Once they escaped the Blood Current and all its unnatural threats, they sailed from red-tinged waters, to empty ocean, to a region where they actually saw other ships passing from time to time. They spotted a single ship built with what looked like Krysali crystals, as well as a flying galleon he...
2024-03-20 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostWhat followed were some of the most grueling days of Kai's life. Not the closest to death, not the tensest, not the roughest, but grueling. They needed to be constantly alert for threats that, when they came, arrived with deadly force. The bone-deep weariness made it easy to sleep, except that at...
2024-03-19 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post"Do we have no fruit stores left?" Zae Zin Nim asked. "I would have sworn on my cultivation that we had more."
"We need to conserve them," Omilaena said as she forked more fish onto her plate. "Kai might be healthy just eating monsters, but we'll get sick if we don't balance our diets."
... 2024-03-18 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostIn another week, Kai could see the Blood Current on the horizon. He'd expected the name was due to the threat or the lives lost there, but in the distance he could actually see the waves grow increasingly red. Neither Zae Zin Nim nor Omilaena knew why they were red, so they approached with increa...
2024-03-15 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostConstantly pouring qi into the ship was a decent sort of training, but after enough hours at the wheel, Kai eventually got bored. He wasn't going to break any major barriers with just endurance training, especially since Behemoth's Heart seemed to keep him from getting tired. If they wanted to fa...
2024-03-14 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe ship bounced across the ocean's surface, its crystalline prow smashing into waves as they pushed it harder, faster than it should have been safe to ride. And Kai, moving before he could think about what he was doing, leapt over the side into the crashing waves.
Three things hit him in q...
2024-03-13 17:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostAs the trees blew ever more violently, Jaminob reluctantly approached with his cutter held high. He would most likely be fine unless he awakened one of the true chakra-bearing trees. Those could squash humans like bugs, but they only roamed in the deepest bowels of the forest.
He wasn't sur...
2024-03-12 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostWhen the furious hunger was finally sated, Kai had returned to himself. No more burning eyes or dark breath flooding from his mouth... even his teeth seemed to have returned to normal when he ran his tongue over them. His shirt and half his pants had been shredded, but that was his usual conditio...
2024-03-11 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostOmilaena's fight with Boreas had danced above the roofs of Yulthens as they tested one another. Her opponent had proved shockingly flexible and overflowed with seemingly endless qi, allowing him to make use of what would normally be desperation tactics over and over again. She had evaded injury b...
2024-03-08 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe pain was distant, ephemeral. Kai's mind focused entirely on the monstrous power within him and the answer that it contained.
When he'd come to Yulthens, he'd hoped to acquire dragon's breath, but fate had spurned him again. He had fought past it and sought his own power, but in doing so...
2024-03-07 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIf it had been Ren Ziq Quen alone, Zae Zin Nim would have done her best to fight him to the bitter end. Seeing Yurwa and the others retreating to the tower, about to be crushed by the stone, had finally driven her to take a stand. She had to give this fight everything she had.
But they had ...
2024-03-06 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe crystal knife must have been an expensive masterwork, because it cut deep into Kai's back. He cried out in pain and swung backward... narrowly missing Kraetius.
"Bah." The old man drew another knife and advanced on him. "Almost had you."
"Why?" Kai only managed the word before Tar...
2024-03-05 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAs the city trembled around her, Yurwa told herself that she would stand until the end, at least.
She had a clear view of what she was and wasn't capable of. Her role in the battle was to destroy crystal shielding when possible and remain behind defensive lines when it wasn't. Acid cultivat...
2024-03-04 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostKai ran through the city, struggling with his instincts. Zae Zin Nim was sorely outnumbered at the gates, Nirka and Maggle were under heavy assault, and the main army was barely entrenched at Mercantile Central. He wanted to go help any or all of them, but at this stage the battle was joined and ...
