Elder Qin opened his eyes slowly as he stood up, feeling that it was time.
He'd been meditating for almost four days now, waiting in the darkness, but he felt it at last--the twine was broken, the one he set up at the very edge of this place.
For a while now, he'd been tracking the movements of the so-called 'Ghostblade', an Elder of the Immortal Sword Haven Sect.
The man la...
2025-10-24 20:56:50 +0000 UTC View PostThese were days of silence and solace, I must say.
Ever since handing over the cultivation method, we barely spoke--only doing so perhaps once a day during the communal meals. For the remainder of the day, however, we either walked (during which they still seemed to be studying it, regardless), or they meditated in silence, in their own little corners.
Even as we ate, they'd have th...
2025-10-23 21:44:05 +0000 UTC View PostIt happened yet again, Long Tao mused.
He'd found himself stunned into silence reading his Master's 'aunt's supposed inheritance--Enduring Eternity, the method was called, and, by some miracle, it actually somewhat lived up to that audacious name.
As with most other things that his Master seemed to pull out of thin air, it was not conventionally astounding. Rather, on its ...
2025-10-22 20:22:19 +0000 UTC View Post... so, how do I bring it up?
I mean, I've already kind of ousted myself--I'm fairly certain that at least Long Tao, Wan Lan, and even Lao Shun now, know that I'm not exactly just some random guy with very deep parental heritage.
But I've kind of been burning through things these past few days--first with Xing Feng and then with Lao Shun and the recipe--if I whip out yet another t...
2025-10-21 21:23:50 +0000 UTC View PostWe continued navigating the dark scape of the forest without light, all while one of us always had to also navigate the damn alchemist because he would not lift his head off the recipe. He must have read the damned thing a billion times by now, but he just kept staring at it--no doubt running simulations in his head.
As such, the kids took turns guiding him--making sure he didn't...
2025-10-20 21:15:18 +0000 UTC View PostWe were finally leaving this damned place.
... but little changed, truth be told, as we still had to navigate the exact same situation, just without the threat of being attacked. We were down to the last few lanterns, and the corpses were still there--something we were reminded of when Xing Feng started screaming at the top of his lungs.
The boy passed out from the fear and shock a...
2025-10-20 21:13:23 +0000 UTC View PostXing Feng's status window certainly changed quite a bit in the span of perhaps fifteen hours or so.
[Target: Xing Feng]
[Age: 10]
[Talent: Peak Heaven]
[Cultivation Realm: Fourth Stage of Qi Condensation]
[Cultivation Method: Spirit Sword Harmony, First Volume]
[Cultivation Arts: None]
[...]
[Traits]
[Lucky (Epic) -- uniquely lucky...
2025-10-19 20:50:56 +0000 UTC View PostLong Tao stared silently at his happily-snoring Master, turning his gaze over to the young boy next to him who was also happily snoring.
... it was impossible.
While changing one's talents and even physique wasn't particularly difficult, it should have been outright impossible in this particular realm as the Laws of Heavens were impossible to dispute here.
And yet, ...
2025-10-18 20:57:56 +0000 UTC View PostWe settled down inside the clearing as there was no way in hell we were leaving any time soon. Even if there weren't any more threats, we were tired, the kids were hurt (as was I, to be fair), and we just... well, needed a few days to be. No fighting, no threading through the darkness, no horrors.
Just peace and calm.
The girls have quickly taken to the young boy, and he h...
2025-10-18 20:57:24 +0000 UTC View PostIt seemed as soon as the beast drew its last breath, the white haze began to dissipate.
It revealed a scorch little square with only two signs of life anywhere: one being the kid we were expecting, and the other being a flower we were not.
We approached cautiously and slowly, though the kid was fast asleep. Better safe than sorry, as it were.
[--Creator's Eyes used]
[T...
2025-10-17 21:30:40 +0000 UTC View PostThat thing...
It just spoke, right?
Oh my God, it just fucking spoke!
I whipped my head to the side where I saw everyone's faces adorned with the exact same expression: abject shock. From Lao Shun to Light, regardless of their age, they were as equally shocked as I was.
And then I looked at Long Tao and, perhaps for the first time since coming to this world, saw him s...
2025-10-17 21:30:15 +0000 UTC View PostLong Tao's gaze was hollow--there was neither anger nor pity contained therein, as though wind had swept all his emotions away.
The beast struggled, roaring and growling and whimpering, all while the wounds began to stack. For all his prowess, this was actually the best he could do at the moment--even if fallen and at the cusp of dying, it was originally a quasi-Divine Chimera. Though al...
2025-10-16 20:51:16 +0000 UTC View PostHe was... handsome? I think?
Sharp jaw, thin, star-like eyes, with flat and low noise hanging over unhealthily blue lips. The head was resting against comically large paws, its eyes staring at us silently. The fur was a mix of muddy brown and moon-silver, with one extra oddity besides the human head: it had two tails, one fully black and one fully silver.
"... what the he...
2025-10-15 21:03:10 +0000 UTC View PostIt was dark.
Like, dark dark.
We were now using five lanterns to just barely light a foot of space around us, while I only had five more left in the spatial ring. Though I'd usually resort to a childish whining and a bit of good-natured panicking, I forced myself to stay calm. Ordinarily, the kids were an unmoving boulder, with seemingly nothing capable of shaking him, but...
2025-10-15 21:02:46 +0000 UTC View PostI've noticed more changes as we got deeper into the forest.
The first one was that our lanterns weren't lighting it up nearly as well. Whereas they used to give us a decent enough buffer when we only used one, it was impossible by now; we had to use two, one on each side as we walked.
It was as though the shadows of the forest swallowed up the light, feeding on it.
The secon...
