Childhood Friend of the Zenith - Chapter 8: Nine Dragons Day (2)

They call him Ghost.A name whispered in fear across warzones, black markets, and underworld circles.To the world, he's a phantom—a faceless mercenary who leaves no trace but bodies in his wake.To his enemies, he’s a death sentence.To his brothers-in-arms in Graveyard, he’s family.But to himself... he's a haunted man searching for a past stolen in gunfire and smoke.After a flawless mission deep in the Eastern Province, Ghost returns to the hidden forest base he's called home for sixteen years. Yet the victory is short-lived. His foster father, the commander delivers an unexpected order:“That was your last mission.”Now, Ghost—real name Miles Sterling—must step out of the shadows of war and into a world he’s never known. Guided only by a scarred letter, a fading memory, and the voice of a woman he hasn’t seen since the day everything was taken from him.But war forged more than his body and name.Behind the mask, behind the scars, Miles has another secret.One he’s kept hidden even from his brothers in arms.He’s not just a weapon.He’s a ghost with a fortune—a hidden empire he built in silence, across borders and black markets, forged in strategy and blood.A man of many names, and many shadows.Beneath the bullets, tattoos, and silence lies a truth buried in ashes.And Ghost is about to dig it up—one letter, one enemy, one memory at a time.

Thousands of years ago, the great abilities of the three teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Demonism decided on a place for becoming immortal. Three thousand years ago, a Taoist was close to becoming immortal. Three hundred years ago, the Daqian Dynasty was established, and chaos is expected in another three hundred years. In this era, the path to immortality opens; a celestial swordsman freezes fourteen states with one sword, a heavenly Daoist maiden seeks eternal life, a naturally born Holy Son claims to be invincible, and a Buddhist Holy Monk saves all sentient beings.Gu Wen lives as a beggar, enters a household as a servant, witnessing the disordered world, drifting aimlessly.In a world filled with divine beings, he alone is a mortal.However, a lowly origin is not a disgrace; striving through the grand path, even as a common man and mundane son, he can still be the foremost in the world.“Mortal Gu Wen, my Dao is euqaling the heavens!”

A 29 year old civil employment exam student wakes up in a blank white room and meets a baby angel. This baby angel informs him that he died in his sleep due to heart disease like his father and grandfather. Remembering his mom and their last conversation he says that he will take on a series of life and death tests that the baby angel offers him. From this point on he must put his life on the line and fight in the stage called ‘Arena’. And Every time he clears a test he will gain abilities and weapons to increase his strength. All to clear the tests and get his life back. This is his story of his fights in the ‘Arena’.

Set in a Pokéverse where the remnants of our civilization's Earth lie buried under the resurgent human/Pokémon societies, this epic Saga follows the protagonist through his journey to the heights of Pokemon Training and beyond, across a planet that was only saved from ecological disaster by an act of Arceus. As Humanity and Pokémon coexist in this fusion of settings, the story will explore themes of war, oppressive cults, and Shadow infusion, in a world where Pokémon healing and battles echo the anime in realistic, but not overtly graphic ways. Pokémon do not rip each other apart in Battles, though it can sometimes happen in the wild.This is a very long journey fic that's kind of a Crossover with everything. But with Pokémon. So you might see characters like Shaggy Rogers, or Izuku Midoriya, but with Pokémon teams. Pokémon legends like Red, Gary Oak, and the reigning World Champion, Ash Ketchum, are also, naturally, present in the setting. Think of this slice of the Pokéverse as one where it's all coming together.