The Handyman's Guide to Heavenly Tribulations
By @john1208
For three thousand years, Zhongli Que was the undisputed Apex Sovereign of the Ocher Expanse. Then he got sick of the endless paperwork, the groveling elders, and the constant assassination attempts. Faking his own death, he rebranded himself as 'Gong Zui', a mortal handyman charging minimum wage to unclog spiritual latrines and patch leaky defensive arrays at the impoverished Weeping Banyan Sect. Needing someone to carry his heavy toolboxes, Gong hires Shen Yimo - a teenager rejected by every sect for his entirely inert 'Stone-Lead Meridians'. To make his new assistant stronger for manual labor, Gong teaches him the 'Ergonomic Shovel Stance' and 'Rhythmic Brick-Laying Breathing'. But Gong's understanding of the universe is so profound that his mundane chores are actually the lost Primordial Dao of Physical Sanctification. Soon, Shen is casually swatting away arrogant young masters and shattering tournament records, all while earnestly claiming his master is just a humble carpenter. As the supreme orthodox sects grow terrified and mobilize their grandmasters to execute this 'demonic anomaly', will Gong Zui have to pick up his rusty trowel and remind the world who wrote the laws of cultivation in the first place?
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The Librarian's Guide to Folding Arrogant Prodigies
By @john1208
Su Zhiqiu was born with 'Vellum Meridians' - energy channels so flat and fragile that circulating even a drop of Qi threatens to rip her apart from the inside. Ridiculed and rejected by every pavilion in the Pinnacle-Cloud Martial Academy, she is dumped into the Myriad Scroll Repository to serve out her days as an ink-grinder for Old Wen, a mundane, tea-sipping archivist. Pitying the girl, Old Wen teaches her the entirely ordinary, non-magical art of book preservation: how to press, fold, and bind unruly pages without using Qi. But Old Wen is actually the Emperor of the Heavenly Canopy, the realm’s vanished supreme overlord who faked his death to enjoy some peace and quiet. His 'mundane' preservation techniques are the primordial laws of absolute spatial compression. When the academy's elite tournament arrives, Zhiqiu shocks the cultivation world by casually flattening raging fire-dragons and arrogant prodigies into neatly categorized bookmarks. As the ruling sects panic over this terrifying new 'demonic art' and march to execute her, Old Wen sighs and puts down his tea. Will the world survive when the gentle librarian is forced to show them how he 'archives' entire empires?
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The Soot-Fox's Repayment: Boiling the Arrogant Heavens
By @john1208
In the freezing peaks of the Cloud-Mire Sect, lowly ash-shoveler Yan Shilou is the lowest of the low. When the arrogant elite disciples use a mangy, three-legged soot-fox for target practice and order it thrown into the glacial river, Yan Shilou risks his own life to hide the dying creature in his coat, sharing his meager body heat. He doesn't know the ugly animal is actually Lord Jinwu, an ancient immortal of the sun trapped in a cursed form. To repay the boy's selfless warmth, the immortal fox covertly inflicts a horrifying 'frost-rot' on the entire inner sect - and transforms Yan Shilou's rundown ash-shack into the only cure: the Karmic Springs. The magical waters perfectly mirror the soul. For the kind-hearted, it provides euphoric healing and cultivation breakthroughs. But for the elites who tormented Yan Shilou, the water literally boils them in the exact amount of malice they've inflicted on others. Forced to pay exorbitant fees to scream in agonizing, public repentance just to survive, the bullies are at his mercy. But when the corrupt Patriarch realizes the true power of the springs, can Yan Shilou gather enough karmic authority to boil a supreme tyrant alive?
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