Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament - Volume 9, Afterword

The Dao Court has ruled the world of cultivators for over twenty thousand years. The noble families maintain a strict hierarchy, making life difficult for independent cultivators.At ten years old, Mo Hua, who comes from a background of independent cultivators, struggles with his cultivation journey. This changes when a Dao stele appears in his mind.The stele is damaged and mysterious, but it can enhance spiritual awareness and help understand mystical formations.Mo Hua plans to use this stele to develop a supreme spiritual awareness, learn the secrets of celestial formations, and pursue the ultimate path of immortality. His goal is to change not only his own destiny but also the destiny of all lesser cultivators across the world.The path to greatness starts with the smallest steps, and the journey to immortality is long and challenging.Through dense fog and treacherous terrains, past horrors and chaos, where demons dance wildly, he must plant the seeds of his spiritual quest, survive the deadliest of trials, and prove his worth on every dangerous step…In the grand scheme of heaven, where the universe is the game board and all creatures its pieces, the strategic game of life and death begins, shaping destinies through its intricate moves…

Facing a meteor, I wished for a stable and respectable job and money to spend, only to become the lucky one physically carried away by the meteor.After drifting through chaos, I was reborn as Nezha.The good news is all my wishes came true, the bad news is the world is not right.Nezha, carrying fragments of the Creation Jade Slip and Chaos Pearl, doesn't want to follow the old path of becoming a tool for Taiyi to avert disasters, so he apprentices under Nuwa.What do you mean I killed Ao Bing? I don't know Ao Bing, you should ask someone else.What do you mean Yin Shou is tyrannical, he is just an enthusiast of cultivation.Stone Ji is a spirit born from rocks, naturally, she matches my expertise in mending the sky, so let her be my good friend (tool).Why do you say Zhao Gongming looks simple-minded? I think he looks very much like my brother-in-law.Let’s see how Nezha securely cultivates in the prehistoric world, defying fate and ascending the Great Dao.

[COMPLETE] Can a royal Romeo and Juliet find their happy ending?

Ayleth, Princess of Zenithra, is secretly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and collects swear words she doesn't know how to use. During the Festival of Peace, in which every royal son on the continent will be at the castle for a month, she is instructed by her parents to find a husband. Yet, Ayleth has never even been kissed—until the very first ball, when she meets the man in the Lion mask.

Etan is a seasoned warrior, and the Prince of Summitras. He attends the Festival hoping to find a powerful wife who will help him conquer the dark sorcery of their bloodsworn enemies, the Kingdom of Zenithra. But at the very first ball, he discovers the masked woman who captures his heart is the Heir to the evil empire.

Ayleth and Etan face an impossible battle. Will their love survive? Or will their parents' dark dealings keep them apart forever?

[Mature content. No sexual violence.]

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“You…” She stepped back. Then back again, her mouth dropped open. “You… You cannot be…”

“I am,” Etan said, and his hair raked back as he pushed his mask off his handsome face. So handsome her heart raced.

His hair was ebony black, his skin a warm brown that threatened to fade in in the winter months. He stared at her with glittering green eyes, over high cheekbones and a noble nose, his jaw tight and shadowed this late in the day. His chin was high over the pillar of his neck that she’d just touched with its hard lines and steel strength, so different to her own. And his chest... She gasped and covered her eyes. She’d humiliated herself revealing her stupid, childish curiosity.

“No, Ayleth. This changes nothing.”

“How can you say that? It changes everything!” She was horrified to realize she was crying.

“Ayleth, please.” His voice cracked on the plea and she stared at him, shoving her mask up and off, despite how it would pull her hair out of the beautiful twist the maid had managed for her.

His eyes locked on hers and she couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.

She had met her One. And he was the son of her bloodsworn enemy.

She stared at him as he stepped forward again, offering both hands, palm up. “Touch me,” he whispered. “Hold my hands. This is real, Ayleth. I don’t know how it happened, but this is real. Please don’t deny it.”

She couldn’t resist. She raised a trembling hand to his cheek, letting her palm catch on the scruff of his jaw. He blew out a breath and put his hand over hers, and that jolt that happened whenever they touched shivered through her again.

“Please, Ayleth.”

“I cannot deny it,” she whispered.

Even after knowing what came next....I still accepted.A deal with the devil herself.A devil, in the form of a goddess.I accepted a life that I knew wouldn't end well, a life that was worse off than the very curel one I already lived.But I still choose to do it.I chose to become the villain.