actually see the Miaojing rebuilt, rather than just saying it. The matter about Miaojing's revival was just that a bunch of miao people came together and gathered with Wu Rou to rebuild it. Nothing about the process or how Luo Qingyi and Wu Rou lived after the conclusion, like where's the aftercare?

Not as red flag as you might think. Luo Qingyi was the one imprisoning herself during her inner demon episodes. She uses them on Wu Ruo only once, to tie Wu Ruo to her.

Wu Ruo

The protagonist. Holy Maiden of the Miao, user of gu (bugs, more or less. The creepy crawlies, and snakes, toads) magic. Recreates the love gu (curse). Somehow, she revives after her death in demon lands.

Luo Qingyi

The love interest. Among the strongest people of their world, and a hero that saved the world (sole survivor). The love gu curse recipient.

A'Xiang

Wu Ruo's best friend in the Miao village. Mediocre in talent, relatively mild personality. Wu Ruo swaps their final projects so that A'xiang can be recognized as a top student, which would allow her to leave the village and see the world as she desired. Unfortunately, it's a lie, and the demon cultivators take her away. Wu Ruo's initial pursuit of her leads her to meet Luo Qingyi.

Jiang Qingbei

Luo Qingyi's junior sister, sect master Jiang Yurong's 2nd daughter. Recipient of the silver bracelet Wu Ruo wanted to gift to A'Xiang.

Jinhua

Protagonist's rival in Miao village. Tricked by demon cultivators and dies. Daughter of a village elder, Jin Ruyun.

Lanting and Chuncao

Wu Ruo's students after she becomes Holy Maiden. Besties.

Yue Qinglan

Luo Qingyi's disciple and successor.

Wu Ruo

The protagonist. 357th? Holy Maiden of the Miao. Unknowingly makes a wish at the red temple. She's 'descended from Wu Juncheng's line', thus gaining Wu Juncheng's aid and Dongling Jiu's inheritance, and carrying their entanglements throughout the story.

Luo Qingyi

The protagonist's partner. An orphan, and willing sacrificial hero that saved the world and survived. (Knowingly) love gu curse recipient and re-recipient. Disciple to and basically adopted by Wu Juncheng's reincarnation, who is also Jiang Yurong's senior sister. Waited in anticipation for awaited her juniors Jiang Qingxiang and then Jiang Qingbei's births. Loved the protagonist from the beginning. Super strong, so nothing is really a threat.

A'Xiang / Jiang Qingxiang

The demonic Right Protector (high level position), Dongling Jiu's current host. Wu Ruo's best friend in the Miao village, and Jiang Yurong's 1st daughter that fell off a cliff into Miao lands as a toddler. Mediocre in talent, she's ridiculed by the sect and abandoned by her mother. Her reason for being born and her mother's disappointment gave her incredible desire for power, leading her to become the Demon Lord's host. Resentful even after her body is overtaken, she tries to steal her sister's body. Led the massacre on the Miao village to try to kill and rob Wu Ruo of her dao bone, ironically accelerating her own doom by wiping out the gu magic that could have slowed down her body takeover problem. Karma for repaying her benefactors with massacre. Dies plotting and resenting.

Rest in pepperoni A'Xiang, truly shitty luck (She's terrible but still, life kind of set her up to fail). Disappointed mom who wanted more talented baby -> fell off a cliff -> picked up by Miao, still mediocre talent -> shafted by bestie's well-intentioned gift turning out to be abusive kidnapper demon practitioners -> shafted by Demon Lord picking her like Orochimaru picked Sasuke.

A'Xiang, from the last character of [Jiang Qing Xiang]. Jiang is the family name, and mom doesn't want her anymore, so can't use that. Qing is the generation name (Luo QING Yi, Jiang QING Bei), and mom and the other adults said not talented enough to deserve it.. Thus, only Xiang is left. She fell off the cliff at like 4 years old, btw.

Jiang Qingbei

Luo Qingyi's junior sister, sect master Jiang Yurong's 2nd daughter. Recipient of her sister's silver bracelet. Born by her mother to die heroically, but wants to live. Accepts her role, and then her mother forces Luo Qingyi to do it instead. Loves and hates her mom. A tsun but loyal friend who doesn't catch all the signals. A person who is afraid but does what is right.

I loved that super late in the story we get more nuance on why she hated Wu Ruo. It wasn't just because she admired her senior sister Luo Qingyi and felt Wu Ruo tarnished her reputation or caused her to deviate from the correct path, but because she wanted to live. She knew that either Luo Qingyi or her would be the sacrifice. She wanted just a little more time, just a little more experiencing life, which her strict training didn't allow. And Luo Qingyi was older and extremely talented.. It would be natural for her to take the heroic sacrifice slot, wouldn't it? At least, they would be candidates together until the end, right? But the love gu and Luo Qingyi's subsequent decline left Jiang Qingbei as the sole candidate, without even a fellow commiserator, and then just when she accepted it her mother slaps her and denies her even that death of glory that she's literally been told is her destiny since birth. Wu Ruo's death allowed her to live, and she can't really hate her after that, especially knowing her mom wronged them for her.

