Cognosticon

Chapter 228: The Waters Around Rosemount

Once they escaped the Blood Current and all its unnatural threats, they sailed from red-tinged waters, to empty ocean, to a region where they actually saw other ships passing from time to time. They spotted a single ship built with what looked like Krysali crystals, as well as a flying galleon he thought was from the Elemental Nations.

But the majority were entirely unfamiliar to him. Sleek ships with many triangular sails, filled with equally lithe crew leaping through the rigging. Vas...

Chapter 227: Bloody Fragments in the Current

What followed were some of the most grueling days of Kai's life. Not the closest to death, not the tensest, not the roughest, but grueling. They needed to be constantly alert for threats that, when they came, arrived with deadly force. The bone-deep weariness made it easy to sleep, except that at any moment he might be woken up because his abilities were needed against the newest threat.

Small fish like the crimson one that had effortlessly killed the kraken proved to be one of the most...

Chapter 226: The Blood Current

"Do we have no fruit stores left?" Zae Zin Nim asked. "I would have sworn on my cultivation that we had more."

"We need to conserve them," Omilaena said as she forked more fish onto her plate. "Kai might be healthy just eating monsters, but we'll get sick if we don't balance our diets."

"This is supposed to be preparation for a great risk. Is this not the time to break out the stores?"

"Nope, have some more fish."

The three of them were eating all of their food that mi...

Chapter 225: Approaching Crimson Tides

In another week, Kai could see the Blood Current on the horizon. He'd expected the name was due to the threat or the lives lost there, but in the distance he could actually see the waves grow increasingly red. Neither Zae Zin Nim nor Omilaena knew why they were red, so they approached with increasing apprehension.

But first, he needed to finish his preparations. Even though their goal was to never enter the water while riding the Blood Current, things could always go wrong and they need...

Chapter 224: Charting a Course Between Continents

Constantly pouring qi into the ship was a decent sort of training, but after enough hours at the wheel, Kai eventually got bored. He wasn't going to break any major barriers with just endurance training, especially since Behemoth's Heart seemed to keep him from getting tired. If they wanted to face all the opponents coming for them, they needed far greater power.

Not that his other training was making great strides. Even after two weeks at sea, not to mention the battle over Yulthens, K...

Chapter 223: Into the Blue Expanse

The ship bounced across the ocean's surface, its crystalline prow smashing into waves as they pushed it harder, faster than it should have been safe to ride. And Kai, moving before he could think about what he was doing, leapt over the side into the crashing waves.

Three things hit him in quick succession.

First he felt the impact of the water's surface, then once he plunged underneath, the metal cable around his waist tugged him backward. The cable was all that kept him from bein...

Chapter 222: Interludes Beta

As the trees blew ever more violently, Jaminob reluctantly approached with his cutter held high. He would most likely be fine unless he awakened one of the true chakra-bearing trees. Those could squash humans like bugs, but they only roamed in the deepest bowels of the forest.

He wasn't sure why the divine forests had become more dangerous, he only knew that they had been getting worse for his entire life. They were the heart of the Flaeren Dominion's power, but also a terrible risk for...

Chapter 221: Arrivals and Departures

When the furious hunger was finally sated, Kai had returned to himself. No more burning eyes or dark breath flooding from his mouth... even his teeth seemed to have returned to normal when he ran his tongue over them. His shirt and half his pants had been shredded, but that was his usual condition after a battle.

Yet his memories of the past time were cloudy, as if choked by the very darkness he'd been breathing. He didn't think that he'd hurt anyone on his side, but he had many memorie...

Chapter 220: The Heart of Poison vs The Heart of Crystal

Omilaena's fight with Boreas had danced above the roofs of Yulthens as they tested one another. Her opponent had proved shockingly flexible and overflowed with seemingly endless qi, allowing him to make use of what would normally be desperation tactics over and over again. She had evaded injury by a careful ranged strategy, wearing him down one poison needle at a time.

Both of them paused as a new force shook the city.

Kai burst through a nearby building and she immediately knew t...

Chapter 219: Breathing Over the Edge

The pain was distant, ephemeral. Kai's mind focused entirely on the monstrous power within him and the answer that it contained.

When he'd come to Yulthens, he'd hoped to acquire dragon's breath, but fate had spurned him again. He had fought past it and sought his own power, but in doing so he'd abandoned that original goal. Dragon flame was a monstrous power, different from mana or qi, and that was why the silver flames hurt him so much despite all his defenses.

