ericdontigney

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 36 – Cold Comfort

Everything inside of Sen wanted him to… No, it was begging him to sleep. The kind of overpowering exhaustion that came from having your mind, body, and cultivation taxed to their limits wasn’t new to Sen, but it simply wasn’t something that a person could ever learn to shrug off. It went too deep, and nothing could cure it but sleep. Unfortunately, Sen also knew that a tribulation could be headed his way at that very second. He really didn’t want lightning burning a hole through his t...

Christmas Livestream

The livestream will start in about five minutes.

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Okay...So, I'm going to try to do a patron-only livestream at 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Christmas Day. This is all assuming that I can get the technology working correctly. Hopefully, it'll go smoothly. I have put a limit of 100 attendees on the livesteam to keep the billing sane, not that I'm expecting more people than that to want to attend a livestream with a pretty minimal plan attached.

I will ...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 35 – The Heavens Are Definitely Mocking Me

He known that this moment would arrive at some point and prepared for it. Natural treasures and beast cores spilled from a storage ring and onto the ground. There were cores from lightning cranes, wind serpents, and some kind of strange shadow beast he’d never been able to identify. There were wood, fire, and earth-attributed natural treasures that he’d picked up on this trip through the wilds. He’d had similar, although dramatically less potent versions of the same cores and treasures ...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 34 – Slowing Down

The foxes disappeared inside the galehouse again after the meal was over, but it had a perfunctory look to it. Less of them resuming an argument and more of Laughing River preparing to tell Misty Peaks how things were going to be. Sen wasn’t sure it that was a sign that the elder fox had convinced his granddaughter or if she was just going along to see how things played out. Even if she said she was convinced, it didn’t really mean anything until she packed up and left. Again, he was perf...

Brief(ish) Update & Holiday Traditions

Okay, so a brief update. 

First things first, Patreon rolled out a feature called Collections a while back. It's basically a way to round up related posts. So, I went ahead and put it to use. If you click on the collections tab, it should take you to a page where you'll find almost all of the posts for each volume of the Unintended Cultivator listed together in separate sections, along with the other books I'm working on with varying degrees of speed. The only exception is Volume 2...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 33 – What Did I Just Say?

Sen watched with a mixture of amusement and sympathy as Laughing River dragged Misty Peak toward the galehouse. The fox woman reacted like a feral cat that had just been seized by something bigger. She kicked, scratched, thrashed, and screamed. Sen could just barely sense energy movement of some kind. He assumed that the pair of foxes were exchanging techniques that remained largely hidden by virtue of their fox natures. Based on the growing look of shock and horror on Misty Peak’s face, La...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 32 – You Should Come Inside

Sen had no ready answer to that emotional outburst. He lacked even a basic frame of reference, let alone the necessary experience to understand what the fox had been through. Sen possessed no wisdom to offer. He didn’t even have an empty platitude he could mouth. His only solace was that Laughing River likely didn’t expect him to provide any of those things. He hadn’t really been asking questions. That was just the form his grief and apparent guilt had taken in the moment. So, Sen remai...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 31 – Alternate Explanation

Sen thought that Misty Peak might follow him, but a glance backward showed that she had either left or hidden herself with one of those nigh-impregnable fox illusions. I wish I could learn that, thought Sen. How many problems would that let me just flat-out avoid? It was a pleasant fantasy. He saw himself just strolling through that monster horde and walking into the ruins. No fighting. No disaster. Easy. Of course, if he could just learn it, he expected that Laughing River ...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 30 – Traitor

“What do you know about nine-tail foxes?” asked Misty Peak.

Sen gave her a smirk and started to count on his fingers. The fox looked like she might actually lose a bit of her sanity when he did that, so Sen took a little pity on her.

“Let’s assume that I know nothing about your people, or at least not enough to matter for this conversation.”

She frowned a little. “It’d actually be easier if you did know something. If you didn’t know, foxes aren’t like other...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 29 – Answers

The silence between them drew out. There was a quality to it, a kind of sharpness that left Misty Peak certain she would cut herself with the wrong move. She kept her face, well, the face she’d chosen for this task, neutral even as her mind raced for the right thing to do. She’d misread everything. The situation. The actual, terrifying strength of her long-estranged grandfather. Most of all, she’d misread the man who stood in front of her. In some ways, he frightened her more Laughing R...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 28 – What Can I Do for You, Misty Peak?

