The Academy of Scholars.
The high-security cell where dangerous criminals were held.
[Stone Whisperer] and “Granny Mortar” had each been given a cell, becoming neighbors.
Separated only by iron bars, they could see each other with nothing more than a turn of the head.
Each small cell had only one simple lock, and there were no guards inside or outside the chamber.
With the strength of [Stone Whisperer] and “Granny Mortar,” the locks were practically useless. Clearly, however, neither of them had any intention of leaving.
When “Granny Mortar” wasn’t smiling, her face actually looked rather kind.
“A great scholar in the prime of his life, traded for an old relic like me who’s already one foot in the grave. That’s hardly a worthwhile bargain.”
[Stone Whisperer] lowered his head. “If I could, I wouldn’t drag you into this either. Taking down one or two witches at most creates a bit of an impact. It won’t achieve the effect I want, and it may even provoke greater hatred.”
“Granny Mortar’s” heart gave a sudden jolt. “You have another plan!”
“Of course. Granny, do you really think what I did today could change the relationship between the two races?”
“What else are you planning?”
“Just wait. It won’t be long.”
[Stone Whisperer] leaned back, his head disappearing into the darkness. Then he fell silent.
No. 19, Fairy-Tale Road.
Chen Miemie had watched an entire show and returned to his shop.
When they parted earlier, [Bridge Princess] had been in extremely low spirits. He wasn’t good at comforting people, so after saying goodbye, he left her to calm down on her own.
The oddities all crowded onto the sofa and, as usual, began their discussion.
“Almost every mystery was solved at today’s assembly. The whole truth has come to light.” Qinghua pinned the details of each incident onto the porcelain blackboard.
The causes and consequences of several major incidents were now clear.
For example: Li Liang issuing the assassination contract, Yu Ling falling from the cliff, the pufferfish and seaweed poisoning, and so on.
Loop frowned. “I feel like something’s still wrong.”
“Go on, Loop. What exactly feels wrong?” Chen Miemie had the same feeling, but it was only an intuition. He hadn’t been able to identify any specific flaw.
Loop nodded and began her unique method of analysis.
“I divided myself into roughly ten different versions, each taking the perspective of one of the principal figures present.
“Among the major figures at today’s gathering, [Zhiliao], President Yu, President Shepherd, Mr. Kong, and [Rotten Wood] all seemed to react normally when I put myself in their positions. They acted when they should have, and held back when they should have.
“But several others were unusual.
“First, there’s the ‘Logic Pawnbroker,’ Luo Lang. In theory, he had already taken control of his son, Luo Wen. Yet Luo Wen appeared today far too easily, and Luo Lang’s reaction to his son’s reckless behavior afterward was far too calm.
“Then there’s ‘Granny Mortar’ and [Skin-Shedding Clinic]. Judging from the behavior of their vice president, Du Jun, they seemed to have been prepared in advance and knew that something major would happen today.
“Next is the witches’ side. Miemie, don’t you find it strange that [Chenpi] and Silence didn’t try to save ‘Granny Mortar’? Given [Chenpi]’s willfulness and Silence’s forceful nature, the fact that neither of them made a sound when Granny was taken is highly abnormal.
“Finally, there’s [Stone Whisperer]. He spent so many years preparing, only to sacrifice himself in the end. Doesn’t the final result seem a little anticlimactic—thunder in the distance, but barely any rain?
“Taking all these anomalies together, I think things won’t end here. There’s a very high chance that something else is coming.”
“Excellent.” Chen Miemie clapped his hands.
Loop was essentially a patient suffering from split personality disorder with 128 distinct personalities. Her perspective was comprehensive and constantly shifting.
They had identified the problem, but Chen Miemie and the others couldn’t do anything about it.
Chen Miemie looked at it from another angle. “If I hadn’t come to seal the library, these things would still have happened, right?”
“Yes,” all the oddities answered.
“Then that’s fine. We don’t know how things will develop from here, so for now, we’ll watch and wait. When the time comes, we can decide whether to remain spectators or enter the game and respond to whatever moves they make.”
