Eastern

Chapter 39

Lucien was breathing hard. His chest rose in ragged jerks, and his eyes, still glowing with that sick, red light locked onto mine with a mix of hatred and fear.

I crouched beside him, my sabre still slick with his companion’s blood. My own shoulder pulsed with pain, the wound festering like an open furnace. The arrowhead’s toxin was st...

Chapter 38

The sundered fired another arrow at me, I pushed Qi through my limbs, adjusting my stance in a sharp sidestep. The arrow whistled past, close enough to brush my sleeve, until my blade flashed upward, cutting it clean from the air.

My heart was hammering now. This was going to be a two-on-one.

My heart thundered against my ribs. I’d...

Chapter 37

The system notification hovered in my vision, its golden light casting a faint shimmer over the ruined forest floor. I stared at it for a moment, letting the words settle in.

Quest Generated
Objective: Destroy the Sundered Encampment
Reward: New Skill

I exhaled slowly. I didn�...

Chapter 36

A rock slipped out from under my foot, skittering off the ledge with a sharp crack. My stomach fluttered as I watched it bounce once, twice, before vanishing into the trees far below. It took a full five seconds before I heard the faint thud of impact. That didn’t exactly help the vertigo.

I let out a slow breath and steadied myself agai...

Chapter 35

I walked out of the clinic, my sabre by my side and my dagger on my hip. Master Kai had given me a couple of outfits and a side duffle bag that I strapped over my shoulder. Inside, I had some dried meat and a few other little things to get me by.

I took a deep breath. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous.

I was about to set ou...

Chapter 34

I opened my eyes, still seated in the middle of the ruined rice fields. Golden strands of Qi drifted lazily through the air around me, like sunlight caught in slow motion. I breathed in, and the energy settled through my meridians with a warmth I hadn’t realized I’d missed. It felt… right. Like something that had been ripped away was final...

Chapter 33

I woke to the sound of birds chirping. Sunlight streamed through the window and I could hear people moving about in the street outside. I pulled myself up out of bed, still groggy from my sleepless night. I expected to feel the deep, bone-deep ache but was pleasantly surprised when everything felt relatively okay. The only issue was my internal ...

Chapter 32

I wiped the rain from my face and adjusted my grip on the sabre, now hanging loose in my hand. The sky was a dull wash of grey-orange, the last edge of the sun slipping beyond the mountains. The drizzle softened the air, but it couldn’t wash away the stench of death.

Bodies littered the streets.

Human and beast alike.

Steam r...

Chapter 31

The Spirit Beast dropped to all fours and began barreling toward us, its muscles rippling beneath thick black fur. It didn’t weave or dodge, it didn’t need to. Every lesser beast in its path was flung aside like rubbish, crushed underfoot or batted away with a flick of its arms.

It was fast.

Terrifyingly fast.

Beside me, El...

Chapter 30

I looked down at the Duskcreeper, it limped in slow, defiant steps, one leg lifted uselessly off the ground. My dagger was still embedded in its shoulder, buried to the hilt. Still it limped forward. Beasts like this didn’t know when to die. They were all instinct and rage.

Still… I couldn’t believe I’d thrown that blade so fast. S...

Chapter 29

Fi Yan knew what she was doing was wrong.

She knew, and she did it anyway.

She had to see what was going on.

So she slipped out of the sect building and away from her mother’s distracted gaze. That part wasn’t hard. There were people standing outside the doors, weapons in hand, watching the streets for beasts. She crept beh...

Chapter 28

Wei Lin woke to the smell of smoke and herbs.

For a long moment, he simply lay there, blinking up at the unfamiliar wooden ceiling.

The weight of a blanket pressed against his chest, and somewhere in the distance, he could hear shouting. The sound of a hammer hitting something in the distance.

He shifted slightly before stoppin...

Chapter 27

I made my way back across the gravel road toward the healer’s clinic, the pill still clutched tightly in my hand.

