Cognosticon

Chapter 538: Hunting from Krysal to Irun

In the end, it took them a few days to finish off about a dozen Bloodtails. After the first battle, the time was less about actually killing them than finding the remaining ones. Technically they might have saved a little time if they'd gone elsewhere and waited for reports of attack, but with teleportation resources limited, Kai was glad for a last hunt with his wives.

Especially because of what he suspected was coming, but he didn't want to think about that just yet.

Instead, as...

Chapter 537: The Threats Posed by Pests

By sheer bad luck, Omilaena was in the worst position, with two Bloodtails immediately menacing her and the third blocking off a direct escape. As their tails lashed out, Kai didn't think about it, he just leapt to defend her.

In midair he threw out another Tyrant's Claw, knocking aside a striking tail, then he collided bodily with another Bloodtail. His momentum threw them both into the third, driving them away from the group into the ground, neutralizing their ambush.

It had bee...

Chapter 536: Seeking out the Bloodtail

Flying over Krysal to hunt monsters, with only Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena along with him, gave Kai a jumbled sense of nostalgia. Every element of it felt so familiar - the hunt, his wives, the shores of Krysal - and yet this wasn't a real era of his past. Omilaena had been an uncomfortable ally at the time, they hadn't been honest about their relationships back then, and this Krysal was nothing like the one where he'd hunted monsters years ago.

Still, it felt good. Kai settled back in his...

Chapter 535: Old Defenses and New Contingencies

Even though they were in the middle of a hive of information, when Kai sat down opposite Krainuun, the meeting felt surprisingly intimate. The desk was small and simple - it might even have been one of the same ones the administrator had used in the past. Kai's chair was too small, so he loomed a bit, but that just emphasized the expediency of the place.

"I apologize that I couldn't meet you sooner," Krainuun said. "It isn't a question of values: there are increasingly demands on my tim...

Chapter 534: Acid Cultivators, Acid Relationships

For the most part, returning to Deadwaste had not been engaging for Zae Zin Nim. The only ones who really interested her were the elites, and there were internal sect politics getting in the way of that, so she had focused on her own advancement. Easy enough, since she had everything she needed and little to distract her.

Now, however, she had a second exception: acid cultivation.

The cultivator she had been years ago would have dismissed it entirely as a bastard offspring of pure...

Chapter 533: The Acidarium

Fortunately, Zae Zin Nim's vehicle took them across Yulthens without any further attention, because they easily slipped in among all the other crystal ships. From the air, Kai got another opportunity to look over the new Yulthens, though he wished he could have flown under his own power and really explored it.

Unlike some other parts of Krysal, which were allegedly disasters, all of Yulthens seemed to be running in good order. Along the way Maggle provided running commentary, pointing o...

Chapter 532: The New Revolutionaries of Krysal

Since the group was moving at normal speeds, Kai had plenty of time to examine them. They were all native Krysali, former miners based on the visible scars, yet they didn't look as welcoming as the previous crowds.

What still puzzled him were their outfits: they resembled the old rags from the mines, yet the fabric itself wasn't the foul hides he remembered. Their apparent ragged edges were symmetrical as well, and tailored... had the old miners' outfit become a sort of uniform? They se...

Chapter 531: Separate Directions in Krysal

On the other side of the portal, Kai found himself... back at the coast of Krysal. He hesitated, not wanting to revealing his disorientation, then decided that there was no reason to try to act cool in front of his wives. Neither of them seemed surprised.

"What are we actually doing?" he asked. "What's our next objective?"

"We're skipping out on Irun for now," Omilaena said, without any teasing. "Good job playing along."

"Uh, right. Did I miss something?"

"No, you wer...

Chapter 530: Friends Across the Frontier

After all the intense negotiations, Kai wanted some time to decompress, which meant training, spending time with his wives, or talking to someone who wasn't a Frontier elite. Unfortunately, beside the base was a bad place for training and the others had left: Handelrey had pulled Zae Zin Nim aside to discuss some sort of cultivation matter and Omilaena had gone off to talk with Irunian elites to plan their upcoming plans.

Surprisingly, Inafay arrived from a portal to rescue him.

F...

Chapter 529: Plans for Incursions

"Despite occasional squabbling, we all want the same thing: for Deadwaste to survive the incursion." Sheiri spoke evenly, clearly prepared, and though the information was familiar Kai sensed that she was reinforcing the elites' agreement. "Individual nations may fight selfishly, but at the Frontier we stand for all, because there is no other choice. Let me demonstrate a record of an incursion several centuries ago."

