Afternoon came quickly and the cultivation resources had reached her hand already. There were some high grade earthly jades too. 
'Daddy must want to deceive himself as well'.
She went to her backyard, her cultivation room was there. It was near her main chamber in the past but when she chose to give up on cultivation it was demolished as she felt frustrated. Her eldest brother was against it and she made a tantrum; they reached a consensus and was rebuilt in her backyard.
"Bing Nan, Bing Er will be in charge of my courtyard. You go to daddy's yard and look for Hong Shi; he will help you with your training".
"Eh! Yes. I thank Master's grace".
"Sigh, you just don't change". She shook her head and entered her cultivation room, "Take care and don't work too hard".
"Yes". Bing Nan answered aloud and left after she heard the clicking sound of the door closing.
An Bing Qing didn't lose time, as soon as she closed the door, she entered the black sphere with a thought. Just as she opened the book, she was immersed with it.
Time fly and she closed the book. She instinctively reached for the following book. She was so engrossed that she didn't get surprised when she was able to pull it out. Ten pages or so before finishing it, she jumped from the floor and looked toward the first shelf and the books out. 
"Two books?!" She excitedly drooped to her knees and reached for the next one, but was heavy like a mountain. After trying for a long time, she gave up; she began to read where she had left on the cold ground…
She read the last word and she raised her head. She blinked and her long eyelashes fluttered as she looked to the next book. Her eyes were like those of a starving wolf, hungry to devour what it was in front of it. She crawled to the bookcase but didn't reach for the book. Her gaze was deep and thoughtful; she quickly lost her patience and took it decisively. Her pull was with both hands; it was strong and she fall back with the book. 
"Ouch!" Tears flowed out because of pain but the wide grin imprinted in her rosy lips betrayed such an emotion, turning them in joyous tears. The next book was in her hands! Furthermore, she now had the gist of this place. The books followed a sequence and you can't read the next until you had finished the previous one. This mean she will be able to read all the books of this place! She flipped her body over to lie down on her tummy and began to increase her knowledge.
Three months later, she had swallowed each word wrote on every page in the books from this room. The place was a complete mess with books everywhere and some pieces of earthly jade here and there, she didn't care and fall asleep on a pile of books. The lady looks she had before were replaced by a haggard one but her pretty face had a gleeful smile as she hugged one of the books in her sleep. 
The sun and moon changed places a couple of times and her eyes finally trembled in sign of waking up. She opened her eyes slowly; they were still drowsy and some saliva was in the corner of her mouth but she was enchanting like a bud in bloom. 
She closed her eyes again as she wiped her mouth with her sleeve; it was gooey. 
"Gurgle, gurgle..." Shortly after, hunger came. She frowned and reached for the green qiankun bag tied up to her white sash. Inside, there was a purple one; it was the best one. There were only a couple of low grade earthly jades, her frown worsened; she took them out and drained their energy till the nail-sized jades became dust. She had filled her belly with energy and not food all this time; thanks to this and the fact that she had been mental and physically exhausted, her cultivation grew steadily with no bottlenecks without training seriously. The fact that she changed immortal cultivation techniques was the most helpful, of course.
Her grumbling stomach didn't stop; she didn't endure it anymore and opened her heavy eyes with reluctance. "Huh? Was I sent out from the sphere's space?" She sat on the floor and sighed in relief after few seconds, "I still can feel it. Was it because I read all the books?" She was puzzled but she had no time to ponder as she has to digest the last dozen of books' information to not forget it later; as she usually does. 
Many hours later she got up and strode towards the cultivation room's door.

Things have been rewritten and a fallen Phoenix with bounded wings has been reborn between heaven and earth. Can fate be changed? Will it be for the best? Love and grief go hand in hand through the path of a Phoenix. The higher you climb, the harder the path.

Note: Because I still haven't written anything strong, I changed the audience range.

