“That cocky ass!” Yu Nuan reacted an instant after Ling Qi. Qiu let out a booming bark as she swung back onto his back and took off after the pair of spirit brothers.
<Not even a thought for the easy way,> Sixiang thought.
Of course, Ling Qi thought back. This was a game after all. The easy way would be boring. She grasped the wind and flew like an arrow shot from a bow. 2022-06-23 18:44:11 +0000 UTC View Post
These deep halls were quiet. Whether this was because of the party above or a regular occurrence, Ling Qi didn’t know. Worked stone and polished tiles gave way to more natural stone, organic formations of rock shaped by eons of dripping water taking over for the artificial decor from above. They descended a little slower now, the mad dash of the opening moments behind them. Yu Nuan now rode o...
2022-06-20 20:42:57 +0000 UTC View Post“Haha, well it is good to know that we can impress a revelry of the dream,” Leigong said cheerfully, the clacking of his beak punctuating the words. “But! Your arrival is sudden. I will rouse these fellows to listen later, but you have arrived just as we were arranging some games. Perhaps you and your guest would care to join us?”
Yu Nuan looked worried, but Ling Qi just tilted he...
2022-06-16 20:36:18 +0000 UTC View PostAs they left the town behind, Ling Qi smiled. “I think you did pretty well there.”
“Are you sure about that? Pretty sure your mother doesn’t approve of me,” Yu Nuan said.
“I think she’s not entirely sure what to make of this yet,” Ling Qi corrected. “I wouldn’t call it disapproval.”
“She’s your mom.” Yu Nuan shrugged.
Ling Qi hummed an agreeme...
2022-06-13 21:24:56 +0000 UTC View Post“You’re surprisingly pushy about this.” Yu Nuan hunched her shoulders under the fur-collared mantle she was wearing.
“You’re surprisingly shy about this,” Ling Qi retorted. They passed through the gates of the sect town without pause, staying off to one side of the street so as to not disrupt traffic too much as mortals moved to give them a respectful berth.
“I’m not...
2022-06-09 22:18:17 +0000 UTC View PostA great wail of hatred, fury, and pain resounds. The fallen titan’s limb spasms, and its toxic ichor spills across the land, rotting and corroding the earth. It twitches, it jerks, and it shrinks into a man, his fine robes soiled by blood, his painted flesh scoured by light. His clouded eyes open and look, for the first time, up at those hwho he had never seen as people.
One of the nine...
2022-06-06 21:52:56 +0000 UTC View PostBrilliant light scours away shadow and doubt. Minds clear. Resolve renews.
I Am Here, declares the Light, and in the darkness, one million nightmares burn.
The Radiance, the Ideal, strides onto the stage in a gown woven from strands of possibility, grief, and love. The click of heels are a thunder that shake the boughs of Xiangmen. Her eyes are the future, casting its unknowable, un...
2022-06-03 00:12:58 +0000 UTC View PostThe turmoil of the earth sends the branches of heaven swaying, the leaves rustling as has not been seen since beasts last ruled the earth. Among the clouds and palaces, the thrones of the gods shake. At last, the Lords of Heaven, those liars most sublime, stir in their webs.
Even now, they suspect. They pluck the threads of their plots, seeking out which one of them has brought this, whos...
2022-05-30 21:36:27 +0000 UTC View PostYou are Cai Renxiang, and truth scourges your mind.
The white and gold threads of Liming, your minder, your shield, your bones, hang in the air, glittering in the crackling firelight. You sit stiffly upon a plush divan in a light dressing gown, and the sensation of dead, lifeless thread makes your skin crawl. But it is a small pain compared to the agony as fingers wrought of flesh harder ...
2022-05-27 00:25:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe light was dim in the preparation room, and Ling Qi let the echoes of her words fall silent as Cai Renxiang gazed into the mirror set on the dresser table.
Renxiang was already immaculate, not a strand of hair or a fold of her gown out of place. Neither of them had really needed to touch up their appearances, but it was convenient to have somewhere private to speak before they entered ...
2022-05-24 01:52:49 +0000 UTC View Post“I get your interest with these two, but I’m not sure what I have to do with this,” Su Ling said warily.
Ling Qi held in a sigh. Even if her friend had gotten better at socializing, Su Ling was still very blunt.
Diao Hualing showed no sign of offense as they descended the steps. “It is true. Your small talents are not my primary purpose here. Nonetheless, it has some value. ...
2022-05-19 20:24:09 +0000 UTC View PostThey parted ways with the Bai delegation as usual following the closing of the day’s matches.
This evening, she and Cai Renxiang were going to attend another gathering of the Duchess. This time, Gan Guangli would be allowed to attend. She thought that boded well for him.
For now, she was free, and she found her way back to the crafting competition where she had promised to meet Li...
2022-05-17 00:03:32 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi let out a sigh.
“Your peer retainer is dramatic,” Lao Keung said dryly.
“He is,” Ling Qi said with a small smile. “But people remember dramatic declarations, don’t they? Certainly, the history books do.”
It was funny. So much of her recent efforts were propelled by knowledge of the past, but internally, Ling Qi did not feel like she had ever stopped facin...
2022-05-12 22:54:27 +0000 UTC View PostRenxiang’s hand moved toward the bell as Cai Tienli cried.
“Cai Renxiang, do you want a sister?”
Her liege didn’t answer, but she also didn’t touch the bell. In the absence of heated voices, the baby’s cries began to die down as well.
