2/4!
Time passed quickly in the land of the entrance trial, and before long, only three days remained. Huxian was happily cooking up a storm and feeding a small group of friends; since Cha Ming had not yet left his own trial, Huxian was in no hurry to do so either.
A total of 2718 demons had entered one path or another. One thousand four hundred and eighty-three of them had entered the Heartforge Realm, while the others had perished. Only 182 demons remained, and they were either ...
2022-05-19 00:32:01 +0000 UTC
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Today will be a four chapter week. 1/4. Enjoy!
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Three weeks ago.
Only a week had passed since Huxian’s arrival in the Heartforge Realm, and things were not going well. Baleful Vision, the overly friendly paper tiger clansman, had given up on recruiting him, which was good. But most of the ones who remained weren’t good company, which was bad.
By now, most of the demons had formed cliques, not least because someone had discovered that you could enter the Path of ...
2022-05-16 01:46:16 +0000 UTC
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3/3 this week!
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The entrance trial saw a sharp increase in difficulty over the next few days. The enemies they faced grew stronger, and Cha Ming’s Savage Deity Aura began to lose its effectiveness. He was soon forced to fight smaller waves of elite demons at least once every hour.
Rank 11 monstrous demons became more common. They were a bad match-up for him, but he could fight them to a standstill and find an opportunity to retreat. As for rank 12 demons, they popped up ...
2022-05-13 22:52:00 +0000 UTC
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2/3 this week!
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The first canopy creaked as Cha Ming walked across its floor of interlinked vines and branches and packed leaves that had accumulated for millennia to form true soil. What appeared to be trees growing out of the canopy were in fact the taller branches of the trees poking out. The puddles were accumulations of rain that had yet to trickle down the slick tree trunks that Cha Ming had noticed when he’d first arrived.
Cha Ming had wanted to avoid this place, ...
2022-05-11 23:42:17 +0000 UTC
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Here's the ePub you've all been waiting for. Sorry about the wait. The chapter order is somewhat different than what you saw before, and the beginning is a bit smoothed out.
I'm going to go ahead and update the last post before Book 16 starts and pin this ePub there. I'll then delete all the chapters I posted before so there's no confusion.
Note: This comes out on Amazon around June 9th or so, so expect the link to be taken down by then.
Cheers,
Patrick
...
2022-05-09 07:58:45 +0000 UTC
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The chapters continue! Should be 3 this week. Also, I'm posting the ePub for Book 15 (Pendulum of Fate - Part 2) right after this.
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The days came and went in the dark and cruel wilderness, and Cha Ming, now completely at home there, lost track of time. He no longer looked at himself as a trial taker, but one of the original inhabitants of the land that spent each day scrounging for food and building up strength.
The only link he had to the outside world was the occas...
2022-05-09 07:55:58 +0000 UTC
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It seems the polls are currently favoring a spread out release. We can always revisit in the future, so by all means try to convince each other it's the best option.
Anyway, here's the last of three chapters this week.
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Cha Ming woke well before first light. Not because he was well rested but because of the creature biting at his neck. The monstrous demon responsible for the pain had teeth were as large as his fingers. Despite being as small as an infant, its j...
2022-05-06 23:16:40 +0000 UTC
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Hey Everyone,
A Patron brought up a good question, and I figured that since you guys are the ones supporting me, the final say should be in your hands.
The question is as follows: Would you rather have every week's chapters spread out across a few days in the week, or would rather have a weekly Chappie Day?
I can see a case for both. The advantage of a spread out system is a more frequent feeling of euphoria when a chapter comes out. The advantage of one release a wee...
2022-05-05 04:55:03 +0000 UTC
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2/3 this week.
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It happened in a single jarring instant.
One moment, Cha Ming was kneeling on the muddy forest floor next to Yu Wen’s gravestone, and the next, he was surrounded by strange trees covered in slick, blood-colored bark. The muddy ground beneath him where grass had long stopped growing was now dry loam and unbroken twigs.
An object hit the ground beside him with a thunk, but Cha Ming didn’t move. In fact, he didn’t look around or even seem to notice...
2022-05-04 09:19:06 +0000 UTC
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I'm back! Book 16's third draft is finally written and off to the editor. As promised, I'll start posting chapters again this week.
Book 16's title is Heartforge. It's about 192k words long and has 41 chapters. It took me around 2.5 months to write, but since I didn't really take any time off, let's call it an even 3 months. That's around 3-4 chapters per week depending on how long they are until the book is done. Sound fair?
--
Prologue
In deep in a dark corner the ...
