A Record of Ash & Ruin: The Grieving Lands - Chapter 39Book 2: : Hard Mode

Peace is a lie told by kings sitting on a pile of corpse..........In a dying world ravaged by dungeons, beasts, and alien gods, only one truth remains:Power decides everything.Some Heroes are kind.Some are just.Most... are monsters wearing crowns of light.Ezekiel Zahara was supposed to die forgotten, a bastard stain in a noble bloodline.They tried to kill him.They failed.He awakened a mysterious system that enabled him to fuse lifeforms with machines into something neither man nor gods could comprehend.With circuits running through his Spirit Veins and mechanical beasts by his side, Ezekiel will carve his legend into the bones of the world.

“Why is this happening…?”

Mia Luna Tearmoon, Princess of the Tearmoon Empire, muttered to herself as she stood shackled on the execution platform.

The faces of the spectators surrounding her were, without exception, filled with indignation.

Before long, Mia was executed at the hands of the revolutionists, who were fed up with the heavy taxation.

But the next moment, she unexpectedly found herself lying on her bed.

It was eight years ago, when she was just a mere kid.

For a while, Mia even wondered if she was hallucinating. However, what appeared on her bedside table was a bloodstained diary that she had written herself.

That day, Mia’s screams could be heard echoing throughout the palace.

Mia was not a vicious person by nature. She was simply incapable of understanding the pain and hunger of others, and by the time she discovered it, it was already too late to do anything.

After she regressed back to her childhood, Mia struggled hard to trace back the events of the past with the help of her blood-stained diary and memories.

Was it to save the future of a declining empire?

Was it to save the soldiers who died in the civil war?

Was it to save the people from famine?

No, she had only one goal.

To avert her fate of facing the guillotine (execution)!

Framed by her so-called best friend and half-sister, Su Qianxun stumbled upon a strange man when she was making her escape. A strange man so handsome it looked as if his face was carved by the Gods, but with a heart as cold as stone. A wild and fiery night ensued, and ever since then, they embarked on a journey filled with passion, lust, conspiracy and treachery.

Li Guanqi was only six when he killed his abusive uncle to save his mother. Moved by the tragedies that had befallen the tiny child, an old man named Su Xuan adopted Li Guanqi. Eight years later, he left the village and told Li Guanqi to join the Daxia Sword Sect — while it may not be the richest sect, it was virtuous. Then, he gave Li Guanqi a sword coffin and made him promise 2 things: that he would always carry it on his back, and to only tell people it was an ordinary sword box.Will he be able to uncover the mysteries of his sword coffin? Why was there a spirit trapped inside it? Who exactly was his grandfather?His sister was worked to death, his mother was seriously ill, and his gambling-addicted uncle even set his sights on the money meant for his sister’s funeral. Li Guanqi, wielding a knife, killed the man, until he encountered an old man named Su Xuan. Eight years later, the youth had become a swordbearer. Behind him was not a scabbard, but a sword coffin, the coffin for burying swords! From then on, this youth with ambitions as vast as the skies stepped into the blood-soaked world of cultivation!