Another stream of...

Chapter 218: Crystalliers to the Brink

If it had been Ren Ziq Quen alone, Zae Zin Nim would have done her best to fight him to the bitter end. Seeing Yurwa and the others retreating to the tower, about to be crushed by the stone, had finally driven her to take a stand. She had to give this fight everything she had.

But they had only fought for a few minutes before Boreas appeared, floating on crystals that appeared to be embedded in his body. His qi might be derived from crystals, and he made no attempt to coordinate with Re...

Chapter 217: Truth in Smoke

The crystal knife must have been an expensive masterwork, because it cut deep into Kai's back. He cried out in pain and swung backward... narrowly missing Kraetius.

"Bah." The old man drew another knife and advanced on him. "Almost had you."

"Why?" Kai only managed the word before Tareth's next shout hit him from the side, binding him in place.

"I couldn't stomach the sight of these peasants tearing down Krysal and dancing on the rubble." Kraetius spat. "Half of them are dea...

Chapter 216: Different Last Stands

As the city trembled around her, Yurwa told herself that she would stand until the end, at least.

She had a clear view of what she was and wasn't capable of. Her role in the battle was to destroy crystal shielding when possible and remain behind defensive lines when it wasn't. Acid cultivation could provide ranged support, but fighting alone would be suicidal. She didn't think she was a hero, her goal was to help Kai and Zae Zin Nim and all the others put their full strength toward the ...

Chapter 215: A Long Forgotten Rivalry

Kai ran through the city, struggling with his instincts. Zae Zin Nim was sorely outnumbered at the gates, Nirka and Maggle were under heavy assault, and the main army was barely entrenched at Mercantile Central. He wanted to go help any or all of them, but at this stage the battle was joined and he had to trust in the strength of his allies.

Instead he ran into the city to take on one of the Diamond Crystalliers.

If they had all stayed together, the revolutionaries would have had ...

Chapter 214: Crystal Defenses Crumbling

Kai fully analyzed the siege of Mercantile Central as he sprinted his way over the Yulthens rooftops. It looked like some sort of special defenses had been activated over all the main entrances, where the army camped. In theory many of them could have broken through the other walls, but the opposite side of the building was in range of the last great crystal controlled by the nobles. Staying right next to the building actually shielded the army from its attacks.

He considered leaving th...

Chapter 213: No Battle Plan Survives

Lots of people repeated "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy" and Nirka had always hated the phrase. What the fuck did they expect? Did they really think that a plan laid out on a bunch of maps in a room somewhere would actually play out in the real world?

She hadn't been surprised when the revolution turned ugly, not when the oppressors turned to violence and not when things went wrong. Those who understood what she did had always been ready for a brutal war to take back the...

Chapter 212: The Battle for the Five Great Crystals

The initial stages of the battle would be determined by control of the five great crystals that hovered over the walls of Yulthens. Krainuun had detailed their capacities, from paralyzing beams to great destructive blasts, as well as how to control them. Powerful cultivators had been pouring qi into them for days, so they could easily turn the tide of the battle.

Zae Zin Nim raced ahead of the main army, her lightness technique taking her many paces with each step. Their true strike for...

Chapter 211: The Very Limit of E-Rank

(Cognosticon here. I have made edits to chapters 202, 209, and 210. In 202, while I had originally written Kai's emotions to be implicit, given criticism I agree there's some value in making them explicit. 

Regarding Orillia, I had later plans for emotional beats after her, but agreed that not including them earlier potentially makes the characters seem callous, so I've moved them to 209/210. One advantage of no chapters on weekends is that edits like these are easier.)

The w...

Chapter 210: Final Considerations, Final Offers

Kai balanced in a handstand, then slowly pressed himself to the ground. Vertical push-ups weren't even really training for him anymore, he could just think more clearly while physically exerting himself. Given the barriers to his Physique, thinking might do more good than training.

He completed one slow push-up with his first name: Ren Ziq Quen. The foreign cultivator seemed to be entirely loyal to Yulthens and Zae Zin Nim was convinced of his ferocity. She had tried to tell Kai everyth...

Chapter 209: Spiraling Toward a Decisive Victory

Very few in the city saw the message with the severed head, but the reaction was still horror. The celebrations gave way to an ugly mix of bravado, anger, and fear. Kai hoped their morale raising had been enough, because it had just been dealt a serious blow.

