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Chapter 156: KILL AND BLOOD
CHAPTER156KILL AND BLOODJieyuan—∞—Well, Jieyuan thought, his gaze lingering on Jiahao’s corpse, if we weren’t in a hurry to leave before, we sure are now.The nearest Shifting Feather—the one that had nearly split the Orangesoul in half—was still within range of his soulforce; he lowered its weight and the...
Chapter 155: TO BISECT
CHAPTER155TO BISECTJieyuan—∞—Stepping out into Radiant Street, Jieyuan set a brisk pace, leaving the hulking black form of the Mysterious Night House behind him. Not so fast that he’d be running and drawing people’s attention, though. More like he had somewhere he needed to get to.Which he did. And that somew...
Chapter 154: BUY AND SELL
(Chapter 2 of 2 today.)CHAPTER154BUY AND SELLJieyuan—∞—“Should you wish to bid on a lot,” their attendant was saying, indicating one of the two pedestals rising off the floor, “then you need only channel chroma here, and state a number of prisms and their color. The bid will be reflected on the outside of t...
Chapter 153: STARRY NIGHT
(Chapter 1 of 2 today. The next chapter will be published right after.)So here’s the release for the Monday before last, which was significantly delayed, as well as this Monday’s release, which was considerably less delayed.Normally, when I delay a release by more than a week, I like to include a bonus chapter to m...
Chapter 152: BACK AND BLACK
Here's last Monday's chapter. Cutting it close again, but still in the right week. Planning on getting the next chapter sooner, but we'll see how it goes.CHAPTER152BACK AND BLACKJieyuan—∞—Meiyao gave Jieyuan an utterly incredulous look, eyes wide, jaw slack. It’d have been comical if it weren’t fo...
Chapter 151: DRINK AND TALK
Here you go, last Monday's chapter. Cutting it close, but at least it was still released in the right week. CHAPTER151DRINK AND TALKJieyuan—∞—In a small but tidy living room, Jieyuan, Meiyao, and Daojue sat around a table in the dark. Xiaohu lay draped across Meiyao’s shoulders.Daojue was silent, as usual, ...
Chapter 150: TO BE BACK
A bit delayed (I really wanted to get this one right, and it took me longer than I would have thought), but better late than never. This is last Monday's pending chapter. I hope you enjoy it.CHAPTER150TO BE BACKJieyuan—∞—Meiyao was different. Her appearance was the same. Same long, flowing brown hair. Same vi...
Chapter 149: VOID TO CAVE
Sorry about the delay! I ended up having to travel last week, and that messed up my schedule. This is last week's chapter. This week's chapter should actually be coming out tomorrow, Thursday at the latest (it's already half-done). CHAPTER149VOID TO CAVEJieyuan—∞—The void blurred and sharpened back in...
Chapter 148: BLOOD AND BOON
CHAPTER148BLOOD AND BOONJieyuan—∞—It was not the blood-red plains Jieyuan returned to. Rather, what the void of the Heavenly Room gave way to was, for once, an actual room.The room was large and mostly empty, with bare gray stone walls, ceiling, and floor. There weren’t any windows. Glowing bars ran through the...
Chapter 147: TO LAY BARE
This is last Monday's chapter, as promised, even if a bit late. I'd like to say next week's chapter is coming out tomorrow, but clearly I'm too optimistic with dates, so let's just play it safe and say it'll come out sometime next week. CHAPTER147TO LAY BAREJieyuan—∞—The metal walls of the...
Chapter 146: BURNING END
Chapter 2 of 2 today. Chapter 147 is coming out tomorrow.CHAPTER146BURNING ENDJieyuan—∞—He didn’t appear in any of the forests or towns he’d burned down. Nor did he appear in the midst of the charred, burning landscape that had served as the setting of the seventh through tenth difficulties. It wasn’t the i...
Chapter 145: FIRE AND SELF
Chapter 1 of 2 is today. The next chapter will be published immediately afterward. There will also be another chapter tomorrow—today’s two are the one I owed from last week plus a bonus as an apology for the delay (the fifth stage ended up needing two chapters, rather than just one). Tomorrow’s chapter is already...
Chapter 144: THORN AND PAIN
Chapter 2 of 2 today. Again, please check the Discord announcement. There WILL be another chapter this (or next, for some of you) week.CHAPTER144THORN AND PAINJieyuan—∞—When Jieyuan stepped into the Heavenly Room, Shifting Feathers drawn, he did so expecting to appear in a torture chamber on the other side: some ...
Chapter 143: OF DEAD BONE
Chapter 1 of 2 today—and these are still last week's chapters. I'll be explaining the situation clearly in the Discord announcement, but there'll still be another chapter next week. Long short short, I overdid things a little and ended up with two full length chapters last week. Oops.CHAPTER143OF DEAD BON...
Chapter 142: SHAPE AND CHANGE
CHAPTER142SHAPE AND CHANGEJieyuan—∞—Jieyuan stared blankly at the metal surface of the door in front of him. It was darkened, the handle gone.The woman’s frenzied words still rang in his ears.Listen to me. You must… You must… You must…“Must what?” he murmured. His heart was still hammering against his...
