We got some goopy girls this month! Tsuu came through with the character designs for Xiao Chong and Iseul, and as always she's blown me away with her interpretations. Strangely, these ones were finished before the Lee Jia illustration even though they were commissioned afterwards, but I'm led to understand that the other pieces are going to be getting some extra polish to account for the delays...
2023-07-02 05:15:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
Once Yoshika finally had a chance to sit down and focus on her meditation, she immediately realized something was wrong. Her sense of unease had been growing slowly ever since her arrival in Chou’s tomb, like a gradual buildup of pressure.
Now that she was meditating on it, the pressure had grown far more than she’d realized. It was a strange feeling—stretched and distorted in a way...
2023-06-30 20:33:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
The night passed quietly. Yoshika was glad that combat meditation had been one of the first techniques she had learned all those years ago. Without it, she’d be at the end of her rope, but a quiet night of watching over the village while the others rested was enough to get her back in shape.
For the most part, anyway. She was still feeling a bit stressed, but in terms of physical and sp...
2023-06-28 19:45:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
At the end of the tenth day, the army finally broke. They didn’t retreat, and their endless numbers weren’t exhausted—as the sunless sky darkened, they simply vanished. Thanks to Yoshika’s generous contribution, they’d managed to weather through the relentless assault.
Yue still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Obviously if it was between arming their allies of circumstanc...
2023-06-26 23:15:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
They made it a week before the cracks started to form. Xiao Chong had to hand it to them, for a bunch of people who mostly hated each other, they’d kept it together surprisingly well. Certainly better than her former sect had managed.
As with Xiao Chong, they’d been placed in a situation deliberately designed to break them. The others didn’t get it, but to Xiao Chong, who’d lived ...
2023-06-23 20:31:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
An enormous ball of flaming rock arced lazily through the air, its trajectory set to land well within the walls of the village. The faceless army had been using their war machines to hurl such projectiles non-stop for days, and they had quickly become routine.
Yoshika ignored this one—it was better left to those who could deal with it more efficiently. Instead, she circled around the wa...
2023-06-21 18:56:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
After how much hassle Zheng Long had given Yoshika about it, healing Yu Xiang wasn’t even particularly difficult.
Eui had dramatically underestimated Yu Xiang when she made her estimations. While he paled in comparison to the rest of them, he was still an elite cultivator hand-picked for the mission by one of the most prestigious sects in the empire. Hand-picked to be cannon-fodder, but...
2023-06-19 17:58:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Art of Godslaying and the True Meaning of Heavenly Defiance
The tattered bamboo slip looked so fragile that Jia and Zheng Long were afraid to even touch it. The audacious title was all that was written on it, in plain language and faded ink. Its true contents were no doubt housed in the enormously powerful divine essence that radiated from the otherwise unassuming artifact.
2023-06-16 18:31:48 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jia rubbed her temples. Her head ached, and she was starting to think there was more to it than the situation with Xiao Chong. Not that she needed more than that to give her a headache.
“This is the final straw, surely. We should kill her now while Yan Yue has her trapped.”
Zheng Long’s argument wasn’t entirely unreasonable. Xiao Chong had made it abundantly clear that she h...
2023-06-14 17:40:49 +0000 UTC
View Post
Yan Yue had nearly expected it to feel strange, leading a band of Awakening Dragon cultivators around. She had disowned her sect, after all—betrayed the very people she was now charged with leading. Instead, she fell into the role naturally, her old position in hierarchy fitting like a well-worn glove.
“I’m not going to bother learning your names—you’re now Red and Blue. I know ...
2023-06-12 17:41:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
Long Ruiling and her friends were a fascinating group. The convention against sharing details about cultivation techniques didn’t exist in their culture—not that Yoshika had ever been good at following it to begin with—and they were all more than happy to talk about their skills.
Though as they sat together, resting in preparation for whatever Sovereign Chou had in store for them, i...
2023-06-09 19:11:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
Yoshika had a bittersweet feeling of nostalgia as the enemy arrived. The gently rolling hillsides that surrounded the academy were familiar, even outside of the shield formation. Surrounded by many of the friends she’d made during her time there.
Guan Yi and Xin Wei had barely changed—the two of them standing side by side as they prepared to face what all reason suggested would be a c...
2023-06-07 19:09:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
Yoshika’s ‘unit’ such as it was, maintained a very light camp, since they were a small and mobile team. They’d been acting as a rapid response team, rushing to and fro in order to reinforce whichever front needed them most. When they weren’t running around, they usually waited on standby in whichever allied camp was nearest.
As such, their own camp was just a small branch off of...
2023-06-05 15:44:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
I hate to disappoint, but there's no new art finished yet. Tsuu's been very busy, and summer's a rough season in her part of the world. Also, the piece I commissioned for May was intricate enough that it ate June's slot as well, so no poll this month either.
In summary, the current backlog is:
March: Lee Jia scene illustration
April: Character desig...
2023-06-03 20:14:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Reporting! Another assault at the northern gate! No xiantian enemies were present, but Flowing Purewater forces sustained some casualties.”
Li Meili groaned and rubbed her temples as Chen Ling delivered his report.
“They keep attacking the areas furthest away from our support units.”
Xin Wei rolled his eyes at her.
“Tell me again, I didn’t notice the first d...
