Proud junior sister × great demon senior brother
/An ancient fantasy xianxia story, romance and plot in equal measure, a touch of ensemble cast, flashbacks, a groveling quest for love, plenty of trials/
[Blurb]
Yuan Shiling, the commandery princess of Jiangling, is born into luxury, pampered and spirited. A single demon calamity turns her from a life of fine clothes and rich food yesterday to a fugitive's life today.
As her life is about to fade, a man arrives, distant and indifferent, with wind and snow unable to touch him.
Yuan Shiling grips his robe with her bloodied hands, refusing to let him retreat.
"Please, save me."
Only the howling wind and snow answer her. Of course. She has been used to throwing her weight around, so no one wants to save her.
"Say one more word and you'll die."
What a cold thing to say, Yuan Shiling thinks.
The world stretches wide, and the snow seems to have stopped.
Like a dead tree meeting spring, Yuan Shiling clings desperately to the hand he extends. Quietly, she rejoices. It seems Heaven has taken pity on her greed for life and spared her.
A glimpse of the mortal world, reflected in water.
Her junior brother presses her: "What were you really like in your previous life?"
Yuan Shiling answers with a faint, nonchalant smile: "I don't remember old business from eight hundred years ago."
But she never dares think too deeply about that dream, because the Azure Bird met a tragic end, and a fox was to blame.
And that fox looked exactly like her senior brother.
Until the peril at Mount Kunlun forces her to give herself up to save the world, her senior brother stands before her with his sword drawn. His voice is hoarse: "Junior sister, don't ignore me."
Senior brother Yu Liyu of the Jade Sect rose to fame in his youth, handsome as a jade-faced scholar. To repay an old debt on behalf of their master, he saves her once, then again and again, until he falls in love.
But when his junior sister returns from an excursion, she is like a different person.
She avoids his gaze and acts as though he isn't there.
Their master says only, "It's no more than the debt of a past life."
Yu Liyu can't make sense of it.
He can't read his junior sister's distance or understand the weight of the words "debt of a past life."
If it is a karmic debt that binds them across lifetimes,
then he will swing his sword and sever their fate, saving her from the calamity ahead.
And then they will live and die together.
[The blurb, in a more playful version]
Beneath the nine heavens and across the lands, Mount Kunlun is thrown into turmoil, and evil energy suddenly emerges.
Yuan Shiling: You ask why I went from a lazy layabout to a mediocre cultivator...
Fate: I believe in you.
Yuan Shiling: ...Should I thank you?
Fate: If you want to cultivate immortality, seven trials and eight hardships are unavoidable.
And so her parents die, her elder brother sacrifices himself, demons run rampant, and love and hate are all thrown into the mix...
Yuan Shiling: Fine, I'll cultivate, train, and follow fate to fix the mess. Happy now?
The five-person team: Let's go!
Yuan Shiling (coming to her senses): Wait, before we go, hold on. Why am I the one doing this?
[Before you read]
1. Happy ending. The demon's lifespan is as long as Heaven's; the Azure Bird lived in the world for a hundred years and boasts of only two things. The second is that it could take human form after a hundred years. The first, and only, is that fox at Mount Kunlun.
2. An eight-volume ancient fantasy xianxia story, romance and plot in equal measure, a touch of ensemble cast, flashbacks, a groveling quest for love, and plenty of trials. Just a little Azure Bird, not a great female protagonist.
3. A few original setting details.
Theme: This love is destined to be a memory
