Sen took one brief moment to cycle water qi and drag enough moisture out of the air to douse the still-burning hair of the bisected ape. Then, he was running. He found Falling Leaf almost thirty feet away, half-buried beneath a pile of leaves, grass, moss, and sticks. He could see where she landed and how far she slid. Sen kept reminding himself that she wasn’t dead for sure until he actually checked for himself. He dropped down onto the ground beside her and started shoveling away the detr...
2023-05-11 06:53:32 +0000 UTC
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As one day dragged into two, two into four, and four into eight, Sen found a kind of unpleasant routine. He’d sleep for a few hours at night while Falling Leaf guarded him. Then, he’d cultivate while she slept. After that, they’d walk. He did his best to avoid fights when he could. The old wariness and observation that he’d employed on the streets were amplified in the solitude of the forest. He became much more adept at spotting trouble before it spotted him. Sometimes, he hid
2023-05-10 10:46:41 +0000 UTC
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Sen stared up at the forest canopy and just ignored the smoldering corpse of the giant hawk next to him. He was tired. He was hurt. Plus, he’d have to keep traveling, despite the fact that night was all but on top of him. Sen reasoned that he’d earned at least two minutes of just staring up at the sky. After five minutes, a huge cat face loomed over Sen.
“Thanks,” he muttered. “Damn bird would have crushed the life out of me without you.”
The big cat regarded him for a...
2023-05-10 08:41:20 +0000 UTC
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To my immense relief, Annie decided to take on pass on those kinds of heavy conversational topics after that. I’m not opposed to discussing complicated issues, but it’s not the kind of thing you want before you’re about to do something dangerous. Fortunately, she segued into things that didn’t take a lot of brain power to discuss after that. We spent the better part of an hour discussing an old John Wayne movie that we both liked called The Quiet Man. I was excited because sh...
2023-05-10 02:51:34 +0000 UTC
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Sen was still staring at the goat and trying to figure out what he should do next when Falling Leaf bounded into the clearing. She skidded to a stop when she saw him and then hurried over. She looked him up and down with the most intense look in her eyes that he’d ever seen. Once she seemed satisfied, the big cat went over and circled the goat’s body. He watched as she sniffed it a few times, then went over to the goat’s severed head. She looked over at Sen, then pawed a couple of times...
2023-05-09 11:56:42 +0000 UTC
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The reality of what was in front of him didn’t really drive home for Sen until he walked out of the gate, considered his options, and started off in an eastern direction. Until then, there had been a haze of unreality about the whole idea. That haze of unreality hadn’t been helped by the sudden arrival of Ma Caihong, Master Feng’s abrupt culling of the local spirit beast population, or having his own technique broken so thoroughly. He’d mostly slept through the time when he would have...
2023-05-09 09:21:48 +0000 UTC
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Sen was only allowed to nap for a couple of hours before Uncle Kho came to retrieve him. Sen was relieved to discover it was primarily to make sure he got something to eat. On the bright side, Sen finally understood why Uncle Kho had said that his wife was the real cook in the family. There were great piles of deliciousness on the table. There were baozi, dumplings, fried rice, pancakes, moon cakes, and so much more. Sen ran out of appetite long before the food was even close to gone. Yet, as...
2023-05-08 16:49:00 +0000 UTC
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Sen gave her a nod and put some distance between them. He thought for a moment before he looked at her.
“When you’re ready.”
Ma Caihong gestured to him. Sen never would have considered attacking her unprovoked. He knew full well that she could crush him like an insect. On the other hand, he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to take a shot at her when she invited it. He started slow, cycling qi to activate the weakest qi affinity he had. His hand lashed forward and a comp...
2023-05-08 11:11:20 +0000 UTC
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Ma Caihong stared at Sen with a slightly stunned expression. It was like she either didn’t know what to say or couldn’t believe that he had spoken those words aloud. The stare persisted until Sen started to fidget.
“I don’t mean to be troublesome,” he said. “I just don’t know how. If you show me, I’ll do my best.”
“You. Wait,” said Ma Caihong. “What?”
“He can’t,” said Master Feng, appearing at the gate.
Sen turned to look and gaped at hi...
2023-05-08 08:00:26 +0000 UTC
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Sen froze in place. He had learned a lot about how to behave properly over the last few years. Yet, here he discovered a gaping hole in that education. He felt confident that there was a proper response to Ma Caihong’s words. He just didn’t know them. He did know that staring at her with his mouth hanging half open wasn’t the thing to do. He closed his mouth and tried to think of something.
