The Stars Beyond - Chapter 18: Chance Encounter

During this chaotic era, the darkness engulfs all.
In a struggle of fire and death, despair shrouds the continent.
The line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred as a speckle of starlight penetrates the night sky.
But is it enough to reverse the downfall and fate? To regain the lost glory?

Rhode is a famed player in the game “Dragon Soul Continent”. There, he leads the strongest player guild in the game, the Starlight Guild. Just as he defeats the last BOSS, the Void Dragon, he unexpectedly awoke in a world identical to the game.

As the Summoner Swordsman returns to the continent, waves will be cast in the rivers of fate. Can he face the coming chaos and avert the destruction of the continent?

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns. During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)Notes on cultivation levels:There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.1. Body Tempering2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)5. Ascension

A million years ago, he had traversed the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, braving countless mysterious Life Prohibition Zones, in search of a way to resurrect that foolish woman, but inadvertently learned one earth-shattering secret after another. Thereafter, he went through nine cycles of reincarnation, strategizing over the world, casting his net across the heavens, with the Myriad Realms as his board! In this life, he had returned from reincarnation, his Qi engulfing mountains and rivers, “It’s time to close the net...”

Tang Qing is reborn in 2004, equipped with a banking system. Thus, he shines.He holds the economic lifeline of Africa.He influences the trends in the Middle East.He is the creditor to most of the countries in the world.He is the new policy maker in the global financial order.He is the most powerful boss lurking behind this planet.The US Dollar, no longer the sole dictator of currency, the Euro, let me personally toll the death knell for you.National bankruptcy, debt crises, economic crises, these are all just part of a banker's game. Under the power of money, everything is worthless.This is a story of a strong rising to the top, becoming the premier banker.