The last bolt of tribulation lightning seared Hui’s plant body. It cooked, turning limp and soggy. At the same time, the orbs of qi in his dantian spun faster and faster. The tribulation lightning burned all around them. All the impurities in his dantians burned away, struck off by the final bolt of the lightning. Even as it broke down his body, it built up his cultivation. The scalding lightning purified his passages, searing away impurities and remnants that stuck to the walls of the pass...
2022-07-17 18:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Erlan giggled, but continued to subtly retreat. Ah, shit, that snake reached fifth realm? If even one more of them succeeds, I’m outnumbered. Plus, I’m unlikely to steal any souls with the All-Heavens Sect around… I think it’s time to beat a tactical retreat.
Circling overhead, a certain crow followed as Erlan backed away.
“Drawing me away from your partner? As if I’d let you! Get back here!” Ding Qinwen shouted. He drew his hand back, and a golden bow mater...
2022-07-15 21:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The lightning continued to crash down from all directions. Even Erlan and Ding Qinwen paused in their battle to look over.
Erlan’s scalp tingled, and he backed away subtly. Four simultaneous tribulations? Is he so desperate for death that he’s seeking it from the Heavens themselves?
If even one of them succeeds, though, let alone two… or even all four… Erlan swallowed. He attacked fiercely, using his attack as a disguise while he repositioned himself towa...
2022-07-14 21:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Let’s be logical about this, Hui thought, even as another bolt struck him. If I fake my death and the Heavens fall for it, I might fail my tribulation. Failing one’s tribulation is never good. I’m not the lotus beast; I can’t blithely fail and survive without a single worry. If I play dead, I have to give up all my defenses, too. The lightning will strike me relentlessly, and without defending against it, I’ll have to bear all the damage.
If I play dead, ...
2022-07-12 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Lightning flashed. Zhubi laid there, playing dead with all his might even as the lightning continued to strike with deadly force. The lotus beast thrashed, writhing in the force of the storm. Jin Xian screamed, a spine-tingling sound, and tensed as another bolt of black lightning struck her.
Oh, no. That sounds like it hurts. Oh no. Someone… someone save this small cultivator! Hui looked down and grit his teeth. Looking at the black lightning gathering at his feet and the gol...
2022-07-11 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Hui hopped back from the fight. He reached into his storage ring and drew out a barrier talisman and one of Xixing’s crystal pills. Only a few remained of each. I’ve been using too many resources during the fight. I need to take a break and create new, stronger talismans the next time I get a chance… and restock, too!
He passed both to Zhubi, pasting the talisman to Zhubi’s back. “Put some qi into the talisman to activate the barrier—it should stave off the first bl...
2022-07-10 08:00:00 +0000 UTC
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“Don’t forget me,” Lu Lintei yawned, appearing beside Ding Qinwen.
Ding Qinwen shot an earnest look at Hui. “What happened here, Zhi Ahn?”
Hui gasped for breath, dramatically wiping his blood off his face. “I… I was on my way back to the sect when I noticed something amiss with the soul array we were guarding. I went over to take a look, and found this demonic cultivator attempting to steal the souls!”
“Xiao Hui, how shameless,” Erlan countered, clicking ...
2022-07-09 22:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Although Erlan paused at Hui’s declaration, when Hui made no move to attack, he turned back to the storm of souls. The corrupted formation glowed in red and black, still revealed after his ink-hand attack earlier. He studied it, a hand on his chin. Even for a fifth-stage cultivator like him, sealing up the souls and taking them away proved an intimidating task. Unlike Yunxu, he did not possess much knowledge of the soul transferal array. This soul array… I thought it would be a simple...
2022-07-08 20:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Hui burst back to reality as a hand slapped toward his face. Blood already dripped down his body, and Zhubi hissed, rearing up from Hui’s arm to glare at their attacker. Rather than a hand of flesh, this hand was pitch black and huge, at least as large as his head. Hui instantly played dead, and the hand sent him, Zhubi, and Gu Tian’s sword flying. They fell, hurtling downward.
And fell. And fell.
We’re falling for quite a long time this time… ah, this is going to hurt...
2022-07-07 20:00:03 +0000 UTC
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A thousand voices sounded out all around Hui, voices he’d heard before, voices he hadn’t. He looked around, peering into the mass of glowing light. Human-ish shapes bobbled in the light, indistinguishable from one another, blurring together.
Hui tilted is head. “Can you… cultivate in here?”
Voices sounded, all talking over one another. Hui winced and took a step back, overwhelmed. “Seniors, your voices… please.”
The Sect Master cleared his throat, voice cutti...
