I Buried My Master's Body in an Abandoned Temple

Also known as Sword Pointed at the Fourteen Provinces (plot-focused, slow burn, a touch of ensemble cast). A writing exercise.

(Updates irregularly. The setting is expansive, but I promise to finish it.) (No promise of a happy ending, bad ending, or open ending, and no promise of a regular update schedule. Enter at your own risk.)

(My new story, A Lady Official of the First Rank, is now underway. For a similar fantasy story, see A Guide to Training Wicked Supporting Characters Like Dogs.)

1. The day Master died, snow and wind swept across the land.

No one came to bury his body.

When I arrived, I saw Master one last time.

The man who had once smiled as he taught me swordplay lay on a straw mat,

his clothes in tatters, the ground beneath him a muddy mess.

He told me not to save him.

Later, I avenged Master.

As I was about to die together with my enemy, I learned that the world I lived in was a tragic novel with Master as its protagonist. They had tortured him, body and soul, until he finally met a cruel end.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to a time before it all began.

Master, with dark hair and white robes, stood alone with his jade sword, guarding the border of the demon realm.

I thought: If the Heavenly Dao is unjust, why not defy it?

A flower on a high peak should remain bright and unsullied, seated upon its altar.

2.

When I was little, I fought wild dogs for scraps. Just as I was about to die, Master found me.

He spent ten years leading me from the alley where I’d been living, starting when I was five.

He said to me, “Chaohua, don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

When I opened my eyes again,

I stood in front of Master, protecting him.

I said to him, “Master, I’ll always be here.”

A swordsmanship genius appeared in the Fourteen Provinces.

It was said that she had dark hair, wore red, and wielded the Zhaoxue Sword.

In one night, she wiped out an entire sect.

Later, when the Heavenly Dao was destroyed,

they saw with their own eyes that the swordsmanship genius sacrificed herself to the Dao

and rebuilt a stairway that reached the heavens.

3.

My junior brother always glared at Master with hungry eyes.

Chaohua struck with her sword and accidentally sheared off the junior brother’s hair. “Junior Brother, your desires are too strong. Why not become a monk?”

The Demon King deliberately lay injured on a path Master was sure to take.

Chaohua kicked him away. “Master, you can’t just pick up a stray pet from the roadside.”

The Demon God was about to hatch.

Chaohua plunged her sword into the newborn little Demon God’s heart. “A demon like this must be killed today, or it may cause trouble in the future.”

P.S. This is not a story about a powerful woman or a female protagonist who dominates the story. The characters’ values do not represent the author’s. If you like it, read it; if not, click away. I do not accept writing advice in any form.

Also, please add my upcoming story, A Morning With You, to your favorites~

Upcoming story: A Morning With You

Synopsis:

On the way to be sent off for a political marriage, I was met by the young general of Dai, who came to escort me himself.

He carried a murderous aura and was as cold and distant as the rumors said,

yet he was somewhat gentle with me.

Back then, I was young and impetuous, still harboring fantasies about love.

I wanted to seduce him, hoping life in Dai would be easier for me.

But he said, “Princess, please have some self-respect.”

Had I misunderstood him?

Later, after I was tormented time and again, I could see the unwillingness in his eyes.

I laughed bitterly to myself. If he couldn’t save me from this hell, why pretend to care? Giving someone hope only to crush it with your own hands was truly disgusting.

I used his kindness and successfully escaped that hell.

Later, as Dai was on the brink of collapse, I sat on the imperial throne, watching my enemy beg for mercy, and felt a rush of satisfaction.

As the enemy nation’s leading general, he knelt before me. I lifted his chin with the tip of my foot, my red lips parting:

“General, how does it feel to be a prisoner?”

On the day the Empress ascended the throne, birds of every kind paid homage to the phoenix, silencing all dissent.

A young palace guard passed by the Empress’s chambers, then hurried away.

His face was red, but he didn’t dare tell anyone what he had seen.

He had seen a man kneeling in the Empress’s chambers with his upper body bare.

There were also the sounds of heavy, rough breathing.

“Don’t...”

Synopsis 2

The emperor was incompetent, the realm was in chaos, the people were destitute, and calamities struck one after another.

The world was in an age of turmoil, where heroes rose in droves.

You were neither a hero of troubled times nor a prince of the imperial family.

You were merely an ordinary woman.

An ordinary woman who could be sacrificed at any moment in times of chaos.

For the sake of the realm, the emperor sent you to an enemy nation, where you endured humiliation after humiliation.

On the hunting grounds, you were hunted like prey, with nowhere to hide from blades and swords.

In the military camp, you were offered to a commander, nearly naked.

At the palace banquet, you were locked in a cage like a plaything.

That was you.

An ordinary woman.

A mere woman.

From the start, it was hell.

So how will you turn the tables against all odds?

Theme: There is beauty in every corner of life