Martial Saint through Reading - Chapter 9: Participating in the Prefectural Exam

Ren has never known kindness. He grew up alone in the slums, learning to survive by staying out of sight and trusting no one. One night, he stumbles into a strange tunnel and finds a hidden shrine forgotten by time.There, he sees a black cat with golden eyes and hears a voice inside his head.The shrine is more than it seems. So is the cat.As Ren is pulled into something ancient and mysterious, he must decide if he's willing to take a different step in life or keep running from the world that hurt him.Because the city doesn't care if he lives or dies, but something in the dark might.(No system, no isekai, no reincarnation, no regression, no harem. The story focuses on mystery and character development.)

Qi Condensation. Foundation Establishment. Core Formation. In the current world, only these three realms are known to be achievable. Nascent Soul is but a legend and the realms above it lost to the the long river of time. The modern era is known as Cultivation Civilization, a balance of power and civility, excess and moderation. While cultivation remains a secret practice, it has long since exposed itself to the mundane world, quietly intertwined with each facet of society. While the world appears to be at peace, what lies underneath is a conflict between human, cultivator, and demon, brewing for ages and waiting to implode. Yet in the wake of humanity’s rapid industrialization, qi—and consequently cultivation—is dying.

“Everyone deserves a happy ending, don’t they?”…In the brutal fantasy RPG Fall of Ares, saving the world came at a cruel price — the deaths of every heroine the player had grown to love. No matter how skilled you were, their sacrifices were inevitable. The game warned you not to get attached.But one young man did.After beating the game and lamenting their tragic fates, he wakes up in its world — reborn as an extra, armed with one mission from a mysterious system:[Change their endings. Let them live.]Now enrolled at Mysteria Academy alongside the heroines doomed to die, he must rewrite fate itself. For every girl he saves, he’s rewarded. But the world resists change. Calamities draw closer. The true enemy — the Children of the Sky — are watching.And one of the heroines… remembers it all.

Anne Allistair has long forgotten about romance since her failed marriage to Thomas Brown. Now she wants a simple life, one that doesn’t require her having her heart broken again. However, things take a wild turn when she walks into the office of her boss, Riccardo Antonelli. His charm is inescapable, even for Anne who’s heart sought no romantic affairs. Now caught in his web, Anne must make a choice; risk losing her job for the sake of her fragile heart, or remain the secret woman who shared a bed with her boss.