Rebirth As a Fatuous and Self-indulgent Ruler - Chapter 439: It's All Liu Suifeng's Fault! (I)

Young Chen Xiang had a fateful encounter with a goddess & demoness and received their peerless heritage, divine pulses, ultimate martial arts, and transcendent alchemy techniques, which gave him an easy ride in his journey of cultivation.

When hungry, he refines some spirit pills to eat as snack, when lonely he flirts with the goddesses, when bored he teases those martial artists who came to beg for spirit pills, when tired he lets his beautiful wives massage him.

- Description from Novelupdates

Today, I am a substitute for your fiancee. Tomorrow, I’ll become your sister-in-law!

Mu Mingtang is the substitute of the male lead’s first love. After she lost her family, she was adopted by the Jiang family and eventually became engaged to the male lead, the Prince of Jin.

Understanding very well that she was only a substitute, she removed her claws and fangs and turned herself into an imitation of the Prince of Jin’s first love. She couldn’t speak or laugh as she wished, she was prepared to live in the shadow of another woman for her entire life… until one day, the real Miss Jiang returned.

The real Miss Jiang was reborn. When she learned that she was the male love’s first love, she immediately returned to fight for her engagement and identity.

In order to please his first love, the Prince of Jin gave the substitute to the Prince of Qiyang, who had become a dying madman. She was just a low-quality fake, anyway. If she dared to anger his first love, he would turn her into a childless and powerless widow for the rest of her life.

Mu Mingtang, the target of their mockery, finally snapped: Okay, since you gave me to another man, I’ll make you bow and call me sister-in-law!

However, none of them expected the Prince of Qiyang, the God of War, to actually wake up!

—

Xie Xuanchen is the son of the late emperor. The whole world once trembled beneath his feet, but one day, for a reason unknown to even Xie Xuanchen himself, his nature suddenly changed. He became cruel and bloodthirsty, leaving his father with no choice but to pass the throne to his uncle.

Eventually, Xie Xuanchen was unable to resist the illness and fell into a coma.

When he woke up again, there was a beauty standing before his bed, looking at him in surprise. Then, for the sake of his domineering little princess, he revived his name as the God of War, reclaimed the throne, and united the world.

I once captured the world to satisfy my own ambition. Now, you are the reason for my ambition.

“Ah, him? He’s just Daeyeong’s acquaintance.” He hated those words. Choi Seolwoo is trying to leave behind his teens and twenties, which he spent as Won Daeyeong’s shadow. Won Daeyeong (gong), the national team captain who became the first Korean track and field athlete to qualify for the Olympics in the 400m, and Choi Seolwoo (soo), a newly qualified Certified Public Accountant, are childhood friends of over a decade. Choi Seolwoo, weary of the pain of his obsessive unrequited love for Won Daeyeong, impulsively enters into a contractual relationship with a sub-seme and declares a break-up with Won Daeyeong, intending to completely remove him from his life and start anew. Won Daeyeong is displeased with Choi Seolwoo trying to end their friendship over a relationship. Just how much attention had he demanded since they were young? Even he himself acknowledged how incredibly well he’d treated him. It wasn’t as if he had expected anything in return for looking after him, but still, this is absurd. To take him for granted and push him aside like this. Won Daeyeong proposes that if Choi Seolwoo appears on five episodes of a segment called “An Acquaintance” on his Xtube channel, which has 1.1 million subscribers, he will agree to the break-up. The filming of a variety show exposing every detail of Won Daeyeong’s life begins. Unexpectedly, the view count explodes due to the spicy and entertaining talk with frequent bleeps, the genuine bromance chemistry and realistically fierce fights, and Choi Seolwoo’s idol-like visuals. Choi Seolwoo, the “break-up guy,” ends up advertising himself to the entire nation as Won Daeyeong’s best friend. Wait, somehow this… seems to be moving further away from a break-up…?

For as long as he could remember, life had always been cruel.A young man in his early twenties—his name now lost to the past—was dealt a life filled with misfortunes.A cold, empty apartment, a soul-crushing job, and, finally, a terminal diagnosis.With nothing left to live for, his only comfort had been escaping into the fictional world of Path of the Elemental Sage, a story of heroes, magic, and survival.But fate had other plans.When death finally came for him, he didn’t fade into nothingness.Instead, he awoke in the world he had only read about—a world of chaos and danger where death lurked around every corner.The air smelled of magic, the sky was filled with possibilities.{«[Status Window]»}[Name: Lyrium Blackwood][Age: 16][Rank: D-][Skills: None][Elements: None}At first, confusion filled his mind.Who was Lyrium Blackwood?Why was he here?And why did this body feel so different?But as his memories returned, so did the realization: this wasn’t some blessing or second chance.He wasn’t reincarnated as the protagonist.No destined savior.No cheat abilities.No grand fate.He was just another mob, a face in the crowd meant to exist and die without leaving a mark.But this young man—the one who had left his old name and life behind—wasn’t the kind of person to roll over and accept his fate.“This world is dangerous. The protagonist isn’t the only one fighting for survival here,”he muttered, his red eyes deep and sharp.Unlike the naïve characters in the story, he knew the stakes.He’d read the web novel.He’d seen the carnage, the betrayals, the disasters that wiped out entire cities.And if there was one thing he refused to be, it was a pawn in someone else’s game.“I don’t care about glory. I don’t care about saving the world. All I care about is surviving—no matter what it takes.”Lyrium Blackwood wasn’t planning to live quietly or avoid danger.The only way to survive in this brutal world was to rise to the top.To be strong enough to stand above both heroes and villains.Using his knowledge of the story’s events and his iron will, Lyrium sets out on a relentless path to surpass the protagonist.Whether through clever manipulation, brutal training, or sheer desperation, he’ll climb higher and higher, leaving nothing to chance.But the deeper he gets, the more he realizes that this isn’t just the story he once read.As fate pushes him closer to the heart of the narrative, Lyrium begins to suspect that his reincarnation wasn’t an accident—and the world itself might be watching him.“I don’t care who or what stands in my way. If the story wants to kill me, I’ll rewrite the ending myself.”----------------------------------I apologize for any mistakes in this story, as it’s my first attempt at writing a novel.