Spiritual sense was a curious thing.
For some cultivators, it was a tool of exacting details. As comprehensible as mundane vision and twice as discerning. Daoist Scouring Medicine could walk past a crowd of a dozen outer disciples and rank them by strength as clearly as any seeing man could rank them by height.
For others, it was an ...
2025-02-24 23:19:06 +0000 UTC View PostUgh. My computer crashed and somehow the most recent Obsidian backup got corrupted into a wall of []s. Was able to recover the one before that, but now I'm sitting here at 9 trying and failing to rewrite the most recent 600 words. This guy was already a disorganized bear with too many half-finished sections, I don't think it's getting done tonig...
2025-02-24 03:18:51 +0000 UTC View PostDisciple Wang Tao hadn't been sure what he expected a daoist to be like. As a mortal, they'd been figures out of stories. Noble heroes and blood-soaked villains. Joining a sect had hardly changed that understanding. An initiate with formidable backing or heaven-defying talent might be taught by a daoist directly. Wang Tao had neither of those th...
2025-02-17 00:46:30 +0000 UTC View PostOn Mount Yuelu, winter was a time for testing. Were your skills sharp enough to find fish or catch rodents? Did you know the best rocks, where worms still squirmed even in the frozen earth? Were your stores deep enough to keep your strength up on days you could do neither of those things? Were the bonds of the pack strong enough, for months of b...
2025-02-09 22:19:10 +0000 UTC View PostOrange-crest stared up at the ceiling. That was... new. His brother was a man of many secrets. But this time? He was pretty sure the human was yanking his tail.
"You wrote all over the ceiling." The monkey observed aloud. "The ceiling is not a book."
"No." Daoist Scouring Medicine corrected. "I drew out a novel formation across a doz...
2025-02-03 01:11:29 +0000 UTC View PostDaoist Scouring Medicine looked at the monkey sitting cross legged before his chair. A little hairy, certainly. The nudity would be problematic to many teachers. But otherwise the very model of a daoist's student, ready to receive instruction. Back straight, eyes clear, ears perked intently.
How far Li Hou had come in a short time.
"...
2025-01-27 00:30:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe fox-fire made it harder to see. Orange-crest thought the light would help. It did, while it burned. But the moment the orbs slammed home, they would fade. Fail to catch the centipede's thick skin alight. And then the darkness would return, twice as deep for its momentary absence. Orange-crest's only consolation was that the centipede was eve...
2025-01-19 22:40:10 +0000 UTC View PostDaoist Scouring Medicine awoke to the sound of his monkey rummaging through his chest. Bleary eyes cracked open, sending little pebbles of rheum cascading down his cheeks.
Disgusting.
He hated this. Infirmity. Weakness. Naps. It was the core of what he'd dedicated his practice to stamping out, grinding away. He would be stronger, whe...
2025-01-13 00:20:24 +0000 UTC View PostThe Meeting Hall felt cavernous, far more so than it normally did. The sect master had not deigned to command a light be set, leaving the two men he had summoned to wait in darkness.
For a mortal, the blackness would have been oppressive. Not absolute, but near to it. For a core formation cultivator, it was merely quite dark. Elder Lu coul...
2025-01-06 02:27:29 +0000 UTC View PostCaught what was probably the flu on the flight back from Christmas. Negative covid test at least, so probably not that. Still kinda going through it, so no chapter this week. Was planning on getting it done this weekend, and I spent the whole time sweating through my sheets instead. 2/10 do not recommend. Might actually get a flu shot next year,...
2024-12-29 16:55:24 +0000 UTC View Post"Li Hou, that is a great deal of ginger."
Daoist Enduring Oath watched as the monkey hesitated, before digging the scoop back into the drawer once more.
"Little ginger good. Big ginger more good." Orange-crest explained. It seemed a very simple concept. Ginger tasted good. Why would one not put as much as possible in their tea?
"Daoist Scouring Medicine."
The smile on Snowclad Heart's face was insufferable. Daoist Scouring Medicine's fingers itched to wipe it away. It was mere minutes away now. All the man had to do, was say the words.
Li Hou would be fine. This exact outcome was why he'd only given him a single healing pill and two qi restoratives. Even h...
2024-12-15 20:38:17 +0000 UTC View PostA month had passed quickly. The monkey was as ready as it would be.
Daoist Scouring Medicine stared down at the small fellow by his side as they ambled down the path to the training grounds. He'd considered attempting to cloth it. Its thick fur concealed its modesty well enough, but there would be a certain effect to seeing the monkey clad...
2024-12-08 23:20:32 +0000 UTC View Post"Are you not tired of this, Daoist Guarding Thunder?" Daoist Scouring Medicine asked. "Taking time away from your cultivation to bother me about the outer sect's squabbles?"
Orange-crest was eavesdropping on his brother. It was surprisingly easy. Daoist Scouring Medicine had insisted he keep out of sight of their visitor, and above all not...
2024-12-01 23:58:47 +0000 UTC View PostOrange-crest burst out from the underbrush, only to see a massive form bearing down again.
"Got you, you damn pest!" Wu Yingjie shouted, arms coming together.
