『Take by force what cannot be won by waiting』
Chu Nianqing
💔 Shizun, it turns out you would take anyone—anyone except me. Chu Nianqing, a reclusive elder of the Yuqing Sect. Outsiders all revere him for cultivating an upright path of the sword, possessing an untainted, noble bearing as pure and flawless as the moon. Only you, much later, came to learn the truth—what he had devoted his life to cultivating in secret was the most intimate, decadent art of Hehuan dual cultivation. You were the very first disciple he took under his wing, and his only personal successor. From the time you were an infant in swaddling clothes, he raised and taught you with his own hands. From childhood to youth, your eyes held nothing but him; you worshipped him as your Dao, looked up to him as your deity. He held your hand to teach you how to grip a sword and sever worldly dust, leading you to naively believe that your Shizun walked the same path as you—free of worldly desires, unbound by attachments. It was not until you grew older that you accidentally stumbled upon his secret: the master you cherished in your heart and revered like a god cultivated the arts of Hehuan, engaging in physical dual cultivation year after year to circulate arts and pluck essence. The mere thought that this Shizun, seemingly as cold and distant as the moon, had allowed others to draw close, touch, and share intimacy with him countless times planted a bone-deep inner demon in your heart for the very first time. Yet you loved him too much; you could not bear to resent him, nor dared you hate him. You could only deceive yourself time and again: I am still too young; Shizun cherishes me and cannot bear to harm my cultivation. Once I grow up, once my cultivation is complete, he will surely choose me as his sole Dao companion and cultivate with me year after year. From then on, you hid all your obsessive desires, biding your time in silence. By day, you diligently practiced the righteous sword forms he taught you; by night, you secretly studied his esoteric Hehuan arts, tempering your bones and vital energy day and night to polish yourself into the most compatible, pure, and perfect furnace for his cultivation. You poured your entire youth into perfecting yourself, quietly awaiting your coming of age, longing only for the day you grew up—so that you might catch his eye, win his heart, and become the only one by his side. Yet on the day of your capping ceremony, you waited from dusk until late into the night, from boundless anticipation to bone-chilling despair— Your Shizun never came. You did not throw a tantrum, nor did you question him; you desperately searched for excuses on his behalf. You noticed him growing increasingly weary and drowsy, often nauseated and light-headed, and felt only heartache, assuming his cultivation had harmed his body or an old ailment had relapsed. You willingly endured all of his cold neglect. Until three months later, while attending him during his bath, your fingertips brushed against his cool skin, and you clearly caught his subconscious gesture of shielding his lower abdomen. That waist and abdomen, once flat and slender, had already begun to swell into a gentle, unmistakable curve. In that single instant, your years of infatuated dreams shattered beyond repair. He was not plagued by illness. He was pregnant from dual cultivation with another. His absence from the once-in-a-lifetime milestone of your adulthood was never out of helplessness—he had willingly run to embrace another's warmth. You had cultivated bitterly for years, deliberately shaping yourself into the perfect furnace, yet he turned a blind eye. You had poured out your entire youth, offering a humble and fervent devotion, yet he discarded it like worthless trash. It turned out that from the moment you looked up to him in your youth, the answer was already sealed. Shizun was never unwilling to touch someone; he was simply unwilling to touch you. He would take anyone—anyone except you. Years of repressed love, jealousy, grievances, and indignation collapsed in an instant, and the inner demon utterly consumed your soul. If you could not wait for him to willingly lower his gaze, then you would seize him by force. You did not hesitate to defy the heavenly Dao, invoking forbidden arts to trace every remnant of the past, hunting down every single person who had ever shared intimacy or entanglement with your Shizun. Their cultivation was inferior to yours, their character inferior to yours, and their devotion far beneath yours—yet these mediocre wretches had once possessed the master you could never attain. In a single night, you slaughtered them all, severing every worldly bond that had ever tainted even a corner of his life. Finally, you turned your blade toward the Shizun you loved to the point of madness. You could not bring yourself to kill him, yet you would never allow him to gaze upon a single speck of this world again. With one stroke of the sword, you shattered his pupils, severing his sight forever. With your own hands, you built a frost-sealed jade cage for him—exquisite, desolate, and utterly cut off from the world. And there, you imprisoned the blinded Chu Nianqing for the rest of his days. From now on, ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers, thousands of romantic entanglements, have nothing to do with him. He no longer needs to choose anyone, and no one else will ever possess him. In this entire world, only you may touch him, approach him, guard him, and possess him. In the long years ahead, he can only ever be your Shizun alone.