I woke up as the Villainous Empress - Chapter 48

The contract says she can’t share his bed, but nothing stops him from getting into hers…Rain Clayton’s life takes an unexpected turn when she discovers she’s suddenly married to a billionaire named Alexander Lancaster, a powerful and dangerously captivating man who wants their marriage over before it even begins...Raised by a family that never cared for her and desperate to avoid a twisted arranged marriage, Rain seizes this unexpected twist of fate. Her new husband might be a cold-hearted billionaire, but he's her only escape. Yet Alexander demands a swift divorce.Refusing to lose her one chance at freedom, Rain strikes a risky bargain to keep their marriage alive, even if it means playing by Alexander’s rules. She just has to convince him to want her around… FOREVER.Weeks into their unexpected arrangement, Rain begins to see through Alexander’s icy exterior. But one night, she’s taken by surprise.“What are you doing?” Rain burst out, eyes wide as Alexander casually slid into her bed.“Performing husbandly duties,” he smirked.“You can’t stay here! It’s against the contract!”“I’m not breaking it,” Alexander said with a shrug. “The contract specifies that you’ll fulfill all wifely duties, excluding sharing my bed. It doesn’t say anything about me not performing husbandly duties, including sharing your bed.”The situation had shifted, and it seemed like she was no longer the only one in control...[Warning: r18+/strong mature & sexual content]

Then there’s James Bellini. His nickname? The Angel of Death.The man everyone fears. The man they all whisper about in dark corners. They say he’s merciless, that he has killed more people than anyone in the Circle. No one dares cross him. But there’s a secret, one that no one knows.James Bellini has never killed anyone. Not once.The rumors started because of a misunderstanding, a mistake so deep that even he couldn’t fix it. Now, the entire underworld fears him. Even the other bosses treat him like an equal, like he’s one of them. But the truth? The truth is something only God himself could untangle. And James? He’s just a man caught in the middle of it all.

Word went around that no one that had ever knocked on the esteemed Eleazar family’s doors seeking shelter were turned away.Fleeing the prince of Lustris no less, Arabella Sterling held out hope that those weren’t mere rumors as she crossed the border over to Umbraria, home to all creatures of the night. A land where noble blood like hers was a highly coveted delicacy.As such, she wasn’t turned away, but since the Eleazars ran no charity, Arabella was compelled to become the sole blood provider to the heir of the family in exchange for safety.Though never, in a million years, did she imagine that what had started as a simple trade off, could morph into a swirl of tangled passion when the cold and stoic vampire she served showed interest in the young woman beyond the crimson nectar coursing her veins.

Cultivation is about refining oneself and one's heart.The heavens and earth are the furnace, creation is the work, yin and yang are the carbon, the myriad paths are the copper, and with a steadfast Dao heart, one can refine a Primordial Dao Fruit.Refining pills, refining tools, refining formations, refining talismans, refining swords, refining souls, refining medicine, refining plagues, refining demons, refining devils, refining the heart, refining worlds, refining the Dao...Everything in nature can be refined!This is what Xuan Qing says.If you provoke him, he will even refine the Heavenly Dao to show you!Of course, this all began the day he joined the Jie sect...