To understand why Xia Lianqiao reacted so strongly to the name "Ling Chongxiao," we must first delve into the novel "Asking the Way," which she was passionately arguing about before her sudden transmigration.
This male-oriented cultivation novel, titled "Asking the Way," tells the story of the male protagonist, Bai Ji'an, who rises from a wandering rogue to a cultivator on the path of immortality, eventually ascending to the heavens.
What sets this novel apart from other male-oriented cultivation stories is that it lacks an official romantic pairing, or "CP."
However, the absence of an official CP doesn't mean there's no female lead. If you were to ask readers of "Asking the Way" who the primary female protagonist is, nine out of ten casual fans would unhesitatingly answer: Li Langhuan, Bai Ji'an's long-deceased white moonlight.
As it happens, Xia Lianqiao is a devoted shipper of Bai Ji'an and Li Langhuan's relationship.
To be more precise, she's primarily a fan of Li Langhuan herself.
It's hard not to be. Among the many female leads in male-oriented cultivation novels, Li Langhuan stands out as exceptionally pure and refined.
With her radiant beauty, bold personality, heroic spirit, kind heart, and unwavering sense of justice, she embodies the true essence of a "hero." She is neither a clinging vine nor overly virtuous, neither seductive nor naive. Instead, she personifies the concept of chivalry through her actions.
In the world of "Asking the Way," there are two distinct realms: the Immortal Sect and the Mortal Realm.
The Mortal Realm, naturally, is the world of mortals, where martial artists, demons, and cultivators coexist.
The Immortal Sect, on the other hand, is revered by all three factions as a divine realm. Temples are built in their honor, and people burn incense and pray to them daily.
Cultivators in the Mortal Realm spend centuries in rigorous training, all in the hopes of one day shedding their mortal bodies and ascending to the Immortal Sect.
Li Langhuan, the female protagonist, was born into the Immortal Sect, making her a true second-generation immortal. When she came of age, she descended to the Mortal Realm to gain experience, where she met Bai Ji'an.
The two hit it off immediately, becoming close friends and confidants. They faced hardships together and weathered many storms.
Members of the Immortal Sect, unless summoned to the Mortal Realm, often have their power suppressed by 70-80%.
When Bai Ji'an was being pursued by a Mingdao-level cultivator, Li Langhuan, in a moment of desperation, used the Immortal Sect's treasured Jade Dew Bottle to block the attack.
She had assumed that this Immortal Sect treasure could easily withstand a single strike from a mere mortal cultivator, let alone a hundred relentless assaults. However, to her shock, the bottle shattered upon impact, and the eight drops of Jade Dew inside scattered in all directions, disappearing without a trace.
Li Langhuan was horrified. The Jade Dew Bottle wasn't hers; she was merely its custodian at the time. Each drop of Jade Dew was equivalent to hundreds of years of cultivation. If a demon were to obtain even one drop, the consequences for the Mortal Realm would be catastrophic, and she would be held accountable by the Immortal Sect.
Although Li Langhuan hadn't revealed her true identity to Bai Ji'an, his keen intuition led him to realize the importance of the Jade Dew Bottle to her. He offered to help her retrieve the scattered drops of Jade Dew.
Thus, the two became deeply intertwined. Bai Ji'an, who had once been just a wandering rogue, gradually stepped onto the path of immortality through his connection with Li Langhuan.
Initially, from the author's subtle hints, Xia Lianqiao could tell that the author had intended to create a harem for Bai Ji'an.
After all, Bai Ji'an's personality was practically tailor-made for a harem!
Bai Ji'an is the quintessential wandering rogue, reminiscent of characters from Gu Long's novels. He's charming, elegant, and charismatic, with a wide circle of friends. He's kind-hearted yet aloof, both affectionate and detached, leaving countless women in the martial world heartbroken.
Li Langhuan, on the other hand, is a straight-laced, naturally naive girl—confirmed by the author to have a literal "ahoge" (a strand of hair sticking up)!
The dynamic between the wandering rogue and the naive girl had Xia Lianqiao squealing with delight.
Moreover!
From the moment they met, Bai Ji'an and Li Langhuan referred to each other as friends and confidants. Bai Ji'an admired Li Langhuan's character and never made any improper advances. It was precisely this undercurrent of ambiguity in their friendship that drove fans like Xia Lianqiao wild.
After all, the best CPs are the ones where the official narrative leaves room for fans to dig for hints of romance.
And the more you dig, the sweeter it gets.
