Hui rubbed a hand over his face. Taking a deep breath, he centered himself, forcing the panic out. He glanced at the door. It remained sealed, Xue’s spell still holding. Trapped in a room with a fourth-stage cultivator who’s about to turn into a fourth-stage ghoul… Master, of all the ways this poor disciple could die in this secret realm, I didn’t expect to go like this.
What do I have? I still remember how to create the wind talisman… dammit, but I wasted the fir...
2021-11-06 18:34:08 +0000 UTC
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Xue dashed away. Hui dangled off his shoulder, desperately holding on. “Er, Xue! Where are we going?”
Laughing, Xue shrugged. “A safe place.” He turned around and fired another two slashes of his fan at the trio. They huddled down and cast a barrier between the three of them, seconds before they vanished under the flames.
“Not going to fight them?” Hui asked. That blast of flame was easily at the fourth stage! He could take them all out with no effort!
...
2021-11-06 03:34:44 +0000 UTC
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The spires passed slowly by. Occasionally, Hui found his feet drifting off the straight-line path they’d decided upon, but Xue always corrected him before he drifted too far. Likewise, whenever Xue started to wander, he drew her back.
The light began to fade. Darkness again fell over the sky, the fog swirling thicker. Shuffling sounds echoed from the fog. Hui’s ears prickled. He whirled to find nothing for the hundredth time. Frustrated, he rubbed the back of his neck and adjusted t...
2021-11-06 03:26:30 +0000 UTC
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Ahead of him, Bai Xue shuffled along. Awkward and graceful at the same time, her short steps caught on the rope, then yanked her back foot forward and repeated the process. Every few steps, her form would flicker, wavering like a mirage, except that the secret realm remained a comfortable low temperature. Silently, Hui focused his qi-enhanced vision on her, waiting for the next time she flickered.
Before his eyes, her body shifted suddenly, form wavering. An energy he didn’t recognize...
2021-10-30 18:30:16 +0000 UTC
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Light filtered in, the gray glow that passed for dawn in this strange realm fading up the passageway and into Hui’s cavern. He focused on the skin, absorbed in his work. His qi spiraled across it, from one point to the next. Every surface of the skin stood alive with his qi. The spell shimmered, a thousand glowing lines and nodes spiraling across the skin.
He focused, pushing deeper. The qi pulsed, filling the skin from the head to the toes.
Now!
Hui pulled his co...
2021-10-30 18:23:49 +0000 UTC
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Hands pulled at his robes. Hui startled awake and swatted blindly, reaching for his sword before his eyes opened. His head banged against the wall, and pain burst out across his skull. The pain echoed inside his head, a hangover from the ghoul’s venom. Hui rubbed his head and cringed, wincing. “Ow…”
“Ah, sorry. I thought you were dead.”
He opened his eyes.
The white-haired beauty straddled him, still holding his robes with one hand. Their faces nearly touched, re...
2021-10-30 18:22:53 +0000 UTC
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The ghoul grabbed his shoulders and went for his throat. Hui backstepped. His heels hit the stone block, and he tripped backward out of the screeching ghoul’s grasp and into the waiting ghouls. They clawed and bit at him. He let his weight carry him past their clumsy grip and plopped down onto the crawler. The crawler groaned.
“Thanks for the assist,” Hui muttered, rolling off the crawler. He jumped back to his feet and faced the screeching ghoul.
The screeching ghoul leaped...
2021-10-30 18:21:43 +0000 UTC
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Something nudged at his nose. Hui turned away, vaguely brushing it away. “Zhubi, not yet…”
Cold hands caught his arm and drew it away from him.
Hui’s eyes snapped open. His yanked his arm away from the ghoul and instinctively kicked it. The ghoul fell back, arms flailing.
Jumping to his feet, Hui raced at the ghoul. His sword slid from its sheath with a whisper. He swung at the ghoul’s knees with both hands, meaning to break or dislocate.
The sword bit throug...
2021-10-30 18:20:19 +0000 UTC
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No longer playing dead or immediately assaulted by the undead, Hui took a moment to look around the secret realm as he fled the green-robed cultivators.
The realm laid out before him, bleak and empty. Gray, gritty sand, more tiny pebbles than proper sand, stretched out in all directions. Darker stones thrust through it, some upright, others at angles, the stones narrow on one end, flat on their surfaces and about as large around as a man, though twice as tall. Hui glanced at one of the ...
2021-10-30 18:19:09 +0000 UTC
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The undead reached him. The nearest one crouched and grabbed his arm, lifting it toward its maw.
Ah, no! I forgot! They eat people, even dead people! Hui started to release his hold on his qi.
Before he could release it fully, a wave of green-robed disciples burst through the portal overhead. Startled, Hui clamped down on his qi again. The undead drew his limp arm toward its gaping maw. Cold drool dripped onto his skin. Yellowed teeth shone in the low light.
Arg...
