Chained Hearts: From Slavery to Sovereignty - Chapter 76: The Punishment (02)

Long ago, there were people who stood upon the earth with their heads held high. They never bowed to anyone because of their indomitable spirit. They were capable of controlling wind and lightning, and conquering dragons and serpents. They seemed strong enough to split the earth and shatter the stars with their fists. They traveled throughout the land and called themselves Magi. Eventually, one of them would become a Supreme Magus! These men are the ancestors of human beings. Their blood is what we all share today.

Qing Long is the former strongest man in the world. He traveled through space and time and was reborn as Ji Hao in the Fire Crow Clan of the Southern Wasteland. It’s a complicated world. Forces from both inside and outside of the clan want this young and talented boy to die. Under great pressure, Ji Hao makes a deal with a mysterious man, who resides in his spiritual space, never showing his real face. He gains two drops of blood from a dragon and phoenix. Afterwards, Ji Hao becomes increasingly more powerful.

Getting transmigrated inside a novel is not really a bad thing—you know the story, you have the power of the future in your hand, you know all the hidden keys. You might as well end up as the most powerful and omniscient being in that world.That is, if you don’t wake up during the epilogue.And yet I find myself in the body of a fallen priest at the end of the novel, a tragic hero who had his mana circuit broken in the last war, being shunned, drown in debt, and destined to die not long after.Fortunately, I know just the cure.Unfortunately, the cure was in the hand of one of the Demon Lords—you know, the race that my kingdom just wage war with.Would he give me the cure if I asked him politely? There’s no harm in trying, right? I’d die if I didn’t get the cure, anyway.“Sure, but you have to be my bride as the price,” the Demon Lord said....huh? Sir, you know I’m (technically) a priest, right?

(Warning: This novel has an r18 tag and contains mature content.)Adyr, once a notorious serial killer, met a brutal end and welcomed death as the final judgment for his sins.But he awoke in a parallel Earth, where the rich alter their genes and superhumans are the norm.Believing some unknown force had given him a second chance, Adyr buried the monster within and chose a quiet, normal life.For eighteen years, he lived in poverty with his family, suppressing his urges and forcing himself to be human.Until the day he entered a new VRMMORPG.A game that doesn’t just alter virtual stats but mutates real genes and pushes players toward evolution.And with every evolution, his bloodlust surfaced again, turning him back into the villain he once was.

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.