The Rise of a Family: Starting from Daily Intelligence - Chapter 427 (Patreon)
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Chapter 427: Void-Heaven Cauldron, Jade Pool Saintess, Spirit-Devouring Black-Armored Beetles
Wu Liangba narrowed his eyes and gave a cold laugh. “Heh, ice and fire twin paths? The Void-Heaven Hall does know how to play. They’re forcing us to pick a single road!”
Junior Sister Kui and Senior Brother Yin exchanged a glance and secretly transmitted to Wu Liangba, “Second Senior Brother, which side do we take?”
Wu Liangba sneered. “Of course the Extreme Fire Passage! Our Techniques already lean toward fire. Once we go in, we’ll be the ones with the edge!”
As everyone hesitated, the two passages suddenly trembled violently, as if urging them to choose at once.
Just then.
Daoist Master Mu rose to his feet and said in a ringing voice, “Fellow Daoists, these two passages are extremely perilous. If you’re not certain, I advise you to stop here and remain where you are. When the time arrives, you’ll be transmitted out of the Taixu Hall.”
At these words, many clearly wavered.
Yu Qingru spoke. “Husband, we’ve already reaped no small harvest this trip. Why don’t we stop here?”
“Mm. I was thinking the same.”
Fu Changsheng had barely finished when—
Boom!
The false-core aura of Wu Liangba’s trio could no longer be concealed. Like a tide it shot toward Fu Changsheng. Faces around the hall changed; none had imagined there were Golden Core-level presences hiding among them—and three at that.
Three waves of Golden Core pressure surged straight at them.
The Purple Mansion cultivators present, fearing collateral damage, scattered in a hurry.
Fu Changsheng’s expression also shifted. “Qingru, fall back!”
Vast magic power rolled over him as he gathered it to his body.
Just as the three pressures were about to fall upon Fu Changsheng, Daoist Master Mu stamped a foot, and a might even stronger than the combined pressure of Wu Liangba’s trio burst outward with a boom.
Boom!
Four auras collided.
Wu Liangba and the other two grunted and were forced back step after step, each face changing. In that instant, the difference between false core and true Golden Core was laid bare. The three had clearly not expected a true Golden Core to be concealed among the crowd.
Daoist Master Mu snorted. “Mere false cores, and you dare bully my disciple!”
Disciple?
Wu Liangba froze for a beat.
When did this bastard Fu Changsheng find himself a Golden Core Daoist Master as teacher?
Wu Liangba adapted quickly. Since the man was a Golden Core, he must be here for the Void-Heaven Cauldron on the final level. If so, their goals overlapped in a way.
He sent Daoist Master Mu a swift voice transmission.
A flash of surprise crossed Daoist Master Mu’s face. He turned to Fu Changsheng, joy lighting his eyes. “Good disciple, you’ve subdued a quasi–fourth-rank Black-Scaled Profound Python?”
Here we go.
Fu Changsheng sighed inwardly.
Chances were he would have to choose one of the two passages next.
Seeing Fu Changsheng tacitly confirm it, Daoist Master Mu was overjoyed and laughed aloud. “Good, good! As expected of the one I set my sights on. Disciple, don’t fear. Pick whichever passage you like. Your teacher will pave the way for you and won’t let you come to harm. Tell me, which one do you want?”
Seeing he didn’t have to act personally, Wu Liangba was delighted to idle, folding his arms across his chest.
Before a Golden Core, if Fu Changsheng wanted to live, he certainly wouldn’t—and couldn’t—refuse to enter the third trial.
“Husband,” Yu Qingru said, face full of worry.
“It’s fine,” Fu Changsheng said as his thoughts raced.
Even without Daoist Master Mu pressing him, he was mostly set on braving the third trial. He still had yet to obtain Donghua Yin Wood to save Ningning. He also held the mysterious key left by Daoist Master Xiao—it could very well be the crucial key to the final floor. Since he was here, and had several items in hand that could contend with Golden Cores, he had to try. At worst, he could flee into the Five Elements Space.
Of course, none of this could be shown outwardly.
Fu Changsheng put on a troubled look. “Daoist Master Mu, if I must choose one, then the Extreme Fire Passage. But my strength is meager; I fear I’ll struggle to pass safely.”
At that, faces all around changed in unison.
