Awake in Ruin

[Political intrigue, evenly matched rivals, alternate universe, no romance]

The dazzling, sharp-tongued mermaid empress Bai Yu, whose body houses multiple souls, vs. Jiang Yuexiao, a crown prince reborn through reincarnation

The players use the Four Realms and Eight Wastes as a chessboard. Anyone in this game could be a pawn, but which of the two players is really moving the pieces?

When heaven and earth first formed, they divided into the Four Realms and Eight Wastes. The Eight Wastes beyond the Four Realms stood as equals, while the Sea Realm was foremost among the Four Realms. I was the Sea Realm's one and only Sacred Emperor. My father, the greatest mermaid emperor the Sea Realm had ever known, was the first mermaid emperor of the chaotic dawn, known as the First God. His fall left the Sea Realm unable to set foot on land. It also created a barrier separating the Three Realms from the Sea Realm, inside and out, and became the Sea Realm's Achilles' heel.

After five hundred years of trials, Bai Yu wanted to break through the barrier imprisoning the Sea Realm. She began searching for a way and eventually found this saying: “When the ten directions' spirits emerge, the void shall appear.” With this power, the Sea Realm would have no more weaknesses.

Just as she was about to put her plan into action, she was forced into a slumber that lasted three thousand years. During that time, someone else took her place: Lai An, the eldest daughter of the Demon Realm. I recognized her.

Who sent her soul into my body? When I woke, I was already three thousand nine hundred years old. The Four Realms and Eight Wastes had changed, and the great divine artifacts... How was I supposed to find them? Perhaps the one moving the pieces should lift the curtain on the past and reveal this conspiracy...