Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

last updateHuling Na-update : 2024-03-10
By:  FluffyFluffPuffOngoing
Language: English
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Luna sees the world like a fictional story. Predicting a bad end for her family, she did all she could to change their fate, only to lose her life in one of her attempts. Without knowing if she has successfully prevented her family's downfall, a deep voice asked her, "Do you want to live?" But Luna could not answer. Through her lifetimes across several worlds... Will she find her will to live again? Will she allow herself to love and be loved?

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Kabanata 1

Luna

"You still aren't performing well enough for a member of this family. Is this really your best?"

This was the umpteenth time Luna has heard this sentence in her life, and the fourth time she has heard it today.

It was another normal Sunday at home for Luna. Back to back tuitions for different subjects. Now that she was 18 years old, this was something she has long grown used. Her parents believed that she would one day find her talent as long as they kept trying. Once they found that talent, they would hone it without neglecting her other skills. It was exactly what her siblings went through, only that their talents showed themselves from much earlier on as compared to her.

Her older brother, Desmond, was smart but his strength laid in his physical abilities. He was well-built and strong, but agile and flexible. He basically took after their father.

Her younger sister, Erica, was overall intelligent and began excelling in subjects related to business, finance, and economics. She basically took after their mother.

As such, their end goals were to end up where their parents were now working at. Her father was the Sergeant Major of the army and her mother was the finance director of a big company. They were not the most powerful positions respectively, but they were still significant positions of power.

Luna shrugged. Even if she said that it was her best, it would not change a thing. So, what did her opinion matter?

"That's it for today.” The tutor said with a drawn-out sigh. “We'll go through the rest the next time I come."

After the tutor left the room, Luna cleared her black study table and put things back where they belonged. She then headed out to the kitchen to join their cook in making dinner. It was yet another way of trying to discover her talent.

On her way down the stairs, she could hear the tutor talking to her parents by the main door. "She's still performing the same as any average person out on the streets. Is it still the same in other areas?"

Luna could already guess that her parents nodded. She knew her own results.

"Perhaps she's the type to do better with less work? You know, work smart, not hard?" Her mother sounded concerned.

"We're already trying that. Any lesser work and you might as well stop calling me over." The tutor said. "I don't mean to sound offensive but perhaps you should really start considering how she may be the dud in your family. She has completely no talent."

"Excuse you. Even if she has no talent at all, she's never a dud. You don't have to return any longer. Perhaps the issue is your expectations of her." Her mother was definitely ticked off.

She heard the door open and close, signalling the departure of the tutor.

"Should we give her a break from everything?"

"We could try. It's all trial and error now, my love."

Luna looked at the mirror installed on the wall near her. Her expression was as flat as ever. She only felt sorry for her parents and for letting them down, nothing else. She understood her parents' purpose of pushing them. Why they wanted her siblings and her to do well and above the others in at least one area of their life. However, she was anything but impressive. Even her looks were mediocre with her thin wispy black hair, grey round eyes, button nose, downward-turned lips, slightly chubby round face, and short stature. Nobody would give a girl like her a glance, not to mention a second glance.

She waited for a while before she went down and walked past the living room to reach the kitchen. She did not want her parents to feel guilty for having her overhear what the tutor had to say about her.

At the dining table, the results of Luna's research, planning, and cooking was laid bare for everyone to see. The food definitely looked appetising enough, but the taste was… Ordinary. Sometimes, it would be the other way around.

Nonetheless, everyone showed joyful and proud expressions, praising her for the effort she had put into the dishes. Luna received it all with a polite smile and asked for critiques and suggestions. Her attitude then earned her even more praises from her parents and admiration from her siblings.

After they were done with the small discussion, their talk carried on to more casual topics. Luna was not much of a conversationalist, so she spent more time listening and staring than taking part in the conversation.

Occasionally, she would see herself and the people around her from another person's point of view. It was during those moments that feelings of being the odd one out of the family were the strongest.

Her entire family was made of attractive people by society's standards.

Her father has rich and bountiful black hair, big grey eyes that carried a sharp gaze, thin lips, strong features, and a well-toned muscular body.

Her mother has long wavy black hair, hazel phoenix eyes, a dainty nose, perfectly bow-shaped lips, a sharp chin, and a tall and slender figure.

Her siblings received the best features of their parents, thus looked equally good. Luna was somehow the only one to inherit the plainer features of their bloodline and only that.

The next morning, the siblings headed out to the driveway in front of their four-level terrace house where their chauffeur was waiting to drive them to school. After everyone hopped in, the chauffeur continued to hold the door open.