She tossed a piece of silver into the air, which was immediately caught...

Chapter 528: Debating Courses

Now that Kai was finally here, he felt almost unprepared. From the perspective of raw strength, he had wildly over-prepared, bringing a huge amount of firepower to the table. But when it came to military intelligence and how to actually negotiate with the Frontier elites, he was far ahead of himself.

Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena had both done excellently in their trials, however, both in displaying strength and showing the sort of character the elites would care about. When his wives came t...

Chapter 527: Phase Trials and Negotiation Phases

Technically she should have been concerned about the upcoming trial, but Zae Zin Nim was more focused on the elite who had attacked her husband so aggressively. That was not an appropriate level of aggression for a test of this sort. Even though this was Deadwaste, such a thing could easily become a vendetta that would lead to many future troubles.

Their wife was clearly more conscious of the overall situation, because while Zae Zin Nim went to Kai as soon as he left the rings, Omilaena...

Chapter 526: The Mortal Trial of Phases

Kai hadn't heard about "mortal" phase testing before, but since the other elites treated the proposal as a normal one, he decided to act the same. He didn't object as they stepped through a new portal, just kept his wives close. Zae Zin Nim was vaguely hostile in all directions while Omilaena looked more contemplative than he expected.

On the other side of the portal, he felt the change in the air and knew that they were somewhere within the Frontier wall. There was a stocky building, m...

Chapter 525: Facing the Frontier Elites on New Ground

Despite everything he had been through, Kai was still nervous to meet the Frontier elites as they walked through the portal. These people were everything he wanted to be, actually giving their lives in order to defend the people of Deadwaste, incursion after incursion. In theory, he had done all of this in order to support them.

Yet he didn't see very many smiling faces in the group.

He was familiar with only two of the elites: Sheiri Kagskan was the woman who had sent him to Krys...

Chapter 524: The Worst Builder

They could have immediately gotten enmeshed in Krysali politics, but Kai agreed to hold back. For one, his wives were correct that he had a bad track record of getting heavily involved there, and his presence alone would be a disruption. Perhaps more importantly, they'd made contact with the Frontier elites and a delegation was coming to meet with them.

It went unsaid, but Kai knew this meeting would be important. They weren't sending adults to mind them or judges to evaluate them: the ...

Chapter 523: The New Crystalliers of Deadwaste

Technically Omilaena was watching the fight, but she was also thinking over her past. Unusually contemplative for her, basically just flicking the bean while other people were fighting for their lives. Put that way, she decided that she was fine with it and indulged.

Going to Deadwaste was usually considered an act of desperation, the last refuge of failures. Her first visit had almost seemed to confirm that, since she hadn't gained much strength... but she had gained Kai and Zin Nim. T...

News and Goals

Cognosticon here, coming on your break day for a quick announcement. I expected a drop in support after the Cloudspire arc finished, but it was larger than expected. I've been doing this for a long time now and I don't really expect a reversal, so I'm focusing on two things:

1) Preparing for the big publisher release.

2) Thanking patrons who are supporting this story.

For a start, I quietly gave $3 backers a huge boost in the total number of chapters available to the...

Chapter 522: The New Elites of Deadwaste

Years ago, going to Deadwaste had been a horrible decision tantamount to throwing herself off the edge of the world. Now, as she returned yet again, Zae Zin Nim reflected that it was becoming commonplace. Not only was it a normal trip, it was returning to her husband's home, something she might expect to do many times in the years to come.

That no longer disturbed her, for all that there would be inconveniences. She had met some respectable people there, and the trip to Cloudspire had r...

Chapter 521: Training Against Cliffs of Injustice

Other than the one fight, their trip back to Deadwaste proceeded smoothly. The trainees really did seem to interact as Kai had hoped: they had forged strong bonds through their common struggles, thus gaining the allies he'd had so few of. On the other hand, they viewed him at more of a remove as a benefactor, which he supposed was appropriate. Even though they were of roughly the same generation, they were on very different paths - Inafay and Cragrila felt like his peers in a way that the new...

Chapter 520: Conflicts Among Trainees

Even though Kai still thought it was bizarre that sex could be training, somehow, he wasn't going to complain about everything he'd learned in dual cultivation. It was a wonderful fusion of two different aspects of his life with his wives, and it wasn't so awkward once he got used to it.

This session left him lying with Zae Zin Nim cuddling against his chest as they both caught their breath. All of the mana and qi had faded, and the chakra was no longer surging between them so powerfull...

