MMORPG: Rebirth of the Shadow Mage - Chapter 5 The Stingy Merchant

The Last Touched is a haunting fantasy of bloodlines, broken fate, and the perilous cost of power.Elsbeth MoonChild is the last of the touched—the final descendant of a cursed lineage bound to the flame. As Alpha of the shattered 12th pack, she bears the ruin left by her father’s crime: the murder of the queen. Branded by his betrayal, hunted by her former chosen mate, and driven into exile with the last of her people, Elsbeth has one desperate path forward—to survive, she must stake her claim in the Rite of Queens, an ancient trial that demands strength, sacrifice, and the will to rule.But the Rite does more than test her body and mind. It pulls her backward in time, submerging her into the forgotten life of her ancestor—the first queen. As memories bleed into dreams and dreams into waking, Elsbeth begins to unravel a long-buried truth: the flame in her blood is not just magic. It is a weapon. A curse. A gift once traded in blood and sacrifice to end an age of chaos.And she is not the only one who carries it.Julia, her estranged sister—exiled, fire-born, and half-mad with hunger—is no hybrid. She is the living echo of the power their bloodline tried to bury. Ruthless, charismatic, and driven by the belief that the throne was stolen from her, Julia is building a gospel of grievance and flame. Her army grows in the shadows, fed by secrets and stolen children. And with each ritual, the ancient seal weakens, waking something that was never meant to rise again.Torn between duty and desire, Elsbeth clings to the one thing that keeps her tethered—Fen, her true mate, a being older than he appears, hiding a divine truth of his own. Their bond runs deeper than fate, but it terrifies her. To surrender to it would mean choosing love over the kingdom. And if she falls too far, the flame inside her might burn her from within… just as it did her father.As old gods stir and the fire in her blood begins to answer the call of something watching from beneath the ice, Elsbeth must decide: will she become the queen her people need? Or the weapon her blood was meant to wield?

Young Master Lu says, “My wife knows nothing at all and has a bad temper. You’d better not bully her.” Gu Mang watches silently as this man warns everyone who comes his way.

Ming Liuyi transmigrated into a novel she had read, and to make matters worse, she was placed into the body of the novel’s antagonist who shares the same name. The original Ming Liuyi, bullied into marrying a cripple, decided to abuse the rich male lead, Yao Zizhou, until he went into a vegetative state. Ming Liuyi knew she had three months of safety before Yao Zizhou woke up and took his revenge. But for some reason, she was drawn to him, and when she touched him, her spiritual energy began to stir.

No one suspected that Yao Zizhou would actually still be perfectly aware of his surroundings, though he couldn’t move. He continued his days in great confusion when his arranged wife from hell was suddenly replaced with a sweet, nice girl, who actually cared for him dutifully and spoke to him with gentle words. It aroused his curiosity, but right before he could wake and see her, she fled. Yao Zizhou huffed in annoyance. There was no way he would let her escape his clutches.

Veyne came from the life of sewer rats.The world saw him as a failure. He called it belief. Others called it stupidity. Either way, it was the only thing he had left.Even at rock bottom, Veyne never stopped believing in himself.Betrayed by his lover and brother, treated as a burden, and forced to slave endlessly in the game to chase his dream—he endured it all.Though late, his obsession was finally rewarded with an opportunity. But the sewer rat in him was too weak to hold onto it. He had fought the world and lost.Actions have consequences. And when he failed in the game, those consequences caught up to him, leading to his death.But the universe wasn’t done with him yet.Given a second chance, he returned to a time when the game had already been out for two years. This time, he rushed to obtain the Template Wilder class—the very class that led to his downfall.One of the game’s rarest hidden classes, the Wilder class, allowed him to switch into different forms based on the monster templates he possessed. An overpowered ability—but it came with a fatal catch.A hidden template forced him into the form of an ancient baby creature, one so cursed that players, monsters, and even NPCs would hunt him down. If he died in that form, his character would be permanently deleted.In his past life, he underestimated the class’s dangers. And the world tore him apart for it.This time, it wouldn’t be just hollow belief.This time, he’s not here to survive—he’s here to dominate.No emotional ties.No second chances.The entire game is his enemy, and he will crush anyone who stands in his way.He failed once. He suffered. He died. He was erased.Not this time.This is the beginning of his legend. The era of Veyne Draven.