The Heroine Yi Xiaorou

Yangzhou Fish Market. Yi Xiaorou's blade kills fish, not people. It is only when the Cao Gang threatens her with her father's debt and the Qinglong Society launches a sneak attack that she realizes she has been a pawn destined for sacrifice from the start. To break out of this deadly predicament, she enters the martial world with her slender, delicate frame and maneuvers among the Cao Gang, the Qinglong Society, the Tianwu Alliance, and other factions, making careful moves at every step as a fishmonger once at everyone's mercy.

As the mists surrounding her origins begin to clear, her father's death proves tied to secrets from the previous dynasty. The Sword Pavilion's military talisman resurfaces, and the martial world is plunged into bloodshed. In her darkest hour, she grasps the Way of Softness: not weakness or retreat, but being formless as water and adapting to the circumstances. She wields water as a blade and overcomes strength with softness, rising from a lone wanderer to found the Pavilion of Gentle Waters, and from a public enemy of the martial world to its supreme ruler.

Yet at the height of her power, she gives away everything she has built and returns to ordinary life. When a new demon rises and the world faces another crisis, she emerges from behind her fish stall and repels her enemies with nothing but bamboo chopsticks, leaving them with one question: "Steamed or braised?" The gentle are not weak. The way of softness prevails throughout the world.