As mentioned previously, I've been releasing one chapter per day but I can't anymore. The intent is to switch to five chapters per week, so I wanted to ask readers which days they most prefer. Vote for the options that apply to you - note there's more than just the days of the week in order to get a better impression of the readership overall.
This is also a good time to comment if it mat...
2024-02-07 18:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
This is the intended cover for the second book. Kai is obvious, the skull represents an ability that hasn't been seen yet but is the culmination of this book, and this is the first visual representation of Zae Zin Nim.
$3 backers, you would not have seen the updates, but I need to take a week for business updates. Those will be available to everyone at all tiers. If $3 people speak up and...
2024-02-05 18:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. As previously mentioned, I'm going to need to take some time to handle some business. I started posting this story in August, trying to post a chapter every day. I missed seven days, but counting doubles and bonus chapters, I have posted 200 chapters in 176 days.
I've done my best, but clearly this isn't working. Over the coming "business week" I'm going to take care of...
2024-02-04 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostNo matter how many times Zae Zin Nim told herself that life was strange, she came back to that thought. The person she had been a few years ago could never have imagined being here.
Traveling across Krysal had given her plenty of time to think about exactly what all this meant. Technically she was cultivating, but she couldn't prevent her mind from considering that she was now leading a p...
2024-02-03 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. This is just a heads up that I am going to need to take some business days. This means some missing chapters but not a break; expect some announcements and polls about the story going forward.)
"As near as we can determine," Krainuun said, "it began with a worker from New Laeneria who had family in Korostir."
They were flying away from Romastir because they'd just...
2024-02-02 18:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostFinally Kai returned to the unnaturally darkened mine that had stymied all Krysal. He was stronger, thanks to his ordeal against the Myogenecon, but more importantly this time he had Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena with him.
The mine was still a pit of darkness wafting upward like smoke. Omilaena had moved closer to examine it while the others got ready to fight. At least that was the plan, but ...
2024-02-01 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostEven though Omilaena had figured out the exact location of the acid pits near Yulthens, she obediently went to the planned meeting point instead. They'd been trying so hard with their spycraft, she might as well play along.
Kai met her himself, and he was a sight for sore eyes after so long working with boring crystalliers. It looked like he'd been steadily training, and she absolutely lo...
2024-01-31 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAs much as Kai had enjoyed traveling and training for the past months, they were overdue for a visit to the acid pits. Once they'd built up enough healing potions, and Zae Zin Nim said that Gundle was ready, they took their group of six out of Yulthens. The journey that had once required searching now felt like a short trip in the diamond star.
In theory, they would meet Omilaena nearby a...
2024-01-30 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostSeveral days later, Kai returned from his monster hunting expedition. That meant he and Nirka were back together, which should have annoyed Zae Zin Nim, but to her surprise Kai didn't spend much time with the other woman. Instead after he got cleaned up, he asked Orillia to set up a meal for just the three of them.
While the old woman was there, they talked about their strategy in a limit...
2024-01-29 18:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post"Again." Zae Zin Nim raised the rock on a bit of her qi.
"I can't." Gundle rubbed his forehead with stained fingers. "My head hurts."
"Consider it weakness leaving your body. Focus again. Draw your qi just beneath your stomach, take a deep breath, and try again."
For all his whining, Gundle settled back into his task sooner than most children would. Unlike some geniuses Zae Zi...
2024-01-28 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostFor his next attempt at the Myogenecon, Kai took a little longer to prepare. If brute force wouldn't work, he would return to his roots as a hunter. He sneaked to the other side of the bluffs and set up a number of stake pits and tripwires. Those wouldn't be enough, of course, but he planned a more sustained offensive.
He sought the Acidlance Queen within him, then fed it the Acidspitter ...
2024-01-27 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAs much as Kai enjoyed spending time with the others, he was glad to go out and fight monsters on his own again. Krainuun had more than come through, providing him a list of the most dangerous beasts anywhere in Krysal. Even if some had proved to be rumors or underwhelming, in two weeks he had made more progress with monstrous powers than he had in the past months.
His first hunt had been...
2024-01-26 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe battle for Romastir had been easy, which actually left Zae Zin Nim strangely unsatisfied. There were opponents out there as far above her as she was above the weak crystalliers, and she needed to work to be ready for them. Kai seemed to feel the same, so they cultivated and trained aggressively as they flew back toward Yulthens.
Before they actually entered the city, however, they nee...
2024-01-25 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostOmilaena believed that most things in life required quick action. Seizing what you wanted, killing those in your path, rushing into danger. Technically other things required waiting, but she was better at slow experimentation and training than pure waiting. Sitting outside the city as if she couldn't just fight her way in had been incredibly dull.
Now, walking toward Mercantile Center wit...
2024-01-24 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe female spy tried to run, but Kai caught her wrist gently and pulled her back. Krainuun still hadn't moved from his position. His position wasn't fear, it was focused calculation. If the servant had no strength of his own, he would know that running was pointless, so he made no effort.
"I want to ask 'what the fuck?' but I guess that's not the priority." Kai took a deep breath and let ...
