MTL - The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love - ~ 33

“Look at you, you were this teeny-weeny when you were little.”Using both hands, Shao Zifeng gestures how small his pet beast used to be. He then raises his head and looks at the gigantic being in front of him.“Just how did you grow into this ferocious form?”

What if your own father and his mistress were behind your mother’s death? What if you were about to be sold off to a scumbag?

What would you do? In the nick of time, a tall, rich, & handsome guy descended from the sky and came to her rescue with a piece of contract.

Xin Qing glowered at the man before her. At first, she had thought of him as her Prince Charming, in the end, he turned out to be an evil demon.

“You’re not allowed to go. You can only marry me!” the man said viciously to the woman who was about to leave.

Xin Qing sneered. “Isn’t the ancestral behest the only reason you’re keeping me around? I’m just your tool.”

He said, “Who told you that?”, his eyes filled with profound emotion.

“You’re the mother of my child!”

- Description from Novelupdates

In an alternate world, a demon disrupts dynasties, harvests souls, and refines a banner of ten thousand souls.Under the heavenly tribulation, his body and soul are destroyed, but the Ten Thousand Souls Banner protects his undying spirit. Unable to possess a body, he's countered instead.A laid-back young man in society, wielding the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, roams the human world.With the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in hand, I refine a Golden Core with good deeds.A slice-of-life story with no ambition for conquest, helping the departed fulfill their wishes, gaining merit to repair the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, and enjoying a laid-back life.

“Is Fate the excuse of the forsaken, is Free Will the delusion of the chosen?”Such was a question that Xavier, the Demon King, never had the chance to ask himself. As he lay defeated, awaiting his death, he wondered about the wretched life he lived.'The hero who killed me, the one who held the same ambitions as me. We both wanted good for the people, for the world. We are both two sides of the same coin, yet, fate decided that he will be the one the light will shine on.Perhaps it was me too, perhaps it was my karma for flowing the rivers of blood with my sword. But still... It was fate that squashed the humanity in me first!Damn fate, if I had one more chance, I would've lived for myself more, I wouldn't have taken this arbitrary role of being a necessary evil... This world, this game of destiny... It can burn to ashes for all I care.'As he sunk into the cold embrace of death, a certain [REDACTED] heard his dying wish with amusement and cast their die, reversing the wheel of time one last time and going all in on him on a risky gamble with the stakes of their world.