“Agreed!” The oddities voiced their support for Chen Miemie’s decision.
“Leaving all that aside, I’m facing a problem of my own. After forming a contract with the Bridge Princess, my [Mystique] has reached 3.99. I can’t put off solving the problem of my exclusive materials any longer.”
At that, all the oddities fell silent.
Even Xiao Hong and Xiao Shuang had no ideas. All they could do was worry.
Before they knew it, night had fallen.
Tonight was another Eternal Moon night.
Chen Miemie racked his brains but failed to find a solution. In the blink of an eye, it was time to open the shop again.
A customer arrived almost as soon as the shop opened.
She was a white-haired woman. The hair over the left side of her forehead was long enough to cover her left eye, leaving only the right one visible.
She seemed afraid of the cold, wearing a high-necked sweater that wrapped snugly around her entire neck.
“Is this the place?” The woman looked extremely young, yet when she spoke, her voice was mature with a slight rasp.
Loop smiled faintly. “This is the Mystery Shop. We accept all kinds of commissions. Please, come in.”
The woman followed Loop into the main room and sat down on the sofa.
Unlike the previous customers, she was quite the curious type. She wasn’t afraid in the slightest. In fact, she craned her neck and tilted her head, peering into the hood of [The King in Yellow].
“Are you an oddity, sir?” After catching sight of some yellow points of light, the woman asked curiously.
“I’m the owner of this shop.”
“The owner? Do you have a name, Shopkeeper? I think calling someone by their name makes it easier to become friends than calling them by their title.”
“I’m used to being called Shopkeeper.” Chen Miemie had no intention of leaving his real name, [The King in Yellow] or Chen Miemie, behind in history.
“All right, my name is Qiu Shizi. You can just call me Shizi.”
“Shizi? Is that a code name? What an interesting one.”
“No, it’s my real name. I love eating persimmons. My code name is [First Words].”
“All right, Ms. Persimmon. Is something troubling you?”
The visible right eye of Persimmon shifted from side to side, as though she were thinking.
“Yes! I want to be able to eat fruit from all four seasons at the same time.”
Chen Miemie looked at the seemingly delighted Persimmon and felt a headache coming on. This woman didn’t seem lost or troubled in the slightest.
“It looks like you really love fruit. Do you have a more serious problem?”
Persimmon appeared to think very carefully. “Yes. I want to live a long life.”
Chen Miemie’s headache worsened.
Just like that, the difficulty had jumped from beginner level straight to [Mystique] 9. Persimmon certainly knew how to make things difficult.
“Are you serious?”
Persimmon nodded vigorously. “I’m very serious. I want to live another hundred years—no, a thousand—no, three thousand years!”
“You still seem fairly young. Isn’t it a little early to start thinking about immortality?”
“Young?” Persimmon shook her head repeatedly and pointed at her white hair. “This hair isn’t dyed. I’ve merely taken good care of my appearance and used a little trick to disguise myself. In truth, I’m already over fifty and will soon be dying.”
Chen Miemie showed no reaction on the surface, but he was secretly astonished. Persimmon was so lively and cheerful—she didn’t seem like someone in her fifties at all.
“Haha, Shopkeeper, I was just teasing you. I know it’s not like you can simply wish for immortality. Truth be told, I don’t have many regrets in life. If there weren’t something I needed to do, I never would’ve wanted to live that long.”
Chen Miemie thought she had found a breakthrough. “What is it you need to do?”
Persimmon shifted around, trying to get more comfortable, then leaned back against the sofa.
“Well, a lot of witches have placed their hopes in me. They want me to inherit the Human Grand Witch’s seat. Unfortunately, my lifespan is too short. Even if I took over by forcing the issue, I wouldn’t be able to hold the position for very long.”
“The Grand Witch? Your surname is Qiu...” Chen Miemie gasped softly. “You’re the former Human Grand Witch, Granny Qiu!”
Persimmon’s eyes widened. She shouted indignantly:
“Shopkeeper, that’s too much! I’m only a little more mature-looking than most people. No one’s ever called me Granny before!”
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.
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.
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