Su Yu quietly observed the little devil. She was flipping through some ancient books, furrowing her brows, and scratching her head from time to time. Finally, a smile blossomed on her face.
At the moment, she held an authentic ancient work with a golden cover in her hands, and her facial expression looked as if she had just discovered something precious in the book. It was only after she had spent quite a long time flipping through the book that the little devil finally set it down with a satisfied smile on her face.
She then raised her head suddenly, noticing Su Yu's presence. She was taken by surprise, as she had not expected to run into him.
"Oh, it's brother Yuxian," the little devil ran up to him and exclaimed jubilantly, while putting on a friendly front."You're in Tianya City! No wonder I haven't seen anyone from your faction!" 
Su Yu smiled as he replied, "I didn't think that Wuxie would come to Tianya either, so it has to be fate!"
"Haha, you're right! It really is fate! I wonder which shopkeeper replaced brother Yuxian using the privilege of the Carp Leaping Over Dragon Gate..." Gongsun Wuxie wondered aloud, half smiling. "Looks like you can only replace the shopkeepers of low-class shops..."
This quota had initially belonged to Gongsun Wuxie. She had planned to use it to earn a large number of merit points, then gain the qualification to enter the Glittering Jewel Wonderland.
She detested the fact that Su Yu had hindered her and taken the quota from her, leaving her with no other other options but to take on dangerous and troublesome missions. Last time, she nearly lost her life to the Ghost Buddha, but was fortunately rescued by a mysterious young expert.
"Right. It was a small, low-class shop that was in a great amount of debt," Su Yu said, not holding back. "Wuxie, don't you want to earn merit points? Did you come to Tianya to carry out some mission?"
Gongsun Wuxie nodded and gloated, "Ghost List released a new mission right after you left. Since the senior brother who was in charge of this mission hadn't made any progress in three years, he had to give up. This mission is worth 100,000 merit points."
What she was implying was that even though Su Yu had deprived her of her privileges, he himself had missed out on another mission that was worth a lot of merit points in the process.
Su Yu laughed inwardly as he thought... The little devil almost died at the hands of the Ghost Buddha! How dare she bring this up?
"Is that true? Have you accomplished the mission?" he asked, pretending to be surprised.
He had a rueful look on his face, which was the exact look that she was waiting for. At that moment, she felt unimaginably pleased.
Then, as she threw both of her braids behind her head, she burst out laughing, then asked, "Hahaha, don't you know who I am? I could end the Ghost Buddha's life with one snap of my fingers! Haven't you heard about the Three Murders Gang's leader's death?"
Su Yu had an unnatural look on his face as he replied in shock, "Yes, I have. But, how is the Three Murders Gang's leader related to the Ghost Buddha? Is it possible that you killed the wrong person?"
His reply earned a disdainful look from the little devil. Then, feeling extremely delighted inside, she laughed out loud, then said, "Stupid! Do you still not understand? The Three Murders Gang is the infamous Ghost Buddha!"
"What? You killed the Ghost Buddha?" Su Yu was stunned. Then, with her hands behind her back, the little devil asked smugly, "Haha, don't you admire me?"
"So, it seems like you've received 300,000 merit points?" Su Yu asked. He looked as if he was jealous.
The more Su Yu behaved this way, the happier the little devil became. She thought... Now that you're jealous of me, you probably are realizing that you never should have taken away my privileges in the first place!
"Needless to say, of course, I've gotten all of my 300,000 merit points," the little devil proclaimed with an upturned nose. All the while, her eyes appeared to be asking, "What do you think?" 
Su Yu's facial expression changed a few times before he finally sighed. He looked upset as he asked, "How did you manage to defeat and kill the Ghost Buddha?"
The little devil laughed, then bragged, "Ha! Are you doubting my capabilities? Don't you know that when the Ghost Buddha heard my famous name, Gongsun Wuxie, he was scared to death?"
She then added, "At first, there was an ignorant fellow, who thought of tackling the Ghost Buddha, but he was ruthlessly beaten up!"
The little devil then described how disheveled the beaten-up fellow was, while using exaggerated gestures and facial expressions. She then said, "I'm the one who finally came to save the day, clobbering the Ghost Buddha until there was nothing left of him!"
She patted her chest with pride, then said, "That fellow was so very grateful to me that he gave me something extremely precious as a thank you gift."
Su Yu was speechless. He thought that what she was saying was ridiculous as he listened to the little devil's shameless distortion of the truth.
"Oh I see. It sounds like you're really amazing," Su Yu said, while feigning being impressed.
Gongsun Wuxie crossed her arms over her chest, feeling incredibly proud. She then said, "Of course, I really do have great powers!"
Her mood had improved after she bragged for quite a while, so she no longer minded how Su Yu had seized her privileges.
At that moment, she tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Alright, I'm going back to the faction. You should carry on working as the shopkeeper here."
Su Yu could not help but laugh as he watched Gongsun Wuxie leave. He wondered… What would she think if she knew that she had been bragging to the mysterious senior who saved her?
Su Yu then stepped into the bookshop, while shaking his head. It was quite deserted in the bookshop, and only a handful of people were quietly browsing for ancient books.
"Hello, sir. What kind of books were you looking for?" a young servant asked as he walked toward Su Yu with a warm smile on his face.
Su Yu scanned the surroundings, then calmly inquired, "What is the price per hour for borrowing books?"
The young servant smiled, then replied, "The cost is 10,000 crystals for an hour."
Su Yu was utterly shocked by this amount. It was not that he did not have that many crystals, but this price was truly exorbitant!
At that moment, Su Yu saw a customer making a payment. Su Yu could clearly see that the customer had paid only 10 crystals.
Su Yu quickly did some calculations in his head, figuring that, based on the price that the sales clerk had just quoted to him, that meant that a single minute was worth 150 crystals. However, that customer was here before Su Yu arrived, so he surely must have spent at least a few minutes here with the books already.
So, Su Yu had to wonder... How is it possible that this customer only needed to pay 10 crystals?
Su Yu could not help but stare at the young servant. This was because he had suddenly noticed a vague taunting look in the customer's eyes. Also, Su Yu had suddenly recognized that the young man was glancing at the Red Blood Palace symbol that was on his chest.
"Are you intentionally making things difficult for me because of my identity?" Su Yu asked.
He suddenly recalled that Tianya was situated at the border between the Red Blood Palace and the Central Prefecture. This meant that a lot of influential people in the city bore grudges and were hostile toward the Blessed and Heavenly Lands.
For example, the martial artists of the Central Prefecture could purchase a rare elixir with 10 crystals, but the same elixir would be sold to the students of the Blessed and Heavenly Lands for a far more expensive price of 20 crystals. The same situations happened to the martial artists and the students of the Red Blood Palace and the Purple Cloud Palace.
Su Yu had noticed similar happenings in the account book when he was appointed as the shopkeeper of Tonglin Elixir Store. In light of this, it seemed like his hunches were right, and the bookshop before him was clearly founded by an influential person from the Central Prefecture.
Since Gongsun Wuxie was dressed in casual attire, the servant failed to recognize the Red Blood Palace symbol and did not bother her. However, Su Yu was troubled, as he was wearing his Red Blood Palace uniform. 
At that point, any ordinary student of the Red Blood Palace would have left for the sake of dignity. But, not Su Yu.
With a tinge of coldness flickering in his eyes, Su Yu nodded slightly, then said, "Great. That's it then… 10,000 crystals for an hour. I don't mind the crystals."
The servant's smile froze when he heard that Su Yu agreed to the price instead of leaving with anger, and he thought... Is this man a fool? Who could afford such a price?
"What's wrong now? Won't you allow me to borrow and read?" Su Yu asked, while casting him a sideways glance.
The servant just could not understand why Su Yu would be so foolish and gullible to accept such an offer! Nonetheless, he knew that it would be unforgivable if he let such a lamb escape, willingly wanting to be slaughtered, escape!
"Haha, please come in, old man. We will begin calculating your total price once you start turning the pages. Which book would you like to take a look at first?" The servant was secretly scorning Su Yu, but he had a bright smile on his face to hide it.
Su Yu glanced around the shop, then said coldly, "Get me all of the books regarding curses, spiritual rocks, and jades."
The servant became even more scornful as he thought to himself... Is this man an imbecile? How can he possibly finish reading all three types of books in such a short time? Moreover, it's a huge bookshop, so those three types of books could number in the hundreds!
"Are you sure, old man?" the servant asked with a fake smile.
Su Yu shot him a sideways glance, then asked, "Have I not made myself clear, or are you deaf? Get me all of the ancient books of those three types of genres! And… Bring me the golden ancient authentic work as well!"
As Su Yu spoke, he pointed to the ancient book with the golden cover that Gongsun Wuxie was flipping through just now. The servant was slightly angered by this, but he kept it to himself and forced a smile as he replied, "Alright. Would you prefer the stone-rubbed version or the authentic-writing version?"
"I want all of the relevant stone-rubbed and authentic-writing versions!" Su Yu said in a low voice.
The servant looked at him with disdain as he reminded Su Yu, "Old man, let me inform you beforehand, we have a rule here that says that all of the books have to be read in the shop. Bringing them outside is not allowed! So, you'd have to finish reading them before you leave!"
The servant knew that there were so many books, and he couldn't imagine how anyone could finish reading them without spending several days and nights doing so. Moreover, if the price followed the rate of 10,000 crystals per hour, even the Almighty Divine Masters could not afford to read for much longer than one day's session. 
Thinking of this made the servant even more curious to see how long this martial artist from the Red Blood Palace could last before giving up. Upon seeing the smug look on the servant's face, Su Yu became angered.
"Well? Just do as I say and go get the books!" Su Yu scolded the servant with a stern face.
Although the servant was infuriated, he had to contain his anger. After all, his low status as a servant did not give him the right to argue openly with customers. So, with the help of a few others, he clumsily scoured the bookshops and found all three types of the books and the ancient authentic work with the golden cover. 
"Old man, the books are all here, so feel free to help yourself," the servant said as he laid down the books and retreated with the others, while staring at Su Yu with cold eyes.
The servants all stealthily exchanged words among themselves via their Vital Energies.
"Zhao Chuan, isn't this too much? I mean, 10,000 crystals per hour is a lot of money! I think that he may just be looking for trouble." One of the servants was clearly worried about the situation.
Zhao Chuan, who was the initial servant that helped Su Yu, smiled, then responded, "So what if he is looking for trouble? Why would the Shizhen Bookyard be scared of that? We're not afraid of him!"
Upon hearing that, the servants quietly nodded in agreement. Since the Shizhen Bookyard had a fifth-grade Almighty as its backer, it was uncommon for people to behave recklessly in the bookshop, and its employees certainly weren't scared of many people.
Another servant hesitated before asking, "What if he manages to actually finish reading all of these books?"
Zhao Chuan snorted, then said, "That'll be even better. It'll take a few days and nights for someone to finish reading a few hundred books. Moreover, there are lots of difficult words from different languages, so he surely won't be able to read them all in less than 10 days. So… We'll just have to wait for his payment of crystals! Haha!"
___
Su Yu had undoubtedly had an ample amount of confidence when he had asked for that many books. After taking in a light breath, Su Yu secretly operated the power of time, propelling himself into the state in which time was accelerated by 400 times its normal speed.
Thus, in the blink of an eye, Su Yu finished reading books that it would usually take the time to empty a teapot to read. This was helped by the fact that Su Yu had mastered the basics of words from different languages.
Hence, the foreign words in the ancient books, which seemed difficult to most people, were similar to human words to Su Yu. Therefore, Su Yu was turning the pages very quickly, and when all was said and done, he only spent an hour to finish each book.
Thus, in the servants' eyes, Su Yu appeared like an illusionary shadow, one who could finish a book within ten breaths' time! They even beheld the scene in awe as the books chafed against the air to produce sparks and flames as Su Yu was turning the books' pages at an extremely fast rate.
The scene left everyone with their jaws agape. Even Zhao Chuan was dumbfounded and unable to believe his eyes.
All in all, Su Yu spent what it would have taken any normal person in a normal world more than 300 hours, which was equivalent to thirteen days, to complete reading over 300 books. But, in reality, only about half an hour had passed in the external world.
Upon finishing reading, Su Yu's eyes became bloodshot and he looked slightly haggard. But, after such a labor, the outcome was sweet. Su Yu had discovered some of his most desired answers from the few hundred precious ancient documents.
"Fire Essence Jade can be refined into inner fire!" Su Yu exclaimed in surprise.
After all, Fire Essence Jade was a jade essence that was produced during a few hundred year process by a great fire. As such, every drop was worth up to a million crystals. So, they were valuable yet lacking an ideal market.
Although it had a variety of uses, it was mainly used as a material in crafting top-grade spiritual artifacts. Some fire-based top-grade spiritual artifacts could be greatly upgraded by it, and their powers could also be enhanced when added with fire essence, thus making them nearly compatible with the prototypes of fairy artifacts.
During the ancient era, it was a priceless treasure that many people had strived to own. However, as it was a treasure that had been born from a harsh environment, it was extremely rare and hard to find. It was only after learning this that Su Yu understood how unimaginably valuable it was.
However, Su Yu had discovered yet another use of Fire Essence Jade in a non-mainstream ancient book. Apparently, it could also be used to strengthen the body.
If one was able to sustain the destructive high temperature of the fire essence, that person could then merge the fire essence into the body, hence refining the characteristics of the fire essence.
Different fire essences possessed different extraordinary characteristics. For instance, some had absorbed the fire poison for a hundred years, which meant that they possessed extremely acute poison. Others had been tempered thousands of times, so they were deathless and burned eternally once they were ignited.
The characteristic contained by the little devil's fire essence was still unknown. If it could be refined and integrated into the body, then Su Yu would be able to master its characteristics.
The only troublesome thing was that fire essence was extremely precarious, and as such, not even the All Creation strong men dared to touch it at times. Therefore, refining it and integrating it into the body was very risky.
Fortunately, mankind's Divine Masters from the ancient era found a stabilizing method, which was to use a water-based material to mediate the destructive power of the fire essence by applying the counteracting interaction between water and fire. This enabled the fire essence to be safely introduced into the body.
When Su Yu read about this method, it had aroused his interest. Now, he had the desire to search for the water-based material right away.
It was said that the third-grade Almighty martial artists from the ancient era used to refine drops of fire essence with drops of millenary water extract. And… As it turned out, Su Yu had acquired a rare property of fire essence, the Fire of the Heart! Now, whenever he was against an opponent, the Fire of the Heart would be activated if the attacker approached within ten feet.
The results depended on the severity of the variables. The less severe fire could disturb the opponent's heart and blood, making them prone to errors. The more severe fire could drive the opponent into a state of obsession, forcing him to descend into madness and even death.
Thinking of all of this was truly terrifying. As such, even the sixth-grade Almighty dared not to provoke him, who was merely a third-grade. If Su Yu could also acquire an element from this drop of jade essence, he could definitely boost his strength exponentially!


A decision can destroy the sun, moon and stars. A finger can kill the Heavenly Overlord. While chatting, the Heaven and ten worlds can be annihilated.
A poor little kid walks out from a remote mountain area while holding the Nine Dragons and the Incredible Cauldron. With a control over the time and space eternally, he embarks on the Path to God where he defies the odds of the boundless universe gaudily by fighting against royalty and clashing with the legendary generation.

"Teo!" Oromi exclaimed at the loudest voice Riko had ever heard from her. Oromi was, in general, was never too verbal with her thoughts and stayed mum for the maximum part of any conversation.

