The entries are in and gosh we have a bunch of talented folks among us! Thank you all for participating! I greatly enjoyed reading every single one of the stories and have to say, my jaw dropped quite a few times. I had no idea it was possible for certain plot twists to be dreamed up, and I've been translating web novels for ten years lol. Perhaps we'll see one of you write an original one day?

The first page of each entry and of each author's bio can be found within this post, as well as a link to their full entry. Please vote for the ones you like (by upvoting the relevant comment in the comment section) after reading them!

There are two prizes going out to popular vote winners, and two prizes to be respectively decided by pokka and etvo's choice!

Congratulations to first place winner: STARGATE RIVALRY written by Andrew Wilson Wang!

Congratulations to second palce winner: Where Rivers Flow Against the Sky written by Paragon Star!

Congratulations to pokka's choice: The Dog, The Car and The Three Boys written by PoopFactory!

Congratulations to etvo's choice:  The Grave Of The First Emperor written by Mary S Lam!

Star Gate: The Keeper of Lost Futures

Written by: Ally Song

Chapter 1 The Last Gate

The sky burned the color of old blood.

Above the shattered walls of Heavenly Archive Academy, corpses drifted through the crimson clouds like broken lanterns. Some wore the black-and-gold robes of human Civilization Masters. Others belonged to the Myriad Races: winged giants, jade-scaled serpents, pale bonefolk with crowns of horn.

All of them were dead.

And still, the war was not over.

Li Hao walked alone through the ruined courtyard, one hand pressed against the wound in his side. Blood soaked through his fingers. His steps left red prints across the white stone. Behind him, the academy’s final barrier cracked.

A voice descended from the sky. “Archivist Lin. Why keep struggling?”

Li Hao did not look up. He had no answer left.

His friends were gone. His master was gone. The human realm had burned city by city, gate by gate, until only this academy remained.

And beneath it— one forbidden door.

The Star Gate.

He reached the staircase beneath the collapsed library and stepped down into darkness. The air changed at once. The smoke of war vanished. In its place came the smell of rain, dust, and old ink.

The walls below were carved with ancient martial inscriptions, their meanings half-lost to history.

Do not open the river.

Do not call the past.

Do not meet yourself.

Li Hao laughed out loud, He had spent his whole life obeying warnings. What had it saved?

Full story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QO3Zze9Xck5xYrxAljkerxjBnl0tSCM1OmjvlfyZEEc/edit?usp=sharing

STARGATE RIVALRY

Written by: Andrew Wilson Wang

ACT I — THE FIRST PUNCH

Silver City hated outsiders. 

Fang Ping fit in immediately. 

Li Hao first saw him standing on top of a ruined Stargate beneath the city, covered in blood and grinning like he personally offended heaven itself. 

Ancient ruins surrounded him. 

The idiot looked delighted. 

“You’re in my investigation zone,” Li Hao said coldly. 

Fang Ping glanced down casually. “You own underground ruins now?”, “I was here first.” Li Hao instantly disliked him. 

Not because Fang Ping was arrogant. 

Silver City was full of arrogant people. 

No — Fang Ping had the specific kind of confidence possessed only by dangerous lunatics and exceptionally handsome men. 

Unfortunately, Fang was both. 

The underground chamber trembled violently as monsters crawled from the Stargate behind him. 

Fang Ping cracked his neck boyishly and said, “You helping or just staring?” Li Hao drew his sword immediately and replied, “Try not to die.” 

Fang Ping grinned. “Cute, you care about me.” 

Li Hao lunged into action. 

Steel collided with bare fists as shockwaves exploded through the ruins. Fang Ping laughing cheekily as he fought. 

“Oh, you’re fun.” Fang exclaimed.

Li Hao’s expression changed. 

Nobody had called him fun before. 

That felt suspiciously like flirting. 

Which made it worse. 

Full story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15j03UrMrxRzq42nBYEz5ihxNuTVAoVPPzNS6yFJsNjI/edit?usp=sharing

Andrew Wang is a Taiwanese-American writer and doctor whose work is shaped by a life lived across Taiwan, Australia, and the United States. Having spent many years immersed in different cultures and communities, he brings a unique blend of warmth, humor, imagination, and emotional honesty to his storytelling. His writing often explores themes of courage, identity, kindness, healing, and self-discovery, balancing whimsical creativity with heartfelt emotional depth. Whether crafting playful children’s stories, imaginative fantasy adventures, or emotionally resonant narratives, Andrew’s work reflects his passion for connecting with readers through stories that are both entertaining and meaningful.

Books by Dr. Andrew Wilson Wang:

• Curlbearers: Fire and Spark

• Did You Fart

• The Little Frightened Doctor

The Grave Of The First Emperor

Written by: Mary S Lam

The rift spat Li Hao into six inches of silver-white ash. No sound broke the silence except the crunch of his boots. Around him, massive pale stone obelisks covered in Great Desolation script rose from the drifts like frozen waves.

Li Hao donned the respectful mask of a mourning Auditor. Anyone watching would see a guardian paying respects, so they wouldn't see him counting exits.

