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Chapter 407: Decapitating the Enemy Army

Because both sides of the Manticore tribe had so many scouts and spies, a true surprise attack on the army was impossible. Kai had still wanted them to attack early for several reasons: it let them choose the general site of the battle, it forced their opponents to mobilize desperately, and it distracted from Omilaena's mission.

Instead of attacking head on, where the fighting would be ugly for both sides, they traveled to the east. Slightly further, but from there they could attack the...

Chapter 406: The Manticore Tribe Prepares for War

It took two weeks for them to return to the Manticore tribe's region, but with all three of them reunited, Kai didn't mind the trip at all. His training along the way was mostly for fun, while Zae Zin Nim actually advanced several levels with her Coldfire Corona. Just like with the early levels of other Class stages, releasing the pressure of the barrier seemed to make advancement easy again. And of course he wasn't complaining about getting to spend private time with his wives.

Once th...

Chapter 405: Against the Very Limit

The pit walls seemed to extend upward forever, to the surface that was just as far away as Sky Soul. Zae Zin Nim cultivated as intensely as she could, but at the Pits of Power it would take centuries to reach the next stage, if she reached it at all. Attaining Sky Soul required an enormous amount of qi and was difficult even for those with every advantage in the world.

Yet that was what she needed, if she wanted to keep up with her spouses and eventually challenge her father. It didn't ...

Chapter 404: Tales of Tails

For Kai, the fight must have been savagery, bloodshed, and hunger. Omilaena watched from the outside, coolly examining their latest experiment.

Now that he was fully prepared, Kai flickered around the clearing, evading the manticore's bursts of quills. When they had been spent, he went on the offensive and the manticore reeled onto its back legs to fight him. Even though the manticore was many times his size, the two of them clashed like equals and spun through the center. Massive claws...

Chapter 403: Precision Progress

When Kai finally limped back to their secure base, his body was aching all over from the combination of poison, exertion, and injury. The manticore was surprisingly fast, and very determined whenever it got his scent, so it required full use of Thunderbird's Wings to escape. He stepped inside and let out an expressive grunt.

"Still having trouble with the poison, huh?" Omilaena walked up to stand in front of him with a friendly smile.

"It's rough." Kai tugged out a quill and grima...

Chapter 402: Mixed Training at the Pits of Strength

Technically, Zae Zin Nim was guarding her mana pool, but she wasn't sure what would actually happen if she was challenged. The Thundering Scorpion tribe required everything to be done in pairs, due to their strange formation, and she was alone. Of course, she would bet on herself against any two of these inferior cultivators, but they might try to twist the rules against her, and she couldn't fight them all at once.

In theory she had the Bloodcoral sect to support her, and presumably th...

Chapter 401: Another Monstrous Echo

As the manticore bore down on them, Kai actually swayed on his feet. He'd grown so used to Behemoth's Heart taking care of small aches and pains that he was off balance at first. It swiped with one massive paw, only to be met by Omilaena hurling needles into the pad of its foot. The manticore pulled back with another roar, but the needles looked tiny compared to its bulk.

"I don't think poison is going to bring it down," Omilaena said. "You okay?"

"I'll manage." Kai regained his b...

Chapter 400: Hunting the Manticore

The Western Wilds spread around them. As they traveled further north to hunt down the manticore, the rocky outcroppings lost their bizarre twisting shapes and became lower and flatter. Far more foliage began growing on them, until they were traveling through a diffuse forest. Strangest of all, the plants changed wildly by elevation, so a sea of green might have an island of bright gold trees, with spots of other colors spread across the crags.

Supposedly this region was considered low q...

Chapter 399: Treasures and Trash

Being a tribal patriarch turned out to be both easier and more tiring than Kai had expected. He wasn't an administrative leader, not by any means, and actually most of the organizational and even strategic decisions were made by others. Instead his job seemed to be composed of two duties: be powerful and dispense more power.

"We've come to pledge fealty." The splinter group of Manticore tribesmen bowed to him, not just at the waist but dropping to their knees and lowering their forehead...

Chapter 398: The Future of the Manticore Tribe

"Stay."

Kai had just moved his legs off the side of the bed, ready to begin what was sure to be a trying day, when Omilaena's hand gripped his arm. Not gently - her fingers dug into his muscles like claws. He looked back to find her sprawled across their bed, tempting not because she was trying to be seductive but because she wasn't. This was Omilaena stripped of all pretense, urging him back.

"If you go out there," she said, "all our problems will start. Just stay."

"Our pr...

