yrsillar

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 303 (Red+)

It was impossible to know someone perfectly without being them. Shu Yue had asserted that. And on further thought, Ling Qi felt she understood that more clearly now. People hid or held thoughts back. They remained silent when they shouldn’t have. And that was the people she was closest to, let alone acquaintances and strangers.

But the right solution wasn’t to cut everything off from herself and accept no strings at all. She was also sure of that. She could neither blindly trust nor...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 302(Red+)

In the beginning, there was joy.

There was a whole world to explore, infinite in possibility

But it was the nature of that world to define, to limit, to order. Solidity, stability, selfhood.

Even for those mighty defiers of Law, their purpose was to write and rewrite those laws, not to banish them entirely.

Such was the waking world.

The first link of the chain was forged with the simplest realization. They did not want to die. They did not want to wake up and be...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 301(Red+)

The words struck her with physical force, sending her to her knees as her bubble of control collapsed. The wind swept in. Rotten leaves and snow plastered themselves across her, filling her nose with their disgusting moldy scent.

Linq Qi pressed her hands to the ground, refusing still to fully buckle under the pressure. Sixiang’s words in their brief argument came to her.

“He’s making it look all scary and gross because of course he is. And that’s enough for you because yo...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 300 (Red+)

The air around them darkened, and she saw Sixiang stiffen, something cold and cruel and alien seeping into their eyes. The threads dug into her wrist, and the binding grew tighter.

She’d known the problem coming here. Despite her deflection, despite her evasion, and despite her avoidance of the subject, Ling Qi knew the root of the problem. The problem was that her conception of intimacy was wrong. She was too grasping and too afraid all at once.

To see past her misconception, a...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 299 (Red+)

Ling Qi landed lightly on extended toes, surrounded by shards of glass. She stood on immaculate jade tiles, surrounded by cool mist and music. Applause greeted her, and she was met with a grand ballroom full of spirits in every shape and in every size. Beasts were strolling around on their hind legs, garbed in noble finery. Creatures of the elements, the avatars of stream and breeze and leaf and earth, conversed. Hybrids and mixes of the two and so much more filled the hall, laughing, clappin...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 298 (Red+)

“What you said, those were the Duchess’ words?” Ling Qi asked.

“Only the first. The rest are my thoughts.”

Ling Qi wanted to share them with Renxiang.

“You desire to question. How long until your intended descent?” Shu Yue asked plainly.

“Evening under the Dreaming Moon.”

“There is time for one question then, if you wish to train.”

“Are you really willing to speak secrets so freely?”

Shu Yue’s smile was a black crescent gas...

Hiatus from Wednesday 15th-22nd

It's that time again. Another set of arcs will be finishing next week and that means I'll be taking one week to destress and plan the next set. I hope everyone has been enjoying things, and I hope I'll see most of you when content resumes!

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 297(Red+)

“I’ve been ignorant,” Ling Qi said. “My world was small, barely larger than what lay before my eyes.”

She thought of scrabbling for food and shelter, never able to look up, barely able to look around. No time for anything not immediately relevant. It was an awful way to live and one which no person should have to endure.

“You didn’t stay that way for long.”

Ling Qi furrowed her brows at Sixiang’s words. Was that really true? Without being on the edge of dea...

Journey to the East Chapter 17

And here's the second chapter, with the extra commissioned, enjoy!

“Do you accept this mission, officer?”

“Naturally, I would not refuse such a vital duty,” Gu Xiulan said, unable to keep the slightly irritable twist out of her tone. “It pleases me that I am finally trusted with such.”

Major Gu Yu, regarded her over the top of his field desk cooly. One of her Father’s higher officers, he was naturally a member of the Gu family as wel...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 296 (Red+)

Ling Qi crouched by the overgrown pond that sat among the ruins of the old temple, looking down into the murky waters.

The old stones were swept and cleaned. The broken structure had been grown anew from Zhengui’s roots. A new mirror of polished silver was placed inside in a case of polished wood, anointed with the proper oils. The faint scent of incense drifted out to her.

Here was the place where she had first truly entered the Dream, though she’d not understood it then, gui...