2022-07-06 17:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Hui took a deep breath and circulated his qi, expelling the yin qi with his life qi. When his cultivation recovered, he approached the formation again, this time drawing toward a section he hadn’t probed before. Carefully, using almost none of his strength, he poked at the formation. When the formation turned red, or yin qi gathered, he immediately retreated and tried again from another angle.
The night drew on. As it became darker, the yin qi grew stronger and stronger. Caught up in ...
2022-07-05 21:00:03 +0000 UTC
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As they left Unrivaled Peak, Hui held up his hand. He turned toward the sixth peak and the stormclouds swirling above it. Even now, the clouds teemed with faces, pressing through the darkness to scream silently at nothing before the storm whisked them away again. “Wait. Before we leave, let’s examine the souls, first.”
After all, I don’t know what I’m dealing with, here. After I lost my connection with the formation, Gui Delun came after me to kill me. I didn’t have a lo...
2022-07-04 18:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Sitting down before his small lotus forest, Hui closed his eyes and began to circulate his qi, quietly settling his cultivation back to normal after the sudden influx of life qi. His body shrank down from ten meters to five, then back to his usual height, and the last of the heat dissipated. As he settled his qi, the dark clouds overhead faded, though somewhat reluctantly.
That golden tree…
He called it back into his mind. The golden tree resonated with the life qi in h...
2022-07-03 14:37:18 +0000 UTC
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Hui’s eyes went blank, and he sunk into a dreamstate. In the dream, he returned to the lotus seed. Darkness spread in all directions. Nothing existed but dirt, cool and silent. A few bugs wiggled around, living quiet lives. He laid there in silence, waiting. For what, he didn’t know, but he knew he had to wait.
The earth grew warmer. Water sank into him, refreshingly cool. Abruptly, the urge to grow spread through him. He surged upward, through the earth. Hui broke the earth and spr...
2022-07-01 19:05:56 +0000 UTC
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Hui crossed over the barrier’s boundary and stepped onto the familiar grounds of his Master’s peak. He paused, searching for Xixing and Sis Mei.
A friendly hiss caught his ear. Hui turned and found Zhubi curled around Xixing’s body in his large form, his scales shimmering in the sunlight. At the sight of Hui, he let go of Xixing and rushed toward Hui. Midair, he returned to his small form and wrapped around Hui’s neck. In Hui’s smaller size, Zhubi draped down his chest like an...
2022-06-30 22:08:51 +0000 UTC
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Zhi Ahn froze in midair. He turned and looked at the mysterious senior’s body. Was… he not actually a senior? For him to die in one blow…
He hesitated, then dropped down to the ground and squatted there, examining the man’s small body. Maybe he was a lower-realm cultivator trying to bluff me. But then, why charge at me? No… most likely he’s a clone of some sort, and his real body is elsewhere!
Zhi Ahn stood and looked around. He licked his lips, then ...
2022-06-30 01:46:51 +0000 UTC
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Hui raced through the grass at top speed. He brushed through the Unrivaled Under Heavens Peak’s barrier, and glanced up sharply as he did. The barrier’s still active? Not even that worn down. Master really wasn’t joking about tweaking it just before he ascended. It’s worthy of being called a tenth-stage cultivator’s masterpiece barrier.
…Though knowing Master, it’s something he casually comprehended and threw up, without seriously studying a single barrier…<...
2022-06-28 23:00:00 +0000 UTC
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The crow harrumphed and flew up into the sky, vanishing out of sight. Hui squinted after it for a moment, then turned away. He isn’t gong to help. Not unless it’s something he cares about. Something… like Fen Long.
After a moment, Hui chuckled under his breath. Right, and where am I supposed to find a peerless Senior like that? As for the man himself… it’s been a thousand years. If Fen Long is half the cultivator Chen Wuya makes him out to be, he’s already ascen...
2022-06-27 20:55:59 +0000 UTC
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They were upon a body barely another few steps in.
Hui stumbled. He looked down and found a finger barring his path. The finger led to a hand, the hand led to an arm, until an entire Starbound Sect cultivator laid there, eyes blank, body still. Hui glanced at the face, but found himself staring at a stranger. He took a deep breath. It’s better this way. If it was Sis Mei or Xixing…
Without hesitating, before he could think about it, Hui knelt and put both hands on the...
2022-06-26 15:00:00 +0000 UTC
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As he rode Zhubi, Hui sorted through the treasures he’d picked up in Chen Wuya’s realm. Most of them he had no affinity with, or plain didn’t know how to use. With his tiny size, he had to use his qi to hover them near him, rather than directly hold them, as most were too unwieldy for him. On the other hand, his tininess gave Hui a unique perspective into the treasures, and details that the normal-sized him might have missed stood out to the tiny him.
Peering up at a mysterious bo...
