This Venerable Demon Is Grossly Unqualified

Chapter 48 - Terminal

After I finally found the bowl, I considered checking in with the young mistress. But the more I worked over the various ways that conversation might play out in my mind, the less I liked it. Meng Daiyu just acted too familiarly with me compared t...

Chapter 47 - Dancing With The Dead

The revenant leaned back, dodging the sword I'd sent rocketing toward it by a hair. Empty eye sockets tracked me as I approached, sword held low.

The dozen feet between us disappeared in two heartbeats, as I ran as fast as I could without pu...

Chapter 46 - The Graves of Our Betters

As we emerged into the inner core of the dead sect, the first thing I noticed was the hatred. The ground beneath our feet hated our weight. The stagnant air hated us for having the temerity to disturb it's long slumber. A thousand formless eyes se...

Chapter 45 - Mission Planning

NOTE: I added a few more lines to chapter 44, cleaning up the ending, and adding a plot point I missed (An explanation of how to contact the Ghost Immortal further, as opposed to only an exhortation not to do it this way again. That's the 'Termina...

No TVDIGU Chapter Today... But...

I'm hoping to get two out next week though, one patreon exclusive at some time during the week, and one general release next sunday. We'll see if that happens, I'm definitely hitting that writing pace, it's just split across too many different wor...

Chapter 44 - Hu's Trial

I woke feeling pleasantly cool. I'd thrown the heavy blankets off in my sleep. I glanced at the clock. 7:49. A terrible time. Too late to get back to sleep, too early to do anything worthwhile before logging into work.

I rolled out of bed, i...

Chapter 43 - The Machinery Of Empire

When Wang Li awoke, it was in chains. This was in truth a novel experience for him. He'd been robbed and beaten, even lost a hand once. That latter experience had shaped the form of his bodily cultivation as he sought to forge himself anew.

...

Chapter 42 - Debrief

I might have underestimated Elder Cai. Not her level of social acumen, I was pretty sure I was spot on about that.

I'd just spent hours watching her order disciples about, demanding they fetch things, or perform techniques for her to measure...

Chapter 41 - Alone

In the moment when Su Li kicked the young master, there were perhaps forty five people in the common room of the Rosewood Alley. Five Qi Condensation cultivators. Fifteen mortal men, a roughly even split between Granny Lao's muscle, the few male m...

Chapter 40 - Memories of Light

The sun was already high when Su Li’s bleary eyes cracked open. No matter what twists and turns her life took, it seemed fate was certain that she would never be a morning person. Still, a smile crept to her lips unbidden. They’d had much to c...

VDIGU - Pausing Patreon/5 Week Hiatus

Ninja Edit: Sorry, I just got back on the 11th, I'm taking one more week. I definitely did not look carefully enough at the calendar when picking that first date. After that travel experience I wasn't even properly functional until the morning of ...

Chapter 39 - All the World a Stage

Su Li felt like she was drifting through a dream. It wasn’t merely the fact that she’d spent more than a quarter of her life in the Pathless Night. The drastic change of scenery was sudden, but she hadn’t felt like this sitting on the deck o...

VDGIU - Next Chapter Will Be Tomorrow 5/27

See title. I did something dumb and pulled a muscle in my neck. Poor sleep from that has put me even further behind schedule than usual, and I'm gonna take labor day to finish chapter 39 instead of rushing it out tonight.

But, there's also s...

Chapter 38 - The Warrior and the Scholar

Fang Xiao and I followed Elder Cai through a twisting warren of lifeless stone hallways. There were traces of the life that had once dwelled in these ancient halls, silk tapestries withered into thin yellowed vines, wall scrolls eaten away by moth...

Chapter 37 - I’m From a Demonic Sect, and I’m Here to Help

The women surrounding the gate were as still as statues. From a distance, they might have looked poised. Disciplined. Up close, one could practically see the tension in their frames, as they stood frozen, like rabbits before the wolf.

