Hui rubbed a hand over his face. Taking a deep breath, he centered himself, forcing the panic out. He glanced at the door. It remained sealed, Xue’s spell still holding. Trapped in a room wit...
2021-11-06 18:34:08 +0000 UTC View PostXue dashed away. Hui dangled off his shoulder, desperately holding on. “Er, Xue! Where are we going?”
Laughing, Xue shrugged. “A safe place.” He turned around and fired another two sl...
2021-11-06 03:34:44 +0000 UTC View PostThe spires passed slowly by. Occasionally, Hui found his feet drifting off the straight-line path they’d decided upon, but Xue always corrected him before he drifted too far. Likewise, whenever X...
2021-11-06 03:26:30 +0000 UTC View PostAhead of him, Bai Xue shuffled along. Awkward and graceful at the same time, her short steps caught on the rope, then yanked her back foot forward and repeated the process. Every few steps, her for...
2021-10-30 18:30:16 +0000 UTC View PostLight filtered in, the gray glow that passed for dawn in this strange realm fading up the passageway and into Hui’s cavern. He focused on the skin, absorbed in his work. His qi spiraled across it...
2021-10-30 18:23:49 +0000 UTC View PostHands pulled at his robes. Hui startled awake and swatted blindly, reaching for his sword before his eyes opened. His head banged against the wall, and pain burst out across his skull. The pain ech...
2021-10-30 18:22:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe ghoul grabbed his shoulders and went for his throat. Hui backstepped. His heels hit the stone block, and he tripped backward out of the screeching ghoul’s grasp and into the waiting ghouls. T...
2021-10-30 18:21:43 +0000 UTC View PostSomething nudged at his nose. Hui turned away, vaguely brushing it away. “Zhubi, not yet…”
Cold hands caught his arm and drew it away from him.
Hui’s eyes snapped open. His yank...
2021-10-30 18:20:19 +0000 UTC View PostNo longer playing dead or immediately assaulted by the undead, Hui took a moment to look around the secret realm as he fled the green-robed cultivators.
The realm laid out before him, bleak a...
2021-10-30 18:19:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe undead reached him. The nearest one crouched and grabbed his arm, lifting it toward its maw.
Ah, no! I forgot! They eat people, even dead people! Hui started to release his hold ...
2021-10-30 18:15:09 +0000 UTC View PostThey burst across the sky, a single bolt of light high above the mortals below. Hui clung to his master’s back, eyes squeezed shut. When the wind pressure let up, he hovered above a group of othe...
2021-10-30 18:12:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe chirping of birds roused him from his slumber. Outside his window, red and yellow leaves swayed with the wind, colored in the brilliant shades of autumn. A cool breeze, not yet cold, shifted th...
2021-10-30 18:12:26 +0000 UTC View Post“Fight!”
Chang Bolin rushed at him. His sword rushed from its sheath, and he struck at Hui’s throat.
Hui leaped backward, dragging out his training sword at the same time. He stru...
2021-10-30 18:11:41 +0000 UTC View PostHui opened his eyes as dawn broke over the horizon. He stood, stretching. Today’s the day.
Two days of cultivation. Two days of drills, practicing the few simple sword moves he kne...
2021-10-27 14:35:49 +0000 UTC View PostAt the foot of Starbound Peak, Hui glanced around to make sure no one was around, then peeled the pig-skin mask off his face. He sucked in a breath and vigorously wiped his face. Ugh. Smells li...
2021-10-27 14:34:59 +0000 UTC View PostAt the base of Cauldron Peak, Hui pulled the pig-skin mask over his face. For a second, he stared through the flaccid eye-holes, and then the mask came to life. Like a human-skin mask, it adapted t...
2021-10-27 14:34:07 +0000 UTC View PostClimbing the hill, Hui made a beeline for Qin Xixing’s shop. No less dusty and derelict than the last time, her shop sat empty, unlike the shops around hers. Silver smoke rose from the back of he...
2021-10-22 01:55:24 +0000 UTC View PostSetting the empty bowl on the step, Hui let out a burp and stood. Now that my important business is done… where’s the administrative building?
“Hui!” Mei reappeared at the do...
2021-10-22 01:54:39 +0000 UTC View PostHui’s eyes flew open again. He spat out a mouthful of impurities and wiped his mouth. “Is that all the further I can go?”
He turned his attention internally. With Zhubi’s help, he’d...
2021-10-22 01:53:48 +0000 UTC View PostWeiheng Wu’s peak rushed up. Descending to the earth at the base of the clearing, Weiheng Wu stepped off his sword and let go of Hui. Hui stumbled, half-expecting his knees to give out again, but...
2021-10-22 01:53:09 +0000 UTC View PostA hand pressed against his shoulder. The pressure on his body fell away. Having long abandoned his technique, Hui leaped back to life. His qi bounced back to normal, and then some. Qi rushed into h...
2021-10-22 01:52:29 +0000 UTC View PostChang Bolin strode over to him and stood inches from him. Their noses would have almost touched, if Chang Bolin had enough height to manage the feat. As it was, he stared fiercely up at Hui from hi...
2021-10-22 01:51:53 +0000 UTC View PostChang Bolin strode over to him and stood inches from him. Their noses would have almost touched, if Chang Bolin had enough height to manage the feat. As it was, he stared fiercely up at Hui from hi...
2021-10-17 20:28:16 +0000 UTC View PostHui threw himself through the library’s door and slammed it shut behind him. Someone thumped into the door, nearly throwing it open against his weight. Another few thumps rang out, and then the d...
2021-10-17 14:16:32 +0000 UTC View PostAt the bottom of Cauldron Peak, Hui bent over and caught his breath. Cauldron Peak is scary. The girls there are nothing like elder sister Mei! He straightened up, then glanced around.
The pill burned down his throat, all the way into his stomach.
“Meditate, meditate!” Xixing urged him.
Closing his eyes, Hui sat on the spot and crossed his legs. Xixing dropped wit...
2021-10-17 14:14:15 +0000 UTC View PostIn his ten years in the Starbound Sect, he’d only visited his own peak and Starbound Peak. Pills offered more danger than assistance to someone who hadn’t yet cultivated, except for the very lo...
2021-10-17 14:13:38 +0000 UTC View PostParalyzed, Hui laid on the ground like a dead fish. Poison pumped through his veins, burning him from the inside out. He closed his eyes and focused, guiding his qi toward the poison. His qi fought...
2021-10-17 14:12:56 +0000 UTC View PostWalking around the pill furnace, Hui nodded to himself. He crouched down and peered under it, lifted the lid and poked around inside. Massive and built of wrought iron, it bore no real decoration. ...
2021-10-17 14:12:17 +0000 UTC View PostHui started to turn away, then froze. I’ve got a bowl from Skybound Peak’s cafeteria up the peak. Isn’t that a smoking gun? I need to get rid of the evidence, stat! “Actually… co...
2021-10-17 14:11:34 +0000 UTC View Post