to cultivate with silver fruits that can rebuild them.
Jiang Nanyin's arrival makes the immortal maiden feel truly threatened.
Rebuilding immortal bones with silver fruits takes a thousand years.
So the immortal maiden comes up with a wicked scheme.
She pretends to befriend Jiang Nanyin, gains her trust, then frames her for stealing the silver fruits and destroys the divine silver-fruit tree.
To protect Jiang Nanyin, Lord Changli personally tears out her immortal bones and gives them to Su Chen.
While Lord Changli is searching for the divine silver-fruit tree, Su Chen sabotages Jiang Nanyin, sending her tumbling into the mortal realm. Jiang Nanyin's appearance changes completely, and she becomes a starving ghost.
Jiang Nanyin and Lizhi, the little princess of the Hundred Fruit Tribe who fled here to escape an arranged marriage, depend on each other in the wasteland for three hundred years.
The hunger that torments Jiang Nanyin for three centuries finally makes her lose all hope. She has only one thought: escape the wasteland.
Just as Jiang Nanyin is at the end of her rope, the ancient auspicious beast Liaocang is gravely injured and falls into the wasteland.
Though Liaocang has lost his beastly powers, he solves the forbidden land's water shortage on his very first day. Hope flares up once again.
The parched wasteland becomes a lake, but the soil is so barren that not even a blade of grass can grow, even with water.
Liaocang begins restoring the soil, and the wasteland finally comes to life. The first human refugee arrives, too.
The wasteland grows lively, and more and more disaster victims settle there. The three of them begin building infrastructure and improving people's lives.
The commotion in the forbidden land draws the attention of the Jade Realm. Su Chen, now an immortal maiden there, manipulates natural disasters to destroy the place, afraid Jiang Nanyin will return to the Jade Realm and expose everything.
Because of Su Chen's lies, the Jade Realm believes the wasteland is a place where the Demon Realm is wreaking havoc in the mortal world.
Changli appears to help Su Chen in her misdeeds. He sees Jiang Nanyin again, but has no idea the person before him is the one he has been searching for for three hundred years.
[Before her secret identity is revealed]
"Wandering ghost! Who do you think you are, daring to hurt an immortal maiden of the Jade Realm!"
[After her secret identity is revealed]
"Nanyin, I have searched for you every day. I never gave up."
"Lord Changli, you give yourself too much credit. When you tore out my immortal bones, you said we would have nothing more to do with each other."
"Nanyin, the silver fruits were meant to rebuild Su Chen's immortal bones. You stole them, so I had to tear out your bones to compensate her."
"What? My immortal bones are with her? Liaocang! I want my immortal bones back!"
"All right."
Reader Advisory: A coming-of-age farming and food story with satisfying moments and a healing tone.
Core Idea: Cherish life, and stay away from deceitful men.
