Completely flummoxed by the outpouring of what Sen assumed was respect, he blurted the first thing that came to his mind.
“Why are you all kowtowing to me?”
The kneeling cultivators traded confused looks with each other before the slight healer that Sen had met before spoke up.
“We wished to honor the master alchemist.”
Sen snorted. “I’m no master alchemist....
2023-07-30 05:59:51 +0000 UTC View PostHaving never participated in a large-scale battle before, Sen had no appreciation for just how much work or how much time it would take even for the basic task of gathering the wounded. With core formation cultivators on the field, he thought it might take an hour. Oh, how wrong he’d been. If it had just been gathering the wounded, things might have gone quicker. Except, it wasn’t just that...
2023-07-29 20:38:58 +0000 UTC View PostSen’s first instinct was to run away. Being the focal point of that much attention was like having one of his nightmares come to life. He could see the looks on their faces and wanted no part of it. He didn’t want their awe, or their fear, and especially not the reverence he saw on a few of their faces. Yet, there was nowhere to go without going through a bunch of those people. He might hav...
2023-07-28 20:36:47 +0000 UTC View PostSen consciously kept his pace to something that the foundation formation cultivators could maintain. They covered the first hundred feet or so without challenge. Then, a pack of four water cultivators spotted them. Sen unleashed his killing intent. The four staggered, two of them falling over entirely. Sen directed a lighting bolt at one, a fireball at another, and windblades at the last two. T...
2023-07-28 14:24:18 +0000 UTC View PostOnce Sen started paying attention to the conversation again, he learned that the fire cultivators had been out on patrol when the real fight started. They’d been trying to make their way back to the main compound but had been whittled down by attrition. Most of this information came from the, it turned out, man whose face had been so bloody. He was visibly older than the other three, two youn...
2023-07-28 03:40:54 +0000 UTC View PostSen knew that going into the valley was a bad idea. He also knew that Lo Meifeng was going to go down there and throw herself into the fight anyway. She had at least listened to his advice to approach quietly, suppressing her presence as much as she could. Sen was full-on hiding. His only consolation was that, since advancing his body and spirit cultivation, hiding no longer blinded hi...
2023-07-27 17:18:19 +0000 UTC View PostSen was crouched down, carefully removing the roots of a medical plant from the ground, when Lo Meifeng wandered over to him. He glanced up at her, but she looked to just be curious about what he was doing.
“I have to make elixirs from something,” he offered.
“I know. I just wondered what caught your attention.”
“It’s called a coiled serpent root,” said Sen.
<... 2023-07-27 03:41:05 +0000 UTC View PostWith the threat of the demonic cultivators if not entirely gone then largely neutralized, Sen and Lo Meifeng’s journey became a more relaxed affair. They still kept up a fast pace, but it wasn’t the kind of brutal pace that Sen would have demanded if they were still being actively hunted by a cabal of core formation cultivators. Of course, being able to use the roads most of the time hasten...
2023-07-26 16:53:46 +0000 UTC View PostKalan was surprised to find his path utterly clear on the way to the bridge. He’d expected to meet resistance and traps. It seemed incomprehensible to him that the crew wouldn’t try to take advantage of their superior knowledge of the terrain. They knew where the choke points on the ship were. At the very least, they could have stalled him. It’s what he would have done in their position. ...
2023-07-26 06:55:35 +0000 UTC View PostSen and Lo Meifeng found a back way out of the building and took off for the western wall as fast as they reasonably could in the confines of the alley. After the second time they had to chastise some would be thugs, they transitioned to the rooftops. They were a bit more obvious, but also moved a lot faster. Sen was happy to note that they didn’t seem to be drawing any meaningful attention, ...
2023-07-26 04:38:03 +0000 UTC View PostAfter weeks spent running around in the wilds, it wasn’t difficult for Sen and Lo Meifeng to pass themselves off as weary travelers looking for an inn at the gates of Lin Wen’s Redoubt. The guards waved them through without so much as a second glance. Old feelings of unease rose up in Sen on reflex as they entered the small city, but they struck him as more reflexive than real. He was h...
2023-07-25 18:07:16 +0000 UTC View PostKalan considered his next move as he dropped the thruster pack to the deck and stripped out of the EVA skin. It had taken Kala baby-stepping him through the process to deactivate the distress beacon built into that EVA skin. What a time to be short an engineer, thought Kalan. On the other hand, he reasoned the difficulty ought to make him happy since it meant there was a good chance th...
2023-07-25 07:30:32 +0000 UTC View Post“Open a comm channel,” said Temera, as she did her best to assume an air of casual indifference.
“Yes,” Em paused, “Ma’am. Channel open.”
Temera made up a name for herself on the spot. “Zeren cutter, this is Captain Emilenia Antenius of the Ankala Rising. You’ve illegally detained a member of my crew. I want them returned.”
There was dead silence on the oth...
2023-07-25 06:19:26 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Sen made sure that they stayed well clear of civilization, he also made sure that they kept moving away from the Temple of Eternity’s Edge. While it seemed less and less likely that Lan Zi Rui was going to chase them down, Sen didn’t feel like making it any easier than necessary if the old man changed his mind. One pleasant surprise during those few weeks was how few spirit beasts att...
2023-07-25 04:50:21 +0000 UTC View PostOnce Sen and Lo Meifeng were out of sight of the temple, they abandoned their casual saunter in favor of qi techniques. With core qi finally available to him, the pair made incredibly fast time as they fled back the way they had come. Sen had a working theory that once they got beyond the range of the field of oppressive energy, they would also move beyond the range of Lan Zi Rui’s senses. Wi...