As Li Langhuan's popularity soared, Bai Ji'an's character also began to shift. Despite being surrounded by beautiful women and potential love interests, he remained unfazed, his heart seemingly devoted only to his "dear friend Langhuan."
By the time the story reached its midpoint, Li Langhuan's tragic fate pushed their relationship to its emotional peak, delivering a heart-wrenching, bittersweet ending.
From then on, the once carefree Bai Ji'an became a widowed man, remaining celibate even after achieving immortality.
The tragic ending of one dead and one widowed only made this CP even more compelling.
And so, Xia Lianqiao plunged headfirst into this fandom.
When she first transmigrated, Bai Ji'an had called out Li Langhuan's name several times, but the boundary between the real world and the fictional one was too great. The wind and waves at the beach were too loud, and there were no subtitles. In the chaos, she didn't think much of it.
But when the name "Ling Chongxiao" was called out loud and clear, Xia Lianqiao finally realized something was off.
This cool, aloof young man was named Ling Chongxiao.
And if the beautiful woman in green was named Langhuan, then she must be the female protagonist, Li Langhuan.
As for the white-robed man in front of her, there was no doubt he was the male protagonist, Bai Ji'an.
At first glance, she hadn't paid much attention, but now that she looked closely, the man had sharp eyebrows, fair skin, and a handsome face with naturally alluring peach-blossom eyes—clearly the visual design of a male protagonist.
Which meant that she was...
Following the laws of transmigration into a novel and combining her fragmented memories of the book, Xia Lianqiao suddenly realized her current identity.
Wasn't she the foolish and villainous cannon fodder character, Xia Lianqiao, from the novel?
It's worth noting that there are three characters in "Asking the Way" that Xia Lianqiao despises the most.
The first is the cannon fodder character who shares her name, Xia Lianqiao.
The second is the malicious female antagonist, Sima Yuanheng.
The third is Li Langhuan's adoptive father, Ling Shouyi, who single-handedly destroyed her beloved Bai-Li CP.
Xia Lianqiao, the character, is a minor villain in this sprawling, million-word epic—a character who wouldn't have met her demise if she hadn't brought it upon herself.
But the real thorn in her side is Ling Shouyi.
Ling Shouyi is an arrogant, emotionless figure who oversees the Immortal Sect's laws and punishments.
With a face as beautiful as flowers and the moon, yet as cold as frost, he wields the divine sword Tian Gang and has slain three thousand immortals.
The reason the Bai-Li CP ended in tragedy is directly tied to Ling Shouyi.
The name "Ling Chongxiao" is actually one of Ling Shouyi's avatars. As a high-ranking member of the Immortal Sect, his true form rarely moves about. Instead, he has several avatars in the Mortal Realm—both male and female—and Ling Chongxiao is one of them.
After learning that Li Langhuan had shattered the Jade Dew Bottle, Ling Shouyi, in the guise of Ling Chongxiao, joined the main cast to assist her in collecting the scattered drops of Jade Dew.
Once all the drops were gathered, he coldly and emotionlessly arrested Li Langhuan and took her back to the Immortal Sect to face punishment.
This act ultimately led to the tragic ending of Bai Ji'an and Li Langhuan's story—one dead, the other widowed.
While bittersweet endings have their own charm, that didn't stop Xia Lianqiao from harboring a deep hatred for Ling Chongxiao, as she had been emotionally betrayed by him in more ways than one.
"..."
When Ling Chongxiao first appeared, she had thought he was a cool, white-robed swordsman—exactly her type. More, please!
In the early chapters of "Asking the Way," Bai Ji'an had far too many romantic interests, and Xia Lianqiao, who was following the story as it was being serialized, was well aware of the tendencies of male-oriented novels. She was hesitant about fully committing to the Bai-Li CP.
It was at this point that Ling Chongxiao made his entrance. With his aloof, untouchable demeanor and his seemingly indifferent yet caring attitude toward Li Langhuan, he perfectly embodied the "cold on the outside, warm on the inside" archetype. The subtle hints of ambiguity between them had Xia Lianqiao's heart racing.
But then it turned out that he was actually Li Langhuan's...
Adoptive father.
Xia Lianqiao: "..."
But for a fandom omnivore like her, it wasn't a big deal.
When it comes to shipping BG (boy-girl) couples, isn't it usually the female fans who are the most passionate?
Whether it's Bai-Li, Ling-Li, or All-Li, as long as it involves her beloved Li Langhuan, any pairing is delicious.
Ling Chongxiao entered the path of cultivation at the age of 16, and his appearance has remained frozen at that age ever since—forever a cold and arrogant youth.
