Hello everybody! Funny story, I had planned to set up some milestone goals for patronage, but the plan (among others) was delayed by my RSI injury. Nevertheless, the goal still existed in my head, and today we've met it! As long as we stay at, above, or close to this milestone, I'll be doing monthly artwork commissions to help bring the story to life, with votes to determine what will be drawn next.
The character designs with Tsuu are still going, with the first of the three set to begi...
2021-09-14 01:04:54 +0000 UTC
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As eager as Jia was to get her grudge match with Bai Lin, her match was scheduled to be the second on the day of the semi-finals. So, for the time being she was snuggled up next to Eui to watch one of the most anticipated matches of the entire tournament—Dae versus Hayakawa. The odds, for those who liked to gamble—and more than a few students and visitors did—were still in Hayakawa’s favor, but the first time there were people entertaining the idea that she might just l...
2021-09-13 18:43:33 +0000 UTC
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Eui looked into the eyes of her opponent and saw nothing but sadistic glee. Yue had been right about the bound spirit—almost as soon as the fight started, Eui sensed the presence of another domain. The spirit’s domain was weak—subdued somehow by whatever contract was keeping it bound to Bai Lin. Although Eui couldn’t see it, she’d been able to sense it—a giant spider spirit, weaving its webs all over the arena. It had been trivial to detect and destroy them, but Bai Lin used that ...
2021-09-10 18:24:42 +0000 UTC
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Jia literally jumped out of her seat when Dae teleported. Teleported! He’d told her that teleportation was impossible, the filthy liar! Okay, so maybe he hadn’t used the word impossible. When she’d inquired about it, he’d given her a super long lecture that contained the words 'infeasible’ and ‘impractical’, and her takeaway had been that it just couldn’t be done. Obviously it could and he had done it. In hindsight, the fact that he had such a lengthy diatrib...
2021-09-08 20:51:14 +0000 UTC
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Jia and the girls sat in her home reviewing the day’s bouts. Rika wasn’t with them—apparently busy with her grandfather—but Haeun had come over to play, and was gleefully running around the yard with Heian. As expected, though she put up a decent fight, Kasai Hanako hadn’t been able to overcome Dae’s superlative magical expertise. It was usually an uphill battle for a martial artist against a mage—the straightforward style of physical combat didn’t fare well against the flexib...
2021-09-06 18:39:16 +0000 UTC
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“It’s probably a bound spirit.”
Jia glanced at Yue, who was still talking about Bai Lin and the unusual strength he had displayed for such an unknown figure.
“I’ll bet the reason he’s gone unnoticed before now is that he was trying to keep a low profile—a bound spirit is likely to draw more than a few envious eyes. Though, not as much as a dimensional ring would. Can you imagine if someone had both?”
Yue glared pointedly while Jia fidgeted self-consciously wi...
2021-09-03 20:25:53 +0000 UTC
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With the new cover finished, and after receiving a very generous donation on Ko-Fi, the artist has given me a great deal on a new commission. We'll be doing three character designs over the next few months—one of which I've already decided, but the other two I'm leaving to a vote. In the future, these votes will be restricted to higher patron tiers, but I haven't gotten around to restructuring the tiers, so this one is for everybody!
Remember you can pick multiple options, and since t...
2021-09-03 02:43:28 +0000 UTC
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The rest of the day passed without any real surprises. Eunae, Yue, and Kim all won their bouts while Jia was still busy with her own match. Later in the day, Eui completely demolished her opponent, while Rika and Yuuko both managed to advance to lock in their fated duel in the third round. The last fight of the day was two of Hayakawa’s teammates against each other—Satou Ryuuji and Tokuda Ryo. Jia didn’t really know either of them that well—Satou was in the same martial arts class as ...
2021-09-01 17:33:52 +0000 UTC
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Unsurprisingly, the very first match of the second round was Hayakawa’s. She was the first seed, and the overall favorite to win the singles division. It wasn’t hard to see why when she launched across the ring in an instant and knocked out her opponent with a single strike. It wasn’t even a fight—just a sacrifice of the poor, unlucky disciple that ended up matched against her. The swiftness of that match gave Jia time to pay closer attention to the other second round match happening ...
2021-08-30 18:51:18 +0000 UTC
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Seong Misun narrowed her eyes at Eunae, seemingly disappointed that her mockery had failed to get a rise out of her sister. Jia opened her mouth to speak, but Yoshika snapped it shut again. This was not the time for her to speak out of turn. She had gotten used to Eunae, but this was a princess who was more than happy to wield her status. Eunae’s formal attitude wasn’t just a way to dodge her sister’s scorn—it was a warning to the rest of them.
“Tsk, well at least your time he...
