Ash let out a short breath and then grunted. Folding his arms in front of himself he sniffed.
Glancing to the side, he looked to Tan.
The young man, who now looked very much like a young man now instead of a boy, was stretched out on the grass.
He’d grown an entire foot, fleshed out with a considerable amount of muscle, and could only be identified as Tan by his facial features. Which while mostly the same, had shifted slightly given how much he’d grown.
Except whi...
2023-03-11 02:54:26 +0000 UTC
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Ash stepped forward and dropped off the gate. Landing in front of it with a soft pat. Rou had of course come with him. She didn’t have much in the way of choice but neither did she complain or respond to it.
She moved with Ash and landed beside him.
“So eager to see your owl?” Locke asked, hitting the ground behind him.
“Yes, yes I am,” Ash said and realized he needed to let go of Rou. Starting forward at a quick jog he started moving out toward the oncoming group ...
2023-03-09 03:23:34 +0000 UTC
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Ash carefully extracted himself from Liu’s Dao and released her.
Though she didn’t release him.
In fact, he felt her travel back with him to his own Dao, hanging on tightly to him. Clinging to him, in fact.
She ended up being dumped into his Qi-Sea and next to his Dao pillar. A moment after her stature came to life and Liu was there.
“It’s so impressive. This is my Dao,” she whispered. Looking around she looked like woman memorizing a scene. Then she left her...
2023-03-08 04:51:02 +0000 UTC
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Standing there, Ash waited. Staring at those people coming forward for him.
False smiles, nervous glances, held breaths.
Along with a backpack full of entitlement that their precious little monsters in his prison shouldn’t be there, he imagined. Right now he really was contemplating simply cutting them down to the last and throwing their corpses into a ditch.
“You’re trespassing,” Ash declared wanting to get this out on the right foot immediately. They were unwelcome...
2023-03-04 02:33:12 +0000 UTC
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Standing on the ground, Ash watched as Ghast’s blimp flew away. Heading upward at a near ninety degree that looked uncomfortable.
She was most certainly in a rush to get somewhere.
In Ash’s arms was a wooden chest. It’d been given to him seconds before he was just about thrown off the ship. Leaving Ash just enough time to brace himself so he could land on his feet as he fell the short distance from the blimp to the ground.
“Ash!” called Locke rushing up to him. “...
2023-03-02 04:14:02 +0000 UTC
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Before Ash could comprehend the situation, Qi-Lord Ghast was directly in front of him. Staring at him curiously with a head tilted every so slightly to one side.
Her long pale-brown hair was pulled back behind her head except for a set of bangs that framed her beautiful face. Brown eyes that were so light in color they were almost green stared into him as if looking for an answer.
Her shape and form were perfect in every way. The features of her face looked as if they were placed ...
2023-02-28 06:12:52 +0000 UTC
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Ash leaned away from the carved stone face.
To him it looked quite life-like if completely stone. It wasn’t based off anyone nor was it likely to resemble anyone.
When Ash carved it, he was just randomly carving it till it looked as if it were a person.
“You know, this really doesn’t feel any different than Enchanting or Scrivening. Stone carving is more or less the same. Just a different medium,” Ash remarked to himself, though it was more aimed at Locke.
Lock...
2023-02-25 04:12:37 +0000 UTC
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Hui made a clawing motion with her hand cloaked in black Qi. Nine of the guards who were dressed in the colors of the Hand fell. Their bodies torn to shreds under Hui’s attack.
“Ha! Your weapon is more skillful. With each exchange she becomes sharper and more deadly,” Hui proclaimed and turned to look at him. There was a bright smile on her face and odd glitter to her eyes. Then she fully turned to face him squarely.
The way she was positioned, her gaze, how she seemed to be...
2023-02-24 04:51:39 +0000 UTC
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Ash cocked his arm back and lobbed another attack.
Lord Hand casually swatted it away, another chain forming instantly as he did so.
Casually as could be, Ash attached it to himself, smiled and prepared the next.
“This is insipid!” shouted Hand. “We’ve been at this for too long! An entire incense stick would’ve burned away by this point!”
“I mean, you said to keep going. I saw no reason not to do just that,” Ash remarked and then hucked yet another fast...
2023-02-23 04:47:22 +0000 UTC
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Ash and Hui walked up to the front of the audience chamber. Right where the Dais ended and petitioners would obviously stand. There was a number of such people to the left that were still waiting for their own turn to take said place
“What brings you to my court today? I don’t think I’ve seen either of you before and you have a notable countenance,” asked the man on the throne. He looked nervous and uncomfortable. As if he didn’t really want to talk to Ash, but not out of any ...
