Sen looked around at the nervous group of cultivators. He’d summoned all of the alchemists from both the army and the Soaring Skies Sect. They traded wary glances with each other, and stole uncertain looks at him. He’d waited to explain why they were there until after everyone arrived since he didn’t like repeating himself unnecessarily. It was only that they were all there and clearly concerned that it occurred to him that they might all think he meant to execute them. He hadn’t ...
2025-06-28 06:34:02 +0000 UTC
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Okay, the time sure does fly. My publisher just reminded me that Unintended Cultivator Volume 6 is due to go live on Amazon in a little under two weeks. Two weeks! I'm trying to figure out where the hell the last four months went. Anyway, that means that it's time for me to post a link for people to grab digital ebook copies of Volume. You can get them on BookFunnel here.
That link should remain live u...
2025-06-26 23:22:55 +0000 UTC
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The heads lining the walls of the Soaring Skies Sect compound seemed a bit overly dramatic, but Laughing River looked quite pleased with himself. Sen was willing to concede that the spectacle made a very direct and difficult to misinterpret statement. I suppose it’s better to be too blunt than not blunt enough in these circumstances.
“So, about that granddaughter of mine,” said Laughing River with a big grin. “Rumor has it that she’s been entertaining you.”
“Is that ...
2025-06-26 23:05:27 +0000 UTC
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Sen sat at a table in the common area of an inn he’d taken control of through the expedient of throwing gold at the owner and all of the current guests. The place had emptied of everyone but the staff in under ten minutes. Sitting across from him was a very uncomfortable Elder Deng. Propped up in a chair next to him was the still unconscious woman that Sen had fought with at the gate. Misty Peak appeared from behind an illusion. She gave Elder Deng and the other Soaring Skies Sect el...
2025-06-26 17:52:17 +0000 UTC
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“You’re a curse. Did you know that?” asked Terry.
“What? Why am I a curse?” demanded Kelima.
“Because every damn time I spend more than five minutes with you, some of my clothes get ruined. First, my hat. Now, my outfit,” said Terry, pointing an accusing finger at her. “Curse!”
Kelima pointed a finger right back at him and opened her mouth to shout something, only to turn away and retch.
“Oh, my gods,” she choked out between gagging. “They smell...
2025-06-25 10:52:26 +0000 UTC
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On most other days, the news of Hsiao Jiayi’s arrival at his town with refugees and the fall of Kanshun would have been the most important things on his mind. On that particular day, Sen barely had the opportunity to spare those events any attention. That’s going to be a headache later, he thought. Then, he had to give all of his attention back to the matters at hand. Laughing River was chatting Song Lan and Xu Xiao Dan, saying only the heavens knew what. Both of the nasce...
2025-06-25 03:28:29 +0000 UTC
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Hsiao Jiayi leaned against a tree and just let herself rest for a moment. When she’d first come up with the idea to take whatever mortals she could find and try to get Lu Sen to give them sanctuary, it had sounded simple. And, she supposed it was simple. What she hadn’t fully considered was how hard it would be to follow through on that idea. It had been a bloody, bloody business just getting them to the Mountains of Sorrow through the shattered remains of her father’s k...
2025-06-24 06:55:01 +0000 UTC
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Sen did feel the tiniest bit of pity for Magistrate Hu. The man had somehow found himself with the unenviable task of denying a powerful cultivator things they wanted. Then, that same cultivator had announced that he was, in fact, the king of the country they all stood in. It was an impossible position to be in for a mortal, especially one confronted not only with a cultivator but an army. The magistrate stood there, trembling in obvious terror, as he tried to think of anything he coul...
2025-06-22 11:24:24 +0000 UTC
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Got a migraine last night that’s come back for another go at me this morning. I don’t usually make announcements about this anymore, but I also don’t usually post Unintended Cultivator chapters on the weekend. I guess I could just wait until Monday and post two chapters, but that feels like a dick move. So, I’ll try to post one later today.
2025-06-21 13:19:19 +0000 UTC
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I know. I know. You guys would have preferred a fresh Isekai Terry chapter or more Unwillingly Summoned or more (insert your favorite unfinished project here). But my mind, for all the goods things about it, has some downsides. It never really stops feeding me ideas. Ever. And if I ignore all the ideas for too long, it starts shoving them forward harder and harder until it gets intrusive. Since I haven't started a new project in a while, we've been coming up on that intrusive point. So, t...
