Strungbound

231. The Beauty of a Carnation

To his credit, Georgios acted almost as fast as Alistair. Despite his hefty plate armor and his enormous warhammer, he flew like the wind, smashing one of the crabs into the stone ground with a terrifying swing.

Alistair activated [Dharmic Gaze], analyzing the crabs.

Name: N/A
Species: Metalbound Crab (Beast Ruler 1st Evolution)
Class: N/A [Primary Attribute(s): Constitution]
Level: 120 ...

230. Temple of Descending Currents

A/N: I changed the ending of ch 229 to reflect that the correct mission, you will see in this chapter what I mean

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Alistair and Elektra spent the rest of the hour eating the delectable meals of the local restaurant. In his attempt to woo the Saltwind heir, he had found one of the most expensive steakhouses in the city.

He thought that this might conflict with their mission, but once the hour was almost up, she grinned and took him out to the valet parking.

One o...

229. Memories

Alistair introduced the surviving members of his squad to his friends. Red and Fuhao just so happened to be on the same team, while Pristine was with the number 1 ranked outer disciple, Korinth Kaevor. Both of them were two of the first teams to finish their battles.

“We have Kolz Einz Borentall, Janus Morris, and Theline Likonia,” Alistair gestured to his remaining squadmates. “How did your teams fare?”

“You’re going to do a lot more training to usurp Korinth,” Pris...

228. Gilded Imperial Longhouse

Before Elder Aylesfort’s lessons, Alistair would have been confused about the setup of the competition. In his prior unlearned opinion, he would have assumed that since the top hundred inner disciples were in the Profound realm, there was nothing they could do.

Learning about how mixed-realm combat worked disabused him of that idea. The difference in realms was enormous, but there was an important distinction between fighting up a realm and helping your fellow higher realm fight again...

227. A Difference of Philosophy

Team Goldhair refused to meet Jaden Erryngton’s demands. Instead, they watched as he ran roughshod through their preparations.

With balls of cerulean plasma, he vaporized the desiccation pills hidden within the ground, pushing back the dreamscape with his sheer aura.

As Alistair observed from his aerial vantage point, he turned to Jin Toba. “Do you know anything about Jaden?”

“He uses a plasma affinity, as you can see,” she said. “He follows the Dao of Stars from...

226. 100 vs. 100

Alistair used [Reality Sense] to gauge the situation from afar. By focusing his perception, he could see things miles away. 

While it wasn’t literally miles, the slums operated in a two-tiered system, with the more luxurious parts of the city near the “oceanline.” They had climbed up the skyscrapers, trying to get the high ground. 

There were seven disciples in the Endless Horizons group, openly walking around in their black-and-white robes as if t...

225. A Friendly Competition

Alistair frowned at the faint wisp of Red’s aura. It was barely visible; just a trace. He wondered if the elders had noticed it in the brief moment Red had passed it to him, just before being dragged off to the Discipline Hall.

The last three weeks, he had been singularly busy earning merit points and winning favor with Elder Wen. 

All for this. With 10,000 merit points, he purchased a Profound Aura Sight Potion. But that wasn’t all. 

Alistair ...

224. The Pits of the Discipline Hall

Red sits cross-legged deep within the bowels of the Discipline Hall.

The subterranean section of the Discipline Hall contains dozens of unused cells. For the most part, the sect is free of criminals. There is only one fellow prisoner at the moment, and she has been there a long time. Red even said hi, but she didn’t respond.

His confinement takes place at the bottom of a seemingly endless pit. His cuffs remain on, attached to the walls of the pit with chains made of Abyssal Tita...

223. One Month Later

A/N: Sorry for the delay, my chapter length is getting super long recently

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But before Alistair could do anything else, he had to greet the long line of spectators who had watched his victory.

Any astute observer has already seen my three Kai’tazake Mutra states and surmised what they can do, Alistair thought. Threefold-Awakening Mutra shouldn’t be anything new. The dragonfire might throw a little fire into the chaos.

Red, Pristine, and ...

222. #4,352

The Training Grounds sprawled before Alistair like a monument to controlled violence. Seeing the ocean part like the Red Sea above his head felt strange.

The attendants at the Training Grounds had the funny idea of placing him and Xaden in the first arena. There wasn’t anything different about the stillwater ring, but more eyes were watching.

Alistair spotted several of his friends at the edge of the arena. Red, of course, and then Pristine and Gu Fuhao. Jinti and Nora Seaborn w...

221. Wuxing

A/N: Sorry for the delay

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Alistair arrived at Elder Aylesfort’s combat lesson the next day with renewed enthusiasm. He was curious how the elder was going to grade their written exam performances.

Even without Elder Fanghorn’s threats of expulsion for missing his class, all of the disciples arrived early. Elder Aylesfort commanded a certain presence that was hard to deny.