He did not get orange-crest. The monkey dove through the lumbering man's legs again, turning on a hair to dive off the path again. The fat boy really should learn to keep his h...
2024-11-24 18:25:15 +0000 UTC View PostOrange-crest was having a free day. It was an odd concept, one that had taken Brother Scouring Medicine several tries to explain to the monkey. It'd been a struggle for him to imagine having a day that was not free. What unfortunate creatures men were, dominated so utterly by their betters and peers. Even the lowliest creature upon Mount Yuelu l...
2024-11-18 00:05:43 +0000 UTC View PostThey gathered in the shadow of the Punishment Hall. One initiate, and three disciples. It seemed appropriate, given what they were discussing. The three-story complex had a long row of eaves along the south face. With the building's stone foundation on one side, a dense wall of bamboo along the other, and an overhanging roof overhead, there was ...
2024-11-10 23:06:31 +0000 UTC View Post"Euug." Orange-crest burp-groaned pitifully, too tired to even finish the noise.
"Rise and shine Li Hou!" Brother Scouring Medicine said with hateful chipperness.
"No."
"Yes."
"No." Orange-crest threw the robe over his head, burrowing deeper into it. His head felt like Daoist Enduring Oath had crept through a window and s...
2024-11-03 18:25:46 +0000 UTC View PostDaoist Scouring Medicine allowed Li Hou the honor of knocking at Daoist Enduring Oath's door. The monkey rather enjoyed being allowed to bang pieces of metal against each other. Not that such a thing was necessary. The man's protections would have alerted him the moment they approached.
It was amusing, thirty years ago Daoist Scouring Medi...
2024-10-27 20:19:35 +0000 UTC View PostOrange-crest awoke to light and warmth. A nest had been made for him. His body was nestled into a robe the color of driven snow. His brother's. Small motes of dust danced through a sunbeam, rising to heaven and falling to earth in accordance with the disturbances in the air made by his breath.
The monkey blinked. How did he know that?
<... 2024-10-23 17:17:21 +0000 UTC View PostOrange-crest wasn't sure he liked cultivation.
It was so dark, this deep beneath the earth. He felt like he was floating in a sea of night, his brother's voice and the cold stone beneath his feet the only things that were real.
"Li Hou, I need you to focus." His brother said sharply. "You can have as much wine as you can drink tonigh...
2024-10-20 23:27:11 +0000 UTC View PostDaoist Scouring Medicine smiled at the fool blocking his path. It probably was not good for his spiritual development to be acting like this. The immortals of legend did not indulge petty grudges, or exalt in tormenting others.
But it was such fun.
"No. Absolutely not. I am no disciple you can bully into compliance."
"I was not...
2024-10-13 21:45:27 +0000 UTC View Post"It is a pleasure to host you and your monkey again so soon, Daoist Scouring Medicine. I have taken the liberty of locking my workshop door this time."
"That is understandable. I appreciate your tolerance of his curiosity. You are perhaps the one person in this sect I would not wish his mischief upon."
Daoist Enduring Oath suppressed...
2024-10-13 21:44:59 +0000 UTC View PostDaoist Scouring Medicine stared down at the squirming monkey lying on the table in front of him.
"Here still! Sausage after!" He barked first. "I need accurate measurements if I'm to develop a suitable bodily cultivation bath for you."
He was getting good and managing the little rascal. Begin with commands and rewards he expected to ...
2024-10-13 21:44:35 +0000 UTC View PostOrange-crest was chewing on the past, but he struggled to swallow it. Every time he tried, it stuck in his throat, strangely tough and resilient, unwilling to pass onwards. He knew not how else to describe it. Monkeys did not dwell in times other than the now. They lived, and time passed as it would. When they revisited the past in the confines ...
2024-10-06 21:32:09 +0000 UTC View PostOrange-crest found he did not mind being injured when there was lots of fruit to be had. Pain was bad, but pain and hunger united were worse by far. His brother had fussed over him like a mother would, applying a sticky, oily, goop to his broken wrist. It was a little bothersome, that his brother would not allow him to lick the limb clean.
Note: See comment, chapter 49 saw some changes since posting.
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I had lied. A few more questions had been a grave understatement. I'd kept Ye Qing for near another full hour, asking her all the tactical questions about the condit...
If you haven't read the first three chapters of Orange Myth yet, you can find them here: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/turnipers-proto-stories.1182454/
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2024-09-29 16:59:34 +0000 UTC View Post"No, I refuse to believe it."
"It's true." I said smugly.
It was an odd little jig we danced with each other. Despite our caution and all our reservations about each other, it became immediately apparent we had something in common. A desperate sort of loneliness. How long had it been for me? Two months? Three? It sounded like nothing...
2024-09-29 16:58:16 +0000 UTC View PostIt's mostly done, just not quite finished cooking. Gonna take a bit more time to noodle on it. I have a flight tomorrow, hoping to get it finished then. Cheers and apologies.
Edit: so, I'm Florida now and just learned we have a hurricane this week. Gonna be outside while the weather's nice then get back to writing when it turns gnar...
2024-09-22 22:10:46 +0000 UTC View Post