“You will spar Zexi,” our mother says casually. “Now. Step aside, everyone.”
There is that moment of silence that always comes after someone spontaneously makes a random decision like ‘my two children will fight right here right now on the front lawn’, and we all simply stare at Xian Qi as though expecting her to suddenly laugh...
2025-07-24 10:34:03 +0000 UTC
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Here are some fun facts about The Capital: first, its actual name is Rising Phoenix City, but everyone calls it The Capital, so much so that even some of the people who live there don’t know its actual name; second, while not the largest, or most populous, city on The Continent, it is the city with the largest cultivator population, w...
2025-07-21 15:36:47 +0000 UTC
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Yesterday was for saying goodbyes, today is for cleaning.
Since we’re certain we won’t be returning for a while, the house needs to be cleaned out and locked up.
Perishables from the kitchen need to be removed, certain items need to be packaged properly, and what few valuables remain in my vault after buying Xiuying’s contract ...
2025-07-19 16:50:57 +0000 UTC
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“I know I asked for private,” I say, staring around the windowless room, “but isn’t this a bit much?”
Despite the lack of a window, the room is comfortable, airconditioned through some means I can’t discern, and tastefully designed.
Frankly, it’s perfect for a small group of people to discuss highly sensitive matters ov...
2025-07-12 18:41:20 +0000 UTC
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Being bathed by Meng Yi isn’t a new thing, but being bathed by her after she kissed me is.
I seem to be the only one with thoughts going in that direction though, because Meng Yi is obviously appreciating my body in a manner that has very little to do with sex, and much more to do with gratitude.
Like she’s simply grateful that I...
2025-07-09 12:08:59 +0000 UTC
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The doctor Meng Yi went to get, Doctor Lei, turns out to be a woman. A woman who seems personally offended by my good health.
Not in the ‘I wish you were dead’ way, thankfully, but more in the ‘you are making me question and doubt everything I know and that’s really pissing me off’ way.
She runs her numerous checks on me wi...
2025-07-01 16:43:22 +0000 UTC
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Thank you all for your patience through this trying time.
You are incredible each of you.
Enjoy the chapter.
—❈——❈——❈—
—❈——❈——❈—
Xian Weiju
Of the seven Xian children, Xian Qigang was the loser with a...
2025-06-25 19:52:49 +0000 UTC
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Hello, everyone.
So, it is done. it is finished. The burial has been seen to with all the 'i's crossed and the 't's dotted.
I'm... not okay. I don't think. But I am grateful. Both for the fact that it is behind me now, but mostly for how fortunate I've been to have a community that's supporte...
2025-05-28 18:52:28 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone.
So, things are progressing steadily, the burial has been set for the 24th of this month. Which is good.
Thank you all so much for all the support. Truly. It's been much more than I dared to hope for.
Seriously, thank you.
—❈——❈...
2025-04-30 14:32:30 +0000 UTC
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Okay, story time.
So, I've never been close to my father. He was always too stern. Too distant. His presence felt suffocating.
He wasn't a good father. He wasn't a good husband either. And the older I got the more I came to understand how unhappy he made my mother.
As some of you here already know, not too long ago, it came out...
2025-04-02 19:41:43 +0000 UTC
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Xian Weiju turned back to Meng Yi. “Where are you?” she asked.
—❈—
“I’m at Young Master Qigang’s manor, in Silver Springs,” Meng Yi said.
The Young Mistress turned to the man behind her again, and though she said nothing, the man understood her desire.
Something like a compass, though significantly more ...
2025-04-01 17:10:40 +0000 UTC
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Meng Yi
After her search group had been slaughtered by Old Xian’s corrupted abominations, Meng Yi had been carried to the portal by birds, and it had taken them hours of flying to get there.
Pan Cai ran the distance in mere minutes.
While her movement technique was only a beast rank, the woman’s peasant ran...
2025-03-21 15:43:26 +0000 UTC
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A/N:: every now and then, my mind betrays me. And suddenly it's like there's this other person in my head.
The things he tells me are not very nice, but he says them like he's my friend, so even though I don't want to listen, I hear him.
I would tell my loved ones about this person, but they ...
2025-03-12 17:15:09 +0000 UTC
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So I commissioned an artist to make a poster, and after almost completely ignoring everything I said and failing to send me sketches before committing to the finished work, she sent me this.
Suffice to say, I am unhappy with the end result, but unfortunately, I have paid and she does not do the refunding.
Ergo, here I am. If you guys...
2025-02-08 10:50:31 +0000 UTC
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I'm sorry for ghosting, but my brain refuses to write book two until I'm done with one, ergo, I'll be working on preparing that for publication, after which book two will begin.
I understand that this is an inconvenience, but I ask that you bear with me and I thank you for your patience.
PS: for those who are wondering, book one...
