Echoterra: Rise of the Verdant King - Chapter 14: The thorn that bites back

Power comes with a cost... and it was something she was willing to trade her soul for.A few nights before her wedding, Lauren sought a way to break her fourth engagement. Known for her bad reputation as the rebel princess, she was the only lady who had the guts to step foot on the Everston mansion, the house of a notorious warlord, in the middle of the night.She offered him a wicked alliance that the entire kingdom did not see coming: a marriage.A vixen pretending to be a damsel in distress and a man whose crimson eyes screaming for bloodshed. Could something blossom in this treacherous dance of lies and deception?--“Are you upset?”She eyed him sharply. “Should I be honored that I got tricked by you, milord?”He drank the remaining wine in his glass with one gulp and put it on the wooden table.He stepped in front of her. His hand was on the rail on her side while his other hand grabbed her glass and finished her wine before putting it down.The way his Adam's apple moved with his every violent gulp made her feel a tickling heat around her nape.When he brought his attention back to her, he licked his lips to wipe off the trace of wine.“How shall I make it up to you then?” he asked with his deep voice, like a seductive devil asking his victim how she would like to be killed. Dangerous yet… enthralling.

A phoenix is a creature of legends, a wonder of the world, an imagery of life and destruction. This fabled creature signifies the rise of a hero in a virtual world where battles occur for the sake of honor and glory!

Zhang Yang was a professional gamer in the first and most fantastic game that revolutionized the world: God’s Miracle. A game where traditional knowledge in RPGs did not matter anymore, players would have to manually target and evade attacks, giving rise to a significant gap in skill between a professional and an amateur gamer.

Zhang Yang’s downfall came a little too soon. His girlfriend was snatched, his guild was harassed and disbanded, and he was even driven to commit suicide! Jumping off the top floor of a hotel, Zhang Yang seemed as though he was soaring like a phoenix. Little did he know that the end of his life also signified his rise from the ashes.

- Description from novelupdates

A mental patient, or a born policeman?

A peerless genius, or a master of crime?

There are cops who are least like cops, and there are criminals who are least like criminals.

Neither good nor evil is absolute.

It is a grey world we live in.

- Description from Novelupdates

Many islands dotted the vast oceans of this world. However, some of the islands were a lot more sinister than the rest. Those islands, known as Nightmare Islands, were true nightmares to all but the strongest and most fortunate. Children were kidnapped and thrown on these isolated islands by the Nightmare Palace, forced to sign soul pacts with evil soul pets: Nightmares. These devils slowly devoured the souls of their trainers to grow stronger. If the children did not cultivate fast enough, their souls will be devoured whole, leaving only an empty husk behind.

Chu Mu, the protagonist, was an heir to the Chu Clan, but due to a plotted murder, he was thrown on the island, sentencing him to almost certain death. Dancing on the edge of life and death, he struggled to survive with a small Moonlight Fox he captured. When he finally escaped the devilish foremen on his island, he couldn’t help but let a breath out. But little does he know, the experience was only a beginning to a fated journey with his little Moonlight Fox…