Laevo

TCD B2 C10

“Are they going to be alright Manning? I’d hate for the elf girl to have survived that grievous would just to die on the way out of the forest.” Ash, ever the bleeding heart, watched the victorious party limp their way down his forest paths in the way only she could. With her eyes closed and hand against one of the larger trees in his forest, she was able to track their movements as they grumbled and grunted at every turn in the path or root underfoot.

“Why won’t you just shor...

DC 79

Nothing ground breaking, but this is slice of life after all.

* * *

Feng Jiao had never been particularly great at names or faces. Even as a child, he had never found it particularly important to remember the names associated with the bodies that constantly milled around his home village. He’d tried to practice remembering people to combat this, however. Just because the majority of those he met would not live as long as he planned to didn’t mean that he wouldn’t be able to ...

TCD B2C9

Cara

“Now ya see, ya?” Brick had been insufferable since the newest party set foot in Cara’s dungeon. He especially liked the dwarf with its overly large shield and unreasonable like for mushrooms. A kindred spirit, for sure.

“Just because the first squad fell for your silly little mushroom trap doesn’t mean it's actually good. You didn’t even design it for dungeon divers, you just wanted the troglodytes to stop pillaging your mushroom supplies.” It was at ...

DC 78

Last week was hell at work. Genuinely 8 hours straight of work, every day, without even taking my lunch break. All in order to make sure that the sudden increased work load wouldn't stretch into this week and prevent me from being home. Luckily for me, I work like a dog and was able to get my free time back so that I telework this week and can spend more time writing and editing again. 

This chapter, we start on names. I also went a little more in-depth to explain what Feng Jiao's ...

DC 3.5 (Another Backfill)

2k words to make the story seem less creepy and hopefully contribute a bit to world building. The amount of holes I'm patching makes me wish I had some flex tape man, I tell ya.

Chappy should also slightly contribute to my attempt to characterize Feng Lou, the cousin, rather than just have him appear and be out of nowhere in the future.

* * *
The town they were setting out to was called Willow Mountain City. From what he’d gathered, Feng Jiao found...

DC 77

Shameless was a word that people seemed to throw around a little too much, Feng Jiao thought to himself. He wasn’t sure if it was the way he was raised in this life or the perspective afforded to him from his previous life’s memories, but he hadn’t really felt shame for any of his actions. He believed that there was no shame in trying to get the best out of each and every situation, and had never minded being called shameless in the past as he’d never taken it to heart, until recently...

DC 2.5 (New Chapter 3)

As a part of my new editing mission, I mentioned that you could expect to see new chapters to fill in things/plot holes/personifications that I glossed over in my rush to get to the sect arc in my first write-through. This is the first of a few chapters I expect to write that should give more character as well as background to young Feng Jiao and his family. 

For now, I'll label such chapters as .5, I don't feel like redoing all of the chapter numbers until I'm fairly confident I'm...

DC 76

Author's Note: I'm going to be going back and editing the story a fair amount. Soon you may see new chapters with lower numbers than 76, as I go back and fill out the prequel arc with all the information I'd planned to address early on. I realized I rushed the journey to the sect, without ever really addressing the cross-country journey itself. Not only that, Feng Jiao's entire childhood was missing, along with all the friends that he may or may not have made, the reason for his competitive s...

TCD B2 C6

Cara

The work she had to do was brutal sometimes, but there was really nothing to be done. Though Cara found her soul now contained within a dungeon core, she’d retained most of her human memories and sensibilities upon the transition. Hell, she even remembered how it’d happen, not that she’d ever confess to that.
It wasn’t until the first group of people attempted to steal her dungeon core that the situation really set in for her, along with some base dungeon inst...

DC 75

Guess something went wrong, its definitely over next chapter. That being said, it looks like life is giving me a brief respite in its unrelenting ass kicking. 

*  * * 

“Don’t just stand there, move! I can’t turn very well when I run like this!” Xin Lee, who was already embarrassed by his inability to immobilize the beast with his archery as planned, felt even more self-conscious when he saw all of his friends staring at him running. Although his...

