Alfir

152 Seeds of Civilization

“So, what are we waiting for?” I asked, half-expecting someone to snap and tell me to shut up. “Do we just stand here on the sand like decorative idiots or…?”

Nongmin didn’t even blink. “They will send someone to greet us. I’...

151 Little Shit

It hadn’t even been ten minutes into our flight on the Megatron when Zai Ai started looking for her ring, her brows furrowing in what looked suspiciously like rising panic. She patted down her sleeves, then her sash, then made a li...

150 Megatron

Just as the old man was gleefully pinching my cheeks and preparing to ruin my dignity forever, I noticed someone standing beside him, mouth slightly open, eyes fixed on me like she’d seen a ghost.

Jia Yun.

Ah, shit.

Out of all ...

149 Want a Candy?

“I’m sorry about Ren Xun,” I told her, voice low. “I promise I’ll bring him back.”

The words tasted heavy coming out. He had died because of me… or more accurately, because he’d agreed to watch over me during our trip to the ...

148 Feast Before the Summit

It had been a week since my talk with Nongmin, and the preparations for the World Summit were still dragging on. Apparently, assembling the most powerful people in the world under one roof took more time than I expected. A lot of politics. A lot o...

147 Dreamt Dreams

I stood up from the gilded chair, brushing a bit of imaginary dust off my sleeve, and looked Nongmin dead in the eye.

“If you really want to feel attached to them,” I said, “then there’s only one solution. Spend more time with the pe...

146 The Talk

Alice was feeding me grapes.

Not just any grapes. These were qi-soaked, high-grade spirit grapes, the kind that grew in the mist-drenched hills of the Empire’s interior. I could feel the energy dancing in my veins with every chew.

�...

145 Unexpected Kidnapping

The memory didn’t end.

It couldn’t.

I was still inside Alice’s soul, watching through her eyes. Feeling through her heart. Hearing her breath tremble as she cut down the last of the villagers. She knew them, and it hurt her.

144 The Long Echo

The memory didn’t end.

It shifted again, seamlessly, as if flipping to the next chapter in a story already written but now being read aloud with fresh eyes. The field of poppies faded. The lavender sky turned to grey. And when the light re...

143 Alice’s Life

The dreamscape shifted.

I didn’t feel my body anymore, only the drift of consciousness as my soul merged with Alice’s. This wasn’t like when I entered Gu Jie’s soul, where lines blurred and I became her. No. This was different. I cou...

142 Outsourcing Heaven

There was silence.

Not the kind that came from awe, but the confused, stunned kind… like a crowd who blinked and missed the finale.

My dear audience stood frozen in place, eyes wide, mouths half open. A few rubbed their eyes like the...

141 Falcons and Roses

The falcon screeched as it broke through the clouds, its shadow passing over us like a silent omen. I watched it descend with practiced grace, folding its wings mid-dive before flaring them open again at the last second. Its rider leapt off, landi...

140 Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Gender

I sat cross-legged in the private chamber Lu Gao had been assigned. The walls were lacquered with restrained elegance, the air thick with incense… floral, maybe aphrodisiacal. Hard to tell anymore. My sense of smell had been dulled by the consta...

139 A Man Awakens Surrounded

I opened my eyes to soft violet curtains swaying with a lazy breeze, sunlight filtering in through honeyed lattice windows, and the scent of sandalwood, jasmine, and too many people wearing perfume in close quarters.

The first thing I did wa...

138 Fireflies in the Soul Sea

It had been two weeks since I started diving into Lu Gao’s soul, and I meant that quite literally.

Dreamwalking wasn’t a plug-and-play technique. Especially not when the base mechanism involved something called Soulful Guiding Fire… a ...

137 Blue Flames and Old Bones

I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was darkness. There was neither light nor warmth. Just that silent and oppressive stillness that makes you feel like you’ve been buried alive.

I stayed there for a moment, breathing steadily, unt...

136 A Delicate Encounter

I’m like… dude, what happened to you?

Seriously, it took everything in me not to say that out loud the moment I laid eyes on Lu Gao.

I’d come to Healing Garden’s famed Purple Blossom establishment because Nongmin, of all people...

135 Blushes and Bewilderment

The first thing Lu Gao felt was the warm sway of something beneath him, rocking gently like a cradle. His eyes cracked open to a world painted gold… dunes stretching far in all directions, glittering under the merciless sun. Above him fluttered ...

134 The Black Knight in the Dunes

It had been days since Lu Gao was flung across the continent by the violent tear of a Great Teleportation scroll.

He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t even know if he was still on the same continent, let alone the same world. All he ha...

133 Reconciliation & Omens

I’ve done my reading.

Not just the usual surface-level stuff either. Before coming here, I made it a point to study everything the Empire had on the Promised Dunes: their history, politics, economy, and culture. If I were going to walk int...

132 A Kingdom of Sand and Stone

We arrived at our destination short of twenty-one days. Considering the normal pace of sky travel over three continents, that should’ve been impossible. But then again, not many people had the same skillset or stubbornnessas I did.

Ho...

131 Sailing the Skies

We finally set off.

I stood near the prow of the lead Soaring Dragon, the wind brushing past my robes and the hum of formations vibrating beneath my feet. Beneath us, the clouds parted like silk, revealing glimpses of the earth far below: ri...

130 Sandthorn Village

Morning arrived with a whisper rather than a blaze. The sun had not yet crested the horizon, but Sandthorn Village was already stirring. A faint breeze carried with it the scent of dust, cactus blossom, and baked clay, weaving between clay-brick h...

129 Just Stay Behind, Damn It

It had been three days since the expedition plans began rolling into motion. The high walls of Yellow Dragon City bustled with activity, cloaked in the haze of talisman smoke and the shimmer of enchanted cloth. A dozen boat artifacts, half of them...

128 Under the Pale Moonlight

The moon hung low, round and solemn, casting silver light across the dunes. The desert was quiet tonight, eerily so. Even the wind whispered as if trying not to disturb the lonely figure atop the sandy ridge.

Lu Gao exhaled slowly. The night...

127 Scattered Shadows

“Alright, you and your gal friends can go now,” I said, waving Zhu Lian and the handmaidens away.

Zhu Lian blinked. “Gal friends?”

“Ignore me,” I muttered. “Just go.”

She narrowed her eyes in confusion, but gave a...

126 A Most Natural Resurrection

The courtyard was quiet, save for the rustle of wind through dying leaves and the faint creak of old wood. A garden once full of life now held the stink of death. And at its center, sprawled in a pose that could only be described as violently arti...

125 Hollowed World

“In my younger years,” Nongmin began, his voice echoing slightly against the stone walls and shelves of the small study, “I had a simple question. One that troubled me more than most cultivators would bother to ask.”

I raised a brow....

124 Class One Truth

We were walking down a hallway that refused to end.

Not just long… it was unnatural. The air thrummed with quiet tension, like the corridor itself was alive and watching. I couldn’t help but glance around, eyes tracing the seamless stone...

123 Daddy Issues

The palace halls were a quiet kind of vast. Silent, but not peaceful. Like the place had seen too much to pretend otherwise.

General Zhu Shin walked beside me. He was a quiet storm of righteousness wrapped in steel and discipline. I liked hi...