Standing Next To You - Chapter 21: Cruel Truth

Notice: This story contains R18+ themes, including violence, sensual and sexual content, blood-related addiction, and dark psychological elements. Reader discretion advised.I died in a library, crushed under centuries of forgotten knowledge. Fitting.Now I’ve woken up in a coffin, starving, undead, and very much not human.They call me a Fledgling—a bottom-feeder vampire barely above a ghoul. I’m weak, hunted, and tethered to a world straight out of a cursed tabletop campaign. It’s a classic fantasy realm—elves, knights, guilds, and dungeons—but twisted by a dark, rotting magic. The moon shines red, the gods are silent, and every town smells like fear.To make matters worse, I’ve been bound to a LitRPG system called the Blood Codex.Level up by draining blood.Unlock skills by embracing your monstrous nature.Resist Corruption... or don’t.There's no prophecy. No chosen one nonsense. No noble title. Just fangs, rot, and whatever I can steal, trick, or kill to survive.But the deeper I sink into this world’s underbelly, the more I realize something is watching me through the system. The rules are breaking. Dungeon bosses are going mad. Entire towns are disappearing.And I think I’m supposed to fix it… or maybe finish the job.

What is martial arts?Martial Arts has nothing to do with musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, painting, treasures or secret manuals, nor is there so much talk about being the best in the world. Martial Arts is a technique, a method that gives the weak a chance to draw their blades against the strong.What is chivalry (xiá)?Chivalry is not about romantic affairs, traditional culture, or being gentle, respectful, frugal, and compliant. Chivalry is violence, it's the bayonet forged by those driven to Mount Liang to use against tyrants.Cao Mo pledged with a dagger, (Returning to) Lu to invade. Zhuan Zhu entered with grilled meat, (Pacifying) Wu to usurp the throne. Brother Zhang cried in the market, avenging his lord by defiling a lavatory. Suicide by cutting one's own throat to seek justice, acting while concealing his sleeve. The tyrant of Qin seized souls, the coward gained courage.This is a martial artist's story.In the 1930s, a group of like-minded young people came together, striving to change the world.Then, two hundred years later, in a garbage landfill, Xiang Shan, the Progenitor of Cyber Martial Arts who had once rebooted heaven and earth, woke up reciting the name of his enemy, having lost all his memories.“Perhaps it's because I lost back then that the world has become what it is...”“So this time, I won't be defeated again!”This is the story of a person changing the world once more!

After the divorce, Gao Jun discovered that the persona of the wealthy single lady had collapsed.“Madam, please stop confessing your feelings to me,” he said.“You know I'm not someone who takes things lightly.”

Heavenly emperors reigned supreme in the cultivation world but there were still existences beyond the power of heavenly emperors. They were termed as sages as they had mastered the laws of mortal world.

The prince of Zhan dynasty had once reached that epitome of cultivation world. At the mere age of thirty, he had reached the heavenly emperor realm. Then he attained that legendary realm before turning fifty. Thus, he was hailed as an unprecedented genius never before seen in this world.

When he was basking in the glory of his achievement, fate played a cruel joke on him. He got stabbed by his fiancée in his marriage day. Powerful enemies appeared out of now here and Zhan dynasty got attacked from every direction.

His father got killed Infront of him and many of his relatives perished along with him. He wanted to charge towards the battle field but the injury given by his fiancée proved fatal to him. He perished despite his unwillingness.

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When he opened his eyes he was already a seventeen year young man who shared the same name with his previous life. With his previous memory as a sage and the inheritance of Evil emperor as guide, he aimed to reach the top again.

Since then the most cursed art of wife stealing reappeared again and an unprecedented genius appeared in the path of dual cultivation.