Torsten Hewson

v5c39: Chariot of the Earth, Prince of the Heavens

Chun Ke did not like fighting. He preferred to avoid it if he could, because he did not like hurting others. He had talked to his Big Brother about it. Big Brother always listened and always tried to offer good advice. 

Big Brother had said it was noble to solve things with words rather than violence. It was the mark of a great person to bridge grudges and make peace; to end cycles of violence so they would never grow again.

But both of them knew that wh...

v5c38: Ends Justify the Means

Unedited. There wil be a little bit of scuff.

=====================

========================

Yulong’s relationship with his mother was… complex. She had loved him, cared for him, and tried her best for him. But his mother had been a broken woman. Some days she was completely non-functional, simply staring at the ground. She muttered about voices, the stars, and a Prince.

On good days she would say he was the Prince. That he would change the...

v5c37: Dark Tide Rising

The demons roared as they charged forward, their bodies filling the hall with a tide of chitin and muscled flesh.

A crescent of silver met them. Three were bisected, falling in half. The fourth raised its arms and lost both of them, but the dark chitin blunted the blow enough that the silver blade only went halfway through its chest. It did not pause or slow as it continued its mad dash, stepping between its fallen comrades—two of whom kept scrabbling forwards, using their ...

v5c36: A Chance

Yushang was the first through the door into the prison—they came to a scene of pure bedlam. There were gouges in the floor, the glow stones were cracked, and there were several panicked-looking men and women running away from the door toward a central junction.

“East Wind—that idiot! Shit!” somebody was shouting orders. “Euthanize the subjects! We can’t risk them waking up—” 

That was all Yushang needed to hear as she stormed around the c...

BOC Art: Xiao Su Ge

Xiao Su Ge. Elder Ge's Grand Daughter. Core Disciple of the Cloudy Sword Sect. Lu Ri's betrothed. Looks suspiciously like a villianess.

She has a cold exterior, but is extremely passionate inside.

v5c35: No Holding Back

Purple eyes. Freckles. Green hair. The shape of the nose…Ri Zu’s mind was still in turmoil as she ran through the corridors. That man. Their enemy. He was so familiar. There was no coincidence here.

He was related to Ri Zu’s Master. Somehow. She saw his nose scenting the air—which was how he had known and sounded the alarm. And from the way he had looked at Ri Zu…he too knew of their connection. The recognition in his eyes had been too much.

...

v5c34: The Pinnacle of Strength

“Now, now, none of that,” Shen Yu chided his foe as he cut through the formation within the mountain. At once, all the wailing stopped, as the alarms were destroyed. With one stroke Shen Yu evened the field for Bi De and his companions. They would need all the help they could get… but this was all he could provide for them.

“Ah, but it was worth the attempt, no?” his opponent asked, his smile still fixed firmly upon his face. Gummy lips were pulled back, an...

v5c33: Shadow of Intent

Last Night:

Lu Ri was quite impressed when the defenses around First Den had activated. They were old and had nearly crumbled to dust—yet they were wards and defenses from the Age of Heroes. Even after thousands of years of degradation, even after so much damage had been done to them, they valiantly rose to do their duty again, even though they sparked fitfully as they did so.

A befuddling mist rose, ghosting along Lu Ri’s senses. It sought to mi...

v5c32: Like Ants to an Elephant

Yin barely got her gauntlets up in time to block the sword screaming for her neck.

The fight around Yin had descended into chaos. The ground quaked like it was alive. The world was lit with explosions of elemental fury. Whirling swords screamed through the air, steam billowed from melted snow, ice obstructed vision, and the puffing whine of Xianghua’s Steam Furnace carried above the deafening sounds. Qi was so thick in the air that it was getting impossible for her to sense...

v5c31: The Monster Inside of My Head

The first concept the Puppet Worm ever learned was agony.

