The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard - Chapter 17: Decay

When an S-class elite assassin-raised captain of a special ops suicide squad comes home from a high-stakes Africa mission, he finds himself offered something that could potentially set him up for life- a curious assignment that he could use to finally exit his days of war and slaughter.

Wei Yuewu is the unloved daughter of the powerful Marquis Hua Yang. On her way back to the capital city to marry her fiancé, she becomes the target of a ruthless assassination led by her fiancé, Marquis Jing Yuan. With the help of the Prince of Yan State, she narrowly escapes from one disaster after another and returns to the capital. Determined to avenge her enemies and unravel the mystery surrounding her engagement with Marquis Jing Yuan as well as the death of her mother, Wei Yuewu makes a deal with the Prince of Yan State. However, just as she has triumphed over all her enemies and is about to reach the acme of her life, she deliberately destroys her own future and becomes an exile of her own…

- Description from Novelupdates

The plague of insects descended overnight. As an ordinary person without invincible powers and extraordinary exercises, facing blood and death, what should we do at the critical moment of life and death?

(I am a reasonable party, but the novel needs appropriate YY, please do not excessively investigate the rationality of the background in a razor-sharp way.)

- Description from novelbuddy

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.