Fu Changsheng had openly bid for Transmission Tokens before—tokens only obtained by slaying quasi–fourth-rank resentful souls. He had seized more than a dozen by himself. His strength likely rivaled, if not exceeded, false-core cultivators.
And he called himself weak?
Daoist Master Mu only laughed, then turned toward a man and woman in the northwest corner—both Golden Cores. “Granny Yunhua, Daoist Master Tie, my disciple has a quasi–fourth-rank Black-Scaled Profound Python. It’s an excellent auxiliary spirit beast for drawing out the Void-Heaven Cauldron. Granny Yunhua, your granddaughter, the Jade Pool Saintess, has a suit of Greenvine Spirit Armor. Before entering the Void-Heaven Hall, she handed it to you personally. Put it on my disciple—it will perfectly ward the flames of the Extreme Fire Passage.”
An uproar swept the room.
There were two more Golden Core Daoists here?!
Even Wu Liangba’s trio were stunned. They’d thought themselves the strongest in the team, yet now they were instantly relegated to the third rung. At this rate, even fighting to the death might not secure them any treasure from the Void-Heaven Cauldron.
All three looked exceedingly sour.
Granny Yunhua and Daoist Master Tie now stood up. “Old ghost Mu, you’re no youngster; why do you always jump at every word others say? Can’t you change that disposition?”
Clearly, they needed to see the Black-Scaled Profound Python with their own eyes before handing over the Greenvine Spirit Armor.
Daoist Master Mu didn’t mind in the least and smiled. If he’d truly learned his lesson, he wouldn’t be stuck at Golden Core with his lifespan running out, unable to break into Nascent Soul. He turned to Fu Changsheng with a kindly smile. “Good disciple, don’t be afraid. Bring out your Black-Scaled Profound Python and let Granny Yunhua have a look. With that Greenvine Spirit Armor, you’ll be able to pass the Extreme Fire Passage smoothly.”
“Yes.”
Fu Changsheng was riding a tiger and knew he had little say. He slapped his spirit beast pouch.
“Hiss—”
A wisp of black mist seeped from the mouth of the pouch, dropping to the floor and corroding a scorch mark a few paces wide. Then a bowl-thick body slowly slid out, each scale gleaming with metallic chill. When the serpent’s head fully emerged, several nearby Purple Mansion cultivators staggered back; where those dark-gold vertical pupils swept, minds plunged into an icy abyss.
Wu Liangba’s trio went ugly at the sight.
Though they had mostly guessed the serpent was in Fu Changsheng’s possession, seeing it with their own eyes still rankled. They’d had their eyes on this Black-Scaled Profound Python first, only to have Fu Changsheng cut them off. How could that be swallowed down?
“It truly is a quasi–fourth-rank Black-Scaled Profound Python!”
Leaning on her coiled-dragon staff, Granny Yunhua hurried forward, the murk in her eyes bursting into a frightening brilliance.
“Hiss—”
Sensing six strands of Golden Core spiritual sense probing it, the serpent reared up at once, coiling into a tower that shielded Fu Changsheng at its center.
“Good! Good! Good!” Daoist Master Mu was even more satisfied, praising thrice before turning to Granny Yunhua. “Granny Yunhua, no sense keeping that Greenvine Spirit Armor. You and Daoist Master Tie are taking the Extreme Cold Passage—you won’t need it!”
Granny Yunhua hesitated a breath, then raised a hand. A green light flashed from her sleeve, and an ancient, profound vine armor appeared out of thin air.
The cuirass was a deep verdant hue, its surface wrapped in countless fine spirit patterns that squirmed ever so slightly like living things, exuding thick wood-aspect spiritual power. Stranger still, the surface bore faint dragon-scale patterns. Each scale-likened vein shimmered softly, as if a trace of azure dragon’s breath were sealed within.
“It truly is the Greenvine Spirit Armor?!”
Only the Saintesses of the Jade Pool each generation could wear this treasure. Its grade was already quasi–fifth-rank; a step higher and it would be a spirit treasure a Nascent Soul True Monarch could wield.
Wu Liangba’s pupils shrank, shock and greed flickering in his eyes.
This was a supreme wood-aspect treasure, said to be refined with millennial Profound Spirit Vine and tempered with azure dragon essence blood. Not only was its defense astonishing, it could autonomously absorb heaven-and-earth spiritual energy to repair itself—a life-saving divine item!
