Godstealer - Chapter 9: The Stillborn King

WARNING!!! -Explicit-For years after Livana lost her sight, she lived in the gilded cage of her family’s expectations—engaged to the man chosen for her, confined to the shadows while he managed the empire her mother left behind. But blindness didn’t make her powerless. She heard everything. The whispers in the other room. The treachery in her fiancé’s voice. The betrayal woven into every conversation with her cousin, all caught by the devices she secretly planted.She had a plan to escape—one she’d crafted meticulously. Until her sister proposed something far more dangerous.Involve the Blackwells.Their family’s most hated rivals. The ones Livana had been raised to despise. And the man her sister suggested? *Damon Blackwell.* The arrogant bastard who had tormented her since childhood. The same man she’d once—*against her better judgment*—ended up in bed with after being drugged and set up.The idea was reckless. Madness. But the thought of burning her engagement to Knox to the ground, of watching her father and stepmother’s fury as she tied herself to their enemy? Delicious.What she didn’t expect was Damon’s obsession.He was ruthless. Unhinged. Exactly what she should have anticipated from the heir to the Blackwell mafia. But Livana was no damsel. If he thought he could control her, he was wrong.She had her own games to play.And this time, she wouldn’t be the one losing.

Chang’an, Jan. 14th of lunar month, Tianbao Year 3 (744AD), Tang Dynasty.

For residents of Imperial City, what awaits them when the city enjoys its dazzling brilliance and joy of the Lantern Festival is an unexpected catastrophe that’ll destroy all. Tujue (a nationality in the north of ancient China), Wolfpack, kidnapping, assassination, rampant flames that scorch all…start the gear for the doom of and the Longest Day in Chang’an.

And the only hope lies in a one-eyed convict sentenced to death and the fleeting Twelve Hours…Will Chang’an, the city of prosperity, survive the longest day ever or will it burn…

A hundred thousand years ago, there was a great war between cultivators. Immortals fell by the tens of thousands, the path of cultivation itself was severed, and after the dust settled, tombs forested the world.

A hundred thousand years after the last legend faded, Lu Yun, commandant of tomb raiders, descends upon the world. Armed with the Book of Life and Death, he has some burning questions to answer.

……

“This isn’t how you raid a tomb!” Lu Yun smirked at the cultivators frantically scurrying about the ancient tomb. “Do you want me to teach you?”

……

But ah, can someone teach him how to cure his new body’s erectile dysfunction?

In a world where everyone is a slave, someone is born who cannot be controlled. At the same time, an unstoppable villain rises on a quest for revenge. But the truth is darker than he ever imagined, and now he must face an unbeatable enemy — including himself.***Bruno was a young man born on Earth, the son of an influential modern Emperor. Despite having everything money could buy and receiving the best and most rigorous training to succeed his father, he chose the opposite path, defying his family’s ruthless rule.The price of his innocence? A merciless death and the complete erasure of his existence by the deity controlling his fate. On Earth, the law of the powerful was absolute; a slave could never rebel.But then, he wakes up again.He’s reborn in a world of cultivation, where freedom was promised to those strong enough to claim it. Now, he could soar like a free bird and carve his own destiny... or so he thought.The harsh reality of this new world soon showed him how insignificant he still was. He realized he had only changed masters.The freedom he sought was an illusion. The heavenly laws treated everyone as servants, and their rules were unbreakable. Bruno learned this bitter truth after losing everything that made him happy due to an unjust rule.But who was he to question?Hopeless, Bruno died... and was reborn as Alm, an unstoppable villain. With a soul poisoned by pain and vengeance, he sowed chaos across the universe. Planets were destroyed, countless lives taken, and his name became synonymous with terror.A hero rose to oppose him, wielding a sacred sword of hope. People from all corners of the universe united against Alm, raising their voices and weapons to stop the villain who defied the heavens.But Alm was no longer just fighting for revenge. He was challenging the heavenly laws that sought to control him, fighting fate and all living beings.And against all odds... the sacred sword shattered. The alliance of the entire universe was defeated.The villain won!Now, Alm found himself alone in the empty void of a dead universe, facing his own inner demons. Who could be more ruthless to him than himself?“What have I done?”At that moment, the doors of truth opened to him.Everyone was a puppet of a supreme figure, an entity that manipulated minds and even the heavenly laws.“I will find you, no matter where you are!”Thus, the last emissary of the true Heaven’s Will awakened. Alm, who once only relied on his sheer will and rage, now had a system to guide him. But his opponent was an immortal existence, above even the heavens.The villain who destroyed an entire universe now faced a new beginning. He discovered that the universe he devastated was just a tiny grain of sand in an infinite cosmos, where countless other universes existed.And so begins the legendary tale of the villain’s rise... and the Sacred Round God? A strange Duality of Shadows existed within one person.But this time, he wouldn’t be alone.***To clear up any potential confusion or frustration, here are some key points about the story. I’ll avoid major spoilers, but a few things will be revealed.You might find this concerning at first, but just check the book cover—it shows the main character and his only partner. She first appears at 10 years old, but rest assured, there’s no inappropriate content or early romance.At around 13, SHE starts developing feelings for the protagonist, but he doesn’t respond until she’s an adult. With her determined personality, she tries to seduce him at 17/18, but it doesn’t work. Their relationship only happens much later.The book has nods to other works, with my own spin on them, and focuses on avoiding elements I find problematic in other stories.Lastly, the beautiful book cover was commissioned and created by HDIArt.