The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 18: The Madman Who Defeats a Genius

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

Ernest Quelt, the alchemist renowned for his unparalleled mastery of alchemy, has perished.But his death wasn't a noble sacrifice in battle, nor the result of a failed expedition—it was a betrayal. The very comrades he trusted most turned on him, driven by envy of his growing power.Yet fate wasn’t entirely cruel. With his final breath, Ernest's gaze fell upon the tube that contained his greatest achievement: a perfect artificial being known as the Homunculus.More than just a vessel resembling a human, this creation harbored the power of a catastrophic beast—one that had once nearly brought the world to ruin.

He is a firefighter, his face blackened by smoke, coming from the flames, and in one glance, his life was set.The first time he met the young girl, she bent slightly towards him and said, “Sir...”He was amused, thinking she was a little eccentric...She had never seen such a handsome man, tall like a general, and when their eyes met, she was bewildered and forgot she wasn't in the palace...Later, during the school art performance, the young girl sat on stage, dressed in ancient costume, with a veil covering her face, holding a pipa, her eyebrows shy, appearing both delicate and graceful...He raised his alluring eyes, recalling the girl said she knew a little about musical instruments and chess; she was modest.Seeing him in the audience, her heart raced, wanting to perform well but accidentally struck the wrong chord, fortunately unnoticed by him...Later still, the young girl, now grown, suddenly confessed to him, and the usually calm and composed man was caught off guard...It was a love she had hidden deep in her heart for many years, like shards of glass in her palm, both a patient endurance and impulsive agony...The joy of love at first sight, a hidden affection...She would never know that the brother she secretly admired had been waiting for her to grow up...

Upon opening his eyes, there before him was a bridal chamber adorned with red candles and windows.A bride dressed in a phoenix coronet and robes of rank sat upright on the nuptial bed, her face covered by a red bridal veil.Zhao Rong rubbed his sleepy eyes, “Have I become a groom? Oh, and a junior one at that.”Understood.His facial expression brewed for a moment before he twisted his mouth into a smile, “Wait a second...”Huh, something's amiss.The bride is my childhood sweetheart who also harbored a crush on me?Oh, then that's alright.This is very fitting.Zhao Rong stepped forward, happily lifting the red bridal veil, “Hey hey, my lady, where are you running off to?”-------------In the great era of contention, the tide of the times surged forth, and Confucian Scholar Zhao Rong bravely faced it head-on. Not only did he seek to catch up to the footsteps of his childhood sweetheart turned Sword Immortal Lady, but he also wished to witness firsthand the dispute that engulfed more than half of the Cultivation World, the strife among the various schools of thought...—————[Slow-burn], [Non-cliché], [Non-level-up], [Romance plot], [Sweet without the angst]This book is also known as “I Have a Fox Fairy Wife”, “Rebirth: I Deliver Parcels in the Otherworld”, “Zhao Ziyu, The Smirking Scholar” “I Really Don't Want to Be a Kept Man”...