Boots

4.33 - Eight-Sided Mirror

After divvying up the spoils of their fight, He Yu left Li Heng to cultivate and set off to pay a visit to Yan Shirong. He wanted to learn what the eight-sided mirror they’d taken from Wang Xiaobo could do. It was clearly a divinatory treasure of some sort. Mirrors were frequently used for divination, and the trigram inscriptions around the frame were another strong clue. If there was anyone He Yu knew and trusted that could she some light on a treasure like this, it was Yan Shirong.

...

4.32 - A Score Settled

As he helped Xin Lu to his feet, Wang Xiaobo couldn’t believe his very eyes. How could two middle Fourth Realm children stand against them? They weren’t the top-ranked inner sect disciples, sure, but being in the top one hundred was no small feat. It had been decades since Zhang Lifen had become a core disciple, and both of them had spent much of that time reflecting on the lessons learned at her hands.

Li Heng was less than half Wang Xiaobo’s age, and as much as it pained him to ...

4.31 - Talent and Experience

He Yu blasted forward on the wings of the Sky Dragon’s Flight. Heaven qi surged around him as he poured his cultivation base into the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering. He drew back his guandao, and the Five Crescent Winds warped the world. Forming the Sweeping Wind along with Heaven’s Descending Blade, he swept the polearm before him. Wind and heaven howled and crashed. A crackling golden blade extended from his guandao, doubling his reach.

Wang Xiaobo met He Yu’s attack with tech...

4.30 - Time and Debt

Winter came and went once again. By the time spring came around in what was to be He Yu’s twenty-second year, Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling had both advanced to middle Golden Core. Just as Zhang Lifen had said, Yi Xiurong seemed intent on bringing all five of them up. He Yu, Li Heng, and Tan Xiaoling were routinely given authority over small teams and ordered to strike against agents of the Sunset Court. As winter dragged on, those assignments—and their accompanying rewards—came less frequen...

4.29 - The Middle Realm

Despite it being terribly rude, He Yu blasted through the inner sect on the winds of the Sky Dragon’s Flight on his way home. He couldn’t find it within himself to care. He’d been stuck at the early stage of the Fourth Realm for what seemed like an eternity. Within his storage treasure, he held an elixir. An elixir that had been created for him. Specifically, to push him to the middle stage.

Arriving at his home, he fetched his remaining mid-grade stones. Then he went directly to ...

4.28 - A True Reward

Shortly after leaving the meeting with Yi Xiurong, He Yu made his way through the upper reaches of the inner sect mountain. The second highest of the peaks that dominated the inner sect were given over to the core disciples—all six of them. He Yu wended his way through the paths and gardens separating the palatial homes. When he arrived at the smallest of them, it was no surprise that Zhang Lifen had arrived first.

“You did well,” she said as she ushered him through the gate in th...

4.27 - Storm's Reckoning

Distant peals of thunder sounded in Cui Bao’s ears. A guandao, sparking with golden arcs of heaven, pointed towards his heart. He Yu. That stupid, weak piece of shit loomed over him. Towering to the heavens, clouds gathered around him. Brilliant flashes of light cast him in stark relief.

This shouldn’t be happening. He’d done everything Kong Huizhong had said. He’d earned elixir after elixir, a mountain of spirit stones, and even a small band of lower-ranked cultivators to comma...

4.26 - A Leopard in the Storm

Chen Fei had always known He Yu was strong. Stronger than he gave himself credit for. She’d seen him fight Xiaoling during the tournament. She’d seen him train with Zhang Lifen, with Xiaoling, and more recently, with Li Heng.

This was different. Each of his blows was heavy with the fury of his spirit and his killing intent in a way they’d never been in training. Sure, Senior Sister Zhang had implored them all to train at full strength, and He Yu always had. But there was some qual...

4.25 - Alchemy Workshop

He Yu kicked open the door of the workshop. It splintered into a hundred pieces. Dust and splintered wood showered what little free space lay within. Before him was a sight that turned his stomach. Behind him, Chen Fei gasped and Zhu Feng retched.

Bodies were piled against two of the workshop’s inner walls. They lay in various stages of mutilation and decay. Some appeared to have been chopped up and butchered—organs, sinew, and bone pulled out and stacked against the third wall. Oth...

4.24 - Against the Court II

He Yu’s trip to the medicine hall was his shortest yet. The treatment that Yi Xiurong had arranged for him was some of the sect’s finest. It took every last bit of his control to cycle the restorative elixirs and avoid a backlash, but it did its job. After only an hour, he was in peak condition again.

