What is a miracle?
To Xu Xi, it was likely the repetition of mundane days—plain and uneventful, devoid of thrilling accidents or sudden upheavals.
Seemingly insignificant.
Yet, over time, it would settle.
Revealing a unique charm.
Xu Xi was content with his current life.
On the way back to the courtyard with Ailei, Xu Xi tilted his head slightly, watching as the wind peeled back a corner of the clouds in the clear sky, revealing birds diving and weaving between the buildings.
"How nice things are now..."
Beside him stood his loyal mechanical maid.
At home, his sister, the witch, and the princess awaited him.
Though he had suffered quite a bit in the simulations, even meeting a sacrificial end five times, Xu Xi genuinely loved the real world.
He cherished the peaceful beauty he had created with his own hands.
Heart full, mind at ease.
This was Xu Xi’s state of being.
"I just wonder how Servia is doing now," he mused. The helpless and pitiful undead girl always left him uneasy.
Xu Xi waited for their reunion in the distant future.
"Master..."
The summer stillness was broken by Ailei’s voice, pulling Xu Xi from his wandering thoughts.
In the sweltering heat, the girl’s fingers tightened around Xu Xi’s, yet her calm gaze remained fixed on a roadside fountain.
Ordinary, commonplace.
Just a clear stream of water, the kind found everywhere in the city.
"Master, may I... use that?" Her pale fingertip pointed at the fountain.
Ailei’s words were vague, her expression blank as she waited for Xu Xi’s response, but he understood.
Long ago.
During the sixth satellite city in the fourth simulation.
Ailei had once "played with water."
The emotionless mechanical maid had, for the first time, glimpsed beauty in the refraction of light through water and became entranced by its brilliance.
"Of course, Ailei."
Xu Xi’s expression softened as he reached out, gently stroking the top of her head.
Her black-and-gold hair had a delicate texture.
Like light made tangible.
Silk-like strands slipped through his palm.
"This is your freedom. Go ahead—I’ll wait for you," he said, his voice warmer than the sun above, giving the mechanical maid the courage to act.
"Thank you, Master."
After a polite bow, Ailei, clad in her maid’s attire, approached the fountain.
Blinking, her expression serious, she extended both hands.
As if conducting a sacred and precise experiment, she cupped the cool, clear water in her palms.
"..."
The water was so transparent.
Yet, under the sunlight, the pooled liquid in her hands began to shimmer with dazzling hues.
First, a pure, blazing white.
Then, a kaleidoscope of colors.
Splash—
Her hands parted, and the water cascaded back into the fountain, the dreamlike glow vanishing—but droplets lingered between her fingers.
"Beautiful."
Tilting her head, Ailei raised her hands to the sky.
With a childlike grace, she flexed and spread them, turning her palms and the backs of her hands back and forth.
It was a scene of innocent wonder, a naive heart chasing after the radiant beauty in the light.
"Master, it’s beautiful."
Kneeling by the fountain, Ailei stretched her hands toward Xu Xi.
Displaying her "achievement."
Her slender, jade-white fingers glistened with droplets.
"Yes, I see. It’s beautiful," Xu Xi replied, crouching beside her. Under the gaze of her dazed silver-blue eyes, he ruffled her hair again.
Water splashed, droplets pattering.
Amid the summer’s quietude.
Xu Xi, with gentle reassurance, affirmed the girl’s discovery.
"Ailei, you really love water."
"Because it’s beautiful..."
The mechanical maid dipped a single finger into the stream, stirring the iridescent glow into a more chaotic, dazzling display.
It was the collision of water and light.
The meeting of cold spring and scorching sun.
A fleeting dream painted at her fingertips.
Back in the sixth satellite city, Ailei had done the same but couldn’t comprehend the feeling.
Now.
With a human body.
She could finally grasp the aesthetics of that radiance.
"Master, am I... closer to being a real human now?" Ailei suddenly asked under the bright sun, her expression calm but tinged with quiet joy.
Closer to being human.
Meant closer to Xu Xi.
That thought pleased her. Her silver-blue eyes reflected Xu Xi’s figure and the prismatic dance of light.
Xu Xi ran his fingers through her black-and-gold hair.
"You already are, Ailei. And... the you now is beautiful."
"As beautiful as the light?"
"No, the Ailei I see is more beautiful than light."
Light was the epitome of beauty in the mechanical maid’s eyes.
But in Xu Xi’s eyes.
She outshone it infinitely.
"You mean... me?" Her voice wavered slightly. Ailei felt she didn’t deserve such praise.
After all, she was the one who had killed her master.
Unable to protect Xu Xi or save his life.
In the past, she could only watch as he died in agony.
Yet Xu Xi affirmed her.
Meeting her gaze.
"Of course. My Ailei is beautiful, isn’t she?"
Ah...
She couldn’t answer. Didn’t know how.
Her mind went blank.
Her cheeks burned under the sun.
Dazed, her body moved on its own as Xu Xi led her back to the courtyard.
Only after a long while did her thoughts return.
In a blind spot where Xu Xi couldn’t see, Ailei quietly pulled out a small booklet.
On its cover: Thirty-Six Stratagems for Love.
Flipping to the last page.
Skipping the dense tactics.
She found a single line in black ink.
The 37th Stratagem: Being Loved.
Those who are loved need not follow the previous thirty-six stratagems to possess love.
Is that so...
Ailei stared at those words for a long, long time.
Once, she had treated this little book as scripture, studying its strategies to earn Xu Xi’s "love."
But now.
She realized.
She didn’t need to.
Whoosh—
Ailei closed the booklet and, with a flicker of flame, reduced the treasured scripture to ashes.
"Ailei," Xu Xi called from ahead. "What are you burning?"
"Pay it no mind, Master. I’m just... bidding farewell to the past."
The past?
What did that mean?
Xu Xi was curious but didn’t press further.
Ailei was her own person.
Privacy was natural.
Though she addressed him as "Master," Xu Xi had always treated her as an equal. He wouldn’t intrude.
"How strange..."
"Even though it’s still summer, my back feels cold."
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.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
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.
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
