Senior Brother Su pressed his palms flat together, like a spearhead parallel to his heart. “AWAKEN!” He roared loud enough to make Tian stumble backwards and shake his head to clear the ringing.
The peasants jolted from their stupor. It all got very messy. Tian didn’t know what to do with screaming, weeping adults. There were a lot of them too. Fortunately, Brother Sun did kno...
2025-03-10 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post“What if… What if…” The thoughts spun and spun in Tian’s mind. He knew he couldn’t wait forever- the time left was dripping from the veins of the hanging man in thin streams. Wang wasn’t known as the bloody cleaver for no reason. The cuts were exquisitely made, ensuring that the blood and spinal fluid would seep out at a steady, but inescapably terminal, pace. Tian thought the han...
2025-03-10 01:45:57 +0000 UTC View Post“You want to do more missions, but on your own?” Brother Fu put down his brush. He had just written the character for ‘knife’ and Tian found it spooky. Who goes around writing ‘knife?’ Especially when there was a small heap of discarded previous attempts. A whole pile of ‘knives.’
“Yes, Senior Brother. I don’t like owing merit points, and want to pay them back as...
2025-03-10 01:42:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe tongue shot out of the water silently, grabbing his leg and yanking him down towards the stream. Tian tried to spin and attack with his rope dart, but he couldn’t get any leverage, everything was wrong and he was going into the beast’s mouth far too fast.
Out of desperation, he slapped both hands against the ground and pushed himself vertical just in time to slam into the be...
2025-03-10 01:31:55 +0000 UTC View Post“Introductions first. You are Junior Brother Tian. We are your senior brothers Fan, Tang and Su.”
“Nice to meet you, Senior Brothers. This is my first mission, so please look out for me.” Tian bowed with his hands clasped. His seniors nodded back, laughing.
“Naturally, naturally. Now, did you go to the mission hall to get a copy of the mission?”
“Yes, Senio...
2025-03-10 01:28:58 +0000 UTC View PostNobody talked about that year’s spar. At least, not where Tian could hear it. Brother Fu did start assigning him big stacks of books to read, but they were all very silly. Two months after the spar, Tian finally broke down and started asking the real questions.
“Senior Brother Fu, it says here that I should cultivate the sage within and the monarch without.”
“Mmm. Quite a fa...
2025-03-10 01:26:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe Senior Brothers and Sisters moved faster than Tian’s eyes could follow. Swords flew, driven by the vital energy and iron will of the cultivators. Spears stabbed like lightning and smashed like thunder. Maces, brutal and efficient, staff arts capable of healing the world and saber play eager to end it.
“The ability to cultivate runs in families. It does not, however, reach ev...
2025-03-09 02:32:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe procession from the Temple to the Convent followed strict rules. As soon as the sky started shading towards dawn, a mortal servant was sent out with a bell. Tian could hear it as it passed out into West Town. There was a certain cadence to it- three rings, then two, then three, then four, then three and the pattern repeated.
He was required to bathe, and put on a clean robe, cle...
2025-03-09 02:25:40 +0000 UTC View PostTian was a little disappointed to receive merely a pat on the back and an “Attaboy,” after his breakthrough. Nobody was interested in making a fuss. He got the distinct impression that his brothers would be equally impressed if he fell off a log. He sulked about that for a bit, but quickly got over it.
Cultivation felt good. Cultivating helped Tian calm the anxiety he w...
2025-03-09 02:24:31 +0000 UTC View PostBrother Fu kept a small courtyard in one of the back corners of the Temple. It was cozy, with raked gravel surrounded by short, wide canopied trees, a tiny pond and a bird bath. The house itself was unpainted wood, weathered by sun and rain and topped with the same black tiles every other building in the temple used. It had just two rooms, from what Tian could see.
The main room had...
2025-03-09 02:22:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe West Town Temple had five hundred and twenty Senior Lay Brothers at the peak of the Earthly Person realm. Apparently that was the way it was organized- you were a novice until you had cultivated to the first level of the Earthly Person Realm, and then you were promoted to Lay Brother. You were a lay brother until you reached the Heavenly Person Realm and became a True Disciple. Most people ...
2025-03-09 02:19:13 +0000 UTC View PostVast drums beat on the air, thundering out, rolling out, the pounding blood in ears of someone running for their life, not quite fast enough. There must be dozens of them, a vile drumline counterpoint to the brassy tearing horns rising up from behind the walls of Wastet. Carried up by the horns was a choir, a miserable assemblage of suffering. Each note represents a separate violation and...
2025-03-08 22:44:46 +0000 UTC View PostI'm editing the tiers right now, so you may get notifications of things changing. Mostly I'm removing references to Slumrat, specifying X or Y number of chapters ahead in Sky Pride, etc. I'm also just... appreciating... how far ahead I was with my writing in Slumrat by the end. Holy Jeebus. So if you see things change, that's what's up. I'm planning on keeping the Hygienic Otaku tier for the re...
2025-03-08 02:52:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe Temple was laid out in a series of long buildings. Black tiled roofs, polished wooden beams between plaster walls, long porches stretching out into graveled courtyards. A few old trees dotted the temple, offering shade and sweet smelling flowers to the nervous kids. The kids were marched into a small courtyard with a bronze bell as tall as an adult standing in it. There was a skinny old man...
2025-03-07 15:00:33 +0000 UTC View PostPeople. Or what once were people. The distinction wasn’t so clear anymore. There were soldiers there, relatively normal looking, but they were screaming. They screamed, then picked up their spears and marched to the gap and up on the wall. I couldn’t see why they were screaming, but I knew I’d find out. Whether I wanted to or not, I would find out.
