CHAPTER
96
BURIED DEAD
JIEYUAN
—∞—
The garden sat on a large, walled-off lot of land, easily covering thrice as much ground as the biggest of the buildings they’d come across so far. The walls were short—barely waist-high—clearly meant more to m...
2025-06-09 05:27:49 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
95
SWERVE AND CLIMB
JIEYUAN
—∞—
They headed straight down the root-laden street of the main avenue, past the deformed bridges and growth-filled rivers. Meiyao at the front, Jieyuan by her side, Daojue just behind. Meiyao was the one setting th...
2025-06-09 05:27:17 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
94
BEATING HEART
JIEYUAN
—∞—
When Jieyuan had first glimpsed the city beyond the gate, he’d thought he was looking at ancient ruins, half-swallowed by the wild. Vines and strings, stems and shoots in every shade of green that had ever been s...
2025-06-05 04:20:38 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
93
TO HEAD IN
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Jieyuan wasn’t sure which one was the bigger surprise—the sight of the city, or the expanded range of sight.
But he took it all in, standing at the edge of what wasn’t just a pocket of clear mist anymore, ...
2025-06-05 04:20:17 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
92
SEE THE WALL
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Meiyao glanced back, frowning. “What are you—”
“Meiyao, is that man dead?” Jieyuan asked, as plainly and as clearly as he could. Call him jumpy, but he wasn’t taking any chances here.
“Of c...
2025-06-05 04:19:55 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
91
IN THE BUSH
JIEYUAN
—∞—
People often spoke of heavenly matches. Matches by the Heavens. When two people, or things, fit together perfectly.
Jieyuan reckoned he’d found one such match.
Death—and the Dome.
He stood still...
2025-06-05 04:19:33 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
90
TAKE A LOOK
JIEYUAN
—∞—
The revelation hung between them. Lingered, stretching into the silence that followed as her eyes, a green so deep and bright they seemed to glow, stared fixedly into his own.
Jieyuan would’ve liked to say th...
2025-06-05 04:19:07 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
89
TALK OF SEEDS
JIEYUAN
—∞—
“One of them enhances the body—dexterity, agility, reflexes, flexibility,” Meiyao said. “Divine Primeval Grace. Another, Divine Plant Empathy, lets us read plants on sight—how they grow, what properties t...
2025-05-30 04:04:38 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
88
TALK OF BLOOD
JIEYUAN
—∞—
“I— There are some things—” Meiyao bit her lip, frowning. “I’ve never liked keeping secrets. Not from people I care about. It always felt… wrong. Because if I keep something from someone, it means I d...
2025-05-30 04:04:09 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
87
A CLOSE BRUSH
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Jieyuan stood just at the edge of the tracks, staring down at the massive footprint.
Meiyao was on the opposite end of the pocket, inspecting the spot where the tracks disappeared into the denser mists beyond...
2025-05-28 03:12:57 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
86
I’LL HELP YOU
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Jieyuan tensed as he went through another mist curtain, eyes already scanning the ground.
Meiyao was calling stops more and more often, almost every other pocket now. They hadn’t come across any beasts ye...
2025-05-28 03:12:28 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
85
A NEW USE
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Meiyao vanished into the mist, leaving behind only the taut rope that linked them.
Jieyuan tensed—but only briefly. He forced himself to move forward, stepping into the denser stretch of mist.
He found hi...
2025-05-26 03:28:18 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
84
TO SET OFF
JIEYUAN
—∞—
“All right,” Jieyuan said, “here’s how we’re doing this.”
The wall of the Dome was right in front of him, just one step away.
Jieyuan turned back.
Daojue stood behind him, looking on stoi...
2025-05-26 03:27:51 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
83
DEBTS TO PAY
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Jieyuan shut his eyes and fought back the panic. Not just alarm, but full-blown panic—frigid, biting, and rising fast. The kind that tinted everything red, sure as blood in water.
His mind was his g...
2025-05-26 03:27:20 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
82
WARPED SENSE
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Jieyuan and Meiyao broke through the curtain of green mist and crashed into the ground.
And then they were rolling through the undergrowth, loose branches and brambles crushed underneath
Swirling mist, g...
2025-05-26 03:26:45 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
81
CRYSTAL BLOOD
YUNZHU
—∞—
Yunzhu wasn’t happy.
