Torsten Hewson

v4c35: The Grass Sea Castle Crashers

“Rou Tigu pays her respects to the Tie family!” Tie Delan heard the girl continue, bowing politely. He spared the short woman a brief glance, but most of his attention was consumed by his son.

“Father. Mother,” Delun greeted them, just ever so slightly awkwardly. It was to be expected! He had marched in here for some reason, only to have his parents bar his path! Delan would have been similarly confused. “I apologize for meeting you in such circumstances.”

It had been ...

v4c34: Hunting the Beetle

The last chapter has been updated one last time to edit things and smooth them out.  v4c33 alt is now the official chapter.

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Sergeant Han frowned as he looked through the documents in front of him. His adrenaline was still surging from last night, and his blood was up. But he had a duty.

The Special Inspector had sent Sergeant Han undercover to try and get some leads on this group. He had been expecting something on this route�...

v4c33.2: Alt version

The most recent chapter, posted tonight (v4c33: The Tyrant or the Guardian part 2) bugged me super hard and I couldn't fall asleep for some reason so I rewrote it, changing a bunch of the dialouge.

Still unedited. Changes include the bandit not explaining everything, and Tigu actually talking with people a bit more.
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“An… and… a cultivator will sav...

v4c33: The Tyrant or the Guardian part 2

Currently unedited, so there may be some scuff.

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“An… and… a cultivator will save us. She’ll come in like this, and go and beat up all the bad guys, won't they Uncle?” San Ziya’s niece whispered to him from her place on his lap. She was holding up her favourite doll like a talisman, like the cultivator who it was made to look like would suddenly appear from the heavens to save them.

Ziya tried to smile reassuringly, tried to hope....

v4c33: The Tyrant or the Guardian part 1

Tigu yawned and stretched, arching her back. Her feet pounded along the road, along with several others. They were on one of the back routes, to avoid the constant traffic on their way to their destination.

The path to Grass Sea City took Tigu and her companions southwest. It was largely a pleasant journey, save for the occasional rain storms. They spent their days walking, cultivating, and training… or in Yin’s case, taking every opportunity she had to needle Tigu about the name of...

v4c32.2: The Scribe's Return p2

Lu Ri breathed deeply as he waited for his guests to be assembled. He was kneeling in the traditional way on a cushion in a garden, preparing himself.

While it was most amusing to tease his Junior and witness his face go through so many emotions, there were several formalities that Lu Ri had to observe first in regards to his duties in Hong Yaowu and Verdant Hill.

For this, he required a room that could properly convey the gravitas of what he was about to announce. Normally, this ...

v4c32: The Scribe's Return p1

Each time I come to the Azure Hills, the journey seems a little lighter, Senior Disciple Lu Ri mused as he stared down at the province from the top of the Stone Gate, the main entrance to the province.

He took a deep breath of the air, and the Qi Desert felt less ravenous. The sky, brighter. The land before him was filled with opportunity, rather than a fruitless, dead-end search. He was actively looking forward to being within the province again—an amusing revelation, a far ...

v4c31: The World Keeps Turning

“Ganbei!” I called, raising up my cup in the traditional ‘cheers.’ We were at a restaurant, and had just finished our dinner.

“Ganbei!” the rest of our little group replied, clinking the porcelain together.

It was me, Mei, Gou Ren, Meihua and Tingfeng. Meihua and Tingfeng had joined us part of the way through, and Meihua had immediately joined in on our little ‘see who can get Yun Ren the best present’ challenge.

The caravan itself was quite interesting. It w...

v4 Interlude 1: The Wanderers

“And so our ancestors, in their hubris, marched upon the Sea of Snow. They sought to claim its treasures, and become rich in the process.” Chenzheng of the Roaming Deer Caravan narrated to his guests. They were all sitting before him in his yurt, like the children of his own people, and they were drinking his horse butter tea. It was a warm, cozy, intimate space, and each of the nomad families had one. His guests all had looks of interest on their faces as they listened to him.

