Boots

4.3 - He Yu Conducts an Investigation

Dai Shoushan ushered He Yu into his home. A large building, at least by the standards of the village. He was fed and given what he suspected was Dai Shoushan’s own room to spend the night.

...

4.2 - A Short Trip South

Several days later, He Yu found a note from Zhang Lifen. It had arrived in the night while he’d been cultivating, delivered by one of the carved heron statuettes she used to send messages. Unfurl...

4.1 - Prelude to Dawn

On a frozen lake high in the Shrouded Peaks, He Yu trained. Spires of ice formed pillars like a forest of blue glass. He Yu stood atop one such pillar near the lake’s center, sweating despite the...

Prologue - The Dawn Palace

A soft, golden glow bathed the entirety of her world. Beautiful, it would have been, under other circumstances. A beautiful prison was a prison still. It had taken just over a hundred years to prob...

A quick note

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to give a bit of a heads up about today's post. Normally for one this short, I'd double up. But since I'm literally moving as this goes live, I'm gonna buy myself a ...

Epilogue - More than a Setback

The knock came about an hour after nightfall. Zhang Lifen waved a hand and the door to the outer wall of her garden opened. First Disciple Yi Xiurong stepped through.

“That was reckless,”...

3.44 - Golden Core

Once He Yu and Zhang Lifen were a fair distance down the path back to the main areas of the inner sect, and well out of earshot of the Sixth Realm back at the garden, Zhang Lifen finally spoke.

3.43 - The Four Demon Fists

The dull glow of red veins running along Sha Xiang’s arms slowly pulsed as she spoke. “I did what I had to.”

The voice was hers, but different somehow. Crueler than it usually was, but ...

3.42 - Payback

When He Yu found Sha Xiang, she was in one of the inner sect’s many gardens. Cui Bao sat nearby drinking wine. Mo Zhiqiang and Da Ning were both present as well. Four sets of eyes turned towards ...

3.41 - A Word of Advice

He Yu had made it nearly all the way back to the inner sect when he felt the familiar presence of Zhang Lifen’s qi. He activated the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment, extending his spiritual p...

3.40 - Tribulation

Heaven’s wrath descended. Lightning filled the sky. Great forks of gold and green and purple and blue arced across the heavens. They struck the ground. They branched between the blackened clouds ...

3.39 - The Summer Storm

It took almost another two weeks for a proper storm to form in the north. He Yu mostly stayed home and cultivated. He spent a fair amount of spirit stones and contribution points on elixirs and med...

3.38 - An Offer

It was early summer, and the mists of the Shrouded Peaks turned muggy and warm with the changing of the season. Still, it was little impediment to the immortals of the inner sect. He Yu cultivated....

3.37 - Moonlight

Li Heng sat with his back to the mountain. The mists of the Shrouded Peaks stretched out below him, with other slopes rising like solitary titans, keeping watch over the sect lands. Above, the last...

3.36 - Heart to Heart

For the next couple of days, He Yu did everything he could to avoid admitting that Chen Fei had been right. Eventually, it got to be too much, and he made his way to Li Heng’s home. He knew his f...

3.35 - Reflections

Chen Fei knelt next to the corpse of a beast that was easily half again as large as she was. The bear-skin mantle she’d taken to wearing hung from a nearby tree branch along with her outer coat. ...

3.34 - Return and Regret

Over the next several weeks, He Yu trained against rock spirits in the hills. On some days Zhang Lifen would round up a pack of Second and Third Realm spirits, each group larger than the one before...

3.33 - Facing the Mountain

With every breath he could spare, He Yu cursed Zhang Lifen’s name. She vanished before the stone spirit covered half the distance to the edge of the caldera, leaving him to face the thing alone. ...

3.32 - Insights and Awakening

Zhang Lifen’s training lasted until nightfall. Just as the sun dipped behind the mountains to the west, she produced her bow of qilin horn and black wood from her storage treasure. The weapon’s...

3.31 - A Training Opportunity

As it turned out, the correct answer was “a bit of both.”

Although He Yu had hoped she would accept another job on his behalf, she simply told him to keep up as she set off in a seemingly...

3.30 - A Promise

Tan Xiaoling’s account of the attack was much the same as Yan Shirong’s, although she was able to fill in some details that Yan Shirong hadn’t. Sha Xiang and her goons had attacked, staging a...

3.29 - Failure and Disaster

He Yu rolled over onto his back. How long his qi had raged out of control, he couldn’t have said. What he could say was that every part of his body and spirit hurt. His dantian ached and felt emp...

3.28 - Scion of the Li

Li Heng stood before Sha Xiang and Da Ning, jian at the ready. His body enforcement technique, Raiment of the Frozen Soul, caused hoarfrost to spread outward from where he stood, creeping across th...

3.27 - Ambush

The time had finally come. Sha Xiang had waited long enough. Suffered embarrassment enough. She had finally cultivated to the peak of Body Refining. She had struggled against the Four Demon Fists a...

3.26 - Gazing Upon the Peak

Spring brought with it the scent of flowers and rain. The manicured gardens and immaculate paths of the inner sect mountain came alive with color, and the challenges of the past year faded as if wa...

3.25 - Outside Context

“The fuck you have!” Sha Xiang shouted. Earth and fire qi rolled out from her expanding presence. The scent of sulfur hung over the arena. “He’s still got fight left in him.”

“My ...

What's been cooking?

Just a super quick little update for anyone who might be curious.

I've hit 50k words out of a pl...

3.24 - Ranked Duel

From across the dueling arena, Mo Zhiqiang’s presence expanded. It had become far more well-defined since their last fight, taking on the impression of a waterfall plunging down the side of a mis...

3.23 - Payback

“You can’t be serious,” He Yu said. As Li Heng told him what Yan Shirong had discovered, the heat rose in his neck along with his anger.

Mo Zhiqiang. He Yu had barely even thought about...

3.22 - The Path Forward

With the coming of spring, He Yu emerged from seclusion. He’d reached the peak of Body Refining sometime around the new year and now stood with one foot in the Fourth Realm. Instinctively, he kne...