2023-02-22 04:58:13 +0000 UTC
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Save State Hero, is out now.
As a reminder, Amazon has botched their review system. Anything less than a 5 is "I didn't like this book".
I wish it wasn't so, but Amazon isn't exactly a genius organization. From shadow-bans, to outright bans, to not even understanding how reviews work.
Thanks everyone.
https://www.amazon.com/Save-State-Hero.../dp/B0BVP73MYV
2023-02-18 17:04:30 +0000 UTC
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Ash flowed into the group of men his blades held in tight as he determined where to strike first.
Even as he moved he felt his Dao swell up from inside. Where the momentum of the fight, the area around him, and even the city came into sharp focus.
The fight he was about to engage had a momentum that was more like sandpaper. There was no height to it, as they were just citizens after all, but it was all peaks and valleys when you got close to it.
For what they were in Ash’s...
2023-02-16 04:20:45 +0000 UTC
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Ash looked up from the wounded boy and found a young woman not far off. She was standing at an alleyway drainage way. The space she’d come from had been so narrow that Ash hadn’t even realized someone could actually fit through it.
She had light-brown hair and looked malnourished. Her pale-brown eyes were soft and watery. If Ash had to describe her, it’d be very similar to how he might a puppy.
A wounded puppy.
“Tan!” whimpered the woman as her eyes fell on the boy...
2023-02-15 02:30:31 +0000 UTC
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Ash turned and looked to the door as it opened.
He already knew it was Locke and Rou returning. He could feel their Qi the entire time they were within range.
The fact that this place was just about barren when it came to Qi made it that much easier for Ash to see everyone, and everything. What little Qi there was gave him a near perfect picture of his surroundings at all times.
I wonder if I’m technically more powerful here due to the Qi limitations.
Pr...
2023-02-11 02:41:23 +0000 UTC
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Cultivating Levels:
Body Refiner
Mortal Refiner
Spirit Refiner
----
Empowered Mortal
Enlightened Mortal
Awakened Mortal
----
Sovereign Immortal(2)
Dreadful Immortal
Heavens Defying Immortal
-----
Ashley Sheng (Ash) – Traveler – green eyes blond hair. From beyond veil
Jia – black eyes midnight dark hair. – Power type: Water. Cultivator ...
2023-02-10 06:20:40 +0000 UTC
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Locke managed to nearly swindle the inn-keeper out of the room she got for everyone. Talking him down in price to the point that there was no way he was even breaking even.
Likely the room was being rented to them at a loss.
All it’d cost Locke was promising to mention the place if others asked where she was staying. Rou and Hui had quickly done the same for the man.
After the deal was struck, Ash was finally allowed to come into the inn.
The three women had wanted h...
2023-02-09 05:27:56 +0000 UTC
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“It’s really strange,” Rou murmured, peering upward into the orange sky above them. “It isn’t sunrise, or sunset. The coloring is the same though.”
“In the book I read it said the light is weak. Since it’s artificial in nature, that’s no surprise,” Locke replied.
Ash was rather confused by it all.
By this place.
They were slowly moving down a street that reminded him a lot of a run-down semi-industrial area of his homeworld. Buildings that made it t...
2023-02-08 04:34:56 +0000 UTC
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Using his finger Ash carefully sketched out the next carving he thought that’d be best for Xiaohui in the dirt of the ground. Without using Qi, or permanently etching it into the stone, this was more akin to a child doodling scribbles.
Clicking his tongue he realized that this sketch wouldn’t work either. Xiaohui’s lower back was rather narrow where it met her waist. This wouldn’t work out very well given that he had to fit it to her body as well as balance what it could do.
...
2023-02-04 03:23:00 +0000 UTC
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Panting, Ash stumbled along through the darkened sewer tunnel.
He could hear Rou and Locke moving along behind him in a similar fashion. While they had fairly good night-sight, the darkness that surrounded them was near impenetrable.
Only Ash’s sense of Shen’s Qi and a helpful green arrow gave them any direction to go off of. Though that only gave him a general direction.
Which proved to be entirely unhelpful when they ran into intersections that didn’t offer a tunnel ...
2023-02-02 02:34:26 +0000 UTC
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2023-01-27 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Edmund was quick to get down low and scurry through after Alina through the doorway. He’d only barely managed to get his head and shoulders through before he could see the other side.
