Predatory Marriage - Chapter 32 - Bribery (1)

In this world, orphans or just anyone without any hope for this world can apply to become a “walking target”. Their sole purpose is to be a practicing dummy for the students of the sect who train to become “Demon Hunters”. These students need “walking targets” to test their training on living, walking beings of flesh and blood.
In exchange, they will be provided with food & shelter.
Their existence value is lower than a slave, but if they manage to survive a few years they can receive a life long pension.

Xiao Han is such a “walking target”. One time he witnessed a powerful Demon Hunter disposing a demon. When the demon died, a fragment of the demon that managed to escape entered Xiao Han’s heart. No one saw that, and even Xiao Han himself only felt some discomfort for an instant.

But that thing in his heart soon gave Xiao Han visions, and the first one is of a cultivation method which allows Xiao Han to absorb damage to enhance his body. A perfect cultivation method for a “walking target”.

- Description from Novelupdates

In 2120, the level of human science and technology has once again reached a new level.

The birth of a new race, the virtual metaverse world that can make consciousness immortal, the freezing technology that can use time to fight against terminal illness, and the brand-new capital arena… Dazzlingly appeared before the eyes of the natives of the earth.

How can humans and AI coexist? Which one is more dignified, life by idling or natural death?

Confusion, confrontation, venting, and shouting seem to have become the norm… On Zhang Yunxi’s eighteenth birthday, his whole family was killed by a nanny. He came to a place called Qingshan Theological Seminary full of doubts.

- Description from novelbuddy

The call of the nightmare realm cannot be denied, the woven fate is inevitable.

His ability to travel to the nightmare realm granted him immortality but also pit him with an unfamiliar world, curses and magics unseen before in the real world.

Monsters of unknown origin, macabre beasts and horrors beyond the ken of man have taken the place of old inhabitants of a once glorious civilization.

Now under the light of the Clairvoyant Moon the nightmare realm is on the verge of destruction. Here you will find dishonorable knights, mad sorcerers, twisted alchemist, the malformed Lost Ones and the vestiges of old gods all converging in a dead world.

But there are also those who seek to undo the curse, to restore the world. There are scavengers that only want to survive, the seekers of truth that seek the secrets of old.

And then there’s Aldrich who plans to exploit the resources and powers of the nightmare realm to achieve his own goals.

The epic tale of struggle against impossible odds and enemies bigger than life.

What Aldrich will find outside his little village will not just test the limits of his will, but also his sanity.

****

Aldrich, is a fifteen year old boy, living in a small village called Wakefield, he dreams of being a Crestmaster.

On the day Aldrich awakens his Crest, Wakefield is attacked and burned.

He is the only survivor, barely making it out with a mysterious gift, a heavy mission and dire warnings to never turn back.

He is then told to forget about what he saw and the innocent villagers that died, to never ask questions. All things Aldrich could never do.

One day he will uncover the forces behind the massacre and take his revenge. But for now he will lower his head and pretend that nothing has happened.

For now.

The more ruthless the Palace is, the more miserable the loser will end up—this he understands. But what he does not understand is, why the brother whom he lived together with peacefully in the past, would so heartlessly humiliate him today. Asking him to beg for mercy, asking him to succumb to his knees, and even… asking him to tactfully entertain him. “Yong Shan, ah, Yong Shan, as of today you are the one who qualifies to succeed as a Crown Prince, what exactly is it that you want?”

For the past 16 years, Yong Qi’s gaze was never set on him. Despite being twins with his younger brother, Yong Lin, Yong Qi has always been directing his smile and laughter towards Yong Lin, and to him, Yong Qi deliberately alienates him. He does not understand, they have the same features and looks, and he obviously is his brother too, but why won’t he be intimate with him… as if he is humiliating him. “Yong Qi, ah, Yong Qi, why won’t you understand, what I want is very simple…”

- Description from Novelupdates