A world where hope does not exist.
A world scarred and broken.
Despair.
Decay.
Pale, skeletal fingers grip a heavy, rusted blade, cleaving through corpse after reanimated corpse, carving out a small patch of peace in what was once her homeland.
Yet death continues to spread.
Unstoppable. Uncontainable.
"Clang—"
A metal helmet falls to the ground.
Revealing a face half-ruined.
One side hollow, the other still clinging to flesh. In the empty socket of the hollow side, a faint blue soulfire flickers, following its owner’s gaze toward the night sky.
In the end, she was powerless.
Unable to prevent the tragedies of this world, unable to protect the peace of Clawphire Territory.
The tide of undead came.
And utterly destroyed her home.
The villagers fled in terror, leaving behind empty villages that creaked in the deathly wind, haunted by flocks of skeletal birds.
"Screech—"
Emerald gemstone eyes, once bright, now dull and hollow.
"Screech—"
From within her armor, the sound of bones nearing their breaking point, carrying unspeakable pain and sorrow.
Hesitation.
Fear.
Reluctance.
Servia sits at the entrance of a decaying mansion.
Looking back, staring, lost in thought for a long time at the half-familiar scenery.
Finally, she stands.
Brushing the dust from her armor with delicate, meticulous motions.
Then, running a finger along the edge of her blade, testing its sharpness.
Once everything is in order, Servia steps inside the rotting mansion, gazing at what was once her home, at the remnants of memories scattered among the ruins. Her body stands still, but her soul feels wrenched away.
Lifeless.
Numb as a puppet.
"Father, Mother."
"Even if I am the last one left, I will fight for Clawphire until my final breath."
Her voice is calm, resigned to death.
The false hero steps through the gates, charging toward the endless tide of undead, sword in hand, sprinting into the wind—toward her demise.
"Cross Slash!"
She shouts.
She swings.
The heavy blade arcs with a dazzling light.
Servia’s eyes lose their luster, like withered flowers, as she fights mindlessly on the battlefield, until her body can no longer stand, until her soul can no longer endure.
The shadow of despair has long since consumed her heart.
"Is this…"
"The fate of a false hero…?"
Death looms before her.
The girl weeps, laughs, her ruined face twisting into an ugly expression.
She waits for death.
But someone pulls her back into the world of the living.
"Lord Xu Xi, it seems I’ve troubled you again," the false hero stumbles to her feet, her hollow heart finding something to cling to.
People need purpose to live.
Be it pleasure.
Strength.
Emotion.
Or the pursuit of a goal.
Servia accepts Xu Xi’s invitation, leaving the desolate Clawphire Territory behind, riding a spectral raven toward distant lands.
She gives herself two reasons.
First, to repay Xu Xi for saving her life, to assist him in his research.
Second, to journey with him, to save this dying world.
"Lord Xu Xi, will we succeed?"
"...I don’t know."
The man answers quickly, sighing, his voice dissipating into the tainted sky.
The state of the wizarding world is too dire. Xu Xi himself has no confidence, unable to give Servia a definitive answer.
But he will try.
Within his power, he will attempt to avert this tragedy.
That is enough.
For now, it is enough.
The girl smiles faintly, feeling that traveling with Xu Xi is her fortune.
"Perhaps… Lord Xu Xi is the true hero," the thought flashes in her mind, and Servia instinctively shifts slightly, maintaining a proper distance between them.
If she gets too close…
She might feel embarrassed…
"Servia, you can ease up on your training a little."
"Eh? But if I don’t train hard, I won’t be able to help you."
On their journey to the Divine Plateau, Servia maintains an intense regimen.
Practicing swordsmanship.
Studying sorcery.
Her determination is astonishing, enough to surprise even Xu Xi, who urges her to rest.
Though her undead body feels no fatigue, delving into sorcery places immense strain on her soul.
"No, I can’t rest!"
The usually obedient hero is unusually stubborn today, insisting she must grow stronger to be of use to Xu Xi sooner.
Xu Xi has no choice.
He lightly taps her soul with a spell.
"Ah—ow—"
The hero relents.
Sitting properly in her chair, she obeys and rests quietly.
The night sky is unnatural—a blood moon casts its crimson glow to the horizon, staining the stars red, as if blood has been embedded into the night.
Dinner arrives.
Xu Xi and Servia sit across from each other.
On the left, normal human food. On the right, a plate of glowing necrotic mushrooms.
They eat in silence.
Suddenly, the sky outside is torn apart by a blizzard, gray-white snow obscuring the distant mountains, blanketing the land.
"Winter has come…"
"And with the snow, the New Year approaches."
Xu Xi muses on how quickly time passes, quietly planning their next steps in the wizarding world.
The snow falls endlessly, continuing even as Xu Xi drifts into sleep.
The next morning, the first thing he does is check the storm’s intensity, worried it might delay their journey.
Fortunately, the blizzard has ceased, leaving the distant mountains and nearby trees in serene stillness.
"Crunch—crunch—"
Xu Xi steps out of the makeshift sorcery workshop, his boots sinking into thick snow. Then, he notices something surprising.
"Servia."
"Yes, I’m here."
"Did you do all this alone?"
"Yes, Lord Xu Xi."
Servia steps aside, revealing a row of meticulously crafted snowmen.
The girl looks slightly embarrassed.
She explains that last night, bored and forbidden from training, she passed the time by building them.
"Did I disturb you?" Her voice is tinged with worry.
"No. Beautiful things are rare," Xu Xi replies with a smile.
Loose snowflakes drift from the sky, landing gently in his palm before being pressed onto an unfinished snowman.
The hero’s craftsmanship is impressive.
Lifelike, vivid.
Most of the snowmen depict faces Xu Xi doesn’t recognize—but among them, he spots one of himself.
Leaning in, he finds it amusing.
"Thank you, Servia. You’ve made me look quite handsome," Xu Xi turns to thank her.
"Ah, well… it’s nothing worth thanking me for…"
The hero fidgets.
Avoiding his gaze.
Her fingers twist nervously.
She’s blushing.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
