Embers Ad Infinitum - Chapter 780 - Persistence

Crossing the prehistoric times, Chen Changsheng bowed to Tongtianmen and became the most sturdy senior brother of the Intercepting Sect, awakening the reading system.

Read [Holy King], extract the god statue, and automatically upgrade it to the immortal way.

Read [Perfect], extract the self-indulgence method of his transformation, and automatically upgrade it to chaos and self-inflicted law.

Read [Star Change], extract the method of stars, and automatically upgrade Hongmeng Star Change.

…

Just like that, relying on reading from the heavens, Chen Changsheng became the first person to communicate with each other in the past and present.

- Description from novelbuddy

Ye Xiao was a superior cultivator in his previous life. The three factions of the realm kill millions of people every time they attempt to seize cultivation resources. Wealthy towns turn to wastelands in just a single night. They cover up their crime with an assertion that the towns were suffering from pestilence and disasters.

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

Wendy Waltz, a diehard anti romantic! Though born as royalty, she had been neglected by her father and bullied by her stepmother and younger sibling. To make this worse, she had been betrayed by her lover. She throws away her royalty and name and starts anew with a new name and a strange power! But who is this Head of the Imperial Guards, Lard Shroder, who keeps appearing beside her?