yrsillar

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Ling Qi remembered the nightmare of being one of the swarm, primal and pitiless, her teeth finding human throats. They chittered out in the dark, her kith and kin, fellow scavengers and vermin. Fires flickered in the far dark, and the phantom of the crimson and bloody hunter passed her by, his empty monstrous smile a warped sliver of light in shadow.

She could taste the blood on her tongue again. She could hear the screams again. She could see the fires raging again.

And she stead...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 257(Red+)

“It spiraled up from unfathomable deeps, up and up, a great vortex without bottom or top, all the dreams of Xiangmen caught in the currents of its wind,” Ling Qi orated. Her words echoed in the dark gaol strangely. As she gestured in time with her words, black bubbles rose in the tarry liquid that surrounded Huisheng’s prison isle, rising into the air to lazily spin around her, shaped by her words and thoughts.

Her audience was silent, showing neither approval nor disapproval.

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 256(Red+)

Ling Qi looked up and up to the source of the new voice. Sixiang’s grandmother, the avatar of the Dreaming Moon, simultaneously towered high above and danced innocuously through the crowd in a way almost impossible to understand. Her trailing skirts were the spirits of the dance, her voice was the sound of festival, and her face the reflection of a thousand revelers. She was a child, a young woman, a mature matron, and a doddering grandmother all at once, and Ling Qi felt her head ache and ...

Journey to the East Interlude: Mirror

AN: Meant to post this yesterday but here you are, a little interlude to mark the transition point in the sidestory.

At the top of the tallest tower in Phoenix Home, Ai Xiaoli watched the army marching from the outer gates of the city. From her perch upon the fragile balcony of shaped glass, they appeared as nothing more than a dark river cutting through the yellow white sand. She did not need to rely on such paltry things as eyes to perceive her husband at t...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 255(Red+)

The revel was noisy and chaotic, but it seemed so different from the clouded gossamer memories of before. There was little elegance here. Even those who bore inhuman frames were somehow both more and less human as they stomped about, singing and carousing with the human shades.

“It’s the other part of me, too. You don’t let me indulge in it much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

It was hard to focus here. There was simply so much going on. People pressed agains...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 254(Red+)

Unlike when Ling Qi went out on her own, they did have to make a brief stop to get Xia Lin changed into something less ostentatious since her clothes were not self-adjusting, but thankfully, the other girl was just as good at controlling her qi as Ling Qi. That made their stroll through the twigward streets much less awkward than it could have been, though to Ling Qi’s amusement, the intensity of Xia Lin’s expression and gaze was enough to cow a lot of otherwise rude people, even without ...

Journey to the East Part 13

“Our Doom?” Gu Xiulan asked. She tried not to let her voice quaver as she wiped at her eyes. “Now you’re being dramatic Father.”

“I am, is that not our way?” he said, briefly cracking a smile. “But, it is a truth all the same. We are the blood of the phoenix, but only its embers. Our ambition is often greater than our means.”

Gu Xiulan ducked her head. She knew it was not something to speak of, but she knew there were members of the Gu clan who were not in the pu...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 253(Red+)

Her target spoke first as they approached. “Oh, Lady Ling! I wondered if I would encounter you here."

Mei Lanfen was an old woman with a kindly appearance. Her steel gray hair was drawn back in a bun, and her features bore more creases and wrinkles than usual for a cultivator, making her seem like a mortal in her late fifties or so. She was quite short, no taller than Suyin, and wore a simple but elegantly-cut blue gown.

Her qi felt like aged paper and fresh ink, and Ling Qi jud...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 252(Red+)

Ling Qi sucked in a breath. “It’s a wonder that it's still here.”

“The ones who ascend can’t disappear so quickly, especially not right where they ascended.” Sixiang circled her like smoke as if at any moment that hidden light could lance out and destroy her.

When a cultivator reached the peak of the eighth and final realm and then ascended yet again, they ceased to exist in the mortal world, writing the Law they had built in their lives into the fabric of the world. T...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 251(Red+)

<Ah, you’re too hard on yourself,> chided Sixiang.

Maybe, thought Ling Qi, leaving the misty grounds behind. She rejoined the main street that wound along the immense branch of Xiangmen with the leafy green canopy still so unimaginably far above.

