April 29, 2018

For the vast majority of people from Golden Jade City who came to Bai Shui Road to watch the musical drama, it was more of a procedural activity. In times of significant mental stress and emotional tension, going out for dinner, watching a musical drama, and then returning home for some intimate moments was undoubtedly the best way to relax.

For those from Golden Jade City who were about to participate in the public trial the next day, witnessing the fall of a Venerable, the Spirit Cat’s musical drama was such a timely program. People were attracted by its ads but did not really hold high expectations for the program’s quality. For those who had once enjoyed the performances of the Former City Lord Zhao Chenlu, no program in this world could be anything but tasteless.

Until the lights on the stage suddenly illuminated, and a graceful apricot-yellow figure elegantly appeared.

The first to appear was Shen Qingming, the most experienced and veteran performer in the Spirit Cat Plan.

The girl wore the most classic Spirit Cat Dance Skirt, opening the entire performance with a splendid and lively dance.

There was no music, no songs, only the girl’s quiet yet lively dance. The apricot-yellow skirt followed her movements, leaving a dazzling afterimage in the eyes of the audience, vividly etched against the stark interplay of light and dark.

Supported by the Immovable Tyrant Body, Shen Qingming easily accomplished swift steps that mortal dancers could never achieve. She seemed to appear simultaneously in multiple places on stage, her apricot-yellow skirt swaying, expanding, and contracting, sometimes bright and sometimes dim. Shen Qingming danced across the stage like a gust of wind, leaving an elegant and gorgeous character in everyone’s vision in an instant.

Love.

This was the theme of the musical drama.

And this unprecedented opening instantly captured everyone’s attention.

Objectively speaking, the girl, whose cultivation was only at the Cloud Surge Realm, couldn’t exhibit the profound Immortal Techniques of the Great Cultivators. Her dance steps were agile and charming but lacked the soul-shocking impact. However, less than one percent of the audience could understand the Immortal Family’s profundities. For the vast majority of mortals, Shen Qingming’s performance precisely touched the limits of their aesthetics: a bit more would be esoteric, a bit less would be somewhat disappointing. The apricot-yellow dance steps and the lingering character of love on the retina left tens of thousands of spectators momentarily breathless.

After a long while, the apricot-yellow afterimage finally began to solidify and dim in people’s lines of sight. The lights on the stage gradually went out as Shen Qingming gracefully departed with a smile, marking the slow beginning of the entire musical drama’s prelude.

The protagonist of this musical drama was not Shen Qingming, the absolute mainstay of the Spirit Cat Plan.

After a moment of tranquility, a tall figure slowly stepped onto the stage.

Li Wanqing, another mainstay of the Spirit Cat Plan who enjoys immense popularity among the female audience, began to tell the love story that the Three Lives Stone meticulously crafted, singing with a smile.

The story unfolds in an autobiographical manner, with Li Wanqing playing the role of an illegitimate daughter from a Cultivation Family. Her mother died early, leaving her isolated in the family’s large courtyard from a young age. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

She was intelligent and extraordinarily gifted. Despite the family’s indifference, she naturally stood out from the crowd from an early age. The legitimate sons of her generation, with resources several times hers and a hundred times the affection from their elders, could only look up to her silhouette from behind.

As the saying goes, "The tree that stands out is the one that gets blown over." Born an illegitimate daughter and having no relatives in the family, her life in the mansion soon turned tumultuous due to the jealousy of her peers and the suspicions of her elders, which made her cultivation journey fraught with difficulties. Elders deliberately taught her mediocre or even incorrect cultivation techniques, and during key resource allocations, she often found herself running out at crucial points. Worse, some malicious peers even deliberately disturbed her meditation, trying to entangle her with Heart Demons.

This segment of family bullying was short, yet it caused the audience’s emotions to rise and fall. When the villain played by Li Xinyu stealthily placed a poisonous flower in Li Wanqing’s cultivation chamber, some audience members even threw fruits and snacks onstage in anger.

Fortunately, a turning point soon arrived in the storyline. Li Wanqing realized that such a family would only drag her deeper into the mire, so she sought every means to escape. While enduring humiliation in the mansion to secure a sliver of cultivation resources, she also actively sought sects outside the family that might accept her, using opportunities when she worked on behalf of her legitimate brothers.

Nowadays in Xiangzhou, especially in Golden Jade City, there are many places where cultivators can practice, and it’s not necessary to rely on one’s own family.