"Yea yes, yes. What?"

"Where were you lost?"

"Ah, I was just reading about the instructions in the schedule card."

"Oh, yeah. I haven't gone through the details either." commented Rin.

"I was interested to know about the pill formation test in particular." Zen joined into the conversation.

Riko turned over to the Pill Formation Test page on the schedule card read out aloud: " The Pill Formation Test requires the candidate to form any type of support pill. The candidates will be allotted 3 hours to brew the pills.

As you might have studies in your schools, the pills are widely divided into 9 tiers based on their quality and effectiveness. Tier 1 to Tier 9. The higher quality pill will yield better scores. The candidates will also be scored based on the purity of the pill. Naturally, higher purity percentage will gain higher scores.

If the candidate brews 'x' tier pill with 'y' percentage purity, the brewer's final score will be calculated as follows: 
Final score= 308*x + 4.4*y

This formula is valid until and unless the pill is perfected, that is, 100 percent yield is achieved. In the case of 100 percent yield, the formula given below is to be followed:

Final score= 1100*x

The test ends here. "

"Whoa! Why a different formula for 100 percent yield?" asked Teo with a glare of curiosity.

"I guess that is because a pill with 99.99 percent yield has much inferior results than a pill with 100 percent purity. Eventually, the effort to form a 100 percent yield is much higher than its immediate precedent. That is why they might have wanted to reward 100 percent purity differently." answered an informed Zen.

"They must have devised the formulae keeping the difficulty of forming the pill in mind." added Rin.

"Exactly."

"What about the written test?" asked Rin.

"The written test is just a basic intermediate level test based on general knowledge about the working of magic, the famous incidents mentioned in the history books of Varka and some application based questions. I don't think that it will be difficult based on reactions from previous year examinations." replied Zen.

"And lastly comes the Battle Simulation Test. It is named a test but it is actually a tournament. One major difference is that the result of the battle is not the only thing that matters in that test. The evaluators present at the scene will grade the participants on the basis of their performance and not just the result. It may well happen that a student knocked out in the very first round scores more than a student who has passed through many rounds." said Riko, apprized about the topic beforehand.

"How will the tournament take place? Isn't it going to be too long if they conduct it in a tournament style?"asked Rin.

"That is why to reduce the time taken and the hassle, they keep the first two rounds as Battle Royales. From a pool of 99-100 participants, only 5 proceed to the next round, which is why the role of an evaluator is so much more important. Most of the candidates will be knocked out in the first two rounds, maybe even the best performers, and those who hid through the entire round would sneakily pass through. To monitor a single Battle Royale, around 10 professionals will be hired."

"And after the second round, one on one battles?"

"Yes. Till they come out with one winner on top."

After a span of uncharacteristic silence from Teo, he released his pent up excitement: "OOOH, I can't wait for the tests to start!"

On the planet named 'Varka' (almost 15 times bigger than earth) takes place a story of a legend. In this world of magic, there exists 9 different elements of magic: Wind, Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Lightning, Dark, Light and Void. 

Riko's immense potential supports his strong ambitions, but naturally, he faces stronger opposition every step. How does Riko's everyday life sort itself out little by little, how he starts believing this world again and his journey to the top, an interesting story entails.

***Regular updates on every Saturday and Tuesday.***

In the morning, Ren Xiaosu was doing some reading in the library. Meanwhile, An Yuqian was snoring loudly as he slept in his chair at the entrance.
When the sun shone onto An Yuqian's face from the outside, he would even cover his face with a book to shield himself from the light.
Every morning, when Ren Xiaosu arrived, he would automatically give ten yuan to An Yuqian. Moreover, there was no need for Ren Xiaosu to keep calling An Yuqian anymore as he would be waiting at the door every day at 8.30 AM sharp while yawning.
Gradually, An Yuqian found it extremely uncomfortable that he had to always sleep like that. He used to always play mahjong throughout the night before heading home to sleep well during the morning. But since Ren Xiaosu started coming to the library, he could only sleep while sitting in his chair at the library.
How could sleeping in a chair be more comfortable than sleeping in a bed?
As no one else was using the library, An Yuqian purposely observed what Ren Xiaosu was reading. However, he died laughing when he saw that Ren Xiaosu was actually reading the tenth grade textbooks for math, physics, and chemistry!
Ren Xiaosu's persistence in coming to the library for so many days finally made An Yuqian change his opinion of him. He had thought that for once, a studious kid had finally come to the library. But to his surprise, this studious kid could only read tenth grade textbooks.
Judging by Ren Xiaosu's age, shouldn't he be in 12th grade at the least? So it turned out he was just a weak student who was starting to study from scratch?
An Yuqian counted on his fingers and realized the college entrance exams were only three months away. How could he make it in time if he was still only studying the tenth grade curriculum?
Even though An Yuqian was pacing around him, Ren Xiaosu did not bother looking at him.
An Yuqian could not help saying, "Isn't it a little too late to study now? The college entrance exams are only three months away!"
Ren Xiaosu looked up at him. "I'm not sitting for the entrance exams."
"You're not sitting for the entrance exams? Then why are you studying tenth grade math, physics, and chemistry?" An Yuqian asked in surprise. "Shouldn't you start working at a factory after you graduate from high school? What's the point of learning all this stuff?"
"Knowledge will always be useful, and whatever I learn belongs to me," Ren Xiaosu said calmly.
An Yuqian shrugged and turned around. "Just don't forget to pay for my breakfast every morning. If not for you, I wouldn't need to eat breakfast. This expenditure is incurred only because of you."
"OK," Ren Xiaosu said.
However, An Yuqian suddenly realized that other than Ren Xiaosu, there was another group of students who came to study in the afternoon. There were over 20 male and female students, and they had been sitting in the library all afternoon for several days in a row.
Even though there were also others who came to study in the afternoon, it would not be so frequent and scheduled. Furthermore, their numbers were always the same. This group of students… actually sat next to Ren Xiaosu in an organized and disciplined manner.
After waking up in the afternoon, An Yuqian got closer to have a look and realized Wang Yuchi and the others were reading books related to mechanical engineering. This topic exceeded the syllabus of high school.
When the library was about to close, Wang Yuchi suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu, "Monitor, should we go home now since it's closing time?"
An Yuqian was stunned. The young man who paid for his breakfast every day was actually the class monitor of this group of students? These normal students were learning knowledge beyond their years while the monitor was still studying tenth grade textbooks? What sort of nonsensical crap was this.
Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky and said, "Y'all can head back first. I wanna read a little while longer."
"Hey!" An Yuqian could not sit still anymore. "Dontcha know it's time for me to leave too?!"
"I'll give you 50 yuan," Ren Xiaosu said without even raising his head.
An Yuqian said unhappily, "That won't do. I have to leave now to play mahjong. Who knows if I'll recover my losses tonight!"
Ren Xiaosu quietly put the book back onto the bookshelf before turning to leave.
The first thing Ren Xiaosu said when he saw An Yuqian the next morning was, "So did you recover your losses?"
"Kid, why are you so annoying?" An Yuqian was upset. "Should you even be asking something like that?"
"Then you must have lost." Ren Xiaosu slapped a ten-yuan bill into An Yuqian's hand. "Go on, get your breakfast."
As An Yuqian held the ten-yuan bill, he felt insulted.
In the afternoon, when Wang Yuchi and the others came to the library again, An Yuqian suddenly sat down across from Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu looked up at him in surprise. "What's up?"
An Yuqian said, "You guys must be trying to learn more about mechanical engineering, right? However, you're all reading the wrong books!"
Ren Xiaosu frowned. He glanced at the books Wang Yuchi and the other students were holding. "Then what books should they be reading?"
Without a teacher's guidance, they had to learn everything by themselves. It was like crossing a river while holding a stone in their arms. Their progress was extremely slow.
Although Jiang Wu was a teacher, she was only a language teacher.
An Yuqian replied, "For 500 yuan, I'll tell you all what books you should read!"
In response, Ren Xiaosu threw 500 yuan over. Wang Yuchi whispered from beside him, "Monitor, why do I get the feeling that he's a scammer?"
Ren Xiaosu shook his head. "A scammer can't possibly not even have any money for breakfast."
An Yuqian wanted to curse out loud. Ren Xiaosu was insinuating that he was not even qualified to be a scammer!
An Yuqian said with a sneer, "If you want to properly study mechanical engineering, don't try to run before you learn how to walk. You have to first learn math and physics!"
Ren Xiaosu leaned back in his chair and listened quietly. Meanwhile, Wang Yuchi and the others opened their notebooks and were preparing to take notes.
"I suggest you all first read Chen Jixiu's Mathematical Analysis as an introduction, then learn linear algebra. You won't have learned enough about this topic in high school."
"There's no need to read General Physics." An Yuqian threw a book onto the table. "Just read The Feynman Lectures on Physics."
"True Analysis… Forget it, you don't have to read that yet."
"As for the Methods of Mathematical Physics, you can have a look at Wang Dexin's books. All the books cover real functions, special functions, equations, and so on. There isn't much of a difference between them.
"You should also read up on thermodynamics."
An Yuqian kept talking for half an hour. Ren Xiaosu started to get the feeling that it would take several years to learn everything. But at this moment, An Yuqian smacked his lips and said, "And that's just the beginning. If you really want to gain a deeper understanding of mechanical engineering, you're all seriously lacking!"
Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So this guy was just rambling and trying to let off some steam. However, Ren Xiaosu also realized that An Yuqian was not an ordinary person. Even a scammer would probably not recite all that just to earn 500 yuan. Most importantly, no one could possibly teach him how to say what he just said.
Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian and said, "If you teach them, I'll pay you 500 yuan for each lesson."
An Yuqian's eyes lit up, but he immediately held himself back. "But my time is very precious."
"400."
"Hey, why is the offer getting lower?!"
"300."
"Alright, I'll teach! 500 yuan! And not a cent less!"
Only then did Ren Xiaosu smile. "If you don't teach them well, I won't pay you."
"How can I not teach them well?" An Yuqian's eyes widened. "I… Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I told you!"
But An Yuqian suddenly felt there was much more about this young man before him than he had thought. Would a normal student pay 500 yuan just to attend a lesson?