Granny Yunhua handed the Greenvine Spirit Armor to Fu Changsheng. “Use it properly.”
Clearly, the armor was a temporary loan to be returned; a Jade Pool Saintess’s belonging was not to be profaned by a man.
“Many thanks, Senior.”
Fu Changsheng hadn’t expected such a windfall. He bowed, then carefully accepted the armor.
The moment it touched his hands, it behaved like a living thing, automatically fitting his form. Green radiance flowed as it became a weightless inner armor that covered him from head to toe. In an instant, a cool, resilient power rose from the cuirass, merging with his own magic power—like an unseen shield forming around him.
“What potent spirituality,” Fu Changsheng marveled inwardly.
Reluctance tugging at her, Granny Yunhua glanced at Daoist Master Mu. “Old ghost Mu, you keep calling him ‘good disciple’—what, trying to pick up a master’s title for free?”
Daoist Master Mu clapped and laughed. “Good! Since Fellow Daoist Yunhua is so generous, how could this teacher fall behind?”
He flicked his sleeve. A stream of scarlet shot out. Spinning in midair, it became a red jade talisman etched with golden, arcane lines, with the vague phantom of a dragon swimming within.
“That’s… a Dragon-Blood Heart-Guarding Talisman?!” Daoist Master Tie’s pupils shrank as he exclaimed.
Daoist Master Mu said proudly, “Indeed. I obtained this back in the Ten Thousand Dragons Abyss, using a drop of essence blood from a flood dragon on the verge of transforming, tempered with millennial fire jade. Take it, disciple. At a critical moment, it can block a full-power strike from a late-stage Golden Core cultivator!”
The talisman hovered before Fu Changsheng and let out a clear hum. It turned into an inch-long crimson dragon phantom that circled him thrice, then darted into his chest. Heat bloomed across Fu Changsheng’s breastbone, and when he looked down, a lifelike dragon tattoo had already appeared over his heart.
“This surprise came too fast.” Fu Changsheng was taken aback. Even ordinary Golden Core Daoists would covet such a life-saving treasure. This time he cupped his hands with genuine feeling. “My thanks, Teacher.”
Daoist Master Mu waved it off. “Since you call me teacher, I will naturally keep you safe.”
Off to the side, Patriarch Lei watched Fu Changsheng gain treasure after treasure, so envious his eyes went red. “That bastard’s luck is heaven-defying.”
Granny Yunhua shot a glance at the passages. “Time’s about up. Young Friend Fu, you should be on your way.”
As she spoke, the six Golden Cores lined up behind Fu Changsheng in unison.
The pressure mounted until Fu Changsheng could hardly breathe. He turned to Yu Qingru and the others. “Qingru, Yaoyao, Fourth Sister, it’s perilous inside. Don’t set foot in there. Wait here to be transmitted out.”
Yu Qingru was heavy with child and dreaded any mishap.
Fu Changli also knew her limits. Yaoyao, however, shook her head. “Father, I’m going with you. If we run into traps or barriers, I can share some of the burden.”
Fu Changsheng hesitated, then nodded.
At this moment, Patriarch Cao, Cao Yuehua, and the Cao clan’s Fifth Elder came over as well; Patriarch Lei and Ancestor Wu did the same. In their eyes, Fu Changsheng had many methods. By following him, they might halve the pressure. Only Patriarch Ouyang, after much deliberation, chose to withdraw.
Behind them, Wu Liangba snorted inwardly. “A bunch of fools!”
The light screen at the Extreme Fire Passage was a random-transmission barrier. The moment you stepped through, you were sent to different starting points. This so-called single ‘passage’ held a world within; it was vast.
“Go!”
Fu Changsheng no longer hesitated. With Yaoyao at his side, he stepped into the Extreme Fire Passage.
Hum!
As he passed the barrier, clouds billowed.
A flash of scarlet filled his vision, space warped around him, and when he blinked again he was suspended above a boiling sea of magma.
“Random transmission?!”
His heart sank. He flung out his spiritual sense at once, but could not sense Yaoyao at all. Clearly, the barrier had scattered everyone to different zones within the Extreme Fire Passage.