2023-06-02 14:18:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Once again, Yoshika found herself at the mercy of an unfathomably powerful hostile entity with no regard for her life. It was almost sad how familiar the situation was. She doubted that she could lie to Sovereign Chou, but he wouldn’t necessarily believe the truth, either. If he was unsatisfied, he would kill her without a second thought.
She’d been given an opportunity to make her ca...
2023-05-31 18:11:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
Eui turned to face the group and flicked the blood off of her sword.
“Any complaints?”
Xiao Chong cackled in a way that was uncomfortably reminiscent of Eui’s own laughter, but she ignored it—let the demon think whatever she wants, Bai Lin had to go.
Zheng Long rubbed his temples and groaned.
“I figured it was going to happen, but you could at least have waited...
2023-05-29 19:53:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Eui put her hands on her hips and looked up at the structure dominating her vision. From up close it was more like a wall than a gate, stretching high enough that she could no longer see the top of it.
“Have you tried pushing it?”
Xiao Chong narrowed her eyes.
“No, I thought I’d try digging first—of course I tried pushing it! It’s as solid as it looks.”<...
2023-05-26 20:34:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
On the ground, Jia followed Sukarto’s rapid bounding strides to the best of her ability. His way of moving was reminiscent of her own Lightning Steps, the way he darted from place to place without an apparent pattern. However, his quadrupedal body and lithe musculature let him twist and bound in ways that would strain Jia’s body—much less those following behind her.
On top of that, ...
2023-05-24 20:53:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
It was hard not to be intimidated by Sovereign Chou. He’d just described himself as the greatest person who’d ever lived, and at least in terms of personal power he wasn’t bragging. Only the so-called demiurges—the mysterious creators of the entire universe—could compare, and from what Yoshika had heard there was some debate as to whether they were even people rather than some fundame...
2023-05-22 20:21:44 +0000 UTC
View Post
Long Ruiling followed Yoshika’s gaze and frowned.
“Uh...how do you know? I don’t see anything.”
Jia blushed—she’d forgotten that she wasn’t sharing her sight with the others.
“Soul Sight—we used a technique that lets us observe the spirit realm. There’s a pathway leading up to a huge gate over there.”
Ruiling blinked.
“That sounds impressive...
2023-05-19 20:32:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Eui eyed the demon in front of her warily while Jia kept an eye on the one behind her. Both of them knew how fragile the situation was. Zheng Long’s word wasn’t worth shit, and there was clearly something going on between him and Bai Lin. They didn’t know Long Ruiling, but she’d been too easy to convince. And then there was Xiao Chong.
In many ways, Xiao Chong reminded Eui of hers...
2023-05-17 20:09:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Everything felt wrong to Yoshika’s senses as she tumbled through nothingness. Space felt twisted, there was no light but it strained her eyes to look at anything, there was no air but her movements were sluggish, and at the edge of her soul she felt a strange uncomfortable tug, akin to a stray branch catching on the collar of her robes.
Then, without warning, she suddenly found herself ...
2023-05-15 20:28:43 +0000 UTC
View Post
Li Meili marveled at the nostalgic sight of Mount Geumji—the so-called ‘Forbidden Mountain.’ Having explored the Qin empire and witnessed the extravagance of their mountain sects, she could truly appreciate how impressive Geumji really was. Far taller than even the Purewater Peak, and resting in the middle of the largest confluence of leylines on the continent, it was quite a sight to beh...
2023-05-12 19:51:28 +0000 UTC
View Post
The world around Yoshika roared to life as the silent stillness of Do Hye’s technique ended and he leapt into action. She hurriedly gave her friends a mental update on what had occurred as he began shouting orders.
“Miss Chong, Miss Ruiling, please clear a space—we are to be joined by yet another group.”
The half-dragon girl and the other fiends quickly moved out of the way,...
2023-05-10 20:24:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Yoshika had a million questions.
“What the hell is going on? Why are you here? How are you here? What did you do to Shen Yu? Who are these people? What do you mean we’re the last piece?”
Do Hye chuckled and shook his head, stepping up to a flat stone dais in the center of the maelstrom, delicate formation scripts covering its surface.
“I’m sure you have a lo...
2023-05-08 17:28:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
The dragon’s coils seemed to go on forever as it wound its way lazily through the sky, flying as effortlessly as if it were submerged in water. It was so enormous that Yoshika had a hard time thinking of it as a person, or even a creature—it was more like a force of nature. But when it opened its mouth, the earth-shattering roar she expected never came. Instead, it spoke with a deep masculi...
2023-05-05 18:53:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
As it turned out, the flow of mana throughout the world hadn’t changed much in ten thousand years—the ocean was just enormous. The ‘patterns’ that Jianmo had shared with Yoshika were vast fields of mana so large that she had trouble recognizing them in her domain.
After days of desperate searching, she’d eventually settled on a method of breaking her ‘map’ down into...
2023-05-03 19:07:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
Not much to add that wasn't already in the other announcement. As always, feel free to give me suggestions in the comments if there's something specific you'd really like to see illustrated.
2023-05-03 01:21:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Ienaga commission from February is finished! I'm still waiting to hear back on the rest, but I'm looking forward to them. I'll be posting the poll in a separate post, since Patreon doesn't let me combine image posts and polls. For now, here's an update on the current commission backlog:
March: Lee Jia scene illustration
April: It's a secret ;)
2023-05-03 01:21:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