Othai didn’t re-target Pomoroi. ...
2025-03-07 04:53:00 +0000 UTC View Post[Author note- there is a joke in the second paragraph that doesn't work because Patreon won't let me adjust font sizes. Just know that Grandpa mutters a couple of those sentences in a very quiet voice.]
That night, snugly tucked into a shallow cave and roasting a brace of rabbits over the fire, Tian repeated his question. “Really, Grandpa. Why do we keep getting attacked? Even th...
2025-03-06 15:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post“So what do we do now, Grandpa?” Tian had climbed out of the pit, but was still moving very slowly. He tried to keep his eyes open, but anything more than a little sliver of light was overwhelming. The same with the noise- his fingers were practically glued to his ears.
He was naked, but he didn’t pay much attention to that. His clothes had never been much more than rags, and modest...
2025-03-05 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post[Author note- I just wanted to get this out tonight. I'm sorry I'm running late on these chapters, but for some reason, this book is a bear to write at the moment.]
I prodded the interface, curious to see what my steadily increasing Tokens of Valor could buy me. Doing my best not to be too mad that the pay shop Medals of Valor were required to buy the unique, and gold trimmed, Ve...
2025-03-05 04:20:13 +0000 UTC View Post“I have to use Gourmet. I can’t do the body movements. I don’t know if I can even breathe. But I have to use it anyway.” Tian tried to force his body into motion by sheer force of will. It didn’t work. The venom of the Three Poisons Seven Deaths Adder was not so merciful.
Tian had carefully manufactured his own destruction, setting the remains of the snakes and the lotuses...
2025-03-04 15:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post“Grandpa? What’s soup?” Tian was throwing up big clods of clay-heavy dirt as he dug his ‘soup pot.’
What’s soup?
“You keep saying we are making Tian soup, but I don’t know what soup is.”
Good question- you take liquid, usually water or water with flavors dissolved in it, and mix it with other food. Usually by heating it and cooking the flavors to...
2025-03-03 15:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostIt took a lot of strength to jam the forked stick into the hard earth. Tian’s fingers were thin, small, and mostly missing. What there was left had to strain as much as they could. His aim wasn’t great. The fork caught the adder, but not close enough to the head. The snake was still held by the noose, but after the first try, Tian didn’t feel like it was reliable. He could easily imagine ...
2025-03-02 15:20:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Is this a test?”
Yes. But it is also completely necessary for a few other things. I’ve already lowered the difficulty as much as I dare by giving you some hints. I’m going to be silent now, until you are in a safe place with at least ten of the lotuses, roots included. I believe in you, Tian. I know you can do this.
“Grandpa Jun?”
The clearing was full of...
2025-03-02 15:15:01 +0000 UTC View PostTian watched the fire, bewildered. He had no idea what things he could do. Mostly he knew about the junkyard and all the problems with his body. And the forest and the river. That was about it.
“I don’t know. Enough to eat. A dry place to sleep where animals can’t bite me. Maybe better clothes and something to cook with? I don’t think I can cook much on a leaf or on a stick....
2025-03-02 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostTian didn’t have much understanding of eagles. He had heard Grandpa use the word, but generally there wasn’t anything in the dump that was worth their attention. These birds, however, felt that Tian was worth not only their attention, he was worth their interest.
The family of eagles swooped in and ripped at him with their long claws. Wide wings the color of bronze and earth dro...
2025-03-02 15:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostStormborn Pine Truffle. A delicacy and a body refining treasure. They cannot be farmed, and only chanced upon by luck.
Tian was balanced on a tree trunk no wider than his leg. The drop to the river below was a hundred feet or more. The climb up was not much less daunting, and besides, there was a tiger up there. He knew the tiger was still there because the big bastard kept...
2025-03-02 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostTian charged the beast, and the beast met him with a lunge. Paws spread wide, sharp claws coming for his shoulders. Tian shifted right, then countered with an elbow to the head. The elbow landed on coarse fur, making the beast snarl but seemingly doing no damage. It hopped back, then forward again, swiping with a paw. He could hardly see the paw move, but the jumping games were carved into his ...
2025-03-01 15:20:01 +0000 UTC View PostTian Zihao and Grandpa Jun set out from the garbage dump with a sack of whatever grubs and meat he could scrounge up, a stitched hide waterskin, and mixed feelings. This was the only home Tian knew. He didn’t love it, but he knew how to live here, how to eat, how to hide from scary humans and the clumsy, crushing dumpsters.
Outside the dump was a mystery. Cupping one corner and th...
2025-03-01 15:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Killing God? What’s God?”
God is the principle that says the world exists, life exists, the universe, the sun, moon, stars, devas and devils dancing in the infinite void, cultivators summoning the wind and rain with a flip of their hand, swords that can cut iron like mud and mud that can bring life to millions- all of that exists because someone made it exist, and it is therefo...
2025-03-01 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Is shaking the world a good thing Grandpa? Tian Zihao doesn’t know.” The boy looked around trying to find Grandpa in the heaps of rags, rotting food and broken pottery. “Grandpa, where are you? Tian can hear you and feel your hugs, but can’t see you.”
Ah, you can just call yourself “I,” you aren’t a baby any more. As for where I am, I’m on your finger. Have you ev...
2025-03-01 15:05:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Where is my son? It is time for him to die.”
“Madam?!” The old nanny stood between the frail boy and his mother. Her withered hands clenched the hem of her faded dress. Screams of dying men and chopping blades filled the hallway, loud and close. “He’s just had one of his fits. The battle-”
“There is no battle.” The Madam’s eyes were red, her pupils barely pinpri...
2025-03-01 15:00:22 +0000 UTC View Post