2022-06-25 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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They rounded a spring of grass, and the whole image revealed itself before them. Not just Hui’s ring, but his entire hand laid there in the grass, the ring still stuck on his crystallized finger.
Hui paused, licking his lips. Okay, so… er, how do I… free the ring? Maybe I can… He hopped off Zhubi and floated over to his hand, landing on his ring. Reaching out to the ring, he opened it and sent his hand inside.
Hui and the ring both fell to the ground. Despite his ...
2022-06-24 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Rewind time to the moment Hui split off into all directions.
An illusion replaced the sword under his feet. Hui summoned the sword into his hand behind his back. Moving quickly, he strapped the lotus pod with the reeds wrapped around it to the sword and released it. Gu Tian’s sword fell toward the ground, a lotus pod strapped to its hilt.
“Gu Tian, go,” Hui whispered.
Gu Tian’s sword flew low to the ground under its own power, not attached to Hui’s cultivation at a...
2022-06-23 21:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Hui charged ahead, riding Gu Tian’s sword. He glanced back. A dozen fourth-stage or lower cultivators chased him, though those below the fourth stage rapidly fell behind. In the distance, three beams of light quickly caught up with him. One moved more quickly than the other two, and in no time, he made out Gui Delun’s disapproving but expressionless face.
Shit. What stage is he? Probably the seventh stage, at least. I can’t fight that on even footing. How do I get away?
2022-06-22 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The All-Heavens disciples hovered around the borders of Starbound Sect, forming a perimeter. The instant the barrier fell, Gui Delun charged inside toward the mountain that appeared in the middle of their extermination ritual, but after that, things became unclear to them. Not least because of the massive cloud of dust that rose up from the sixth mountain, a cloud of dust that blocked their mental energy and divine sense from penetrating. Even the most powerful of the disciples Gui Delun had ...
2022-06-21 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Confusion welled up from within the links, along with panic. Hui reached out, doing his best to reassure everyone. You’re safe. Stay quiet. Don’t fight it. A little longer, and they’ll all leave. Trust me. I’ll keep you safe!
The Peak Lords probed the link back. Hui trembled, his body deteriorating further. One by one, they made contact with him. One by one, they backed off. None of them chose to forcibly break the link, or force their way out of playing dead.
Hui...
2022-06-20 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Or so it seemed. Hui held his breath, his body limp, exuding a death aura, his cultivation suppressed to the utmost. All the other cultivators, too, played dead, souls tied to Hui’s through the spell formation, controlled by Hui, powered by the massive reserves of life qi within Mount Mu.
It was a level of playing dead that even Hui had never attempted before. Their bodies had ceased. Their minds were blank. Their souls, even, were suppressed to almost nothing. The spell stopped every...
2022-06-19 17:40:22 +0000 UTC
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Heaving hard, Hui shifted the outer ring of the compass one last time. It clunked into place, and the entire platform began to hum. The black clouds swirling overhead twisted together into a wild tornado that whirled over Hui’s head. In the center of the feng shui compass, the red lines spread, opening into a circle. The tornado hovered over that circle, all the power funneling into the compass.
A thousand black threads spread out from the compass, touching every single person inside ...
2022-06-19 02:46:25 +0000 UTC
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Even as the pillars closed in, Hui reached out to Chen Wuya again. “Senior, give me a moment. I have an idea…”
“You again? Didn’t you just rudely cut me off?” Chen Wuya snorted.
“Senior, you can vent your anger on me if I survive this. Listen!” Hui took a deep breath and plunged into it, explaining his idea quickly.
Chen Wuya paused. After a moment, he laughed. “It might work. It’s beyond dangerous, and if anything goes wrong, you’ll be branded a kinkil...
2022-06-17 02:57:39 +0000 UTC
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Author's note: If you didn't already realize, we're entering a bit of a dark arc here. I'm probably going to release chapters in bursts for the duration, to try to lessen the darkness. However, this has been planned from the beginning, so it is necessary. It won't be dark forever, but it will be dark for a couple of chapters. Don't give up! There's always a silver lining! This isn't the end of the series!
All around, Starbound Sect cultivators stared in shock. ...
2022-06-17 02:56:20 +0000 UTC
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High above, Gui Delun and the Sect Master slammed together in a burst of bright light. Waves of magic blew out from their clash, slamming down on the disciples below as a physical blow. Hui stumbled back, and beside him, Tang Fei bent over, hands over her head. For a few seconds, all but the fifth-stage Peak Lords stopped fighting and did nothing but fight against the pressure from the experts clashing overhead.
“Legacy Treasure!” Sect Master Lan shouted, and waved his sleeve. A 3,0...
2022-06-15 21:21:59 +0000 UTC
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