The Wolf Beyond the Mist

To fulfill the company's bet agreement, Lin Shu reluctantly went deep into the mountains to negotiate a land-purchase deal.

But even after three of their Jeeps broke down, his group still couldn't find the road into the mountains.

Looking at the lush, green forest before him, Lin Shu clicked his tongue in frustration.

This godforsaken place didn't even show up on satellite maps.

He couldn't take another day of this miserable job!

Then night fell, with the new moon hanging in the sky.

A dense fog slowly spread through the mountains.

He passed through the fog and stumbled into a mysterious land cut off from the rest of the world.

The mountains stretched on, towering and magnificent, while countless beasts raced across them.

Lin Shu, still in his suit and tie, gaped in astonishment.

This definitely wasn't the crappy mountain they'd been driving around in circles for!

In the East Mountain wolf den,

Everyone saw their clan chief return from his patrol with a dark expression.

He had someone tucked beneath one of his muscular arms.

Before anyone could ask, that person slowly came to.

After the resulting chaos, a row of bite marks had even appeared on the clan chief's honey-colored shoulder...

At last accepting reality, Lin Shu reached up to smooth his disheveled hair and straighten his tattered tie.

A cold glint flashed across his glasses. Then he pulled out a crumpled contract and held it in front of the handsome man he'd just bitten.

"Sign here. Our company is buying this lousy mountain."

It wasn't until Lin Shu had crossed this vast mountain range himself that he realized how foolish he'd been.

The "lousy" mountain was boundless, teeming with life.

And under the full moon, that man turned into a huge white wolf.

The giant wolf's long howl mingled with the mountains' echoes as he pressed down on Lin Shu, breathing heavily.

At last, Lin Shu heard a soft laugh.

"Hmph. The mountain isn't for sale, but I am."

At the end of the river's source, one finds a mountain. In the mountain is fog, and beyond the fog, wolves...

Note: This is an alternate history setting. Entirely fictional! Please don't read it as real history!

The other books in the series, Wolf Husband and Wolf Boy, are complete. They contain the full East Mountain Wolf worldbuilding. Come check them out!

Coming soon: I Write the Human World

Short-tempered exorcist top x poor, tearfully broke layabout bottom

Cui Xian heard that his ancestors had passed down an old antique shop. But by his great-grandfather's generation, it had fallen into disrepair. It had no business to speak of, and was full of junk.

After leaving the filthy entertainment industry behind, he stood beneath the rundown shop with his suitcase.

He looked down and fished in his pocket. All he had was a single five-cent coin...

So that night, the Cui family shop, which had been closed for nearly a century, hung a red lantern outside its door once more.

Its light swayed eerily, and a sudden gust rose in the narrow alley.

From then on, word spread by word of mouth through the social circles of both the living and the dead: Judge Cui had finally opened a shop!

Ghosts, demons, and strange beasts all eagerly set out in the dead of night to pay him a visit.

When Cui Xian opened the shop door, a wave of ghostly wind rushed out and nearly scared him to death!

Then a flash of golden light appeared behind the crowd. A very tall man in black stopped in front of the shop.

The man's overwhelming aura swept away all the ghostly wind and blood stench at the entrance!

"Oh my god! It's Yuan Zhengchu! Everyone, run!"

The man planted a coiling-dragon saber in front of the door.

"Sorry to intrude. Is this the Cui family's office of the underworld?"

Cui Xian stammered, "I-I-I'm just a junk collector..."

The man tilted his head and looked through the crack in the door at the dusty Judge's brush, the Book of a Hundred Ghosts, the Demon-Subduing Whip, and the Soul-Guarding Pearl on the counter.

He gave a cold sneer. "Hah."

Do you think I believe that?

In the end, Cui Xian had no choice but to take up the family trade again, using the Judge's brush to "collect junk" across the border between life and death.

But his cultivation was weak, and without magic power, he couldn't use the brush.

Every time he needed to write, he had no choice but to look at the handsome, short-tempered man beside him.

"Ahem, big shot, how about another kiss? I'm running out of magic power again!"

Yuan Zhengchu, the one being called a big shot, froze. His hand tightened abruptly around the neck of the vengeful ghost he was choking.

But in the end, he silently lowered his head and kissed Cui Xian...

The ghosts: Damn it, not only do we get beaten up, we have to watch them show off their love too? We're blind!

Theme: The abundant life and wilderness beyond the concrete-and-steel city.