2022-05-02 11:36:43 +0000 UTC
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Yes, you heard right. Book 16. Because Amazon does things a certain way, and going against that is an exercise in futility. Therefore, Book 14 part 1 and part 2 is no more. We now have Pendulum of Fate - Part 1 (Book 14) and Pendulum of Fate - Part 2 (Book 15).
I have now officially taken down Book 14 's chapters to meet Kindle Unlimited's exclusivity requirements. Only Book 15's chapters remain, but because I wasn't anticipating the split, the chapter order is a bit of a mess. Therefor...
2022-04-14 10:57:52 +0000 UTC
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5/5 this week, and last chapter of the book! Super long epilogue, but I think it's needed after my latest chapter.
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In the Crimson Lotus Empire where Yu Wen hailed from, it was customary to mourn for three days. Those mourning were not allowed to eat, sleep, or drink, and a stick of incense was kept burning at all times.
Cha Ming had taken it upon himself to mourn Yu Wen’s passing. He wasn’t sure if anyone else had known her well enough to care, and he wasn’t m...
2022-03-31 00:37:04 +0000 UTC
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4/5. Will immediately post 5/5.
--
Yu Wen panted heavily as she made her way through the woods, dodging, ducking, and weaving between obstructions. Thorny bushes tore at her ankles, and vines tried their best to trip her. Even the wildlife tried to drag her down. Whether they were rabbits, songbirds, annoying things like skunks and ferrets, they threw themselves at her with suicidal intentions.
The situation was very familiar to Yu Wen, and it evoked memories of being chased...
2022-03-31 00:25:11 +0000 UTC
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3/5 this week. Didn't want to leave you hanging yesterday, but I think everything will go over better if I post the epilogue right after the last chapter tomorrow.
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The air in the canyon was cool and humid, a refreshing change after spending so much time inside and near the sacred deserts, in Yu Wen’s opinion. The scenery was beautiful out here, though she wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it.
The situation was grim. They’d destroyed a few toys for resources and expos...
2022-03-30 02:12:07 +0000 UTC
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2/5 this week.
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Cha Ming grew into his new powers quickly and began using them to support his allies. He developed two main ways to assist them—by accelerating their techniques using creation qi and his Assembly, Mending, and Gathering runes, and amplifying their techniques using his Iridescent Aura, which he’d previously thought only capable of being used on himself.
Progress was like a drug, and it was easy to get carried away. He had to remind himself constant...
2022-03-29 08:36:14 +0000 UTC
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1/5 this week.
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It began with a clash of auras. Or domains, investitures, and realm fusions, and the like. The names didn’t really matter, only the effect on their surroundings.
The Boneshift Badger Lord was an early-fusion-realm demon. Mr. Mountain was a peak-investiture demon, and Huxian and the others had reached late investiture as well. It was one overlapping aura against seven, and the seven were losing, if barely.
“We can’t… go on like this…” Mr. M...
2022-03-28 00:02:15 +0000 UTC
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5/5 this week. Next week it will be 5 chapters in 4 days, to finish the book at the end of the month as promised.
Like I said in a previous post, I've decided to split this book into two parts. There will only be slight changes, but the content will be unaffected.
I will pause contributions for next month after I post this, and I will also make sure to get you ePub files as soon as they are available. Then I will begin posting at the beginning of May again.
Hope ...
2022-03-27 00:38:55 +0000 UTC
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Two chapters today ^^
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Cha Ming, Yu Wen, Xiao Bai, and Bloodfur were currently seated cross-legged on a comfortable cloud. They had been there for the past hour, despite the tense war situation down below. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to do anything, but that the aged Daoist sipping tea in front of them wouldn’t allow it.
If it were only that, perhaps Cha Ming would feel a little less agitated. But of all things, the old Daoist was lecturing. Cha Ming hated lectur...
2022-03-27 00:35:04 +0000 UTC
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3/5 this week!
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Silence reigned over Verdant Crossroads as both military and civilian personnel searched the rubble for survivors. Only a day had passed since the start of the battle in earnest, yet over a hundred thousand lives had been lost.
The rains had bought them a brief respite that both sides knew wouldn’t last. As Fendal discussed whether or not to continue the invasion, the leaders of Verdant Crossroads discussed their strategy going forward.
“The first...
2022-03-25 02:08:20 +0000 UTC
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2/5!
--
Cha Ming opened his eyes to a world of inky characters. They floated in the white emptiness, twisting and combining, unraveling and splitting.
The characters were separate but formed distinct groupings. They told a story too long and too great for him to even begin to comprehend.
Cha Ming tried to stand up, but the sheer magnitude of the place was nauseating. Even with the Crown of the Starry Sky filtering his perception and aiding his mental processing, the sh...