“Do you know what the root of corruption is, Ling Qi?”
“Greed, I suppose.” Ling Qi crossed her arms. She had an inklin...
2022-05-09 23:47:23 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi danced through the newly grown woods atop the hill, a wraith of dream and wind and mist flickering in the shadow of blossoming green and verdant qi. She ran, leaped, and played along the web of qi that ran through the local dream, following them to their anchors.
Luo Zhong’s arts felt disconcerting. There was a resemblance to the wild qi that coursed through Alingge’s meridian...
2022-05-05 20:07:55 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi sang a high clear bar. The wind howled, the ground frosted, and the whirling panels immediately snapped together into a solid dome that flashed a deep blue as it met the force of her Hoarfrost Refrain.
Ling Qi allowed silver to bleed into her eyes as she studied the way her offensive qi scattered. It struck like a blizzard wind but had shattered on contact with the tiles. Strands ...
2022-05-02 20:59:06 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi stretched her arms over her head and let out a sigh of satisfaction.
“Look at you being all uncouth.” Sixiang laughed, the ghostly image of their face appearing over her shoulder. “Tut, tut, what would everyone think?”
“There’s no one around to complain,” Ling Qi said dryly, shaking out her sleeves to make them hang properly again as she lowered her arms. She p...
2022-04-28 18:29:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe Argent Peak Sect had long vanished behind t
2022-04-27 21:47:50 +0000 UTC View PostLightning crashed, a flash of light painting the chamber white. Wood splintered and burned, filling the air with the scent of burnt sawdust.
Gu Xiulan stared down the length of her arm with narrowed eyes, sparks still crackling along her extended fingertips. The scorched ruin of a training dummy lay smoking and splintered upon the floor.
She lowered her arm, expression twisting in i...
2022-04-27 21:44:48 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone. My little vacation is ending and soon I'll be pumping out more content for your great folks, but there are going to be some changes going forward. Namely the Destiny Cycle is going to be updating only twice a week going forward.
After all this time my backlog is finally starting to thin out. Now as many of you are aware, The Destiny Cycle begins as a Quest, a kind of choose...
Tiangong, the Labyrinthine Realm, was the capital of the Meng lands. Said to have been won from the hands of a mighty spirit of chance and fate in a game by the founder of the Meng long ago, this was the deed for which he was granted leave to found his own branch clan. Despite being one of the province's oldest settlements, it was the third smallest of the county capitals. Only the capitals of ...
2022-04-15 00:36:37 +0000 UTC View PostActually being on the tournament field at ground level was nostalgic, Ling Qi thought. It was here, just last year, that she had taken her first real step in establishing herself before the eyes of the Empire. It was here, for the first time, that she publicly showed her strength without holding back. It was here, she supposed, that the little seed of arrogance which had brought her near ruin i...
2022-04-12 00:01:54 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi had an idea, and Sixiang was amenable to helping. “You make the sea sound beautiful, but I think the sky is a greater inspiration for artists.”
“As you have never seen it, that is unsurprising,” Xia Anxi replied. “The majesty and romance of the ocean is the pinnacle of the world’s beauty.”
“I don’t know,” Ling Qi said dubiously, keeping half an eye on the...
2022-04-09 18:56:33 +0000 UTC View Post“Getting back to what’s in front of us, what do the other provinces think of our venture, Lady Renxiang?” Ling Qi asked.
“As we suspected. The Zheng see it as a grand adventure. The Lakes are officially supportive but internally ambivalent,” Cai Renxiang replied.
Meizhen tipped her head in apology. “The Duchess has sold it well, and her successful subjugation helps, but ...
2022-04-07 22:51:30 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Sorry for the slight lateness of this one, but here is March's chapter.
Gu Xiulan wondered when her chambers had become so dull.
Her bed took up most of the floor space, an edifice of expensive silk with a mattress and pillows stuffed with the finest down, harvested from the birds of the great aviary meticulously cared for by the Gu’s servant families. Yet she...
2022-04-07 00:33:06 +0000 UTC View PostFrom the 18th to the 25th of this month I will be on hiatus taking a little break to recover and rest. Other announcements for going forward coming soon.
2022-04-04 23:41:42 +0000 UTC View PostThere was one more thing she needed to ask, if she was to wrap her head around these creatures as something more than foes.
“When I infiltrated…” Ling Qi paused. “You implied that Ya-lith-kai is seven cities. Does this make them a league? Is your own a league with its three cities?”
“My people are only a city made of three communities, three hearts in harmony, following ...
2022-04-04 23:40:03 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi pondered about Shu Yue as she rejoined the party. A follower of an older cultivation method? She wouldn’t have thought such a person would be so close to the Duchess.
She moved through the party for a time, engaging in small talk about the tournament, the plans Renxiang and she were making, and more personal matters. There was less of that this year though. It seemed that she ha...
2022-04-02 20:07:11 +0000 UTC View PostAncient Xiangmen stretched into the sky, its branches and leaves spreading to the...
2022-03-31 22:35:40 +0000 UTC View Post“I should think the answer is obvious then,” Ling Qi said. “The renown of the Wang clan is known far and wide.”
Wang Lian nodded once. “Good. I had hoped you would choose that.”
They began to descend the many steps which led to the foot of the mountain, carved alongside the wide road made for carriages. “Will there be trouble, you think? It’s likely that what Her Gra...
2022-03-29 01:53:11 +0000 UTC View Post