Chapter 397: The Real Threat of the Jackal Mercenaries

(This is the cover for the fourth book/arc. The arc isn't actually particularly focused on these two, but I wanted to save the full trio for the fifth arc in case it's the last.)

After Feida died, things turned ugly fast. In the initial brawl Omilaena took out one of the Jackal mercenaries, and two more died in the clash, but their side was cut in half. Now she fled back through the walls, dragging Kulha and another injured tribesman behind her.

Jackal Thirteen drifted overhead, a...

Chapter 396: Toward the Manticore Vault

Omilaena had always hated tribes.

They went by different names, depending on whether you were on Rosemount, Cloudspire, or Deadwaste. Sometimes they were called sects, sometimes guilds, sometimes even stranger names, but they were all essentially tribes. Bands of people grouping together for their own benefit, pretending that they cared about some abstract concept and would support one another.

"Thank you so much for doing this," Feida said. "It's nice to have another tribeswoman....

Chapter 395: Dueling for a Mana Pit

Cracking blows echoed across the wasteland as Zae Zin Nim fought her husband.

Their fists flew between them, and since Kai was holding back, they could trade blow for blow. Without him using his monstrous skills, Zae Zin Nim was still the better martial artist, so she eventually brushed aside his arm and struck his chest with her palm.

Her blow struck true, but the explosion of qi pushed her back. Zae Zin Nim skidded back several paces, kicking up two lines of dust, staring at her...

Chapter 394: Nascent Foundation At Last

It was really quite unreasonable that someone as talented as Kai had taken this long to leave the Body Refinement stage. Zae Zin Nim waited and watched, hoping that fate would not manage to ruin his advancement. It did so try to get in the way.

Of course, he had been severely limited by the lack of quality qi on Deadwaste, and his unique nature absorbed much of the qi he cultivated. Even given all those considerations, she felt as though she should have been able to help him advance soo...

Chapter 393: Back to the Pits of Strength

They had a variety of options for flying across the Western Wilds, some of them more respectable than others. The absolute fastest would have been for Kai to use Thunderbird's Wings and carry Zae Zin Nim in his arms... he almost thought he could convince her to do it, but she didn't want to be seen in an undignified position. Using flying swords was another clear option, either a pair or together on the same one, which had some of the same issues.

Instead they used the Pureflower vessel...

Chapter 392: Tripartite Reunion

For several long seconds Kai just squeezed Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena as hard as he could. Normal women might have been crushed, but they both hugged back: Zae Zin Nim's face was buried in his chest and Omilaena wrapped an arm around his neck.

There was absolutely a part of him that wanted to pick them both up and carry them somewhere private, but the majority of him just wanted to talk to them again. So much must have happened to them in the intervening months... Omilaena felt palpably s...

Book 1: Official Amazon Launch

The first book is now out on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DML13DV1

This version is edited in various ways: some additional descriptions, some changed conversations, some normal typos, some continuity errors smoothed. I think it will be a better starting experience than the versions previously posted on Patreon or RoyalRoad.

If you've enjoyed Depthless Hunger up to this point, please co...

Chapter 391: Angles on a Barbarian

They had started with eight Earth Souls. A mighty force, including all the strongest cultivators in the Manticore Quill faction. And now...

The Quill patriarch had thought their decision was absurd, ridiculous overkill against a foreigner who was clearly foolish and naive. Yes, all reports indicated that he had shrouded his true power, which was close to a Sky Soul, but rough mixtures of barbarian power tended to fail against polished formations. Just bringing enough for a formation sho...

Chapter 390: Negotiating with the Quill Faction

After a month of war amidst the Manticore tribe, Kai felt as though he was on the cusp of everything, yet unable to take any next step. He had more than enough mana ink and specialists to form a cultivation tattoo, once he had the proper design, and his power strained up against all other blockages. Many factions had united under him, but the tribe remained scattered.

All of that was likely to change as they approached the Manticore Quill faction.

Unlike the previous pitched battl...

Chapter 389: A Trial of Poison

"I have evidence to present!" The other cultivator supported Zin Nim to one of the speaking positions, a platform across from Shen Yu Yei, while the old woman spoke. "The poisoner's companion volunteered, of her own will, to endure some of the poison that our goddess is struggling against."

"You let her near?" Shen Yu Yei clenched both fists furiously. "They're working together, can't you see that?"

"Then why would she help Mei Bai? More importantly, why would the poison do such h...

