One of the first things they do is start taking contracts from an assassination group to gain access to higher level martial arts (which, by itself, is somewhat extremely unhinged). While participating in the organization, they have a small disagreement with its arrogant young master (protagonist didn't want to take off their veil, for reasons that are actually valid), which ends with the young master pettily removing them from the organization, making all of their efforts (which span ~2 weeks) to acquire martial arts useless. In order to get revenge, the protagonist decides to pretend to be the lost daughter of one of the major clans in the city. And, while you might think this is absurd, this clan already believed he was their lost daughter and was hunting him down (why he didn't want to remove the veil). So, this is not, in fact, an utterly ridiculous, insane, life-altering choice, but is actually perfectly rational. Anyways, he goes to one of the groups subordinate to the clan, claims the identity of the daughter, and leads the leader of the group to go humiliate and mu*der the young master of the assassin group (without ever really proving his identity, but that's fine). His reason for doing so is that the young master forced him into pretending to be the lost daughter - which he most certainly did not. That was, from beginning to end, the protagonist's choice - because the protagonist wanted revenge for the young master's pettiness, and wanted easy access to higher level martial arts. Only a homicidal xianxia protagonist would believe this is a wholly justifiable reason to humiliate and mu*der someone.

In terms of world-building and writing, this book is a cut above most xianxia. The author does understand foreshadowing, and big future points are hinted at hundreds of chapters in advanced. This isn't a big thing, but it's fun to see small plot details you thought were lost suddenly become relevant. That being said, the minor points can feel contrived - occasionally (but definitely not every time!), as soon as the protagonist needs a specific item, it'll either end up in their hands within a chapter or two, or they'll find out where to get it in that time if it's rarer and the author feels like plotting an arc (or they'll have conveniently found it / found out about it right before they need it). There's also the standard protagonist aura where accidents automatically happen wherever they go, with those accidents conveniently giving the protagonist whatever they need. Those are kind of petty complaints, though - it's really hard to avoid that kind of thing when you're writing a web novel with 1000+ chapters. It's nearly impossible to plan out details properly when you're working on that scale and releasing chapters every day. A bigger complaint (at least to me) is that the minor characters can be a bit too shallow: I still remember a young man who, a day after having his entire clan tragically and brutally exterminated, ran off to watch the protagonist spar with a broad smile on his face and a bounce in his step. Or how another minor character seemed to more-or-less over witnessing the death of her husband after one good cry, immediately following his death (not as bad as the clan extermination, but still felt off how well she handled it - granted, death happens all the time to cultivators in this novel, so maybe it can be excused?). Alone, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this story based on the writing (but it's really not bad at all! just not super amazing! still good, at least compared to 95% of xianxia web novels! just, you know... not top 1%... or 2%... or 3%... or 4%, but definitely top 5%!!), so let's get into the real reasons to read it-

The protagonist is a bastard. They are, apologetically, a bastard. I say apologetically because the author does, on occasion, give excuses for the protagonist's inexcusable behavior (understandably, considering this author has had multiple novels removed because their protagonists are always truly awful people). Usually, though - especially later on - the author just lets the behavior sit. As an example, this protagonist's #1 hobby is seducing naive young men - she (?) accidentally shows a bit of cleavage, a bit of feet (why??? can someone explain the obsession with feet in web novels??? why is it always feet?????), gains their trust, and then robs them of everything they own (usually including their life). For me this is a negative because my tender heart really can't take it, but if you're the type of person who loves a heartless, scheming protagonist, I'm sure you'll like this story.

Also, this is a gender-bender story, but... it's kind of an odd one.

I'm nearly 500 chapters in, and the protagonist is currently a woman. Not cross-dressing, but actually a woman. I do, however, emphasize currently. Early on, the protagonist gains the ability to shapeshift. They then most often use this ability to transform into a woman (the pool of men to seduce and kill would narrow significantly otherwise), but they still maintain the ability to transform into a man. It's later revealed that anyone of sufficient power studying them would revert the technique, returning them to their original male form. Later still, they get a true TS upgrade - their "true form" becomes identical to a dead female character's (not really their own form), removing that weakness. However, the author later reveals that the protagonist believes that anyone strong enough could still see through this - what I don't know (only halfway through the currently released chapters) is if someone seeing through it would break it (highly unlikely, considering it's the protagonist's true form that changed and it is stated that it can't be undone) or if they would just know that the protagonist's original form was different (more likely). Anyways, back to why I emphasized currently - it was recently stated that when the protagonist gets stronger, they'll probably be able to change what their "true form" is at will, making the whole thing just a roundabout upgrade of their original shapeshifting ability (noting that this may change again, the author really prefers having the protagonist in a female form).