2021-10-30 18:15:09 +0000 UTC
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They burst across the sky, a single bolt of light high above the mortals below. Hui clung to his master’s back, eyes squeezed shut. When the wind pressure let up, he hovered above a group of other cultivators. Dressed in green, their hair bound into buns, they stared up at Hui in his blue and Weiheng Wu in his white.
One of the cultivators hopped on her sword and flew into the sky toward them. “Welcome, Weiheng Wu. To what does the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect owe the honor?”
2021-10-30 18:12:56 +0000 UTC
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The chirping of birds roused him from his slumber. Outside his window, red and yellow leaves swayed with the wind, colored in the brilliant shades of autumn. A cool breeze, not yet cold, shifted through the gaps in the door and the paper window.
A hand nudged his shoulder. Hui shifted slowly, eyes half-shut. “Ten… ten more minutes.”
“Are you awake?” a male voice asked.
Hui startled upright, swinging his legs out of bed. Oh shit, dad’s home! “Up, I’m ...
2021-10-30 18:12:26 +0000 UTC
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“Fight!”
Chang Bolin rushed at him. His sword rushed from its sheath, and he struck at Hui’s throat.
Hui leaped backward, dragging out his training sword at the same time. He struck the blade upward with the butt of the hilt, redirecting the blade away from his neck. Chang Bolin flowed with the strike and let the sword fly high, then fall back on Hui. Clumsily, Hui blocked the blow. A notch flew from his sword’s blunt blade.
“Not even a real sword? Does your mocker...
2021-10-30 18:11:41 +0000 UTC
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Hui opened his eyes as dawn broke over the horizon. He stood, stretching. Today’s the day.
Two days of cultivation. Two days of drills, practicing the few simple sword moves he knew. Two days of waiting. I’m weaker than Chang Bolin, but with only three days to prepare, he couldn’t have broken through into the third stage unless he was a much more heaven-defying talent than he is. If he was a whole realm above me, I’d stand no chance.
But as it is…
2021-10-27 14:35:49 +0000 UTC
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At the foot of Starbound Peak, Hui glanced around to make sure no one was around, then peeled the pig-skin mask off his face. He sucked in a breath and vigorously wiped his face. Ugh. Smells like pig. Feels like sweat. Xixing, your masks suck!
Well, I can’t complain too much. It got the job done, in the end.
He gazed up at the stars, so brilliant, so far above. Taken by their beauty, he slowed to a halt. Like diamonds in velvet. Were they always this bright...
2021-10-27 14:34:59 +0000 UTC
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At the base of Cauldron Peak, Hui pulled the pig-skin mask over his face. For a second, he stared through the flaccid eye-holes, and then the mask came to life. Like a human-skin mask, it adapted to his features and hugged close to his face, transforming him.
At last, the motion stopped. Hui walked on, through the space between sects. A little brook trickled along the edge of the path, and he moved over to it, curious. In the stillness of the stream, he caught a glimpse of himself and h...
2021-10-27 14:34:07 +0000 UTC
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Climbing the hill, Hui made a beeline for Qin Xixing’s shop. No less dusty and derelict than the last time, her shop sat empty, unlike the shops around hers. Silver smoke rose from the back of her shop.
Hui ducked inside, peering around. The same as last time, trange charts hung on her walls. Masks and gloves dangled behind them, each one stranger than the next. Cabinets with narrow, small drawers filled every other inch of the space, cluttered on top of one another. He peered around ...
2021-10-22 01:55:24 +0000 UTC
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Setting the empty bowl on the step, Hui let out a burp and stood. Now that my important business is done… where’s the administrative building?
“Hui!” Mei reappeared at the door, holding a paper package.
“Sis! Thank you!” Hui bowed and accepted it.
She waved back and disappeared inside.
He wandered out, dodging the paths again and moving with confidence. If only I had a clipboard—cough! No one has clipboards in this world! Carefully, he w...
2021-10-22 01:54:39 +0000 UTC
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Hui’s eyes flew open again. He spat out a mouthful of impurities and wiped his mouth. “Is that all the further I can go?”
He turned his attention internally. With Zhubi’s help, he’d broken open another meridian, but that was all he’d accomplished in another month of practice. Four meridians opened, his dantian as expanded as four meridians would allow it, but he could go no further. Any further, and actual death loomed before him.
This can’t be as far as this man...
2021-10-22 01:53:48 +0000 UTC
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Weiheng Wu’s peak rushed up. Descending to the earth at the base of the clearing, Weiheng Wu stepped off his sword and let go of Hui. Hui stumbled, half-expecting his knees to give out again, but aside from a slight light-headedness and a bit of a wobble, he was fine. Those pills are effective!
Weiheng Wu reached out for his neck, head tilted. Hui jerked back. Master, what—?
Scales shifted against his neck. Weiheng Wu ran a finger over Zhubi’s head. “I se...