2025-10-14 20:52:44 +0000 UTC View Post"Aah, fine, we'll go..."
Those were the resolutely resounding words of our chief alchemist as he fell under the spell of peer pressure. Or, well, hardly peer as it was kid pressure. Is that a thing? I'm fairly certain it actually is.
I remember when Myra, my niece, once walked up to me and said, 'Mom says you can eat an entire cake all by yourself! Is it true?!', ...
2025-10-14 20:52:02 +0000 UTC View PostLong Tao stared at me with a rather strange expression for a few movements before chuckling and leaving.
... what the hell?
Are their expressions not important? Am I reading too much into this shit?
Honestly, as soon as I saw the second body, something about it tickled my fancy, but I wasn't quite sure what. After a few more, I picked up on the fact that they all had...
2025-10-13 20:57:34 +0000 UTC View Post"I was recruited just shy of six hundred years ago," the man began, squeezing words between his teeth. "At first, I was merely a sweeper. After a few years, I was tasked with collecting tithes of the nearby villages. That was when I learned, however, that I wasn't in an ordinary sect. Tithes weren't of gold or goods, but sacrifices. For every ten people in the village, one would have t...
2025-10-12 21:08:58 +0000 UTC View PostLong Tao shot through the shadows, passing by the unsuspecting dozens as though he were a ghost. Paying them no mind, he focused on the distant flicker of energy, one that was desperately trying to remain as hidden as possible but was also the only one tickling his senses.
Everyone else here were merely children, none of whom were older than thirty per his estimates; that signat...
2025-10-12 21:08:33 +0000 UTC View PostWhile the kids yammered on, I shifted my thoughts back to the reality of things: this is annoying.
Not only do we have to contend against the forest and its (many) mysteries, now the Sages have also entered the mix. I mean, it kind of makes sense? From my rough understanding, the 'village' where they reside isn't too far north of the forest itself, so it makes sense that they wo...
2025-10-11 20:30:06 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, so our resident Alchemist and the second most experienced and knowledgeable person here has absolutely no clue what it is.
Long Tao, even if he knows, doesn't seem likely to spill it.
And me? Well, I just think it's one of the creepiest things I've ever seen in my life.
Yet.
Because, not twenty feet further in, I crouched down with the lantern and pul...
2025-10-11 20:29:43 +0000 UTC View Post"AWWUAAAATTT!!"
Strange 'howls' (groans? growls? a mix of those, probably) echoed out throughout the forest at fairly predictable intervals. Sometimes they were deep and sonorous, sometimes they were high-pitched, sometimes long and sometimes short. There was no true pattern to them, but after about a day of listening to them, we kind of got used to and weren't startled every ti...
2025-10-10 20:45:32 +0000 UTC View Post"Words are... like desires," Rayce started off rather vaguely. "Practically anything can become a word. Of course, most never materialize into being useful. It's a trifold difficulty--strength of the desire, skill of the inscriber, and how far against the natural order of things it is trying to go. So, beginners can only do something as simple as inscribing the 'Word of Wind', where te...
2025-10-09 21:45:09 +0000 UTC View PostOur picturesque journey didn't last for particularly long--this tiny forest was truly just a tiny buffer between the civilization and just... darkness.
No, seriously.
It was night in here. We've barely walked into the the jungle-like behemoth, perhaps a sixty feet or so, yet we had to use Qi to empower our eyes to be able to see anything.
Except, that didn'...
2025-10-09 21:43:32 +0000 UTC View Post"The way I understand it," I said, trying to somehow simplify my already simplistic understanding of how light functions. "How we see the world is a reflection of light. Think about it--how does the world look like at night? Dark, vague, indiscernible. Yet, if we shine a bit of light on it, everything suddenly becomes visible. But it also all depends on what kind of light we shine--is ...
2025-10-08 20:46:41 +0000 UTC View PostShould I accept the quest?
As with most things in this world, I really don't know. I don't think the system would generate a quest that leads to wind and fairy dust--so, the garden likely exists. The question is... do I see ourselves wandering the forest for months searching for it if the hint turns out to be unhelpful?
Unlikely.
Then again, there really aren't any ...
2025-10-08 20:46:15 +0000 UTC View PostWhile everyone was resting inside the tent, I stayed outside.
Partly for the fresh air and partly because I wanted to read the many windows in peace. I didn't immediately focus on them, though, focusing instead on... well, nothing, to be honest.
If I think about it, we really go places and just... wreck 'em, even if we do help on occasion. Even if she was a Wraith, from all account...
2025-10-07 21:41:20 +0000 UTC View Post"Look at her."
Those were the first words he spoke to us before I could even ask him a question. Turning around, I nearly spat my throat out--there, writhing on the floor, wasn't a human. It was... I don't even know, honestly. An amalgamation of rotten and decaying flesh? A misshapen, horrible thing that looks like a landfill come to life?
It didn't writhe for long, seemin...
2025-10-06 20:21:36 +0000 UTC View PostHuh.
We're really screwed, aren't we?
Positive spin on this is that she's just the nicest person ever and decided to save us out of the goodness of her heart. And, as much as that hopeful romantic in me wants to believe this to be true, somehow... I have a sneaking suspicion she ain't that nice.
So, why exactly did she help us?
Hell if I know.
...
2025-10-06 20:20:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe woman certainly knew how to make an entrance, I'll give her that.
She also derailed my plans entirely as there was no way I can use the tortoise right now. Its existence is one of my biggest secrets, and I'm not even sure it would work on her as I've no idea what her realm is. Regardless... maybe there's a peaceful way out of this?
"Sir Lady," okay, that just sounds wrong 2025-10-05 20:22:54 +0000 UTC View Post