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 wa...
2021-11-06 18:34:08 +0000 UTC View PostXue 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, second...
2021-11-06 03:34:44 +0000 UTC View PostThe 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 ...
2021-11-06 03:26:30 +0000 UTC View PostAhead 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 tem...
2021-10-30 18:30:16 +0000 UTC View PostLight 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...
2021-10-30 18:23:49 +0000 UTC View PostHands 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. ...
2021-10-30 18:22:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe 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 ...
2021-10-30 18:21:43 +0000 UTC View PostSomething 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.
<... 2021-10-30 18:20:19 +0000 UTC View PostNo 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. Da...
2021-10-30 18:19:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe 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...
2021-10-30 18:15:09 +0000 UTC View PostThey 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 W...
2021-10-30 18:12:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe 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 slowl...
2021-10-30 18:12:26 +0000 UTC View Post“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...
2021-10-30 18:11:41 +0000 UTC View PostHui 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 c...
2021-10-27 14:35:49 +0000 UTC View PostAt 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....
2021-10-27 14:34:59 +0000 UTC View PostAt 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. Hu...
2021-10-27 14:34:07 +0000 UTC View PostClimbing 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 wa...
2021-10-22 01:55:24 +0000 UTC View PostSetting 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 ...
2021-10-22 01:54:39 +0000 UTC View PostHui’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. Fo...
2021-10-22 01:53:48 +0000 UTC View PostWeiheng 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 effect...
2021-10-22 01:53:09 +0000 UTC View PostA 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 energ...
2021-10-22 01:52:29 +0000 UTC View PostChang 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?...
2021-10-22 01:51:53 +0000 UTC View PostChang 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?...
2021-10-17 20:28:16 +0000 UTC View PostHui 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 ove...
2021-10-17 14:16:32 +0000 UTC View PostAt 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 ...
2021-10-17 14:15:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe 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 f...
2021-10-17 14:14:15 +0000 UTC View PostIn 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...
2021-10-17 14:13:38 +0000 UTC View PostParalyzed, 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. 2021-10-17 14:12:56 +0000 UTC View Post
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 a...
2021-10-17 14:12:17 +0000 UTC View PostHui 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 ...
2021-10-17 14:11:34 +0000 UTC View Post