Working Nine to Five as a Menace in the Cultivation World

The History of a Mushroom Slacker

Yao Nian, a model young adult worn down by overtime, died from overwork and ended up in a cultivation world. Her name was so awkward to pronounce that her friends often teased her by calling her “monster,” but she didn’t want to actually become one, ahhh!

She could accept being an ordinary little monster, but why was she saddled with the responsibility of resurrecting the Demon God when she was still just a mushroom spore?

Her cheap adoptive father, who worked for the Demon God, was the model employee: working at full intensity 365 days a year, either searching for the Demon God’s bones or on his way to search for them.

Forced to take over his job, Yao Nian was close to tears. Wasn’t this just a heartless company?

Fortunately, the Demon God was rarely awake. Having learned her lesson after working herself to death in her previous life, Yao Nian was determined to stick to a nine-to-five, eight-hour workday. She wouldn’t lift a finger more than necessary or let her exploitative boss (the Demon God) get the better of her. She’d try every trick in the book, from taking paid bathroom breaks to slacking off on the job.

She couldn’t do without a slacking-off buddy, either. Thanks to her keen instincts, she set her sights on Mo Wang, a mysterious young man who also worked for the Demon God.

*

Mo Wang was asked by his loyal subordinate, who had served him faithfully for tens of thousands of years, to look after his daughter.

She was a mushroom spore that had been dormant for a thousand years without growing. For her father’s sake, and so he’d have another subordinate to order around, Mo Wang used some of his blood essence to force the spore to grow.

He planted the mushroom beside himself. Perhaps because he was feeding it his blood essence, it grew in a rather strange way. To take better care of it, he had to create a clone to keep an eye on it, make sure it cultivated, and help it take human form.

Once it had grown up enough to be useful, he had it inherit its father’s duties.

He never expected the spore he’d raised to turn rebellious after he followed her all that way. Being lazy was one thing, but she even threw his Demon God bones into the Ten Thousand Fathom Abyss.

Mo Wang retrieved his bones himself, his gaze dark and unfathomable. For who knew how many times, he considered crushing the mushroom he’d raised to death.

In short: Two fools, Yao Nian (Monster) and Mo Wang (Demon King), take down their own exploitative company.

I’ll work out the conflicts in the blurb once I start writing, and might revise it again then.

I’ll add a little extra scene later. Mostly, I just wanted to put up the new cover that’s been sitting around for ages.

Theme: Persevere and strive for self-improvement.