This is a brand new story.
Survive the darkness, see the light
There is no right or wrong, it just depends on which side you are standing on.
To be a god, or to be a man.
To be good, or to be evil.
Just what is...the highest order of weapon that humanity has?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a great catastrophe struck, the world was set back many years and humanity started living in anarchy.
With time, society started building up again and people were now living in walled strongholds and fringe towns across the land.
Humans have also become distrustful and ruthless in an unforgiving society where the strong survive and the weak are eliminated.
Growing up in such an era, Ren Xiaosu had to fend for himself.
After an incident, he gained supernatural powers...

19 years ago (before the events on Entry No. 1)

~~o0o~~

Carrie woke up due to the buzzing sound of her alarm clock.

'Hello, first day of school', sabi niya sa sarili habang bumabangon mula sa higaan niya.

Habang bumababa siya mula sa taas ng double-decker bed ay napansin niya ang iba niyang mga dorm mates na isa-isang nagsisibangon. 

"Ano ba naman 'yan. Gusto ko pang matulog. Pwedeng bukas na lang ang Monday? I wanna sleep," said Nikki, isa sa limang dormmates niya sa Goldwest Fields School. 

Goldwest Fields School is an elite high school where children of influencial families from all over the country attend. Some are from families owning big businesses while some are from political families. Sons and daughters of celebrities, and even young celebrities themselves, are studying here, too. 

The school, as seen from above, forms a big trapezoidal shape. As seen on the front, it has an enormous, 15-foot tall, black steel gates. High class din ang security ng school dahil na din sa estado ng buhay ng mga nag-aaral dito.

Pagpasok ng gate, makikita ang napakaluwag na driveway papasok sa loob ng school premises. Along the sides are colorful flower beds with a variety of beautiful flowers.

A few meters from the gate, at the center, was a big fountain and a tall clock tower, with the driveway forming a big letter "O" around it.

At the back of it facing the gate was the main building, the Gold Hall. It has six floors and a big entrance at the center of the first floor, leading to the inner parts of the campus. It has the name of the school at its topmost part and the school's seal below it. The building holds all the offices, conference rooms, and the infirmary. 

At the heart of the campus, fronting Gold Hall's big entrance was a soccer field to the left and an oval track to the right. Between them were two flagpoles, one having the Philippine flag and the school's flag on the other. 

To the left, beside the soccer field was the school library, the Jewel Hall. Next to it was the Diamond Hall, which holds all of the students' laboratory activities. At the back of both buildings was a mini forest with benches and kiosks where students can cool down and spend their free times in peace. 

To the right, beside the oval track were the two 6-story adjacent buildings, Opal and Jade Halls, where all the classrooms are located. At the back of these buildings was a wide parking area.

Next to the soccer field and oval track were three buildings facing the Gold Hall (from left to right): Silver, Ruby, and Crystal.

The sports center, Silver Hall, is where all indoor sports activities are held. It also has a big swimming pool inside.

The Ruby Hall is a two-story building with a big function hall on the ground floor, where the school holds various occasions, and the theater room on the second floor.

The Crystal Hall has the school cafeteria on the first floor, student organizations and club rooms on the second, and a rooftop where students hold their club activities. The rooftop has a mechanical roof, which can be spread out during rainy days and kept on the sides during sunny days with just a single press of a botton.

At the back of these three buildings was a wide enclosed cemented space which can be used as basketball, volleyball, or tennis courts. Athletes often spend their free times here. Students named it the "Sports Corner". 

Goldwest Fields School also has its own condominium-type dormitories inside the campus located at the back of the school premises. Facing each other were the female dorm, Sapphire Hall (left), and the male dorm, Emerald Hall (right), both with six floors which houses all of the school's students, faculty and staff.

These buildings were the biggest ones in the campus, with the both of them occupying 30% of the whole school's land area. Both dorms were separated by a mini garden, with a fish pond at the center and a small fountain in the middle of it. They also have car pick-up and drop-off areas fronting their entrances.

The first floors of each building are for the faculty and staff, and from the second to the fifth floors are for the students. The sixth floors have a mini pool, a gym containing various workout equipments, shower rooms, vending machines and a number of bleachers on the sides. A wide fluffy carpet can also be seen there. Everyone calls it the "Entertainment Space" which covers about one-third of the floor's whole area. Students can play games or sleep there or watch a movie since there is a wide flat screen TV on front. Both buildings have rooftops, too. 

Each dorm room was big enough to accommodate a maximum of six occupants. Basically, it has all the things one needs in a house. Each room has, at the very least: three sets of big double-decker beds with adjacent bookshelves; six individual study tables and chairs; a long study table suitable for group discussions or as a dining table; three big cabinets for clothing and a number of smaller ones; a small kitchen; its own lavatory with a large human size mirror attached to the wall; and, a shower room with three separate shower cubicles and a bath tub. Carrie's dorm room is on the third floor, Room No. 5.

Napakaswerte nga kung maituturing si Carrie dahil nakakapag-aral siya sa napakarangyang eskwelahan na ito. Kung tutuusin, ni wala sa kalingkingan ng mga buhay ng kanyang mga kaklase ang estado ng buhay ng pamilya niya.

Nakatira siya sa isang probinsiya, malapit sa tabing-dagat kung saan pangingisda ang pangunahing ikinabubuhay ng mga naninirahan doon.

Mangingisda ang ama niyang si Gary samantalang mananahi naman ang kanyang inang si Erika. Pangalawa si Carrie sa tatlong magkakapatid.

Ang ate niyang si Samantha ay kasalukuyang nag-aaral sa kolehiyo sa isang malaking unibersidad sa bayan. Third year college na ito sa kursong Computer Science. Ang kanilang bunsong kapatid na si Lester naman ay Grade 6 na sa pinapasukan nitong public school sa lugar nila. Siya naman ay graduating student na rin sa Goldwest Fields. 

Maraming mga kabaranggay nila ang hanga sa kanilang pamilya. Ang swerte nga daw ng mag-asawang sina Gary at Erika dahil matatalino ang kanilang mga anak.

Scholar ang kanyang ate sa university na pinapasukan nito, na gumraduate bilang isang honor student nang magtapos ito ng high school. Si Lester naman ay malaki ang tsansang maging bronze medalist kapag nagtapos na ito ng Grade 6. Valedictorian naman si Carrie noong gumraduate siya sa elementary.

Isang hulog ng langit ang pagpasok niya sa Goldwest Fields. Naging beneficiary kasi ang baranggay nila sa isang community project ng eskwelahan.

Labing-isang taong gulang siya noon nang dumating ang isang grupo ng mga guro at mag-aaral sa lugar nila mga ilang linggo pagkatapos niyang gumraduate sa Grade 6. Tatlong araw din ang mga ito sa kanila.

Nadiskubre ang katalinuhan ni Carrie sa pagtatapos ng programa nang magkaroon ng isang mini quiz game ang lahat ng mga bata. Namangha sa kanya ang isa sa mga may-ari ng GWFS na si Raul Fuentabella.

Goldwest Fields School is a family-owned school of the known Fuentabella family, na pinamumunuan ng ama ni Raul Fuentabella na si Don Jaime Fuentabella.

Nang matapos ang mini quiz ay agad siyang nilapitan ni Mr. Fuentabella. Sinamahan niya ito sa kanilang maliit na bahay upang ipakilala sa mga magulang at mga kapatid niya.

Nakita nito ang napakaraming medalya na nakasabit sa kanilang dingding, na tuluyang nag-udyok dito na mag-offer ng scholarship sa kanya. Noong una ay nag-aalangan pa ang kanyang mga magulang dahil malayo ang eskwelahan nito sa bahay nila, ngunit nang sabihin nito na may dormitoryo naman sa loob ng paaralan at ibibigay nila lahat ng mga pangangailangan ni Carrie doon ay napanatag naman ang dalawa.

Kahit na alam nilang malalayo sa kanila ang anak ay pinayagan nila itong mag-aral doon dahil sa tingin nila ay ito ang magiging daan sa pag-abot ni Carrie sa mga pangarap.

Hindi naging madali para kay Carrie ang unang mga buwan niya sa paaralang iyon. Many were looking down on her.

Pero nang maging honor student siya sa unang grading period niya sa first year, nabawasan ang mga pumupuna sa kanya.

Meron din naman siyang naging malalapit na kaibigan sa loob ng apat na taon, ang mga roommates niya sa Room 3-5 ng Sapphire Hall: Ali, Nikki, Nae, Jan, and Raii.

Alesia Montevallo, or Ali, hails from a family of doctors and nurses. Her family from his father's side owns the Montevallo Medical Center while her mother was a nurse there before. She wants to become a doctor someday like her dad. She is the Goldwest Fields' Student Council President and the Top 1 student of their batch. 

Nikki, or Nikhaila Hidalgo's family is composed of lawyers, from her grandfather, who is a Supreme Court Justice, down to her elder brother, who just passed the Bar Examinations the year before. The interesting thing was, ayaw niyang maging lawyer tulad ng mga kamag-anak niya. She wants to be a writer pero pinipilit siya ng mga magulang at lolo niya na maging abogado, na dahilan ng munting away sa pamilya nila. 