By virtue of her wisdom and perseverance, Li Wanqing soon found an opportunity. A medium-sized, open-minded Sword Sect took a liking to her and was willing to take her in as a disciple. However, as per the norms of the Immortal Cultivation Realm, Li Wanqing, being from a Cultivation Family, still needed to convince her family to agree to join another sect.

Overjoyed, Li Wanqing immediately returned home to apply to leave the manor. She did not mention the Sword Sect’s offer; she only claimed that after years of cultivation, her talent was insufficient to continue pursuing the Immortal Dao, and in disheartenment, she wished to live a mortal life. In her view, since the family was so averse to her as an illegitimate daughter, her voluntary departure would be a win-win situation.

Unexpectedly, when she earnestly applied to the family elders for relocation, she was sincerely asked to stay.

Li Xinyu, portraying the elder, tearfully admitted that the family had indeed treated her unfairly in the past few years, but the temporary suppression was merely intended to test her patience. After all, what family would really want to stifle their talents? From today onward, they promised to restore her rightful treatment, hoping she would let bygones be bygones and still consider herself part of the family, a member of the mansion.

Li Wanqing thought for a long time, and finally couldn’t refuse Li Xinyu’s sincere face. She gritted her teeth and nodded, agreeing to stay at home for another two years.

During those two years, her treatment improved slightly, but compared to the other children of the large courtyard, she was still lacking. Resources were still scarce, and the elders’ guidance was still perfunctory. She had already been delayed for years, her progress lagging behind her peers. In this situation, not only did she fail to close the gap, but those mediocrities she once completely looked down upon left her further and further behind.

Meanwhile, the Sword Sect, with whom she was quite friendly, gradually grew cold towards her. She suffered closed doors several times when she visited, leaving her bewildered.

In two years, Li Wanqing’s situation not only failed to improve, but worsened, shattering her hopes of a new life and leaving her in greater pain.

By chance, she suddenly overheard a conversation among the family elders.

It turned out that the retention two years ago was a complete conspiracy. The family feared her, even hated her, and never truly regarded her as one of their own. The oppression over the past few years that Li Wanqing herself only felt helpless against, was actually accompanied by guilt, and even sinister intentions within the family.

Given her talent, if she ever ventured out, she would certainly be sought after by various sects, and with proper resources, she could shine in just 10 years. In 20 to 30 years, she might even have the chance to become a major power.

At that time, this small family courtyard would likely be unable to withstand her crushing.

Therefore, the family elders actually wanted to find an opportunity to completely eliminate this threat, but killing out of jealousy within one’s own flesh and blood could invoke heavenly tribulation on the spot. Moreover, unnatural deaths of cultivators in Golden Jade City are taboo and could easily attract the attention of the higher-ups. So, the family had always treated Li Wanqing like livestock, raising her not to kill, but to cripple her.

At the same time, the family never relaxed its vigilance over her. The elders had long been aware of her attempts to contact the Sword Sect. So after she agreed to stay at home, the family continuously sent people to spread rumors about Li Wanqing at the Sword Sect, completely cutting off thoughts from that side.

Now, two years later, Li Wanqing was almost reduced to a complete waste. Her cultivation could no longer match her age, and even leaving the courtyard, it would be difficult to find anyone willing to accept her, posing no threat to the family.

Upon hearing this, the anger and despair in Li Wanqing’s heart nearly drowned her.

Faced with a huge family, she no longer had the will to resist. Facing a dark future, she did not have the motivation to persist... In a daze, she walked like a zombie to the cliffs beyond the city, intending to end her life.

However, she did not know that not far behind her, the family servants were preparing to capture her back for mockery once she thought she had found release.

Alive, she’s the family’s person; dead, she’s the family’s ghost. A mere concubine’s child, daring to long for freedom?

——

The performance at this point had reached the climax of the first Chapter.

And the audience below began to stir.

This plot is too dark!

People sacrificed their precious night-time to enjoy a musical drama for relaxation, not for sadness and depression. Even if many stories emphasize first depressing then uplifting, the early oppression here is too excessive! How can there be such a hateful family in the world? Even if there is, it shouldn’t be brought to this stage.

The pacing of this first Chapter’s plot clearly rises first and then falls, covering every bit of beauty offered to the audience with deeper darkness.

This kind of dark story plot generally only happens to the Li Family in the works of Three Lives Stone!

However, just as some of the audience was getting up to leave, the music on stage suddenly changed.

At the same time, a misty and uncertain woman’s voice leisurely began.

"There are neither divine skills nor the release you seek below the cliff. Think a little, did you think you’d come this far away and the family would not know? Will they let you achieve your wish so easily? A pretty little girl, yet never been in love, how are you so foolish?"