The first half of the book is the usual comedic xianxia story, following Hua Qian'gu's life as she becomes Bai Zihua's disciple. Along the way, she befriends numerous people, including Sha Qianmo, the Demon Lord; Dongfang Yuqing, the owner of Yixiu Pavilion; and Xuanyuan Lang, the human Emperor.

The second half is where the book truly shines, and the plot picks up.

Hua Qian'gu is tricked by Lan Yuhui (aka Lanyu Lanfeng), and Bai Zihua is grievously poisoned after saving her life. To save Bai Zihua's life, Hua Qian'gu willingly commits a huge mistake, precipitating a chain of events to result in the birth/ release of demons into the world. There, she meets Nan Wuyue, the Demon God personified, who transferred all his demonic powers to her when they were fleeing from their pursuers.
Bai Zihua discovers the two of them and realises that the powers of the Demon God now resides in Hua Qian'gu. Despite knowing that he should kill her, he chooses instead to spare her life, and hide the fact that she is now with the demonic powers.

Upon her capture, Hua Qian'gu is trialed and judged by the three leaders of Changliu, including Bai Zihua. There, she is sentenced to death by enduring 81 nails which will eviscerate her soul - a merciless punishment where the victims are tortured to their death. Taking into consideration her young age, the leaders of Changliu decide to be merciful, by allowing her to retain a silver of her soul, such that she will be able to reincarnate hundreds of years later.

Hua Qian'gu endures 17 of the crushing nails, before Bai Zihua, who has been remaining silent all these while, finally speaks up. But the relief is short-lived: Bai Zihua halts the sentence, but with a caveat - using the duannian sword which he personally bestowed to Hua Qian'gu, he attacks Hua Qian'gu 103 times, severing all her arteries and veins, leaving her an inch from death.

Hua Qian'gu is then thrown back to the prisons. As such, she did not realise that Bai Zihua then endured the remaining 64 nails on her behalf, where his powers became heavily weakened.

In the prisons, Ni Mantian, Hua Qian'gu's long time rival in Changliu Sect, visits Hua Qian'gu, and douses her with water from jueqing lake. Hua Qian'gu is heavily scarred and disfigured by the water from jueqing, and her vocal chords are destroyed. Because the effects of the jueqing water intensifies in proportion to a person's desire/ love, Hua Qian'gu, who by now has immensely deep feelings for Bai Zihua, endures a pain which she describes as a thousand times more agonising than the already infamous torture from earlier. Mo Yan, another leader of Changliu, exiles the now blind & mute Hua Qian'gu to Manhuang ("Emptiness"), without the heavily-injured Bai Zihua knowing.

In Manhuang, Hua Qian'gu meets Zhuran, who used to be Mo Yan's disciple in Changliu before his exile. They later escaped Manhuang with the help of Dongfang Yuqing, where they attempt to save Nan Wuyue, who has been sentenced to execution.

In the great battle between the immortals and the demons, Hua Qian'gu fails to save Nan Wuyue, who is successfully executed as per Bai Zihua's plans. Hua Qian'gu also realises that the more she tries to use her powers, the more Bai Zihua is weakened, as though their powers are inversely linked. Hua Qian'gu falters and is ultimately captured and imprisoned in the depths of Changliu for 16 years, where Bai Zihua willingly accompanies her in the imprisonment.

However, Tang Bao, who has cultivated her powers over the years to finally achieve a human form, tries to free Hua Qian'gu, and is mu*dered by Ni Mantian. In her rage and sorrow, Hua Qian'gu breaks free from the seal on her demonic powers, hence truly becoming a Demon God. In the aftermath, she also mu*ders Luo Shiyi - the only person she would ever kill with her own hands - to avenge Tang Bao, so that he can accompany her in her death.

Residing in her own demonic palace with Zhuran, Hua Qian'gu gives Zhuran free reign to wreck harvoc on the world. Ni Mantian is captured by Zhuran and tortured for over a year before being forced to su*cide by Hua Qian'gu, due to her part in Tang Bao's death.

During this time, Bai Zihua chooses to leave Changliu and stay by Hua Qian'gu's side alone, in order to turn her back from her demonic path.

However, by now, Hua Qian'gu is no longer the carefree and innocent child she once was. Disillusioned, she said, 'I have no shifu (master), no friends, no lover, no children. Once, I thought I had the world in my hands, but it was all an illusion. The people who loved me, died for me; the people I loved, wanted me dead; the people I trusted, betrayed me; the people I depended on, abandoned me. There is nothing I want, nothing I wish for, except to live a simple life. Yet the Heavens have forced me - you (Bai Zihua) have forced me! Do you think that I can still turn back, now?'

Finally, Hua Qian'gu sees the scars left behind by the water from jueqing lake on Bai Zihua, and realises that, deep in his heart, Bai Zihua does love her, hence he was also similarly scarred by the jueqing water. Yet, when confronted, Bai Zihua refuses to admit it, right till the very end. Hua Qian'gu is devastated when she comes to the realisation that every cruelty Bai Zihua inflicted upon her without feeling, he did so while having her in his heart.

Now without desire to continue living, Hua Qian'gu forms a plan to force Bai Zihua to mu*der her and put an end to everything. She creates an illusion to make Bai Zihua to choose between her and the world, forcing Bai Zihua to kill her in order to stop her destruction of the six realms.