2021-08-27 20:17:56 +0000 UTC
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“STOP! The erm, following students have been eliminated—”
Eui didn’t bother listening to the rest of the announcement as she dashed out of the house. Fuck the house arrest, Jia was hurt. Sure, Eui had gotten hurt in her own qualifier, but that was different—she had three healers in her team, one of which was herself. Jia was by herself and surrounded by enemies—Eui refused to take her chances.
Nobody stopped her as she ran out of the gate towards the f...
2021-08-25 18:54:37 +0000 UTC
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Lee Jia sat in a treetop, meditating. She was well out of range of the attack formations, for now. It was possible that they would work on developing them into more complex artillery formations, but that would probably take a long time to finish. Time—just how long did they have for the qualifier anyway? There hadn’t been a time limit given in the rules, but surely there was some way to resolve a stalemate. Jia decided to forget about it for now, there was no sense making guesses. Instead...
2021-08-23 18:00:34 +0000 UTC
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Jia fled through the forest, confident in her ability to outpace her pursuers. There were ten minutes before the fighting was to start, but nothing said she couldn’t use her abilities for other things. The problem was that she doubted she’d be able to lose them in that time if all she did was run. She’d just be delaying the inevitable as they cornered her against the other side of the forest.
That was fine. She’d been anticipating this, and she hadn’t spent all
2021-08-20 17:47:50 +0000 UTC
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Flying! Soaring through the air, as free as a bird. It was a lifelong dream of Jia’s—maybe a little bit childlike, but after discovering that it could actually be done with cultivation, who could blame her? Eui didn’t really share Jia’s obsession with learning to fly—which was ironic, since she was the one who had started learning the technique. Started, that is—she still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it. Not the most comforting thought when she was staring down at the forest ...
2021-08-18 17:02:00 +0000 UTC
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Lee Jia sat in her house by herself, as grumpy as she’d ever been. This tournament was already turning out to be a disaster for her. Yue had suggested that things had been rigged against her for the entertainment of nobles, and whether it was that or just bad luck, Jia had no allies to rely on for the qualifiers. Oh, she had an invitation to work with a group, but the leaders of that group were one former, and one current enemy. It would be suicide to accept that.
The only consolation...
2021-08-17 00:55:17 +0000 UTC
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Despite her best efforts, Jia was not able to get Heian to repeat her first word—or any others. At least she had conclusive proof that Kim Yongsun was right—it was definitely possible to teach her to speak. Getting her to converse normally with humans would be a crucial part of developing Heian’s identity and teaching her to empathize with humans. According to Kim, spirits were naturally inclined towards empathy, but had as much difficulty understanding humans as humans did understandin...
2021-08-13 18:48:31 +0000 UTC
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Jia and Eui spent a few days getting accustomed to their new level of cultivation. Without the barrier to restrict their domain—which had been long gone by the time they got back home—it now had a range that encompassed nearly the entire district of the girls’ dorms. That was a radius of nearly an entire mile! Yoshika was surprised to learn that the same wards that prevented unauthorized entry into a house also blocked her domain. That was only the third thing she’d ever encountered t...
2021-08-11 18:54:23 +0000 UTC
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Yoshika sat up with a groan, swearing under her breath as she prepared to cultivate. She was a lot more self-conscious of her nudity now that she knew Elder Qin was observing her, but she didn’t have time to waste on modesty.
“Fuck my ancestors, can nothing ever be easy? I swear if I die here, we’re coming back as vengeful ghosts to haunt that perverted old man.”
“I can hear what you are saying.”
Yoshika made a rude gesture towards the sky. She didn’t give a sh...
2021-08-09 16:00:41 +0000 UTC
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Yoshika didn’t know how long she’d been meditating. It felt like it had been an eternity, constantly remaking and discarding tiny parts of herself while she slowly, painstakingly compressed the qi in her dantian. All the while, she meditated on her soulscape. She knew that it wasn’t really a place, so much as it was a visual representation of her domain. Everything that made her who she was, represented in a way that her mind could interpret. Now, she was making a conscious eff...
2021-08-06 20:21:15 +0000 UTC
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Jia’s courtyard garden had been transformed. Well, it was really Yue’s garden, and the changes were her idea anyway. The flowers had been replanted so that they were all directly adjacent to the walls, while the patio in the center had been extended to encompass most of the inner yard, leaving only a thin patch of grass between it and the flowers. Most of the newly expanded patio was covered in a huge, complex formation designed by Dae and engraved by Eunae. The girls admired the handiwor...