"What's wrong?" Erica asked.

"Is Miss Lu-" The chauffeur's voice got stuck in his throat as he caught sight of how Luna was already in the car. She had gotten in from the other side by herself. "My apologies." He closed the door right after.

Erica could guess what had happened and she looked very displeased.

Luna smiled a little to comfort her. "That's a normal occurrence. You should be used to it by now."

"It shouldn't be something you should get used to! I don't like how people always fail to see you."

Desmond chimed in from the seat at the front at this moment. "I really can't understand how people fail to see this brilliant sister of ours! I mean, she practically shines, doesn't she?"

Erica beamed proudly at that comment. "That's right! Everyone should know of how great she is!"

"I'm really sorry." The driver spoke up in a soft and timid voice while he started up the car.

Luna sighed helplessly and smiled. "Will you both stop teasing the poor man already?"

It was as they said, Luna was someone who was easily overlooked. She simply lacked that much of a presence anywhere she went. Whenever her family went for social events, people neglected her existence. Sometimes, they would mistakenly think that her parents had only two children. They would only notice her after she was pointed out. Whenever that happened, her family made sure to comfort her.

Out of good intentions, they had tried to change matters by placing her right beside her parents while the other two would stand behind her. However, they quickly realised that it had the opposite effect from what they wanted. Not wanting to hurt her any further, they let her decide what she wanted to do during parties. She could choose to follow them around or wander around by herself.

They reached the prestigious school that looked elite even in just its appearance. It was recognised for having honed talented individuals who now held high positions in society.

It functioned very differently from normal schools. The real mission of the children who attended this school was to establish connections and to survive the power struggle. Everything that happened in this school was to stay in the school. Good performance in grades was merely part of the requirements to enter the school.

Only Luna and a boy named Lucas were the exceptions to these requirements. Luna got in purely thanks to her family's background and her parents' connections with the principal of the school. Her siblings had been especially worried if Luna would get picked on. However, her quiet nature, meek presence, and average looks led everyone to miss her existence as usual.

Lucas Wu was a scholarship student and he was the only one in school with a humble background. However, nobody looked down on him.

He was blessed with bountiful jet black hair that was kept at medium-length and styled fashionably, a distinct set of bright black eyes with eyebrows of the right thickness just above it, an elegant nose, rosy thin lips, defined jawline, and a strong build. He made the midnight blue uniform for the males look like it was tailor made for him.

Besides his attractiveness and charm, he was also very intelligent, constantly ranking second in the whole level for overall performance, just below a guy named Victor Koo who was the famed son of the principal of the school.

Every free time that Luna has, she would go to the grand library to study there of her own accord.

Although her parents had stopped giving her tuition, she never stopped studying on her own. It already became a routine for her, possibly even part of her identity.

She chose a spot in the quietest corner of the library and saw that there was a plum blossom tree right outside the tall window. The window was so tall that she could easily admire the flowers that were currently in full bloom. From that moment on, that seat was made her favourite spot in the school.

Coincidentally, Lucas had chosen the same spot in the library as his favourite spot to study. However, he sat on the other end of the table, furthest away from the window. That was their first and only “meeting”. Although they have been studying together in the same place for two years, they have not interacted with each other even once.

She witnessed for herself his charm and allure. Whenever he studied, he would loosen his tie and unbutton the first button of his white shirt, which only increased his attractiveness.

She peeked at the books he was studying and guessed that there was something going on behind the scenes between him and Principal Koo. From the books he was reading, she could tell that he was already studying things that were far beyond their level. How was it possible that someone like him would be ranked below Victor whom she viewed as some egoistical show-off?

/ An outstanding guy but with a fate of being suppressed by someone else… Sounds just like some second male lead to me. / Luna thought to herself.

Luna was not sure when it started to happen, but she no longer found joy in the fictional stories that she used to binge on by sacrificing her sleep. She started feeling more cynical. Plot holes, plot conveniences, overly simplified plot, flat characters, and more, became increasingly glaring to her.

Perhaps it was around the time when she started to have the dissociation-like experiences. Perhaps it was when she started to view her life in the same way she viewed those fictional stories.

Some people are like the main characters of a story. They are blessed with talents and well-loved by all, sometimes even having a bonus tragic backstory. Some people are clearly cannon fodder with nothing much to their name or character, whose purpose are only to spice up the main plot.

In this manner, Luna began to predict relationships between people and their progressions. Now, her life just seemed like another crappy story where she was but an inconsequential insignificant character.

Just then, an attractive boy and girl came into the library looking for Lucas.

