I’ll Quit as The Empress - Chapter 40: Over the raised glass

I, Maehara Maki, someone who couldn’t make any acquaintances or friends in high school, finally had someone I can hang out with outside of school. A girl.

Her name was Asanagi-san. The boys in my class called her ‘The class’ second cutest girl’ behind her back.

On Fridays, she would refuse her best friend, Amami, ‘the cutest girl in class’ invitation just to hang out in my house with me.

Together, we played games, watched some movies, read some manga while eating junk foods like pizza and hamburgers, and chugging cola without a care in the world. To others, we may seem sloppy, but it was a precious, secret time together for Asanagi-san and myself.

In a time when the Divine Prefectures of the East Sea were in great disarray, Emperor Ye Qing and Donghuang the Great appeared to save the day. Under their rule, the prefectures united and all nations as well as their kings have been controlled. However, the legend of these two great heroes becomes altered when Emperor Ye Qing’s name is wiped from the history books after his sudden death. All statues and images of him were destroyed and his name a taboo. Only the legend of Donghuang the Great shall live on.

Fifteen years later, a young man by the name of Ye Futian begins his journey in search for his true identity. The legend of Futian was going to be one for the history books.

- Description from Novelupdates

In the world of cultivation, countless tales follow righteous protagonists, fated heroes blessed by destiny, or those chosen by heaven to walk the path of immortality.But what of those who stand in their way?What of the villains? The so-called obstacles to the hero’s journey—do they not bleed, dream, and struggle as well?Xiao Ning was never meant to succeed.From the very beginning, the Grand Dao wove him as a stepping stone—a necessary sacrifice to elevate another. His path, like that of all designated ‘villains,’ was doomed to failure by design.But what happens when that design is defied?After death, Xiao Ning awakens—not in the cycle of reincarnation, but in the cold silence beyond it. There, he is offered the Eternal Paradox Codex—a forbidden artifact containing the hidden truths of the Grand Dao System itself.Rules. Loopholes. Vulnerabilities.Knowledge not meant for those like him.With this power, Xiao Ning is granted a single, impossible choice: accept oblivion, or step outside the Grand Dao entirely—to abandon fate, sever karma, and cultivate a path unbound by heaven or law.It is Xiao Ning’s journey, from ashes to something beyond comprehension.Not to become an Immortal among men.But something even the heavens dare not bind.If fate is a chain…Then let him forge his own path in the void beyond.Welcome to this humble tale.The cultivation world is vast and unkind.Let us begin again—on our terms.

“You dragged me into this world. Now you kneel in it.” — Tim SlokovBy day, Tim Slokov was a quiet office drone. By night, a ruthless online critic of fantasy novels. But when a mysterious force transmigrates him into the dying body of an elven outcast—doomed and powerless—Tim realizes he’s become the tragic background character of someone else’s story.Only he refuses to die quietly.Denied justice, Tim is granted a single gift: the Shattered Necromancy System, a broken power fueled by death itself.[Seek Me, O Death — Passive]: Every kill becomes a servant. Every soul feeds his army.[Death Embrace — Active]: He becomes what he commands—gaining the power of his dead.[Arise — Active]: The battlefield becomes his stage, where his fallen rise again.Armed with cursed power, Tim must evolve himself—and his ever-growing legion of the dead—to claw his way up a world that wants him erased. But vengeance is only the beginning. As his strength grows, so does the truth behind his forced arrival... and the god-like force that wants him broken.Tim isn’t here to play the hero.He’s here to rewrite fate—one death at a time.