MTL - World of Cultivation - ~ Section VIII. Small fire

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

When not THE Apocalypse strikes, but all of them together, where will you be? What will you do?

As Humanity faces its hardest time a playful god shows mercy(?)

Follow Seth on his journey to somehow survive in whatever has become of his world.

Also posting on royal road.

“When everyone scorned me because I was merely a woman, I kept convincing myself: ‘Actually, you can give it a try.’” – Fang Feng Sheng

…

There was a famous saying in officialdom: there is no yamen without Shaoxing.

She was the only descendant of the Fang family, the most prominent family of private advisors in Shaoxing.

A calamity broke the Fang family apart. Her father was implicated and put to death, and she cut her way through thistles and thorns to prove her name.

However, walking down this path, she discovered that there were things beyond her imagination.

~ ~

Zong Yue knows that he could marry Fang Feng Sheng because he had blocked all her paths of retreat. But it doesn’t matter—one day, the person will become his, and so will her heart.

- Description from Novelupdates

Theodore was not satisfied with just looking at her, he wanted to touch her.He slowly raised his hand and approached Princess Adeline. But Adeline subconsciously pulled back and shouted again, “I have already warned you, not to do anything like before. Or else I will…”Instantly, Theodore’s cheerful face turned grim. His golden eyes were now blood red and were staring very deeply at Adeline’s eyes. He was starting to emit a dark aura around him.Before Adeline could react, in the very next moment, Theodore pushed Adeline flat on the bed and was on top of her. He pinned both of her hands down with his hands and whispered near her ear, “Or else you will what? You will shout for your maids again?”Theodore sniffed in the sweet aroma that Adeline was giving off and gave a wicked smile, “Oh! I want you to try. I want you to try calling for your maids again. But don’t be shocked when I seal your juicy lips with my own lips.”Adeline had never in her life expected to see this side of Theodore. Yes, she knew he was the Devil but...[Book 1 Synopsis]Princess Adeline is the youngest child of King Dragomir of Wyverndale.She is detested by her stepmothers because she is born to a concubine – the only woman whom the King loved. And she is envied by her stepbrothers and stepsisters for being adored and loved by the King.Blinded by jealousy, the first Queen orders Princess Adeline to be kidnapped and thrown into the faraway Devil’s Cave as an offering.Her fate was to die that evening. However, her fate got rewritten by the very creature who was supposed to take her to her deathbed.The Devil took pity on the Princess and even went as far as sharing his demonic power with her.Ever since that day, her fate was bound to the Devil Prince of Hell – Prince Theodore.With time, love blooms between the son of God and the daughter of humans. They are madly in love and they want nothing more than to be together forever.However, with the rise of several enemies, from other fallen angels, supernatural creatures, and even God himself, will they get their forever after?[Book 2 Synopsis] **Spoiler alert for Book 1**Adeline and Theodore have a beautiful daughter – Ariel.She is the definition of perfection because God himself created her to be without any flaws. God wants to hand over the whole universe to his granddaughter and retire from his duty as the Supreme Being.However, nobody else wants that future for Ariel.Ariel, on the other hand, is oblivious to her grandfather’s plan for her.She is a free spirit who always has a wide smile on her face. And the only thing she wants to do is go on adventures with her childhood friend – Damien and her cousins.But will she be able to maintain the smile on her face upon being faced by God?Will she be able to maintain her friendship with Damien when he discovers a gut-wrenching truth – that Theodore was the one to kill his father?