The plan was to leave Du Gok Bhong by evening the next day, which gave me about ten hours, starting from dawn, to keep my promise to Chief Yora and share the knowledge I had gleaned upon the Hell Worlds.
After a hardy breakfast, I hit the library and began making my insertions into the tome that contained the monstrous illustrations, curtesy of my predecessor, Imperial Marshal Wi Chu Lou.
It was a bit surreal that I was now following in exactly the same footsteps—adding new illu...
2025-01-01 10:25:36 +0000 UTC
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The sky was bathed in the crimson rays of sunset as we gathered at the edge of the barrier. The entire assembly was formed, just as President Tzu Li Zen had promised. I found myself tethered to Blue Rose, Song De, Wu Liang and Wing Pho, all of us representing the lost deployments returned.
We were grouped together and positioned atop a dais that had been erected close to the barriers edge. Front row seats for the main event that would soon transpire. Out about a hundred feet from the ed...
2024-12-29 12:56:00 +0000 UTC
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I had a roiling mixture of emotions churning through my gut as I made my way towards the assembly quad behind Ling Wei. Perpetrating a fraud wasn’t my style. Straight up and direct was the Berserker way. But having a trump card to hold over the princess’s head wasn’t anything to sneeze at either.
Still, did I have the stomach to do this?
The story didn’t make sense to me, so how would it look to everyone else?
Plus, Blue Rose and Tu’lok had read the letter as well....
2024-12-25 05:08:49 +0000 UTC
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As I peered out the view port of the drop skiff, the twisted spires of Du Gok Bhong came into view and a sense of relief and nostalgia washed over me. I smiled.
Who would have thought I’d be so happy to see a damn prison again.
But here I was.
My final pitstop before being able to return to Earth, fight for my freedom and see Fia and my newborn son again. But a fight was waiting for me here as well. As we touched down and the doors to the skiff opened, the familiar stench ...
2024-12-25 05:07:45 +0000 UTC
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My Dearest Younger Sister, Lunalah,
I greet you with good tidings from the Lu Shui territories.
Having read your letter regarding the Iron Bull, it would seem there is indeed some discrepancy in regard to his demise. As of the writing of this letter, I have been informed that the Iron Bull was safely recovered from the Hell World of Fhae I’ung, as was the Young Master of the Twin River Sect, Jei Su Long.
You have made some bold accusations in...
2024-12-18 18:03:43 +0000 UTC
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A world destroyed. An axe to grind. And a path to infinite power. Welcome to my reality.
I’ve survived my tour of the Hell Worlds…no…scratch that. I did more than just survive—I damn well thrived.
I’ve unlocked secret knowledge, advanced to the edge of the Sacred Soul Realm and even managed to perform feats of cultivation that no one in history has ever done before me.
And now it’s time to put my new-found s...
2024-12-11 21:54:05 +0000 UTC
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We all stumbled out of the skiff and into the interior of the Xin Long like shipwrecked sailors finally reaching dry land. Wing Pho burst into tears as he collapsed upon the deck and Song De did the same. The rest of the 30th were more jubilant about our arrival, sending up salutes of praise.
Most of them were for me, with praises sung for the Iron Bull.
The platoon of regular infantry, who were on parade for our arrival, were perplexed but none more so than their lieutenant, who ...
2024-12-08 19:15:05 +0000 UTC
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Princess Lunalah stared at the message in her hands.
It was sparse, as all Qi stone communications were.
But its contents spoke volumes.
‘Iron Bull lives. Here now. In Jurin.’
Her heart raced, all her melancholy quickly turned into hope and aspiration.
Could it be true?
Could it possibly be true?
“Who sent this message?” she called to her pilot.
“It was sent from the Warden’s skiff, your majesty.”
How could she know ...
2024-12-04 22:45:36 +0000 UTC
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My Frenzy was draining like I was back under the rays of the Cursed Star again, but this time it wasn’t from the effects of Demonic Qi. However far I was now projecting my soul was coming at a price.
And by the looks of things, I couldn’t waste a single second.
Towering above me was a monstrous demonic form that resembled a behemoth from the Hell Worlds. Its body was covered in flames, and it had a gate built into its chest that was spewing tons of Dark Frenzy, bu...
2024-12-01 13:12:26 +0000 UTC
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Princess Lunalah’s chest tightened as the enormous demon ploughed straight through the outer wall of the arena and into the stadium beyond. It took all her wherewithal to even look at the thing—so horrid was it in ferocity and form.
