(The main story is complete. Revisions and extra chapters will be updated over time.)
From the moment she was born, Meng Shi knew she was a cannon-fodder character in the novel Above the Azure Clouds.
The novel tells the story of a team of protagonists who solve one strange case after another through their wits and strength, earning the admiration of humans and demons alike. As for her, she's merely an unnamed corpse in the opening scene.
She tried to save herself 5,475 times, using every method she could think of to escape. Yet at every sunrise, she would be reset to her own home, until the day she turned eighteen.
The world once gave her an eighteen-year nightmare, but on a sunlit morning, it also gave her back the right to dream.
Unofficial blurb:
Meng Shi is a cannon-fodder character in a novel. According to the plot, she's supposed to die at the beginning of the story, her heart torn out by a fox demon.
To stay alive, Meng Shi does everything she can:
She tries to tell her parents the truth, but her voice is forcibly muted.
She tries to persuade her parents to move, but their ox cart breaks down.
She tries to pray to the gods, but a roof tile hits her before she can even enter the temple.
She tries to run away on her own, but the next day she's reset to her own home.
With all her attempts at self-rescue failing, Meng Shi plans to die together with the fox demon on her birthday. But at the point of death, she awakens as Fuliang, a divine tree, and badly wounds the fox demon. The commotion attracts too much attention: she survives, but the protagonist team is drawn to the scene as well.
To avoid being mistaken for a demon and locked away in the demon prison, Meng Shi has lost her human form and can only force herself to shapeshift. Unfortunately, the transformation goes wrong, and in her panic she tears up the courtyard, which already looks like a crime scene.
With no other choice, Meng Shi gets the tree spirit to hide the huge green leaves that haven't fully transformed on her head, while secretly pinning all the blame on the villainous fox demon.
Meng Shi: The fox demon was going to rip out my heart. It's not unreasonable to make her take a little blame for me, right?
Fox demon, whose heart-ripping attempt failed and whose powers were mostly stripped away: ...So you're bullying me because I wasn't there to defend myself, huh?
With the fox demon covering for her (taking the blame), former victim Meng Shi successfully joins the protagonist team. She puts her natural talent to use and rises through the ranks to become a renowned detective.
[Reading Guide]
1. Xianxia mystery-solving, a touch of suspense, plot-driven, with an effort to keep the logic sound
2. Ensemble cast; the heroine awakens from her cannon-fodder role and grows stronger from a weak start
3. Updates aimed for daily
Theme: Don't bow to fate
Thank you to heaven, thank you to earth, thank you for your hard work~