Swallowed Star - Chapter 8 — Two Fighters

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns. During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)Notes on cultivation levels:There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.1. Body Tempering2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)5. Ascension

Zhen Zhen was reborn in the forest area in the 1960s with a drop of the blood of the ancient gods. The awakening of the blood of the gods not only gave Zhen Zhen one power after another, but also made her the most favored little lucky star in the family!

- Description from Novelupdates

Three years after entering the palace, Yongning Palace’s Beautiful Lady Yan Shu, has still never met the Emperor.The palace full of concubines tried to win his favour, only she, immersed in a melon eating system, has no time to spare for him.[The heir of Marquis Lin Wu isn’t his son, tsk tsk.] [A high ranking official in the conservative Ministry of Rites is unexpectedly taking part in a taboo relationship with his own daughter-in-law!!!] [Grand Princess Yi Ma’s prince consort has unexpectedly raised several concubines outside!]Everyday is filled with gossip, who would still remember who the Emperor was?How would she know that one day, she actually ate a shockingly big melon——[The iron-blooded Emperor who seems cold and aloof on the surface actually suffers from an unspeakable unmentionable disease.]Yan Shu, “!!! No wonder he never enters the harem!”Wait…There seems to be something wrong somewhere… then what did she enter the palace for?!!The new Emperor, Yu Wen Lan, has two secrets.Since his ascension to the throne, he has gradually lost his male functions; yet at the same time, he can read minds.Getting used to seeing their false words and hypocritical faces every day, he grew all the more unfeeling.That was, until one day, he heard a special heart’s voice——[Isn’t this a f*cking waste of natural resources?]Yu Wen Lan paused, narrowing his eyes to look in the direction of a delicately pretty and pure looking girl.[God, for you to make such a handsome hunk unable to XX, doesn’t your conscience hurt at all?] [Is there any way to revive it???] [Ten-fold complete rejuvenation of spring pill, restoration of a man of character pill; if those don’t work, then have you tried return of the yang acupuncture?]Yu Wen Lan, “???”Until she ascended to the position of Empress, Yan Shu also didn’t know how she had jumped unreasonably on the Emperor’s bottom line repeatedly, yet had jumped straight in, becoming the first person to be in his heart.Perhaps, it was just her good luck.

“So, Diana, what's your excuse for betraying me?”

His amber glinted eyes bore into the woman with bloodied, broken blue hair, kneeling in complete disarray.

“... you're evil.”

“Oh, so, looking out for all of you makes me evil?”

The man narrowed his eyes, contemplating the echoes of protagonist halos and heroines' mentality, starkly real now.

Coming from a world far removed from such grim reality, he had read about these personalities in novels, but experiencing their shortcomings firsthand was a different story.

“How am I evil?”

He looked down at his foot where a young man, limbless and crushed, lay in a state of complete brokenness, mustering the little strength he had left to utter some words.

“... y.. you ba..stard, You killed millions.”

Hearing these words, the man's internal amusement grew at the absurdity of these hypocritical people.

He had eradicated all the evil organizations within the Empire after ascending to his throne.

Wars were waged to crush rebellious kingdoms that stood against his Empire, uniting the entire Heidal Continent under one flag—the Selvius Empire.

He shifted his gaze towards another woman with pink hair, her body completely broken, supported by a rock to maintain a semblance of balance amidst the devastation.

“Hmm, so what about you, Karina? Wasn't your family about to be executed by the Aidiac Royal family? Is it wrong for me to have intervened?”

“You killed them without mercy, and although you saved my family, it was not worth it.”

“I just saved—”

“It's bullshit. You could have solved everything peacefully without drawing so much blood.”

Hearing all this, the man began to understand why those novels depicted these people as hypocritical and low in intelligence.

If he hadn't saved them, they would have suffered the most gruesome fate.

Yet, despite being saved, these ungrateful individuals chose to blame him. The bitter irony of their ingratitude gnawed at him, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Guess you all have the same reasons.”

The man looked towards the seven people, their disdainful gazes directed at him.

He had only aimed to change their fates, to rescue some from slavery, others from crippling circumstances, and a few from inevitable betrayal.

Yet, they all blamed him for saving them, unable to comprehend that he had severed the root causes that would have subjected them to excruciating suffering.

“Hahaha.”

“Indeed, now I see.”

He now understood what those novels had tried to convey—'these idiots think this whole world works like they think it would.'

'System.........

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