For him, shock had given way to hollowness. He remembered his rage about Fhazi or Nirka's infidelity and now felt childish - those petty injustices were nothing compared to the murder of a kind old woman who hadn't even been a thre...

Chapter 208: Steady Steps Toward the Inevitable

Kai returned to Slaerta with new enthusiasm for his training. He might not be able to control the many variables involved in the revolution, but he would put everything he had into the one thing that relied entirely on him.

There was no more time for any celebrations or any of the workers trying to flirt with him. His reserves had been thoroughly restored and it was time to push himself to the limits again. When he needed a break he just returned to Yurwa or Nirka and it was honestly ea...

Chapter 207: A Meeting with the Elites

Growing up, the Frontier elites had always been Kai's greatest goal in life. They were truly the best, standing far above the strongest in any individual nation. More importantly, they were the front line against the monsters of the Frontier, keeping humanity safe. The idea of joining them had been like a dream that could barely be grasped.

Since then, he had come a little closer. He'd met several of them, even been saved by their teleportation technique, and technically helped them fig...

Chapter 206: The Ratio of War

"And the average gold to crystal ratio," Krainuun said, "has risen to almost ninety Eagles per crystal."

"Wait, ninety?" Kai had been nodding through their conversation, but that threw him entirely. "Everyone was talking like fifty was unreasonable before."

"Ah, but those were peacetime ratios. Even if Krysal isn't engaged in full war, we are seeing wartime values. We've seen this before during particularly bad incursions, conflict with neighbors, or warfare that severely damaged ...

Chapter 205: Cultivator vs Cultivator

The revolution crumbled beneath her, descending from lofty ideals to chaotic panic. Zae Zin Nim watched from atop a flying crystal, struggling to reconcile her mission objectives with her disgust.

Workers in the acid pits from another miserable city state had decided to join the revolution, but they hadn't put in the work to be remotely equal to the forces opposing them. They barely had any acid cultivators worthy of the name and had tried to fight with buckets of acid and even rocks. I...

Chapter 204: A City Falls Without a Blow Struck

With a violent barbarian standing in the background, negotiations proceeded with surprising ease. Kai had met with representatives from the mines, who indeed seemed much better off than the slaves in most other city states. The workers didn't love the merchant nobles, but they were afraid of what the revolutionary army might do if it arrived and didn't want him to overthrow the city.

They were more amenable to the real plan.

In theory, both sides agreed on a new contract, in which...

Chapter 203: A Different Sort of Crystallier

Kai raced across Krysal to another city he hadn't heard of before in a desperate effort to hold everything together. This one was called Teraklis and, in theory, he might be able to make a difference on his own.

Merchants had responded to the fall of Slaerta with the reserve that Krainuun had predicted, but none of them had anticipated how many workers would react. The cities that kept their crystal mines and acid pits completely blockaded from the outside world were congratulating them...

Chapter 202: Trouble in the Wake of Victory

Kai wasn't frustrated by a single day of celebration, especially because he knew that none of the others would regenerate as fast as he did. Nirka was still recovering from her qi burn and a stomach wound that got infected, but when he checked on her the local healers were taking good care of her. After the feast that night, most got back to work, rebuilding defenses and reorganizing the city.

When the celebrations resumed, however, they began to grate on Kai. This was the first act of ...

Chapter 201: The Battle for Slaerta

(Cognosticon here. Thanks for sticking with me through business week. The new schedule will be chapters Monday through Friday.)

Witnessing a battle between armies was strange for Zae Zin Nim. In her experience, most conflicts had been decided by duels between cultivators, which struck her as tidier. Maybe formations would be used at times, but not pitched battles like this. She had to admit that most sects on Cloudspire wouldn't have a counter for such an assault, aside from overwhelmin...

Business Week: Story Intro Poll

This is going all the way back to the beginning of the first book, but I wanted to revisit it. As you likely remember, the story begins in medias res - there have actually been two versions of this, one at the time of Kai's banishment and one at the moment his monstrous abilities awaken. 

My intent with this was to present a mystery, giving the reader half the clues and letting them put the rest together. I think it also gives the early sections more focus, making clear that they'r...

Business Week: Discord

A few of you have been requesting this, so I've set up a Discord server:

https://discord.gg/ECggFsZcuw

It is in theory connected to Patreon on the back end now, so you should get an automatic invitation along with special privileges for being a patron. I don't intend to move too much there (it exists for those who want it) but there is a special image preview not available elsewhere.

Thanks for ev...