2024-03-01 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostKai fully analyzed the siege of Mercantile Central as he sprinted his way over the Yulthens rooftops. It looked like some sort of special defenses had been activated over all the main entrances, where the army camped. In theory many of them could have broken through the other walls, but the oppos...
2024-02-29 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostLots of people repeated "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy" and Nirka had always hated the phrase. What the fuck did they expect? Did they really think that a plan laid out on a bunch of maps in a room somewhere would actually play out in the real world?
She hadn't been surpris...
2024-02-28 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe initial stages of the battle would be determined by control of the five great crystals that hovered over the walls of Yulthens. Krainuun had detailed their capacities, from paralyzing beams to great destructive blasts, as well as how to control them. Powerful cultivators had been pouring qi i...
2024-02-27 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. I have made edits to chapters 202, 209, and 210. In 202, while I had originally written Kai's emotions to be implicit, given criticism I agree there's some value in making them explicit.
Regarding Orillia, I had later plans for emotional beats after her, but agreed ...
2024-02-26 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostKai balanced in a handstand, then slowly pressed himself to the ground. Vertical push-ups weren't even really training for him anymore, he could just think more clearly while physically exerting himself. Given the barriers to his Physique, thinking might do more good than training.
He compl...
2024-02-23 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostVery few in the city saw the message with the severed head, but the reaction was still horror. The celebrations gave way to an ugly mix of bravado, anger, and fear. Kai hoped their morale raising had been enough, because it had just been dealt a serious blow.
For him, shock had given way to...
2024-02-22 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostKai returned to Slaerta with new enthusiasm for his training. He might not be able to control the many variables involved in the revolution, but he would put everything he had into the one thing that relied entirely on him.
There was no more time for any celebrations or any of the workers t...
2024-02-21 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostGrowing up, the Frontier elites had always been Kai's greatest goal in life. They were truly the best, standing far above the strongest in any individual nation. More importantly, they were the front line against the monsters of the Frontier, keeping humanity safe. The idea of joining them had be...
2024-02-20 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post"And the average gold to crystal ratio," Krainuun said, "has risen to almost ninety Eagles per crystal."
"Wait, ninety?" Kai had been nodding through their conversation, but that threw him entirely. "Everyone was talking like fifty was unreasonable before."
"Ah, but those were peaceti...
2024-02-19 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe revolution crumbled beneath her, descending from lofty ideals to chaotic panic. Zae Zin Nim watched from atop a flying crystal, struggling to reconcile her mission objectives with her disgust.
Workers in the acid pits from another miserable city state had decided to join the revolution,...
2024-02-16 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostWith a violent barbarian standing in the background, negotiations proceeded with surprising ease. Kai had met with representatives from the mines, who indeed seemed much better off than the slaves in most other city states. The workers didn't love the merchant nobles, but they were afraid of what...
2024-02-15 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostKai raced across Krysal to another city he hadn't heard of before in a desperate effort to hold everything together. This one was called Teraklis and, in theory, he might be able to make a difference on his own.
Merchants had responded to the fall of Slaerta with the reserve that Krainuun h...
2024-02-14 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostKai wasn't frustrated by a single day of celebration, especially because he knew that none of the others would regenerate as fast as he did. Nirka was still recovering from her qi burn and a stomach wound that got infected, but when he checked on her the local healers were taking good care of her...
2024-02-13 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. Thanks for sticking with me through business week. The new schedule will be chapters Monday through Friday.)
Witnessing a battle between armies was strange for Zae Zin Nim. In her experience, most conflicts had been decided by duels between cultivators, which struck her a...
2024-02-12 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThis is going all the way back to the beginning of the first book, but I wanted to revisit it. As you likely remember, the story begins in medias res - there have actually been two versions of this, one at the time of Kai's banishment and one at the moment his monstrous abilities awaken. 2024-02-10 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
A few of you have been requesting this, so I've set up a Discord server:
It is in theory connected to Patreon on the back end now, so you should get an automatic invitation along with s...
2024-02-08 17:56:11 +0000 UTC View Post