The surrounding trees gradually brightened in hue, shifting from deep emerald to vibrant jade green. Xia Lun knew they had passed through the Tranquil Forest—next was the domain of the elves, the Libia Forest.
There were many routes from the Yalan Empire to the Libia Forest, and the one through the Tranquil Forest was merely one of them. After all, trade between humans and elves was frequent… Seeds and crops from the Libia Forest were highly sought after among humans, with some premium fruits even fetching prices comparable to gold… Meanwhile, resources from human lands could also be sold at high prices here.
Ahead, countless towering trees stood in dense formation, resembling a city wall. Their bronze-colored trunks looked like metallic barriers, while their thousand-year-old canopies overlapped, fracturing sunlight into scattered fragments.
Naturally, such an orderly arrangement of colossal trees was impossible in the wild—after all, trees competed for nutrients. This was clearly the work of the elves. These tightly packed giants formed a natural defensive line, forcing any would-be attackers to reconsider their plans.
Mo Lini slowly raised her head, taking in the breathtaking sight before her. Among the group, she was the only one who had never been to the Libia Forest.
Xia Lun’s gaze also held a trace of nostalgia. Back then, both he and Liyana had emerged from this very forest.
Even now, Xia Lun had no idea who his birth parents were. He had been abandoned in the woods, only to be found and taken in by the kind-hearted Swei couple, who raised him alongside Liyana.
To Xia Lun, Liyana was no different from a blood-related sister—except, well, they weren’t actually related. At first, Liyana had insisted she was the elder sister, since their exact birth order was unclear. But as time passed, and she kept causing trouble for Xia Lun, she eventually dropped the subject out of sheer embarrassment.
The Swei couple never formally adopted Xia Lun—after all, they were elves, and he was human. Watching loved ones pass away was a sorrowful experience… Besides, they believed he might one day reunite with his birth parents.
Still, Xia Lun had long regarded them as his true parents.
Except…
"Father and Mother have already passed away."
On the first day of his revival, when he reunited with Liyana, Xia Lun learned of their fate.
"As elves, they lived long lives… Don’t worry, Xia Lun. I was with them till the end. They had lived their fill and faced death with peace." That was what Liyana had told him.
Xia Lun snapped out of his reminiscence and turned his gaze back to Liyana.
"Liyana… Later, take me to their graves."
"Of course," Liyana replied cheerfully. "Heh, Father and Mother probably never dreamed you’d have the chance to pay your respects. I wonder if they’d be so shocked they’d jump right out of the ground."
"Liyana!" Xia Lun scolded, finding her remark rather disrespectful.
"What? They even traveled all the way to the human lands for your funeral, Xia Lun," Liyana recalled. "They wept so bitterly in front of your coffin, and you didn’t even twitch. Heartless, aren’t you?"
Xia Lun: "…"
"They even tried to stop us from burying you," Aina added with a sigh. "Xia Lun, they truly loved you."
"Uh… Then what happened?" Xia Lun realized there was still much he didn’t know.
"I restrained them and buried you properly," Aina stated matter-of-factly.
"So… I was laid to rest?" Xia Lun’s lips twitched. The phrasing felt oddly unsettling.
"Indeed. But I dug you back up that very night—no one knew," Aina declared, sounding almost proud. "And that’s how you’re here now."
Xia Lun opened his mouth but found himself at a loss for words.
Mo Lini also opened her mouth, then covered her ears. She hadn’t heard a thing.
Joli remained inside the carriage, fully absorbed in teaching Little Lan sword techniques, oblivious to the conversation outside.
Liyana simply gave Xia Lun an amused look.
The group soon arrived before the towering tree-wall.
After just a few steps, rustling sounds came from above, and two figures dropped down in front of them.
Two elves.
Identical golden hair, long pointed ears, and strikingly handsome features.
They wore light leather armor, carried curved bows on their backs, and had daggers strapped to their waists—clearly ready for combat at any moment.
Xia Lun could also sense several pairs of watchful eyes from the trees.
"Identify yourselves," one of the male elves demanded.
"Ahem!" Liyana cleared her throat loudly, then leaped off the carriage and strode forward with her head held high, like a rooster after a victorious fight.
She grinned at the two elves and announced cheerfully, "It’s me! I’m back!"
"An elf? Who are you?"
"We don’t recognize you… Are you famous or something?"
The two elves exchanged glances before frowning in confusion.
"Uh…" Liyana froze, suddenly feeling awkward. "You really don’t know me?"
The elves shook their heads in unison. "No."
"Liyana, seems like you weren’t that big of a deal among the elves," Mo Lini muttered behind her. "They don’t even recognize you."
Liyana’s cheeks flushed slightly.
Just then, another figure descended from the trees.
"Lady Liyana? Is that you?"
The newcomer’s attire was identical to the previous two elves, and his youthful, handsome face made it hard for Mo Lini to tell them apart.
"Oh! You know me?" Liyana asked cautiously, her confidence still shaken from earlier.
"Of course! Lady Liyana, you’re the pride of our elven kind!" the elf exclaimed excitedly. "I once saw you in action at the training grounds… Ah, these two were born in the last century, so they’ve never seen you before. My apologies for their rudeness."
"So you’re Lady Liyana?"
"The ‘Elf among elves, the masculine among females’?"
The two earlier elves gasped in realization.
"Yep, that’s me… Unless there’s another Liyana in the elven ranks… Hahaha!" Liyana’s metaphorical tail was back in the air.
She glanced back at her companions, eager to see their reactions.
Aina and Xia Lun remained expressionless.
Joli stayed inside the carriage, unseen.
Mo Lini blinked, still processing Liyana’s bizarre title among the elves.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