DC 74

Unless something goes wrong, next post should be the end of this little subplot (did you see what I did there)

* * * 

Exploiting the momentary stillness that spawned from the awkward confusion, Feng Jiao forcefully recalled all of the fire essence he had circulating through his body back to his dantian. As soon as he was sure that it was reasonably safe, Feng Jiao squeezed out the last vestiges of wood essence he’d preserved, pumping it into his ...

DC 73

When he’d started working on this technique, Feng Jiao figured he could make up for it’s intense essence consumption by absorbing wood essence from the plants surrounding his battle. It was only in the scenario where he actually needed it that he realized that was a stupid plan. If a strategy only worked in a vacuum, it wasn’t a strategy at all but a dream.

As he passed the 50% mark for his wood essence drain, the creature finally snapped out of its daze. Apparently t...

DC 72

Weiwu De had no way of knowing that Spiky had, in fact, pushed Curly over. He’d been too busy running for his life and hadn’t turned back until Spiky had already resumed his forward momentum. Had he known that, Weiwu De would have had to face a decision of weather or not to knock Spiky on his butt in response as well.

Instead, the opportunistic friend that was temporarily known as Spiky just breezed by Weiwu De, thanking his lucky stars. The only reason he’d accepted ...

DC 71

The sun finally set over the God Tree Sect’s mountain ranges, something that seemed much sooner in the day now that Feng Jiao resided in a valley rather than a mountain top. Looking around, Feng Jiao saw a barren field of mud covered in thinly veiled pitfall traps, sharpened wooden stakes, and tripwires. All in all, he figured they would have just as much trouble avoiding the ‘traps’ they set for the beast as the beast would itself. He couldn’t help think to himself that ...

DC 70

I've let you guys down, once again. I wish I could say that I was going to get better at this, but I've been in a really hard place both mentally and financially recently. I've had a lot of headaches, heartaches, and walletaches pop up since buying my house with my wife and I find it really hard to just sit down and write for you guys. I managed to get a chapter together for you guys today though, so I hope this doesn't disappoint you too much.  

Although it might seem contradictor...

DC 69

The first thing that Feng Jiao did was scout out the field. Although it was said that disciples went missing at night, nobody had ever vanished in broad daylight. Due to the lack of vegetation, Feng Jiao was unable to use his spiritual sense in the way that he was used to. Whatever was eating up the plants seemed to consume the roots as well. Trying to spread his spiritual sense without the use of plants around him to augment it did little to nothing for him and he quickly gave u...

DC 68

“Brother Jiao! I know it's only been a week but it feels like it’s been so long!” as loud and boisterous as always, Xin Lee was the first one to greet Feng Jiao as he approached the area his friends were staying in. Although his father was a wealthy and famous beast tamer, Xin Lee had proven himself to be a carefree and relatable friend in their journey to the sect.

Although his short brown hair was always messy, it looked more unkempt to Feng Jiao than it usually did...

DC 67

After a meaty breakfast with Pye Lee, Feng Jiao said his goodbyes and left the Mess Hall by himself. As excited as he felt he should have been after eating such a hearty meal, Feng Jiao couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed. Logically, he knew that allowing himself to be misgendered in order to reap benefits was a good thing, every stone that was easily paved on his path to immortality was a stone less than he had to worry about. It still rubbed him wrong though.

Puttin...

DC 66

in case anyone was curious, I am not quarantined. I have been deemed an essential personnel. happy reading.

 - - - - - - -

“Junior Sister Feng! Over here, come take a seat.”

After kicking the shithead back into the shitheap, Feng Jiao had a very relaxing walk to the Mess Hall. He even considered taking the walk on non-charge days. Unlike other cultivators, Feng Jiao could cultivate while he walked, at least in a sense. Most cultivation techniques needed years of sit...

DC 65

Got my laptop back. It was an entire endeavor and very upsetting, months were wasted but we're back.

* *

With his first day over, Feng Jiao settled into a bit of a routine while waiting for the summer solstice to come around. He’d eat a (reluctantly) vegetarian breakfast of vegetables and rice porridge, read in the library for a few hours to fill in his general knowledge gaps, and then cultivate according to the flame technique Aideen taught him until the sun ...

