Alfir

152 Seeds of Civilization

“So, what are we waiting for?” I asked, half-expecting someone to snap and tell me to shut up. “Do we just stand here on the sand like decorative idiots or…?”

Nongmin didn’t even ...

151 Little Shit

It hadn’t even been ten minutes into our flight on the Megatron when Zai Ai started looking for her ring, her brows furrowing in what looked suspiciously like rising panic. She patt...

150 Megatron

Just as the old man was gleefully pinching my cheeks and preparing to ruin my dignity forever, I noticed someone standing beside him, mouth slightly open, eyes fixed on me like she’d seen a ghost...

149 Want a Candy?

“I’m sorry about Ren Xun,” I told her, voice low. “I promise I’ll bring him back.”

The words tasted heavy coming out. He had died because of me… or more accurately, because he�...

148 Feast Before the Summit

It had been a week since my talk with Nongmin, and the preparations for the World Summit were still dragging on. Apparently, assembling the most powerful people in the world under one roof took mor...

147 Dreamt Dreams

I stood up from the gilded chair, brushing a bit of imaginary dust off my sleeve, and looked Nongmin dead in the eye.

“If you really want to feel attached to them,” I said, “then there�...

146 The Talk

Alice was feeding me grapes.

Not just any grapes. These were qi-soaked, high-grade spirit grapes, the kind that grew in the mist-drenched hills of the Empire’s interior. I could feel the en...

145 Unexpected Kidnapping

The memory didn’t end.

It couldn’t.

I was still inside Alice’s soul, watching through her eyes. Feeling through her heart. Hearing her breath tremble as she cut down the last of t...

144 The Long Echo

The memory didn’t end.

It shifted again, seamlessly, as if flipping to the next chapter in a story already written but now being read aloud with fresh eyes. The field of poppies faded. The ...

143 Alice’s Life

The dreamscape shifted.

I didn’t feel my body anymore, only the drift of consciousness as my soul merged with Alice’s. This wasn’t like when I entered Gu Jie’s soul, where lines blurr...

142 Outsourcing Heaven

There was silence.

Not the kind that came from awe, but the confused, stunned kind… like a crowd who blinked and missed the finale.

My dear audience stood frozen in place, eyes wide, ...

141 Falcons and Roses

The falcon screeched as it broke through the clouds, its shadow passing over us like a silent omen. I watched it descend with practiced grace, folding its wings mid-dive before flaring them open ag...

140 Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Gender

I sat cross-legged in the private chamber Lu Gao had been assigned. The walls were lacquered with restrained elegance, the air thick with incense… floral, maybe aphrodisiacal. Hard to tell anymor...

139 A Man Awakens Surrounded

I opened my eyes to soft violet curtains swaying with a lazy breeze, sunlight filtering in through honeyed lattice windows, and the scent of sandalwood, jasmine, and too many people wearing perfume...

138 Fireflies in the Soul Sea

It had been two weeks since I started diving into Lu Gao’s soul, and I meant that quite literally.

Dreamwalking wasn’t a plug-and-play technique. Especially not when the base mechanism in...

137 Blue Flames and Old Bones

I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was darkness. There was neither light nor warmth. Just that silent and oppressive stillness that makes you feel like you’ve been buried alive.

I ...

136 A Delicate Encounter

I’m like… dude, what happened to you?

Seriously, it took everything in me not to say that out loud the moment I laid eyes on Lu Gao.

I’d come to Healing Garden’s famed Purple Bl...

135 Blushes and Bewilderment

The first thing Lu Gao felt was the warm sway of something beneath him, rocking gently like a cradle. His eyes cracked open to a world painted gold… dunes stretching far in all directions, glitte...

134 The Black Knight in the Dunes

It had been days since Lu Gao was flung across the continent by the violent tear of a Great Teleportation scroll.

He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t even know if he was still on the s...

133 Reconciliation & Omens

I’ve done my reading.

Not just the usual surface-level stuff either. Before coming here, I made it a point to study everything the Empire had on the Promised Dunes: their history, politics,...

132 A Kingdom of Sand and Stone

We arrived at our destination short of twenty-one days. Considering the normal pace of sky travel over three continents, that should’ve been impossible. But then again, not many people had the sa...

131 Sailing the Skies

We finally set off.

I stood near the prow of the lead Soaring Dragon, the wind brushing past my robes and the hum of formations vibrating beneath my feet. Beneath us, the clouds parted like s...

130 Sandthorn Village

Morning arrived with a whisper rather than a blaze. The sun had not yet crested the horizon, but Sandthorn Village was already stirring. A faint breeze carried with it the scent of dust, cactus blo...

129 Just Stay Behind, Damn It

It had been three days since the expedition plans began rolling into motion. The high walls of Yellow Dragon City bustled with activity, cloaked in the haze of talisman smoke and the shimmer of enc...

128 Under the Pale Moonlight

The moon hung low, round and solemn, casting silver light across the dunes. The desert was quiet tonight, eerily so. Even the wind whispered as if trying not to disturb the lonely figure atop the s...

127 Scattered Shadows

“Alright, you and your gal friends can go now,” I said, waving Zhu Lian and the handmaidens away.

Zhu Lian blinked. “Gal friends?”

“Ignore me,” I muttered. “Just go.” 2025-04-12 04:23:16 +0000 UTC View Post

126 A Most Natural Resurrection

The courtyard was quiet, save for the rustle of wind through dying leaves and the faint creak of old wood. A garden once full of life now held the stink of death. And at its center, sprawled in a p...

125 Hollowed World

“In my younger years,” Nongmin began, his voice echoing slightly against the stone walls and shelves of the small study, “I had a simple question. One that troubled me more than most cultivat...

124 Class One Truth

We were walking down a hallway that refused to end.

Not just long… it was unnatural. The air thrummed with quiet tension, like the corridor itself was alive and watching. I couldn’t help ...

123 Daddy Issues

The palace halls were a quiet kind of vast. Silent, but not peaceful. Like the place had seen too much to pretend otherwise.

General Zhu Shin walked beside me. He was a quiet storm of righteo...