Picking Up the Jade Hairpin

When Luo Sulan was young, she found a cat in the mountains.

The cat was covered in blood and riddled with wounds, yet when it saw her, it bared its teeth and hissed at her.

She didn't mind. Grabbing the scruff of its neck, she took it home.

After three months of careful care, the cat had nearly recovered. It even became lively and affectionate, sticking close to Luo Sulan all day and refusing to leave her side for a moment.

Three years later, the cat suddenly disappeared one day without a word. Luo Sulan sighed over it for a while, then put the matter behind her.

After all, she was the Yunling Sect's favored prodigy, cherished by her elders and loved by her fellow disciples. Losing a cat might make her sad for a moment, but she would never be unable to forget it.

But later, the sect was plunged into chaos overnight. Her master, driven by power and status, allied with the demons and slaughtered more than three hundred members of the sect. Her senior brother died in battle, her senior sister disappeared, and Luo Sulan was driven to leap into the lightless Dark Domain, where she was smashed to pieces.

As she spent a hundred years piecing herself back together in the Dark Domain, her overwhelming hatred nearly consumed her. Perhaps her hatred shook the heavens, or perhaps she was destined to survive, born to seek revenge...

In her second hundredth year, she mastered an unusual cultivation technique, seized the remaining power of the former Demon Lord, and emerged from seclusion, intent on taking her enemy's head. But she discovered that her enemy had already used honeyed words to whitewash his reputation and was still sitting safely in his position as the foremost figure in the immortal sects!

Beneath the icy jade steps, the immortal looked coldly at her, her body steeped in ghostly aura, and said with disdain:

"What manner of ghost dares impersonate my long-dead young disciple?"

In her two hundred and thirty-first year, the immortal sects began hunting her.

In her five hundred and thirty-first year, she was surrounded by the immortal sects at the Ten Thousand Ravines Abyss. Every possible escape route was cut off, leaving only one desperate road to certain death.

Just like before.

But in her moment of despair, a black-haired youth came through the bloodshed, risking his life to fight his way through and carve out an escape route for her.

Luo Sulan asked him, "Was it worth it?"

The black-haired youth asked her in return, "Back then, on Mingyun Mountain, when you saved me, did you ever regret it?"

He smiled at her, pretending to be carefree.

"It's fine. Cats have nine lives."

Luo Sulan watched him turn to draw the pursuers away and watched his figure gradually disappear into the distance. The pain she had suppressed for over two hundred years burst forth in that moment, and she found herself wondering in confusion:

I only saved you once. Why would you risk all nine lives for me?

What she didn't understand was that more than three hundred years ago, when Xie Zhiqing was still a kitten without sentience, young Luo Sulan secretly cared for him for a time, helping him survive that long winter. More than two hundred years ago, when the so-called righteous sects hunted him down, she took him in her arms again and gave him a peaceful, stable life.

So from that day on, Xie Zhiqing secretly swore:

For her, he would gladly face death nine times and give up his next life.

He loved her, from life to death.

Theme: Work hard to create a wonderful life