2021-08-04 16:15:47 +0000 UTC
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Jia held her breath and squeezed Eui’s hand tightly. She’d done it—she’d delivered her ultimatum to Hayakawa. It was terrifying. Not only was Hayakawa far and away her strongest peer, but Jia and Eui’s future might just hinge on her help. Upsetting her here could have dire consequences, both immediately and in the long term. Jia didn’t regret anything she’d said—she firmly believed that for both her own sake and Hayakawa’s, it needed to be said—but that didn’t make the p...
2021-08-02 15:41:40 +0000 UTC
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Murayoshi’s words weighed heavily on Jia, but there was no way she could bring it up with Master Ienaga. Instead she decided to ask Yuuko and Rika about it during the next group training session, but the response she got was not what she was hoping for.
“Murayoshi used to be part of the Ienaga clan!?”
“The shogun’s brother!? He told you that?”
Jia sighed dejectedly, shaking her head.
“I was hoping you guys could tell me. How is it that someone th...
2021-07-30 19:25:35 +0000 UTC
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Keeping Heian manifested was more difficult than Lee Jia expected. The problem wasn’t one of resources—since she was part of Jia’s domain, it actually cost nothing to simply have her appear. Instead, the problem she had run into was that Heian was terribly uncooperative. As soon as she realized that there was no particular reason to be there, she would unilaterally return to Jia’s soulscape.
On Kim’s suggestion, Jia started small—trying to appeal to some of the more basic hu...
2021-07-28 19:54:54 +0000 UTC
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Unlike their previous spars, Master Ienaga didn’t fight passively. While she still focused mainly on defense, she was much more mobile—actively staying out of Eui’s reach, and constantly maneuvering so that Yoshika couldn’t surround her. She was fast! Even without empowering her movements with ki, Ienaga Yumi was superhuman on a level that Yoshika could barely fathom. Jia’s lightning steps were just barely faster, but she could only move like that in short bursts while Iena...
2021-07-26 19:09:32 +0000 UTC
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Elder Qin Zhao tapped his finger impatiently against his upper arm as he glared down at Jia and Eui with his arms crossed—a deeper scowl than usual on his face. The girls stared at their feet, unable to handle the intense pressure of his scrutiny. It felt almost as though the sky had darkened, and the vibrant colors of the garden around the gazebo where Elder Qin conducted his lessons had become more muted. The displeasure of a cultivator as powerful as Elder Qin was physically palpable.
2021-07-23 18:57:54 +0000 UTC
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Yoshika regarded the demon before her with a frown.
“There’s not very much Jia in you.”
“Tch, have you seen yourself? There’s not very much Eui in you.”
She hadn’t, but now that the demon mentioned it her voice did sound like Jia’s. She hadn’t even noticed that before, thanks to the dreamlike quality of her soulscape. She narrowed her eyes at the demon.
“Why do you look like Jianmo? The hair, the horn, and the eyes. Even your skin color is ...
2021-07-21 17:44:53 +0000 UTC
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I'm excited to announce that I've been working with an artist for a new cover for Fates Parallel! The artist I've commissioned is Tsuu, who's work you might recognize from the cover of Vigor Mortis, illustrations from Beware of Chicken, or the patreon ad at the end of each chapter of Beneath the Dragoneye Moons.
After going back and forth with the artist, I've settled on this composition. It's still a work in progress, and there's a few changes in the works before we can move on from th...
2021-07-20 14:05:30 +0000 UTC
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Yoshika stepped back from the icy mirror fearfully. She suddenly found herself standing on top of the gate, overlooking the bloody battlefield. There were rats everywhere, glaring up at her with their glowing red eyes. To her horror, the corpses that they had been gnawing on began to rise, shambling to their feet and staring up at her with the same glowing red gaze.
The corpses had always been indistinct when she saw them—vague approximations of the people she had killed. Now, each fa...
2021-07-19 19:23:41 +0000 UTC
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“Jia, what in the names of all the ancestors took you so fucking long!?”
Jia bowed apologetically to Eui.
“Sorry!”
Dae stepped forward, head held high with a look of fierce determination in his eyes.
“My apologies. The delay was entirely my fault. I—”
“I don’t care, Hyeong! Jia, listen, while you were busy making out with Dae, I was giving these mages a piece of my mind about their failure to deliver on their promises. You’ve got to hear the i...
2021-07-16 18:33:11 +0000 UTC
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Jia was ready for a confrontation. She was determined to show off her new resolve not to let herself be pushed around anymore. She was prepared for anything they could possibly throw at her—except for both of them bowing deeply as she approached.
“I am so sorry! It doesn’t justify my actions, but I now know that I was mistaken about you. I hope that you can forgive me, and I promise to make no further trouble for you.”
Sun Jaehwa’s voice was shrill and urgent as she spok...
2021-07-14 17:17:06 +0000 UTC
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