Alpha Instinct - Chapter 16: “Blood and Bloom”

Zheng Nianru went from being a Commandery Princess who could be killed at any moment to the position of the Empress Dowager, wielding power over the world. What she couldn't accept was that she didn't end up with a good fate. However, Zheng Nianru thought that no one would have been able to save Nanzheng State.Yet, she was reborn and, having deeply reflected upon her pain, also considered several past mistakes. Firstly, she should not have married down into the family of Ju Nanyi, a man with a narrow mind who came from a minor house, who only thought about romantic affairs and entangled with her in desperate affection, incapable of assisting Nanzheng. Secondly, she should not have killed everyone in Qiandao Temple, which was the spiritual pillar of the people of Nanzheng State. After all, there were better ways, weren't there, like seduction? Thirdly, she should not have been so confident that the monarch of the neighboring country would fall at her feet, nor should she have trusted the promise of that fickle neighboring monarch, which led to years of drawn-out conflict between the two states.Um, Zheng Nianru felt she was not wrong. She just wanted to live well and to be a good Empress Dowager. Since she had the chance to live again, why did she have this chance? Could it be that she was expected to once again turn Nanzheng State upside down?

To care for her ailing sweetheart, college student Lu Chenchen gave up her white-collar office job and chose the higher-paying caretaker profession instead. Going around in circles, she ended up at the Mao family’s home.

The Mao family background was complicated. Old Madam Mao was not her son Yanning’s birth mom, but his young aunt. His wife was Old Madam Mao’s first love’s daughter, spoiled and pampered. Despite over ten years of marriage, husband and wife were distant.

To repay Old Madam Mao’s kindness in raising him, and for the sake of his three children, Mao Yanning endured again and again – not just a loveless but outright destructive marriage.

Lu Chenchen walked on eggshells among these people – carefully serving young and old, currying favor with the lady of the house without offending the man of the house, while also worrying about his sweetheart’s illness and missing “his” elders and children back home. Her heart was like a cookie flattened between the pages of life, living a difficult and cautious existence.

However, as the saying goes, “You reap what you sow.” A life that has been polished will eventually shine with a brilliance that ordinary years cannot compare.

Story about human babies raised by monsters in a world of sword and magic.

Allen is an orphaned boy that had lived a rather pleasant life with his orc mother in the bowels of a deadly dungeon, until the day a band of humans ventured down to loot and pillage the home they had come to think of as safe.

They took everything that Allen had, and drove him further away from the humanity. In anger and anguish, Allen turned his back on the humans. He encapsulated himself in a deep-seated hatred of them, refusing to associate with them in any way—even going so far as to reject any attempt at kindness.

Allen begins his journey in a world of human with full of deceit, danger, envy, and politics.

Vainqueur Knightsbane is your average dragon: a giant, fire-breathing lizard who loves to take naps on his golden hoard, kidnap princesses for fun, and make the life of adventurers miserable. Vainqueur's only pleasure in life is to watch his treasure get bigger, one coin at a time.

So when a would-be thief turned unwilling minion tells him about "classes," "levels," and "quests," Vainqueur wonders if maybe, just maybe, he should consider a career change.

After all, why bother hunting monsters for free when you can get paid for it?