After Shen Zhimiao slaughtered everyone at Tianshui Sect, she smiled and leapt from the cliff.
The world cursed her for slaughtering her sect and repaying kindness with betrayal.
No one knew that those she killed were all body-snatchers wearing the faces of her fellow disciples and teachers.
Perhaps she had committed too many sins, for after death she continued to wander the world.
She watched as her former rival raised a memorial tablet for her, silencing the endless rumors with a single sword.
She watched him guard her grave for a hundred years, until the day he ascended.
He should have become a god in a single step, but instead he made a high-stakes wager with the Heavenly Dao:
“I want to trade for a chance at her survival.”
When Shen Zhimiao opened her eyes again, she had returned to her childhood, to the first year after her master took her in.
She smiled.
This time, those body-snatchers would be the first to die.
Shen Zhimiao always kept her word.
Chi Youzhou was just a handyman disciple in the outer sect, with little cultivation and a habit of being bullied by his fellow disciples.
The day their fists and feet were about to land on him, a female cultivator descended from the sky.
The first time they met, she said, “From now on, you're under my protection.”
Only later did he learn that she was the sect leader's newly adopted favorite disciple, a natural-born swordswoman.
From then on, Chi Youzhou's life got better.
The female cultivator often came to find him to practice swordsmanship, too.
But Chi Youzhou wasn't cut out for swordsmanship. He could barely hold a sword steady.
The female cultivator often said things he couldn't understand, too.
But somehow, he knew she wanted to become the Sword Venerable even more than he did.
Chi Youzhou thought she would surely succeed.
And he would stay by her side until she did.
[Beautiful and ruthless heroine x devoted and obsessive hero]
(To be started; building a following.)
The premise was written on 2025.7.9, with revisions.
Theme: Where there's a will, there's a way