2022-03-23 03:34:46 +0000 UTC
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1/5 this week.
Okay. So. The announcement.
Good news everyone! I've decided that since Book 14 is so freaking long, and Book 15 is just as long (300k words each), I'll be separating both books into Part 1 and Part 2 going forward.
This is going to take a bit of tweaking and rearranging to make Book 14 work - for example, I'm moving Huxian's adventure in the void later on, and kicking off Part 2 with the interlude - but I'm confident both parts should be goo...
2022-03-21 08:39:54 +0000 UTC
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It seems I accidentally fell behind. Here is 5/5 last week, and I'll quickly follow up with 1/5 this week.
Also, I have an announcement to post with the next chapter. It's Patreon relevant - Make sure you read it!
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The arrival of ten thousand members of the Titan Clan did not go unnoticed by the residents of Verdant Crossroads, especially given that people had been doing the opposite until recently. There was a scramble for housing and supply allocation, but th...
2022-03-21 08:22:52 +0000 UTC
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4/5!
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Cha Ming and Yu Wen’s departure from Fierra caused a predictable uproar throughout the Mendin subcontinent. Rumors of a trio that could destroy immortal artifacts spread like wildfire, and the Holy Governance Alliance, having lost both the Pool of Heavenly Healing and the Holy Provenance Plate, were now on the defensive.
This was both good news and bad news for Verdant Crossroads, since on the one hand, the Asherall Republic had even less reason to remain and threa...
2022-03-18 08:01:47 +0000 UTC
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3/5 this week!
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Having experienced his first territorial battle before he was even a year old, Huxian was intimately familiar with the concept and therefore had no trouble applying it to the alien world of void space. It was a game, and like any game, you could boil down the basics into a few short rules.
Try to maximize gains. Don’t show weakness. Minimize losses. It wasn’t necessary to kill your opponent, or even physically defeat your opponent—territory was all th...
2022-03-17 05:02:53 +0000 UTC
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2/5 this week!
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In all the lands of Mendin, there was not a single person who truly understood the process of ranker advancement. This was not for lack of trying, since many studies had been attempted, but because there were far too many variables to consider. There are too many base classes, too many branches, and too many personalities assigned to them.
This, on its own, was not the biggest hurdle. The biggest hurdle was naturally people. You could have the best testing ...
2022-03-16 09:50:27 +0000 UTC
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1/5 this week!
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Drezil’s eyes were bloodshot. His clothes were a mess, and his claws were broken and bleeding. He hadn’t slept or spoken to anyone in days, lest his concentration slip.
The object of his focus was naturally his unfinished sculpture. He still had no idea what sort of stone it was made of, nor did he care. What mattered was that the sculpture was nearing completion, with only a thin layer still separating it from its most perfect state.
He knew that...
2022-03-14 23:46:13 +0000 UTC
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5/5 this week!
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In the end, all the scouting Cha Ming had risked his life for was for naught. Huxian was not yet in position, and Cha Ming had no way to infiltrate the Collegium in the short term. While in theory they had all the time in the world and could delay, Locke and Trevonay’s presence complicated things.
While in theory their activities could draw attention and give Cha Ming and Huxian an opening, it was much more likely that gold rankers would swarm into the ci...
2022-03-13 00:56:10 +0000 UTC
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4/5 this week!
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It took Cha Ming and company two days to reach Fierra via flying ship from the nearest point in Huxian’s teleportation network. This included air travel and transit via the Collegium’s competing teleportation network. While both Huxian and he were reluctant to support the Collegium in this way, there was no other way to travel quickly throughout this part of Mendin. The usurious transportation fees were just a drop in the bucket compared to Shanarah’s...
2022-03-11 04:32:10 +0000 UTC
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3/5!!! Double release today!
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A breeze swept across Cha Ming and his group of industrious formation artists and their freshly completed formation tower. The wind hugged the runes and swept sand across them as though mocking their efforts and hard work.
The air smelled of blood and change and spoke of an invisible enemy. Times were changing, and the entire city could feel it.
Cha Ming’s group consisted of ten other Runebound clansmen, a few ex-students on loan from ...
2022-03-10 02:58:36 +0000 UTC
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2/5
--
In the Runebound Clan, tradition dictated that grieving be limited to three days. A total of three days and three nights were allowed, starting from when you learned of their death, and ending exactly seventy-two hours later. It was a harsh but essential tradition for the nomadic people because in the desert, death was all too common. The tribe had to move or perish.
Merenthal was currently paying Drezil a visit. The young inkborn of the Runebound Clan was thin. Drawn...
2022-03-10 02:57:12 +0000 UTC
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