Laughing River and Sen had stayed up for hours trying to work out options that would let them get Sen into the ruins and then back out again. While they both concluded that getting him in was probably doable, it was the getting him out part that was disquietingly nebulous. Part of that stemmed from the fact that Laughing River had minimal information about what Sen could expect in the city. It might well be nothing but ruins and the temple that were simply guarded by a powerful and ancient pr...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 27 – The Balance of Favors

“Speaking of priorities,” said Sen as he pulled out a healing elixir, “you should take this.”

The fox shook his head. “It won’t help.”

“It won’t hurt, either. And if it speeds things along by even an hour, that’s an hour we can’t get back another way.”

“Oh, fine. Give it here.”

Sen handed over the elixir and casually loomed until the fox drank it. Sen didn’t expect that it would work any more than the fox did, but he did think it ...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 26 – Entirely Justifiable Paranoia

When the world finally started coming back together for Sen, it didn’t do it all at once. It was more like a patchwork of sensory information that came and went for a while before it finally, almost unwillingly, reassembled into something he could recognize. Even then, it was disorienting. Night had truly fallen. Beneath the canopy of the massive trees in the deep wilds, that meant it was almost lightless at ground level. It wasn’t as bad for Sen as it would have been for other people wit...

Unintended Cultivator Vol. 1 Publishing Update

Update: Okay, both versions of Unintended Cultivator Volume 1 are officially live. So, anyone who was waiting for it to go live to grab it on Kindle Unlimited or wanted to get an official ebook copy, you're good to go. Also, for real this time, if anyone is inclined to leave a review over on Amazon, I would be extremely grateful. They really do help books get and keep visibility, as well as make the algorithms happy. 

You can find the US version 2023-12-18 23:29:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 25 – Diplomacy

Sen tried to work up some anger, but all that he could come up with an overwhelming sense of not caring. He shook his head.

“I’ve been working on being a fraction more diplomatic,” said Sen, “so please just say what you need to say and be done with it. I still have more work to do.”

“So, you don’t mean to heed my words even after I speak them.”

“Of course not. That’s what being diplomatic is. I pretend to listen so you can’t pretend offense. Then, I do ...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 24 – I Should Have Known

The three of them sat around that table discussing possibilities until late. Laughing River volunteered that he could probably provide a distraction to draw off the horde briefly if it came down to it. Sen had given the fox a questioning look at that. The fox just shrugged.

“I am a fox. Illusions are what we do. How do you think I got close enough to figure out that I couldn’t get into the ruins in the first place?”

“That didn’t seem like something to open with ...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 23 – Plan Building

Sen suspected it wasn’t an entirely fair question. He’d had a couple of hours to think about the problem and come up with a couple of possibilities. They weren’t what he’d call great ideas. At least one of them would require that he spend some time looking around to see if it was even feasible. Still, he had something to contribute to a conversation about how to get things done. Asking Li Yi Nuo to come up with ideas on the spot without any clear understanding of what he or Laughing R...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 22 – What Would You Do?

Sen and Laughing River “discussed” what to do with Li Yi Nuo. Sen admitted it to himself. They bickered about it. Sen thought that Laughing River should take her back to the road. Having gotten a closer look at the fox’s true strength, he was supremely confident that the fox could take Li Yi Nuo there and get back a lot faster than Sen. That would give also Sen time to scout out the area and see if he could figure out a plan that was less of, as Lo Meifeng would probably descri...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 21 – Don’t I Get an Opinion

Laughing River got a gleam in his eye that screamed mischief. Sen thrust a finger at him.

“No! Whatever you’re thinking, just no.”

“Oh, you should have given it a minute. You’d have enjoyed it,” said the fox, before shooting Li Yi Nuo a big smile. “She probably wouldn’t have. Did I mention that I’ve met Lai Dongmei?”

Sen felt an abrupt sense of relief that he’d put a stop to whatever the fox had planned.

“You’ve actually met Lai Dongmei?” Li...

Unintended Cultivator Special

Okay, so Volume 1 of Unintended cultivator comes out in about a week. I'd been thinking that I wanted to do something special for it, but I missed the window to order new art. That's double unfortunate because I've been meaning to do that for a while now. However, my publisher asked if I'd write a short story they could use to help promote Volume 1. I thought that was a great idea. I'll just bang out a little prequel short story with Feng Ming. Super easy. Super short. Big Fun! Well, I do thi...