“I’m, I’m sure that isn’t necessary,” he fumbled.
Caihong gave him...
2023-05-08 00:15:26 +0000 UTC
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Watching Master Feng have the same argument with two different people felt a little bit like a strange dream to Sen. It was made even stranger because the two people had such different motives. Sen knew that Uncle Kho objected because the old cultivator was actually fond of him. Ma Caihong had objected because she thought the plan was stupidly dangerous, and that it was wildly inappropriate to subject someone at Sen’s level to that kind of danger. Sen had kept out of the second argument jus...
2023-05-08 00:14:09 +0000 UTC
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Sen was both fascinated and a little shocked by the display before him. Uncle Kho was shouting at Master Feng. He had never so much as heard Uncle Kho raise his voice, let alone descend into full-throated shouting. Yet, there it was. The kindly old cultivator who patiently taught Sen to read, who had guided Sen after his disastrous first attempts at writing, who had shown him the essentials of cooking… that man was just gone. This Uncle Kho looked the way that Sen had always imagined powerf...
2023-05-05 09:01:42 +0000 UTC
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Sen stared at Master Feng’s back as the old cultivator walked a short distance away. He had heard Master Feng and Uncle Kho mention killing intent in passing more than once, but never in a way that roused Sen’s curiosity enough to ask. Now, he was regretting that lack of curiosity. On the one hand, the words seemed to have an obvious meaning. On the other hand, Sen was confident that the obvious meaning couldn’t be the answer. If it were, Master Feng wouldn’t have brought it up so spe...
2023-05-04 13:05:55 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: Okay, so looking at feedback the last six or seven chapters got elsewhere, I've got some structural problems there to work out. That's ultimately a problem for when I'm editing a finished manuscript of the completed book. On a more general note, though, I get the vibe that people wish there was a bit more action happening. So, I'm modifying my original plan (such as it was) and instituting a time jump in the story. I don't think the jump &n...
2023-05-03 12:25:42 +0000 UTC
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It didn’t take too long to load everyone and everything up. Bill and I always had go bags ready in our vehicles. Jessie didn’t have anything except what came with her from Denver. Plus, we were headed to her place anyway, so there wasn’t much point in getting her more stuff. All Annie had was a carry-on. I’d taken a little time earlier to go and rent yet another car, mostly because my Porsche wasn’t ever meant to be a long-distance vehicle. Of course, I could drive it a long way but...
2023-05-03 06:49:54 +0000 UTC
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Well, it's arriving a little late courtesy of a power outage earlier today, but you know what they say. It's Monday somewhere.
***
Sen watched a startling array of emotions cross Master Feng’s face. He saw disbelief, confusion, a moment of anger, realization, and some guilt. All of that passed over the old cultivator’s face before the man schooled his expression into something like calm. Sen tried to make sense of it. He knew that he probably should have asked about his ...
2023-05-02 08:08:48 +0000 UTC
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There should be new, patron-exclusive chapters up later today. I started going one way with the new material for Unintended Cultivator, then I rethought the direction it was headed. While that's not usually a crisis, it delayed the new material this time. Keep your eyes peeled.
2023-05-01 17:11:28 +0000 UTC
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On the whole, Sen usually liked the spring season. When he’d spent most of his time scurrying from alley to alley, spring meant a release from the cold of winter. It meant months and months without the constant fear that he might freeze to death. It also meant that new kinds of food would start appearing in the market before too long. He liked that things would turn green again and flowers would bloom. Of course, spring wasn’t without its pitfalls. Spring weather meant spring rain. Someti...
2023-05-01 02:19:13 +0000 UTC
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“Uncle Kho, is there a reason you picked this scroll?”
Sen stared down at the partially unrolled scroll, not quite sure why it was in his hands. The scroll was covered with a combination of pictures and text. The pictures were of plants. The text described a variety of things about the pictured plants, such as where to find them and their uses.
Uncle Kho gave the obviously confused boy a sympathetic smile. “That’s actually one of my wife’s scrolls. I should say, she wrot...
2023-04-30 08:11:25 +0000 UTC
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While that question plagued Sen, his life took on a new routine. In the morning, he would get up, practice what he already knew, and go for a run. From time to time, he and Uncle Kho would discuss the new scroll that Sen was reading. The new scroll was a lot less interesting than the first scroll. The first one told a story. While its implications still bothered Sen, it was the story that had kept his attention. The new scroll was about how the government worked. It most certainly did not tel...
