The Villain’s Mother - Chapter 187: What separates humans and animals is self-control and knowing your moral bottom line (3)

After years of exile, Marcus is coming back home. A powerful mage with few equals, Marcus lives in a world full of monsters and powerful adepts, many of which have bad histories with him. But he has not come back to pursue vengeance or start a fight. All Marcus wants to do is reconnect with old friends, build himself a house, and maybe train a successor or two.Alas, the world didn’t stop just because Marcus went into exile, and not everyone is content to let go of old grievances. Strange things are happening in the world at large, too, hinting at a looming disaster of unknown nature. Still, where there is a will, there is a way.If nothing else, Marcus has a lot of magical power to throw at problems.+++Zenith of Sorcery is set in its own original setting and isn’t related to Mother of Learning… beyond being written by the same person, of course. This is a more classical fantasy story than my previous one, with a lower level of technology and stuff like elves and dwarves, but it has a lot of worldbuilding effort put into it and its own complex magical system. The story has significant xianxia influences, but isn’t meant to be a xianxia story.For those of you not familiar with my previous work, I write relatively slowly. I intend to publish chapters at the rate of one chapter every three or four weeks, subject to further delays as life intervenes.

While on a plane ride, Shuuta Fenton and his classmates are whisked away to a fantasy world by Holy Lord Meruria. She reveals to them that they are to be her Soul Warriors. Most of the students display extraordinary skills after opening their Soul Crystal, but Shuuta is the only one to not have any potential, being cursed with a 0-Star Soul.After a sham trial to decide whether or not he can be useful to her, in which his own sister argues for his sacrifice, Holy Lord Meruria banishes him to the void, an inescapable realm of unending torment, to recoup the Holy Mana she spent on summoning him.While his body was destroyed, Shuuta's desire for revenge keeps his soul intact long enough to gain the attention of an unknown entity. It alters his essence and turns him into a chimera, something viewed as a blasphemous abomination that grows stronger by consuming others.After his soul is summoned again, and this time by the imprisoned Dark Lord of Tyranny, Shuuta frees her and throws away his former identity to become Lyudmila Springfield, the future Transcendent Dark Lord that will spill the blood of her enemies.

Each stroke of good luck is a triumph over someone else’s misfortune.Jack Grim, the son of two legendary assassins, was born and raised on nothing but coldness, and the skills to spill blood.At seventeen, Jack received his final task as an assassin apprentice under his parents.“Succeed, and you’ll run your own organization — live the life you’ve always dreamed of.”For Jack, it was everything he had ever wanted: the chance to finally become the professional assassin he was born to be.He struck his target at midnight, succeeded, and received everything his parents had promised.But in the wake of victory came a pounding headache, a relentless fever—and then… transmigration.Jack now found himself in Raiden’s body, the keeper of the Book of Ashes, the heart of the Devourer, and the very book the coward Raiden had died protecting with his life.Jack had no desire to live in another world, magic or not. He simply wanted to return to his life as an assassin.But duty had other plans. The balance of this world now rested on his ability to protect the book, and like it or not, the responsibility was his to bear.

The Great Yan Empire exists in a world where respect can only be earned through strength. Within this Great Yan Empire, the four great clans have always stood above the rest. Among them, a particular incident in the Lin Clan resulted in the banishment of a certain individual who went on to start his own family, in hopes of one day being recognized again by the Lin Clan, and rejoining them…