*It was a good night to die....
Su Ningyan thought so as he staggered through the empty throne room of the Sky Palace, a sword lodged deep in his chest right where his heart should have been.
Each breath burned.
His white hair hung in tangled waves around his face, the ends soaked crimson. The long nightgown he wore dragged across the cold marble floor, gathering dust and blood with every unsteady step. His blood. All of it his.
Barefoot, he moved like a ghost already halfway to the afterlife. The chill of the floor seeped into his skin, crawling up his spine, reminding him that emptiness had long since made a home inside him.
He coughed. Blood spilled from his lips.
His violet eyes were wild tempests of pain and regret. The closer he drew to the throne, the more those emotions twisted inside him, until all that remained was the aching wish to stop breathing.
He would stop soon. After all...
Jun Zhaoyan's blade had pierced his heart.
Lan Meishan's venom burned through his veins.
Yan Wuhen's fangs had torn into his leg, flesh shredded beyond recognition.
Rong Yue's claws had raked across his back, leaving wounds that would never heal.
His beast husbands. They had hurt him.
But... he had hurt them far more.
His legs finally gave out.
Su Ningyan collapsed onto the marble floor, his vision blurring as the ceiling faded into darkness.
Regret was the last thing he felt.*
"What sort of ending is this?!" Li Wei shouted, hurling his phone against the wall.
It hit with a sharp crack.
He scoffed, staring at the screen's shattered remains. "Is the author high? After everything, he gets killed by them and..." He shoved his fingers through his hair in frustration. "I can't even tell if Yan Wuhen bit his leg or ate it. That's it. Worst book ever."
Li Wei kept ranting, even though he'd devoured the novel in two days. It was almost a thousand chapters and he read every single one.
He'd read beastman novels before. Ones about primitive worlds, survival settings, but this was different. This was cultivation. Politics. Bloodlines. Beautiful, ethereal men who ruined lives with smiles.
He groaned. He should have stuck to the simple stuff.
This novel followed a phoenix beastman prince, Su Ningyan, whose beast core had been sabotaged by his step-siblings who used him as a practice dummy simply because they couldn't stand his face.
Crushed beneath years of abuse and resentment, desperate to repair what had been broken inside him, Su Ningyan entered an academy he was never meant to attend and took the first step down the wrong path.
To survive, to gain power, he seduced the senior disciples of the academy. Princes of the Four Great Divine Beast Clans. Men who would one day become kings.
Men who would become his husbands.
But power corrupted him. Demonic beast qi devoured his reason.
Su Ningyan wiped out the phoenix clan first. Then he turned on the rest of the world.
And in the end, he was killed by the very men he had once loved and used.
Li Wei stared down at his now-broken phone, his chest tight.
"…I think I'm going to take a break from reading webnovels for a while," he muttered. "Reading is supposed to be calming."
He exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through his hair.
"Su Ningyan was supposed to have babies," he added darkly. "I need to find the author and hit their head with a bat."
With a frustrated sigh, he pocketed the shattered phone, grabbed his bag, and left the kindergarten he was teaching early to get it fixed. His mind was still a mess, tangled with beastmen, beast cores, and four ridiculously attractive men.
Heavens, Su Ningyan really hit the jackpot with those men.
As he stepped off the curb...
BAM.
A car slammed into him.
Pain exploded through his body. The world spun. Light vanished.
Everything went black.
"You impudent bastard!" A shrill female voice tore through the darkness.
Before Li Wei could process where he was, or if he was even alive, pain cracked across his face.
SMACK.
His head snapped to the side. The sting burned hot against his cheek, sharp enough to steal his breath.
Li Wei gasped, clutching his face in shock.
…Did he just get slapped?
Wait.
Wasn't he just hit by a car?
"Look at me!"
Li Wei opened his eyes.
A woman stood before him, glaring with undisguised contempt. She looked like she had stepped straight out of a historical drama with long black hair adorned with gold ornaments, jade-like skin, crimson lips twisted in anger. A red pattern was painted on her forehead, and her flowing red hanfu radiated authority.
"Are you forgetting who you are?" she snapped. "You are the forgotten child of a whore. Know your place, or you'll return to the dungeon again."
Li Wei froze.
"Now dress properly and join the maids," she continued coldly. "Your brother must not be late for the Celestial Beast Academy."
Celestial Beast Academy.
Li Wei's ears rang.
He stared at her blankly, his brain refusing to catch up.
"…Are you," he pointed at himself shakily, "talking to me?"
The woman scoffed. "Who else would I be addressing, Su Ningyan? Do not test my patience, or I will drag you to Clan Lord Su myself."
Li Wei's breath hitched.
Su… Ningyan? Clan Lord Su?
What the hell was happening?
"Why are you staring at me like that?" she sneered.
Panic rushed through Li Wei's soul.
He looked around.
The room was small and old, wooden walls worn with age. Sparse. Cold. More like servants' quarters than anything fit for nobility.
His heart began to pound.
He shoved past the woman and stumbled into the hallway.
And froze.
The corridor stretched wide and elegant, carved pillars lining its length, sunlight spilling across polished floors. People in flowing robes passed him, men and women alike, each dressed like royalty. They glanced at him with disdain, confusion, and faint disgust.
His breathing turned shallow.
He ran.
Bursting into a courtyard, Li Wei nearly collapsed beside a stone fountain. Trembling, he leaned over the water and screamed.
The reflection staring back at him was not his.
White hair spilled down narrow shoulders. Violet eyes stared back in shock. Skin pale and flawless like porcelain.
He was barefoot, half-dressed, and beautiful.
"No... no, no, no," he whispered hoarsely. "This isn't me."
Am I… Su Ningyan?
"I must be dreaming!" he shouted.
He slapped his own face hard. It hurt badly. This was too real!
Desperate, Li Wei plunged his face into the cold water and screamed. "Wake up!"