“T...

v4c30: The Heart and Soul

Pi Pa walked alongside her Dear as they both wandered through the town towards the stalls. She flicked her ear, making sure the silk bow was still properly and tightly affixed. Miss Biyu certainly had an eye for things—the red, embroidered with pots of rice, looked absolutely wonderful! It had inspired Pi Pa to try it herself, but while she could grasp a brush with her mouth and write well, a needle was a bit too small to manipulate properly.

Perhaps hands would be something to look i...

v4c29: A Thistle in Full Bloom

“Thank you for extending to me this offer. It would be an honour and a pleasure to learn.” Meiling said, as she sat across from an old man. He had reminded Meiling of Uncle Bao—warm and jolly, but with a mind sharper than any blade.

The old man sitting across from her smiled.

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Meiling woke up, the last vestiges of her dream fading from her mind. She had been talking to an old man, learning some medical techniques with ...

v4c28: The Capacity for Independance

“Firstly, I ask you all. What is the Dao?” the old man asked, his voice quiet, yet impossible not to hear. It echoed out so it reached all of them, then went no further. Aside from the majestic antlers adorning his bald head, he did not look awe inspiring. His face was kindly, soft lines belying a man who smiled often. He had a set of plain robes that exposed a positively mundane physique. A body hardened from exposure to the elements and the rough work of tending the land, not t...

v4c27: The Life Before

Some nights, I dreamt about a life Before.

I dreamt of a young man, eighteen, living in rural Canada. He lived in one of those towns. Perpetually behind the cities by a decade or two, a time capsule. The only clue that it was the 2020s was the presence of smartphones.

He worked in a wastewater plant. It wasn’t exactly a glamorous job, handling the literal shit of a couple thousand people, but it was a job, and his town didn’t have many options. It was the shit plant o...

v4c26: The Mountaineer and the Craftsman

For the first time in a very long time, Liao Yushang could honestly say she was happy.

The clash of metal on metal rang out in the training ground. Her sword, Ascending Mountaineer, clashed with Biren’s simple-looking blade, which was obviously some kind of treasure. Yushang had to buff the little nicks out of her own sword whenever their blades clashed.

Yushang stepped forward, using her own blade’s superior weight and reach to bully him backwards. He knew better tha...

v4c25: Start of a Shakeup

After the party, things had calmed down for Bi De—or rather, for the entire Inner Sect, somehow. Everybody, it seemed, was locked in their manors even more intently, cultivating so much that Bi De had essentially free reign of the entire Inner Sect.

Even Fengfeng, whom he thought he would be able to get more gossip out of, was unavailable. The woman’s servants told him that she wasn’t to be disturbed, even though she had told him at the party to visit her.

It was sl...

v4c24: The Fox Trap

‘You asked one of these inquisitors if he was in a sex cult?’ Ri Zu squeaked in her rat form from where she was pressed against his chest, interrupting Yun Ren’s retelling. It was the middle of the night and Yun Ren was laying on his side, all his senses peeled as he searched for any watchers that might be observing him as he ‘slept’.

He was still kind of paranoid about what had happened. He had even resorted to using illusions to ask Ri Zu to come over in the night t...

v4c23: Noticed

A great, vast consciousness began to coalesce, chasing something it hadn’t felt for a very long time. It was the work of nearly a month to even get this far, even as the being gave thanks every day.

It moved slowly, sluggishly, for pulling itself together from thousands of Li away was a great task… but what had caught its interest demanded attention. Normally, a lesser spirit would have handled this feeling—a garden spirit or perhaps, at most, the Spirit of the Shrouded Mountain. ...

v4c22: The Inner Sect part 2

Bi De sighed, as he struggled not to sink into the cushions of the entirely too plush couch. It was the hardest seat he had managed to find, but it still felt like it was going to swallow him whole.

He had to admit, he much preferred the garden. Alas, his suggestion to Zang Zhong had merited an invitation to sit with the rest of the man’s… friends. They had been adequate company so far, he supposed. His only issue with them was their inability to cease speaking.

