Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough - Chapter 599: Start of the Lecture~

A 21st-century tech manager, accidentally thrust into the body of Emperor Commodus—yes, the infamous villain played by Joaquin Phoenix—has one goal: not to die like him.Armed with his wits and a hyper-intelligent AI on a solar-powered laptop, he must navigate the treacherous politics of ancient Rome. Everyone, including his own sister, expects the arrogant, decadent tyrant. Instead, they find a calculating reformer. But as he tries to avert the fall of the empire, he discovers that being a “good” emperor might be even more dangerous than being the monster everyone is waiting for.

Thea fell in love with Ryder who is her childhood best friend.She kept her feelings hidden.A deceitful third party involvement manipulated Ryder into believing that she had broken his trust.~Exceprt~Thea's voice trembled as she grasped Ryder's hand. “Ry...Ryder, please listen.” she begged, her eyes pleading for his attention.Ryder jerked his hand free from Thea's grasp, his expression hardening into ice. “I don't want to hear anything from you.You're no one to me from now on.”“You are going to believe her?”her eyes welled up with tears.“I don't want to believe you..” Ryder spat, his eyes flashing with anger. “From now on, don't dare show your face to me.” With those cutting words, he turned and walked away,leaving Thea shattered, her body racked with sobs as she collapsed to the ground.Years passed Thea returned to the city working as a waitress to support her life.But fate delivered a cruel blow when Ryder and his fiancee walked into the restaurant.“Didn't I say you better stay away from us?How dare you appear in front of us?”Thea's voice trembled as she spoke, her heart heavy with emotion.“Ry...Mr. Thompson,” she corrected herself, her eyes locking onto his, “I never thought our paths would cross again, especially not here.”“I made it clear previously that I never wanted to see you again..” he said, each word cutting through Thea like a knife, reopening old wounds and slicing through her fragile heart.Thea's eyes welled up with tears as she gazed into Ryder's, “I didn't mean to hurt you, Ryder...” she implored, her gaze clinging to his, desperate for him to see the sincerity in her eyes and believe her words.He scoffed,“Hurt?I hate you for what you did to her.How can you hurt my woman?”Thea looked at his eyes to find the glimmer of the boy she once knew.But that boy was gone replaced by a man consumed by rage and hatred for her.She knew she lost him forever.Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes.Will Thea and Ryder ever find their way back to each other, or is their love lost forever, a casualty of misunderstandings and hurtful words? Will they be able to overcome the lies and betrayal that tore them apart, or will their hearts remain forever fractured?

As a human, I should be miles away from any large shifter event. Especially the annual Mate Hunt.A hunt for mates. Doesn't that sound barbaric? Yeah, it's as bad as it sounds.Several packs in the area gather as their newly minted adult wolves shift. Females are let into the woods first and are given an hour's head start, just before sundown. Then it's time for the males, ostensibly thrown out to hunt down the scent of their fated (or chosen) mates.It isn't an event for the faint of heart, and it's definitely no place for someone who can't shift. So why the fuck am I here, running my little human heart out, chased by what sounds like an entire pack of wolves? Great question. I don't know, either.But I'm here.Surrounded by howls fueled by the thrill of the hunt.Feet bleeding. Lungs freezing.I am so fucked.----R18. Dark themes, including but not limited to: Murder, attempted murder, a stack of dead bodies, betrayal, mild sociopathy, an ML who appears to bathe in red flags despite his favorite color being green, an unwarranted hatred of blueberry muffins, and pillow thievery.

Asking help from the enemy was the last thing Samantha ever planned on doing, but who knew she would find her fate irrevocably sealed in the hands of a notorious Vampire Lord?In a world where Humans and Vampires have chosen to co-exist, the sacred orb of GreenHollow in the Northern Empire goes missing on a rainy night, right after the death of their ruler who was murdered in cold blood.It brought upon them an endless drought that can only be reversed when the sacred orb is found, and returned to its rightful place in the Empire.Ivan Chevalier, the heir and most feared son of the murdered Vampire King, has only two motives in life - to find his Father's perpetrator and behead him, his second motive is hunting down the sacred orb and restoring GreenHollow to what it used to be during his Father's reign.But when both motives lead him to the hands of his enemy's daughter, he has to choose between getting rid of her, or using her to his advantage by turning her into his blood slave.Samantha Dufort, a simple girl from EmptyHollow, is on the run with her younger brother after witnessing her Father being brutally murdered by a Vampire Lord.On the way, she gets abducted by slave traders.Forcefully separated from her younger brother, Samantha finds herself in a brothel, where she is trained to become a courtesan till she comes of age to be sold out.Her encounter with a mysterious man in white whom she referred to as her 'angel of death' saves her from a misery that only led Samantha into the cage of a Vampire Lords den.Tricked into becoming his puppet, Samantha tries to find different opportunities to escape the Vampire's den, and the Vampire Lord in person. But will she succeed when no one has ever left the Palace walls?Well, she was going to be the first to escape from these walls and find her missing brother.Twisted and trapped in the webs of Vampire politics interrelating with humans, Samantha discovers the main reason for her existence, a reason that could lead to changing the course of Empty Hollow. What happens when the Vampire Lord isn't the only darkness she has to run away from?