Chapter 519: Training Away From Darkmist Island

In the end, they didn't spend much time at all on Darkmist Island. Kai spent two days training the Deadwaste volunteers, or rather evaluating each and then helping them gather the materials they would need in the future. Combined with all their treasures from Cloudspire, the group's fears of not being able to advance on Deadwaste seemed assuaged.

Several days out from the island, Kai was still mostly thinking about those volunteers. He didn't know them all well, since some seemed to avo...

Chapter 518: The New Generation of Clanless

Kai hadn't realized how much he was accustomed to traveling with just his wives until he had to deal with other people. It wasn't just that the others didn't have spatial items to make packing easy, it was all kinds of irritating inefficiencies. They didn't get their things together, milled around aimlessly, didn't know where to go, and generally wasted time instead of boarding the Clanless.

He waited nearby, pacing restlessly to release his impatience. By his best estimate, there were ...

Chapter 517: Brewing Unreality

Nothing on Darkmist Island felt real. Honestly, the sense of unreality had started when Kai took them all away on his strange new ship, but Juray had been completely adrift ever since they landed in this mysterious place.

Most obviously, the place was a paradise of energy, from mana to chakra to qi. It constantly left her paranoid, thinking that it had to be some kind of trap because it wasn't possible that power could just be handed to her like this. Apparently this was actually just t...

Chapter 516: Wind Attunement

Omilaena sat with her arms folded, glaring at her materials through her goggles, willing them to cooperate.

Now that she had extra-spatial storage space, she could accumulate all kinds of junk, which meant she had a whole collection of pharmaceuticals from across Deadwaste, Rosemount, and Cloudspire. There were connections between them, some obvious, some obscure, and some annoyingly teasing at the edges of her conscious theory. Those were the ones that currently pissed her off.

G...

Chapter 515: Training Toward Darkmist Island

As he blinked awake, Kai realized first that he was in the main cabin of the Clanless, then that they were still passing over the ocean. He'd taken multiple trips over the ocean at this point, from the relaxed journey after their honeymoon to the mad rush through the Blood Current. Most recently, he'd desperately flown the Clanless back to Cloudspire, hoping his wives were still alive.

Now, going in the opposite direction, he maintained an unusual sort of relaxed tension. Everything was...

Chapter 514: Leaving the Eastern Plains

The courtiers of the Brightwind Sect had been on high alert ever since they heard the news, spiking ever higher when the errant daughter returned. Had she been Zae Clen Ban, half of them would no doubt have been dead already. His daughter seemed less violent, yet no softer, and they realized with growing horror that she was truly indifferent to every enticement or threat they could offer.

She would not strike any of them down by her own hand, but it seemed very likely that she would aba...

Chapter 513: The Depths of the Brightwind Vault

(Cognosticon here. For the first time ever, Patreon is withholding all funds. For now I'm going to assume it's a random hang-up, but I hope it doesn't persist another week.)

As they delved into the deeper vaults, the three of them remained together, less because they needed security than because it was fun to explore together. Zae Zin Nim had stories about the materials and Omilaena never missed an opportunity to needle Cloudspire when she thought a name was ridiculous. For his part, Ka...

Chapter 512: Looting the Grand Vault

When Kai got the grand vault open, he'd of course intended to contact Zae Zin Nim to learn more, but he'd expected to enter quickly. Just standing near the opened door he could feel the intense qi radiating from within, so he needed to stand guard just in case any cultivators got too greedy. Instead, the timeline stretched out further as Omilaena entered first to test for poisons or other traps.

That wasn't entirely a bad thing, however: Inafay and the Clanless caught up with them, bear...

Chapter 511: The Brightwind Patriarch's Harem

Of course Omilaena actually did the things she was supposed to do, but at soon as she had done what she judged to be the optimal minimum, she went off to track down Zin Nim.

Not out of any sense of concern, really, mostly being nosy. Or perhaps, since they were married, she was allowed this level of stalking. Omilaena amused herself with that thought while she pursued the other woman through the halls of the Brightwind Pagoda, to see if she would kill anyone. And maybe help out, if appr...

Chapter 510: The Redstorm Scion's Vendetta

Kai realized in the middle of the fight that he'd gotten another rival, even though he wasn't sure exactly how. The scion of the Redstorm Sect seemed to have it out for him, treating their fight as if it was a personal duel instead of just part of an overall strategy.

Both of them using flight techniques meant that they crashed against one another in the sky, arcing around to connect again. Except that Kai wasn't taking the fight seriously: he had greater mobility with Thunderbird's Win...