In the physical realm, Yoshika’s defensive techniques barely withstood the twinned assault of the tribulation’s fifth strike, while within her soul she struggled against the corrupting influence of the Kumiho’s manifestation. It was a race against time. She needed the Kumiho’s power to defeat the tribulation, but if the tribulation weakened her too much then the Kumiho would overpower her from within and consume her soul to fuel its resurrection.
Pale green Soulfire spread acros...
2024-07-26 20:32:46 +0000 UTC
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As Tsuu works hard to get the cover arts for volumes 7 and 8 done (I've decided to schedule them much earlier than others in order to prevent any delays) I decided to give her a little break with some simpler commissions. This one is style and expression sheets for Yan Yue.
In the same vein, CJ's been cooking up something truly amazing that's going to take a long time to finish, but in the meantime she's provided some expressions and poses for Ja Yun that Demon tier supporters can find ...
2024-07-24 18:05:02 +0000 UTC
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The Sky Hall’s barrier did nothing to block the tribulation’s strike. Eunae hadn’t had time to retake control of the formations, and they weren’t designed for that in the first place—Heian’s improper use of the barriers was what had led to the damage they’d been repairing.
Nevertheless, Eunae was unscathed. Queen Eunhee had taken the brunt of it head-on, ‘protecting’ her niece from the purifying bolt of heavenly lightning.
Eui swore under her breath. Whether it w...
2024-07-24 18:04:23 +0000 UTC
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In many ways Seong Eunae considered herself to be an incredibly lucky person. She was born into a powerful family, given the best education available anywhere in the world, and raised in an environment where she could never have wanted for anything. She could have ended up utterly spoiled, but growing up as the black sheep of the family had tempered her vanity in a way that she couldn’t say she was grateful for, but at least appreciated the effect it had on her maturity.
As if that wa...
2024-07-22 19:05:44 +0000 UTC
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Owing to its relatively small population and the bountiful resources of Mount Geumji, Jiaguo City was incredibly wealthy for its size, by immortal standards. As such, it was surprisingly easy for Yoshika to meet Goryeo’s demands to recoup the cost of the Sky Hall’s repairs. However, it gave Eui an opportunity to get a meeting with the queen.
Since the first day of her arrival, Queen Eunhee had been unusually absent. Now that she had become the top suspect for a possible conspiracy t...
2024-07-19 17:15:47 +0000 UTC
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Yan Yue stretched and yawned as she pored over mountains of impossibly dull legal texts. The Qin Empire had a long, long history of bureaucracy, and a complicated legal framework with dense layers and thousands of years of edicts and precedents to untangle.
In the millennia since its founding, the empire had created entire fields of study dedicated entirely to its ‘rich and complex’ legal system. As far as Yue was concerned, once you cut through all the propaganda and ...
2024-07-17 20:34:14 +0000 UTC
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Sovereign Shen wasn’t inclined to stay once their deal was struck, and Yoshika wasn’t inclined to host him. He tried to leave the way he came, but Yoshika blocked his access to the spirit realm. He turned to frown at her.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
Jia crossed her arms and gave him a belligerent scoff.
“Hmph! We may have an understanding, but I don’t trust you anywhere near my soul realm. I know you took advantage of Heian’s absence to sneak your way in, b...
2024-07-15 18:27:22 +0000 UTC
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Yoshika’s reincarnation wasn’t the most comfortable subject. It had been a harrowing and painful experience, and she still occasionally struggled with the question of whether she was still the same person who’d died. The fact that Sovereign Shen regarded it as some sort of rite of passage to make her worthy of his attention rankled.
Jia finished setting the tables and took a seat.
“I take it that true immortals are rare?”
“Comparatively, yes. Excluding myself, as...
2024-07-12 20:04:11 +0000 UTC
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Hyeong Aecha quickly skimmed over the list of documents for her mistress to deal with, briefly contemplating how to assess their importance for sorting purposes. Since none of it was truly urgent, she chose to arrange them based on what she anticipated the empress would want to see first.
Thus prepared, she entered Hayakawa Kaede’s office and bowed.
“Good morning, Mistress. I have today’s deliveries for you.”
Lady Hayakawa looked up from her work and blinked.
...
2024-07-10 17:17:59 +0000 UTC
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Heian dispersed herself through the formation Yoshika had created, focusing her essence into the mana stone. Even though it was unattuned, the sheer power of the stone still resisted her at first, eroding her essence rather than being converted by it. The formation helped—from every direction, Heian’s power forced its way through, eventually overwhelming the stone’s resistance.
All at once, the world shifted. The soft white glow of the mana crystal turned inky black, with a tiny p...