The crafting disciples that took his weapon and robe were similarly advanced. All the necessary repairs and reinforcements were completed by the time he left the medicine hall, leaving...

4.23 - Alignment of Fortune

It didn’t take long for the elixirs to do their work and allow both He Yu and Li Heng to stand on their own. Once they’d recovered their weapons and brushed aside the remaining concerns of the others, He Yu turned to Chen Fei.

“How did you find us?” he asked. “How did you even know we would need help?”

“Senior Sister Yi told us. She was also the one who gave us the elixirs.”

That would explain how he’d been brought back from the edge with only a single elix...

4.22 - To Stand and Fight

Wang Xiaobo’s jian slammed into the Spring Rain Mirror, crashing through it as if He Yu’s defensive technique didn’t exist. At least He Yu had the prescience of the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment, the agility of the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering, and the raw speed of the Sky Dragon’s Flight.

He yanked himself back on wings of wind, heaven qi crackling over his robe, along his skin, and down the length of his guandao. In an instant he was outside Wang Xiaobo’s reach. In...

4.21 - He Yu and Li Heng Head North

He Yu landed in Li Heng’s courtyard with a heavy thump as the Sky Dragon’s Flight gave him back over to the law of earth. His friend looked up from where he sat with his ancestral jian laid across his lap, whetstone, oil, and rags close at hand. At the very least, Li Heng had the decency to look a little embarrassed.

“Congratulations!” He Yu shouted, his voice echoing off the courtyard walls and nearby mountains. He’d made it a point to be as loud as possible. When the echoes ...

4.20 - The March of Winter

As he advanced through the Third Realm and continued to refine his presence, Li Heng came to like summer less and less. The retreat of the snows, of the ice, left him feeling like he lacked something. One significant upside was that was that travel became easier. More and more frequently, Li Heng ventured into the high reaches of the Shrouded Peaks. Especially when winter retreated from the sect. At least with the coming of autumn, the grip of ice and snow tightened on the peaks once again. 2024-09-12 22:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post

4.19 - Hunting Trip

Midsummer came and went. As it turned out, advancing through the Fourth Realm wasn’t as simple as He Yu had first thought.

After the meeting with Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu, He Yu had returned home and taken his elixirs. Or what was left of them. He’d been certain as he entered his cultivation chamber that the potent mixture of heaven, wind, and water surging through his meridians would take him to the middle stage. He’d been wrong.

It wasn’t as if the elixirs were of no benef...

4.18 - A Confrontation

When He Yu arrived at Yan Shirong’s home, the change was immediately apparent. After their time training with Old Guo, the shadows had always seemed to cling more closely to Yan Shirong. An impression that had only increased as he progressed through Body Refining. Now those shadows seemed like if He Yu reached out for them, he could grab them like a handful of silk.

Then there was the uncanny sensation he got whenever he looked at Yan Shirong, like he was being watched. Not as though ...

4.17 - A Final Lesson

He Yu stepped through the formation gate that marked the edge of the training arena. Across the flagstone floor, Fang Yingjie stood as He Yu had always seen him, his arms crossed and face partially shrouded by his conical peasant’s hat. It was a rare bright day on the inner sect mountain, where the sun had burned away a good portion of the blanket of gray mist that gave the peaks their name.

Looking up at He Yu’s approach, Fang Yingjie merely dipped his chin in acknowledgment. It ha...

4.16 - Secrets and Shadows

Yan Shirong looked over his notes for what felt like the thousandth time. Finally, he admitted to himself what he’d been avoiding for the better part of a week now. He was at an impasse. Whoever was behind He Yu’s trouble with the sect jobs, they were good at covering their tracks.

Leaning back in his chair, Yan Shirong swallowed down the last of his wine. Lamplight flickered, casting a warm glow over the scrolls, loose scraps of paper, and the pieces of half-finished constructs tha...

4.15 - The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

For months Zhang Lifen had been wandering the mortal world, searching for a rogue cultivator who may as well have been a ghost. It would have been kind of Yi Xiurong to at least provide some clue as to where she ought to start her search, but she supposed that would defeat the purpose. This was as much about getting her out of the way as it was an attempt to correct her missteps.

What else could it be, given that the First Disciple had taken it upon herself to oversee the development of...

4.14 - Success at Last?

Summer was in full swing, and He Yu once more found himself on the outer sect mountain. He’d long since stopped being picky about the jobs he accepted, taking anything he could get his hands on. The one bright spot in all his troubles so far had been the windfall he’d gained from the assault on the Sunset Court’s spirit stone mine. But those resources were as finite as any other and had now just about run their course.

