Two hundred years ago, during the Great War of Demons, Grandmaster Beichen sacrificed his life to vanquish the demons.

Afterward, the world gradually enjoyed peace until the present day. Why 'gradually'? Because wherever there are people, there is Jianghu. As long as people exist, with their neighborhood squabbles and trivial conflicts, fights are bound to break out over the smallest of matters. This was a problem that not even Grandmaster Beichen could solve, even if he were to rise from his coffin.

Witnessed by all the martial artists in the world, the six descendants left behind by Grandmaster Beichen held a grand and moving funeral for him. Then, these six descendants and their families settled down obediently at the grandmaster's residence, Myriad Waters Thousand Mountains Cliff. They spent their days practicing martial arts, studying, and occasionally holding memorial meetings to reminisce about the grandmaster's glorious past.

As the saying goes, a large tree has many branches. After a mere twenty years, the six descendants already had flocks of children and disciples. It was then that they discovered three things.

First, although they themselves were as close as brothers and rarely had conflicts beyond playful sparring, the same could not be said for their wives, children, and disciples.

Second, they had originally thought that after the grandmaster's passing, the six of them would be helpless and need to huddle together for warmth. However, as their children and disciples traveled down the mountain, they discovered that even the smattering of skills they had learned from Grandmaster Beichen was enough to look down upon the world.

Third, as light and shadow go hand in hand, though the demons were vanquished, a Demonic Cult had risen in the Jianghu in just over a decade. The death of Grandmaster Beichen back then was partly due to the ancestors of the Demonic Cult. How could the descendants of Beichen stand idly by? Thus, they resolved to settle in various places, establish sects, and guard against the Demonic Cult's incursions.

In the end, it all boiled down to two words: split up.

Regarding this past event from nearly two hundred years ago, five-year-old Cai Han once complained while memorizing the family tree: "It was just splitting up the family, why write so many grand principles? As if they never argued on Myriad Waters Thousand Mountains Cliff back then..."

This earned him a clumsy flick on the head from his older sister. "How ignorant. Can the splitting of a prestigious and righteous sect be called 'splitting up'?"

Cai Han rubbed his head. "Then what should it be called?"

The young girl Cai Zhao wore a righteous expression. "Naturally, it was to uphold justice in the world that the descendants of Beichen endured the pain of parting with their brethren and scattered to various places, all to prevent evil demons and heretics from taking advantage of any weakness to harm the mortal realm!"

She had just heard this a few days ago while squatting in front of Uncle Sha Guo's stall, gnawing on a braised chicken leg. The most important thing when roaming the Jianghu was verbal sparring. Jianghu travelers might not always come to blows, but they would engage in verbal jousts as soon as they met.

"Well said, my Zhaozhao speaks so well. In the future, when you roam the Jianghu, it doesn't matter if your actions are elegant, but your words must be." Their aunt, Cai Pingshu, leaned against the bed and clapped. Although she was already too ill and weak to get up, her sallow, thin face still wore a free-spirited smile, playful and hearty.

The Cai siblings' father, Cai Pingchun, sat silently to the side. Never good at acting since childhood, he couldn't manage a smile. Madam Cai, Ning Xiaofeng, stood by the window, head down, blowing on a bowl of medicinal soup. A large tear fell into the bowl.

They had known for a long time that this day would come, but when it truly arrived, their hearts still ached as if being torn apart.

The twelve-year-old Miss Cai stood to one side, her thick lashes framing large eyes as clear as dew, seeming to vaguely sense the impending sorrow.

A few days later, Cai Pingshu passed away. Cai Zhao fell gravely ill and observed a full three years of mourning for her. Cai Pingchun then proposed that it was time for Cai Zhao to leave the valley and seek a master. He had already contacted a sect for her—the Qingque Sect, the only branch of Beichen's descendants that had remained on Myriad Waters Thousand Mountains Cliff after the split. Hailed as the number one sect in the world and leader of the Wulin, the Qingque Sect offered a prestigious placement.

The young girl Cai Zhao immediately expressed that she hadn't fully recovered from her grief and suggested postponing the matter of leaving to study under a master.

"Postpone it any longer and you'll be eighteen!" Cai Pingchun's face stiffened in a threat. "If you don't join another sect before you're eighteen, are you planning on becoming a demonic woman?!"

Cai Zhao furrowed her delicate eyebrows. "I like staying at home. I won't be used to the food or lodging outside. Dad, I never step out of the house, how could I possibly become a demonic woman out of thin air?"

"Is there a single shop owner or clerk from one end of the town to the other that you don't know? You call that 'never stepping out of the house'? Gallivanting through the streets and alleys all day long..." Ning Xiaofeng sneered, but quickly corrected her expression when she saw her husband's warning glance.