Danielle Evans, or Nae, has a half-Filipina, half-American blood. Her parents met in California where her mother's family migrated many years ago. When she was 12 years old, her father died, after which she decided to leave the US at dito na magtapos ng pag-aaral sa Pilipinas. Umuuwi lang siya sa family niya during Christmas and Summer breaks.

Jan, or Jannine Madrid came from a political family in a province around North Luzon. Her grandfather was a Governor, while her titos and titas even her own parents and elder siblings are either mayors, vice-mayors, city councilors or congressmen. She promised herself na hinding-hindi siya papasok sa mundo ng pulitika kahit kailan dahil sa sobrang gulo nito.

Rachel Gonzales, or Raii, is the only child of the President and CEO of Glimpse Corporation, which owns a chain of malls all over the country. She was treated like a princess sa bahay nila, which she never liked, kaya pinilit niya ang ama niyang i-enroll siya sa Goldwest Fields para makalaya siya sa mundong palaging nakabantay sa bawat kilos niya.

"Rii!" Jan called out to Carrie habang naliligo siya. "May package na naman para sa 'yo!"

"Paki-receive na lang. Patapos na 'ko," she replied. 

"Okay!" sabi nito then afterwards was a brief silence. "Thank you po!" narinig niyang sabi ni Jan sa nagdeliver ng package. 

Ilang sandali pa ay lumabas na siya ng banyo.

"Sige na. Maligo ka na. Thank you, ha," sabi niya kay Jan. At naglakad na ito papunta sa shower. 

"What's in it? First day of school pa lang, ah," Raii asked while pointing at the package on the long table. 

"The usual, I'm sure," sabi ni Nae na nagluluto ng breakfast nila sa kusina. 

"Oh, come on, that again?" Ali said habang naghahanda ng pagkakainan nila.

"Your secret admirer never really gets tired of it. Bakit 'di pa siya magpakilala?" sabi naman ni Nikki habang nagsasalin ng malamig na tubig mula sa pitsel.

Tinatawag nilang "secret admirer" ang nagpapadala ng package para kay Carrie. Since first year pa lang ay nakakatanggap na siya ng package at hindi ito pumapalya taon-taon.

Isang clue lang ang mayroon siya sa kung sino ito: ang may-ari ng librong napulot niya habang nagko-community program ang GWFS sa lugar nila dati.

Pangalawang araw na noon ng mga taga-GWFS sa baranggay nila nang may napansin siyang isang maliit na bagay sa buhangin habang naglalakad siya pauwi sa bahay nila mga bandang alas-singko ng hapon. Nilapitan niya ito at isang libro ang nakita niya.

Pinulot niya ito at binasa ang title: 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Lightning Thief'.

Binuksan niya ang libro. Baka may pangalan ito sa loob nang maisauli niya. Ngunit ang nakita lang niya ay ang mga katagang isinulat sa cover page:

Happy 10th birthday, son! From Mama. 

"Baka taga-Goldwest ang may-ari nito. Isasauli ko na lang sa kanila bukas pagbalik nila," sabi niya sa sarili. Nagpatuloy siya sa paglalakad pauwi. 

Habang nasa bahay ay tinititigan niya ang libro. Binasa niya kasi ang teaser nito sa likod at gusto na tuloy niyang basahin ang nilalaman nito. Mahilig kasi siyang magbasa ng mga tungkol sa Greek and Roman Myths sa maliit na library sa paaralan nila. Gustong-gusto niyang tumambay sa library kasi walang manggugulo sa kanya doon.

"Hindi naman siguro magagalit ang may-ari nito kung babasahin ko. Magpapaalam na lang ako sa kanya bukas," sambit niya sa sarili at tuluyan nang binasa ang libro.

Pinagpuyatan niya ang pagbabasa kaya naman tinanghali siya ng gising. Naligo kaagad siya at nagpaalam sa ina upang pumunta sa covered court kung saan gaganapin ang mga palaro ng mga taga-Goldwest para sa mga bata.

Pagkarating niya ay agad siyang lumapit sa isang teacher at ipinakita ang librong hawak niya. Nakita niyang nagliwanag ang mukha nito at sinabing kilala niya ang may-ari na kahapon pa pala ito hinahanap.

Wala pa doon ang may-ari kaya humingi na lang siya ng isang maliit na papel upang isulat ang mensahe niya para dito. Pagkatapos ay ibinigay niya ito sa guro.

First year siya noon at katatapos lang ng kanilang first quarter examinations nang matanggap niya ang unang package. Isang note ang nakalagay sa ibabaw ng box nito:

'This is my "thank you gift" to you for returning my book. You said on your letter that you liked the story so I thought that maybe you'd like what's inside. Enjoy reading!

(Don't ever think of returning it. It's for you.)

- Mr. X' 

Inside the box was five books: the complete Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series.

Pagkatapos noon ay taon-taon na siyang nakatatanggap ng libro sa series na ito. And today she received the third book from the popular sequel series Heroes Of Olympus.

"The Mark of Athena," said Raii, reading aloud its title. "You really like this Greek and Roman stuff, don't you?"

"The events got really exciting on this installment. You better read it immediately. Mr. X," Ali reading the note accompanying the package. "The same boring note. Here, take it."

She took the note from Ali's hands and put it inside the little box on the top of her study table, which contains all the other notes she had received before.

"Can't he be more romantic when it comes to writing those notes? They're too plain," Jan said aloud from the shower.

"Ano ba kayo? Binibigyan niyo lahat ng malisya. Baka natutuwa lang kasi talaga siya na may katulad siyang fan ng series. 'Yon lang," she said to her friends while putting the new book on her book shelf beside 'The Son of Neptune' book she received last year.

"Okay. Sabi mo eh," Jan said when she got out of the shower.

Natatawa na lang siya sa mga kaibigan niya. Gaya kasi niya ay curious din ang mga ito sa identity ni Mr. X. Baka kasi may hingin daw itong kapalit sa mga ibinibigay nito sa kanya.

Ipinagkikibit-balikat na lang niya ito. Maging siya ay walang ka-ide-ideya sa tunay na intensyon ng misteryosong taong ito. 

~~O~~

Chapter Two - Mystery Credits:

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians" Series — The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian

© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 by Rick Riordan / Disney-Hyperion Books

—

"Heroes of Olympus" Series — The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena

© 2010, 2011 and 2012 by Rick Riordan / Disney-Hyperion Books

Carrie Mendoza was a simple girl with big dreams. She was able to attend Goldwest Fields School, an elite high school where children of influential families from all over the country attend. This is where her pursuit of greater heights started.

Fate then played its part as she got to know Kyle Fuentabella, a smart young lad from the well-known Fuentabella clan. Unbeknownst to them, certain events from the past ties both of them with an invisible red thread...

"Those Memories" is a story about two people who were bound by the string of fate, a love that started at a young age. Will it prosper? Will it be able to stand through the tests of time? 

Do you believe in "coincidences"? Is there such a thing as "destiny"? 

Let Kyle and Carrie's story show you the meaning of love and the ups and downs that go with it. Let this story prove to you that "forever" exists - within our hearts... 

Enjoy reading! 

---

"The moments we share are the moments we keep forever." - Catherine Pulsifer

---

Language: Filipino, English 

Also available on Wattpad with the same title.