It was crafted in a jar full of poison and corruptive Qi. Its flesh and very soul burned at the touch. It flailed and thrashed, as within moments of its birth it was gripped by one of its siblings. The pincers pierced its flesh, and its sibling tried to eat it. The Puppet Worm had flailed harder at the sensation, and while its sibling had caught its rear, it reached down and impaled its sibling’s head.

...

Tsuudles 7/26/24: An Adventure with a Red Leaf and Dissapointed Mom

Jin and Zhuye going to innoculate more logs with mushrooms

And Somebody made Mama Mei a bit upset.

v5c30: Full Burn

The key to an effective ambush is shock and surprise.

Pretty basic, honestly. The question was how exactly one achieved said surprise. A fusillade of powerful techniques? A profound formation?

I had neither of those, so I settled on the next best thing.

Namely, dome the fucker who “felt right.”

Honestly, I wasn’t entirely thinking when the man had touched down beside the tree I had just gotten to. He felt right, so ...

80's fitness Xiulan+ Senak Peek of "Day at the Beach"

A gift from Tsuu, and part of the main insert image for Vol 4

v5c29: The Wicked Blade Special

Vajra the Boozemaster, servant of the Emperor, was in her element. The world was seen from a thousand eyes, as she and her subjects worked with one will. The numbers were few, compared to the host she could have called upon at her previous height. In the past, she had commanded teeming millions into the slaughterhouse-battlefields that carpeted the ground with their countless dead.

Yet though their numbers were relatively few, the quality was so superior it would not be a con...

v5c28: Closer to Home

I woke up early on the day of the solstice. I hadn’t been sleeping the greatest in general ever since we heard the news. My dreams were troubled, and the feeling of impending… something made me toss and turn.

Meimei, bless her soul, hadn’t complained once. 

I laid in bed for a little, in darkness. Seeing as I couldn’t get back to sleep, instead I decided to take a walk and check in on everyone.

Meimei opened one eye when...

v5c27: No Plan Survives First Contact part 2

Battle had always come easily to Bi De. Where others might have felt trepidation or fear, all that was left in Bi De’s breast was resolve. His earliest memories were of violence, warring against Basi Bu Shi’s kin. It was something innate to him; Bi De was a warrior, a protector of flocks, a slayer of his enemies. So it was with calm control that he began his true assault on the base as warnings blared around them.

They sprinted through stone corridors, following Ri Zu’s...

Spending Time with Dad

A relaxing day at Fa Ram.

Can you find everyone in this picture?

v5c26: No Plan Survives First Contact

Fa Bi De took in a deep breath, then released it. His eyes opened. Darkness greeted him. Darkness, and walls of stone. The walls of the little sanctuary they had created in the tunnels outside their enemy’s base, hidden by Nezan’s illusions.

He idly wondered how he kept finding himself underground, because he very much hated being surrounded by stone. First the map that led him to Xiaoshi’s memories, then the Crystal Hill monkeys, and now a secret side passage where the...

The Sculptor

Tigu doing some carving.

Art by: https://x.com/RobustaArt

Chapter tomorrow!

v5c25: Prelude to the Night

It was the night before the solstice. They had made good time, and Su Yuanlin was proud to call the Nezin tribe kin. Many of their ways were alien to her, and she knew that the foxes of the Howling Fang Mountains would not enjoy a nomadic lifestyle, but they had endeared themselves to her all the same. They had their priorities firmly in the right place. Not one was left behind, and even so, they made good time—the elders and the young clearly used to being on the move, as they drove toward...

v5c24: The Plum and the Foxes

Once more, Lu Ri found himself given vague directions and told to find people. At least the eastern sections had been largely crossed off by Hu Li, since the Nezin tribe had overwintered in that direction last year. While he did not enjoy such tasks, he did find himself becoming increasingly efficient at conducting searches—and this time he had a companion to assist him. Miss Yuanlin, from the Howling Fang Mountains, moved nearly as fast as Lu Ri did. It had been two days since their depart...

v5c23: Tomorrow, One Step at a Time

Miantiao thought that after the destruction of his village and the death of his Master he would never have a place to call home again. The wound from that loss was still so raw even after so many years. It was a gaping chasm, a void that he held back, hiding, but when he failed and it rose up it drained out every other emotion save for rage and sorrow.