Journey to the East Chapter 16

AN: Just a little late but there will be a second chapter this week thanks to a kind commissioner.

They were harried at every step.

The ashwalkers were dogged and unrelenting. Even with a full third of their numbers cut down in the opening raid did nothing to slow them, only loosen their cohesion with the death of an officer. And it was clearly not the only one, as she had hoped.

The sand boiled with the dead. Reaching claws, unnatural, heart shaking screams...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 295(Red+)

“And that is what I was able to get from our countrymen today,” Ling Qi said, bowing at the waist as she finished her recitation and returned to her seat. Together with Cai Renxiang and Gan Guangli, she was in a large warm tent set out near to the partially built embassy.

“A Zheng,” Cai Renxiang said tiredly, rubbing her fingers against her temples. “That is troublesome.”

“I don’t think his intent is malicious,” Ling Qi said slowly. The whole conversation was str...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 294(Red+)

There was so much Ling Qi wished she could cover, so much information she was yet lacking. She had only two short months to prepare for the admittedly month-long summit, and so very many things to do.

This was her first meeting with these representatives of the White Sky however, and so, with much thought, she decided it would be best to focus on cultural topics. Going after material ones might come across as more probing than she might like at this point.

With that decided, Ling ...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 293(Red+)

“May I ask for your understanding of this summit in your own words?”

Ling Qi didn’t know enough about him. If most of her information toward Cao Chun was going to be filtered, that couldn’t stand. The Jin were the ducal clan of the Alabaster Seas. They had minimal relations with the Emerald Seas. She knew they were mercantile, somewhat like the Bao, but much more heavily invested in shipbuilding and shipping. They controlled all ports on the mainland empire, save for a single ci...

Apologies for the delay

There were some unexpected circumstances this week in my life and it resulted in me losing a bit of organization. My apologies for the delay on yesterday's update everyone.

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 292 (Red+)

<Heh, you already getting practice in, huh?> Sixiang laughed.

No reason not to, Ling Qi thought. Qi circulated in the threads of her dress and through the wind, and before her feet could touch the treetops, she was flying.

Her flight took her down into the valley proper again, descending onto the growing web of streets and robes. With the time passed, she should arrive in time for her next stop, introducing Gan Guangli to Luo Jie, the representative from that clan. Gan Guang...

Threads Patron Preview Winters End Tour 2(Red+)

It always annoyed Bao Qian just a little, that mortal coins were so much better designed as currency than the money of cultivators. Coins were good, round and flat, stackable. A hole punched through the center, so that they could be strung on thread or rawhide. Convenient and reasonable. Stones on the other hand, had an odd shape, could not be stacked or stored easily. He knew it didn’t matter, and there were reasons. A coin shape wouldn’t hold its qi reservoir properly, but it was still ...

Threads of Destiny Chapter 291(Red+)

Traveling across the severed mountain peak and following the half-constructed road laid out by posts and string, she made her way toward the southern edge of the plateau. She had begun to feel a hole where one should be. It was the sort of deliberately amateurish masking she would do if trying to advertise her presence without giving her domain away. And indeed, as she moved round the foundations of defensive forts and towers, she found herself looking at a pair of figures who were definitely...

Threads Patron Preview Interlude: Winter's End Tour 1(Red+)

AN: For my patrons I decided a little late that I'll be adding the coming interlude to the main story so you guys will get it here, but Royal Road may see it placed otherwise.

The road wound ever on. Through hills and trees, around mountains, across rivers. The cool air rushed by, sharp with the incoming winter. When they had begun, the roads had been smooth, in superb maintenance, but as they had traveled on, away from the Argent Sect, further from the core of Wang lan...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 290(Red+)

It was a few hours later, the sun having passed its zenith, when Ling Qi made her way out, traveling up and over the switchback path that led toward the top of the severed mountain. It was unpleasant. The qi in the air was still disturbed and humming, the mountain all but emanating indignation and wrath but also the fear of a being wholly cowed. Ling Qi could sense the efforts being made to calm the local spirits though, so the mountain’s feelings didn’t worry her.

On the newly form...