2023-07-24 17:06:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe argument had lasted for nearly half an hour and Sen hadn’t gotten anywhere with Lifen. She’d dug in her heels about staying and the worst part was that Sen couldn’t refute most of what she was saying. Yet, he could also see tendrils of that same gray energy floating around her heart and her head. She might not have been completely brainwashed, but she had most certainly been influence...
2023-07-24 03:27:51 +0000 UTC View PostAfter spending what felt like years in a place where his will and imagination made almost anything possible, waking up into the real world again was a bit of a disappointment for Sen. He immediately missed the godlike ability to alter his environment to suit his whims. Instead, he was still stuck in his cell, although it wasn’t exactly as he remembered it. Unlike when he’d let himself drop ...
2023-07-23 17:21:19 +0000 UTC View PostAs relentless as Sen had been during his years training on the mountain, there had been also quiet moments. Moments of reflection, on his part, and on the part of his teachers. Master Feng, Auntie Caihong, and Uncle Kho had all spoken to him at different points about what it meant to live as long as they had lived. They spoke of the benefits, but they also spoke about the costs. Master Feng had...
2023-07-23 03:38:33 +0000 UTC View PostHong Fu had spent most of his long life in positions of relative power and safety. He’d spent his childhood protected by his noble status, which had partially carried over into the sect that he’d joined. His quiet conversion to a demonic cultivator had fueled rapid, if somewhat unstable, growth in his cultivation. That had allowed for swift advancement in the sect. He wasn’t the most powe...
2023-07-22 16:01:41 +0000 UTC View PostSen kept up his kicking at the door until he eventually grew so bored with it that he was feeling tired. By then, it was late into the night, so he ignored the tray of food and settled onto the pallet. It wasn’t comfortable, but his body had been remade so often now that he doubted it would bother him to sleep outside in the middle of torrential downpour. He slept for two hours, which was app...
2023-07-22 01:51:07 +0000 UTC View PostLo Meifeng turned to Sen and said, “We can’t let him take us in there. Better by far to die out here.”
Lifen looked appalled by Lo Meifeng’s words. The old man looked sad and a little disappointed. Sen just evaluated what he saw in Lo Meifeng’s eyes. She meant it. She believed with absolute certainty that death was preferable to stepping foot inside that temple. Lo Meifeng obvio...
2023-07-21 16:43:44 +0000 UTC View PostWhile their brief moment of playfulness had helped lift everyone’s spirits, they all grew warier and warier as they traveled even deeper into the wilds. Every noise caught Sen’s attention. He refused to even entertain thoughts about his cultivation method after the ambush attack by the cat-bear. Of course, it wasn’t the attack that bothered him. He wasn’t above being ambushed or caught ...
2023-07-21 04:09:42 +0000 UTC View PostEven with all of their advantages, traveling through the wilds was slow going. They had moved beyond the semi-tame portions into the true wilds. By Sen’s estimation, they were spending the same amount of time to move half the distance or less each day. Despite Sen’s deep and abiding worry that they’d be attacked at every turn on their journey, though, the next three weeks passed by largel...
2023-07-20 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThere was very little talking as the three of them left the site of the battle behind and for the rest of the day. While Sen’s elixir had done a lot to restore Lifen’s and Lo Meifeng’s energy, letting them stay awake, it wasn’t a substitute for genuine rest. So, while Sen had a number of pressing questions on his mind, he kept them to himself and focused on keeping watch both ahead and ...
2023-07-19 21:21:37 +0000 UTC View PostSen and a weary Lo Meifeng made their way back toward Lifen. Most of the spirit beasts seemed to have decided that the fighting and destruction wasn’t worth whatever had brought them there in the first place. For the few that stuck around looking for trouble, judicious use of his killing intent sent most of them scurrying away. The rest were dealt with using jian, spear, and the occasional qi...
2023-07-19 17:04:43 +0000 UTC View PostSen wasn’t given very much time to think about what he was going to do about the flying demonic cultivator before he was forced to worry about his own survival. While there were fewer spirit beasts floating around, that didn’t mean that were none. And while some of them had seemed to make common cause against the demonic cultivators, because everyone hated demonic cultivat...
2023-07-19 03:51:09 +0000 UTC View PostUnder normal conditions, waking up was something Sen let himself do slowly. It was a gentle rise from the wild fantasies of dreaming into the less fantastical demands of reality. He found that gentle rise to be a fine way to start his day, because it was often the last restful moment he would have until the next time he slept. It was with fond feelings that Sen remembered those moments after he...
2023-07-18 16:30:37 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Sen hadn’t expected to reach core formation as fast as he did, he had done a little preparation. He’d quizzed Lo Meifeng about her experience with it. While she had added a ton of disclaimers about how everyone’s core advancement was different, there were some features that held true. While the process would start on its own, Sen couldn’t expect it to finish on its own. Much like ...
2023-07-18 03:15:57 +0000 UTC View PostSen briefly wondered, is the universe trying to get me killed? Then, he had other things to worry about. That amount of any kind of qi, let alone heavenly qi, was enough to obliterate the obscuring formation if Sen didn’t contain it. Unfortunately, there was really only way to contain it in a hurry. Bracing himself, Sen started drawing the heavenly qi into himself. He let it fill wha...
2023-07-17 17:51:14 +0000 UTC View PostWith the decision made, they didn’t waste any time. Sen spent longer than he probably should have picking the spot where they would leave the road. Then, he used every trick he’d picked up since leaving the mountain, every bit of woodcraft he’d learned from Falling Leaf, to obscure their trail. Then, when he’d done everything he could think of, they started off into the wilds. Sen had d...
2023-07-17 04:22:01 +0000 UTC View Post