La Di ran blindly through the forest, panicking with every step.
Dead twigs and fallen leaves let out faint, fragile cries beneath his feet. Sweat soaked through his rough-spun hemp clothes, clinging uncomfortably to his back as his heart pounded violently against his chest with each frantic beat. Sunlight filtered through the layered canopy, scattered into fragmented patches of light that danced across the ground.
Behind him, a dark shadow flickered through the trees from time to time, weaving between them like a specter.
"A mere commoner without a drop of magic, and you dare to poke your nose into our affairs?"
The shadow spoke with a mocking tone, dripping with arrogance and utter contempt.
La Di did not answer. He simply ran for his life.
If he could just make it to the residential district—to where the crowds were—this bastard wouldn’t dare to strike him out in the open.
This stretch of woods sat at the boundary between the West District and the East District. Nobody usually passed through here, but La Di knew there was a shortcut that cut straight across. The noble lords and ladies who rode by in their carriages knew nothing of it. It was a little path that the street-sweeping children had told him about.
He always took this way through... he never imagined he’d be ambushed here today.
His pursuer kept pace leisurely, like a cat toying with its prey. No matter how desperately La Di sprinted, he couldn’t shake the man off his trail.
"You’ve already caused more than enough trouble for the higher-ups," the figure said, leaping from branch to branch, its shadow overlapping La Di’s own, clinging as if to deepen the despair. "You lowborn commoners were born to be livestock."
La Di clenched his jaw and kept fleeing, ignoring the taunts entirely.
Ahead, he could already see light breaking through the trees.
Just a hundred meters more, and he’d be out of this forest...
"Tch. What a bore."
The hunter finally lost patience. Like a hawk diving from the sky, it swooped down in a blur and swept past him in a flash.
"Ah—"
La Di finally came to a halt. He felt a chill across his chest, and then searing pain engulfed his whole body.
He stared blankly at the five deep claw marks gouged across his chest, blood spurting out like wine from a punctured wineskin.
All strength drained from him, and he crumpled to the ground.
"An easy job." The hunter flicked the blood from its hands, unfurled the bat-like wings on its back, and vanished into the shadows.
That fool was nothing but an ordinary man with no magic. With wounds like that, how could he possibly survive?
Let him slowly savor the despair of death.
La Di lay helpless on the leaf-strewn forest floor, his body’s warmth ebbing away with every drop of blood. He could feel his life slipping from the wound like fine sand through an hourglass—irreversible, unstoppable.
He’d been gutted as easily as a rag doll.
Was he about to die? His thoughts grew hazy.
He hadn’t even found his daughter yet. He didn’t want to leave this world now.
But the agonizing pain in his chest and the fading edges of his consciousness told him it was all about to end. La Di could feel the terrible severity of his wounds; death seemed all but certain. In the end, he had accomplished nothing at all.
He wondered how he’d face his wife when he got to the other side.
Darkness surged in like a tide, swallowing his awareness.
He had no idea how long passed.
Then, suddenly, a faint light appeared before his eyes.
La Di instinctively ran toward the light.
The glow gradually filled his entire vision.
La Di jerked awake in bed, gasping for air, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
The rising sun streamed through the window and cast its light across his face, as if everything that had happened before were nothing more than a nightmare.
Where was this place? Was he dead?
La Di looked around. He found himself in an unfamiliar room—small, but furnished with considerable taste. A crystal lamp with a brass base sat on an ornate carved bedside table, landscape oil paintings hung on the walls, and thick velvet curtains were tied back with golden cords. Everything spoke of the owner’s refined sensibilities.
This probably wasn’t heaven, was it?
La Di looked at the sheets beneath him, soaked through with blood and already beginning to darken, and became even more certain that he wasn’t dead. Someone must have saved him.
It felt sticky and unpleasant.
La Di froze for a moment, then immediately lifted the front of his clothes.
There, five rough, jagged scars remained, though they had mostly healed—no longer bleeding, the new pink flesh standing out against the surrounding skin.
He could still feel a faint itch at the wounds.
“Truly… unbelievable.” La Di gently touched the scars, muttering in disbelief.
A beautiful, tall elf woman pushed open the door and stepped inside. Her golden hair fell like a waterfall to her waist, her pointed ears peeked out from among the strands, and her eyes were like emeralds.
“Oh, you’re awake? That was quick, huh. Xia Lun’s blood really does work well… It’s only been an hour since Luo Lun carried you here.” The elf’s voice was crisp and pleasant, with a lazy undertone.
“Hah… you… you are…” The elf before him looked very familiar to La Di. “I’ve seen you before…”
“Yeah, we met when we first entered the city…”
Liyana suddenly lowered her voice and leaned close to La Di. “So, uh… do you really know that place? The inn with… special services?”
“Huh?” La Di, who had just narrowly escaped death, clearly couldn’t keep up with Liyana’s train of thought.
“Ugh—” Liyana let out another dry heave and waved her hand in disgust. “You’re all dirty and stinky. Go wash yourself.”
Only then did La Di realize that his body still carried traces of blood and sweat, giving off an indescribable smell.
“Ah…”
Dazed, La Di let Liyana lead him to the bathroom.
After washing clean and changing into dry clothes, La Di slowly gathered his scattered thoughts back together.
When he finished washing, Liyana led him downstairs.
The intricate carved patterns on the stair railing, every single detail, spoke to the extraordinary quality of this residence. La Di looked at the expensive furnishings in the room, swallowed hard, and finally understood why these people had turned down his offer to promote their inn before.
At last, in an elegant parlor, he met the other two again.
At that moment, Xia Lun was brewing a cup of hot tea. The boiled water had been prepared by Mo Lini. As Liyana had said, Mo Lini had indeed been useful… though the purpose of that boiled water was not quite what Mo Lini had imagined.
In truth, Liyana had simply thought it better to send Mo Lini away, afraid that she might witness the gory scene and be unable to sleep that night.
Upon seeing La Di, Xia Lun gave him a kind smile and raised the teapot in his hand. "Would you like some tea?"
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
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.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
. 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!"
