The Shining Star Above The Heaven - Chapter 20: First Battle 2

Read the first six chapters, and you won’t be able to stop.Elliot Crown was just an ordinary teenager......boring life, average grades, nothing special. But one day, he unlocked a terrifying ability: he could hear people’s thoughts… but only if he knew their name and age first.At first, he treated it as a game, exploiting secrets, manipulating people, and bending reality to his will.But then, the nightmare began.One night, he fell asleep in his world—only to wake up in another. No explanation. No way back. Just an unfamiliar world filled with danger.He tried using his ability, desperate for answers.And then… he died.But that wasn’t the end.He woke up again........in a different world. New body. New identity. Same fate.Over and over, the cycle continued. Sometimes a prince, sometimes a slave, a soldier, a sorcerer, a demon… but every time, he met the same cruel fate.Yet Elliot didn’t care. As long as he had his power, he would manipulate, deceive, and twist the world to his will. If the universe wanted to play games with him… then he would play to win.

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

The Imperial Court of Tang Empire became dim and corrupt. The Emperor believed eunuchs. The officials vied with each other for authority. The Tang Empire was about to collapse. The flouring Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism eyed it covetously. The three sects wanted to contend for the domination of the whole world. Which one would win in the end? Or would they coexist peacefully at last? Armies of different nations invaded the frontier on all sides. People and the whole world were in extreme misery. Who could save them?

A young man of the Imperial Clan was reborn in Chang’an. In the Last Life, he was framed and was driven out of his place. He was the king of the subjugated country. When he wandered on the streets, he wanted to be an ordinary people and live an ordinary life in Chang’an but failed.

In this life, he determined to fight against the heaven and change his own fate. He would not give those people an opportunity who framed him in his Last Life. He would hold his title and his place. In order to maintain order and peace of the world, he was going to wipe out all villains of the whole world with the Imperial Sword, adhere to the emperor’s principle, and enact the new national law. He would rule over the empire to prove himself.

- Description from Novelupdates

(Immortal Cultivation+Meeting a Perfect Match+Shura Field+Invincible Flow+Upgrade Flow+Playing the Pig and Eating the Tiger)—What is cultivation? When I think back to the past, cultivation was, as a baby, kicking my legs over and over again—kicking on the bed, kicking on the ground, kicking every single day. Cultivation was, as I grew older, swinging my sword again and again—slashing here, cutting there. Cultivation became, as I matured, the repeated harmony of yin and yang—busy tonight, and busy again tomorrow night. … My name is Xu Ming. I have never cared about the stipends given to me by those sect masters, noble ladies, or princesses.I said to her, “Can you give me a room closer to yours? I need to report my work to you at any moment.” Even if I accomplish nothing every day, I just want to watch how she cultivates. I…