He drew his blade an inch from its sheath. A sharp ripple of silver light cut through the heavy air, striking the monuments. The ash shivered like an underwater chime. Sixty-three monuments. Twelve degraded. Three hollow. Someone had already been here, leaving a fresh extraction pattern. They were systematic, working inward toward the Sanctum.

Li Hao knelt at the edge of a geometrically perfect void where a monument had been excised. He released a thread of Sword Intent into the hole. It vanished instantly.

Causal Link deletion. A state actor with civilization-grade tools. He stood, wiping silver dust from his eyes—a delicate touch to sell the performance of a grieving scholar. Underneath his mask, he was smiling.

Following a thin blue trail beneath a fractured jade dome, Li Hao found a grand plaza. At its center stood a man in cerulean robes before a bronze tripod lit by a violet furnace. A leather-bound volume floated above his palm, its pages turning on their own. A glowing character—"Convert" (化)—detached from the page, softening a marble tablet into iridescent mist. The tripod inhaled it, spitting a flawless Willpower Pellet into a silk pouch.

Artifact-grade extraction, Li Hao noted, cataloging the mid-range caster. Relies on prepared scripts. Li Hao stepped into the violet firelight, his boots scuffing loudly to announce his presence. "I see a graveyard," he said quietly, resting a hand on his hilt. "You only see a stockpile."

The stranger turned, his calm, intellectual eyes lingering on the faint shimmer of Star Gates in Li Hao's aura. "I see a dead star," the man corrected, his tone reasonably gentle. "My world starves for the warmth you wish to leave buried. To let this energy dissipate into the void would be the crime."

"These tablets are memory," Li Hao said, clenching his jaw. He's justifying the harvest. Test him.

Full story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B1883_6FS1NtAnrNOAypwp4di4JJILNI9E9G48gxL9o/edit?usp=sharing

Mary S Lam writes from the edges of things, exploring the depths of the human condition through intricate plotting and rich historical landscapes. She is the author of The Nine-Taled Fox, a literary fantasy about a nine-tailed fox's misadventures though nine successive Chinese dynasties, and As Bright as the Sun, a gripping historical Gong’an procedural that blends the sharp deductive logic of a classic detective story with the high-stakes honor of someone trained to be a warrior, but couldn't be.   

Written by: nerdpride

1 – Li Hao’s indolent youth.

Li Hao's mother saw him sleeping in on the morning of his first day at university and paused. She felt more and more irritated, but decided not to scream out at him. Doesn't he know that any work he does at school would be for nothing if he doesn't go? It was so difficult to make him study more for gaokao and get into the decent Silver Moon Civilization University. That boy needs more drive and ambition, some reason to get up and go change the world or something. Otherwise he'll land in a dead-end job and also earn ridicule and gossip. She's already tried every recommended trick for youngsters. Also he's getting too old for any kinds of disciplinary spanking or such things. 

Fortunately his father is also understanding and contributes to the shared effort to raise and punish him. She would go outside just to ignore him crying out if there were a beating this morning, but it's still unresolved and concerning that there's no fix for the underlying laziness. We'll have to see how it goes at school. Also he'll have to leave earlier than others would because this boy Li Hao tends to get lost. Generally, he does all kinds of errands slowly, and it's very unsatisfying to ask him to do anything at all. She sighed. There might still be more time for him to change.

Li Hao escaped his family that morning with no hard feelings. He somehow woke up because of hearing his father at the door. He sees himself as a reasonable man of course, someone who wants to enjoy his trip through the world and experience more happiness and all of life's vicissitudes. It was actually a lot of studying, too. Thinking of one job that he might do for the rest of his life doesn’t sit right with him, either. Anyway, he could sometimes have fun and sometimes work hard and probably also bring happiness to his parents. Probably. A lot of his classmates were envious of him, half of them because he can go to one of the better schools, the other half because his spirit hasn’t yet been crushed into depressed fervor of constant study and writing. 

Anyway, it’s time for the first class. He even found the right building and the right classroom. Nice! I mean, he mostly followed some other students, or some other instructions from online, but it’s totally fair to give himself some self-congratulations for the first step going well. This is room 301, with professor Wen Jingxiu teaching ‘Civic Order Theory 101’. This is his first year, so the lecture class is full with 30 students and then a handful of extras hoping to change their schedule at the last minute. Some classmates are better-looking than others, but he does the responsible thing and exchanges hello with some of them, and says things in the most polite and normal way.

Li Hao’s aptitude scores are actually not terrible, but also nothing is obviously good about him. He’s in the popular ‘generalist’ track based on the assessment tests, and hoping for one of the public institution outcomes. His mom complained about it anyway, as if he could be a doctor, but of course it happens to everyone. Actually Li Hao has genius in adaptability and risk-taking and such things, but so many other young men are similar that the tests don’t even notice this side of him. The real purpose of those tests are to find out who should be pulled out and sent to Skystar City or so on. 