He’d exited into a location that could only be described as a hellscape.
Literally and figuratively.
“Oh, uh, heh, welcome to hell,” Edmund mumbled as Alina dragged him into a standing position.
She looked confused though also far too at ease as well. As if being dropped into hell...
2023-01-19 01:33:41 +0000 UTC
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Edmund lifted his rifle and held down the trigger. Emptying the magazine before Zeus even appeared.
So that the moment he did, nearly every round hit him. Quite a few slamming into his head, in fact.
It did absolutely nothing.
The rounds mushroomed and fell to the ground at his feet even as he launched his attack. The hefty and ugly attack destroying Ryker exactly as it had every other time.
The simple reality was that Edmund just wasn’t quick enough to do anything a...
2023-01-18 03:43:27 +0000 UTC
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Edmund flinched as something slammed into the make-shift bunker he was behind. It sounded strangely as if someone had slammed a baseball bat into the ground.
Ducking behind the bunker entirely Edmund tucked his head in as well.
Whatever had just struck, he really didn’t want to have his head above cover for it.
It’d only been a minute since the shooting started, but he was already convinced that dying here was more than just an option. It practically seemed a promise con...
2023-01-17 01:39:29 +0000 UTC
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“If you boys are done antagonizing Alex, Rene’s back,” Dorothy stated in a flat tone. Apparently she didn’t really approve of them prodding at Alex and his mother.
Edmund didn’t really care one way or the other.
He was emotionally numb to parents and the idea of them mattering at all.
Existences that he was wholly unfamiliar with, other than that his were an extreme that skewed an average.
“Indeed, indeed, I’ve gone and come back. I’m afraid though that...
2023-01-14 02:31:22 +0000 UTC
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Dorothy was happily gnawing at a stick of beef jerky while Alina took another sip of her energy drink.
The convenience store had been a raided, looted, mess. Where nothing had been upright and it looked as if a tornado had gone through it.
The two ladies had just picked up a few things, made sure there wasn’t anyone inside, then left. Edmund hadn’t wanted anything but he’d noted what was there in case he needed to come back later.
Being able to effectively rewind time ...
2023-01-12 05:22:10 +0000 UTC
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Edmund let out a slow breath as the phone rang. Dorothy was calling him.
He’d accepted the invitation from Romina just as he had previously. Everything up to this moment was the exact same so far.
His plan was to push to go on the mission, cancel on Romina with the excuse of the mission, and then go. Going out with Dorothy just wouldn’t come up at all to Romina.
Tapping the accept button, he put the phone to his ear.
“Hey, Dot. How are ya,” Edmund said smoothly...
2023-01-11 04:28:22 +0000 UTC
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“Oh, look at that. Still no news about what happened,” Romina grumbled. “You know, it’s going to be kinda fucked up when I drop my videos on their heads in a few days.
“The editor is going through them all right now and putting it together. They’re doing two different versions. An only marginally edited one that cuts out the overly-graphic stuff, and a documentary style one.
“With like… black screens and text with stuff. Making it look like something out of a tv-sh...
2023-01-10 05:27:30 +0000 UTC
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Rubbing at his eyes Edmund just about slammed down into the chair rather than sit in it. Causing the desk he worked off of at home to shudder and clatter with the force of it.
“Holy fuck, Eddy, what the hell are you doing?” groaned Romina from the couch. She was laid out across it.
The two of them had managed to start moving again a few minutes ago as the hangover started to lessen.
Whether it was the medication or that they ended up fooling around again, Edmund didn’t...
2023-01-06 00:39:30 +0000 UTC
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“— is about it,” Edmund finished with a shrug of his shoulders. He picked up his cinnamon roll and paused. “That leads me to here and now. As soon as we finish all the introductory stuff I’m going to put down another save-state. It’s been a little since I put the previous one down so I shouldn’t get too tired or anything.”
Felix was slowly nodding his head now. His fingers were steepled in front of himself and he was watching Edmund over the tops of their tips.
“...
2023-01-03 00:52:04 +0000 UTC
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Edmund made it to Legion HQ much faster than he’d done so previously.
To the point that he’d been putting deodorant on, brushing his teeth, and shaving, all while driving. He needed to get there as soon as possible if he wanted any chance of gathering everyone up.
Except when he walked in the front lobby it was obvious something was wrong.
That something was incredibly different with how everyone was acting.
Far more so than he could remember the last time he went ...
2022-12-31 02:12:07 +0000 UTC
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