Chapter 141: DO OR DO
CHAPTER141DO OR DOJieyuan—∞—Jieyuan sighed as the Heavenly Hall reappeared around him, along with all the cultivators there.The sphere he had chosen now sat within his body; he could just barely feel its presence here in the Heavenly Hall, but it was unmistakably there, inside him. Merged with him, maybe.This con...
Chapter 140: TWISTS AND TURNS
And there we have it: the first chapter published following the new schedule. The next chapter will be coming out next Monday; I've also adjusted previous chapters so that paying patrons are now seven chapters ahead instead of fourteen—but still seven weeks ahead of the regular releases (and also ahead by the sam...
Chapter 139: THE TWIN SNAKES
CHAPTER139THE TWIN SNAKESJieyuan—∞—All things considered, the snake didn’t really come as a surprise.Jieyuan had just barely told the Amphis Concept what difficulty he wanted when the beast spilled out from the mouth of the stone snake head opposite him: a great, sinuous body covered in black and yellow scales....
Chapter 138: A WAY FOUND
CHAPTER138A WAY FOUNDJieyuan—∞—In the place of the infinitely distant ceiling was now a starry sky. An ocean of silver orbs scattered throughout a black void.Not just any starry sky, either. It was a mirror of the same vision Jieyuan had seen once before, when he bonded with Absolute Will Command, right after the...
Chapter 137: PAST AND TOWER
CHAPTER137PAST AND TOWERJieyuan—∞—Anren knelt down, picked up Gleaming End. Then she walked over to Daojue—whom she’d just dropped to the ground with her last attack—and extended a hand.Jieyuan watched in awe as Daojue took it and Anren pulled him to his feet.They were all standing at the middle of the plat...
Chapter 136: TO INSTRUCT
CHAPTER136TO INSTRUCTJieyuan—∞—Jieyuan, of course, didn’t let go. Not that he reckoned he’d have stood much of a chance if this turned into a tug-of-war situation. Given what he’d seen of Anren’s performance against Daojue earlier, it was a good thing she wasn’t pulling on the Shifting Feathers, just ho...
Chapter 135: CUT THE SHADE
CHAPTER135CUT THE SHADEJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan looked between Daojue and Anren.Anren, who was in a relaxed stance, her sword up, the tip pointed at Daojue.Daojue, who had taken a combat stance himself, both hands on Gleaming End, the spearhead angled towards Anren.Daojue’s dark violet eyes were narrowed, fixing Anren...
Chapter 134: BARREN PLAINS
So. A quick author note: So far, I’ve been restricting myself pretty heavily punctuation-wise, but that’s led to a gross overuse of em-dashes, so it’s something I’ll be addressing in the rewrite. However, I figured I’d already start putting it into practice, so expect to see some semicolons, colons, and paren...
Chapter 133: SOUL AND SWORD
CHAPTER133SOUL AND SWORDJIEYUAN—∞—The voice was deep. Resonant. And loud—so loud it should’ve left his ears ringing, his eardrums bleeding, his bones rattling.But none of that happened. Because the words hadn’t been spoken, at least not in the conventional way—nor in any other Jieyuan knew of, and he had ...
Chapter 132: BEAST OF MIST
CHAPTER132BEAST OF MISTJIEYUAN—∞—Once swindled, twice guarded. Jieyuan had learned his lesson.This time around, he didn’t just stand there waiting for Meiyao to get them into another mess. The moment he realized what was happening, he rushed over and grabbed her shoulder—all the while bracing himself in case ...
Chapter 131: HIGHER REALMS
CHAPTER131HIGHER REALMSJIEYUAN—∞—Chromal beasts weren’t necessarily bigger than their mundane counterparts, and realm didn’t correlate to size. Jieyuan had met massive Redsoul beasts and tiny Orangesoul ones. If anything, the smaller the beast, the more troublesome it tended to be.But Jieyuan had never come a...
Chapter 130: TO DESCEND
CHAPTER130TO DESCENDJIEYUAN—∞—Two months.As best Jieyuan could tell—even after all this while, keeping track of time in the Dome was still no easy task—that was about how much time it took him and Daojue to meet Meiyao again.And now just about that same amount of time had passed since they’d reunited.Jieyua...
Chapter 129: HIS AND HERS
CHAPTER129HIS AND HERSJIEYUAN—∞—“Meiyao,” Jieyuan said, catching her attention. “Are we safe here, or do we need to move?”To his surprise, Meiyao didn’t even need a moment to answer. “We’re fine for now.”“Are you sure?” He didn’t doubt her, but he remembered how she’d always spend a good f...
Chapter 128: STAKE YOUR CLAIM
CHAPTER128STAKE YOUR CLAIMJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought of kissing Meiyao before. He tried not to think about the subject—it was a total waste of time to dwell on fantasies, as far as he was concerned—but he’d never been able to push it off his mind altogether.And it wasn...
Chapter 127: KILL AND KISS
CHAPTER127KILL AND KISSJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan almost shouted it out—but then he caught himself, swallowing down the words. Keeping half his attention on the fight, he jumped from one thought to the next, trying to decide on his next move, on the best course of action.There was an opportunity here. He was sure of it....