The protagonist's own opinion on their s*x is probably worth mentioning - that opinion being, they don't really have one. The protagonist has the very Fang Yuan stance that everyone is just flesh and bones in the end, so it doesn't really matter if they're a man or a woman (you'll be shocked to hear this novel has no romance). They take on whatever appearance is most convenient for their most recent goal. It does kind of seem like the protagonist defaults to a male form if there are no benefits either way - when they first left the tutorial zone they chose the appearance of a handsome young man, and when they first infiltrated a sect they chose the appearance of a little boy (at least before stealing a girl's identity). However, it could be argued that a male form is just generally more convenient and less attention grabbing when moving alone in a conservative xianxia world (and I think the protagonist might have argued this when they very temporarily took on the average-looking male form from their first life to travel, can't really remember), so really who knows. They displayed reluctance towards the initial "true form" TS, but that could just be because they didn't want their true form to also be a disguise, rather than any feelings towards being a man. In other words, the protagonist seems to be agender (not that the author would ever use that terminology). If the protagonist presenting in a male form bothers you, though (for any reason), I wouldn't be worried - if there isn't a reason for the protagonist to be transformed into a woman, the author will always create a new one. It is the novel's main gimmick, after all. Looking ahead, even in the latest chapter released by the author (as of now) the protagonist is still taking the form of a woman, probably wringing some poor guy for all he's worth. Honestly, at this point, the protagonist taking a male form is so uncommon that I just treat this novel as an actually good, romance-free female protagonist xianxia novel.

Don't really have much else to say - it's an above-average xianxia novel with a heartless, shapeshifting protagonist who will do anything and sacrifice anyone for the smallest advantage. If that sounds fun, read it - it will be.

Firstly, is this really gender bender? MC first disguises as a female due to circumstances (either be the lost Jiang family's lost daughter or die)

Then later on, she limit breaks a face changing skill, effectively becoming male, female, dog or cat is up to her - that... doesn't really feel like GB tbh, just roleplaying

And Song Ling the MC is absolutely ruthless, selfish, self-centered, heartless, merciless, green tea, only cares about herself, willing to use those who trust her for her own gains - heck, she even transferred a love curse onto a someone with a protagonist template (family destroyed, only one left etc. although his personality and perceptiveness is really lacking, so he would have been unworthy) ending up killing the guy

Note: it's actually really interesting how she disguises herself as others to infiltrate organisations/sects etc. to get what 'they' want

But again, MC has no friends - I'm not joking, she has literally been using anyone that has made contact with her, either 'befriending' them for benefits or killing them if they threaten her life (or displeases her really). So they have literally no one they care about, no one who knows them, many will sacrifice themselves for her, but 'they' treats those 'friends' as consumables and tools honestly.

There was that one time when the immortal came back and 'Jiang Yuling's' big bro was in trouble, she actually sent this Lu girl, her 'friend, ' with a talisman to check the cultivation level of the 'immortal' - I swear, if they Immortal was at Qi stage 2, they would have left them all to die and ran away (it was never explicitly mentioned that Song Ling sent Lu girl in to test the immortal btw, I had to think before I noticed this kinda scary fact)

And it's just such a sad and lonely life she leads because of one reason, mentioned in one of the chapters: they fear death, not just the usual amount, but before transmigrating - they've always had this fear of death, even if friends at the time told him about yolo and stuff to cheer him, very short mention.

So that's why they're the way they are, they are extremely greedy for life and would do anything, use anyone, discarding morality and bottom lines to achieve the immortality that is now reachable for them.

And the final straw was that MC doesn't care about others life, even if she has the ability and time to save them, without benefits, reason or for the sake of her plot - she would not even simply wave her hand to kill an obvious villain that is right next to her - only if they dare to try to show her ill will would they move

They have even said something along the lines of: Evil happens all around us, I cannot reach them all, so when I become an Immortal and my power covers the entire world, then there would be no more wrongdoings

That is fair, and I respect that. But to not do anything, to not reach out, when you could so easily resolve a life-threatening danger to someone so close and within reach of you, to be so inhumane, uncaring and apathetic. I cannot stomach it and read this novel anymore

Especially when they started to literally perform a green tea villainess (the actual nasty villainess) plot to get the favour of a potential foundation establishment senior brother, and to get rid of a (likely was) chivalrous senior sister - it was frankly upsetting. Especially seeing her in that city, putting up an act to heal others, being a green tea b*tch and acting all pitiful and girly just to earn brownie points with the senior brother - it gave me an icky, sticky and stain-like feeling throughout