WarbyPicus

Sky Pride Chapter 48- No Role But Victim

The next morning a giant rotting bird slammed to the ground outside Depot Number Four. It lowered its long beak to the ground and vomited out a mass of wretched people. They were covered in boils and tumors, some bigger than their heads. Tian watched them come screaming out. 

“Save us, save us!”

“Please, it hurts so much! Medicine! Please, medicine!”

“Immortals, mercy, mercy!”

Over and over they screamed and pleaded as they ran for the gate. The guards...

Sky Pride Chapter 47- What Defines A Heretic

It wasn’t a rope dart. It was some ancient wasteland monster disguised as a rope dart. That was Tian’s immediate impression. The rope had doubled in length, now some twenty feet long and made of a fiber that flexed like silk but was harder than steel. A ripple of vital energy along the length raised sharp fibers that angled away from the head. He could control where they emerged with Snake Head Vine Body. Even a light touch with his finger produced a bead of blood. 

The dart at...

Sky Pride Chapter 46- Waking Up

Tian wished he knew a concealment art. Theoretically, they were available. Practically, however, they weren’t much better than understanding how to shape your body along contours, how to blend your colors with the world around you, how to eliminate shine, and how to still your breathing. In other words, according to his senior brothers, they really weren’t worth it at the Earthly Person Realm. Heavenly Person Realm was another story. They could turn invisible, hide their qi, change their ...

Sky Pride Chapter 44- The Heart of Tea

Tian tossed another pair of heads onto the pile. One of the seniors was going around incinerating the bodies. Tian just wanted to save him an extra stop. That senior was busy enough. 

These heretics, even the Earthly Realm ones, had all sorts of vile tricks. Poison was the least of it- some cultivated gu inside their bodies, or plagues. Burning was the best way to deal with their corpses. Anything that survived the fire was worth further investigation. Anything that didn't survive ...

Sky Pride Chapter 45- An Unpolished Jade

Tian conferred with some of the senior brothers before he started his return journey to Forward Camp Redknife. It was one thing to know that he was running into the tail end of a heretical raid and fighting the sacrificial food for the demonized bird along the way. It was quite another to assume the route back would be clear. He had a rough route plotted when a Senior Sister called his name, and sent him to the mission office.

“Junior Tian, we rushed your military merits through last ...

Sky Pride Chapter 43- Debating the Dao of Cruelty

There was something awful about watching acid freeze and corrode flesh. The demonized hawk certainly thought it was awful. It screamed and thrashed wildly. Tian had to wedge himself into the widening wound to avoid being thrown away. He didn’t want to leave the stomach just yet. The acid was doing wonderful work for him. He’d let it work on the muscles and other organs for him first. 

It was awful to hear the hawk scream. It had been awful to watch the centipedes thrash in agon...

Sky Pride Chapter 42- Hell is What You Make of It

Tian fell towards the burning lake of acid, doing his best to go slow. His best wasn’t very good.  He made his body as light as he could manage, but it was a long way from being as light as a feather. He fell belly first, stretching out his arms and legs like a bat, hoping his robes might catch a little of the air and slow his fall. It didn’t really work.

His mind raced as he thought through his plan. “Plan.” Maybe more like a “pln.” It was all based on his bare underst...

Sky Pride Chapter 41- One Line Between Life and Death, Then and Now

The tongue was covered with spines, all pointing down towards the throat. The centipedes writhed and twisted, thrashing and biting each other as they fell. Tian had a good look at them passing. The bird was so huge, he was thirty feet above them. Only a desperate stretch of his arms, a violent gust of inhaled wind, and the full extension of his rope dart let him barely hang from the back of the bird’s mouth. And he was running Light Body Heavy Hands as hard as he could. Trying to think ligh...

Sky Pride going crazy on RS, which is good news for my Patreon readers

By the time most of you see this, Sky Pride will have cracked 2,600 followers on Royal Road. Despite a couple of .5 star ratings, the rating is still holding at a very respectable 4.85 stars, and is currently ranked #25 overall on the site. Which is, to be clear, phenomenal. I had no expectation of staying in the top ten. The churn there is crazy. You know what else is crazy? This momentum. This momentum is nuts, and I want to keep it going. So I'm putting up another five chapters this weeken...

Sky Pride Chapter 40- Solitary Hunters of the Evil Path

Tian whipped his rope dart up and into the bug’s face. His expression didn’t even flicker when the centipede shifted slightly and the dart bounced off the hard shell. He had gotten very used to fighting all kinds of insects in the Wasteland. Centipedes were new to him, but he’d killed so many scorpions that he was sick of seeing them. Armored and venomous was now standard for the things he hunted. He knew how to kill this.

Tian dropped Counter-Jumper and shifted to Light Body Heav...

Sky Pride Chapter 39- An Opportunity to Excel

It was a plum mission. Two days after he returned from his last disastrous patrol, Tian was assigned a courier job moving between Forward Base Redknife and Resupply Depot 4. It was essentially long runs in the desert, which wasn’t fun, but it was an opportunity to earn Military Merits while being, technically, behind the front lines. The ‘technically’ was important- he was filling a dead man’s shoes. The animals didn’t much care where some arbitrary front line was drawn.

The j...