It was strange that there wasn’t a single person walking around below the second realm. There was much less of the reflexive obedience she had grown used to from the residents of the sect town. The palanquins and processions of ...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 250(Red+)

"A statement has been prepared." Yinhui slid a folded sheet of paper to her from across the table.

Ling Qi picked it up gingerly, unfolding it, and felt her eyebrows rise at the number of spirit stones listed there. It was enough to make her personal cultivation expenses irrelevant for years, if they were spent on just that. But she had peeked into Cai Renxiang's planning, and she knew that the costs of building and running early settlements far exceeded those expenses. Even so, it was ...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 249(Red+)

The approach to Xiangmen was strange and wondrous. For Ling Qi’s entire life, both on the streets of Tonghou and in the Sect, the dark vertical line on the northern horizon was as much a fact of life as the movement of the sun and moon. There was always some faint awareness that it was the distant capital of the province, Xiangmen, the Heavenly Pillar.

The road took them north, and the dark line on the horizon grew. First, it was a hazy shape, then a solid pillar stretching into the s...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 248(Red+)

Then, very slowly, the woman cracked a smile. “I see. That is generous.”

“It is my hope that our relations can be friendly in the future, and if I may do an ally a favor while forestalling further tragedy, that can only be good,” Ling Qi replied. It was easier than ever to allow her own thoughts and Sixiang to operate in parallel, shaping her words for maximum effect. Diao Hualing was, in her estimation, a mostly mercenary figure so framing their relationship in terms of favors ...

Apologies for the delay

What it says on the tin, sorry everyone! No excuses from me, I just got super caught up in other work and I forgot to make my posts. Won't happen again!

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 247(Red+)

“It is my honor to receive such a polite guest,” the older woman said, her own bow less deep and ostentatious. Her gown was much more staid and businesslike than what she had worn at the tournament, a deep green with only plain geometric embroidery along the fitted hems. She raised her head after only a brief few seconds.“I must apologize that you were left waiting so long.”

“This is my own fault,” Ling Qi replied, raising her head. “Though it was a little impudent, I wish...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 246(Red+)

There was a long beat of silence in the carriage, oppressive and cloying.

“Your mother never does assign easy tasks,” Gan Guangli said, breaking it. His smile seemed dimmer, but it was firm.

Ling Qi wondered if he, too, was trying to contain a monster of incredulous fear in his chest. She managed a wan smile, resting her cheek on her hand. “I applaud your delivery, Lady Renxiang, but I hope you can tell us a little more.”

Overthrowing the Duchess. It was so utterly a...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 245(Red+)

Ling Qi frowned at the little golden statue hovering over the labyrinth gate of her hub in the dream. It bothered her. Despite the fact that it was something the old Weilu had followed, that the Hui had claimed as their own, and that the Meng still claimed to follow a form of, books did not directly reference it, referring to it only in oblique metaphor.

“I feel like I need to say it again now that we’re out of there, but you know not to trust that guy right?”” Sixiang stepped i...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 244(Red+)

Ling Qi did not feel her best when next she stepped through the veil of dream. Her chest still ached with healing bone, and her arm was still restrained under heavy plaster and held tight to her chest in a sling. It would be a week or so before she could move it freely again.

But she was not going to ignore a debt she owed.

“Honestly, if the ol’ bonebag was gonna do immediate harm, he’d have done it,” Sixiang commented from above her shoulder. Sixiang was wounded as well, ...

Journey to the East Part 12

“You cannot waste my time here,” her father said, his even voice rising over the creak of opening doors. The entrance to the spires training hall. Father’s training hall, were forged of the dull blue and black metal. Dusk Steel, mined from beneath Pheonixhome itself, a metal which required the flames of a fourth realm, infused with Shen to even forge. One of the great treasures and resources of the Gu family.

IT was a sign of the intensity of the training and sparring expected to ...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 243(Red+)

She didn’t feel so lucky though, sitting her friend up against the side of the cave.

Su Ling hacked up another mass of bloody water, and her eyes fluttered open. She mumbled, “Pretty sure we’re not dead?”

“Somehow.” Ling Qi swiped soaked hair out of her eyes.

Her friend’s eyes widened then, and she looked down. “Xisheng, are you okay?”

The child held under her arm did not look okay. Soaked to the bone and covered in Su Ling’s blood, the child ghost�...

