Keep Calm, It's Just a Love Triangle

Zhou Yuyan transmigrated into a cultivation novel, becoming the villainous master of the male protagonist. Her ending was to have her heart torn out and her bones ground to dust by her own disciple.

Following the principle that she herself mattered more than anything else and she would never take a loss, Zhou Yuyan did everything she could to save herself.

After successfully evading the System's binding and faking her death to regain her freedom, the original novel's male protagonist came after her. His first question was, "Master, did you really sleep with the Sword Venerable of the Riyue Sect?"

Only then did she learn that the widely circulated story was that she had "slept with the Sword Venerable and run off," leaving him with a shattered Dao heart while she went on eating and sleeping as usual, a thoroughly faithless woman.

Zhou Yuyan recalled that the Sword Venerable, Xian Zhe, had a name that suggested breaking and ruin, but was as upright as a gentlemanly sword. A few years ago, she had indeed wanted to sleep with him, but it hadn't happened.

Back then, Xian Zhe had only been a minor sword cultivator in his sect. The two of them had pretended to be husband and wife for a mission. She had even stripped off his inner robe in bed and kissed him, but when the moment came, he pushed her away and said he had to go practice his swordsmanship.

Zhou Yuyan: ...

What did they mean, she slept with the Sword Venerable and ran off? She had wanted to!

Zhou Yuyan was furious, so she made up a story and embellished it.

"We did. He was great in bed."

She never expected her disciple to strip off his clothes. "How many men have you slept with, Master? How do you know he was great? Why not try me? I promise I'll be better than him."

Zhou Yuyan: ???

While she was dealing with her disciple, the Sword Venerable showed up too. "Why are you avoiding me, my wife?"

Her disciple said, "That was just a fake identity you used back then. Sword Venerable, stop imagining things and don't expect us to turn a fake marriage into a real one."

With two piercing gazes fixed on her, Zhou Yuyan tried to calm herself. Stay calm, stay calm. It's just a love-triangle showdown, no big deal. Don't panic.

*

A few notes:

1. My take on xianxia cultivation, not traditional, with plenty of original worldbuilding. Specific content warnings are in the author's note of Chapter One.

2. The second male lead is the original novel's male protagonist. He and the heroine are master and disciple, with a female master and male disciple, and there will be a dramatic love-triangle showdown.

3. The heroine transmigrates into a book and has a System. There is [a lot] of [all kinds of] sarcasm and snark.

4. Both leads are sexually inexperienced, emotionally and physically. Male supporting characters who have feelings for the heroine are also sexually and emotionally inexperienced.

5. The plot focuses on various female characters. The story does [not] revolve around a love triangle between the heroine, male lead, and second male lead the entire time.

Theme: Be free from constraints and keep thriving.