No problem! Adoptive father and daughter? Even better! You tasteless fools! She could ship it all! All in, full commitment!
But then Ling Chongxiao coldly struck both Li Langhuan and Bai Ji'an with his sword, severed Li Langhuan's immortal bones, and dragged her back to the Immortal Sect for punishment.
"..." Xia Lianqiao's investment had just gone up in smoke.
But what fangirl doesn't suffer heartbreak or go a little crazy?
Xia Lianqiao seamlessly switched back to shipping Bai-Li.
And then Ling Chongxiao nearly ran her over with a metaphorical truck.
What made matters worse was that, at this very moment, some fans had started shipping the Bai-Ling and Ling-Bai BL (boys' love) pairings. The author even began subtly promoting Bai-Ling and Ling-Bai, and later in the story, a number of female characters started throwing themselves at them, leading to the emergence of numerous factions like Bai-A, Bai-B, and Bai-C shippers.
Originally, Xia Lianqiao, who spent her time surfing the internet, was a casual fan of various pairings. During her transition from elementary to middle school, she had only engaged in heated debates over pairings like Tianxin-Tianxue, Shinran-Conan, Faye-Hayate, Yue-Lian, Inuyasha-Kagome, Inuyasha-Kikyo, Ji Min-Ji Ruo, Chong Ying-Chong Ling, Guo Long-Guo Fu, and so on. Apart from that, she was generally quite peaceful.
"..."
But times had changed.
Betrayed by the author and sent spiraling into despair, Xia Lianqiao (now fully "blackened"): "Ahhhhhh, I'll kill them!! Kill, kill, kill! Who doesn't go crazy over shipping?!"
From that moment on, she became sworn enemies with Ling Chongxiao, looking at him with the same disdain a mother-in-law might have for a homewrecker or a seductive fox spirit.
Every day, she would passionately vent to her friends:
"Why isn't Ling Chongxiao dead yet?"
"I really want to slap him a few times, ahhhh!"
"Ahhhh, I'll kill Ling Chongxiao! Kill, kill, kill!"
The person she had been gearing up to battle with online before her transmigration was, without a doubt, a die-hard Bai-Ling shipper.
It goes without saying how much she detested Bai-Ling.
And now, standing before her was the young man known as Ling Chongxiao. He gave a slight nod to Bai Ji'an as a greeting, his demeanor indifferent. Perhaps because Xia Lianqiao's expression was so vividly dramatic, it even caught a fraction of Ling Chongxiao's attention. This made Xia Lianqiao's heart tremble.
She clearly remembered that in the original plot of *The Path of Cultivation*, Xia Lianqiao was killed by Ling Chongxiao—decapitated with a single strike of his sword.
In the book, this man had slain countless beautiful female demons, either cutting off their heads or slicing them in half at the waist.
His Daoist heart was unshakable, his methods ruthless, and his prowess unmatched.
Now, transmigrated into the body of this cannon-fodder female character with the same name, Xia Lianqiao couldn't help but feel her heart racing and her hair standing on end.
If she remembered correctly, around this point in the story, Xia Lianqiao had already developed a secret crush on Bai Ji'an and had begun frequently scheming against the female lead. This included, but was not limited to, poisoning Li Langhuan, drugging Bai Ji'an with aphrodisiacs, pushing the female lead off a cliff, and then crying crocodile tears, saying, "Sister Langhuan, why are you trying to harm me?"
However, both Bai Ji'an and Ling Chongxiao were experts at spotting manipulative behavior. Bai Ji'an was a man who had seen it all in matters of romance, appearing affectionate but truly heartless.
Ling Chongxiao, on the other hand, was cold and reserved, rarely smiling. He devoted himself entirely to the Dao, never wasting a single thought on trivial matters. But once his patience ran out, he wouldn't hesitate to kill with a single stroke of his sword.
At this moment, the young man glanced down at her, his eyelashes casting a faint shadow, exuding an almost divine aura.
Ling Chongxiao said coldly, "Whether one does good or evil, heaven and earth bear witness, and the spirits take note."
"With deities watching from above, justice will inevitably prevail. I hope Fellow Cultivator Xia will tread carefully."
With that, he turned away, clearly warning her about her recent act of pushing Li Langhuan off the cliff.
Being a keyboard warrior online was one thing, but facing the actual Bai-Ling shippers in person was another.
Still holding the little girl's hand, Xia Lianqiao: "..."
This heart-pounding feeling.
It was no different from her, a shut-in college girl, receiving an offer from the King of Hell himself.
*Insert bookmark*
