The plan was to leave Du Gok Bhong by evening the next day, which gave me about ten hours, starting from dawn, to keep my promise to Chief Yora and share the knowledge I had gleaned upon the Hell Worlds.
After a hardy breakfast, I hit the library and began making my insertions into the tome that contained the monstrous illustrations, curte...
2025-01-01 10:25:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe sky was bathed in the crimson rays of sunset as we gathered at the edge of the barrier. The entire assembly was formed, just as President Tzu Li Zen had promised. I found myself tethered to Blue Rose, Song De, Wu Liang and Wing Pho, all of us representing the lost deployments returned.
We were grouped together and positioned atop a dai...
2024-12-29 12:56:00 +0000 UTC View PostI had a roiling mixture of emotions churning through my gut as I made my way towards the assembly quad behind Ling Wei. Perpetrating a fraud wasn’t my style. Straight up and direct was the Berserker way. But having a trump card to hold over the princess’s head wasn’t anything to sneeze at either.
Still, did I have the stomach to do t...
2024-12-25 05:08:49 +0000 UTC View PostAs I peered out the view port of the drop skiff, the twisted spires of Du Gok Bhong came into view and a sense of relief and nostalgia washed over me. I smiled.
Who would have thought I’d be so happy to see a damn prison again.
But here I was.
My final pitstop before being able to return to Earth, fight for my freedom and see...
2024-12-25 05:07:45 +0000 UTC View PostMy Dearest Younger Sister, Lunalah,
I greet you with good tidings from the Lu Shui territories.
Having read your letter regarding the Iron Bull, it would seem there is indeed some discrepancy in regard to his demise. As of the writing of this letter, I have been informed that the Iron Bull was safely recovered f...
2024-12-18 18:03:43 +0000 UTC View PostA world destroyed. An axe to grind. And a path to infinite power. Welcome to my reality.
I’ve survived my tour of the Hell Worlds…no…scratch that. I did more than just survive—I damn well thrived.
I’ve unlocked secret knowledge, advanced to the edge of the Sacred Soul ...
2024-12-11 21:54:05 +0000 UTC View PostWe all stumbled out of the skiff and into the interior of the Xin Long like shipwrecked sailors finally reaching dry land. Wing Pho burst into tears as he collapsed upon the deck and Song De did the same. The rest of the 30th were more jubilant about our arrival, sending up salutes of praise.
Most of them were for me, with praises sung for...
2024-12-08 19:15:05 +0000 UTC View PostPrincess Lunalah stared at the message in her hands.
It was sparse, as all Qi stone communications were.
But its contents spoke volumes.
‘Iron Bull lives. Here now. In Jurin.’
Her heart raced, all her melancholy quickly turned into hope and aspiration.
Could it be true?
Could it possibly be true?<...
2024-12-04 22:45:36 +0000 UTC View Post
My Frenzy was draining like I was back under the rays of the Cursed Star again, but this time it wasn’t from the effects of Demonic Qi. However far I was now projecting my soul was coming at a price.
And by the looks of things, I couldn’t waste a single second.
Towering above me was a monstrous demonic form that rese...
2024-12-01 13:12:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Princess Lunalah’s chest tightened as the enormous demon ploughed straight through the outer wall of the arena and into the stadium beyond. It took all her wherewithal to even look at the thing—so horrid was it in ferocity and form.
Body like a bloated corpse, covered in oozing sores and things that looked like exposed bra...
2024-11-28 23:23:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Some more cartoons for you guys! Let me know your thoughts.
2024-11-23 17:46:25 +0000 UTC View Post
It waited with patience a fraction of a moment more until the Chainmaiden’s strength was at its peak.
There.
The shell It had refined was now ready for Its Will to be deployed.
Through the aperture, It exerted Its influence to send the slightest portion of Its Will into the foreign domain. As the transfo...
2024-11-23 15:16:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Princess Lunalah studied herself in the full-length mirror, turning slightly to get a view of her figure from the side. Her elegant robes were adorned with the imperial trim of beige, white and gold. Her crown, a sacred artifact which augmented her cultivation speed was nestled perfectly atop her head of golden locks. So too had she...
2024-11-22 00:10:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Fia bounced anxiously on her toes as she looked up at the night sky. She was back where Max had left her, on the topmost point of the Imperial city, the sky port that would soon welcome her Max home.
She could already see the traces of the imperial transport in the night sky and the skiff that would soon descend from it. Comin...
2024-11-16 12:26:34 +0000 UTC View PostI took another sip of Blue Lemonade and cultivated the burning hot liquid to replenish the Frenzy in my Dantian. It’d been ten days since Wing Pho had cooked up his first batch of the stuff and now I had a supply of two canteens worth to carry us across the planet and hopefully some left over to take home.
From the tunnel entrance, I gla...
2024-11-13 16:12:53 +0000 UTC View Post
My dear sister,
I write to you with a woefully heavy heart. I am unsure how the machinations of official communications will transpire, but I did not want you learning this news from any source other than me.