Below, crimson magma rolled and bubbled, bursting with jets of searing fire. The air stank of sulfur. In the distance, an obsidian altar hovered over the lava, and upon it floated a fist-sized crimson crystal, radiating a heart-shaking fire-aspect power.
“Fire Spirit Source Crystal?!”
Fu Changsheng’s pupils contracted. This was condensed from the pure essence of heaven-and-earth fire. Refining it would not only greatly amplify fire-aspect Techniques, it could even help break through bottlenecks.
But a treasure like this would surely be guarded—
Boom—
The magma sea heaved. A fire wave dozens of zhang high roared skyward, and within it slowly rose a colossal silhouette—
A Fire Spirit Guardian.
It was a giant beast formed entirely of flame, shaped like a qilin yet bearing three heads. Six red-gold vertical pupils locked onto Fu Changsheng. With every step it took, the magma writhed like a living thing, forming walls of fire to seal off retreat.
“Roar—”
Its bellow sent scorching soundwaves crashing over him, nearly churning Fu Changsheng’s blood to froth. If not for the Greenvine Spirit Armor, his meridians might have been seared in an instant.
As the guardian lunged, Fu Changsheng’s eyes went cold. A scarlet-gold lotus burst to life in his palm—the Nine-Sun Red Lotus Flame. “Burn!”
The lotus flew and swelled, unfurling into a ten-zhang curtain of fire that swept forward.
“Roar—”
All three heads opened wide, and like whales gulping water, the guardian swallowed the Nine-Sun Red Lotus Flame whole! The flame patterns over its body turned red-gold, and its aura surged higher.
“It can swallow different fire?!”
Fu Changsheng’s heart jolted.
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This guardian could even devour the Nine-Sun Red Lotus Flame?
“I’ve hit a hard counter!”
With a thought—
Three streaks of violet lightning shot skyward.
The Thunderstriking Sword cleared its sheath and stirred thunder through the passage. As his hands flew through hand seals, the three swords took the positions of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Their tips braided lightning into a vast Starry Heavenly Thunder sword array diagram. The instant the formation locked, countless thunder serpents lanced from its core and caged the Fire Spirit Guardian.
Boom—
The moment the guardian was trapped by the thunder cage, it stomped.
The entire magma sea boiled at once. Columns of fire speared upward like maddened dragons, slamming into the starry thunder array.
Rumble!
Lightning and flame tangled, screaming and shuddering as the array quaked.
“This guardian’s strength is no less than a Golden Core already!”
Fu Changsheng’s eyes tightened.
He had no mind to press the fight. He prepared to summon the Azure Flood Dragon and flee.
However—
Before he could act, the left head gaped wide and spat a red-gold lava sphere. The fireball swelled midair and, in a blink, became a ten-zhang boulder veined with jagged cracks, annihilating fire power roiling within.
Bang—!
The boulder smashed down and molten spray lashed like a storm.
Fu Changsheng had no room to dodge.
A violet light flashed in his eyes as his hands formed a seal. A hazy layer of Purple Qi Divine Radiance welled around him, smoky and shifting. The lava boulder plunged into the purple glow like a bull into a mire—its blaze shaved away layer by layer until it fizzled into sparks.
“So the Purple Qi Divine Radiance really is wondrous—able to dissolve even fire-spirit power.” He barely had time to breathe when—
The right head threw its muzzle skyward. Flame billowed and condensed into thousands of red-gold fire feathers. Each feather was thin as a cicada’s wing, edges keen as blades, shrieking as they cut the air.
Shoo shoo shoo—
The feathers poured down like rain, blotting the sky as they shot at him.
Fu Changsheng snorted, thunder leaping in his palm. He slammed his hand forward.
Boom!
A streak of scarlet lightning split the sky and burst midair into a dense spray of Bing-Fire Divine Thunder. The rain of thunder clashed with the storm of feathers, exploding in blinding flashes.
The center head then inhaled, swallowing the remaining thunder from the Starry Heavenly Thunder sword array with greedy abandon. Lightning flooded into its body and braided with its inner flames, transforming into a raging force of thunderfire.
“Roar—”
Thunderfire webbed across the guardian’s body. Its aura surged again. Red-gold turned to purple-black lightning patterns; the six pupils sparked with electricity. Its pressure multiplied, climbing all the way to late-stage Golden Core.
This was no opponent he could afford to provoke.