"Back then, your great-grand-aunt's parents thought the same. They thought their daughter was frail and sickly, unable to even walk to town to buy a box of rouge, so how could anything happen if she just stayed at home? And what was the result? Not even a true demoness from the Demonic Cult could cause as big a commotion as she did! You will obediently go to Myriad Waters Thousand Mountains Cliff and stay there for three years. It doesn't matter if you learn any martial arts or not, it's just to stop people from gossiping—this was also your aunt's instruction!"

"Your mother is absolutely right," Cai Pingchun slapped the table, and the matter was settled.

Cai Zhao's tender cheeks puffed out, her heart filled with resentment.

Her aunt, Cai Pingshu, was the person Cai Zhao respected most in her life. She had been upright and magnanimous, a veritable beacon of the righteous path. Cai Zhao, on the other hand, had little ambition from a young age. All she wanted was to sleep well, wake up, dab a little water on her fingers to make her cheeks rosy, and enjoy good food and drink. She desired nothing more from life.

Now that the person she admired was gone, Cai Zhao, amid her grief, did hope to follow in her predecessor's footsteps and fulfill Cai Pingshu's wish... but it would be so much better if she didn't have to leave Falling Blossoms Valley. She could follow in other ways.

This inner conflict was all because the Cai Clan of Falling Blossoms Valley had a peculiar fate—the daughters of the Cai Family had to be apprenticed to another sect and could not be raised at home. Otherwise, the consequences would range from petty squabbles to cataclysmic disasters.

In the very beginning, all the descendants of Beichen lived together on Myriad Waters Thousand Mountains Cliff. The disciples of the six families were indistinguishable; it was common for the son of family A to learn saber techniques from an uncle of family B, sword skills from an elder of family C, and how to ride a horse and woo girls from an older brother of family D. At that time, this problem with the Cai daughters was not yet obvious, amounting to little more than bickering and competing with their little sisters.

Once the families split, the very first daughter of the Cai family to be raised purely within her own clan embarked on the path of a demonic woman with unstoppable momentum. She was rebellious, perverse, and wasted her great natural talent. No matter how her elders advised her, she continued to do as she pleased, scouring every nook and cranny of the Jianghu for unorthodox martial arts manuals and fierce beasts. As expected, she later caused a great disaster.

That ancestress was quite straightforward. Before anyone could settle scores with her, she simply left and vanished from the Wulin. For several decades after, martial artists in the world would only shake their heads at the mention of Falling Blossoms Valley.

A generation or two later, after several 'ordinary-level' unworthy daughters, the Cai family's female demon lord broke new ground. Not only was her conduct unrestrained and her sense of right and wrong skewed, but she eventually even colluded with a great demon lord of the Demonic Cult. This ultimately forced her own father to declare that he would forsake kinship for righteousness and personally lead righteous individuals to besiege the Demonic Cult and clean up his own family's mess—though this matter also came to nothing in the end, because this ancestress followed the same pattern and simply left, vanishing without a trace.

Although her predecessors' achievements were glorious, the one who truly solidified this strange fate of the Cai family was Cai Zhao's great-grand-aunt, who was said to be as weak as a flickering thread for eleven months out of the year.

After nearly a hundred years of strict precautions, constantly sending their daughters to their brother sects to avert disaster, the Cai family had not produced a demonic woman for a long time. When this congenitally weak great-grand-aunt was born, Valley Master Cai and his wife felt sorry for their frail daughter. They let their guard down and kept her at home to recuperate. Who would have known that she would later stir up an unprecedented bloody storm in the Jianghu?

After this, the Cai family dared not take any more chances. Whenever a daughter was born, they would dutifully contact their brother sects to see which sect master had a good temper and lenient rules at the time—and most importantly, an elegant sect culture—and send their daughter over for a few years. They didn't expect her to become a world-renowned heroine, only to be healthy and safe, for everything to go smoothly, and if they were lucky, to bring back a son-in-law.

For example, Cai Zhao's aunt, Cai Pingshu, was sent to Peiqiong Mountain Manor, one of the Six Sects of Beichen, at the age of ten.

Conversely, as long as the daughters of the Cai family were obediently apprenticed to another sect, they would grow up to be either gentle and virtuous or wise and righteous. The current ceiling for a Cai woman was the great heroine Cai Pingshu, who was not only astonishingly talented and famous from a young age but also turned the tide in a crisis. The floor for a Cai woman was a smooth marriage and a happy family.

With such precedents, the historical circumstances were too severe. Thus, Cai Zhao had no choice but to leave home and travel far away to study under a master and avert disaster.

