Blossoming Path - Chapter 141: Broken Stems

Koi Niles has always been alone. Quiet halls and empty lunchtimes are his familiar companions. Grades matter to him; they’re his way out.Ashley Miller owns the school corridors. Captain of the ice hockey team, confident smile, and a name everyone knows. When a class project pairs them together, Connor sees a chance. But Ashley disappears, leaving Connor to carry the weight.Days later, under the harsh lights of Connor’s part-time job, Ashley returns. This time, it’s different. He stands up for Connor, turns the tide against the bullies. A simple act of kindness that feels new and warm.They share moments—short walks, brief talks, the understanding of two worlds colliding. Friendship grows where none was before.But Ashley holds a secret behind those bright eyes. One evening, worry leads Connor to Ashley’s door. What he discovers there changes everything he thought he knew.

When Qin Yan was five years old, she left the capital with her mother and went to the Pingxi Army under the command of her grandfather, Duke of Zhenguo, in the Northwest. When she returned twelve years later, things were different.

After the mother was attacked and disappeared, everyone in the Prime Minister Mansion only knew of Concubine Song, but not her mother, the honorable mistress. They only knew that there was only one Miss Nian in the mansion, and they did not know that there was also her, the only eldest young lady of the first wife.

The concubine took over her mother’s dowry and pretended to be rich and generous to win people’s hearts. The concubine-born younger sister, with the identity that belongs to Qin Yan, was mixed up like a fish in water in the circle of noble daughters in the capital, and she also intended to get involved with Qin Yan’s fiancé.

The people in Prime Minister Mansion thought that Qin Yan could only be at their mercy when she returned to the capital alone. However, they never thought that within a few days of returning to the capital, Qin Yan was granted the title of Princess of Zhaoren by the emperor and given a palace as the Princess Mansion.

When Qin Yan took back the dowry that belonged to her mother, only then did her father Prime Minister Qin and Concubine Song knew that Qin Yan was the owner of Yu Qingfeng, the first bank in Great Xia.

The City Master of Gu City, an important town outside the Northwest Pass, was known as the owner of Yu Qingfeng, the first bank in Great Xia which claimed to be able to reach half the national treasury.

How many secrets have not been uncovered on Qin Yan?

- Description from Novelupdates

The eternal night is coming, and the killing ground descends.Gods fall, and a hundred ghosts parade at night.You can stand in the forefront and announce the arrival of the era's tide to the world, or you can hide in the darkness and coldly observe the struggle of others to survive.Liberate your thoughts, embrace your destiny, this is the absolute real game, this is, Earth's Killing Field.

He was weak, he was depressed, he was a loser.
He wasn't even Lvl 10 in the game when Earth was destroyed in the Quake and the players of Redlands were transmigrated to the fantastic world of Zushkenar.
But he lived, learned, and died again.
Now, he was back on Earth, one year and three months before the Quake.
Deciding to rejoin the game earlier and with greater focus, what changes would he bring with his actions?
What life would he live?

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paypal.me/JInDaoran

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There's a map for the lands of Zushkenar posted on the DeviantArt website:
https://www.deviantart.com/kilrain/art/Hunters-Guide-map-cities-grid-b-877682076

It's not complete, but it'll give an idea of the general geography.

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The background image for the cover is part of a landscape by moinzon taken from pixabay.com