Back to 1985: Spicy Pretty Wife - Chapter 12

A weary historian dies and finds himself in a different world awakened in a life as the notorious young Duke of a southern state. His nation is weakened, his army underfed, and his neighbors revolve around his lands menacingly. No one believes his land is going to hold out until winter.But this newfound duke is no naive simpleton his enemies recollect. He carries with him the experience of centuries of war and empire, of starting and ending monarchies. From Caesar to Napoleon, from the Mongols to world wars, he has learned from each of them—and his strategy is to make history his very own arms.He organizes his smashed levies into well-trained formations, rebuilds his castles, and turns his villages into supply centers. Where others see defeat, he senses opportunity. As he triumphs, rumors spread: of a pennant red as winter snow that shall not go to ground, of a bloody duke who writes his name in gore and flame.Is he a savior who's constructing a new empire, or a tyrant who's going to bring the world to endless war?

When Zhou Shu woke up, he learned that he had become a Forging Apprentice at a workshop in the Forging Division of the Great Xia empire.

Yang Qi was the son of the patriarch of a wealthy family from a small town.

You say you know about pain? To feel this sort of hunger... for your body to never be satisfied... your mind crazed by endless thoughts of satisfaction. To gaze upon the stars and know that it’s not enough, That is pain. Now you stand before me and I truly question myself. are you enough.He sought a cure for his power. Now, he'll use it to consume a world.At six years old, Dax's life ended. His trait, [Insatiable Hunger], awakened—a curse that promised only madness and an empty stomach. After two years of torment, he found his answer: [Synthesis], the power to integrate anything he touched.Four centuries of research later, known across galaxies as the Black Researcher, he finally achieved his goal. And in that moment of triumph, he exploded.Reborn in a brutal realm of cults and crumbling gods, Dax finds himself weak, but free. His Hunger is quiet, his Synthesis intact. The local gods think him a pawn. The cults see him as a sacrifice.They are all gravely mistaken.Dax sees this world for what it is: a Petri dish. His new traits are the ultimate research tools. His goal is no longer mere survival, but the answer to a new, thrilling question: Can a man who was once devoured by his own power, now learn to devour divinity itself?