The female lead is obsessed with swords.
As an elder of the Sword Sect, she has no choice but to take disciples and teach them because of the sect's rules.
Facing a group of gifted young disciples full of hope, she casually points to an unremarkable outer sect disciple.
The male lead has mediocre talent and a low cultivation level. His only exceptional feature is a face as beautiful as a woman's.
"Have you ever wondered what merits you have, even the slightest, that could have won the elder's favor?" The talented senior brother she hadn't chosen sneered. "She just needs someone to warm her bed."
"How dare you insult her?!" The male lead, only at the Foundation Establishment stage, drew his sword without hesitation.
His senior brother beat him until he was barely alive, but the female lead only looked at him with disdain. "You can't even beat a fellow disciple. Useless."
He clenched his bloodstained hand, dark currents roiling in his eyes.
On the male lead's eighteenth birthday, the female lead acted uncharacteristically gentle toward him.
With alluring eyes, she looked him up and down. "Graceful as a pine, elegant as a crane. What a fine body."
Then she examined his soul. "So pure and untainted. My sword is sure to like it."
Beneath the lamplight, he gazed at her captivating face and lost his restraint, drinking two extra cups of wine.
The next day, he discovered that his body had been shattered and his soul refined into a sword, sacrificed to her life-bound sword.
It's said that cultivators with the purest souls make the best fertilizer, nourishing life-bound swords.
The female lead searched all across the Nine Provinces and found only one. He was the young master of Taiqing Sect, the foremost sect in the cultivation world. She once infiltrated the sect and plotted to kill him, but just as she was about to succeed, her cover was blown, and she nearly died.
With no other choice, she settled for the male lead, a copy of the original.
Three years later, the Sword Sect was destroyed. Taiqing Sect shattered the female lead's Nascent Soul and Golden Core, seized her life-bound sword, and imprisoned her at Endless Cliff.
One night, her old enemy, the noble young master of Taiqing Sect, suddenly arrived at Endless Cliff. Nascent Soul cultivators led the way with lanterns, surrounded by a grand procession.
As the female lead fought a vengeful ghost over a bone to stave off her hunger, a gold-embroidered shoe stopped in front of her.
She looked up and saw a familiar face.
He had the bearing of a noble, jade-like figure, and the pressure of his Spirit Severing cultivation level forced her to bow her head.
He crouched down, lifted her chin with slender fingers, and looked at the face that remained as cold and unfeeling as ever, yet still drove him to distraction.
He said softly, "Master, I forgive you."
2025.12.22
Theme: Uphold the virtues of a devoted husband