2025-06-20 13:29:41 +0000 UTC
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The view of Emperor’s Bay, or rather the wide valley that made up Emperor’s Bay and all of its neighboring farm villages, proved somewhat disorienting for Sen. He’d arrived from the north on his only visit. Then, he’d fled by sea with Lo Meifeng to elude that cabal of demonic cultivators. So, approaching the city from the south gave him a different view of the place. One that was simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar, like seeing a room he knew from a strange angle. That sense...
2025-06-20 07:16:26 +0000 UTC
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“And you just left him out there?” asked Xu Xiao Dan.
The man’s tone suggested that he didn’t want to believe that Sen was telling the truth, rather than that he didn’t believe Sen. The still-steaming tea in front of Sen drew his attention. He lifted the cup and took a sip. It just isn’t the same, thought Sen with discontent. Ever since Laughing River broke my other tea set, it’s just never been right again. Setting the cup back d...
2025-06-19 10:36:50 +0000 UTC
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Okay, thought Terry as Kelima did battle. This planet is seriously weird. Are those actually goblins?
As near as Terry could tell, they were goblins. They looked like goblins. Short, green, red eyes, and hyperviolent all fit the bill. It just didn’t line up particularly well with the whole cultivation vibe that had initially led him to dub this entire place as Chinese Period Drama Hell. Not that he meant to give up on calling it that, but there did seem to b...
2025-06-18 09:29:37 +0000 UTC
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Sen jerked the man’s head up and continued.
“That mortal whelp, as you called her, is under my protection. I saved her life, and I take that responsibility very seriously. You should know, she calls me Uncle Sen. And by the time I’m done with you, you’re going to know why they call me Judgment’s Gale.”
The man’s eyes were wide and they grew terrified when Sen crushed his techniques before they could form.
“Help me!” he screamed.
“Who? Me?” ...
2025-06-17 20:00:06 +0000 UTC
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I know everybody has been waiting a long time for this, but I didn't abandon this story. Here's proof. A chapter. A whole chapter. With words and everything! Enjoy! ~Eric
***
In a particularly academic corner of his mind, James noted the difference between getting in a fight and taking a beating. Having been in a few fights and gotten banged up, he thought he understood what the latter meant. He had not understood. Figh...
2025-06-17 09:08:18 +0000 UTC
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“We have guests arriving,” said Sen as he landed.
“Guests?” asked Falling Leaf.
“Cultivators from Emperor’s Bay.”
“Why didn’t they just wait a few days?”
“More than likely because they think they’re in control,” said Misty Peak, stepping out of her concealment illusion. “I imagine that they imagine that they’re going to tell Lord Lu that they don’t answer to him. That the city belongs to them. Things of that nature.”
“Are they ...
2025-06-17 09:05:00 +0000 UTC
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“Uncle Sen!” shouted a little girl as she ran up to him.
“How does she always know where to find you?” asked Falling Leaf, giving him a baffled look.
Sen shook his head as he watched the girl race toward him.
“I honestly have no idea,” he said as squatted down to scoop the girl up. “Hello, Yue Shui.”
“Hi!” she said, while giving Falling Leaf a shy smile.
The girl’s ability to walk directly to wherever he happened to be standi...
2025-06-14 07:38:51 +0000 UTC
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While Lu Sen had expressed that his main intention was to travel south, the army had been traveling North for the last two weeks. Something that Song Lan, Matriarch of what fragments remained of the Order of the Celestial Flame, understood. That understanding did little to assuage her frustration with the choice. Not that she had any intention of voicing those frustrations to the man himself. No one could secure the entirety of the kingdom. Not even by burning the shockingly vast swath...
2025-06-13 08:22:25 +0000 UTC
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It took a surprisingly short time, to Sen’s mind, for the generals and cultivators to organize themselves. Once inside the city, it was simple enough matter for Sen, the Matriarch, and Xu Xiao Dan, former Patriarch of the Clear Spring Sect, to direct the rescue efforts. They had largely asked for the assistance of cultivators with an affinity for earth qi, since they had the best chance of safely rescuing anyone that might be trapped beneath rubble. The mortal soldiers were sent out ...
2025-06-12 06:47:49 +0000 UTC
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Terry and Kelima left the fake small town. He cheerfully waved to the two demons while Kelima seemed determined to ignore them. Thoughts of giving her endless shit about it played prominently across his mind, but he decided to leave well enough alone. While he had never been in any real danger from the demons, the same couldn’t be said of the noble girl. Once he’d figured out what was going on, he could have intervened to save her if things went ugly. But there had been that brief window ...