Approp...

Chapter 36 - Gunboat Diplomacy

“Elder Hu, you’re wanted on the bridge.” A familiar voice said.

I looked down to see Fang Xiao staring up at me. I’d spent much of the three day journey sitting on the roof of the aft pagoda. It’d become my go-to spot when holing ...

Chapter Delayed + March Schedule Update

There’s no chapter today. I’m about 3/4s through chapter 36, so if all goes well I hope to post it tomorrow. But I dislike posting delay announcements, and since I've done two in a row, I’m going to go ahead and bite the bullet now and say t...

Chapter 35 - Expedition

I stared down at the table full of supplies before me. Storage rings could allow their user to visualize their contents, but I still preferred seeing the items in person. The spread before me felt lacking, somehow. There were so many items that af...

Chapter 35 Delayed til Monday

Yeah, sorry, thems the breaks. I have plenty of excuses, bad trip made me question the nature of existence, saw shakespeare last thursday and I'm having trouble keeping the register from seeping into my writing, tried making korean bbq from scratc...

Chapter 34 - The Moon Hangs Low

Su Li collapsed into a heap atop her bed. She stared up, peering into the shadowy abyss that was her ceiling. Was that a spider web? Should she do something about that? Her broom should reach it. She wondered if the sect had spirit-beast spiders t...

Chapter 31 - Elder Hu’s Sword Manual - 2

Two disciples walked through the shadowed woods, side by side. Every so often a hand would reach down and brush against the hilt of the swords they each carried at their sides. And yet, though the night around them rustled and trilled with unseen ...

Chapter 30 - Elder Hu’s Sword Manual - 1

It’s always funny, just how fast life moves on after a tragedy. It’s different if it’s your tragedy of course. Then the light goes out, and you feel like nothing will ever be right again. But for the rest of us, who never really knew the vic...

Sorry, no chapter this week.

See above. My day job has been pretty wild these last three weeks, and I'm kinda running on fumes atm. The long hours have been putting me in a place where I've basically been writing the chapter over the course of the weekend, and I need to take ...

Chapter 29 - To Stare Into the Dark

It was a dark and dreary night. I had a strange relationship with that word these days, night. It was the time of business and teaching. Darkness might cast shadows over every face, but our inhuman eyes saw well enough by the light of the stars al...

Chapter 28 - Interrogations and Autopsies

Su Li hadn’t known what to expect, when she was awoken by a knock at her door. It was barred, of course. As were the windows. No disciple too poor to afford protective formations slept with their windows open. Not that her shutters were sturdy e...

Chapter 33 - To Challenge The Heavens - Part 2

Wang Li stood alone in a field of broken blades. Shards of metal littered the scorched remnants of what had once been a field of tall grass. His muscular chest was bare and bloody, mundane silk and once reformed skin both unequal to the challenge ...

Chapter 32 - To Challenge The Heavens - Part 1

Patreon Note: So, this is not the chapter I originally intended to post this week. You’ll notice it’s tentatively numbered as Chapter 31, and it’s a two parter. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite finish 28 this week, but this guy just came pour...

Chapter 27 - A Body

I was sleeping, when the knock came. I was up in a moment. It was easy, when you could eschew the comforts of blankets and sleepwear. The cold of the season didn’t bother me. If I’d opted for a sheet, I would have been liable to simply rip it ...

Chapter 26 - How to Rotate Your Disciple

It was interesting, watching Su Li cultivate. When I’d inspected Qin Wenyuan’s ineffective attempts, there hadn’t been much to look at. The internal motions of his qi had been relatively opaque to me. I didn’t think I could inspect those, ...

Chapter 25 - Two Small Favors

Fang Xiao enjoyed teaching the outer sect. It was far from the most efficient way to amass contribution points, especially for a disciple with his skill in battle. Hunting spirit beasts, or more intelligent prey, carried substantial risks of cours...