It se...

v4c22: The Inner Sect part 1

Bi De opened his eyes as the closing notes of his song drifted out over the Sect. He glanced idly down at the square his house was located near, noting the small gathering of cultivators, carefully pretending to not notice the way some of the people were staring at him.

He could have stopped his morning routine, but it was too ingrained into him. He did long to just shout his heart out, as he once did, to truly exult in the light of the new day… but the people here likely wouldn’t a...

v4c21: Observations

Lishu of the Medical Pavilion strolled through his domain at a leisurely pace. His back was straight, and his hands were hidden within his robes. His disciples, standing beside their assigned rooms, bowing swiftly and properly, did not waste their words. Lishu had no time for over the top displays of servility and wasteful pomp.

Forty years ago, a disciple had lost three of his patients through negligence. He had grown lax, fat on his position within the Sect. Lishu shattered the fool�...

v14c20: Sides of a Story

Yun Ren yawned from where he was seated in an amphitheater. It was already full of people, people he recognised. They were all the disciples who had passed initiation.

All of them had been called in this morning for 'A Lesson on the History of the Shrouded Mountain Sect.'

Even Bi De had been called in, much to Ri Zu and Yushang’s delight—though Ri Zu was currently fussing over the man because he looked a little tired.

“Worry not, Sister. I’m merely working hard. Seni...

v4c19: The Plans of Men

The news came in the morning that they had secured the Verdant Blade Sect’s backing, the rest of Tie Delun’s new companions had cheered and he had smirked, his arms folded and his back against the wall as the others shared massive grins.

Two sects now supported them. And hopefully soon to be a third. His parents were in Grass Sea City, their next destination, but he wasn’t really worried about that outcome. The Sectmaster of the Hermetic Iron Sect would take one look at h...

v4c18: Leader of the Next Generation

Okay. Last Chapter will probably be edited to make things more clear that there were not any outsiders in the meeting as well.

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Xi Kong’s mind was still whirling as they retired from the meeting room.

They had seen only enough of the crystal to confirm its contents, yet even those moments had been heady. To see the past, the glory of the Ancients had been something he never thought he would witness again after that brief moment in the Dueling P...

Tsuu art: Frog Mei and schoolgirl Xiulan

Some cute art by Tsuu! Xiulan in a sailor uniform, and the chief frog catcher herself!

v4c17: The Verdant Blade Sect

Sorry for the delay. this one needed a lot of work before I was happy with it. we have one more post left before I go for break week!

Additionally, the alternate ending will likley remain just that, an alternate ending. Like people said in the comments, there were just too many issues for it to be canon.

now, on with the chapter!

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In the morning light Tigu examined Xiulan with a critical eye. Then she nodded, and delivered her verdict...

v4c16 alternate ending

Some Patreon only content! This was originally going to be the ending to the previous chapter. I still think its pretty good, but I was just unsure of putting it in right there, and taking the focus away from Xiulan.

Chapter will most likely be tomorrow.

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A man without a leg hobbled his way through the town of Green Grass Valley. It was a place firmly under the influence of the Verdant Blade Sect. Three years ago it had been devastated by Sun...

v4c16: Across the Grass Sea

From the Misty Lake Sect, Tigu and her company headed due east; away from the land of bogs and rivers, following Xiulan into the heart of the Grass Sea.

Tigu had seen the edge of this place, when they had gone to the Dueling Peaks… and the change was even more dramatic.

The land turned into an alternating series of farms and villages, interspersed by beautiful rolling meadows and grazing farm animals.

“They say the land here is so fertile that your fence posts take root ...

v4c15: The Art of the Deal

Three years ago, if anyone had told the Lord Magistrate he would be frequently visiting a cultivator—or becoming friends with one—he would have called them mad. Cultivators, to him, had been unknowable, inscrutable beasts in the form of men. Monsters that had to be appeased when necessary and avoided at all other times.

He had feared and hated them in equal measure, after what they had done to his lady wife. They were nothing but scum.

‘Everything indeed looks to be in o...