2021-10-22 01:53:09 +0000 UTC
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A hand pressed against his shoulder. The pressure on his body fell away. Having long abandoned his technique, Hui leaped back to life. His qi bounced back to normal, and then some. Qi rushed into him, flying from all corners into his dantian. His passages ached, heat blasting into him, more energy than he could handle scouring his system. Squeezing his eyes shut, he curled up, overwhelmed by the rush of qi. Too much! I can’t, I can’t—
“Don’t fight it. Let it in, circu...
2021-10-22 01:52:29 +0000 UTC
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Chang Bolin strode over to him and stood inches from him. Their noses would have almost touched, if Chang Bolin had enough height to manage the feat. As it was, he stared fiercely up at Hui from his chest. “Is it bravery or idiocy that drives you to risk life and death to visit Starbound Peak?”
“Er… probably more the second,” Hui muttered honestly.
Other Starbound Peak disciples wandered in behind Chang Bolin. Moving casually, they formed a loose circle around Hui and Ch...
2021-10-22 01:51:53 +0000 UTC
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Chang Bolin strode over to him and stood inches from him. Their noses would have almost touched, if Chang Bolin had enough height to manage the feat. As it was, he stared fiercely up at Hui from his chest. “Is it bravery or idiocy that drives you to risk life and death to visit Starbound Peak?”
“Er… probably more the second,” Hui muttered honestly.
Other Starbound Peak disciples wandered in behind Chang Bolin. Moving casually, they formed a loose circle around Hui and Ch...
2021-10-17 20:28:16 +0000 UTC
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Hui threw himself through the library’s door and slammed it shut behind him. Someone thumped into the door, nearly throwing it open against his weight. Another few thumps rang out, and then the door laid quietly shut.
“Sir?” the librarian asked, half-standing. Long black hair hung over his shoulders. Half-moon pince-nez perched on the bridge of his nose, connected by a chain to his ear.
Hui let out a quiet laugh and raised a hand, asking for a moment. He pressed his back to ...
2021-10-17 14:16:32 +0000 UTC
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At the bottom of Cauldron Peak, Hui bent over and caught his breath. Cauldron Peak is scary. The girls there are nothing like elder sister Mei! He straightened up, then glanced around. No one around. Better hoof it home.
Wait. I never got her to tell me how to turn on a pill furnace! Hui looked back up the peak, then shook his head. I’ll get the materials first. Two birds, one trip up and down the peaks.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch out!” a gi...
2021-10-17 14:15:13 +0000 UTC
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The pill burned down his throat, all the way into his stomach.
“Meditate, meditate!” Xixing urged him.
Closing his eyes, Hui sat on the spot and crossed his legs. Xixing dropped with him, maintaining a hold on his face, though she kindly released his nose so he could breathe. He focused inward, on the pill.
“Guide it to your qi passageways!”
He reached out with his qi and touched the pill, coaxing it deeper. The pill gave chase, soaking into his qi passageways....
2021-10-17 14:14:15 +0000 UTC
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In his ten years in the Starbound Sect, he’d only visited his own peak and Starbound Peak. Pills offered more danger than assistance to someone who hadn’t yet cultivated, except for the very low-level body-tempering pills and liquids they offered in the outer sect. Standing at the base of the peak, he gazed up at the smoke streaming away on the wind. This close, the seemingly unified stream of smoke broke into dozens of smaller streams, each one with its own color and pattern. Most of the...
2021-10-17 14:13:38 +0000 UTC
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Paralyzed, Hui laid on the ground like a dead fish. Poison pumped through his veins, burning him from the inside out. He closed his eyes and focused, guiding his qi toward the poison. His qi fought him, refusing to obey his orders. It trashed out of his hold and blasted on, ignoring the poison.
The poison met his qi. Instantly, his qi went cold and dark. The rioting qi carried the poison faster. In the space of a few heartbeats, all the qi in his body had fallen still.
Wait. I...
2021-10-17 14:12:56 +0000 UTC
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Walking around the pill furnace, Hui nodded to himself. He crouched down and peered under it, lifted the lid and poked around inside. Massive and built of wrought iron, it bore no real decoration. Hui kicked it. The furnace didn’t budge.
Hui stood up again and nodded again, crossing his arms. “Yep. That’s a furnace.”
Master! Forget the pill manual. Your poor disciple doesn’t know how to turn the furnace on!
Hui turned. In the distance, smoke rose over Caul...
2021-10-17 14:12:17 +0000 UTC
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Hui started to turn away, then froze. I’ve got a bowl from Skybound Peak’s cafeteria up the peak. Isn’t that a smoking gun? I need to get rid of the evidence, stat! “Actually… could you come up the mountain? There’s something I could use your help with.”
“I can’t pass the barrier,” Lao said.
“Barrier?” Hui asked.
Lao stepped past Hui and reached his hand out. The air simmered around his hand, refusing to let him push any further. “The barri...
2021-10-17 14:11:34 +0000 UTC
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