Unintended Cultivator Vol 6: Chapter 20 – Fox Tale

Those words rang in his ears. I’m dying, Sen. How often had Sen himself uttered nearly the same sentiment? The effect of those words on him almost primal. He knew the lengths that someone in that situation might go. He understood that it would be a short step from where he himself had been not so long ago to finding it acceptable to sacrifice anyone you needed to in order to survive. He didn’t think that the fox had gone that far. He might have been willing to use Sen an...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 19 – Assailable Positions

Li Yi Nuo waited to the side and watched as Sen and Laughing River stood a few feet apart, gesticulated wildly, and yelled at each other like a pair of bickering siblings. It might have even been amusing, like some kind of comical theater performance. That is, it might have been if not for the fact that the bickering pair were two of the most powerful beings she’d ever personally encountered, and they were standing in one of the most dangerous places on the face of the planet. The total dis...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 18 – Alchemy and Ancient Ruins

“Don’t glare at me,” said Laughing River in a hurt voice. “I gallantly left you alone after helpfully pointing out your mistake, and you wasted yet another opportunity by complaining about me. I mean, honestly, I don’t know what more I could have done to help you there.”

Li Yi Nuo had spent the last two days glowering at Laughing River and Sen, far less amused than they had been about the things they’d said to her. With a quick exchange of glances, the tw...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 17 – Mortifying

It didn’t take long for Sen to catch up with the fox who, for whatever reason, had decided to stick to running through the forest. Sen dropped the qinggong techniques and fell in beside the fox. Li Yi Nuo caught up shortly after, and three of them were a trio of blurs in the trees until it grew dark enough that even Sen didn’t entirely trust his eyes anymore. The fox slowed his relentless, miles-consuming pace and stopped when he found a clearing that he seemed to like. There was another ...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 16 – The Word Is Acquiring

“I might have settled for a simple no if I was dealing with that awful woman you’ve got yourself mixed up with. Frankly, I’m surprised that Feng Ming was willing to tolerate it,” said Laughing River.

“Awful woman?” asked Li Yi Nuo.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Sen.

“Wait! Feng Ming! You mean those stories are true, too?”

Laughing River turned to look at Li Yi Nuo with her own face, then there was another brief flicker of light and a copy of Sen stood...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 15 – An Old Debt

Once the business with Li Yi Nuo was settled, Sen stored the chairs and a handful of other items that taken out for basic comfort back into his storage ring. Li Yi Nuo watched all of this with a mixture of curiosity and bafflement on her face. Sen looked at her.

“Are you leaving or staying?” he asked.

“Leaving,” she answered with a frown.

Nodding, Sen extinguished the fire and the self-contained balls of fire qi he used to light the interior of the galehouses. He wal...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 14 – Give and Take

After Sen had directed Li Yi Nuo to one of the bedrooms, he’d retreated into the one he’d made for himself. One that had a heavy stone bar that he could drop across the door. It wasn’t meant to stop Li Yi Nuo if she tried to finish her mission in the middle of the night. It was just there to slow her down and buy the second or two he’d need to defend himself. He stretched out on the small bed he’d summoned from his storage ring. Sen found that he was glad he didn’t need much sleep...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 13 – The Jianghu Is a Hard World

“Do you know something that I don’t?” asked Li Yi Nuo.

“Probably,” answered Sen. “Then again, I imagine you know some things that I don’t. So, we’re probably even.”

“You know that isn’t what I meant.”

Sen could see the obvious frustration on the woman’s face and tried to not take too much petty pleasure from it. Once she’d started asking questions, she’d seemed to forget how they ended up having this conversation. Sen hadn’t forgotten, though....

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 12 – My Agenda Is to Survive

Aside from pulling a comfortable chair out of his storage ring and dropping it by the fireplace for Li Yi Nuo, Sen did his level best to simply ignore the woman. He kept that up for an hour as he made food, all while pretending he didn’t notice her watching him anytime she thought he wasn’t paying attention. It took a moment of minor concentration, but soon there was a small stone table standing in the center of the common area. Sen put a bunch of food onto the table and finally looked ov...

Unintended Cultivator V6: Chapter 11 – Merciful

Sen lifted an eyebrow at Li Yi Nuo. He thought he’d been pretty clear. He wondered if maybe she wasn’t that bright. She’d seemed smart enough when they were talking. Then again, she did have a lot of time to think about what she wanted to say to him before they met. He sighed.

“I said, how convenient would it be if someone…” he started.

“I heard what you said. What do you mean?”

“Really? I thought I was being pretty straightforward.”

She na...