A sweep of spiritual sense showed the Spirit-Devouring Insect had already crept over and coiled around the Fire Spirit Source Crystal. He moved his intent. “Receive.”
Man and insect vanished together into the Five Elements Space.
Hoo—
Within the Five Elements Space, Fu Changsheng finally let out a long breath and turned his attention back to the magma sea outside.
When the guardian found the two-legged creature had vanished, it froze for a beat. Realization dawned; all three heads snapped toward the obsidian altar—the Fire Spirit Source Crystal that had floated there for a thousand years… had disappeared.
“ROAR—!!!”
Its sky-shaking bellow made the whole space tremble. All three heads spewed pillars of flame. The magma sea seethed; fire waves towered. It was as if heaven and earth themselves were venting its rage.
It swept the space with spiritual sense in a frenzy.
At that moment—
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three figures stumbled through a spatial barrier and into the air above the magma sea—Wu Liangba, Junior Sister Kui, and Senior Brother Yin.
“Damn it, why is this hellhole so hot?!” Wu Liangba had barely steadied himself when every hair on his body stood on end.
He looked up—straight into a pair of red-gold vertical pupils burning with boundless fury.
“Not good!” Senior Brother Yin’s scalp prickled.
The guardian’s aura had climbed to late-stage Golden Core. If they were careless today, they’d die with no bones left.
A chill crawled up Wu Liangba’s spine. “What the hell pissed this fire guardian off?”
Before he finished, the guardian attacked first. The left head belched, the magma sea reversed, and a hundred-zhang fire wave slammed toward the trio.
Senior Brother Yin’s pupils shrank. He shoved Junior Sister Kui aside. “Dodge!”
“Senior Brother Yin!” she cried, but he had already conjured a black-iron shield. Symbols flared across its face.
Boom!
The fire wave crashed down. The black-iron shield melted into slag in an instant. Half of Senior Brother Yin’s body was swallowed by magma. His protective light shredded like paper. Blood sprayed from his lips; his right arm charred to exposed bone.
At the same time, the second attack followed hard on the first. Purple-black lightning patterns peeled from the guardian’s body, twisting into three chains that whipped at Wu Liangba.
“Damn!”
In haste, Wu Liangba crushed a life-preserving talisman and flashed away a hundred zhang as golden light—but a chain still grazed his back, shredding his robe and flaying flesh.
“Why is this beast berserk?!”
Wu Liangba’s face was the color of iron. He’d meant to hold back, but now he had no choice. “Rise, Dark Yin Sha!”
His black robe billowed as an inky river of baleful qi surged forth to collide with the thunderfire. The two forces wrestled for barely three breaths before the Sha ignited, backlash pounding Wu Liangba until blood seeped from his lips.
Senior Brother Yin coughed blood and rasped, “Use… the Three Talents Slayer Array!”
Wu Liangba’s face changed. “But your injuries—”
“If we don’t… we’ll all die!” Senior Brother Yin tore open his robe, revealing a chest etched with blood-red runes. “I’ll be the array core!”
Junior Sister Kui’s tears fell like rain, but there was no other choice.
The three formed their seals in an instant. The blood runes over Senior Brother Yin’s heart blazed and forcibly linked their magic power together.
“Blood-Sacrifice Three-Talents Slayer!”
Wu Liangba’s saber, Junior Sister Kui’s sash, and Senior Brother Yin’s remaining essence blood wove together in midair into a colossal crimson blade. Wherever its edge passed, space warped; even the roiling magma stilled for a heartbeat.
Sensing true threat, all three of the guardian’s heads gathered thunderfire at once—
“Cut!!!”
The blood blade split the thunderfire and cleaved into the middle neck.
Sss—
Purple-black thunderfire sprayed like blood. The guardian howled and thrashed, but the other two heads lunged and clamped down on the blade, fangs sparking with lightning.
“Hold it!”
Blood leaked from all seven of Senior Brother Yin’s orifices as his flesh began to crumble.
Junior Sister Kui screamed as she poured everything into the formation. Wu Liangba’s eyes bulged; he bit his tongue and spat blood over the saber. “Open for me!”
Rumble—
The blood blade detonated. All three heads exploded at once. The colossal body reeled, then toppled into the magma and sank, throwing up waves a thousand zhang high.
The magma sea slowly calmed.