We have not had the closest of relationships growing up, but...
2024-11-09 18:54:42 +0000 UTC View Post
I started by building Jei Su Long a prison cell made out of rocks. Busted down to mortal or not, I didn’t want him roaming around free. Shoving him in a corner of the main cavern, I formed the cell around him, leaving enough gaps in the heavy boulders to see what he was doing but with no way for him to squeeze out. He cursed and t...
2024-11-03 15:23:45 +0000 UTC View Post
“So, what’s the deal, Blue?” I asked as I tore into another bite of scorpion leg.
She watched me horrified, looking like she was about to vomit.
All of them did.
I awoke before everyone else and after spending a couple of hours studying from the new Shuras, got to work barbequing one of the scorpions. It was ...
2024-10-30 20:32:29 +0000 UTC View PostGeneral Gong read the status report and grimaced.
Behind him, Governor Tai Su Long argued with Captain Li Jeng.
The results were certain, as far as he could ascertain. The skiff due to return from the deployment was overdue by thirty minutes with no trace of contact at all. A heaviness hung in his heart.
All those souls lost. 2024-10-26 17:32:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Blue Rose eyed Jei Su Long from behind with murder in her heart.
As the skiff bucked and swayed with turbulent air all around her, she felt the presence of Demonic Qi rising from the surface below and the Bloodmoon overhead. But at the moment however, all she could think about was sinking her knife into Jei Su Long’s back.
Chief Yo...
2024-10-23 23:51:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I emerged into a spiritual space that felt just as big as the cavern that I had left.
The floor was made of polished crystal as were the roughly hewn walls that rose to a peak at the center far above, like a dome. I then realized that what I was seeing had to be the crystal from the inside. Bright yellow light washed over me, ...
2024-10-20 14:55:54 +0000 UTC View Post
I charged my body with [Steel Lightning], [Steel Skin] and [Steel Core], preparing for the worst. I’d only heard whispers of these ancient creatures before. Even the manuals back at Du Gok Bhong had nothing about them.
But now, witnessing the gigantic spider rushing down the face of the massive crystal towards me, I knew I w...
2024-10-19 11:51:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Blue Rose stood firmly at attention at the front of the assembly as the gong sounded, and the music of the imperial anthem began to play. It was the two-week deployment rotation, the general assembly that ushered in new recruits, sent new legionnaires to the Hell Worlds and brought the victorious one’s home. Although in this case,...
2024-10-13 23:29:22 +0000 UTC View Post
I spent the next few days perfecting the [Spectral Projection] technique.
Not that I had a true way to even count days.
I measured time from when I woke, cultivated and trained, ate and then slept again.
It was a crude measurement, and it could just have easily been 12 hour periods instead of 24, but I trained and ...
2024-10-10 01:15:59 +0000 UTC View Post
General Gong folded his arms apprehensively as the boy, Jei Su Long continued to tell his story in the debriefing room. He had arrived less than an hour ago along with the pilot, carrying half a skiff full of aetherite and nothing else.
Captain Li Jeng and Governor Tai Su Long were there along with him, listening intentl...
2024-10-05 04:53:18 +0000 UTC View Post
My mind reeled with a flashback to when Jei Su Long was wrestling that duffle bag full of salt crystals from Dim Wei’s hands during our final exam. Here he was doing the same thing, only now he was stealing a whole damn skiff and wrestling with Dim Wei directly.
The bastard had his hands around her neck, with Dim Wei struggl...
2024-09-29 18:41:41 +0000 UTC View Post
It sensed a great disturbance.
An aperture shattered violently within one of Its prime domains.
It was no surprise when the Chainmaiden herself soon appeared, requesting an audience.
It exercised Its Influence to manifest a portion of Its Will within the maiden’s domain.
Visions of opaque crystal, tinted a ...
2024-09-26 20:20:07 +0000 UTC View Post
We were all assembled in the main hangar bay of the Xing Long, kitted out in our legionnaires robes and armed with our weapons of choice for the mission that lay ahead.
As I stood at the head of the platoon, I could already feel the tingle of Dark Frenzy in the air. Or perhaps it was just my imagination, seeing as there was no...
2024-09-22 20:55:01 +0000 UTC View Post
My dearest younger half-sister,
I write to offer my sincere condolences on the most embarrassing situation that has befallen your beloved tribute, the Iron Bull. It would be an understatement to say that news of it has run amuck throughout the lower courts.
To be clearly beaten...
2024-09-19 02:17:39 +0000 UTC View PostWind blasted into the interior of the drop skiff as the reentry dome retracted from overhead, forcing us to shield our eyes as we went into freefall.
Hue Zen’s largest content loomed before us like a giant map, now pocketed with burning impact craters which now denoted the major cities destroyed by the trio of Lesser Deity Realm cultivat...
2024-09-16 04:20:50 +0000 UTC View Post