The boy looked as charming and handsome as Lucas, even sharing a similar build, but he has short black hair and a loud sunny personality that contrasted Lucas's personality. This personality of his won him the hearts of many and made him more popular than Lucas. He was none other than Victor Koo.

The girl looked as gentle as a dove and as soft as a cloud. She has long black hair with large gentle curls, big doe-like eyes, a small pert nose, and lips full enough to look soft and inviting. Her build was small and frail even in comparison to an average girl. This girl was commonly seen with Victor and everyone knew her as his childhood friend, Rina Yang.

The pair arrived to ask Lucas out for a leisure trip to the city with them now that school was over. However, Lucas told them to go ahead first. He wanted to finish what he started, and it would apparently take a while. So, they did.

This was a common occurrence for Luna. Through their interactions, she pegged Victor as the male lead and Rina as the female lead. She bet that Rina would overlook Lucas, whom Luna believed would gain strong connections he needed to rise in power after he graduate, for the current big shot in this school that was shining bright like a diamond.

After the pair left, another attractive person came to the library to find Luna for the first time. The oddness of the situation made Luna frown ever so slightly.

/ Why's she here? /

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Chunelle Maria Victoria Espanol
I loved this book...
2022-12-22 08:08:25
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Julia Nora
can't wait for the next update! if you have any socmed that I can follow, please let me know
2021-07-19 19:18:21
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288 Kabanata
Luna
"You still aren't performing well enough for a member of this family. Is this really your best?"This was the umpteenth time Luna has heard this sentence in her life, and the fourth time she has heard it today. It was another normal Sunday at home for Luna. Back to back tuitions for different subjects. Now that she was 18 years old, this was something she has long grown used. Her parents believed that she would one day find her talent as long as they kept trying. Once they found that talent, they would hone it without neglecting her other skills. It was exactly what her siblings went through, only that their talents showed themselves from much earlier on as compared to her.Her older brother, Desmond, was smart but his strength laid in his physical abilities. He was well-built and strong, but agile and flexible. He basically took after their father.Her younger sister, Erica, was overall intelligent and began excelling in subjects related to
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-25
Magbasa pa
Erica's Scheme
"Jie Jie!" Erica happily bounded towards Luna.Just as she reached the table, she tripped over the leg of a chair and fell towards the tall bookshelf behind Luna.Luna dove towards Erica, placing herself between Erica and the bookshelf. Her arms wrapped around Erica's head and back. With Erica in her embrace, they crashed heavily into the bookshelf, causing books from the top shelf to topple down.They slowly opened their tightly shut eyes, wondering why they did not feel any pain from the toppled books, and found Lucas towering over their hunched bodies with his hands on the bookshelf. While this scene made Erica's eyes twinkle in admiration, it made Luna's eye twitch./ Cliche...? Erica's never this clumsy. What's with his insane reflexes? Did he jump over the table or something? /"Are you ladies okay?" Lucas's deep voice reverberated through Erica and Luna in different ways.Erica's eyes grew wide in surprise.On the othe
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-25
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Rina
Days passed with Erica trying to heed Luna's words and forget about Victor./He's only the best in this school. Beyond it, he's just another fish in the sea./ Erica repeatedly reminded herself every time she caught sight of him, which was considerably often.However, her ill feelings towards Rina remained.What made matters worse was that Erica felt as if she was being taunted everyday. Everywhere she went, there would be news or gossip about Rina. Whether it was about her kind act for the day, her beauty, her gentleness, or how she got saved yet again./What's so good about a damsel in distress? Does she even try to solve any of the issues herself? Some of the problems were even created because she was kind to people who held ill intentions towards her./ Erica was plugged with thoughts like these. She hated weak people who did nothing but cause trouble to the people around the most.Her feelings were related to her fami
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-25
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Lucas Gets Involved
Erica felt like she was in a perpetual bad mood for the past three days. She had taken Luna's warning to heart but felt so unsatisfied.As she was about to turn around a corner in school to go to the library to find Luna, she heard two familiar voices that made her stop in her tracks."What exactly is that cream you gave to Rina? It worked wonders! There's not even a mark left on her arm!""I have my resources.""Can't you at least give me a hint?""Why should I make things easy for you?""Heartless.""Grow up."Victor continued whining and bothering Lucas to no avail./Some miracle cream huh… I wonder how it'd fare against my creation. Too bad I'll never find out./ Just as she took a step forward, Victor changed the topic to something that made her stop again."Hey hey, before you go, I just want to know if the families' downfall is all your doing?"Lucas must have nodded because Victo
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-25
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Success or Failure