Sky Pride Chapter 38- Enemies Meet on a Narrow Path

Tian didn’t plan on introducing himself. He could see a lot of Outer Court disciples just ‘hanging around’ Hong Liren and her True Disciple grandmother. He immediately thought of dogs waiting to come forward and wag their tails, hoping to please the human and be fed. The thought was revolting. So he turned sharply for the barracks and left them chatting on the road. He got about two steps.

“Junior Tian, join us.” The words seemed to pierce through the air without resistance, l...

Sky Pride Chapter 37- Meeting The Enemy

The battlefront was only eight hundred miles away. That was only a few hours travel, at most, for a Heavenly Person Relm cultivator with a flying artifact. The Inner Court was up to its elbows in blood, but the heretics were sending endless waves of demons to meet them. They sent swarms of insects so large, they blotted out the sun. Sinister curses that could freeze your bones and turn your blood to boiling lead. Rumor had it that there was a Fifth Level Heavenly Person Realm poison master on...

Sky Pride Chapter 36- First Combat Patrol

Tian was out on patrol with nine of the senior brothers. It sounded somewhat casual- patrol. Like he was just walking around on a tidy path with his battle hardened seniors. Those same seniors quickly set him straight. Before they left the base, they carefully checked him over. His protective clothing was carefully examined, with serious care taken to make sure everything fit and nothing chafed. 

It was explained to Tian simply but directly- the protective gear worked as one system...

Sky Pride Chapter 35- First Journey Through the Sky

“Senior Brother… was I kicked in the head secretly?”

“Nope. That’s real.”

The West Town Outer Court had assembled in a field outside the town. Their duties had been assumed by mortal servants overseen by cripples and seniors who had stepped back from the front lines in the Inner Court. Every fit Earthly Realm lay brother and sister had left. No exceptions. 

Tian knew he would never forget brother Tang’s face, wrapped in a blanket and sitting immobile in a ...

Sky Pride Chapter 34- A Boy Goes to War

Tian was in better control of his emotions by the time the Sisters left the Temple. He went directly to his cozy cell with its rat-proof walls and rain-proof roof and the bed that had a mattress stuffed with cotton and a blanket with no holes in it. Where nothing smelled rotten or sick. Where he was safe, warm, and clean. Where he first met people that wanted him. That went out of their way for him. Sacrificed for him. 

He lost it again for a while. Eventually, he sat back up on th...

Chapter 33- Partially Grown Immortals

Hong Liren was even taller than she was before. Tian had grown a few inches in the last year, and felt that he was shooting up. Hong Liren still managed to expand her vertical lead. She was starting to change, growing into a more adult face. Tian scratched his chin. Was he also growing into a more adult face?

Hong Liren bowed. He returned the bow immediately. “I didn’t bow last time. That was wrong of me. I apologize.”

“Thank you. I won’t pretend that I forgot but… it ...

Chapter 32- The Weight of the Word “Brother”

Tian scrubbed the flagstone pathways with some senior brothers. It was a point of pride for the Temple. Years ago, maybe two centuries ago or more, the then most Senior Brother and Sister had a huge argument which devolved into calling each other sloppy and messy and the kind of person that lived in a pig pen. Therefore, the annual exchanges had become cleaning competitions as well as martial arts conferences. Or so the story went.

Tian thought that was the only possible explanation for...

Chapter 31- The Sound of an Oncoming Storm

Brother Tang lived. His body was ruined, but his cultivation was intact. He wouldn’t be leaving the Temple for many years, if he ever left it again. Tian never got the whole story. It was just “Heretics.” And that was that. Tian found himself drifting back into the shadows. His brothers pulled him out again. If he was scared, he should get stronger. If he wanted to get stronger, fight!

Tian decided he was around thirteen a little before the sparring session with the Convent. He mi...

Weeaboo is going on a hiatus, but will return

Same as last time- there will be a break, then I will come back to it. I don't have specific dates lined up at the moment. Right now, I'm focused on Sky Pride and as I have mentioned before, Weeaboo takes it out of me. Vol. 2 is really vol. 2 and 3- Vol. 2 should have ended when they conquered Hungry Moon Mountain. So I'm taking a break from the story for a little while to recharge, physically and mentally.

I'm also trying to get the book sold. I was in negotiations with one publisher,...

Sky Pride made the front page. Thank you all so much.

Sky Pride hit the front page of Rising Stars in Six. Days. Six. That's crazy. That's absolutely nuts. I want to particularly thank those of you who posted reviews- it's a big, big help, especially in the early days. To celebrate, I'll be releasing an extra five chapters- three today, and two tomorrow. It also is a good reminder to me that I need to be jumping straight into writing more chapters Vol. 2 of Sky Pride...

It's a nice problem to have. Thank you all so much.

Weeaboo Vol. 2 Chap. 80 The End of the Beginning

Congratulations! You have successfully acquired the Verton/Wastet Ruin Site. Mercenary Guild Unlocked. Merchant Guild Unlocked. Caravan System Unlocked. Monster Suppression System Unlocked. Special Recruitment Banner Unlocked. Genudian specialty weapons, equipment, armor and outfits now available for purchase. 

City Hero Bonus- No Civilian Casualties in Verton. REWARD- 5 Rare Resource Chests, 10 Cutthroat Clothiers Receipts, 4 Fro...