Chen Miemie had to put in some effort to find his shop.
The city in Year 120 of the Seventh Era was laid out very differently from the one more than three thousand years later. The entire Fairy-Tale Road was nothing like it would eventually become.
He hadn’t even entered the [Door Gap] when he found several visitors waiting to go in.
Chen Miemie quietly crept up behind them, intending to surprise them.
“What are you doing?”
His sudden appearance failed to startle the other book anomalies.
The only one caught off guard was The Book of Tear Stains, which jumped in fright. “Yellow Light Person, you’re so childish.”
Withering Poems answered the question instead.
“Once dawn breaks, we’ll enter the seal. Before that happens, we grew curious about where we were born and wanted to come back for a look.”
Chen Miemie immediately felt a bad premonition coming on. “The place where you were born? You mean the shop inside this place?”
“Yes.”
Although he knew books didn’t joke around, Chen Miemie still held on to a sliver of hope. “Are you sure you haven’t got the wrong place?”
“How could we? We were born in the study of the shop inside this gap.” The Book of Tear Stains twisted the knife.
Chen Miemie hunched his neck, feeling a little guilty, and hurriedly changed the subject. “Then why are you all blocking the door? Why don’t you just go inside?”
“We find something strange. Even when it’s right in front of them, not every book can see this gap. We were discussing this abnormality.”
“Oh, that’s normal. This is my shop. Those who can see it, come in with me. Those who can’t, go away.”
And so, Chen Miemie squeezed into the [Door Gap] with several book anomalies.
When he reached the entrance and was about to open the door—
“Hm?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Chen Miemie noticed a letter inside the multicolored mailbox by the door.
“Whose letter is this? And why is the paper white?” he wondered.
There wasn’t much time left, so Chen Miemie didn’t linger at the entrance. He casually took out the letter, stuffed it into his pocket, and pushed open the shop door.
The moment Chen Miemie entered, the anomalies inside the shop crowded around him.
Black Hole rushed forward the fastest. With a headbutt, it slammed straight into Chen Miemie’s shin.
“Chen Miemie, something terrible has happened! All the books in the study turned into anomalies and flew away!”
Chen Miemie stepped aside, revealing the several book anomalies he had been blocking.
“I know. Look, a few of the books have come back to visit.”
Before long, Chen Miemie was sitting on one side of the sofa, while several books floated on the guest sofa opposite him.
They were all anomalies, and they had already met before, so the anomalies in the house didn’t hide this time. They all crowded around the table.
The Book of Tear Stains was eager to get started and asked the first question.
“So you’re saying this is your shop, and we were originally books in your shop?”
“That’s more or less the correct way to understand it.”
“Can we take another look around the study?” Withering Poems asked politely.
“Of course.”
Withering Poems led several other books to the places where they had originally been kept.
The tightly packed bookshelves were now empty. The few books stood on them, looking rather lonely.
After taking in the sight, the books climbed down from the shelves.
“It’s wonderful. This study feels so cozy. This is what it feels like to truly come home.”
Chen Miemie glanced at the time. It was 5:57.
He didn’t waste any more time. “We only have a little over two minutes left to talk. Tell me about your commission.”
The Book of Tear Stains asked, “Commission? What commission?”
“You didn’t just come home. The fact that you can see the [Door Gap] and make your way to the shop means there’s something troubling you, and you need help.”
The books had none of the human tendency toward polite evasions and immediately got to the point.
Withering Poems spoke directly from the heart.
“That’s right. We’ve already developed intelligence, gained awareness, and learned to understand gains and losses.
“Although we appear willing to enter the seal voluntarily, we also know that it will mean endless years in a world without light. Naturally, we’re afraid.
“We want to know whether there’s any way for us to live freely in this [Library].”
Chen Miemie likewise skipped all the usual social formalities.
“There’s no such thing as complete freedom in this world. At most, there are merely different environments that people consider more or less restrictive. What you want will come at a great price.”
“No price could be greater than the hope it would give us.”
This was the quickest commission Chen Miemie had ever negotiated. From beginning to end, it took only a minute and a half.
Withering Poems led the several books out of the shop. Before leaving, it said one last thing:
“We’ll guard the seal and wait for that moment to arrive.”
Just as Chen Miemie was seeing off his guests—
On the rooftop elsewhere in the city, Persimmon was sorting through intelligence from various sources and compiling it all together.
Although Orange had survived, she had already passed on her seat. She immediately dumped all her responsibilities on others, wanting to devote herself entirely to studying the immortality trait within her.
Persimmon cried out in dismay. “Lady Orange, can you take the seat back?”
Lady Orange’s expression turned cold, and she rebuked her righteously. “Absurd. Do you think a seat is some toy that can be passed back and forth? It is part of the inheritance of our witch clan. Don’t say such willful things again.”
Persimmon stared at the documents piled higher and higher before her. “But even without the seat, you’re still the city lord. How can you just stop handling city affairs?”
Lady Orange nodded. “The city lord? You’re right to remind me. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be the city lord.”
“I don’t want to!” Persimmon panicked.
Lady Orange’s eyes rolled as she said, “Persimmon, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. It’s just that I have something more important to do. The sooner I figure out the trait within me, the sooner all the human witches can break free from the shackles of their lifespans. You can tell which is more important, can’t you?”
Persimmon was left speechless.
She truly couldn’t handle all of it.
She had previously been one of the witches’ senior administrators, but back then she had only been responsible for roughly half of the witches’ internal affairs. Now she was expected to manage the entire city. Her workload had increased by more than tenfold.
She looked around, trying to find Peeling Paint so she could get her to share some of the work.
Unexpectedly, Peeling Paint had already slipped away without a word.
Persimmon opened her mouth, then closed it again. She had only just won a seat in the election; turning around and ordering Peeling Paint to work for her would make her look unbearably overbearing.
“Lady Orange, I really can’t get through all of this. How did you manage it before?”
“Before? Let me think… Oh, right. Just dump the work on the human scholars. Those scholars are excellent beasts of burden, whether they’re conducting research or handling administrative affairs. Each one is worth three.”
Persimmon brightened. She, too, was struck by an idea.
“Lady Orange, look at this battle report. The six human scholars at the seal site fought to the death without retreating and made outstanding contributions. I think we should give them some kind of reward.”
“What kind of reward?”
“They don’t lack wealth, and we can’t directly give them more power. Humans like honor the most. How about we give them each a little red flower and some delicious fruit as a token of recognition?”
Lady Orange was at a loss for words.
“Do you think they’re little kids? We’re not handing out little red flowers. Still, your suggestion is a good one. Those who render meritorious service should be rewarded, and they deserve some recognition. The idea of honoring them is a good one.”
Orange paced back and forth two or three times before suddenly clapping her hands.
“I’ve got it! Honors are the simplest solution. Why don’t we give our six scholars a new title—and put them to a little more work while we’re at it? Persimmon, what do you think of the title ‘Grand Scholar’?”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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.