The next day, everyone in school heard the news that something big would go down in the hall after school, including the three siblings who just walked through the school gate.Before they parted ways to head to their individual faculties, Desmond turned to his sisters and ruffled their hair. "You girls stay safe and contact me if anything goes wrong, okay? I'll be here in a jiffy."Out of concern for Luna, Erica had told Desmond of everything that happened while they were in the car on the way to school.The two sisters nodded their heads with a smile on their faces. Erica's smile was brighter and more carefree while Luna's was much more reserved. Straight after class ended, Erica exited her classroom to find Luna outside standing by the wall and reading a book. Nobody paid her any attention. Erica asked her friends to wait then went to Luna."Jie? What're you doing here?" Erica asked with a slight tilt to her head."I'm takin
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-25
Magbasa pa
Victor's Visit
A month later, things returned back to normal.Victor's and Rina's reputation was restored and everyone knew by now that they had Lucas backing them up.Erica's friends made up with her, which was not a very hard thing to do since they had stopped throwing when Erica ran into the hall calling out to Luna as her sister.Desmond's life did not change much since the military academy, although essentially is another faculty of the school, has its own war zone which functioned almost separately from the other faculties. He has already successfully made his own connections there, who then helped to cover for him when he came to his sisters' aid.Luna experienced a little dissing and occasional harassment but it never got too bad because she seemed to kill their vibe each time. Not only did she have a very slack expression on all the time, she also knew the right things to say to satisfy their ego. Luna was now in the library as usual, compl
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-25
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Sacrifice
The days passed by uneventfully.Since Victor no longer tried to hunt Luna down in school, she could return to peacefully studying in the library once more. Although Luna could come up with several possible reasons for Victor's behaviour, she believed that it was no mere coincidence that he would suddenly be so obedient now.The same private investigator from before was hired to follow Erica again. The reports she received this time were very normal. Unlike before, nothing stood out to Luna. Erica went to classes in the morning, then went for her extra curricular activities or hung out with her friends after class. Like Desmond, Erica was doing a good job at establishing the contacts they may need in the future.Luna glanced at her laptop and books in front of her. Compared to her siblings, she already had her hands full with just her studies. As such, the only times she could attempt at networking was during class and group works. However, it was never successf
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-26
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Who Are You
When Luna regained consciousness, she blinked her eyes slowly several times. Her mind felt a little foggy and her body felt incredibly light. This weightless feeling was a little unnerving but nice at the same time.She saw an endless stretch of darkness in front of her that could have made the fears of any claustrophobic person act up. If not for the faint glow of her body, she would have doubted if her eyes were even open./This... Looks like I'm finally dead huh…/[For the moment you are.] A very deep voice suddenly reverberated through the entire area and her core.Her shoulders jumped in shock and she looked around repeatedly but could not find the source of the voice.[Do you wish to live?] The same deep voice asked her.Luna remained speechless for a while. /Is this God?/Before she could ask anything, he replied.[No, but I am an entity beyond your under
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-26
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Legacy World 1.1 Where Am I
Stifling heat and stuffiness suffocated her the moment she regained consciousness. A thick smell of sandalwood all around made it even harder to breathe. It did not help that the breaths she took were already shallow and weak. Luna tried to open her eyes, but found that it took significant effort before her eyelids finally lifted. Ugly dark yellow draperies and a wooden bed frame was all that she could see. It took awhile for her to register that it resembled the top of a traditional Chinese bed frame. /What in the world… What happened? What's happening? Am I dying again? Where am I?/ As if in response to her questions, she experienced a migraine attack that was so painful it made her nauseous. At the same time, memories and knowledge that were not hers flashed before her eyes.   Everything she saw was from the eyes of a girl named Chen Xinyi. Xinyi was the only child of the second concubine to a high-ranking court offici
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-02-26
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Legacy World 1.2 The Leads
There were books on plants, poison, martial arts, and spiritual cultivation. The only thing in this world that had piqued her curiosity and interest was the existence of spiritual energy. It was something that could be cultivated and was mixed in with martial arts. Something that her original world did not have. One's spiritual energy was classified into four realms. There was Earth, Sky, Heaven, and God realm. Each realm was then divided further into three levels that signified how well they have assimilated their spiritual energy into their martial arts. It consists of low, mid, and high levels. An average person could practice and cultivate their way to high level sky realm by 15 years old. Whoever progressed beyond that would be considered talents and geniuses. Since normal martial artists without any spiritual energy were basically powerless in this world, people who could not cultivate were considered wastes. Xinyi was one of those wastes in society, du
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-03-01
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