2024-07-08 17:52:59 +0000 UTC
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The sun was high and the sky was clear and cloudless as Heian and Narae stepped into the center of the courtyard. Heian couldn’t feel the warmth of the sun, but she could imagine it. She had vague memories of physical sensation which her mothers had shared with her, and she’d briefly shared Jia’s body as Lee Hei in the past.
Beyond that, however, Heian didn’t actually have much concept of touch as a sensation. She enjoyed hugging her friends, or being pet while in her cat form, ...
2024-07-05 18:44:34 +0000 UTC
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Heian sat patiently at her mother’s feet and watched as her friends attempted to prove their worth. It seemed like a silly trial to her. The tests were narrow and specific, and seemed to be designed more to aggrandize the tiny sliver of cultivation that the arcane practitioners specialized in rather than to actually measure the abilities of the students.
As a spirit, Heian didn’t particularly like arcane arts. They felt so foreign and alien to her. It was all so rigid and uniform—...
2024-07-03 20:06:59 +0000 UTC
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“Convert any input mana into a balanced mixture, then filter out each primary element into individual crystallization arrays.”
Narae was already drawing before Seong Min even finished speaking. She had to suppress a laugh. The formations were tough, but they had an obvious theme. Every task they’d been given was extremely mana-hungry.
It wasn’t hard to guess why. Heian’s cat form was curled up in the center of Haeun’s circle, while her human form sat in quiet meditatio...
2024-07-01 20:56:05 +0000 UTC
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Haeun was nervous. More nervous than she’d ever been in her life. More than the first time she’d snuck out of the palace, more than when Eunae had asked Yoshika to take her on as an apprentice, more than her first day at Jiaguo’s academy, and even more than when she’d first learned that she’d be returning home.
It wasn’t a fear of failure. If anything, she was extremely confident that she’d shatter whatever expectations Cousin Min had for her. It was more abstract than tha...
2024-06-28 18:37:02 +0000 UTC
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My good friend Loaka and I both have our birthdays in June, so I thought it would be fun to commission a design of the protagonist from her Fates Parallel fanfic-turned-semi-official-author-approved-spinoff, Jingyi Bo!
You can read her story for free here: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/47097/jingyi-bo-is-in-fates-parallel-an-irreverent-fanfiction
2024-06-26 19:28:28 +0000 UTC
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With only a few days left before Haeun and Narae’s exams, Eui didn’t have much time to question Misun about what she’d seen in the Kumiho’s memories. Even if she had, she doubted that the princess would have been open to answering. Indeed, when Eui took the mental snapshots of the formation that Dae requested, Misun was brusque and standoffish the entire time. Although she supposed that wasn’t exactly a departure from the norm.
While Eui was busy training the girls, Jia found ...
2024-06-26 19:28:09 +0000 UTC
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The plan is simple, elegant, and almost certainly a trap. The great spirits have no choice but to agree, however. Heaven and earth have turned against them, and they have precious few allies to rely on. The vessels will harbor them within their souls, passing on their legacies and protecting them from the sky’s wrath. The spirits, in turn, grant the vessels their power while they slumber in silence, awaiting the day that they will be reborn anew.
The trap is sprung. Morta...
2024-06-24 19:04:43 +0000 UTC
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Melody of the Dreaming Moon was a technique that Yoshika had learned from Yan Yue. Supposedly passed down through the generations from mother to daughter, but after learning where Yue’s maternal ancestry led, she had to wonder how much of that was true. A curiosity to explore later, perhaps.
In the meantime, what mattered to Eui was that she could use the technique to create a connection with whoever heard the melody and draw them into an illusory representation of her soul. It was co...
2024-06-21 18:11:31 +0000 UTC
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I accidentally posted the wrong chapter today, because apparently counting is hard. I've decided to just leave it up for now, and skip the Wednesday post (so basically, the Xiantian+ tiers get Wednesday's chapter early).
I'm posting this announcement about it for two reasons. First, I'm handling it a bit strangely, by editing the first chapter I posted back to the right one, and then reposting it separately. This is just for my own sanity in order to keep them listed in the right order,...
2024-06-17 19:58:43 +0000 UTC
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When Eui made the girls perform their spellcraft drills a thousand times per day, she thought she’d been too harsh. After all, even if they spent every waking moment on it, they’d have to complete each set in less than a minute and a half to meet that deadline. The plan had been to ease off after a few days once the routine had been set to give them room to work on their own presentations, but a week later, Yoshika’s disciples had risen to the challenge and beyond.
Out in the cour...