Yunzhu was, in fact… She tilted her head as she looked inside her, trying to place the emotion. They weren’t easy things, emotions. They often got away from her and did their own thi...
2025-05-19 03:33:52 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
80
PLOT AND PAIN
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Jieyuan breathed out slowly. His ribs ached with the motion.
To his left, Meiyao stood perfectly still—and it looked like even that much took everything she had. She was dead on her feet, barely holding her...
2025-05-17 06:03:17 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
79
NEAR THE GREEN
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Meiyao rushed to the front—then shoved Jieyuan aside, forcing him behind her with a strength that surprised him.
Jieyuan almost lost control of the cloudcraft. On instinct, his hand darted out to drag her ...
2025-05-17 06:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
78
UNSAFE BETS
JIEYUAN
—∞—
As far as Jieyuan knew, nobody had managed to escape on a cloudcraft yet.
They’d barely gotten a dozen feet up when he experienced firsthand why.
The sequence hit—just before a volley of gleamstone bl...
2025-05-17 06:00:22 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
77
DEEP WITHIN
JIEYUAN
—∞—
What stood where Daojue had been was not human.
It wore the shape of a man, vaguely—tall, upright, familiar—but filled not with muscle or bone. Just a slow, roiling current of BLOOD. Deep, ...
2025-05-17 05:59:48 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
76
STRENGTH AND SPEED
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Strength could carry you through a fight.
But speed could end it before it even began.
Jieyuan had barely gotten a foot forward when the two tenth-signs came down on him.
The Xiyunfeng spearm...
2025-05-17 05:59:13 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
75
BURNING BLOOD
JIEYUAN
—∞—
The golden drop vanished.
The world ignited.
Power erupted out of the Fatebloom Heart—an overflowing, white-hot wave of it, engulfing him. Liquid light flooding his veins, molten gold surging through his limbs...
2025-05-10 05:55:27 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
74
BITTER BLOOD
JIEYUAN
—∞—
There was a famous story back in the sect about Qingshi. Just after he’d joined the sect, there were rumors about how he wasn’t really blind. Not too long later, Qingshi took part in an Inner Court tournament. A...
2025-05-09 05:16:29 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
73
WHY, HELLO
JIEYUAN
—∞—
“It’s a good thing you looked away,” Protector Wanxin said the moment he turned back to her. She smiled slyly, giving him a knowing look. “I know my daughter’s stunning, but if you’d kept it up, I’d have...
2025-05-09 05:15:50 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
72
LOOK BEHIND
JIEYUAN
—∞—
A hand fell on Jieyuan’s shoulder.
He turned.
Meiyao stood right next to him, facing him, one eyebrow raised, full lips pressed into a thin line. He might’ve said she looked amused, in a prickly sort ...
2025-05-08 01:48:39 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
71
BROKEN GLIMPSE
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Daojue should’ve blocked Maeva’s swing, then backstepped to dodge Jieyuan’s follow-up. That was what the sequence dictated.
Instead, Daojue leaned to the side, dodging the swing, and brought Gleaming E...
2025-05-08 01:48:07 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
70
OF TRUMP CARDS
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Jieyuan had only ever seen Daojue bleed once before. In the Gleamstone Valley, fighting Dajinzhi Qingshi.
Now he’d made Daojue bleed—something no one else had managed since Qingshi. He couldn’t see the...
2025-05-08 01:47:25 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
69
TO DRAW BLOOD
JIEYUAN
—∞—
It worked. Jieyuan had taken Daojue by surprise.
There was no contesting that. Not when Daojue’s eyes widened. Just a fraction, sure, but this was Daojue. A slight flare of his eyes roughly transla...
2025-05-08 01:45:58 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
68
STRIKE BEHIND
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Facing Daojue on a big stage wasn’t some recent idea, some new whim. Jieyuan had been dreaming of a rematch for half a year now—ever since the very first time he met Daojue, on another dueling stage, at the Gle...
2025-04-29 04:40:31 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER
67
TO PREPARE
JIEYUAN
—∞—
Growing up, Jieyuan had gotten lessons on all sorts of things. His old man had arranged for tutors to teach him everything he’d need to take over the family business. When Old Huizhong couldn’t find anyone up to t...
2025-04-29 04:39:52 +0000 UTC View Post