Chen Xueyi was born with a pure yin constitution.
Even as a small child, his fate had already been decided: he would live as a tool for others' cultivation, without dignity. The sect that raised him fed him the finest ginseng and spiritual dew from childhood, nurturing a peerless beauty, but never letting him learn any cultivation techniques. They intended to offer him to the head of Zheyang Sect as a cultivation vessel.
To escape the fate of becoming someone's plaything, he stopped at nothing.
On the night he was to be offered to the sect leader, a fire broke out in Zheyang Hall.
It was a scene the younger generation of Zheyang Sect would never forget. In the blaze, bloody shadows fell across the youth's porcelain-white face. He was barefoot, the tassels hanging from his silk sash brushing the back of the sect leader's hand, its veins bulging. At his feet lay the sect leader's corpse, a dagger buried in his chest. Black blood ran down the gold-inlaid hilt, tracing a winding, vine-like pattern.
A sinister mandala bloomed between the youth's fingers. He looked like a ghost.
After escaping Zheyang Sect, Chen Xueyi trained relentlessly and became a formidable figure. Once he had made a name for himself, his so-called cultivation-vessel constitution was no longer a serious problem. He began enjoying life, sharing fleeting affairs and tangled romances with several people.
Then worldly disputes and misunderstandings drove them apart. After going through the same turmoil over and over, Xuechen Yi grew tired of a life filled with fighting and killing. He adopted a loyal, puppy-like young man to look after him in his old age, and settled into a peaceful life of fishing and feeding chickens. He handed the sect over to his young companion to manage, until the name Xuechen Yi had all but vanished from the martial world.
Then one day, Chen Xueyi opened his eyes and found himself somewhere other than the familiar little wooden cabin. His powers were sealed, his hands and feet restrained, and the loyal pup he had raised had usurped his position and imprisoned him.
He thought the young man had pledged allegiance to the righteous sects and was using him as bait. He gave up and accepted his fate.
That day, the young man declared that he would execute the demon Xueyi in public. Heroes from across the land gathered. Xuechen Yi thought he was certain to die this time. He was locked in a cage, with a separate cell between him and another infamous killer who had once ruled the martial world. The two of them chatted back and forth until they grew familiar. They were both fallen souls, after all; what did it matter if they had only just met?
On the day of the execution, the sects assembled. Even elders who had been in seclusion for years were roused. Almost everyone fixed their gaze on the cage in the center. Several scorching stares from the front rows were impossible to ignore.
When the demon saw Chen Xueyi covering his face tightly, he asked the newcomer whether he had a grudge against him too. Was that why he was so afraid to be seen?
Xuechen Yi replied with difficulty, "An old lover. We slept together."
Several of his old lovers were powerful figures: sect leaders, princes of the mortal realm, and masters of ascetic cultivation. Their partings had been anything but amicable. Chen Xueyi thought they had come to watch him die, but when the young man finally moved to execute him, every one of them intervened.
They hadn't come to watch the spectacle. They had come to save him.
The young man was sent flying by a single strike. Clutching his chest, he glared at the men standing in his way, his face twisted with rage. "I've laid a net to trap you all today. Once I've killed every one of you, I'll be Shizun's only man!"
Chen Xueyi: "!!!"
Theme: Peace and happiness