When he had first come to this place, this Fa Ram, he’d done it for Yin’s sake. Hiding away his wounds. He imagined she w...

v5c22: From Darkness

To say Hong Meiling was enraged about a prophesied attack on her home would be an understatement. Meiling had gone so far past angry that her mind had abruptly cleared. The seething, boiling thoughts that plagued her and demanded vengeance against any slight she suffered went silent. The hot bubbling in her chest stilled.

All that was left was something… cold. Something quiet that filled her with ice, made her eyes burn, the flesh on the bridge of her nose itch, an...

v5c21: Preparations

With the fact that there may be demons coming to attack us, there of course needed to be a number of conversations.

A couple hours later we were in Verdant Hill. Everybody from the farm, as well as Pops and Yao Che, were sitting around a table with the Lord Magistrate, Lady Wu, and Uncle Bao.

It was an eclectic mix of cultivators and mortals, and everybody was in serious mode. I almost didn’t recognize Tigu. Right now she wasn’t the little kid that regula...

v5c20: Heeding Cassandra

One of the reasons why Shiyun, the woman who was once called “The Heavenly Path”, loved the Azure Hills so much was the fact that her prophetic dreams were muted. Instead of visceral things, as if she was living them out in the moment, her visions were simply like watching a recording crystal. They were far away from her, detached in perspective and tinted with grey light. The waking dreams, too, were kinder. They merely sent her good eye rolling for a moment; when she was a child, the ba...

v5c19: The Grinch

Mix the ink to the right consistency. Not too much water; not too much ink. The ratio was important, and it was subject to change depending on the humidity, the brush, and the paper. Inspect the brush; this one being of horse hair, soft and malleable. Inspect the paper: of middling quality. The ink would spread a bit more than I was used to. There was also an interesting darker part on the paper that I thought I could use to really make things pop.

With a steady hand...

v5c18: Masters of Heaven and Hell

Sorry for the wait, I had to redo this one a couple of times until I was happy with it.
================

==============

Purple eyes opened in a room lit with pale blue candles as Lanxing Yulong exhaled, completing his morning cultivation. He rose and the lights brightened, the shadows in the room receding. The massive stone vault was a good place to cultivate, but he still didn’t like having to do it underground.

Humans were meant for the surface, un...

v5c17: In the Emperor's Name, Leave None Alive

A solemn silence surrounded Bi De as they rode upon the backs of Master Forest Sweeper’s constructs towards the Sleeping Hollow. Bi De was in his natural form for this occasion. Master Forest Sweeper’s declaration last night, the great Thunderhoof’s mien, and the fact that they were departing today silenced any thoughts of idle chatter. All of them were ‘locked in’ as his Great Master would say. Focused and prepared for the arduous journey ahead, even as they traveled toward the sec...

v5c16: The Apprentice

A young thunderhoof stood in the warm clearing, his companions having finished their morning meal, and started on their morning exercises. There was some tenseness in the air as their last day of training began. The massive trees around them occasionally shook from the tempest that was soon to be unleashing its fury to the north. Still most of them seemed in good spirits, and he himself was in a fine mood as well.

It would have been pitch black, with the clouds that covered t...

v5c15: Interlude: The Ascending Mountaineer

Liao Yushang’s sword cut through the air in a heavy diagonal slash as her opponent, Bi De in his human form, dodged. 

Ascending Mountaineer, her sword, was made of Lode Iron. The sword itself weighed as much as a full grown man. With her Qi coursing through it and the artificial spirit Han had implanted into it helping to regulate and optimize the flow, it weighed twelve times as much.

Bi De could block the blow if ...