Moments later.
The cyan-clothed woman led the 21 new disciples to a huge, dark cave. Two servants guarded the entrance. When they saw the new arrivals, they immediately bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Lords, and Ladies."
The servants were all mortals. They managed the daily chores in Archean Mountain, and they greeted all inner sect disciples respectfully.
"Follow me in," said the cyan-clothed woman as she walked in.
Meng Chuan and the others entered the cave. They arrived inside the belly of the massive mountain. The cave's walls were decorated with enormous iridescent pearls. Their misty glow illuminated the cave walls—that were carved into enormous bookshelves by the Godfiends. On the bookshelves were rows of books. There were over 10,000 books in the cavern.
After the cyan-clothed woman entered, she sat cross-legged on a boulder casually. She looked at Meng Chuan and company and smiled. "You can just address me as Aunt-Master Qingyu."
"Aunt-Master Qingyu," greeted Meng Chuan and company respectfully.
"Archean Mountain disciples need to become transcendent-grade Godfiends or high-grade Godfiends," said the cyan-clothed woman with a smile. "You have just joined the sect. I believe all of you have great ambition, wishing to become a transcendent-grade Godfiend."
Meng Chuan, Yan Jin, Li Ying, Jin Huan, and Yan Chitong's eyes lit up.
They naturally wanted to become the strongest.
"There are 12 transcendent-grade Godfiend bodies. For example, Thirteen Swordbane Fiend Body, Eon Sea Fiend Body, Azure Lotus Divine Body, etc." The cyan-clothed woman smiled and shook her head. With a wave of her hand, books flew towards Meng Chuan and company from one of the bookshelves. "All of you can take a book. Read them carefully. All new disciples have read this book first."
Meng Chuan caught the book.
The black book was made of very special material. On the cover were three words: "Godfiend Formula Compilation."
"This Godfiend Formula Compilation gives a very detailed introduction to the 12 transcendent-grade Godfiend formulas and 27 high-grade Godfiend formulas. Read it first," said the cyan-clothed woman. "There are many books regarding transcendent-grade and high-grade Godfiend formulas. They have been categorized. You can read them carefully. Think about which Godfiend formulas you want to choose carefully.
"After all, some Godfiends have extremely powerful vitality. Some are suitable for archers. Some are suitable for close combat, while others are suitable for silent assassinations. If one doesn't succeed in one strike, one will be able to flee half a thousand kilometers away. 
"The Godfiend formula you cultivate will become the path you take for your entire life. You have to consider your choice carefully. Once you have chosen a formula, you'll have to cultivate using that formula for at least three years. Only if you fail to cultivate the formula will you be able to switch to a new Godfiend formula," said the cyan-clothed woman. "Think carefully. Even if you spend half a month to consider your choice, it will still be worth it."
Meng Chuan and company naturally understood the importance of choosing a Godfiend formula. All of them sat cross-legged and carefully read the book in their hands.
Meng Chuan immediately read the introductions regarding transcendent-grade Godfiend bodies.
They were: Thirteen Swordbane Fiend Body, Great Strength Fiend Body, Samsara Divine Body, Azure Lotus Divine Body, Archean Divine Body, Phoenix Divine Body, Dragon Divine Body, Eon Sea Fiend Body, Lightning Devastator Fiend Body, Two World Divine Body, Black Sand Fiend Body, and Indestructible Divine Body. They were all extremely powerful and difficult to cultivate.
Thirteen Swordbane Fiend Body was known as the strongest Godfiend body for one-on-one combat. Only mortals who cultivated the Wind Divine Body or Golden Body could cultivate it. They needed to achieve Sword Intent before finding thirteen different baneful auras. Thirteen Swordbanes would form from the thirteen different baneful auras once they have successfully fused with one's Sword Intent. With the thirteen Swordbanes, one could begin cultivating the Thirteen Swordbane Fiend Body. 
However, the process of fusing Sword Intent with baneful aura was something many geniuses couldn't withstand. The baneful aura would enter their brains, making it difficult for them to control themselves. All they could do was nullify the Swordbanes and switch to other Godfiend formulas.
Once someone mastered it, they would be skilled with domains. They could use the thirteen Swordbanes to kill enemies several kilometers away! They could also engage in melee combat as well. The thirteen Swordbanes could condense into one, and the sword's power was inconceivable.
In a one-on-one fight, their opponent wouldn't be able to touch them. They could attack from afar with the Swordbanes. The Thirteen Swordbane Fiend Body was also terrifying in melee combat. Thus it was indeed the strongest Godfiend body for one-on-one battles.
…
Great Strength Fiend Body had the greatest strength amongst the transcendent-grade Fiend Bodies! When standing on the ground, one's strength was unimaginable. One's strength would be halved if they were in the air. Even at half strength, it was still the strongest among all the Godfiend bodies. From this, one could see how strong one would be on land.
Only those who cultivated the Golden Divine Body or the Earth Divine Body could cultivate it…
…
Phoenix Divine Body was the most terrifying among transcendent-grade Godfiend bodies when it came to an all-out battle. By burning one's lifeforce to use Phoenix's Nirvana, its power stood atop all Godfiends. However, the price was immense. An expert with a Phoenix Divine Body wouldn't use this technique unless they were in a dire situation.
This Godfiend body formula could only be cultivated by someone who had awakened a phoenix bloodline.
…
The Dragon Divine Body was similar to the Phoenix Divine Body. It could only be cultivated by someone who had awakened a dragon god bloodline.
Godfiend Bodies which required bloodlines were limited to the Phoenix Divine Body and the Dragon Divine Body. Since bloodlines could be inherited, humans hoped for the Phoenix Divine Body Godfiends and Dragon Divine Body Godfiends to have more children.
…
Every formula had stringent requirements that had to be met before one could begin cultivating them.
There are only two transcendent-grade formulas that are suitable for me—Lightning Devastator Fiend Body and Eon Sea Fiend Body. Meng Chuan flipped through the book in his hand. Eh, Lightning Devastator Fiend Body seems to have the same name as the Lightning Devastator Saber art. Could they be related?
Meng Chuan smiled and carefully read the descriptions regarding the two transcendent-grade Godfiend Bodies.
…
The Lightning Devastator Fiend Body was the fastest amongst transcendent-grade Fiend bodies. They could release lightning and baneful auras from afar. They could also kill enemies in melee combat. Their strikes were as fast as lightning, making them a force to be reckoned.
By relying on speed, they could commit terrifying massacres.
The Lightning Devastator Fiend Body required mortals to cultivate the Lightning Divine Body. One also needed to reach the Realm of Intent. Once one was prepared enough, they would draw seven bolts of heavenly lightning into their body. They would then enter the Godfiend Blood Pool, use the heavenly lightning to refine their bodies—that were filled with baneful aura—and attain the Lightning Devastator Fiend Body. One required a robust foundation, Intent, and baneful aura—which was difficult to find—to cultivate the Lightning Devastator Fiend Body.
But that wasn't all. The most dangerous thing was the baneful aura. If one couldn't withstand the baneful aura, it would cause chaos in one's mind. Furthermore, they had to challenge the Life-and-Death juncture whilst doing all this. If one's body wasn't strong enough, they would be blasted into smithereens by the seven bolts of lightning.
…
Eon Sea Fiend Body. Meng Chuan looked at the other Godfiend body he could cultivate.
The Eon Sea Fiend Body was skilled with domains. With a wave of a hand, one could envelop a half-kilometer area. They would have plenty of Quintessential Essence and tremendous strength. They enjoyed high recovery speed and strong vitality. Even if one was injured, they could recover rapidly. Even severed arms and legs could be regenerated.
Only those who cultivated in the Water Divine Body or Lightning Divine Body during the mortal realms could cultivate it…
Oh? Meng Chuan frowned. The speed of the Eon Sea Fiend Body can only be considered ordinary?
The Eon Sea Fiend Body was very powerful.
It had control over a domain, immense strength and vitality, and endless Quintessential Essence. However, speed was not its forte.
…
Eon Sea Fiend Body. Chu Yong's eyes lit up as he read the book.
He had become famous across the world when he was young. He was the number one genius in the imperial capital.
Why was he so famous? It was partly because of his family clan. The Chu family was one of the top family clans in the Great Zhou Dynasty. The family clan had a Regis Godfiend.
Therefore, he had long learned some basic information about the twelve transcendent-grade Godfiend bodies.
I cultivated the Water Divine Body and began drawing upon some lightning to temper my body in preparation for the Eon Sea Fiend Body. Chu Yong's eyes were filled with anticipation. Once I master the Eon Sea Fiend Body, my strength will be extremely great. My Quintessential Essence will be boundless, and I'll be almost indestructible. I won't be afraid of anyone in a direct battle. Even if there's an internecine outcome, I'll be up for the battle anytime.
He would quickly recover from any injuries. Even if his arms and legs were severed, it would only take some time for him to recover. As for the internecine outcome? Experts with Eon Sea Fiend Bodies enjoyed such battles the most because it was very difficult to kill them.
…
The 21 disciples carefully read through the book. Apart from the geniuses from the top family clans who already knew a little about them, the disciples were learning about transcendent-grade Godfiend bodies for the first time, including Meng Chuan.
There are 27 high-grade Godfiend bodies. There are six that are suitable for me. Meng Chuan flipped through the pages. Among them, the Mirage Fiend Body, Sanguine Divine Body, and Myriad Poisons Fiend Body can be cultivated by everyone. There's also the Wind Lightning Divine Body, Phantom Fiend Body, and Lightning Water Fiend Body that are suitable for me.
Time passed by quickly.
Meng Chuan and company went to the bookshelf to search for more detailed books. After sitting on the boulder for a while, the cyan-clothed woman silently left the cave.
…
Eastcalm Prefecture.
The Meng family clan members were extremely excited as they flaunted Meng Chuan's status as an Archean Mountain inner sect disciple. They even talked about how he came in first at the entrance examination. However, the other Godfiend family clans in Eastcalm Prefecture continued waiting. Only when the government officials announced the news did they believe it.
"An inner sect disciple of Archean Mountain? He even got first in the entrance examination?"
"He ranked first amongst all the geniuses of the Great Zhou Dynasty? This Meng Chuan is too amazing."
"Will Meng Chuan become a Marquis Godfiend in the future? Our Eastcalm Prefecture hasn't produced a Marquis Godfiend in thousands of years, right?"
The city was filled with discussions.
Meng Chuan had become Eastcalm Prefecture's pride. Meng Chuan was native to the Eastcalm Prefecture, and the people from his hometown were naturally proud of his achievements.
Inside the Yun family estate.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Yun Qingping—who was practicing her swordplay—heard porcelain shattering in her father's study. She could not help but shake her head gently. After experiencing the demon invasion, Yun Qingping had matured a lot. She felt like her father was incomparably inferior to her First and Second Uncle. Since the engagement has been annulled, what was there to regret? What use is there regretting their actions now?
"Scram!" Yun Fu'an stormed out of the study angrily. He shouted at the servants outside the study and strode out.
In fact, Yun Fu'an didn't feel regret. He felt embarrassed!
In Eastcalm Prefecture, all the other Godfiend family clans think of me as a joke. Yun Fu'an fumed. Man cannot always be fortunate. Who knows what will happen in the future? Perhaps when Meng Chuan becomes a Godfiend, he will perish together with a demon monarch?
Although he still tried his best to please the Meng family on the surface and worked hard to reestablish ties, Yun Fu'an still hoped that both the Meng family and Meng Chuan would fall one day.
Of course, he didn't act on these thoughts.
…
Discussions filled the entire city.
However, Fairy Meng's yard in the Meng family ancestral mansion was very quiet.
Fairy Meng sat at a desk and wrote a letter.
Cough! Cough! Cough! Death colored Fairy Meng's face. She coughed into her left hand—that was now covered in black and red bloodstains. Her face turned red from all the coughing, but she continued writing.
She finished writing the letter. It was addressed to Meng Chuan. After all, she would never be able to see him again.
I'm afraid my body won't last past tonight. Fairy Meng looked outside. She could vaguely hear laughter in the ancestral mansion—the clansmen were extremely happy. I, Meng Yan, became a Godfiend and killed demon monarchs. I managed to see my descendant, Meng Chuan, become an inner sect disciple of Archean Mountain before I died. I have no regrets left.


