Tian felt wronged. Everyone seemed so upset. Grandpa was howling with laughter. And for some reason, everyone acted like his voice had some kind of magic charm to it. Even the movements of his hand...
2025-06-11 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostTian’s limbs had gone numb. It was a dreadful, creeping infiltration. He hadn’t noticed the weakness until it was far too late. His vital energy had all been consumed enduring the Null Chamber ...
2025-06-10 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostTL:DR- I'm taking next week off, as it's a good time, on account of Vol. 2 will be done by then.
SO! I don't usually like coming anywhere remotely close to a spoiler, but in the interest of f...
2025-06-09 14:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostTian kept quite still. The skeleton had cold blue-white fires burning in its eyes. He recognized those fires. Yin flames. He remembered them from the belly of the demonic bird. It was eerie. The sc...
2025-06-09 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostUse your needle! Forget the light body technique, use Heavenly Swallows and jab at the cuts.
Grandpa Jun sounded urgent. Tian didn’t question it. The needle dropped into his hand a...
2025-06-06 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“Is it time yet?”
Soon. Any minute now.
There was a brief shuffling sound
“Now?”
Are you flying through a wall? Then it’s not now. 2025-06-05 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post
The six days passed in an odd sort of ecstasy for Tian. Odd, because he knew what he was feeling wasn’t entirely natural. Fire was the element of joy, red the color of supreme good fortune. Losin...
2025-06-04 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post[AUTHOR NOTE- I saw the comments about putting Tian's dialog in italics and double quotes when he is talking to grandpa in his head. I don't know if that is going to be more or less confusi...
2025-06-03 14:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe bone was quite pretty. Tian dug out a few more and gave them a quick polish, and they were all more or less the same- dense, a creamy white color more like stone than bone, and when the light c...
2025-06-02 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post“Fire. Arguably the most Yang element. So… I should explode my way out of here.”
Sure. You do that.
“It was a joke, Grandpa.”
I wasn’t joking. But you wou...
2025-05-30 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostGrandpa had to use all his persuasive authority to get Tian to sleep. He was pretty sure there was barely six hours until the next chamber opened, and that meant Tian had less than six hours to sle...
2025-05-29 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a sudden moment of inexplicable dislocation- as though the world had shifted six inches left for no obvious reason. The air tasted different. Still cool, but without that mountain stream ...
2025-05-28 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post“Would it cost you too much energy to tell me what that is?” Tian’s eyes were fixed on the swimming… whatever it was.
Not at all. What it is specifically is a Qi Spirit. The...
2025-05-27 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostIt took two weeks to travel to the Six Turns Cavern. The last three days of the journey were spent traveling through a suspiciously convenient cloud bank. Elder Rui didn’t say anything, and the j...
2025-05-26 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThis was made by Wistways, who has kindly given me permission to share it. I was floored when I saw it. One of those "I'm really glad I'm an author" moments. I'm not going to post it on RR for a wh...
2025-05-26 02:39:24 +0000 UTC View PostSenior Redmane was a thoughtful old bird. He waited until Tian left that special state, then returned silently to the depot. He arranged for some of his brothers to sit with him on the back patio o...
2025-05-23 14:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostVery soon turned out to be after what was technically his hospital shift. The word technically had to be inserted, as people kept stopping him, checking in on him, praising him for his restraint wh...
2025-05-22 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“I really have to wonder who is setting up whom.” Tian kept his faint smile on. He didn’t know why, but for some reason it was making people nervous. “I am told, not asked but told, 2025-05-21 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Brother Long snapped down his white stone on the board. It was part of the etiquette of the game- the stones didn’t just go down with a little click or thud. The elegant young man held the piece ...
2025-05-20 14:20:56 +0000 UTC View PostTian could feel himself creaking. His body had never been better, but inside, he was fraying and brittle. He had always known the world was a cruel place. He had known that his brothers were treate...
2025-05-19 15:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostTians’ triumphal trumpeting of his awesome arrival at level six was met with a resounding “Oh,” from the brothers of the West Town Temple. Disappointing, but he was used to it at this point. ...
2025-05-16 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostTian stood straight with his hands loosely clasped behind his back. It was the pose he had seen some of the more senior Senior Brothers adopting when they were supervising his martial arts practice...
2025-05-15 14:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostTian still had a little time before bed. Tian knew what would help him sleep- telling Hong that he had broken through to Level Six before her. It had been worryingly close. Hong said she could brea...
2025-05-14 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostTian sat happily to lunch. There was fish soup, and a big bowl of blindingly white rice, plenty of pickled vegetables, some stir fried bamboo shoots and all the warm water he could drink. Paradise....
2025-05-13 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostTian decided he was fourteen. It had been a month since Martial Uncle Ku had returned, and in another month it would be Hong Liren’s birthday. To maintain orthodoxy and obeying the will of the He...
2025-05-12 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostTian’s mind was a mess. He latched onto one phrase in particular. “It’s working?”
“In the sense that we have made battling us seem like a bad investment compared to fighting Sword P...
2025-05-09 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe cultivators cheered for Martial Uncle Ku when he entered the Depot. Tian could see everyone pouring out of the buildings, the True Disciples flying up on their swords or flying clouds. People c...
2025-05-08 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post[Like the caption said- I'm unlocking this chapter for the Awakened tier early, as I probably won't have the time to unlock it when I usually do. Sorry for the inconvenience.]
Time came unstu...
2025-05-07 14:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostIt took Sister Li two weeks to craft Tian’s darts. During that time, for no plausible reason, the base was shifted from an Up to a Down posture. That is, it was no longer considered on the front ...
2025-05-06 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostTian sat and looked out across the wastes. Some instinct stirred in him, and he got up into a crouch and started drawing circles in the sand. For some reason, it always helped him focus. He started...
2025-05-05 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post