He walked along a once-familiar trail, and even now he could s...

4.13 - Return to the Sect

After their stop at the wayside inn, it took He Yu and Tan Xiaoling another week to arrive back at the sect. From the time the tops of the mist-shrouded peaks came into view just over the horizon until they finally arrived at Xu Xiang. Approaching the base of the outer sect mountain, He Yu felt a rising sense of anticipation.

Most of it had to do with the fact they were bringing valuable information about the Sunset Court back to the sect. But he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t a...

4.12 - The Journey Back

Traveling across an untamed land teeming with spirits and beasts with a dozen mortals in tow turned out to be more of a burden than He Yu had first imagined. It wasn’t the fact alone that it took absolutely forever for them to make progress. The mortals had to walk, and the cultivators had to clear a path to ensure they could maintain a decent pace. They had to stop every night so the miners could eat and rest. And then they had to do it again the next day.

Nor was it the near-constan...

4.11 - Responsibility and Return

With the bounty of the mine safely tucked away in their storage treasures, He Yu and Tan Xiaoling returned to the surface with the miners in tow. Tan Xiaoling said she was going to make one last sweep of the overseer’s hut and the surrounding area just to be certain there wasn’t anything she’d missed. Among the remains of the hovels that had once housed the miners, He Yu spied a few meager provisions. Half-full sacks of rice, a couple of banged-up cooking pots, and a mix of other miscel...

4.10 - A Hero's Duty

Anger, white and hot, consumed him. He Yu slammed into the overseer. The sickle trembled under his guandao and he locked eyes with the manic creature before him. The overseer simply laughed.

“Is the price of failure too high?” he asked with a manic giggle.

“I won’t be the one paying it.” Again, his words came from a place he couldn’t quite lay claim to. The gates of the Cloud Emperor’s Hidden Palace opened. His Wayborn Seed thrummed. He saw the visage of the God of T...

4.9 - The Overseer

He Yu and Tan Xiaoling both released their presences as the overseer slammed into their midst. As his initial strike cracked the earth where they’d just stood, wind rushed out from them both.

A sandstorm carrying a thousand thousand gleaming razor shards whipped up around Tan Xiaoling. A summer’s gale surged out from He Yu, heavy with the promise of rain and crackling with the first fangs of heaven’s fury. The cloud of toxic miasma the overseer carried with him buckled under the p...

4.8 - Against the Court

“I don’t like this,” Tan Xiaoling said once they’d passed beyond the far edge of the sect town at the base of the mountain.

“What’s that, exactly?” He Yu asked. Of course, he had some thoughts of his own on the subject. It wasn’t so much that he’d had to kill the agents of the court that bothered him. Rather, it was the part about not showing mercy.

Then there was the fact that he was away from the sect and his home again. He and Tan Xiaoling would be gone for at...

4.7 - First Disciple Yi

Chen Fei’s suggestion that they hunt cores on the way back turned out to be a good one. While most of the beasts they tracked down on the way back were Third Realm and their cores wouldn’t sell for much at the inner sect market, it at least helped take He Yu’s mind off his troubles. They even found a fair number of wind and water aspected cores. He Yu used them to help restore his cultivation base without having to take any of his more expensive and increasingly limited resources.

4.6 - He Yu and Chen Fei

The second note from Zhang Lifen in as many weeks had been a simple one. “I’ll be away for a bit longer than I anticipated. Make the most of the opportunity provided.”

He Yu wasn’t certain what opportunity she could be referring to. Time to train on his own? As often as he found himself resenting whatever she’d been putting him through, he couldn’t deny that Zhang Lifen’s training was effective. Time to take more jobs? Assuming he could even find a job at the assignment ha...

4.5 - The Elder Meeting

Atop the highest of the central peaks of the Shrouded Peaks Sect sat the Elder’s Grand Hall. The only way up was a staircase numbering ten thousand steps, and despite her advancement, protocol demanded that Zhang Lifen climb them. It stung at her pride. However, she knew where she stood, and she knew well that she wouldn’t have received a summons if she weren’t meant to take a lesson from this.

And so she walked.

The gate to the hall was as grand as any in the Imperial City....

4.4 - Balance and Flexibility

“And that’s it?” Li Heng asked. “They just told you it was all for nothing?”

“That’s about it,” He Yu said, swatting away a thrust from Li Heng’s jian. “Even told me that if they got word it wasn’t actually done, they’d take contribution points.”

The two of them fell silent as they exchanged thrusts, sweeps, and counters. Li Heng’s jian shone with a silver light as he deflected a series of looping strikes. He’d gotten better in the past few months wit...