Jing Shu shook her head. This year, countless island nations had vanished, and the global population had dropped by twenty percent.
On the television, time-lapse satellite footage rolled. Waves tens of meters high slammed inland, swallowing half of a city's skyscrapers in one strike. The sea advanced at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just a few minutes, the towers were gone. Within an hour, the entire city disappeared.
In the face of catastrophe, life became painfully small.
In less than a day, only a few mountain peaks still showed above water. Everything else on the island was submerged.
The footage left everyone stunned. Last year's predictions had come true. Was the Earth really going to be swallowed by the ocean?
"International news reports that, as of now, only the African highlands have not suffered flood disasters. Local governments are encouraging people to continue living in underground dwellings. Several European countries are discussing migration to Africa. We will continue to follow this story."
Africa had only received the flood later because of its elevation.
Grandma Jing stared in fear. "If even high-rises are underwater, is it still safe for us to stay in one? What if Wu City is flooded too?"
The whole family fell into a moment of panic. If an entire country could be drowned, what chance did a single city have?
Wu You'ai held up her phone. "Grandma, don't worry. I've got the latest Wu City update from big-data feeds. It refreshes every thirty minutes. Right now the flood is rushing toward the city center, away from us."
"Exactly, Grandma," Jing Shu said, pushing back everyone's anxiety. "We're at the foot of the mountain. Our elevation is much higher. We'll be fine.
At night, wear the automatic life jackets on your wrists. I've also got two inflatable boats. Even if the water comes, we won't panic."
After dinner, the family discussed flood self-rescue procedures, then went to pack. Starting today, everyone consciously wore an emergency life jacket on the wrist.
Jing Shu sat in the courtyard and cracked into a large crab. She carefully finished the legs, then ate the golden roe in the middle. She tossed the shells to Xiao Dou. Xiao Dou gulped them down whole, who knew what flavor Xiao Dou even tasted.
Jing Shu took the chance to tidy the Rubik's Cube Space with her mind.
After the Rubik's Cube Space advanced to Level 6, there were still dozens of cubic meters left. Jing Shu moved everything from the basement that could be ruined by damp into the Rubik's Cube Space, and now she had stuffed it full again.
It looked like upgrading the Rubik's Cube Space enough to hold all the villa's supplies before migration would still be difficult.
Every thirty minutes, Wu You'ai broadcast the newest updates to the family and the community group.
"@Everyone, the flood has already reached a height equal to the fourth floor in the new urban district. The oil-base community in the development zone has completed full evacuation. The old city remains intact for now. Evacuation continues in the other five affected areas."
"The flood volume has increased by one third, but it's still some distance from our community."
No matter the distance, more than seventy people in the group chose to sleep on higher floors. Most just carried up a damp quilt and made do.
That night, when everyone finished packing, Jing Shu brought tents, bedding, mats, water, food, and disposable toilets upstairs.
Grandma Jing wanted to bring the pigs and chickens too.
"Grandma, are you going to carry a pig up to the eighteenth floor by yourself?"
Only then did Grandma Jing give up on the idea. She fed them one more time, then joined the others.
Jing Shu left Xiao Dou to guard the villa. She locked the doors, engaged the mechanisms, turned on surveillance, and then left.
The family moved through the underground garage passage, so they reached Building No. 25 without getting rained on.
A year of drinking Spirit Spring had made everyone robust. They climbed the stairs in one breath. Jing Shu's strength had become downright terrifying. She hauled a mountain of luggage and still ran fast.
Su Lanzhi swept the floor. Jing An mopped twice. Jing Lai wiped down every corner with rags and sprayed medicated oil to cut the smell. They were used to the spotless comfort of the villa, and an unfinished, gloomy unit felt hard to bear.
No matter. They would adapt tonight. Tomorrow they would sleep on the mountain anyway.
The commotion from Jing Shu's family startled Fatty Niu, who had also come up to sleep on the top floor. She shone a flashlight in the hallway.
Seeing Jing Shu's large-scale operation—wiping, mopping, hauling planks, pitching tents, laying out sleeping bags—Fatty Niu scratched her cheek. "Sorry to bother you. We just put on more layers and came up, figured everyone else would do the same. You take your time."
The small interruption passed quickly. Grandpa Jing laid out the planks. Only then did Jing Shu pull the tab and pop open the one-pull, foolproof tent.
She inflated the boats too, creating an extra safety net. With that, the family finally lay down to sleep.
