Apollos Thorne

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 42

Huifen studied the demoness’s qi as they faced off. She’d called it death qi and there was certainly something corrupt and fading about it. Much like decay. As furious as she might be, Heart of Ice stayed her hand. She was far too familiar now with poisons not to treat this woman like a true threat. Who so easily traded their own lifespan for power.

The masked woman slashed out with one claw after the other. The black and red energy had difficulty mixing like oil in water. ...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 41

“Divine Master? This voice called you that?” Sage Pangfua asked.

“Yes,” Chao replied.

The three sages and Mother Sya sat face each other in the middle of the Ice Phoenix Palace’s mobile cultivation chamber.

Pangfua remained statuesque as she contemplated their story and the translucent card’s information the voice had called a ticket. “When will you take possession?” She was looking back and forth between Huifen and Chao.

They glanced at one another. Ch...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 40

Chao made it a habit to meet with Father Tu once a week to go “treasure hunting” with the man. It was within the Divine Spire, so much of their time was spent on the first and seconds floors exploring the different trials. Tu’s favorite stations were the puzzles, however.

If someone thought less of his father-in-law because of this, they could only find out the hard way if the sought to bully him. It wasn’t because he lacked martial ability or the mentality to fight, but because...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 39

Just as they spent some time each day playing for the cultivating disciples on the third floor, they spent time with their chosen group of disciples on the second. As they did, Huifen spent much of her personal efforts on trying to better understand the nature laws.

The more time she spent trying to understand nature, the clearer her water and ice laws became. She was beginning to think they really should be considered the same element. The distinctions between them were qualitative in ...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 38

“Do you think I should consider Fairy Eu-meh my disciple?”

Huifen gave her husband a suspicious look from where she sat in the nature meditation chamber on the second floor. He’d already played his music for the Ice and Fire Phoenix disciples this morning. It had been nearly a week since Dvora of the Night Pearl Sect had drugged him, but the pang of jealously still stung. She was tempering herself and the feeling was fading. However, his question seemed to reinvigorate those feeli...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 37

They next saw Dvora the next day sitting on the bench in the fire cultivation chamber with her face veiled. She didn’t make any movement in the presence, even after Chao began to play. He had to focus extra hard to keep the feelings of anger out of his music. Thankfully he’d already played in the water cultivation chamber, so his heart and mind were in a good state to face her.

How long had it been since they’d had a sense of normalcy to their lives? Finally, after training in the...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 36

Chao’s symptoms were starting to clear half an hour later. It was a potent drug, but not long lasting. His desires weren’t a good gauge to use since his Huifen often inspired such feelings even without the drug. He could tell he was almost back to normal when his breathing started to slow and he cooled down.

Even though he’d pulled back from his possible seductress, his guilt was as potent as if he hadn’t. When she’d grabbed his arm, he’d wanted her to continue. He vividly r...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 35

“Brother Tao. Sister Fen,” Core Disciple Shoi-ming greeted from where he sat.

“Senior Brother,” Chao replied, saluting him. Shoi-ming was the current number one disciple of the Fire Phoenix Sect and nearing the peak of the Sky Realm.

Li Qiang hopped up from his seat and ran over to him. “Brother,” he said, then leaned close and whispered. “I’ve let everyone know what to expect. We’re ready.”

“And the Night Pearl Sect?”

Li Qiang glanced back at t...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 34

Chao played a new song as he descended from the fourth floor. It was a little suspect that an earth realm cultivator and his wife had been spending so much time in the higher floors, but both of their cultivations looked abnormal at a glance to this part of Lifestone so they made a show of ignoring their onlookers. Chao’s golden core was obviously unique, but Huifen’s glistened unlike any ice core anyone had ever seen. Unbeknownst to them, it was because of the trace amounts of tribulatio...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 33

Finally, Chao had reached his peak. His Huifen had started circulating his mother’s old medically inspired, qi-gathering technique before he had. They’d both made a practice of it because it cleansed a person as much as purifying pills if done consistently. He also knew Huifen just liked the way it made her feel.

He committed himself to circulating it for a quarter of an hour. It was time to get started. Huifen was already deep into the card jade Divine Envoy Po had gifted her. Grin...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 32

They appeared in the vacuum of space. Quinyuan felt her husband’s perceptions scan her before quickly moving on. He’d trained her in what to do to survive open space. Breathing was impossible, so it required one to rely solely on their qi to sustain them. The only real difficulty was learning to breathe without breathing. It was not pleasant, especially the first time. She turned and found that Kang was just fine. Even without heart of ice, he was an analytical powerhouse. It wouldn’t s...