2023-04-30 06:12:40 +0000 UTC
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I've been thinking ahead about Unintended Cultivator. There is a LOT of room for this story to grow and expand over time. At present, I have ideas for at least three books worth of material. Maybe more. So, I've attached the cover I settled on for Vol. 1, and tentative covers for volumes 2 and 3. Do you think they work? Are they consistent enough in style with volume 1? Sound off in the comments.
2023-04-30 01:23:35 +0000 UTC
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When Sen went inside to have a meal, he found both Master Feng and Uncle Kho inside. He narrowed his eyes at the two. There was something about the way the two men carried themselves that made Sen feel like they had been waiting for him. Despite the feeling he couldn’t shake, the three shared a quiet meal. The closest the conversation got to anything important was Uncle Kho asking if Sen had finished the scroll.
“No, uncle. I’m nearly done with it. Do you need it back?”
Kh...
2023-04-29 07:06:47 +0000 UTC
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Sen had the feeling that his days of general rest were just about over. He still grew tired more easily than he’d like, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been. For those first two days, everything felt like an effort. After his conversation with Uncle Kho kept, he kept wondering about the outside world and if he would ever be ready to face it. Master Feng had certainly taught him plenty about how to protect himself and meant to teach him more. Still, all those skills wouldn’t mean anything...
2023-04-28 22:31:33 +0000 UTC
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It turned out that I was mostly superfluous for that phase of things. Bill and Jessie were still making phone calls. They’d apparently run into a lot of unanswered calls. I was a little skeptical about that, at first. Chalk it up to my age. I’m part of that generation that grew up with smartphones. I’m never willingly more than a few feet from it. I absolutely hate it when I’m in a no-service zone. Yes, they still exist. You have to get off the beaten track to find them, but I’m off...
2023-04-28 03:05:11 +0000 UTC
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While the second pill the old men provided did a lot to restore him, Sen still felt fatigued for several days after what he thought of as the filth purge. While the effects hadn’t been nearly so awful on the second pass, he found himself wondering where all that filth had come from. Most of what he remembered about the first filth purge was just a hazy recollection of pain, so he couldn’t properly compare them. Had the most recent purge gone through him the same way, or had it reached par...
2023-04-27 21:18:56 +0000 UTC
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With that first cleansing pill, Sen hadn’t known what to expect from it. This time, he wouldn’t get caught unawares. He lay down on the floor. There was no blanket, but he realized he didn’t need one. He was inside where it was warm, not outside in the cold night air. He took deep breaths to keep himself as calm as he could. The agony would start soon. He braced himself, determined that he wouldn’t scream this time. Yet, the agony never came. He felt the moment when the pill hit his s...
2023-04-27 13:55:32 +0000 UTC
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There was a long moment of silence before Feng answered.
“Indeed. Well done, Sen.”
Sen let his arm drop. The weight of uncertainty lifted from his shoulders. Master Feng was sparing with praise, so it struck home ever more deeply when he offered it. A moment of elation washed through Sen. He had done it. He had not disappointed Master Feng. After basking briefly in that feeling and savoring the praise he had so rarely heard in his life, clarity returned. Sen hastily offered Ma...
2023-04-27 13:39:35 +0000 UTC
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Sen made his way into the kitchen and was surprised to find it empty. Either Master Feng or Uncle Kho was usually up before him. Still, on those occasions when Sen found himself the first to rise, he knew it was up to him to start breakfast. He stoked a fire in the stove, which added a pleasant warmth to the air. While the cold didn’t bother Sen as much as it once had, steady food and shelter having prompted gains in height and muscle that fortified him better against the elements, he still...
2023-04-27 13:37:12 +0000 UTC
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I did my best not to think too hard on the way back to Gran’s. It’s all too easy to find yourself in a doom spiral when you know something dangerous is ahead of you. You start second-guessing everything. You see every worst-case scenario coming true. That kind of thinking becomes positively lethal when the odds are running against you. After all, winning in any kind of fight is largely a mental game. Football coaches know it. Generals know it. So did the ancient Japanese. I only know that...
2023-04-26 02:55:43 +0000 UTC
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Lunch was a quiet affair. Uncle Kho was busy studying a scroll that had captured his full attention. He’d only stop reading to idly put some food in his mouth every once in a while. Feng was utterly concentrated on the meal. He seemed to make a point of thoroughly chewing every bite before swallowing. Sen only noticed these things in the back of his mind. The forefront of his thoughts was consumed with strange characters that seemed to twist or melt together as he tried to remember them. Th...
2023-04-25 15:25:13 +0000 UTC
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