Chapter 388: Poisons and Accusations

The qi resisted as it was forced down into liquid form and Omilaena imagined spiritual screams. It wanted to be an ephemeral energy flowing through all life, not something as tangible as chakra, but she forced it into a concrete state. Qi was intrinsically linked to pills, medicinal and otherwise, so she was confident that it could take a different sort of physical form.

At last she held up a syringe filled with blue liquid, the work of over a day of pseudo-cultivation. It throbbed with...

Chapter 387: Encountering a Cultivator's Domain

Kai moved through the blood and carnage, death on every side, and felt nothing.

It hadn't been straight murder, at least. The Tail faction had stopped the Manticore Head breakaway party and demanded that they return to the tribe on pain of death... and the breakaway group had immediately launched an assault. And so Kulha got the fight he wanted.

A cultivator rushed at Kai, not moving particularly fast even before considering half-phases, so Kai had plenty of time to examine him. 2024-11-08 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 386: Culling the Bandit Tribes

As the bandit tribesmen poured out of the hills, Kai waited for the inevitable. He lurked within a caravan of weaker cultivators, his bulk hidden by a shapeless Manticore tribe robe. They were a weaker splinter faction, returning to regroup with the others... and thus apparently an easy target.

It looked like the attacking group was one of the minor tribes he'd read about in the Bloodcoral archives: they were too small to exert their power on a region, so they hid in the Western Wilds a...

Chapter 385: Pureflower Moments

Zae Zin Nim sat in the audience, watching Omilaena and thinking it was almost unfair how fast the other woman had advanced in a month.

Instead of belching out smoke, Omilaena let it waft from her lips, so subtly that it almost seemed to emanate from her soul instead. She moved in smooth pirouettes, her robes trailing through the blue smoke and drawing out tendrils, as if painting the air itself. Even though her opponent was doing her best to defeat her smoke with fan strikes, Omilaena s...

Chapter 384: Two Manticore Factions

Now that the battle was over, the Manticore tribesmen didn't seem inclined to start murdering one another again. Kai spent a while cultivating atop one of the stone outcroppings, just watching both sides while they prepared, but they had retreated to treat their wounds and otherwise recover from the battle. Other than burying the bodies, they didn't seem particularly concerned with their losses.

Eventually the large tribesman from earlier approached, with only a bandage over one of his ...

Chapter 383: Between the Manticore Factions

Kai stood atop a small outcrop, trying to get a handle on what he was seeing. This was definitely no training exercise: he saw blood flying right and left, stinger techniques piercing through chests, heads being torn off. Savage strength combined with relatively low Physique made the battle incredibly grisly, with an intensity that couldn't possibly be sustained for long.

Both sides definitely seemed to be Manticore tribe as well, at least as far as he could tell. Kai examined their sou...

Chapter 382: From City to Sect to Tribe

Before he reached the Blueblade sect, Kai stopped using Thunderbird's Wings and instead jumped onto his flying sword. It traveled much slower than going under his own power, but this way he would look like a normal cultivator, plus he could use a moment to catch his breath and reflect after the week streaking across the Western Wilds.

The Blueblade "sect" proved to own an entire city, which explained why Zae Zin Nim had chosen it as their first meeting point. The city walls and most of ...

Chapter 381: Advancement in the Pureflower Sect

Fortunately, Omilaena was in the middle of a vicious battle.

When she'd first arrived in the Pureflower sect, she'd been honestly worried that they were going to spend all their time pouring tea, picking flowers, and simpering around. Fortunately, the cultivators of the Pureflower sect also took the time to beat the crap out of each other. Elegantly.

Omilaena stood on the far side of a marble court, hurling needles at her opponent and deflecting those cutting toward her - at least...

Chapter 380: Power Within the Pits

In the two days after the duel, Kai eagerly explored the Pits of Strength and discovered the possibilities. He'd been concerned at first that there might be retaliation, but since he hadn't killed or maimed the champions, his victory seemed to be respected. Most cultivators gave him a wide berth, so the biggest obstacle was actually getting people to talk to him.

He trotted out toward the central area he hadn't yet explored, barely glancing at the pits to either side because they weren'...

Chapter 379: The Thundering Scorpion Champions

There were no judges or officials, just four fighters standing on the wind-swept stone. Kai doubted that there were any rules about falling out of bounds, so the contest was likely to be decided by strength alone. Cor Li Xan landed beside him and swallowed a qi pill to prepare for the battle, so Kai's focus narrowed down to solely the combatants.

As the shroud fell away, Kai took a proper look at his opponent's soul.

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Name: ???

Total Power: 544

Cultivation: E...