He was the God-King who ruled ten thousand heavens. Now he's a beggar sleeping in a pig trough—and the cultivation system that promises him power was built to harvest his soul. When Arctus Fenwick fell from godhood, he expected death. Instead, he woke in a mortal body with nothing but fragmented memories, golden scars that burn near the System's monoliths, and a cultivation interface that speaks to him with mocking, corporate politeness. [NOTICE: Subject "Arctus Fenwick" categorized as MORTAL VERMIN. Enjoy your suffering.] The System offers power—but every breakthrough costs years of his mortal lifespan. Every Qi surge alerts the System's enforcers. Every fragment of godly memory he recovers burns away twice as fast. And the scars on his palms? They're homing beacons for hunters who've killed fallen gods before. Arctus has 48 years left. The System wants him dead in five. But the System made one mistake. It didn't account for the God-King's arrogance—the same pride that got him killed is now the weapon he'll use to break the prison masquerading as a gift. He must build cultivation from nothing, trust mortals he once saw as insects, and confront the devastating truth: he wasn't betrayed. He was stopped. Because Arctus Fenwick, in his first life, unleashed something worse than himself. Now, hunted by System enforcers, watched by a former consort who believes his Fall was justice, and aided by a trickster spirit who wants freedom at any cost, Arctus must choose: reclaim his godhood and risk releasing the apocalypse entity he created... or sacrifice everything to seal it forever.

The legacy of a king is written in the blood of his enemies and the tears of his allies. For Marcus Cole, the heir to the Cole Empire, a shadowy syndicate that operates in the forgotten corners of the city, his path was set. The crown was his birthright, a symbol of power forged in violence and cunning. But in a single, cataclysmic night, the empire was shattered, his father was killed by a traitor, and Marcus was left for dead, his name erased from the city’s records.He survived, clinging to life in the city's festering underbelly. But survival is not enough. From the ashes of his former life, a new force must rise. The man who was once the Prince of the city is dead. In his place is the Ghost, a man with nothing left to lose and a city to reclaim.The conspiracy that brought his family low is deeper and more ancient than he could have ever imagined. It isn't just a rival family or a power-hungry lieutenant. The shadows that moved against his father are connected to the city's very foundations, a secret council of powerbrokers who have manipulated the city's fate for generations. To succeed, Marcus must navigate a labyrinth of lies, forge alliances with those he once considered beneath him, and embrace a ruthlessness that mirrors the monsters he is hunting.The stakes are immeasurable. It's a war for the soul of the city. It's about protecting his loyal friend, Jone, who is getting too close to the truth. It's about gaining the trust of Mervin, a man with his own score to settle. And it's about a secret within his own family, a secret that his father took to his grave, the key to the Cole Empire's true power. If he fails, the city will fall into an even greater darkness under the control of the council. If he succeeds, he will have to become the very thing the world already fears he is to make his enemies pay. The crown is broken, but the king is not yet dead.