Body like a bloated corpse, covered in oozing sores and things that looked like exposed brains. A demonic face sat in the center of its torso and upon its shoulders, its malformed head had a second face that resembled something akin to a man...
2024-11-28 23:23:45 +0000 UTC
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Some more cartoons for you guys! Let me know your thoughts.
2024-11-23 17:46:25 +0000 UTC
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It waited with patience a fraction of a moment more until the Chainmaiden’s strength was at its peak.
There.
The shell It had refined was now ready for Its Will to be deployed.
Through the aperture, It exerted Its influence to send the slightest portion of Its Will into the foreign domain. As the transformation took hold, It encountered the presence of the mortal soul It had enslaved within the shell of the being.
Memories of its history melded ...
2024-11-23 15:16:10 +0000 UTC
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Princess Lunalah studied herself in the full-length mirror, turning slightly to get a view of her figure from the side. Her elegant robes were adorned with the imperial trim of beige, white and gold. Her crown, a sacred artifact which augmented her cultivation speed was nestled perfectly atop her head of golden locks. So too had she decorated her six Jade Urns with gold trim, which now hovered soundlessly behind her, serving as both a means to passively cultivate as well as to au...
2024-11-22 00:10:54 +0000 UTC
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Fia bounced anxiously on her toes as she looked up at the night sky. She was back where Max had left her, on the topmost point of the Imperial city, the sky port that would soon welcome her Max home.
She could already see the traces of the imperial transport in the night sky and the skiff that would soon descend from it. Coming here to await the fortnightly transport arrival was something she had come to do on a regular basis. Each night would be one filled with both hope a...
2024-11-16 12:26:34 +0000 UTC
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I took another sip of Blue Lemonade and cultivated the burning hot liquid to replenish the Frenzy in my Dantian. It’d been ten days since Wing Pho had cooked up his first batch of the stuff and now I had a supply of two canteens worth to carry us across the planet and hopefully some left over to take home.
From the tunnel entrance, I glanced out onto the Bloodmoon drenched hellscape where Blue Rose, Wing Pho and Wu Liang were cultivating their spiritual fortitude by subjecting themsel...
2024-11-13 16:12:53 +0000 UTC
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My dear sister,
I write to you with a woefully heavy heart. I am unsure how the machinations of official communications will transpire, but I did not want you learning this news from any source other than me.
We have not had the closest of relationships growing up, but as an adult now, I realize that family is everything. That now includes the man you have chosen to marry. The man I at one time viewed as a cursed en...
2024-11-09 18:54:42 +0000 UTC
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I started by building Jei Su Long a prison cell made out of rocks. Busted down to mortal or not, I didn’t want him roaming around free. Shoving him in a corner of the main cavern, I formed the cell around him, leaving enough gaps in the heavy boulders to see what he was doing but with no way for him to squeeze out. He cursed and threatened us the whole time but after a while he eventually got tired and shut the hell up.
I gathered everyone then and set out the training re...
2024-11-03 15:23:45 +0000 UTC
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“So, what’s the deal, Blue?” I asked as I tore into another bite of scorpion leg.
She watched me horrified, looking like she was about to vomit.
All of them did.
I awoke before everyone else and after spending a couple of hours studying from the new Shuras, got to work barbequing one of the scorpions. It was common to me now, but the revulsion on their faces reminded me that I had truly been surviving like a savage down in this hole for the last couple of ...
2024-10-30 20:32:29 +0000 UTC
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General Gong read the status report and grimaced.
Behind him, Governor Tai Su Long argued with Captain Li Jeng.
The results were certain, as far as he could ascertain. The skiff due to return from the deployment was overdue by thirty minutes with no trace of contact at all. A heaviness hung in his heart.
All those souls lost.
But of course, for the governor, only one mattered to him.
“Must I make it an order?” Tai Su Long said agitated. “Send another skiff!...
2024-10-26 17:32:04 +0000 UTC
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Blue Rose eyed Jei Su Long from behind with murder in her heart.
As the skiff bucked and swayed with turbulent air all around her, she felt the presence of Demonic Qi rising from the surface below and the Bloodmoon overhead. But at the moment however, all she could think about was sinking her knife into Jei Su Long’s back.
Chief Yora’s words haunted her.
She would be willfully throwing her life away if she did that right now.
Part of her was doing that already, jus...
2024-10-23 23:51:00 +0000 UTC
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I emerged into a spiritual space that felt just as big as the cavern that I had left.
