[Next pre-release: No CP + infrastructure building + Fourth Disaster + a touch of xianxia and cosmic horror, a long epic, "Cultivation Begins with Game Design." Blurb at the end~]
Gou Huangxuan, an ordinary human who liked to lie low, was adopted by a monster. Her adoptive mother was a dog demon with a gentle, easygoing personality who preferred to lie flat. She raised Gou Huangxuan alone in the human world for eighteen years.
Until... the immortals in the Heavenly Court began to stir. Her adoptive mother, who was on her deathbed, suddenly sat bolt upright, thinking the powers above were coming to round up rogue demons. She clung to Gou Huangxuan and cried her heart out, then decided to awaken their ancestor and return to the monster community.
Gou Huangxuan: "Mom, I'm a little scared of monsters..."
Mom: "Good question. I'm scared of monsters too. That's why I avoided them and lived on my own."
Gou Huangxuan: "?"
Mom: "That's why we need to ask our ancestor to come out of seclusion. With Grandma and Great-Grandpa doting on you, you'll be their little ancestor."
Gou Huangxuan: "I get it! I'll be the monsters' little ancestor!"
*
After Gou Huangxuan brought the ancestor who had come out of seclusion home, she returned with her adoptive mother to Bishui Huating, an urban residential complex where 30% of the residents were monsters.
She always thought that with her ancestor's protection, all she'd done was move house. Life would go on as usual, and she'd still go to school as normal.
But then...
The ghost of a classmate who had died unexpectedly reappeared!
A baby could often be heard crying late at night!
Then snow-white glutinous rice started appearing in the corridor!
In the pitch-black night, the characters for benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith would dance wildly, accompanied by a ringing cry!
Gou Huangxuan was so scared she wailed. Her ancestors rushed to the door of the nine-tailed fox's apartment upstairs in the middle of the night. "Could you and the Mountain God of Qiwu and the phoenix talk at home instead of yapping away in the corridor? And, phoenix, don't fly around when you get carried away. It's terrifying."
The nine-tailed fox, whose speech sounded like a baby crying, the Mountain God of Qiwu, who collected glutinous rice from work every day, and the phoenix, a five-virtue bird representing benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith: "O-okay."
Gou Huangxuan wiped away her tears, touched. "Thank you, Grandma. So, what kind of monster is my dead classmate who showed up again?"
Ancestor: "Oh, that one? That's your classmate. One of our old friends in this building probably gave you a yin-yang eye while absorbing the Emperor's Dew."
Gou Huangxuan, who was afraid of ghosts and monsters alike, slowly typed out a question mark...
*
If she could go back in time, would she, as a baby, insist on crawling toward a different adoptive parent?
As Gou Huangxuan tremulously saw off ghosts, she did her best to overcome her fear and get used to making friends with her strange monster neighbors.
After thinking it over for a long time, she hugged her family [monsters]. "No. If I had to do it all over again, I'd still want Mom, Grandma, and Great-Grandpa."
Looking at her monster neighbors' eager faces,
"Fine, I want all these uncles, aunties, and friends too."
*
Reader's guide:
This shares a world with "Working Nine to Five in the Heavenly Court." Characters from the first book will make cameo appearances, but you don't need to have read it.
It's still my kind of adored-by-everyone, unbeatable protagonist story. It's nice to have powerful family backing you up.
Ensemble cast + heroine's perspective + no CP + lighthearted, everyday life.
Her family [monsters] are all gorgeous monsters. The happy life of a beautiful Tengu family.
Sources include Baidu and the Classic of Mountains and Seas, along with Chinese monster tales. This may not be accurate; these are my own versions of monsters. Read at your own risk. P.S. Great-Grandpa is female, so the pronoun "she" is used in the first few chapters. For monsters, use he or she when they take human form, and it when they take their original form. Villains are it [because villains are bad].
*
[Blurb for "Cultivation Begins with Game Design"]
Dong Zhixuan transmigrates into a rundown sect with only two people, neither of whom can even scrape together the cultivation needed to reach the Qi Refining stage. He's the sect leader.
Fortunately, the sect leader's seal, which the original owner had been unable to use no matter what, houses the souls of many people who supposedly fought their way out of an infinite-flow game.
After successfully rebelling and getting all the survivors out, these obscure people were left with only remnant souls, trapped in a tiny pocket of space.
On the suggestion of a certain new Lord God surnamed Lin, he tries making puppet bodies to house these souls and have them serve as NPCs. He'll use a game to trick people from Blue Star into helping him revitalize the sect in another world.
And so... the epoch-making fully immersive VR game, "Ascend the Clouds," is now in closed beta!
The most realistic audiovisual experience!
Ultimate graphics with full ray tracing!
NPCs with vivid personalities and flesh-and-blood histories, hinting at thrilling pasts with every word, leaving players hooked.
What's more, get picked for a beta account and the official team will send you a login pod!
From then on, while others cultivate, brave secret realms, and search for cave abodes, Dong Zhixuan pulls his hair out as he hammers out the version 1.1 patch notes.