"You sleep. My eyes are good. I'll stand watch," Jing An said. He still could not rest easy and insisted on keeping guard.
Jing Shu slid into her soft sleeping bag, zipped the tent, stripped, and fell asleep in seconds. She had no idea she was trending on Wu City's news.
It was a solid sleep, but she was shaken awake at six in the morning.
"Jing Shu, wake up! The flood's coming our way. We have to go now!" Su Lanzhi yanked open the tent and shook Jing Shu so hard she might have rattled her brain.
The flood, coming here? That was wrong. Was her memory off, or had history changed?
Jing Shu threw on sportswear, then a down jacket. Mornings were still cold.
"Where has the water reached?" Jing Shu asked. Right then, Jing An's snores rumbled in the distance.
Wu You'ai, dark circles under her eyes, said, "Downtown is completely under. Even buildings over thirty stories high are gone. Last night tens of thousands ignored the evacuation notice, thinking high floors were safe. The latest report says they're all missing. The city center is an ocean now."\
The flood has already spilled over from the Ai Jia supermarket side. It's rising slowly, but at this rate it could reach us in a few hours."
Jing Shu let out a breath. It was still the same as her previous life. The flood would not reach here.
"Wu City has thirty-five emergency shelters. Most are underwater now, and the rest filled up yesterday. The Hongshan Ecological Park to the north has the highest elevation. It can hold over a hundred thousand people, and it's not far from us. Our community has been assigned there."
The Hongshan Ecological Park was a famous Wu City scenic spot and a shelter the city had poured serious funding into. It was maintained year-round, sturdily built, and fully equipped with emergency systems. The inside of Hongshan was hollow.
There was a colossal central cavern and over a thousand small caves branching out into a massive maze. If you did not get lost and kept walking, you still might not finish exploring it in hours.
Fortunately, it was riddled with passages, with countless entrances and exits.
What a coincidence. In her previous life, Jing Shu's family had spent three unforgettable, despairing days inside. So in this life, they were going back after all.
Wu You'ai sighed. "Pack up. We need to leave now. If we wait for the flood to expand this way, it will be too late. I'll gather the others."
===
After Killing Dao Partner, the Villainess Becomes the Demon Ancestor has officially gone through the book vetting process and is now available on my profile! So far, I've translated 100 chapters, and my impression? This novel is pretty solid.
The beginning is packed with schemes, like layers being built up and peeled away one after another. It's more about scheming than fighting at first. Then from chapter 100 onward, the scheming runs really deep. You can't just set it aside and only look at the fight scenes. The level of intrigue is almost on par with Gōngdòu (宫斗), the "Palace Fight." That kind of scheme-driven tension and pacing is super rare in xianxia, which makes this novel feel really fresh. Of course, the fight scenes are also well written.
I think it's good overall, though the author's writing in the early chapters can feel a little stiff or awkward at times, mostly because it focuses on Yun Qingyue's intelligence and intricate intrigues. I get what the author wanted to convey, and I polished it a bit so it's easier to digest. At least I think it's better now—though I'm curious what you'll think!
The later chapters with fighting are really well done. I even found myself laughing and speechless in some moments, lol. There's that saying, "you will find happiness watching others' misfortune." She's definitely not a saint—she's ruthless, and I'd say she's somewhat similar to Song Wanníng.
The author has a very distinctive style—I got this unique feeling while reading and translating it, something I haven't experienced in other novels I've worked on.
Anyway, I personally think you should give this one a shot!
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Yun Qingyue never expected her grand wedding to end in divine execution. All because a manipulative little junior sister with a hidden "system" and a talent for tears convinced their entire sect to force Yun Qingyue aside. When she unleashed her full power to crush the traitors, it wasn't her enemies who finished her—it was the Nine Heavens' Thunder Tribulation, a punishment she never deserved.
She thought it was the end. But a shred of her soul survived, now trapped in a mortal body so weak it's practically a prison. Her spirit root is gone, her meridians are feeble, and her immortal path is sealed shut.
But Yun Qingyue has finally seen the truth: her "pure" junior sister is a system-wielding thief, her sect are all pawns, and the very Heavens are blind. So if the heavens call her a villainess, she'll become the demon they fear. If the path of immortality is closed, she'll open the road to the Demonic Path.
Her new philosophy is simple: sever all karma and dominate everything in her path. This time as Xie Zhaolin, she's not just climbing to the top; she's burning the entire mountain down on her way up.