In a world dotted with World Entrances to a demon world, demons have invaded humans for centuries. Humanity has united and one of the most ancient sects in the world, the Archean Mountain Sect, has set up an entire education system in the form of Dao Academies and defenses at the World Entrances.
Meng Chuan, a young genius, is an expert at the swift saber. Despite his noble heritage, he has one goal—kill all demons. Scarred by demons because of how his mother sacrificed her life for him, he strives to enter Archean Mountain Sect to get the best resources and training.
Other than cultivation, his only pleasure is drawing. And as he draws, he becomes stronger… 
Enjoy this blood-pumping piece of art in Meng Chuan's journey to slay demons with the help of united human comrades.

The three children working on the Lego castle heard some thuds and other loud noises coming from downstairs but nobody was crying so they ignored it.
"This has to be the worst babysitter we've ever had," Violet sighed as she put together a turret.
"Probably," her twin agreed. "I hope Aunt Jen and Uncle Cameron come back soon."
They all turned toward the digital clock in the room. It was only 9:02 PM and the party wasn't supposed to be over until 10. It would be a while yet.
"I hope Mom and Dad don't run into Grandma and Grandpa Hale," she said worriedly.
Violet had been thinking about this a lot since she found out the party was to celebrate Hale Investments' 100th anniversary. The company had their last name on it so it had obviously been in the family for a long time.
Dad never talked about his parents but she deduced they were alive somewhere because Grandma Hall was dead and Mom talked about her all the time. She obviously missed her mother. Dad didn't seem to miss his parents at all.
She had wondered why for the longest time until she overheard a couple of her teachers gossiping in third grade. They had been whispering about how she was one of the secret children from a big scandal eight years earlier.
Apparently, her dad took over the company by force to kick his father out because he didn't approve of her mom and wanted him to marry someone else. After hearing that it all clicked into place. That scary man her dad argued with the day he took her to work back in preschool must have been her grandfather.
Not that Violet cared. She had no desire to see someone who disrespected her mother or didn't approve of her or her brothers' existence.
Noah tilted his head in confusion. "Why wouldn't you want that?"
"We've never met them," Kaleb explained. "My dad hates them."
"Only because they hate us and Mom," she added quickly.
She didn't want Noah thinking her dad was simply being petty. He had definitely made the right choice. Violet loved her family and couldn't imagine it being any different than it was. Her parents were perfect together; anyone who couldn't see that was an idiot.
"How could anyone hate you?"
Violet smiled at the earnestness in her friend's voice. He seemed genuinely offended on their behalf.
"I think it's because Mom isn't rich," Kaleb said with a shrug. "I've heard people talk about Dad before. Apparently he was a pretty big deal before we were born."
"He's still a pretty big deal, dummy. Don't you know he was the youngest Fortune 500 CEO ever?"
He frowned. "No. How do you even know that?"
"Don't you remember when Dad had to give that interview for a business magazine? They gave him a copy and I happened to read it. Dad is super smart; he's practically a legend in the business world," Violet said proudly.
She thought it was pretty cool her dad had accomplished so much, especially since he did it for the sake of their mom. Apparently he had always been a mushy romantic. Just looking at the way he acted around his wife and children you would never suspect he was such a big shot.
Kaleb raised an eyebrow at her. "You read something from a grownups magazine when you were like six? Why am I not surprised."
Violet stuck her tongue out at him. Her brother was always teasing her for how much she loved to read. She would read anything she could get her hands on, okay?
Fiction, nonfiction…it didn't matter. Books were how she survived being alone at school. Sometimes she sat with her brother and his friends at lunch but they were so noisy. She typically preferred spending her lunchtime in the library since fourth graders and second graders had different lunchtimes and she couldn't hang out with Noah.
She had actually run out of interesting books to read at the elementary school's library so her mother started taking her to the public library every week to get more challenging reading material. Violet always kept one or two of those books in her backpack so she wouldn't get bored.
"I think it's cool that you read so much," Noah said absentmindedly as he focused on building the Lego dragon.  "You get your homework done faster than anybody because of how fast you can read. I'm jealous."
This was true. Violet and Kaleb had roughly the same amount of homework even though they had different teachers and she always finished hers in one fourth of the time that it took him. He had complained about it more than once because she got to go play while he was still working at the kitchen table under his mother's watchful eye.
She shrugged. "You say that but kids call me a freak for finishing workbooks in class so quickly. Sometimes my teachers think I'm cheating on tests too. I'm not though; I'm just fast."
"Well that's dumb. They shouldn't give you a hard time for being smarter than them," Noah said as if it should be completely obvious. 
That's exactly what she thought, even if she wouldn't admit it aloud. Her mom always told her it wasn't polite to brag when she said things like that.
"People don't like what they can't do themselves," Kaleb said gruffly. "That's on them, Vi, not you."
Violet felt an overwhelming surge of affection for her brother. Normally he wasn't so great with words but she definitely felt his fierce love for her from those words, even if they weren't conventional. She leaned over to kiss his cheek.
"Thanks, Kal," she said with a bright smile.
Kaleb turned red. "Don't do that; it's embarrassing!"
She couldn't see what the big deal was. Cheek kisses happened all the time in their family. He didn't seem to mind when Mom did it. Then again, she normally only did it at home. Noah was watching.
He didn't seem happy about it either. A sulky expression made its way onto his face. "Where's my kiss? I said basically the same thing he did!"
"You're not my brother," Violet said as she rolled her eyes.
It was completely obvious. Mom said you weren't supposed to kiss people outside your family until you got older, advising her to save it for someone she was in love with. She couldn't even imagine something that far off.
Noah grumbled but didn't have an adequate response for that so they went back to building the castle in silence.


Keeley, a simple plain Jane, hits the jackpot.  [No, she did not win the lottery!]  At least that's what she thinks when she marries the most eligible bachelor in New York City: Aaron, a wealthy cold-hearted heartthrob and Tycoon. 

She wants to show the world that she deserves her position and bends over  backward to fit into his world.

One beautiful day, Aaron hands her a document asking her to sign.  A divorce paper...

"She's pregnant, and I need to take responsibility."

That is the last thing that keeps on playing in her mind before she takes her last breath.

Keeley dies, a 'hit and run'. [End of story.  Not!]

For some unexplainable reason, she wakes up as her younger self.  A young high school girl, around the time when she first meets her cheating husband.

Remembering her life with Aaron before she died, she makes a promise to herself that she will do everything in her power to avoid him at all costs.

Will she be able to keep her promise when Aaron has his own plans as well, specifically for her?  Or will she repeat history and fall for him once more...

Why not journey with me and find out the truth behind their story.

