S-31 Region.
On the deserted intercity highway, cars were speeding by one after another.
By the roadside, there were car wrecks and human skeletons scattered everywhere.
The dangers on these rural highways were no less than those in the polluted territories infested with mutant beasts.
No one was willing to linger in these accident-prone areas.
Yet, at this moment, a car was moving at a snail's pace.
Wu Xiong, Sun Ying and their group had not returned to Su Jing yet.
Earlier that morning, Wu Xiong had made a call to the headquarters of Starlight Group.
And he received a rather unpleasant response.
The atmosphere in the car had now become somewhat awkward.
Long lit another cigarette, steering the wheel with one hand while dangling the cigarette out the window with the other.
He eased off the accelerator pedal, gradually pressing on the brakes.
On the rural highway, this driving behavior was not normal, but none of the other three passengers raised any objection.
After a moment of silence, Long spoke up, "Are we... going back?"
Sun Ying glanced at Wu Xiong, hesitating to speak.
Wei was young and unbridled, so he blurted out, "Chief Wu, if we turn back now and apologize to Dr. Lu, maybe we could still get off easy..."
Sun Ying: "At least we could keep our bodies intact."
Long: "Or maybe we could even be put in cryogenic chambers for future generations to admire our remains. Getting your own cryo-coffin would cost a fortune, though."
Wei: "And you'd have to pay endless electricity bills."
Sun Ying: "The key is, is there anyone here who has a son or daughter to pay for it?"
Wu Xiong: "I have one."
The other three: "..."
Sun Ying: "My apologies, Chief Wu."
Long: "This is a sad story."
Wei: "Seems like not being able to afford a wife isn't necessarily a bad thing."
Fifteen minutes passed, and the car had only moved three kilometers, at a speed... less than twelve miles per hour.
About the same as a bicycle.
From the side of the road, the low growls of some mutant beasts could be heard, seemingly alerted by this iron lump crawling along.
The atmosphere in the car was suffocating.
Finally, Wu Xiong took a deep breath and made a decision, "Wei..."
"Yes?"
"From now on, you're fired from the company. You've been with us for two years, so the company will compensate you with three months' salary."
"If, I mean if, I can still contact you in three months, you can come back to work."
Wei said with some emotion, "Thank... thank you, Chief Wu!"
Wu Xiong turned to Sun Ying, "You're a mid-level employee, I don't have the authority to fire you. I remember you haven't used your paid annual leave for the past two years, so go ahead and use this year's together with those."
Sun Ying's eyes were reddening, "Thank you, Chief Wu."
Wu Xiong seemed a little melancholic, "Yeah, thank you for your contributions to the company all these years."
Sun Ying: "Then, what about you, Chief Wu?"
"Me? Heh heh..."
Wu Xiong smiled and said, "I've devoted most of my life to Starlight. My career is there. Without Starlight, my life doesn't really mean much."
"I'm going back to try and save it."
For a moment, the car was filled with a warm yet heartbreaking atmosphere, until—
Long's deep voice rang out, "What about me, Chief Wu?"
Wu Xiong glanced at him and said, "What about you? You're a mercenary from the security department. Now's the time for you to make your contribution to the company!"
Long: "..."
...
Sulan City, the capital of the S-31 Region.
When they entered the city, there were four people in Wu Xiong's car. When they left, only two remained.
Sun Ying and Wei bid farewell to Wu Xiong and Long here.
Wu Xiong paid for a car for them, so they could return to their hometowns.
After seeing Wu Xiong and Long drive away, Sun Ying stood by the street, leaning against a lamppost and lighting a cigarette.
Beside her, Wei looked somewhat melancholic.
"Sister Sun, shall we go?"
Sun Ying took a deep drag of the cigarette pinched between her slender fingers, exhaling a cloud of smoke.
"Wei, your sister is going to teach you a lesson today."
"Huh?"
To Wei's puzzled gaze, Sun Ying took out her phone and made a call.
"Hello? Is this the Inspection Department of Starlight Group? This is Sun Ying from Sales Division Four."
"I'm filing an official complaint. Vice President Wu Xiong from Sales has been taking kickbacks from suppliers."
"Evidence? Hmph, everything below his head is evidence."
After hanging up, Sun Ying turned to the bewildered Wei, "Sister Sun, what are you doing? Chief Wu didn't take any kickbacks from Dr. Lu!"
Sun Ying rolled her eyes, "Not taking? Do you think Dr. Lu was being so kind as to sell that 1.5 million yuan prosthetic at a 20% discount?"
"But... the company isn't working with Dr. Lu anymore, right?"
Sun Ying revealed a smug smile, "Exactly! So when Chief Wu goes back, he'll do everything he can to put in a good word for Dr. Lu's side, which will only make the company believe my complaint even more!"
Wei asked in disbelief, "Sister Sun, what... what are you trying to do?"
"What am I trying to do?"
Sun Ying turned to look at a homeless man across the street who had been staring at her, "There are only three VP positions in Sales, and two of them are already occupied by people with connections. Chief Wu is the only one without a background."
"My sales performance has been number one among all the division heads for three consecutive years. If Chief Wu is taken down, who do you think will become the new VP?"
"Sister Sun, but what about Dr. Lu's side?"
Sun Ying flashed a charming smile at the homeless man across the street and even waved at him.
"How could I forget? I've already messaged Dr. Lu to wait, and that I'll help him settle this, but for some reason he hasn't replied."
"I'll first secure Dr. Lu's side, then after Chief Wu is ousted and I become the new VP, I'll repackage a new identity for Dr. Lu and rebuild the bridge between him and the company."
At this point, Sun Ying paused.
The homeless man across the street had been lured by her coquettish gestures and made an unrefined thrusting motion towards her.
Not only was Sun Ying not offended, she even put her finger on her crimson lips and beckoned at the homeless man.
The homeless man became even more excited, a thrilled grin spreading across his filthy face.
He started walking towards Sun Ying.
Meanwhile, Sun Ying continued speaking to Wei, "By then, I'll be the key person who provided the company with a superior supply chain, instead of having to share the credit with Chief Wu like I do now."
"And even letting Chief Wu take the bigger share."
"If Dr. Lu only wants to stay in that small town, OK, then I'll monopolize his product source."
The homeless man had arrived in front of Sun Ying, a pungent stench wafting over and nearly making Wei vomit.
But Sun Ying simply embraced the homeless man with her delicate arms around his neck.
She said softly, "Once the company sees the market competitiveness of Dr. Lu's products, they'll become dependent on Dr. Lu. At that time, if I'm the only one who knows the source of Dr. Lu's products, the company can't do without me..."
"Wei, what position do you think I could attain in the company by then?"
In an instant, Wei's eyes were filled with shock and horror!
This was the first time he witnessed the ruthlessness of office politics, and the first time he saw the scheming side of this woman!
At that moment, Sun Ying turned to him with a charming smile.
Sun Ying's nimble tongue traced the filthy face of the homeless man, accompanied by her enticing sultry voice, "Kill him, and you can do whatever you want to me tonight."
Of course, those words were not meant for Wei.
In an instant, the homeless man's eyes burned with a ferocious flame as he looked at Wei.

m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!

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!

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, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"