2025-02-06 19:56:51 +0000 UTC
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Pan Cai
There was an old saying; ‘Send a bird to pluck a mango, send a frog to catch a fish, and send a man to do both.’
The saying supposedly alluded to human ingenuity, but for Pan Cai, it had always been a reminder in picking the right person for a task, and sometimes, in the privacy of her head, the woman won...
2025-01-23 22:02:04 +0000 UTC
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The sun in my soul burns with a heat so intense it damn near steals my breath away.
I’ve never felt it like this before, so hot it borders on uncomfortable.
This is, without doubt, the work of the Ginde Pepper, and I find myself wondering, ‘if a peasant rank one can cause such a change, then what would a noble rank one, or even d...
2025-01-19 21:37:13 +0000 UTC
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My eyes open to a bright, blue sky.
For the first time since my first tango with one of Xian Qigang’s corrupted creatures a few minutes ago, my body is entirely free of pain, and it is that, more than the changes around me, that clues me in that this might not be real. Or, at least, physical.
I look around me, taking in the lush, s...
2025-01-17 17:09:08 +0000 UTC
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Xiuying
Xiuying booked it back to Qigang’s place, the doctor, Gu Chi, slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
She knew her shoulder wasn’t the most comfortable riding place, not at the pace she was moving and for a man as soft as the healer was, but the doctor bore the discomfort with quiet resolve. Xiuy...
2025-01-13 16:34:45 +0000 UTC
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Qigang, this is worse than we thought. I’m coming back to your house.
Deng Mu’s dead.
—❈—
I should have waited.
In hindsight, it’s so obvious.
All it would have taken are a few extra hours of waiting, and I would have received this note at home, and wouldn’t have sent Meng Yi and the ...
2025-01-05 20:23:32 +0000 UTC
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Since we want to be part of the search and the last known people to go missing were headed towards the manor, Captain Quan Qiu suggests, to our agreement, that it would be best to meet up here.
In light of that, Meng Yi, Xiuying and I spend several tense minutes waiting for the Captain and her search party to arrive.
I’ve heard bef...
2024-12-30 22:33:20 +0000 UTC
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“—so I kicked her in the pussy,” Xiuying finishes her story with a casual shrug, drawing an expression of slack-jawed horror from me.
“By the way, tell your manager she’s not fooling anybody,” she adds.
I blink at the non sequitur, then look down at Meng Yi as my mind processes Xiuying’s words.
Meng Yi’s head is...
2024-12-24 21:44:51 +0000 UTC
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Silence reigns in the room for several minutes after Meng Yi returns to sleep, and I don’t know if it’s because Xiuying actually respects Meng Yi’s obvious need to sleep, or if it’s because she respects me enough to keep quiet because I told her to.
Considering the expression on her face though, I suspect it’s for a third reason;...
2024-12-20 12:46:57 +0000 UTC
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Meng Yi
Awareness began within. Her self. Her qi. Fuller, richer, greater, by factors so large that what she was now and what she’d been were so far apart as to not be comparable even by the most accommodating scale.
Meng Yi marvelled at it, utterly awed by the incredible metamorphosis her being had underg...
2024-12-15 18:14:01 +0000 UTC
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One of the many things about life on modern day Earth that too many people take for granted is just how many entertainment options there are readily available, even if you don’t have much money.
Between streaming services, social media, the steadily declining cable, games, and even e-books, anybody with a decent phone has access to m...
2024-12-14 19:48:32 +0000 UTC
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“Sleep tight,” I say. “And seriously, sleep. I’ll be fine on my own for a few hours. I think I’ll do some reading.”
…with a breath that sound an awful lot like a sigh, I turn and head for the library.
—❈—
I’ve never been much of a reader, not even of fiction. I’ve always preferred watching my entertainme...
2024-12-11 16:46:34 +0000 UTC
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2024-12-08 12:29:08 +0000 UTC
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I’m starting to feel bad for the rickshaw driver.
With the manor located as it is at the top of a cliff, the path up to it is, naturally, steep and winding. Walking it unencumbered would be a challenge for most, but running it, while pulling two people and a rickshaw… I hadn’t even known that was a feasible feat for a non-cultivator....
2024-12-08 12:21:17 +0000 UTC
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Hong Li rushes to me again as the auction ends.
“Honoured Customer,” he says, bowing, and my eyebrows climb at the new term of address. “Please, if you would follow me, so we can finalize the arrangements.”
“Sure,” I say, rising.
Meng Yi rises too, but then she staggers, looking faint for a brief moment.
I rea...
2024-12-03 20:43:32 +0000 UTC
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There are ten items on the list for today. The Ginde Pepper was number five.
“I’m guessing you want the manual for Meng Yi?” Xiuying asks, as item number six is brought up for sale.
Meng Yi and I look at each other, then back to her.
Xiuying rolls her eyes. “You said that you’d only bid for the Ginde Pepper and the ma...
2024-11-30 23:54:55 +0000 UTC
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