[Latest Update]: This novel is undergoing a major revision. To check the revision progress, look for chapters whose titles include [From this chapter onward, the text has not been revised, read with caution], as well as all chapters after them. Earlier chapters have already been revised and are ready to read.
[Why I'm revising, and an explanation of the process]: This story spans a long period of time, and the first 80 chapters were written in 2024. I really love this story and want to make it even better, so I'm revising it extensively. The opening chapters have now been almost entirely rewritten. If you read the previous version and are still interested in the story, you can also reread the revised version.
[Updates to the latest chapters]: This is not updated daily; I post a few chapters a week. My outline still has an Empire arc that may be quite long, along with some other content. I'm not planning to cut anything, so it will probably take hundreds of thousands more words to finish... Proceed with caution, everyone! I will definitely finish it, but I don't know when, and updates are a little irregular. I'm so sorry!
[Chapter comments are open, come join in!]
[Blurb]:
Jiang Cun, who has lost his memory, discovers that he is a cool, aloof supporting character in the comic Dawn's Light.
On the comic forum, readers mostly describe him as: "An early-death cannon fodder," "A walking flashback device," and "At least he's good-looking."
The good news: He has several years left before his death, and the comic forum is his golden finger, letting him get spoilers and exchange for skills.
The bad news: The forum readers' conversations are bizarre, and their posts mix truth with lies, so he can't trust everything. On top of that, the original plot ends with the entire Federation destroyed and humanity nearly wiped out.
Jiang Cun: I think there's still time to save both me and the Federation.
So Jiang Cun drags his genetically defective body through one desperate turnaround after another, eventually becoming a wildly popular character in the comic.
But at the final moment, he is pinned humiliatingly to a conference table and forced to endure the scrutiny of those in power. His arrogance and pride are ground into the dirt along with his blood.
"Colluding with the Zerg."
"The real culprit."
"Traitor to humanity."
One baseless accusation after another is laid at Jiang Cun's door. He raises his icy, stern face, his bright blue eyes filled with defiance.
The comic forum readers start mourning him outright:
[He was battered and bruised for humanity, yet still held himself together and refused to kneel.]
[No one understood him, and no one knew what he had done. Jiang Cun bore everything alone and walked into the darkness.]
[He was the light of dawn, but he died before dawn could break.]
A mysterious group of forum readers imagine Jiang Cun's relationships with the others like this:
[Lies and schemes intertwine, love at first sight, but neither can do a thing about it.]
[They gave each other their hearts, only to draw their blades on each other in the end.]
[Doubt and trust coexist, a twisted, one-of-a-kind warmth.]
And they pour their passionate love into fanworks: The Academy Student's Day of Torment, The Room You Can't Leave Unless You..., The Fate of the Ice-Cold Beauty Is to Be..., Punishment for a Traitor...
Jiang Cun: What is all this...? How did I not know I had this kind of relationship with them?
Reading tips: Plot-focused, beautiful and tragic protagonist, possibly with a lethal dose of being adored by everyone. Lots of one-sided crushes from supporting characters, along with plenty of humans and nonhumans obsessing over, revering, admiring, loving and hating, or pursuing the protagonist out of spite. The protagonist is at the center of the world, everyone's unattainable beloved.
One-on-one happy ending, endgame pairing with Xie Zheng. Forum-style chapters appear in the novel. All settings are made up by the author, so don't take them too seriously~~ Blurb, third version, October 11, 2024.
---------Coming Soon: The Charismatic CEO Cultivates Immortality---------
Xie Xingyi transmigrated to the cultivation world two hundred years ago.
He was betrayed by his closest friend and abandoned by his sect. His heart has hardened into stone.
Then one day, his golden finger finally arrives, years late.
[Dear Host, the CEO System is at your service.]
Xie Xingyi: "Say that again. What kind of System are you?"
[The CEO System.]
Xie Xingyi: "But I'm in the cultivation world!"
As everyone knows, a domineering CEO is bound to be handsome and wealthy, and to run a massive corporation with control over the lifeblood of the global economy.
But in the cultivation world, the very concept of a company doesn't exist.
The System falls silent for a moment. [A similar organizational structure has been detected... Updating phased tasks... Host, please establish a sect first... Please expand your company as soon as possible!]
As everyone knows, there's one other essential trait of a domineering CEO: being domineering.
Xie Xingyi starts doing everything he can to poach talent.
He delivers classic CEO lines to all kinds of gifted young cultivators:
"No one's ever dared to reject me before. You're the first. Interesting. Are you playing hard to get?"
"Can't you feel how I feel about you? Stop rejecting me!"
"Man, don't test my limits. You're in no position to bargain with me. From now on, you're mine!"
He doesn't even spare the passersby:
"If xx dies, I'll make every last one of you pay with your lives!"
"Who gave you the nerve to touch his hand? Do you even know he's one of my people?"
The aloof, ethereal sword cultivator prodigy, the reserved and self-disciplined Buddhist holy son, the noble and brilliant Daoist prodigy... They all fall for him and join Xie Xingyi's empty-shell sect.
-
Everyone says Xie Xingyi runs a sect of seductive cultivators, inviting any handsome, talented cultivator he meets to join, then spending every night in revelry. And his secret lovers are more numerous than anyone can count.
Xie Xingyi: Slander! This is absolute slander! My relationships with all my fellow cultivators are completely innocent!
Blurb, first version, November 16, 2024.
Theme: Humanity's epic is a song of courage.
Wow (?◇?) Insect mother or something... Jiang Jiang is really good.
I really want to see the forum comments after knowing who the insect mother was in the previous life. Urgent, urgent, urgent [pigeon]
Insect Mother Cuncun[loving eyes][loving eyes] By the way, who is the God of Sleep? The one who keeps dreaming about Jiang Cun?
God, this is his responsibility. Too heavy baby. The people who originally gave this gift did not expect that obsession would distort the gift. And it's too abominable not to award Jiang Jiang a medal [angry]
Tied... Broken
Look good, dear baby Cun(●???●)
Why is it so funny 🐶
Why have I been reading this for so long and then I finished it all at once 💔 😭
You Jiang p (exclamation)
It seems like I was stabbed... (Vomiting blood) uh... (Actor upper body ing)