Senior Brother Yin collapsed to his knees. The blood rune at his chest had already gone ashen.
Wu Liangba dragged his broken saber, silently watching as Yin’s body faded to transparency.
“Take… take Little Kui out…” Senior Brother Yin forced a smile. He scattered into ash.
“Senior Brother…” Junior Sister Kui’s tears wouldn’t stop. They had barely entered the Extreme Fire Passage when they encountered a maddened guardian; she’d never imagined her senior brother would fall so soon.
Wu Liangba clenched his teeth and pulled her up by the wrist. “Don’t just stand there! This cursed place could collapse any moment!”
The two had feelings for each other, yet neither had spoken first. Junior Sister Kui had planned to confess after the Kunlun Secret Realm expedition ended.
Who would have thought they’d be parted by life and death like this?
For once, Wu Liangba’s tone softened. “Junior Sister, grieve later. This isn’t the time. We have to go!”
He’d barely finished when the altar beneath them shook violently.
Rumble—
Spiderweb cracks raced across the obsidian surface. The magma boiled up again, even more violently than before.
“Bad—it’s a magma upheaval triggered by the guardian’s death.” Wu Liangba’s face changed. He hauled Junior Sister Kui up. “Move!”
They had only just lifted off when the altar exploded behind them. Fire tides roared skyward as stone shards, wrapped in magma, blasted in all directions.
Inside the Five Elements Space—
Watching one of Wu Liangba’s trio die, Fu Changsheng found the outcome rather satisfying. One fewer enemy to worry about.
With the Fire Spirit Source Crystal in hand, he could break through to the ninth layer of Purple Mansion. He forced down the urge to cultivate immediately. When the magma sea settled and no one was nearby, he willed himself out of the Five Elements Space.
He mounted the Azure Flood Dragon and broke through the rolling sea of magma.
The heat fell away.
A bizarre black desert spread out before him.
“What is this…”
Fu Changsheng swept out his spiritual sense.
Endless black sand stretched to the horizon, utterly lifeless—as if cursed into dead stillness.
“This desert is strange.”
Frowning, he had the Azure Flood Dragon halt.
He patted his storage pouch.
A rainbow flash.
A Foundation Establishment–grade puppet beast appeared in a streak of black. He poured in a stream of magic to awaken its power-source stone, and it clanked forward, step by step, into the black sands.
“Hm?”
It had gone several hundred zhang—nearly beyond the reach of his spiritual sense—yet nothing had happened.
“Was I overthinking it?”
The thought had barely formed when the desert changed.
Sha-sha-sha—
The black sand writhed like a living thing. Countless black beetles the size of thumbnails bored up from below. Their carapaces were pitch as ink, inscribed with eerie blood-red lines; their mouthparts were sharp as knives, and their biting made a tooth-aching crunch.
“What in the world is that?”
Fu Changsheng’s face shifted and he immediately manipulated the puppet.
Ka—kaka—
Blades of profound iron snapped out at the puppet’s joints. Its arms spun like a whirlwind, dicing dozens of beetles in a breath. Fetid green ichor sprayed from the severed bodies; where it spattered on the sand, blue smoke hissed up.
But—
From underground, as inexhaustible as the sea, a tide of black beetles surged out and swarmed the puppet beast in an instant, covering it completely.
In barely three breaths, the Foundation Establishment puppet was eaten clean—not even a scrap of metal remained. Worse, once they finished, the black insects turned in unison toward Fu Changsheng, as if they could smell living flesh across the distance.
“Looks like Spirit-Devouring Black-Armored Beetles!”
Fu Changsheng drew a sharp breath.
These ancient fiend-insects fed exclusively on spiritual energy. Once they formed a full-blown swarm, even a late-stage Golden Core would give way. He didn’t hesitate. He recalled the Azure Flood Dragon with a seal, and in a flicker of movement slipped into the Five Elements Space.
Thanks for reading—what a ride: surprise armor, a heart-guarding talisman, and a magma boss straight out of a cultivator’s nightmare. If you’re enjoying Fu Changsheng’s chaos run, I would be wildly grateful for your support on Patreon; even a small pledge keeps these chapters flowing and lets me tackle longer, juicier updates. And if you have a second, please rate or leave a short review on NovelUpdates—it really helps new readers find the series.