No romance + Entire sect regrets + Real/Fake noble daughter + Group-pet dynamics
Before the sect’s true noble daughter, Bai Mu Mu, returned, Shen Sang Ruo—the sect leader’s adopted daughter—entered the tutelage of the immortal master Ling Xiao. The sect leader, her master, and her four senior brothers all doted on her, treating her as the cherished center of their world. Yet once Bai Mu Mu came back, Shen Sang Ruo was abruptly reduced to a “fake,” an unofficial stand-in for the sect’s true noble daughter.
The sect leader, her master, and the four senior brothers declared that they owed Bai Mu Mu a great debt and would compensate her twofold for all past suffering. Bai Mu Mu quickly integrated into the sect’s life, while Shen Sang Ruo was quietly pushed to the margins and forgotten.
During a joint excursion, Bai Mu Mu accidentally fell into a valley. Shen Sang Ruo tried to explain, but no one listened. They immediately decided she had deliberately pushed Bai Mu Mu. Her third senior brother, Lu Shi Qing, even planted a Seven Emotions Gu in her body to force a confession through unrelenting emotional torment.
After two years of pursuit, interrogation, and suspicion, Shen Sang Ruo finally reached her limit. To escape the agony of the Seven Emotions Gu, she chose to accept judgment from the divine consciousness dwelling within the Mystic Wood: it would strip her of all emotion, and in exchange she would shoulder full blame. By offering ten drops of heart-blood and abolishing her own cultivation, she would sever all remaining ties and debts to that sect.
Following the divine consciousness’s guidance, she arrived at the ruins of an abandoned sect. There, she gathered a motley group of the “old, weak, sick, and disabled” and began painstakingly rebuilding the sect’s foundations. Under her quiet leadership, the fallen sect slowly returned to prominence and glory.
Only then did her former sect leader, master, and senior brothers realize the magnitude of what they had done. Wracked with regret, they came to her doors, begging for forgiveness and a chance to make amends.
Yet the very people once dismissed as “old, weak, sick, and disabled” now stood firmly in front of Shen Sang Ruo and blocked the way: “What sect are you from? You’re only here to curry favor.”
This time, Shen Sang Ruo’s heart remained untouched. Devoting herself solely to cultivation and to the sect she rebuilt with her own hands, she chose never to forgive them again.