2024-06-17 19:58:30 +0000 UTC
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With the girls hard at work practicing for their exams, and Kaede taking care of her administrative duties for a while, Jia was left with the rare blessing of an empty schedule. Usually, there was always more to do, no matter how much she delegated, and it was easy to see why so many powerful people just dumped their responsibilities on their subordinates and isolated themselves away to focus on cultivation.
As tempting as that sounded, Jia decided to take advantage of the break to see ...
2024-06-17 18:36:59 +0000 UTC
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Eui’s visit with Misun had left her with more questions than answers. Both Misun and her mother professed to simply trust her to do whatever was best for Haeun and Eunae, but neither of them gave the other that same benefit. In a similar vein, neither of them had actually made a specific request of her. Her best guess was that both were trying to manipulate her into something that they could plausibly deny any involvement in, but what?
If Misun’s self-described crackpot theory about...
2024-06-14 18:03:55 +0000 UTC
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Eui frowned at Misun’s accusation.
“That’s a pretty dire claim. Not to mention vague—what do you even mean by ‘compromised’?”
Misun scowled and returned to her corner, fishing through the disorganized pile of documents as she spoke.
“I’m not entirely sure. I have to admit that it’s difficult to separate the signs from my own biases, but I believe that the Kumiho’s spirit is partially to blame.”
“Only partially? How unlike you.”
“Bite...
2024-06-12 20:28:34 +0000 UTC
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Poring over endless tomes of literal arcane text was not Lee Narae’s idea of a good time. Headmaster Hyeong’s study notes weren’t as horrifically dry as, say, Professor Hwang Sung’s lectures, and she appreciated the work that he’d put into compiling them for her and Haeun, but after the first hour of studying Narae was already growing restless.
“Gah, this is so boring! Haeun, how in the names of our ancestors do you like this?”
Sitting across the cozy tea ta...
2024-06-10 19:52:26 +0000 UTC
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Eui and her disciples gathered in one of the guest mansion’s many sitting rooms to go over the details of Haeun’s upcoming test. As promised, Seong Min had a servant drop off a package containing all of the relevant details.
As she flipped through the seemingly endless sheaf of papers detailing the nature of the test, its requirements, it’s grading methods, and so on and so forth, she pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned.
“Haeun, was your cousin always such a stuck-u...
2024-06-07 18:53:20 +0000 UTC
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An Eui’s stay at the Goryeon palace had been largely uneventful. Her audience with Queen Eunhee had been brief, cordial, and completely vacuous. A simple exchange of greetings and little else. Eunhee thanked her for visiting, formally invited her to continue lending Eunae and Haeun her aid, and...that was it.
It was certainly more brief that her other meetings had been, but otherwise Eui didn’t notice anything amiss. Though she kept Minhee’s warning in mind, there wasn’t much op...
2024-06-05 17:31:13 +0000 UTC
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Jiaguo’s fiends had always been in a strange position. They were by far the smallest minority group, numbering only three—depending on how one counted Melati. That was unlikely to change, since Melati reproduced exclusively with herself, while Ruiling and Sukarto didn’t seem inclined to start a family despite their pseudo-romantic companionship.
They also stood out quite a bit. Melati’s drones could be found just about anywhere you looked, and she’d been getting better at keep...
2024-06-03 18:47:17 +0000 UTC
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At long last, the cover art for volume 6 is finished! I know I say this every time, but really Tsuu just keeps stepping her game up with every piece she does. I'm amazed by how much the effect for Eui's destruction element has developed over the years, and that gate in the background is as awe-inspiring as I envisioned it.
I've got a couple of surprises lined up that should hopefully be finished some time in June, but we're going straight into production of the volume 7 cover now, which...
2024-05-31 19:03:54 +0000 UTC
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With the tour concluded, Jia and the Qin princesses took their time as they made their way back to the city. The twins were happy to enjoy the beauty of the open landscape surrounding the city as the sun slowly sank below the horizon.
Qin Xiang looked up at the clouds with a contemplative expression.
“Our nephew warned us that you would not be what we expected. Yet, even thus prepared for your eccentricity, I must admit that you are like nothing we’ve ever seen. And we have li...
2024-05-31 19:03:44 +0000 UTC
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In a desperate bid to prevent Jianmo and the twins from coming to blows, Jia bid Lady Tennin farewell and moved things along. Their next stop was New Kasuga—another of Jiaguo’s satellite villages.
Like Urayama, New Kasuga’s residents had moved from Yamato, but where Lady Tennin and her followers had voluntarily immigrated on Yoshika’s invitation, the original Kasuga City had been burned to the ground by demonic forces during the war. It had also been the site of Yoshika’s fina...
2024-05-29 20:26:43 +0000 UTC
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