As she lays dying, the illusion shatters. Bai Zihua, who had intended on accompanying her in her death, uses his powers to severe his own heart vessels. Yet he does not succeed: Hua Qian'gu uses her powers as the last remaining God in the world to curse Bai Zihua: in this life and for all eternity, Bai Zihua can never age nor die, can never suffer nor be hurt.

Hearing these words and realising that he can only suffer in agony and regret for the rest of eternity, Bai Zihua descends into insanity, and the mark of a fallen immortal begins to be imprinted upon him as destruction follows in his fury and sorrow. For the first time in his life, he wonders, what does the fate of the six realms have to do with him? And what does Hua Qian'gu mean to him? For what reason did he choose the world over her? With great irony, Bai Zihua begins to feel a hatred for the very world he had always sought to protect: because of this world, Hua Qian'gu is dead.

Fortunately, Zhuran, who manages to decipher Hua Qian'gu's intentions, uncharacteristically made the first (and last) selfless decision in his life by sacrificing himself to save a silver of Hua Qian'gu's soul. Sha Qianmo, who finally awakens, snatches Hua Qian'gu's soul and disappears with her. By the time Bai Zihua regains his senses from his insanity, Sha Qianmo has already fled with Hua Qian'gu's soul.

Bai Zihua leaves Changliu Sect and wanders around the earth for many years as an insane and fallen immortal searching for the missing Hua Qian'gu and Sha Qianmo. He eventually learns from Dongfang Yuqing where the reincarnated Hua Qian'gu resides. As the reincarnated Hua Qian'gu only has a fraction of her soul, she does not have any memory of her past life, and is also a mentally slow child.

Bai Zihua reunites with Hua Qian'gu and becomes her shifu once more, and the two of them spend many years together at Yunshan, reminiscent of their days together at Changliu. (This is where the new edition ends. The old edition continues on and describes their days together at Yunshan, and includes the extra story 'Gamble'.)

Years after Bai Zihua and Hua Qian'gu retreat to Yunshan, Dongfang Yuqing finds the reincarnated Hua Qian'gu and gives her the chance to choose whether she wants to recover her memories. Hua Qian'gu, believing that the one Bai Zihua truly loves is the old Hua Qian'gu and not her reincarnated self, chooses to restore her memories. Afraid that she would forget her time with Bai Zihua in Yunshan, she leaves herself a letter to never forget those days of happiness.

Ultimately, Hua Qian'gu chooses to forgive Bai Zihua and the both of them get together. But because the recovery of her memories is a forbidden art, Hua Qian'gu loses her five senses in return. However, this time round, it's different from her exile to Manhuang where she was left blind and mute: now, Hua Qian'gu has Bai Zihua and all her other friends by her side, so she is no longer alone.

In any case, at the ending, Bai Zihua and Sha Qianmo put aside their enmity to help Hua Qian'gu, who begins to slowly recover some of her senses.

In the extra stories 'Gamble', Bai Zihua and Dongfang Yuqing make a gamble on whether Hua Qian'gu, if given a second chance in life, would fall for Bai Zihua once more. This was because, years ago, when Hua Qian'gu was still the Demon God, she once vowed in her despair that while she did not regret her choices in life, if she could redo her life, she would definitely not love Bai Zihua again.

Bai Zihua agrees to this gamble, because Dongfang Yuqing promises to heal Hua Qian'gu's eyesight in exchange. Hua Qian'gu is adamant and refuses, but eventually gives in, and acknowledges that her words then were borne out of despair, and not representative of her true feelings. So she tries to cheat their gamble by leaving herself a message ('I love Bai Zihua'), to remind herself that the one she loves is Bai Zihua, so that she will fall for Bai Zihua once more even without her memories, so that Bai Zihua can win the gamble. But Dongfang Yuqing changes her words to 'I love Baichi (literally translates to 'I love idiots'), and Hua Qian'gu, without her memories in the gamble, cannot comprehend what she wrote to herself. :D

In the gamble, Hua Qian'gu falls for Bai Zihua once more. Later, Shuofeng (aka Liu Huo) reveals to Hua Qian'gu the gamble. Annoyed, and thinking that Bai Zihua only cared about her because he wanted to win the gamble, Hua Qian'gu spitefully states that the one she loves is Shuofeng instead, hence bringing the gamble to an end, allowing her to recover her memories and eyesight.

Ultimately, the ending is a happy one, especially for Bai Zihua and Hua Qian'gu, who have endured a lot to finally attain their happiness.

As for the others, everyone who died eventually revived, except for Zhuran : (

"Hua Qian'gu, as a novel, can be said to be a story about persevering in one's love. Many people will be unable to accept such a love, but in my eyes, love is just so stubborn and unadulterated. I think someone who has truly tried to love in such a manner, and who has whole-heartedly invested their love before, will be able to understand this book.

Some people may like Dongfang Yuqing's kind of love without requiring reciprocation: "Even if my body is crushed, even if I have to give everything up, I will still choose to be with you."

Or they may prefer Sha Qianmo's domineering, all-encompassing love: "If you dare to hurt her for the sake of Changliu Sect or anyone else, I will slaughter every single one of them. If you dare to hurt her for the sake of the world, then, I will destroy the world."

But most of us will most love Bai Zihua, her shifu -- an untouchable, distant figure -- even if all we can have is to look at him from afar.

Hua Qian'gu is (the author's) fairytale, and Bai Zihua is a fairytale within a fairytale."