“Now that everyone is here, let us begin,” he called out from behind his desk. �...

220. Gala

A/N: Chapter 221 will be uploaded in a few hours, don't worry.

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Alistair felt his heart flutter nervously as he sat in Fuhao’s dorm room.

Technically, you weren’t supposed to be in the dorms of the opposite sex. That was, unless you had a special dispensation akin to a marriage license for serious couples, though much less binding. 

However, this official rule was rarely enforced. Unlike Earth, there weren’t RAs, so unless an inner disciple report...

219. [Karmic Battery]

The answer to Alistair’s question, unfortunately, was that Aylesfort had no lesson for them.

The next day, when he arrived at the Contribution Hall an inner disciple told them that the elder was indisposed. Apparently, he was off on important sect business, so their next class would be in four weeks, right after Fuhao’s ball.

More than even the venerable Aylesfort’s class, Alistair had chosen the direction of [Hand of Karma].

The Pathfinder had offered...

218. The Dao is the Dao

Eun Dawo gritted his teeth, clenching both fists.

This was supposed to be an easy ambush. He had hired ten priests of the Cult of the Wordless Devil just in case, since their intel indicated a Peak Adept at best.

A Profound of any kind was nothing to trifle with, let alone the Clear Water Sect.

His opponent’s cultivation was identical to his at the Early stage, and her aura felt less powerful than his. Nothing unexpected—she might have been a sect lady, but he had been b...

217. Domain Unleashed

The first thing that Alistair realized was that the scarred woman and the two armed guards had vanished.

A setup, or just them saving their necks? It doesn’t truly matter. Now, we have to survive.

The battle between Profounds raged in the distance. More nuclear explosions went off miles apart each time, an all-encompassing stench of rotting flesh and bark spreading from the clashes.

But that was for Chu Hua to sort out. Her battle was the central one, but in order...

216. A Stroll Through Dystopia

Even though he knew that the sects were dangerous, his first week ending in a murder was not something he had expected.

Alistair had been interrogated by the first balding cultivator he had ever seen of a higher realm, a bone-thin man with enormous black irises. 

This Elder Brittlebones had asked him a couple of questions, and when Alistair gave an appropriate alibi, he had dismissed him. 

The murder of Xiao Zhenyu was a big deal at the Clear Water Sect. 

215. Interlude - Sect Elders

Elder Shakti Exotropay, Head of External Affairs, combed her luscious brown hair as she waited for all the Clear Water elders to arrive.

Even as a mortal, she had prided herself on her flawless hair. All her teachers had told her that body affinity Mana focused on hair was a feeble idea, yet who stood at the Visionary realm now, fifty thousand years later?

The elders’ conclave chamber lay tens of thousands of feet beneath the visible structures of the sect. It was at the center ...

214. Elders' Lessons

The next day, Alistair picked up two more missions, earning himself another 312 merit points, placing him at 2,977. It felt rewarding that two parts of his cultivation—ghosts and Karma—were now responsible for him getting a leg up compared to his peers.

His routine became set in stone. Red and Alistair would train every morning for an hour, always with just their fists, either in their dorm room or on the open ocean.

He would get lunch with Gu Fuhao and Pristine Evolutionary. ...

213. Training Grounds (II)

Thalen helped him find suitable opponents. The next two duels passed in quick succession. Both were stat-equalized like his previous match, focusing on technique and strategy rather than raw power.

The first, against a disciple ranked 8,793, used a quarterstaff style that initially gave Alistair trouble with its reach. But after weathering the initial assault, his [Adaptive Kinesthesia] allowed him to counter effectively, securing another victory.

The second, agai...

212. Training Grounds (I)

Alistair rushed Red back to the Teleportation Circle. His friend’s life force seemed stable, and the bleeding had stopped, but still. Over a quarter of his body had been crushed by the serpent’s bite and pierced by its fangs.

“I accepted the Quest, too,” Red said, his eyes closed. “We’ll figure this out.”

“Shush,” Alistair said. “You’ll reopen your wounds.”

He kept feeding blood essence into Red, bolstering his natural regeneration. E...

Ghost of the Truthseeker Links

Recap of Book 3

Character sheet at the end of Book 3

211. Old Man of the Lighthouse

It came as no surprise that the first move of the swarm of sea snakes was a roar filled with killing intent.

They were completely unaffected.

Alistair used [Dharmic Gaze] to inspect them.

Name: N/A
Species: Duskscale Serpent (Beast Ruler 1st Evolution)
Class: N/A [Primary Attribute(s): Strength and Agility]
Level: 105
Special Ability: Successive bites amplif...

2025-04-24 05:07:14 +0000 UTC View Post