The Archduke's Songbird - Chapter 8: Rock and a Hard Place

There once was a boy who was an orphan and suffered abuse from his village residents. The only friend he had was the dummy scarecrow on the field, whom he talked to. One day, a wealthy man brutally beat the boy. The next morning, the wealthy man was found dead, and the scarecrow was covered in blood. Terrified, the villagers were convinced that the scarecrow had come to life to avenge its tormented friend. And it was the last scarecrow ever placed again in the fields, considering it a sign of death. — After scarecrow dolls begin appearing in the streets of Riddleford next to murder victims, the town is thrown into chaos.When the hunt for the mystery scarecrow murderer begins, it is only a matter of time before the famous Frontier Hall Opera House employees are subjected to suspicion, each protecting a secret of their own. But is that all that is going on? Or is there something unseen?

I am a girl.But no one can know that.In Silvermoor, only men fight in the war, but House Ironfang has no more males to give.To prevent my father from sure death in the war, I wore his clothes and disguised myself as a man to take his place in the army.We won, but the enemy has taken me captive. The Demonic Alpha King who marked me as his without knowing what I truly am to punish me for losing him a war.But now, it is more than a punishment as he is now obsessed and hell-bent on seducing me. He tells me it doesn't matter what skin I wear, man or woman, he'll always want me.I hope to the Moon Goddess that it isn't true.Because I will never submit to him.

It’s a story that happened long, long ago, in a continent far, far away, about gods and mortals, sword and magic, war and peace, and of course love and hatred.

Amon was a poor miner’s son in a remote town in the kingdom of Hittite. Along with the discovery of a marvelous gem, his fate was changed. People on this land called it Gods’ Tear. But wait, what were the gods? It was said that the gods created the world. Then who created the gods?

Forced by the tantalizing fate, Amon had to struggle to find out the truth behind this world of magic and gods……

- Description from Novelupdates

In the God Domain, Cultivators were far and few between, but each of them wielded power that would make them known as gods.

How did they come to have such power? They comprehended the laws between heaven and earth and became those very laws.

But something occurred, a youth that hadn’t gained the acknowledgment of the heavens to become a cultivator chance upon Qi. Determined to reverse the bad hand faith had dealt him he started researching it and came to a shocking conclusion. The very laws that the heavens prevented him from comprehending were swirling around in this strange energy!

The youth thought to himself that if he could somehow control it, then he could defy the heavens and become a cultivator. Without any hesitation he began researching more and found out that the only way to control this newfound energy was to absorb it within his body.

After many years of preparations, he did exactly that.

However, he promptly died from the finger size strand he absorbed.

Ten years after his death a cultivator found his research journal and decided to further study this fascinating idea.

Skip forward to an unknown period in the future and a baby was born into a powerful royal family as the second prince. Upon his birth this child had the laws of heaven and earth swirling around him. This immediately sent the royal court into a stir as they thought the heavens themselves had blessed the Emperor’s second son.

But as that was happening, the baby that had just been born saw the midwife use a spell to turn Qi into water to clean him.

Upon seeing this, the baby’s eyes widen into saucers as a voice screamed hysterically in his head, “W-WHO THE FUCK STOLE MY IDEA?!”