I stare at the skewered lizard with my hands on my hips. It hangs limply from the wall by the stone spear impaling it a few meters up.
“How did it even get up there?” Allison asks.
“It must have been there when the snail shot it,” I suggest. “What I want to know is why the s...
2025-02-10 01:26:00 +0000 UTC View PostI wake with a start and sit up quickly.
“I wasn’t sleeping!” I lie, but I don’t get any response.
I take off my glasses and rub the sleep out of my eyes before replacing them and squinting up at the dark blob of nothingness where the warden of my prison waits. Predictably, I d...
2025-02-10 01:25:00 +0000 UTC View PostI nearly collapse against the wall in relief when I realize that the danger has passed, but catch myself—with our leg injury reopened, I might not be able to stand back up again if I sit now.
“We did it,” I sigh in relief. “It’s dead.”
“Oh! That’s good,” Allison says...
2025-02-10 01:24:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe snail is much easier to make out as it comes into the light. Its thick gray slug body glistens with slime, and the four tentacles on its head wiggle menacingly in my direction. Alright, I’m probably imagining the menace, but it’s already tried to attack me once so I have no doubt about it...
2025-02-10 01:23:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Let’s talk about our resources,” Violet says, barely giving me enough time to get through the harrowing ordeal of relieving my bladder.
“What resources?” I ask, hobbling my way back towards the Dark Corridor. “We’ve got nothing.”
“That’s not true,” she counters....
2025-02-10 01:22:00 +0000 UTC View PostAfter a short rest, I manage to pick myself up off the ground and brace myself against the wall to start awkwardly limping back towards the lit area.
“Wait,” the other me says. It’s so weird hearing my own voice like that. It feels like it’s coming from just next to me, but there’...
2025-02-10 01:21:00 +0000 UTC View PostFor the second time in a row, I wake up with a splitting headache. No nightmare this time, which is nice. Probably the only nice thing about it, to be honest—being awake sucks right now.
Unsurprisingly, the stone floor didn’t make for a very comfortable rest. I’m cold and sore and hon...
2025-02-10 01:19:21 +0000 UTC View Post“What the heck?!”
I can’t think of any other response to what just happened. My loneliness and homesickness are briefly forgotten as I sit here and just...process.
“What was that thing?” I demand. “Tier zero? Class? Attributes? What do all these numbers mean?”
I ca...
2025-02-10 01:18:54 +0000 UTC View PostNobody is coming for me. I’m going to die. I try not to let myself panic, but I don’t know how else to react to my own impending doom. Struggling is useless—the cultists have bolted my horns and hooves to the stone, and my hands are bound painfully beneath my back. Nobody is coming. Despite...
2025-02-10 01:17:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt had been surprisingly easy to get Emperor Qin to submit. As Xiaofan had suggested, once it was clear that she was beyond him, his domain of Order and Hierarchy had overcome his personal pride to reevaluate his own place in the world. Qin Yang was still a blight, but he was no longer a threat a...
2025-02-07 17:25:27 +0000 UTC View PostYoshika’s thoughts were a confusing jumble, as though she’d just woken from a dream, but she’d dreamt of...everything. It echoed in her head, reverberated through her soul. She had been something—something she’d yet to become, in a past that might never happen. Th...
2025-02-05 19:17:50 +0000 UTC View PostIt began with one infinitesimal thread of essence, so thin that if it had form or substance it would have been fine enough to pass through solid matter without disturbing it. Even that miniscule, delicate channel contained enough power to send shivers through Yoshika’s very soul. The raw power ...
2025-02-03 18:53:50 +0000 UTC View PostThe grand formation that Dae and his team had been working on was no regular feat of arcane mastery. The core spell circle that Yoshika began feeding her essence was only one tiny fraction of the whole, and like the Reflecting Pool and Teleportation formations before it, brought together comprehe...
2025-01-31 18:37:18 +0000 UTC View Post“This is growing tiresome, Empress. What could you possibly hope to achieve by trying my patience?”
Yoshika shrugged dismissively.
“Did you expect me to just roll over and die? I know you’ve spent millenia at the top of the world, but believe it or not, most people fight back ...
2025-01-29 19:39:14 +0000 UTC View PostIt didn’t take long, once Yoshika had shaken off the suppression of Qin Yang’s domain, for the man to make an appearance before her in the skies above Qin. One of his heavenly host appeared before her in midair, already mid-swing as his straight sword shot out towards her neck.
Yoshika ...