2025-06-11 06:39:10 +0000 UTC
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Depending on whether it was the mortals or the cultivators, Sen’s return to the camp with the Matriarch and her disciples was met with one of two responses. The mortals reacted with near-total indifference. It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the value of adding another nascent soul cultivator. The military leadership certainly grasped her value in a battle, even while most of them probably saw their tenuous grip on power slip even more. Yet, for all the background implications, most ...
2025-06-11 04:32:16 +0000 UTC
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So, I know that the chapters have been light recently. Some of it was just me coming off the writer's retreat. It was good in most respects. I got a break from being at home. I learned some stuff. I saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, and I met a few interesting new people. But, it was a lot of socializing, and I'm very introverted. Spending time with groups of people is very emotionally draining for me.
Also, travel tends to kick off migraines for me. Probably something ...
2025-06-10 06:07:17 +0000 UTC
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The funeral was an oddly prosaic thing for Sen. He wasn’t sure if it was because his role was so mundane, or if he was just incapable of processing the sheer magnitude of the loss. Then again, maybe I’m just getting numb to this kind of thing, he thought. His only role had been to gather the dead. A task made far easier by the fact that he could use wind qi to literally cut away the frozen ground and ice beneath them. It was a relatively simple matter to use that ...
2025-06-10 05:29:46 +0000 UTC
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“You’re pale,” said Falling Leaf.
Sen smiled a little. Once he’d recovered enough that standing no longer felt like a monumental effort, he collected the ghost panther and went outside. The matriarch and her few remaining disciples needed time to speak privately, quite probably about a great many things.
“I’m fine,” he answered.
The steady look she gave him made Sen amend his statement.
“I will be fine,” he told her. “It was taxing, but I kne...
2025-06-07 09:13:45 +0000 UTC
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Sen remained sprawled where he was for a while. That had taken a lot more out of him than he’d expected. He remained silent until he felt steady enough to stand up. It was only after she could see him that he chose to answer.
“I think what you meant to say was, thank you for doing the impossible for me.”
She glared at him and said, “Thank you? For what? I didn’t intend to survive that battle.”
Sen ignored her long enough to wet a piece of cloth and wipe th...
2025-06-06 03:12:48 +0000 UTC
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Sen left the alchemy room pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. He also held the absolute certainty that he would have a terrible headache if he was still mortal. It wasn’t until the three Order members rushed up to him with expressions of worry that he realized he was muttering under his breath.
“Unbelievable,” he said for the third or possible tenth time.
“Did the alchemy fail, Lord Lu?” asked one of them.
Sen stopped in place and blinked a...
2025-06-05 04:21:06 +0000 UTC
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Sen’s opinions about what alchemy actually was had changed over the years. Sometimes, those changes came in response to actual facts, such as those provided by Auntie Caihong. Like most mortals, his childhood understanding of alchemy amounted apply magic on one side and different magic comes out the other side. He supposed that was even true, in a way, but it wasn’t especially useful for anyone who intended to perform alchemy. It was a bit like looking at trees and looking at the a...
2025-06-04 02:21:14 +0000 UTC
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It was late the next day by the time that Sen returned to Inferno’s Vale. Unencumbered by others, he had traversed what even he felt was a truly absurd distance to collect what he needed for the Matriarch. That much would have been enough by itself. He’d also discovered, almost by accident, a shadow qi treasure that he might be able to use for his body cultivation. At least, he hoped that he would. That hinged on the assumption that his ideas for the process were viable. I cert...
2025-06-03 02:54:51 +0000 UTC
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Sen had thought that they might actually take his offer to let them flee when none of them immediately moved to violence. Yet, that fragile peace didn’t last long. One had stepped out of the forest to confront him. The spirit beast resembled a transformed deer he had seen before, although this one was larger and male. It bothered Sen because he’d always thought of deer as gentle creatures. Then again, there hadn’t been any deer on Uncle Kho’s mountain for some reason. It was en...
2025-05-31 01:28:31 +0000 UTC
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For all the traveling Sen had done, he was once again struck by just how much of it had happened near roads. At least, that was case in this part of the kingdom. There had always been something driving him on from place to place. He’d either been running from someone or toward some goal. It was a rather sharp contrast to the north, where he’d explored the wilds extensively during his desperate search for Fu Ruolan. That made everything he was seeing new. He just wished he was seein...
2025-05-29 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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