Jiang Yurong

Extremely proud. Current sect leader. Tried to bear the perfect, talented child to finally surpass her senior sister ('s protege) and take on the burden of being the sacrifice-for-the-greater-good. Loves her kids but didn't seem to realize just how important they were to her until much later, causing a LOT of friction. Seems to have wanted the sacrifice to stay in-clan business (ie, it's the clan's burden, not an outsider's (Luo Qingyi's), so my child should be the martyr), but when the time came realized she really didn't want her kid to die, and swapped Luo Qingyi in. All her conflicts with the next generation come from the fact she's controlling and manipulating all these decisions. She decides everything for everyone. Forcing her daughter who is scared to be a martyr, taking it away once she is resolved to be one. Secretly swapping it to Luo Qingyi, when Luo Qingyi was already willing. Promising Wu Ruo safety, then abandoning her to die so that Luo Qingyi could gain the necessary power to be the sacrifice. She's a bit "The path to hell is paved with good intentions", with a good dose of pride, selfishness, and control freak.

She's interesting as a character, but I wanted to see her get smacked for everything she did. The only good, entirely unselfish, thing she did was not give Wu Ruo's remains to A'Xiang, but she also contributed to her death and then lied to her spouse about it.. Even though she was trying to save her daughter, the other side of the scale is she pushed someone else's kid to die (without know they were willing). Also, the abandoned first kid.

Jinhua

Protagonist's rival in Miao village. Village elder Jin Ruyun betrays Miao village for her, making a wish at the temple that Jinhua might be revived using the villagers lives. (She was resentful that they lived while her daughter died, and wanted them to suffer too.) The opportunity comes, and she lets the demon cultivators into the village. Jinhua, sealed as basically a zombie, listens to her mom and makes a wish to revive - but she doesn't have the ability to pay for it, so she becomes like a 3-year old, living again but without all her faculties.

Jin Ruyun

Jinhua's mother, Miao village elder, traitor. Envious, malicious. But if nothing else, she really, really loves her daughter.

Lanting

Chuncao's love interest. Forced to become a demon cultivator to save Chuncao. Resents her teacher Wu Ruo at first for not saving them, but becomes an ally. Lol - After Dongling Jiu leaves Wu Ruo with her inheritance (cultivation), Wu Ruo throws it right at Lanting because she's the only demon friend she has, so Lanting suddenly becomes the new Demon Lord and shoots straight up in the world's power levels chart. (Like imagine watching your friend get kidnapped, rushing to save them, then they come back just fine and throw you a totem and say 'here ya go, you're the president now.' ???)

Chuncao

Lanting's love interest. Joins a healer sect, becoming Du Chuncao. Misses her teacher, and thinks it was just as well she didn't appear during the massacre, because nothing would have changed. Realizes Wu Ruo did not avoid saving them because of cowardice or anything like that when watching her risk her life to save Lanting and herself. Got lonely after the Miao descendants scattered and made a puppet that can change its appearance to her bestie and her teacher.

Demon Lord, Dongling Jiu

Parasiting on every new generation while under the curse rebound (kind of lost her mind). Searching for Wu Juncheng's 3rd soul fragment. Cause of a lot of the things happening in the story, but after she loses the crazy, chooses to pass on and leaves everything to the protagonist, her lover's descendant.

1st Miao Maiden, Wu Juncheng

Upon being killed by Dongling Jiu during the rebound, her 3 souls (Chinese thing, think id ego superego. 3 together forming 1 whole.) splintered into 3 fragments. One is sealed in the red wishing temple by Dongling Jiu, becoming the senior voice Wu Ruo encounters. Another is sealed into the love gu notes, and the fragment that escapes reincarnates and becomes Luo Qingyi's master. Loves Dongling Jiu, and feels guilt, no resentment, over what happened. Even while dying, touched by how much her stoic lover must have loved her to be hit by such a large rebound.

and we see that actually, Luo Qingyi knew that the love gu situation would happen.

She knew the karmic tie was formed when she delivered her teacher's notes to the Miao, and then knew again that she was truly caught by the karmic ties when she met the Wu Ruo again at what Wu Ruo thought was their first meeting. She fell, quite willingly actually! And before the curse happens.

I could see some people disliking this reveal, in that it seems to wash away Wu Ruo's deception, but I personally think it is fine. Wu Ruo genuinely regrets anyway, and in some ways, a character viewed in-world as the most powerful seems like they ought to be aware of the stuff going on secretly behind the scenes.

First, I love that stuff at the beginning still comes up later. This includes the notes, and the silver bracelet, and the fact that the lands are neighboring.

Luo Qingyi is the one who delivered the notes on the love gu curse to the Miao tribe, using it as an excuse to search for her first junior sister, a toddler who fell from a cliff into Miao lands, similar to what would happen to her later.

This explains how Wu Ruo got love gu notes to experiment with despite it having become a forbidden topic after a prior disastrous incident. Actually, I did wonder why she was allowed to dabble in a forbidden topic, but it's left a bit vague - maybe the shaman didn't think she could do it, or maybe she turned a blind eye because Wu Ruo was the next Holy Maiden? Or, that incident being long-long ago..