Threads Patron preview Chapter 289(Red+)

Ling Qi followed Wang Lian away from the work site, chatting about Hanyi and her tour and the work going on at the site. Wang Lian seemed tentatively approving. The woman seemed to approve of innovation as a general principle, so long as precautions were taken for safety.

Wang Lian led her to a small, mundane pavilion of wood and canvas under which there was a a table holding some refreshments. Wang Lian, somewhat against etiquette, poured her a cup of well watered wine as they sat down...

Threads patron preview Chapter 288 (Red+)

“The Bountiful Earth must smile upon us!” Gan Guangli laughed. He leaned against the side of the carriage, his bulky arm resting upon the window frame.

“That is definitely the implication that I wove into the cover letter of my report on the find,” Ling Qi said. “It is very lucky.”

“Improbably so, but such is the nature of spirits,” Cai Renxiang said. She tapped her fingers on the sheathed saber laid across her lap. Her expression was slightly pinched.

“I h...

Journey to the East Chapter 15

The shouts of men, the clattering of bone against rusted metal, and the whistle of the wind past her ears combined into a cacophony of sound. The sound of thundering hooves combined with the hiss and snap of sparks and flames. Her heart thundered in her ears, and lightning sang in her veins.

Gu Xiulan’s cheeks ached from how fiercely she found herself grinning.

The road ahead was shrouded in dust, sand and ash, whipped by the wind and churned by battle. The flags and banners of ...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 287(Red+)

“You can leave if you like, Lao Keung. Thank you for your assistance.”

“What assistance is that? A few words on waterborne toxins? Hmph, I feel as if this expedition was only an excuse to interrogate me.”

“You were helpful. I am not the best at tracking.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Despite my brash words, I did not want to disturb the lake spirit without cause. I had hoped for more preparation in setting the tone for my relationship with such an important spi...

Hiatus until 1/23

There will a break to let me take care of some offline business until the above date. Thank you for your patience! I'll return with a new update and hopefully some fun announcements. See everyone then.

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 286(Red+)

He nodded once and reached up, unwrapping his head scarf and vanishing it into a storage ring. His coat followed, leaving him in a sleeveless tunic. Ling Qi did not stare, obviously. Not everyone could wear a talisman as potent and mutable as hers.

As he began to wade out into the water, she followed, her gown remaining perfectly dry despite being submerged, little fractal blooms of ice growing and melting from the hems and her hair.

It was a bit different to encounter someone who...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 285(Red+)

Final Frost’s Serenade.

The alliteration appealed, Ling Qi thought, lowering her flute. Around her was a copse of trees, dripping faintly with melted frost. There were a few shattered trunks and stumps where the impurity had run too deep, but it was largely now a clean copse, quiet and serene. She observed the dew on the grass and the faint mist curling around the roots, a product of the swiftly changing temperature.

She was winter in her bones. For a moment, she wished that Zhe...

Threads Patron preview Chapter 284(Red+)

Hanyi began to sing, and Ling Qi listened closely. The song was light and graceful, resembling the piece Ling Qi had helped her compose some time ago for that last concert before the journey south, but this version was more strident and mature.

And as Hanyi sang, flurries of snow crystallized in the wind that whipped up around her, resulting in falling flakes and pebbles of hail. The bite of the wind grew sharper, and the hems of her gown kicked up as her bare feet left the stone, carri...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 283 (Red+)

Ling Qi blew out a breath. “Too much to put in good order, little sister.”

Her eyes scanned the books, the neat scrolls, and journals and collated anthologies before straying to the far messier corner of the table. That corner was filled with stacked worn and tattered pieces, single pages, scrolls with broken batons, and rolls of bamboo slats missing panels or scraped and burned.

Stories. Stories from across the Emerald Sea in both distance and time. These were the gathered sc...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 282 (Red+)

“Big Sister! I bet you’ve been in all sorts of trouble without me!” Hanyi yelled gleefully, all but jumping into her arms for a hug.

“Maybe a little. “I’d like to hear what you’ve been up to though.” Ling Qi laughed, hugging her back. “Ah, and what’s this?”

She pinched a few strands of Hanyi’s hair between her fingers. On top of getting longer, the tips had darkened to a pale icy blue rather than white.

“It just started to change. I like it though!�...