Horizon, Bright Moon, Sabre - Chapter 4 - The Thumb of the Black Hand

One day, the stuntman found that acquaintances and unfamiliar people were looking for him through various channels. Even someone from a certain department of the country came—

Ripped from a dead-end life and plunged into a world where danger lurks behind every smile, Xiulan must learn to thrive in a realm ruled by ruthless ambition and deadly secrets. When Li Mei dies in a traffic accident after another soul-crushing retail shift, she awakens in a familiar yet dangerous world—inside her favorite game, . Now inhabiting the body of Lin Xiulan, the scorned second daughter of a noble family, she finds herself thrust into a nest of vipers where her very existence is an offense to those around her. Armed only with her knowledge of the game and the wounds from a lifetime of dealing with entitled customers, Xiulan refuses to play the role of the family’s punching bag. Determined to rise above, she’ll need to master immortal alchemy, tame arcane spirit beasts, perfect her martial arts, and face off against her scheming sisters and stepmother. But in Arinthia, a land where power reigns supreme and the weak are swept aside, Xiulan must do more than just survive and fade into the background. With the knowledge of a devastating future that awaits the realm’s beloved Crown Princess, she’ll need every ounce of her modern wit and growing abilities to prevent a catastrophe that would ruin the entire realm—assuming she can survive her own family long enough to do anything about it. Only by transforming herself into a force of reckoning can Xiulan hope to protect those she comes to care about—and survive the darkness that awaits.

“My unrequited love is over.” Compared to my perfect older brother, I, Ha Giyeon, was endlessly lacking. My first love and my last love—every single one of them were my brother’s friends. What I got in return for pouring all my affection into them were cold, violent words of rejection. Then came the thunderbolt: I wasn’t even their real son. My family, whose love I desperately sought, kicked me out of the house. Even though I scraped by doing hard labor, it didn’t feel like living. Then came the sudden car accident. Right before dying, I regretted everything and begged— That if I ever got to live again, I would never give my love to the family who scorned and discriminated against me, nor to the brothers who tormented me under the pretense of affection. I would live a life that was truly my own. And as if it were a lie, in the winter of my 17th year, Ha Giyeon returned. As Ha Giyeon began to change, so too did the family and the brothers who had once trampled him…

He was the cold-blooded prince of the Jin country. Decisive and smart, he had looked down on the world with apathy and disdain.