The prior incident actually keeps appearing too - the protagonists of it were the 1st Miao Holy Maiden Wu Juncheng and the then-Demon Lord Dongling Jiu. The 1st Holy Maiden's 3 souls were split up, and each of them appear in the story in different ways.

Why did Luo Qingyi's master have the notes? Her master was the reincarnation of a soul fragment of the first Miao Holy Maiden. Master wanted to be the greater-good-sacrifice that would be needed soon, then found out she wasn't eligible because she only had 1/3 soul. So she picks up Luo Qingyi, to complete the sacrificial task. The love gu notes are another 1/3 soul fragment, hence it was drawn to the living soul piece.

Later, Master Wu didn't want Luo Qingyi to be the sacrifice anymore, so she plots the whole love gu situation, hoping for exactly what happened up until Wu Ruo releases the curse - that by having Luo Qingyi deliver the notes, Luo Qingyi might, by karmic ties, be the target of the resulting actions and be entangled by the love gu, losing her cultivation levels (because she is practicing an emotionless path but is now mired by emotion) and thus no longer be a candidate for the sacrifice. (Also, Luo Qingyi realizes what her master was hoping for after the delivery. She also tells her master she wants to be the sacrifice.)

So Master Wu and the love notes are 2/3 soul fragments, one non-sentient and one reincarnated (no past memories (while living as a human)). Where's the last fragment? Sealed in the red wishing temple. This fragment is still the 1st Miao Holy Maiden, so it knows a lot. It knows it is also Master Wu - it's somewhat implied that Master Wu may have found the temple before she passed -, it knows the true nature of the love curse and the Demon Lord's situation, and it knows Wu Ruo's destined love entanglements, so she feels a particular affinity for the Wu Ruo and Luo Qingyi, watching over them and offering advice, sometimes based on her experiences. She suggests the forgetting powder, feeling that a cleaner slate may help them reconnect better.

Wu Ruo first comes across this, unaware it is a wishing temple. Thus, she accidentally makes a wish, and has to pay, unknowingly, with her karma. However, it is by entering the temple that she encounters Wu Juncheng's soul fragment, and the wish she makes has peculiar effects later.

The red wishing temple itself is actually constructed by Dongling Jiu, who had been driven mad by the love gu curse rebound. Unable to find all the soul fragments of her lover, she seals a fragment in the temple and grants wishes, using the profited karma to nourish the soul fragment. So the temple does grant wishes, but it is also taking a cut. And because Wu Juncheng is technically alive by being sealed, Dongling Jiu's curse rebound doesn't resolve, driving her madder.

This means the temple is technically aligned with the demon cultivators, which may be why Wu Ruo revives in demon territory. It also sort of explains why the exchanges can be somewhat ruthless - Jiang Qingbei nearly dies, and some other wishers do actually die.

It's revealed the love gu strictly speaking isn't about love, but rather it stokes one's hidden emotions and perceptions. It can make the good feelings generated from the everyday good times more potent, but if there is zero actual love to work with, it doesn't work. If it's removed there's a 'correction rebound', turning those highlighted emotions and perceptions in reverse (power level included), and inner demons will appear. Thus, however much the caster was loved, in that rebound moment (which lasts until one of them dies), however much they will be hated. When the rebound fades, the cursed person's emotions slowly rebalance. The 1st maiden's sealed soul fragments above mean that Demon Lord's hatred for 1st Holy Maiden continues while Luo Qingyi's ended when Wu Ruo died.).

The love curse re-cast dispels Luo Qingyi's inner demons - weird in IRL context but works well in the story? Wu Ruo accepts that Luo Qingyi is just gonna be a lot clingier in the future lol.

Is this Madoka lol. Her wish stacked with Luo Qingyi's, forming synergy. Wu Ruo wished, unknowingly, for Luo Qingyi's happiness and prosperity, and for her wishes to come true. The Miao's troubles are her karmic debt for this (which is possible because she's the Miao's Holy Maiden). After Wu Ruo dies, Luo Qingyi wishes Wu Ruo were alive, and offers her everything at the Red Temple, including her life - but she's a savior of the world, Wu Ruo's existence isn't worth that much. And then, with Wu Ruo's wish synergy, we get the odd result - Wu Ruo's remains revived a wisp of her soul first, triggered by Wu Ruo's wish fulfilling Luo Qingyi's desire for her wife to still be with her, then Luo Qingyi's wish triggered - but now the person is technically not dead dead? A speck of her is kind of alive.. So Luo Qingyi doesn't pay the heavy price of her life, and Wu Ruo gets revived in pieces. Red Temple getting cheated (?)

I personally think that it would have been a far better story if the love gu was accidental. That the MC would decide in the end to let her go only for someone to bump into her and accidentaly release it or somethig like that. Her only discovering afterwards what happened and looking horrified. Then discovering that releasing her would make her hate her she still creates the antedode but at the last moment she decides not to give it to her knowing the that she would probably hate her so much to even kill her