London
Seven weeks earlier, at the end of April, Gemma woke up in a youth hostel on the outskirts of London. There were eight bunks to a room: paper thin mattresses, topped with regulation white sheets. Sleeping bags lay on top of those. Backpacks leaned against the walls. There was a faint reek of body odor and patchouli.
  She'd slept in her workout clothes. She eased out of bed, laced her shoes, and ran eight miles through the suburb, past pubs and butcher shops that were still shuttered in the early light. On return, she did planks, lunges, push-ups, and squats in the hostel common room.
Gemma was in the shower before her roommates woke up and started using the hot water. Then she climbed back into her top bunk and unwrapped a chocolate protein bar.
  The bunk room was still dark. She opened The Mill on the Floss and read by the light on her phone. It was a thick Victorian novel about loss of innocence. George Eliot wrote it. Her friend Willow had given it to her.
  Willow Blair was the best friend Gemma had ever had. Her favorite books were always about orphans and loss of innocence. Will was an orphan herself, born in Minnesota to a teenage mama who had died when Will was two. Then she'd been adopted by a couple who lived in a penthouse on New York's Upper East Side.
  Paulina and Corey Blair were in their late thirties at the time. They couldn't have children, and Corey's legal work had long included volunteer advocacy for kids in the foster care system. He believed in adoption. So, after several years on wait lists for a newborn baby, the Blair's declared themselves open to taking an older child.
  They fell in love with this particular two-year-old's fat arms and freckled nose. They took her in, renamed her Willow, and left her old name in a file cabinet. She was photographed and tickled. Patti cooked her hot macaroni with butter and cheese. When little Will was five, the Blair's sent her to the Greenbriar School, a private establishment in Manhattan. There, she wore a uniform of green and white and learned to speak French. On weekends, little Will played Lego, baked cookies, and went to the American Museum of Natural History, where she loved the reptile skeletons best. She celebrated all the Jewish holidays and, when she grew up, had an unorthodox bat mitzvah ceremony in the woods upstate.
  The bat mitzvah became complicated. Paulina's mother and Corey's parents did not consider Willow Jewish, because her biological mother had not been. They all pushed for a formal conversion process that would put off the ceremony for a year, but instead Paulina left the family synagogue and joined a secular Jewish community that did ceremonies at a mountain retreat.
  It was at age thirteen that, Willow Blair became more conscious of her orphan status than she ever had been before, and began reading the stories that would become a touchstone of her interior life. At first she went back to the orphan books she'd been pushed to read in school. There were a lot of those. "I liked the clothes and puddings and the horse-drawn carriages," Will told Gemma.
  Back in June, the two of them had been living together in a house Will rented on the island of Martha's Vineyard. That day, they drove to a farm stand where you could pick your own flowers. "I liked Heidi and God knows what other dreck," Will told Gemma. She was bent over a dahlia bush with a pair of scissors. "But later, all those books made me puke. The heroines were so effing cheerful all the time. They were paragons of self-sacrificing womanhood. Like, 'I'm starving to death! Here, eat my only bakery bun!' 'I can't walk, I'm paralyzed, but still I see the bright side of life, happy happy!' A Little Princess and Pollyanna, let me tell you, they are selling you a pack of ugly lies. Once I realized that, I was pretty much over them."
  Finished with her bouquet, Will climbed up to sit on the wooden fence. Gemma was still picking flowers.
  "In high school I read Jane Eyre, Vanity Fair, Great Expectations, et cetera," Will went on. "They're, like, the edgy orphans."
  "The books you gave me," Gemma said, realizing.
  "Yeah. Like, in Vanity Fair, Becky Sharp is one big ambition machine. She'll stop at zero. Jane Eyre has temper tantrums, throws herself on the floor. Pip in Great Expectations is deluded and money hungry. All of them want a better life and go after it, and all of them are morally compromised. That makes them interesting."
  "I like them already," said Gemma.
---------------------------------
Will had gotten into Vassar College on the strength of her essay about those characters. She wasn't much for school besides that, she admitted. She didn't like it when people told her what to do. When professors assigned her to read the ancient Greeks, she had not done it. When her friend Holly told her to read Suzanne Collins, she had not done that, either. And when her mother told her to work harder on her studies, Will had dropped out of school.
  Of course the pressure hadn't been the only reason Immie left Vassar. The situation was desperately complicated. But Paulina Blair's controlling nature was definitely a factor.
  "My mother believes in the American dream," said Willow. "And she wants me to believe in it, too. Her parents were born in Belarus. They full-on bought the package. You know, that idea that here in the US of A, anyone can reach the top. Doesn't matter where you start out, one day, you can run the country, get rich, own a mansion. Right?"
  This conversation happened a little later in the Martha's Vineyard summer. Gemma and Will were at Moshup Beach. They had a large cotton blanket spread underneath them.
  "It's a pretty dream," said Gemma, popping a potato chip into her mouth.
  "My dad's family bought it, too," Will continued. "His grandparents came from Poland and they lived in these tenements. Then his father did well and owned a delicatessen. My dad was supposed to move even further up, be the first in his family to go to college, so he did exactly that. He became, like, this big lawyer. His parents were so proud. It seemed simple to them: Leave the old country behind and reinvent your life. And if you couldn't quite live the American dream, then your children would do it for you."
  Gemma loved hearing Will talk. She hadn't ever met anyone who spoke so freely. Will's dialogue was rambling, but it was also relentlessly curious and thoughtful. She didn't seem to censor herself or craft her sentences. She just talked, in a flow that made her seem alternately questioning and desperate to be heard.
  "Land of opportunity," Gemma said now, just to see what direction Will would go.
  "That's what they believe, but I don't think it's really true," Will responded. "Like, you can figure out from half an hour of watching the news that there's more opportunity for white people. And for people who speak English."
  "And for people with your kind of accent."
  "East Coast?" said Will. "Yeah, I guess. And for non-disabled people. Oh, and men! Men, men, men! Men still walk around like the US of A is a big cake store and all the cake is for them. Don't you think?"
  "I'm not letting them have my cake," said Gemma. "That's my bloody cake and I'm eating it."
  "Yes. You defend your cake," said Will. "And you get chocolate cake with chocolate icing and, like, five layers. But for me, the point is—go ahead and call me stupid, but I don't want cake. Maybe I'm not even hungry. I'm trying to just be. To exist and enjoy what's right in front of me. I know that's a luxury and I'm probably an asshole for even having that luxury, but I also think, I'm trying to appreciate it, people! Let me just be grateful that I'm here on this beach, and not feel like I'm supposed to be striving all the time."
  "I think you're wrong about the American dream," said Gemma.
  "No, I'm not. Why?"
  "The American dream is to be an action hero."
  "Seriously?"
  "Americans like to fight wars," said Gemma. "We want to change laws or break them. We like vigilantes. We're crazy about them, right? Superheroes and the Taken movies and whatever. We're all about heading out west and grabbing land from people who had it before. Slaughtering the so-called bad guys and fighting the system. That's the American dream."
  "Tell that to my mom," said Will. "Say, Hello! Will wants to grow up to be a vigilante, rather than a captain of industry. See how it goes."
  "I'll have a talk with her."
  "Good. That'll fix everything." Will chuckled and rolled over on the beach blanket. She took off her sunglasses. "She has ideas about me that don't fit. Like, when I was a kid, it would have been a huge deal to me to have a couple friends who were also adopted, so I didn't feel alone or different or whatever, but back then she was all, Will's fine, she doesn't need that, we're just like other families! Then five hundred years later, in ninth grade, she read a magazine article about adopted kids and decided I had to be friends with this girl Jocelyn, this girl who'd just started at Greenbriar."
  Gemma remembered. The girl from the birthday party and American Ballet Theatre.
  "My mom had fantasies about the two of us bonding, and I tried, but that girl seriously did not like me," Will continued. "She had blue black hair. Very cooler-than-thou. She teased me for my whole thing about stray cats, and for reading Heidi, and she made fun of the music I liked. But my mom kept calling her mom, and her mom kept calling my mom, making plans for the two of us. They imagined this whole adopted-kid connection between us that never existed." Willow sighed. "It was just sad. But then she moved to Chicago and my mom let it go."
  "Now you have me," said Gemma.
  Will reached up to touch the back of Gemma's neck. "Now I have you, which makes me significantly less mental."
  "Less mental is good."
  Will opened the cooler and found two bottles of homemade iced tea. She always packed drinks for the beach. Gemma didn't like the lemon slices floating in it, but she drank some anyway.
  "You look pretty with your hair cut short," Will said, touching Gemma's neck again.
  —
  On her winter break from her first year at Vassar, Willow had rummaged in Corey Blair's file cabinet, looking for her adoption records. They weren't hard to find. "I guess I thought reading the file would give me some insight into my identity," she said. "Like learning names would explain why I was so miserable in college, or make me feel grounded in some way I never had. But no."
  That day, Will and Gemma had driven to Menemsha, a fishing village not far from Will's Vineyard house. They had walked out onto a stone pier that stretched into the sea. Gulls wheeled overhead. Water lapped at their feet. They were the same height, and as they sat on the rocks, their legs were tan in front of them, shiny with sunblock.
  "Yeah, it was total poop," said Willow. "There was no dad listed at all."
  "What was your birth name?"
  Will blushed and pulled her hoodie up over her face for a moment. She had deep dimples and even teeth. Her pixie-cut bleached hair showed her tiny ears, one of which was triple pierced. Her eyebrows were plucked into thin lines.
  "I don't want to say," she told Gemma from inside the fabric. "I'm hiding in my hoodie now."
  "Come on. You started the story."
  "You can't laugh if I tell you." Will lifted the hoodie and looked at Gemma. "Chance laughed and then I got mad. I didn't forgive him for two days until he brought me lemon cream chocolates." Chance was Will's boyfriend. He lived with them in the Martha's Vineyard house.
  "Chance could learn manners," said Gemma.
  "He didn't think. He just blurted out the laugh. Then he was super sorry afterward." Will always defended Chance after criticizing him.
  "Please tell me your birth name," said Gemma. "I will not laugh."
  "Promise?"
  "I promise."
  Will whispered in Gemma's ear, "Talula, and then Tee. Talula Tee."
  "Was there a middle name?" Gemma asked.
  "Nope."
  Gemma did not laugh, or even smile. She put both her arms around Will's body. They looked out at the sea. "Do you feel like a Talula?"
  "No." Will was thoughtful. "But I don't feel like an Willow, either."
  They watched a pair of seagulls that had just landed on a rock near them.
  "Why did your mother die?" Gemma asked eventually. "Was that in the file?"
  "I guessed the basic picture before I read it, but yeah. She overdosed on meth."
  Gemma took that in. She pictured her friend as a toddler in a wet diaper, crawling across dirty bedclothes while her mother lay beneath them, high and neglectful. Or dead.
  "I have two marks on my upper right arm," said Will. "I had them when I came to live in New York. As far as I knew, I'd always had them. I never thought to ask, but the nurse at Vassar told me they were burns. Like from a cigarette."
  Gemma didn't know what to say. She wanted to fix things for baby Will, but Paulina and Corey Blair had already done that, long ago.
  "My parents are dead, too," she said, finally. It was the first time she'd spoken it aloud, though Will already knew she'd been raised by her aunt.
  "I figured," said Will. "But I also figured you didn't want to talk about it."
  "I don't," said Gemma. "Not yet, anyway." She leaned forward, separating herself from Willow. "I don't know what story to tell about it yet. It doesn't…" Words failed her. She couldn't ramble like Will did, to figure herself out. "The story won't take shape."
  It was true. At that time, Gemma had only begun to construct the origin tale she would later rely upon, and she could not, could not tell anything else.
  "All good," said Willow.
  She reached into her backpack and pulled out a thick bar of milk chocolate. She unwrapped it halfway and broke off a piece for Gemma and a piece for herself. Gemma leaned back against the rock and let the chocolate melt in her mouth and the sun warm her face. Will shooed the begging seagulls away, scolding them.
Gemma felt then that she knew Willow completely. Everything was understood between them, and it always would be.

Willow is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.

Gemma is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.

An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.

A bad romance, or maybe three.

Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.

A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.

A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.
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Gemma Lust Wilder, a white 18-year-old without a family who's staying at a luxurious resort in Columbia, spending her days swimming and studying Spanish. She's strong-willed, secretive, and always on guard.

first grade read aloud books

Books I Have Read

A Phoenix Rebirth: Dragon Emperor’s Beloved Wife

The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron

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Battle Incarnate

The First Order

Those Memories

Archean Eon Art

Run, Girl (If You Can)

The Bona Fide Fraud

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