My body felt stiff, sore in all the usual places, but the pain was dulled now. Muted under the steady thrum of Qi running through my veins. I was healing faster than I had any right to.

As I approached, I spotted Master...

Chapter 26

All the village folk were gathered around his cart, pressing in like moths to a flame.

Jin Tao dropped the sides down with a theatrical flourish, revealing what looked like a trove of goods packed tight into the space. Weapons, armour, dried goods, farming tools, anything the village could possibly need and more.

He started pulling i...

Chapter 25

My head jolted off the wall where I’d been leaning, snapping me awake.

I blinked, disoriented for a moment, before remembering where I was. Still sitting in the chair beside Wei Lin’s bed. My body was stiff, my muscles sore. I twisted my neck carefully, feeling the pull of stitches at the back. I wasn’t meant to fall asleep here—bu...

Chapter 24

One of the elders stepped forward.

He was younger than most of the others—maybe late forties—with a thick brown beard and a long scar cutting down his right cheek, breaking the beard into a ragged line. His robes were plain, stitched at the shoulders where heavy use had worn them thin. Still, he carried himself with a kind of steady we...

Chapter 23

The world returned in pieces.

First, there was a deep and throbbing ache, pulsing at the back of my neck and side.
Then the scents—smoke, herbs, and blood—heavy in the air.

I blinked slowly, fighting through the fog clouding my mind.

Wooden beams stretched across the ceiling above me. Faint lantern light flickered agains...

Chapter 22

The middle wolf crouched low, its head dipped, violet eyes locked on me. A guttural growl rumbled from deep in its chest.

The other two began to circle.

One to the left. One to the right.

They moved with practiced precision. Their paws silent against the blood-slick floorboards, their breath misting in the cold air as it ghoste...

Chapter 21

I didn’t move for a while.

The golden flecks had long since faded, pulled into my body or back into the earth. That deep calm—that strange quiet that had opened something in me—was already slipping through my fingers.

But the system hadn’t.

Qi absorbed.
System sync in progress…

Chapter 20

I woke up groggy, something pressed against my face. I pushed it off with a grunt, and a mumbled protest followed.

Wei Lin.

We were both sprawled out on the floor of his home. At some point in the night, his leg had ended up across my head.

“Move it,” I muttered, my voice rattling in my skull.

He mumbled something inc...

Chapter 19

We were back in Fallen Mist.

Wei Lin had once again bartered away our kill—apparently, the beast was called an Armour Boar. Fitting, if a little on the nose. There must’ve been some translation oddity in the name.

I still let him handle the trade. Bartering wasn’t something I understood yet. I was used to set prices and no nego...

Chapter 18

I crouched beside the hedgebeast’s corpse, catching my breath. My hands still trembled a little, though whether from the fight or the Qi, I couldn’t say.

Wei Lin stepped around the body and drew his knife. “We should take what we can. Bristles are worth something if they’re intact.”

I nodded and set to work.

The thing...

Chapter 17

The mud felt different under my boots.

Not because the fields had changed—but because I had.

A week ago, walking between the rows of rice stalks had been unfamiliar and awkward. Now it felt routine. Almost calming. Even the soreness in my body was manageable, fading from agony into a dull reminder that I was still healing.

I ...

Chapter 16

The quiet didn’t last.

Somewhere in the underbrush, something moved. A branch snapped. Leaves rustled. The sound was soft, cautious—but it was there.

I tensed, one hand sliding toward the billhook lying in the blood-soaked dirt beside me. My other hand pressed against my side, barely holding back the steady trickle of blood. I wa...

Chapter 15

A few more days passed, most of them quiet. I kept to myself. Wei Lin tried to make small talk now and then, but I wasn’t in the mood. Too much on my mind.

Back on Earth, I’d seen things like what happened at the gate. Hunters abusing their power, throwing their weight around because they could. I hated it then. I still hated it now. 2025-04-26 19:21:12 +0000 UTC View Post