The Heaven's Laws Universe Update

What's up with the delays, man?

For the last six months or so, I've been secretly working on extending the Heaven's Laws universe. I've already mentioned that I was considering doing an Avengers-esque mashup with multiple characters. I can tell you now that eventually, I mean years down the line, that will be a reality. I have much of the Heaven's Laws series major events plotted out.

Not a lot of the finer details, which is cause for some of the delay. The cultivation system I'...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 31

They set up their arrays on the sixth floor between murals in the most unassuming spot they could find. Very few people came here in the first place other than peak sky realm cultivators and overlords. Besides Pangfua, Elder Harnish was the only sage in the spire, and there were a few sky realm cultivators that might come. The fifth floor was more attractive because of its trials and similar qi density.

Huifen agreed that they should keep their array formations small. There were two mai...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 30

They made their way to the third floor without any incident, passing more than ten people at the middle trial station. Chao lowered his sound barrier so that their conversation would carry. He doubted whoever had attacked their people would be foolish enough to attack again so soon, but he certainly hoped he was wrong.

The third floor was different than the first two. Like the second floor, the first half was a maze of rooms. There were more people here than on the second floor. They wi...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 29

As they ascended, Chao surrounded them all with a sound barrier. “We should probably keep any discussion about Huifen and my identity to a minimum, but its safe for the moment to ask us any questions,” he sounded.

“Thank you, Brother Tao,” Fair Daiyu replied loud enough for the other fairies to hear. She was purposely setting the example.

A fairy of the Fire Phoenix Sect he didn’t know asked about the murderer that still hadn’t been caught. He let Huifen answer most of...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 28

They were soon given a full telling of what had happened. Huifen caught the detail that all of the disciples attacked had been females. It wasn’t just the four from their joint sect either. There had been seven attacks all together. Including a Fire Phoenix Sect disciple, three disciples had died. All of the others had also been female.

The question was, why did they discriminate? At lower cultivations, males still had a physical advantage because they naturally gained muscle easier, ...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 27

Sya continued squeezing them both for a long moment. She stepped back and took them in. Her gaze landed on Chao and he saw what remained of the woman’s icy demeanor melt.

“Son-in-law, this one is pleased to see you in good health. Are there any lingering side effects from the poison, or have you completely recovered?”

He bowed deeply to her. “This one is pleased to see you, Mother Sya. I have fully recovered thanks to our Huifen.”

“Good,” she said, looking at h...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 26

They drew near on foot, and the sheer size of the tower became clear. It was a round building, as wide as all but the Ice Phoenix Palace. It was one of the few remaining structures left from this ancient civilization. No other place was more visited.

“It is called simply the Divine Spire, for no one knows the name of the sect or cultivator that it belonged to,” Huifen said to Yu-Yan’s inquisitive ear. “It’s theorized that it was either the trial grounds for an ancient sect, or...

Chapter Update

We're back from vacation and I got a lot of writing done. What I didn't have is a secure way of uploading, so I'll be doing that over the next few days. There should be a chapter out Monday - Friday this week. Possibly Saturday. Just uploaded the next one.

Cheers!

Update

Happy Friday!

It's that time of the year again where I go on vacation. It's more of a work-cation for me, so you can still expect chapters. I'll be working half days most likely, so I'm guess I'll get about three chapters out between now and next Friday. I'm sitting on one right now that I'll probably get out tomorrow.

Cheers!

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 24

After the recent attack, the town was quick to mobilize at the mayor’s request. It took little more than an hour for everyone including the elderly to come and find a seat. There were only about five hundred of them in total. It seemed many people had already left the town after the attack.

When Huifen asked Chao if he wanted to address the crowd, he asked if she would do it. It didn’t have to be said that what he was about to do was taking an emotional toll on him. He couldn’t he...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 23

When his wife looked at him, he knew what she was thinking. This army of ghosts must have been lingering spirits recently killed by cultivators visiting the monoliths. “Why are there so many?” His Huifen asked.

“Who’s to tell,” the waitress replied. “Someone in town may have scorned a traveling group of adventurers and they sought revenge, or someone was just being careless.”

“So they were the lingering spirits of dire beasts?” Chao asked.

“As far as we c...

Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 22

Chao awoke with the noonday sun glaring down on him. He examined his body with his perceptions and concluded he’d mostly recovered, but he wasn’t feeling as energetic as was typical for him. It would probably be a few more days until he felt like his normal self.

“Good morning, husband,” Huifen said from a seated position by his side. It wasn’t close enough that it looked like she’d been staring at him as he slept, but she obviously hadn’t wanted to be too far away after w...