64

The Outer Sect’s library, while not quite as elegant and grandiose as the Mess Hall or the Aspect Hall, was very large. The entire place smelled of dust, despite the fact that it was nearly immaculate as far as Feng Jiao could tell. Due to the sheer size of the place and the lack of interest in reading that most children his age displayed, the library was nearly empty, with only an outer sect disciple sitting at the front desk and a few nominials running around dusting and returning books t...

DC 63

After dragging himself back down from the peak of the mountain, Feng Jiao barely made it through the door to his room before collapsing into bed and startling Bai Fu. She looked around and realized that the sun wasn’t up yet. The connotation of a boy and girl sharing a bed in the night painted her face a faint shade of red in the dark before she realized that Feng Jiao was already snoring peacefully.

Getting an early start on the day, Bai Fu managed to wash up using one of ...

DC 62

As the sun set on his first day in his new home, Feng Jiao found himself sitting on the peak of Tan Sai’s mountain. From base to peak, the mountain was only three or so kilometers tall but the essence was the thickest he’d ever felt. Cultivating here would surely return more results for less effort, Feng Jiao could see why the land was contested so hotly.

That being said, he wasn’t currently cultivating while he meditated. Instead, Feng Jiao reflected upon the day’s events, feel...

Excuses

My laptop has been at the shop since the 4th of January and I've been getting biweekyl updates. The latest update is that they broke my screen when they replaced the fan and they need to send it in to the company that made it. I've decided to stop stalling and I'll be trying to do some writing on my phone in the meantime because I hate no idea if/when I am ever getting my computer back. Please forgive me if there are more spelling errors than usual, my phone gets really laggy in doc.

DC 61

So if this is your mountain, why did we get assigned here?” Feng Jiao asked a question that had been bothering him since the start of Tan Sai’s explanation. If she’d won the mountain, fair and square, then why did he and Bai Fu get assigned to live there?

“Mostly because I’ve been kind of lonely. Every outer-sect disciple who is the ‘land-owner’ of a mountain is allowed to sign up to accept new disciples. It is how the alliances manage to bring in new blood and they usuall...

DC 60

Tan Sai led her two new friends toward a semi-crowded area not too far from the Mess Hall. Feng Jiao could see several groups of disciples wearing outer-sect clothing milling about in various lines. The area they’d arrived was a very large marble platform designed like a town center. The lines of disciples were slowly shuffling forward, five or so at a time, onto raised platforms which would then glow slightly then the disciples would vanish into thin air. After five minutes or...

DC 59

Instead of splitting into two balls and rapidly expanding the second, as the technique had done when Bai Fu selected hers, the mote of light suspended over Feng Jiao’s hand looked much the same while he held it. Feng Jiao absorbed the full cultivation technique through his palm much like drinking water through a straw. The ball maintained its shape while the information was drained just as a cup would keep its shape even after the water was consumed.

Were it not for the f...

DC 58

“Alright, I think we should move on. Sorry for the break, I’ve been the only one on duty all day and there were many more step nines today than there usually are. I don’t know what you all ate on your five-month trek, but I should really try that diet.” Pye Lee stretched before walking back to the spot where he controlled the formation. 

Tai Sai also retook her seat, opposite the other Outer Sect Disciple, and Bai Fu sat between them, forming a sort of tr...

DC 57

“Snake.”  Tai Sai once again expressed her displeasure, knowing what the older boy was going to say, and crossed her arms. After a brief stare-off between the two outer sect disciples, Pye Lee continued.

“So, here is the thing. Most often, disciples don’t show up to the God Tree Grove already at the peak of awakening. People who are already half a step into condensation usually elect to go with a top tier sect, but that isn’t to say it doesn’t happen. ...

DC 56

Walking into the doorway of the egg-shaped building, Feng Jiao noticed a couple things at the same time. First and foremost, it was cooler in there than outside. Although the summer was rapidly setting in, the building seemed to have a refreshing draft constantly pressing against his face from the moment he crossed the threshold, almost like a sea-side breeze.

Next, he noticed that everything was overly-alabaster. It was white as far as he could see which, it turns out, was a...