While others gather disciples and prepare for battle, Dong Zhixuan burns the midnight oil updating the battle event on the official website.
While other sect leaders are adored, Dong Zhixuan gets chased and cursed by his own "inner disciples," who call him a damn game designer.
Other disciples try every trick to squeeze cultivation resources out of their sects. The players start a petition on the forum too: raise the NPC affection cap and expand the range of gifts they can give. They want to build giant villas for these vivid, lifelike paper people!
As the world's secrets are revealed layer by layer, Dong Zhixuan and his fellow transmigrators realize this isn't a normal cultivation story.
Five great continents, seven kingdoms, and a world spanning ninety thousand li!
In the east, the wasteland of the Golden Crow. In the west, phoenixes sing from Kunlun.
Zhurong opens its eyes, changing the sun and moon. A hanging corpse hangs upside down through the three heavens.
An "immortal" comes from the edge of the sky, refining billions of living beings in a single furnace.
The sect leader, universally acknowledged as the most outstanding in ten thousand years, stands with his hands behind his back. Facing the immortal, he calmly proclaims to every sect, Daoist school, and faction under heaven:
"I command three million Sword Immortals. Even the Great Firmament Immortals show me respect!"
*
There are two kinds of everyday posts on the "Ascend the Clouds" game forum.
One kind goes:
[Aaaaah, did you see the new NPC from the Punishment Hall? Holy crap, she's really so pretty! So what if she's cold? Who doesn't love a beautiful, powerful, tragic character? The game is virtual, but our Baby Bai is real!]
[For the Hall of Medicine elder, I'd water another hundred mu of fields! If the sky falls, the elder's face will hold it up; if the ground gives way, the elder's gentle personality will prop it up. Admit it, players in the Hall of Medicine have it good!]
The other kind goes:
[What kind of idiot game designer starts a beta-exclusive event at four in the morning? The event's so rushed, is he racing to be reborn or what? The daily rewards are so stingy, and there's so much nonsense. If I knew where he lived, I'd go over and slap him twice!]
[Let's review the game's designer's latest unhinged stunts. Like this post, and we'll pool money to buy him a coffin.] [This post has been featured.]
[I'm done. When is "Ascend the Clouds" going public? When's the anniversary? When are they doing a livestream to thank the players? Not that I mean anything by it. I just want to meet this designer in person, whose household registration booklet only has one page.]
After browsing the forum for the day, Dong Zhixuan decided the players had too much free time. It was time to open a mixed-pool gacha for popular NPC keepsakes.
What? A guarantee? We don't have anything like that in "Ascend the Clouds"! ovo
--
Reader's guide: Fourth Disaster-style cultivation and leveling + ensemble cast + nontraditional cultivation world.
A long, no-CP epic. I've made up a lot of things. If I can make it all fit, I will. If not, please don't overthink it.
Theme: Time spent with family is always warm. Love your family, love your life.
Island of Terror [Infinite]
The Taoist Master Takes Charge [Feng Shui]
Cultivating Immortality Begins with Game Design [Worldbuilding]
[In the Apocalypse, My Superpower Is Eating???]
We Got Transported as a Group, but We Graduated from a Game University
Seven Contracts [Infinite]
Working Nine to Five in the Heavenly Court
Pre-receipt of the next book "Cultivation of Immortality Starts with Game Planning" without CP plot flow, infrastructure + fourth natural disaster + Xian Xia Wei Ke world view. If you are interested, please save it!
I have read two books in a row. The story line is very smooth, the foreshadowing is well laid out, the short stories are connected naturally, and the writing style makes people feel comfortable. I feel like I have discovered a treasure! The first book "Heaven" introduced me to many categories of immortals. It turns out that there are six stars in the South Pole and seven stars in the North Pole. It turns out that even the gods have their own happiness and little troubles. The second monster showed me the protagonist Xuanxuan's never giving up and her great core of self-reliance. Every character of the wife is very three-dimensional. I shed tears for their suffering, and I feel happy that their good and evil are rewarded. The bond between creatures really moved me. I don't know how to say it, but I am already your die-hard fan 🌈🌈🌈 I hope you will write more articles, and write more non-CP articles
I was busy during the summer vacation and had no time to read the article. Today I suddenly remembered to continue to follow the story of Uncle Su and Sanjin. I cried for a long time. You are still so good at making me cry. I look forward to your article with a heroine. (I don't read Gou Mei's stories with single male protagonists, so I can only wait for you to write stories with female protagonists without CP)
You were the first one to ask me to top up money
It's hard enough to go to work, but I also have to look at the seven kinds of pain. I'm so miserable, oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo,
The book is average, but the back part obviously doesn't look good.
I thought it was the little fat man's mother, but it turned out to be the old lady who helped the little fat man reduce the bottle weight??
So where did the author go 💔? Judging from the time, I feel that this is the author's trumpet [changed] [changed]
Oh! If the heroine hadn't called out his name, I would have almost forgotten his identity.
Fully ordered, it looks good, I love reading it, I will give it a second try in a while.