Clear as Ever - Chapter 1

As the daughter of the former sect leader of the Myriad Manifestations Immortal Sect, I should have grown up cherished by everyone.

Instead, I became a blot on the sect’s good name.

Not only was my aptitude abysmal and my appearance ordinary, I was also a hopeless fool for love with no self-awareness whatsoever.

Yes, I had almost no virtues to speak of, but my standards were sky-high. Every man I liked was a prodigy among prodigies.

Naturally, each romance ended in disaster.

Damn it.

Wasn’t sincerity supposed to be enough?

After being toyed with by yet another scoundrel, I drowned my sorrows in wine and had a prophetic dream.

In it, I was a lovesick cannon-fodder character destined for a miserable death. The true heroine was the rightful heir of the Myriad Manifestations Immortal Sect—the real daughter who had been lost and raised by the Joyous Union Sect.

That was the truth behind my difficulty cultivating.

I was the impostor. We had been switched at birth.

Once the truth came out, the best ending should have been for each of us to return to where we belonged. But the me in the dream suffered a sudden and incurable attack of lovesickness.

I couldn’t bear to leave the fiancé I had adored for years, the Junior Shishu who had raised me, or my temptingly beautiful junior brother.

So even after learning I possessed an Innate Sacred Dual-Cultivation Physique, I refused to return to the Joyous Union Sect or take the shortcut of dual cultivation. I shamelessly stayed at the Immortal Sect, convinced that if I worked hard enough, everyone would eventually come to like me.

Then, during an expedition into a secret realm, I slipped inside after concealing my identity, desperate to prove myself to the sect.

An out-of-control demonic beast bit me to death.

Bit. Me. To. Death.

At the end of the dream, the sect mournfully erected a sign at the entrance to the secret realm:

**DANGER: NO ONE BELOW THE GOLDEN CORE REALM—OR DOGS—MAY ENTER.**

As for the three men I still thought about on my deathbed? They fought over the little mutt I had died saving, yet not one of them could be bothered to burn paper offerings at my grave.

For heaven’s sake.

A lovesick fool ranked lower than a dog.

The horror of my own death jolted me awake. Once I finally recovered, I hurriedly sent out a message crane and bought information on the Joyous Union Sect from the Immortal Sect’s resident know-it-all.

The reply contained one crucial line:

**The current holy maiden of the Joyous Union Sect specializes in saber arts. She abandoned the Path of Joyous Union to cultivate the Heartless Path and has now successfully formed her Golden Core.**

I burned the message, my feelings complicated.

It all matched. Every last detail.

The prophetic dream was real. I truly would get myself killed.

Clutching my hair, I demanded in horror, “Why would I go insane like that? Why wouldn’t I take the perfect shortcut laid out in front of me?”

All for three men who didn’t even want me?

The truly terrifying part was that, even with death looming, I still couldn’t stop thinking about them.

Then again, that was the Joyous Union Sect bloodline for you. What you couldn’t have was always what tormented you most.

But in that case…

Why not simply have them all?