The floor was made of polished crystal as were the roughly hewn walls that rose to a peak at the center far above, like a dome. I then realized that what I was seeing had to be the crystal from the inside. Bright yellow light washed over me, and in the Red-hued form of the Struggler, my spiritual body basked in it like warm sunshine.
Any taint I had gotten from the spider woman was n...
2024-10-20 14:55:54 +0000 UTC
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I charged my body with [Steel Lightning], [Steel Skin] and [Steel Core], preparing for the worst. I’d only heard whispers of these ancient creatures before. Even the manuals back at Du Gok Bhong had nothing about them.
But now, witnessing the gigantic spider rushing down the face of the massive crystal towards me, I knew I was seeing something few would ever survive to tell the tale. That alone put the [Odds Against Me].
The burst of Frenzy, again lessened the deple...
2024-10-19 11:51:17 +0000 UTC
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Blue Rose stood firmly at attention at the front of the assembly as the gong sounded, and the music of the imperial anthem began to play. It was the two-week deployment rotation, the general assembly that ushered in new recruits, sent new legionnaires to the Hell Worlds and brought the victorious one’s home. Although in this case, it was closer to nearly four weeks now.
When news had come that Max’s deployment had been delayed, it came as somewhat of a sign to Blue Rose...
2024-10-13 23:29:22 +0000 UTC
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I spent the next few days perfecting the [Spectral Projection] technique.
Not that I had a true way to even count days.
I measured time from when I woke, cultivated and trained, ate and then slept again.
It was a crude measurement, and it could just have easily been 12 hour periods instead of 24, but I trained and practiced until I lost all mental focus and then woke again when my body and soul were ready for more.
By the end of the first ‘day’, I mana...
2024-10-10 01:15:59 +0000 UTC
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General Gong folded his arms apprehensively as the boy, Jei Su Long continued to tell his story in the debriefing room. He had arrived less than an hour ago along with the pilot, carrying half a skiff full of aetherite and nothing else.
Captain Li Jeng and Governor Tai Su Long were there along with him, listening intently as Jei Su Long recounted what had transpired in detail.
“So you did breach the protocol then?” Gong said.
“I did,” Jei Su Long a...
2024-10-05 04:53:18 +0000 UTC
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My mind reeled with a flashback to when Jei Su Long was wrestling that duffle bag full of salt crystals from Dim Wei’s hands during our final exam. Here he was doing the same thing, only now he was stealing a whole damn skiff and wrestling with Dim Wei directly.
The bastard had his hands around her neck, with Dim Wei struggling to put up a resistance. I looked for the rest of her team and saw nothing but bodies at the base of the skiff as it quickly rose into the sky.
...
2024-09-29 18:41:41 +0000 UTC
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It sensed a great disturbance.
An aperture shattered violently within one of Its prime domains.
It was no surprise when the Chainmaiden herself soon appeared, requesting an audience.
It exercised Its Influence to manifest a portion of Its Will within the maiden’s domain.
Visions of opaque crystal, tinted a violet hue, filled its senses as It appeared.
The maiden was tethered hand and foot by chains, suspended within the center of the crystal void. ...
2024-09-26 20:20:07 +0000 UTC
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We were all assembled in the main hangar bay of the Xing Long, kitted out in our legionnaires robes and armed with our weapons of choice for the mission that lay ahead.
As I stood at the head of the platoon, I could already feel the tingle of Dark Frenzy in the air. Or perhaps it was just my imagination, seeing as there was no atmosphere between us and the single planet that now lay in view dead ahead of us through the open hangar bay doors.
The Hell World of Fhae I...
2024-09-22 20:55:01 +0000 UTC
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My dearest younger half-sister,
I write to offer my sincere condolences on the most embarrassing situation that has befallen your beloved tribute, the Iron Bull. It would be an understatement to say that news of it has run amuck throughout the lower courts.
To be clearly beaten and then claim a victory in such a vulgar and dishonorable manner has no doubt caused you as much distress as it has indeed the entire royal househol...
2024-09-19 02:17:39 +0000 UTC
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Wind blasted into the interior of the drop skiff as the reentry dome retracted from overhead, forcing us to shield our eyes as we went into freefall.
Hue Zen’s largest content loomed before us like a giant map, now pocketed with burning impact craters which now denoted the major cities destroyed by the trio of Lesser Deity Realm cultivators tearing the shit out of the planet.
I gritted my teeth as the wind pressed into my face, uneasiness building in my gut. I was heading into s...
2024-09-16 04:20:50 +0000 UTC
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