This class about civics should still be important in his continuing evaluations. The track he’s following is basically the ‘civics’ type of study, and it’ll give him some flexibility and opportunities without infinite study.  He’s not completely safe yet! It’s a bit normal for someone in his shoes to slack off in school because he’s not going up to the top no matter what happens, but it’s still possible to mess up and get expelled or even have all qualifications revoked. 

Full story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_VwwTJkvI6WhmVIKOD1sxqirSjdRwCuO2nYL_VFqMmg/edit?usp=sharing

Where Rivers Flow Against the Sky

Written by: Paragon Star

The ripples carried an aura unlike anything Su Yu had encountered before. The river seemed impossibly distant and directly before him at the same time, as though space itself had folded across the water. 

Furball lazily opened one eye and closed it again, not bothering to respond. 

Su Yu harrumphed. It truly was peculiar. Even with his heaven’s gate he couldn’t recognize what it may be. There seemed to be a corporeal and an immaterial aspect to it. He took a few steps closer. Furball poked its head out. 

“Treasure?” Su Yu asked. 

“Yummy,” Furball corrected. 

Su Yu chuckled. “Why don’t we go take a look?” 

He jumped in the whirlpool. Soon the ripples and the whirlpool vanished from the surface of the river as if nothing existed in the first place. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Li Hao and Panth entered the still Skyward dao universe. Was there truly nothing here? Li Hao knew there had to be some traces. 

“Panth, if you’re pretending to search so you can avoid work, I am not going to stop Master if he wants to eat you.” 

Arff. Arf. The dog stared blankly at Li Hao. He was working him to the bone and threatening to eat him! 

“Why are you still unable to talk? You are an exalted emperor now!” Li Hao grumbled while giving the dog a mean glare. 

The dog seemed to shrug and the two resumed their stroll. Just when Li Hao was about to tell Panth that they will go back, Panth took off running. The void rippled silently. A phantom river appeared within the darkness, flowing against gravity. 

Panth’s fur suddenly stood on end. It barked twice before suddenly jumping in.

“Panth! What are you-” Li Hao rushed after the dog. As soon as Li Hao vanished, so too did any trace of the phenomena. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Full story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CerYDvWHxEBS89zaeHNx1biuaAL2xNMQJLmWlr8CAfQ/edit?usp=sharing

The Dog, The Car and The Three Boys

Written by: PoopFactory

"Instructor, it's not safe here now. Can't you tell him not to come?" Su Yu asked.

"What can I do? Yuan Shuo was my friend from long ago. I owed him a favour from those days. Now that he is asking for me to return the favour, I don't really have a choice." Liu Wenyan replied helplessly.

"Still, isn't it a bit too much? I honestly don't want to babysit someone who is scared of shadows." Su Yu tried a last-ditch effort to dodge the responsibility.

"Sigh... I understand your feelings. But I am helpless here. That Yuan Shuo is a shameless fellow. No wonder his student is scared of shadows. It's just for a few days. Just bear with it." Liu Wenyan sighed and shook his head. He was feeling angry too. They were expecting an attack from the Myriad Race Cult. The students and the school were in no way safe. Now, on top of that, his friend from long ago was sending his student to this mix. That too with such a vague excuse.

"Sigh... I guess I have no choice. When will he arrive?"

"He will meet you at the main entrance at five o'clock."

"Okay, instructor. I will meet him there." Su Yu replied and left after saying bye to Liu Wenyan.

By five, Su Yu reached the main entrance of the school. He wasn't alone. Chen Hao was accompanying him. He, too, was baffled by the unexpected responsibility that had fallen on his friend.

"Tell me this... Is the student a girl?" Chen Hao asked.

"I wish. It's a guy who is scared of shadows." Su Yu replied.

"How old is he?"

"I think around our age."

The two continued chatting while waiting for the guest. At sharp five, a black car stopped at the entrance of the school. The car looked extremely primitive. It was a model they had never seen before. The car was covered in dust as if it had travelled a long distance.

"A vintage car? Is that your guest?" Chen Hao asked with slight disbelief.

"Hmm... I don't know. Let me ask." Su Yu walked towards the car.

Before he could get close, the back door of the car opened. A handsome youth in black stepped out of the car. The car and the youth immediately attracted the attention of everyone nearby. Everyone peeked at the boy and the car curiously.

The boy looked around, and he was soon embarrassed by the state of his car. But there was nothing he could do. He had just stolen a car he found on the roadside. He had never expected that this town would be so modern that his car would stand out so much.

Without surprise, this was Li Hao.

Full story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cZZ4-veYZFtFbXC86D7PmK1TOjs6A4hJkqdZAxywQso/edit?usp=sharing

PoopFactory loves reading and writing in his free time. He has been a loyal fan of WuxiaWorld novels for more than 10 years. He is also the author of I Got Breastfed Again and The Young Men's Detective Agency. Comedy, action, and mystery are his favourite genres, both for reading and writing.

https://www.wattpad.com/story/216456391-i-got-breastfed-again

Links to all stories: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1V9zuGMd43UzOTp11W9Y-Si8NKMqHErnI

Voting ends Monday, June 1. Winners will be notified via email.