The Author Has No Sword, But the Protagonist Does

Awaiting contract completion... Don't spend money, don't spend money!!!!! It'll be free after a while!!!!! Don't buy it.

Version One:

Ying Zaixue has always believed in one saying:

"The Way of Heaven takes from those who have too much and gives to those who have too little."

So she reclaimed the resources the clans had seized and returned them to the rogue cultivators. She killed off the once high-and-mighty clan heirs until only a handful remained. And she pulled a chaotic world back to an age when ritual, law, and justice still held sway.

When her old enemy screamed questions at her, she simply laid her sword against their neck and looked down at them, speaking lightly. "Of course I can't represent all the people of this world. But as long as I'm strong enough, heaven and earth will follow my will, and so will justice..."

Version Two:

The Gates of Hell may be perilous, but they can still be navigated.

Ying Zaixue, an orphan with neither mother nor father.

She had wandered from place to place with her teacher since childhood, studying runes and practicing swordsmanship. Life was hard, but fulfilling and peaceful.

Then a chance mishap severed her connection with her teacher.

She had to find them. Even without a map, even though time was running short, she resolutely packed up her few belongings and left the village where she'd lived for years.

She knew the road ahead would be rough, but she never expected that, as the winds shifted and circumstances changed, so many people would want her dead and try to stop her from becoming the blade that would sweep away corruption and usher in a new order.

But it was all right. Her sword was faster.

As someone who transmigrated into a book, the unlucky Yan Tongxuan could never understand why she'd ended up inside a novel with no synopsis, no actual story, and only a vague idea.

But for the sake of her own safety, and for that faint possibility of returning home, she still grabbed her bundle without hesitation and followed her protagonist.

The times are troubled, and the realm is in chaos.

The people's voices are faint, their lives mired in the mud.

Her traveling companions grew increasingly silent. Ying Zaixue tried to comfort them, only to hear one friend seethe, "The whole world is corrupt, and Heaven is blind. The clans treat rogue cultivators like pigs and dogs. Good and evil are all mixed together, and fate is tangled like thread. If I had a sword, I'd cut through it all in one stroke!"

But her friend had no sword. Zaixue did...

If this is a world that favors the powerful, then I'll overthrow it.

Content warning: This story has its own cultivation levels, not the usual Nascent Soul and Foundation Establishment. Every character is at least a hundred years old. Even if they're several thousand years old, they're still young! Actually, cultivation has no age labels!

(This is a sprawling epic of nearly a million words. If you like it, add it to your library~)

Theme: I illuminate the vast world, clear as water, and have also illuminated the tiniest speck of dust.