One Sword for a Lifetime [Narcissism]

Synopsis:

Gong Xun died.

He died on a bloody night when evil cultivators slaughtered his entire clan and everyone turned against him.

Only after his soul left his body did he realize that the world he lived in was nothing but a vulgar bestselling story, with someone else as its true protagonist.

He was merely a stepping stone, paving the protagonist's way forward.

The master he had once revered abandoned him at the sect. The junior brothers and sisters he had painstakingly taught turned against him. Even the friends he had known for years became his enemies.

Gong Xun had cultivated the Dao through the sword, yet he died without ever delivering the one sword strike he had spent his life pursuing.

Reborn, he returned to ten years earlier, the year the story's protagonist joined the sect.

His soul possessed a dying man at a mass grave. Taking the name Lou Xuejin, he returned to the side of his younger self.

No one knew him better than he knew himself. With that thought, Lou Xuejin approached Gong Xun. He mooched food and drink and slacked off all day. He had long since lost any desire to pursue the so-called "supreme sword intent."

It was a little strange, but for the first time in his life, he felt safe.

Gong Xun protected him, respected him, understood him, and eventually...

Fell in love with him.

When the Heavenly Dao discovered his existence and tried to kill him in a tribulation, Lou Xuejin vaguely saw a figure as bright and noble as the moon, fearlessly shielding him beneath his sword.

He heard Gong Xun's unwavering voice.

The man said, "If the world cannot accept Lou Xuejin, then I, Gong, would rather stand against the whole world. If the Heavenly Dao seeks to kill him, then I will fight this so-called fate... to the death."

The cold blade left its sheath, thunder faded, and one sword cleaved through the vast sea of clouds.

Across both his lives, this was the most earth-shattering sword technique Lou Xuejin had ever seen.

-

His master had said that when walking through the world, one's sword must be pure, and so must one's heart.

So Gong Xun took in Lou Xuejin, the frail, disheveled child he had met for the first time.

He thought he would treat him like any other junior brother. But one rainy night, when he pulled Lou Xuejin, pale as a ghost, out from under the covers, he realized that somewhere along the way, he had developed feelings for him.

He asked Lou Xuejin why he trusted him so much.

The young man, with his bewitching features, leaned against the ancient bodhi tree in the courtyard and glanced at him in surprise.

"You and I are one and the same. Why wouldn't I trust you?"

Gong Xun fell silent.

So Lou Xuejin wanted to be his spouse, too.

Before you read:

1. Narcissistic romance: gong and shou are the same person.

2. World-weary, pessimistic, gloomy shou (crazy) × bright, noble, upright gong (foolish).

3. The gong isn't a pure-hearted saint. He just has principles. The shou might actually be a true psycho (not sure yet, I'll see).

Theme: Defy fate and change your destiny.