2024-01-23 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here; back from hiatus. I took this time to do edits throughout chapters 167, 172, and 176. I suspect some of you will never agree with Zae Zin Nim's decisions with Omilaena, but I've written more about exactly what information she has [compared to readers, who know more] and her thought process, plus made her take more steps so she seems less reckless.
I've also made some ch...
2024-01-22 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. As previous mentioned, I will need to take a three day hiatus. Apologies for that, but I tried to leave you on a less cliffy note. The story will return Monday the 22nd.)
After worrying so much about how he was going to get Zae Zin Nim to agree, she had just accepted his conclusion. Kai had gotten used to his life being difficult at every turn, so it felt strange when s...
2024-01-18 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostLife took so many unexpected turns. Once, Zae Zin Nim had known exactly how her future was going to progress, down to the year she would achieve each cultivation stage. Then had come the blockages, Deadwaste, Kai, and so much else... and now Omilaena.
They had taken over the estate for now, to give themselves time to recover and regroup. Zae Zin Nim had seized the resources that she had f...
2024-01-17 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIf they were really going to be interrogating Omilaena, they needed to do it securely. While Kai checked for any traps or other preparations, Zae Zin Nim searched her thoroughly. While his back was turned, he heard Omilaena gasp theatrically.
"You're taking such liberties!" Omilaena said with mock indignity. "Here I thought I could trust a fellow woman, but you're taking advantage of me!"...
2024-01-16 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostOn his first visit to New Laeneria, Kai had seen fortified noble estates with fearful merchants hiding behind their walls. Now there didn't seem to be so many merchants left, but the buildings were even more fortified and he saw workers patrolling the walls.
There was no time for any of that. Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena waited ahead and he had no idea what he was going to find.
No one ...
2024-01-15 18:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. Some stuff has come up lately that has been pretty exhausting. I'm still chapters ahead, but my pace is faltering, so I think I need another three day hiatus. I have it planned for later in the week so that patrons will not be left on a cliffhanger.)
Traveling through the Krysal City States was at once easier and harder. In a small gem ship, with better qi control than ...
2024-01-14 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAs Kai flew back to the N District mines, he found himself filled with emotions he couldn't quite name. It was like returning home and realizing he had no home at the same time. Every since he had understood that Monskon City was no longer his home, he hadn't had a single place that was truly his. And he wasn't sure he needed a place, but he did want someone to come home to.
His friends i...
2024-01-13 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe location of acid pits was a guarded secret, but given their immense importance to the economy, they could never be truly secure locations. With a starting point from Orillia and a ship that could fly reasonably high, it wasn't so difficult to find another one.
While still overhead, Kai actually thought he could sense a bit of unusual qi. Not like a cultivator or crystallier, more like...
2024-01-12 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostZae Zin Nim awoke from dreams that she was being dismembered to find herself in a dark room. She could barely make out a few crystal-reinforced windows at the tops of the walls, letting in what looked like moonlight. The architecture struck her as the lord's estate, but she had never seen this room.
There was no way to determine how she had gotten to this position, so Zae Zin Nim attempte...
2024-01-11 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAfter several more days, Kai decided that he needed to take a lesson from Zae Zin Nim. If he stayed in the acid pits until he found some magic way to help everyone, he'd end up wasting his time and not actually helping anyone. He needed to cut his losses and move on aggressively to find another source of power.
When he told the workers he would need to leave, many of them were sad, but no...
2024-01-10 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostA boy named Gundle, a slave barely considered to be worth the expenses of his own life, turned out to be a genius.
Given his history, Kai wasn't generally on good terms with "geniuses" who found that the powers of the world came easily to them. Yet Gundle was so small, and the hacking cough wracked his body so painfully... the fact that he took to acid cultivation like a fish to water did...
2024-01-09 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAlong the way to New Laeneria, Zae Zin Nim repeatedly heard about how the city state was going to hell. Some said that all the merchants had been executed, others were just terrified that the peasants had taken over. As far as she could tell, their primary concern was that the city was no longer conducting trade in luxury items. It had been one of the greatest cities in the nation based on its ...
2024-01-08 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostDespite Kai's deep skepticism that something would go horribly wrong or it would all turn out to be a trap, the acid pits community truly was as welcoming as it seemed. They seemed almost pathetically grateful to have someone from the outside who was willing to help. He didn't need to give them any promises about big plans for the future, just easing their pain was enough.
Everyone cooper...
2024-01-07 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe moment seemed frozen in time. Nothing but the soft sounds of the acid as everyone stared at Kai. He realized that he was completely surrounded, not that the workers were any physical threat to him. And yet, if he had ruined things from the start...
Abruptly the boy began squirming. Kai set him down and the boy patted his leg before wandering off. His sister cried out "Gundle!" and sco...
2024-01-06 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostReaching the acid pits required very little time, the problem was getting in. Kai had been expecting something similar to the mines, with some kind of underground complex produced by the acid. Instead the acid sat in great pools between the plateaus, and in some places he even saw waterfalls of it - acidfalls? - eroding down the stone. He speculated that the acid must be under pressure from som...
2024-01-05 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post