(This is the next novel I'll be writing. Happy ending. I'm working hard to build up a backlog! The more it gets collected, the sooner it will be released.)
Unorthodox, restrained, obsessive, scheming top x aloof, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, fiercely protective bottom
Pei Chuanji was born under an ill-starred fate, his life worth less than an insect's.
Then, by sheer good fortune, he became the personal disciple of Gu Ningbai.
Gu Ningbai, the Jade Immortal Venerable, was aloof and solitary, a being apart from the world. Countless prodigies longed to become his disciples, but none were accepted.
Everyone thought taking Pei Chuanji as a disciple sullied the Immortal Venerable. Even Pei Chuanji himself believed it.
He struggled and fought his way forward, desperately trying to get closer to that unattainable Immortal Venerable, even if all he could earn was one glance.
But he always managed to make things worse, leaving himself in an even more miserable position.
His obsession grew deeper and deeper, until it forged a demon within him.
The ill-starred outcast whom everyone had once mocked transformed into a Demon Lord who trampled the entire cultivation world single-handedly.
When the immortal sects rallied against him, it was the Immortal Venerable who stood before them with sword in hand, ready to cleanse his own sect and personally execute the wicked disciple.
The last thing Pei Chuanji saw before he died was the Immortal Venerable's icy gaze.
When he opened his eyes again, Pei Chuanji had been reborn in the body of a good-for-nothing young master. By chance, he once again became his master's disciple.
But he discovered that his master was a completely different person from the one he remembered, considerate toward him at every turn.
When Pei Chuanji craved a certain pastry while sick, it was brought to his room in moments. When he took a liking to a sword, his master gifted it to him on the spot.
Only then did Pei Chuanji realize that the Immortal Venerable wasn't cold to everyone. He had simply looked down on Pei Chuanji in particular.
The kinder the Immortal Venerable was to him, the more Pei Chuanji hated him. Why did the moon shine brightly in the sky, yet never on him?
But in this life, Pei Chuanji doesn't want to worry about any of that. Whatever he wants, he'll get it by any means necessary.
So that night, he cornered the Jade Immortal Venerable step by step. The love and hatred between them, spanning two lifetimes, could no longer be suppressed.
An Immortal-Binding Rope restrained the person before him, the one he had both loved and hated across two lifetimes. Their thunderous heartbeats passed through their palms, resonating straight into their souls.
Those eyes seemed to understand his thoughts, yet, just as in his previous life, they turned toward him with a frigid gaze.
As they struggled, Pei Chuanji suddenly noticed a rough-looking jade pendant hanging from his master's waist.
But that was clearly the gift he had been unable to give his master with his own hands in his previous life.
He suddenly remembered his senior brother telling him that the Immortal Venerable once had a beloved who died young, and that the subject was a sore spot for him.
No one was allowed to mention it.
Literary Title: Do Not Bow to the Immortals
Core Theme: The line between good and evil is hard to discern; time reveals the truth of people's hearts.