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“Deny as you want, but tell me, what were you gonna do with these scraps?” asked the fox.

Xisheng cowered behind Su Ling’s legs, their eyes shut. Their form was still in flux, features changing between eye blinks.

“Not a bad meal for a girl at your realm. You thought to get one over me?” The monster pursed wrinkled lips. “But… No, you cut it off. Can’t even use it to nip at my power.”

“I didn’t take her for some shitty reason like that. I took her becau...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 241(Red+)

Su Ling’s eyes flew open, and her ears and tail were standing on end. “We need to go.” The only hesitation was a faint grimace as she glanced toward the beatifically smiling child.

Ling Qi met Su Ling’s eyes. For that single moment, it was as if she could see the thoughts turning in her friend's mind.

“Like—” Ling Qi began.

“—Hells,” Su Ling growled.

“Eh?” The ghost’s expression twisted in confusion, flickering between a half dozen faces of cr...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 240(Red+)

Beyond was the shrine center, filled with the fallen icons of little gods. Peeling paint that should have been too faded for detail nonetheless spoke the old tales of creation and the coming of Tsu in the currents of the liminal energy woven tight still through the walls. There, in the place of honor, stood the withered flowers of the Bountiful Earth, born of Tsu, patriarch spirit of the Emerald Seas. There, the silver disc of the Mother Moon lay untarnished still. And there, an icon of a riv...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 239(Red+)

Colors, shapes, lights, and sounds rushed by. Ling QI held tight to her friend's hand against the ethereal wind which pushed back, rejecting the other girl’s stolid, firmly material qi. Ling Qi gritted her teeth in the face of it, tasting red on her tongue and hearing stone and earth in her ears as she focused, grasped the skein of the thin barrier between realms, and pushed.

The first sign of her success was Su Ling letting out an explosive breath as if she had been punched in the gu...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 238(Red+)

Ling Qi reached up and flicked the cat-xiang’s nose, making them recoil. “I’ve just been thinking about what family really means. Everyone treats the connection as important. Even our doubters grudgingly acknowledge that some ancient marriage gives us a veil of legitimacy. That tapestry we found is going to sell for enough to fund the start up of a whole town. But you know from talking to my friends and watching people that not a lot of people seem to value it. A clan, especially a big ...

Hiatus from July 13-20

Just announcing in advance, the current section of the Quest is finishing and I will be taking my customary one week break from all posting. Will look forward to resuming with you all after the break!

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 237(Red+)

“Snow Blossom, huh?” Sixiang peered over Ling Qi’s head. Their weightless image appeared to lean on her back, trailing off into nothingness below the shoulders. “That’s kind of fanciful for you lot.”

“Well, Lady Cai nixed anything too humorous from the start.”

“The cabbage pun you proposed right off the bat had nothing to do with that, I’m sure,” Sixiang deadpanned.

Ling Qi gave an offended sniff. Baicai was a perfectly fine name for a river.

“I...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 236(Red+)

Wind kicked up as Ling Qi lifted into the air, the hems of her dress fluttering and snapping in the conjured breeze.

Gan Guangli reacted immediately and without a word, stepping in front of her with a wide guarded stance, his fists up. It went without saying that they would need to be careful. Damaging such a valuable and beautiful site would be terrible, even if it were not the home of some sleeping higher realm spirit.

That limited their options. She certainly had to hold Zhengu...

Journey to the East 11

“It is not the commotion which troubles me, this is a training hall,” her father said mildly.

Gu Xiulan remained as she was, head bowed, hands clasped. She could tell he was not done. Zheng Nan turned to face her father as well, his expression guileless.

“It is not, however, a proper place for a spar with guests,” her father continued, turning his eyes to Zheng Nan.

“Ah well, my curiosity got the better of me,” he chuckled. “Your daughter is really loud, you kn...

Threads Patron Preview Chapter 235(Red+)

“Your thoughts, Ling Qi?” Cai Renxiang asked. She stood beside an ornate table set in the middle of the snowy field. A map of high quality lay weighted upon it, and fresh ink was drying in the icy air. Ling Qi glanced across it, taking in the marked out course of the river and a few other locations already spied.

They were not doing this alone. Cartographic teams were already building temporary shelters by the lakeside below, but there were limits to what first and second realms cou...