2025-01-27 18:45:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs befitting a goddess of Unity, Yoshika was something of an expert in the field of dual cultivation. It was how they’d begun, as just Lee Jia and An Eui, so many years ago—accidentally stumbling into a technique that allowed them to share their strengths and cover each other’s weaknesses. ...
2025-01-24 18:35:44 +0000 UTC View PostTempting though it was to fall into despair at the news of Emperor Qin’s invulnerability, Yoshika refused to buckle. If Qin Yang was an inviolable mountain, she would find a way around or over that mountain. If she couldn’t, then she’d test just how inviolable it really was.
“We del...
2025-01-22 19:30:12 +0000 UTC View PostYoshika yearned for the day when war councils would be a distant memory—a thing of the past, rather than the unfortunate necessity of her present. This one was small—just her, Yue, and Long Xiaofan huddled in the sanctity of her humble abode. While she had no shortage of trusted advisors and ...
2025-01-20 17:46:20 +0000 UTC View PostFighting was out of the question. The God-Emperor’s strength was completely overwhelming. Fleeing wasn’t much better—he was suppressing her domain and they were literally surrounded by Yoshika’s loved ones, each a potential hostage. The imperial elders would take his side in a conflict, a...
2025-01-17 15:18:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe air went completely still and silent. So oppressive was the atmosphere that only the pounding of her heart and Yue’s trembling fingers in her hand assured Yoshika that time was still moving. Prince Qin Yongliang and his sisters stepped aside and knelt, bringing everyone in the courtyard to ...
2025-01-15 19:25:06 +0000 UTC View PostYoshika was beyond pleased with how well the ceremony had gone. She was married! Yue was her wife! She glowed with the giddy feeling of joy, and just kept reminding herself in her head. Yue, her wife, chuckled wryly and shook her head with urbane amusement as she give Yoshika’s hand a gentle sq...
2025-01-13 19:31:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe long-awaited day had finally arrived. The streets of Jiaguo City and Purewater Peak were cordoned off, and crowds of people swarmed to get a closer look at the processions in each city. Not something close friends of the brides had to worry about—they were gathered in an enormous courtyard ...
2025-01-10 18:43:04 +0000 UTC View PostYan Yue sighed wistfully, her chin propped up on one hand as Lin Xiulan combed her hair. She gave Yue an arch look through the mirror on the vanity in front of them.
“Yue, sweetie, if you keep sighing like that people are going to think you’re unhappy about getting married.”
“...
2025-01-08 17:05:58 +0000 UTC View PostHyeong Daesung tried not to gawk openly at the traditional Yamato-style estate that Hayakawa Kaede called home. It was custom built in a district that the general populace couldn’t even access without permission, with its own walls for privacy, a huge and lush courtyard, and enough rooms to com...
2025-01-06 20:21:45 +0000 UTC View PostIt had been an interesting decade—for some more than others, but nobody had truly escaped the rapid changes that the world had been undergoing, most of which surrounding a peculiar young woman. Or, several of them, one supposed, but Xin Wei had known them back when “Yoshika” was just a cute...
2025-01-03 20:24:52 +0000 UTC View Post“Are we supposed to go to Qin, or are they coming here?”
Rika’s question forced Ja Yun to take a momentary break from actively panicking about the news of Empress Yoshika’s engagement to explain the very reason for her panic.
“Uh, both? We’re going to link Purewater Peak a...
2025-01-01 22:23:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe people of Purewater Peak and Jiaguo City were abuzz with news of Empress Yoshika’s engagement. The fact that she was marrying a woman was largely overshadowed by people celebrating the end of the war and the auspicious news of a friendly union between the two empires. Qin scholars and elder...
2024-12-13 20:09:54 +0000 UTC View PostBetween the holiday season, the recent death of a friend, and the upcoming end of the book (and the series!), I've been feeling a little bit overwhelmed lately and struggling to keep up with releases. I maintain a healthy backlog, so public and patreon readers don't notice slips like that, but th...
2024-12-13 20:05:21 +0000 UTC View PostDivine artifacts. Powerful relics from a higher realm—arms, armor, and tools used by gods themselves. Yoshika had a wealth of them inherited from the Bloody Sovereign, Chou. He had kept a vault of them, not to use or even trade, but as a hoard of trophies collected from his many enemies across ...
2024-12-11 18:43:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe elders and grandmasters all bristled at Yoshika’s audacity, and even Long Chunhua couldn’t hide her shock. Qin Yongliang gave away nothing that he didn’t want her to see, but his response was slow and measured—testing her intentions rather than immediately taking offense.
“Do ...
2024-12-09 19:35:25 +0000 UTC View Post