Valley Master Cai, accustomed to being ordered around by his older sister Cai Pingshu since childhood, was quite efficient in managing affairs. In just three short days, he had packed their belongings and arranged for servants, ready to head to Qingque Residence on Jiuli Mountain.

On the day of departure, the valley and town residents came to see them off in droves. Cai Zhao tearfully bit a small handkerchief, waving continuously out of the carriage window. Ning Xiaofeng yanked her daughter back.

Cai Zhao sighed with tears in her eyes, "Without me, the shopkeepers and clerks of so many stores in town must be so lonely."

Ning Xiaofeng snorted, "Take a look outside the carriage. Are those who came to see you off crying their eyes out, or are they beaming with joy?"

Cai Zhao rushed to the carriage window and saw that the situation was indeed as her mother had described. She immediately stopped crying, feeling a bit indignant. "The world is truly full of heartless people! That rouge shop owner said I was the most discerning customer he had ever met. And the one from the silk shop, just a few days ago he said that meeting a connoisseur like me was the fortune of three lifetimes."

Ning Xiaofeng said leisurely, "Were they being sarcastic?"

"Mom, what's the opposite of 'the fortune of three lifetimes'?" little Cai Han asked curiously.

Ning Xiaofeng picked her ear. "Cursed with terrible luck for three generations?"

Cai Han, sitting in his father's lap, giggled.

Cai Zhao said indignantly, "These shopkeepers are so short-sighted. The reason our Falling Blossoms Town has become the most popular market within a hundred miles in just over a decade is because we have always upheld my aunt's wishes. Whether selling food, clothes, or acting as brokers, we must strive to be honest with everyone, constantly improve, offer competitive prices, and build a good reputation."

Cai Han muttered, "But sister is too particular. Even for a bowl of wontons, she insists on a filling of seventy percent front leg pork and thirty percent shrimp paste. What's wrong with the hind leg..."

Cai Zhao looked astonished. "It might be acceptable for braised pork with bone sauce, but for wontons in clear soup, of course you need front leg meat. The hind leg meat is so coarse and tough, can't you guys tell the difference?"

The remaining three members of the Cai family shook their heads in unison—with such a tiny bit of meat in a small wonton, who the hell could tell the difference between front and hind leg?

Cai Zhao shook her head and sighed repeatedly, "You all are just not discerning enough. The reason why so many century-old shops' craftsmanship stagnates is because of undiscerning customers like you. Alas, my aunt was right, I pour my heart and soul out for the people of the world, yet they often misunderstand me..."

Her parents, unable to bear it any longer, covered their ears in unison.

Cai Zhao struggled to plead one last time, "Dad, Mom, since it doesn't matter if I learn martial arts or not, why must I go to Qingque Sect? I heard a new Green Bamboo Gang just opened outside our Falling Blossoms Valley, and I think it's very good. I can become the apprentice of that gang leader. I can leave in the morning and be back in town to sleep at night."

Cai Pingchun frowned. "That Green Bamboo Gang was formed by a group of brothers who used to pole bamboo rafts on the river. They can only be considered half-members of the Jianghu at best..."

"Dad, you can't say that. Gang Leader Wang's Forty-nine Moves Water Paddling Cudgel Technique has quite a reputation."

Ning Xiaofeng said leisurely, "Wasn't that a name you came up with a few months ago, and then you instigated Uncle Sha Guo to tell that Gang Leader Wang?"

Cai Zhao gave an awkward smile.

Ning Xiaofeng continued, "To say that the Green Bamboo Gang is at the bottom of the Jianghu hierarchy would be a compliment. But if you'd rather go there than to Qingque Sect, then our number one sect in the world would lose face. To be honest, though, I don't really like your future master either..."

Cai Pingchun gave a low cough.

"...your future master's wife," Ning Xiaofeng promptly finished. "But well, going to Qingque Sect was something your aunt personally agreed to. You should weigh it yourself."

Cai Zhao let out a small sigh. "...Alright."

Author's Note:

A notice for readers—if you cannot accept the following, please do not continue reading, thank you:

1. The male lead of this story will appear very soon. There's basically no need to guess; you'll know him when you see him. If you don't like him, please slip away quickly.

2. The male lead of the previous book was god-like; the male lead of this book is neurotic.

3. This is a plot-driven story. The romance will be less than in the previous book.

4. The female lead is a growth-type character. Her personality is imperfect in the early stages, and her kindness is also discounted.

5. In a world with a high-level martial arts setting, do not discuss Newtonian physics with me. When in doubt, quantum mechanics, OK?

6. A complete outline has already been prepared and will not be changed. Do not try to persuade me to change the male lead, nor try to persuade me to alter the story's direction, because no one has ever succeeded before.

7. To meet is to be bound by fate. Let the show begin.