For the final round, those six most impressive geniuses were all within the top ten. Among the other four there was two dark horses along with two that seemed to have snuck through with lucky breaks. The Trial Master had gauged the capabilities of the geniuses and put what he thought to be the top 8 in four different groups facing up against the weakest competitors. Then he put all the people with strength near that of the top 8 into the last group and essentially had them battle...
2019-01-08 01:47:43 +0000 UTC
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More and more of the young cultivators were kicked out of the Constellation Shell Mirror. The view screens up above even changed what they were showing. Instead of one larger screen and four smaller ones, it suddenly split into a giant grid. Each of the four screens split into quarters and the screen above did the same. Suddenly there was thirty two individual screens now and the action seemed to have multiplied. The cultivator’s inside weren’t slacking either.
Do...
2019-01-04 21:59:59 +0000 UTC
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Just as before, many in the crowd seemed to be familiar with the way that the Trial Master handled things. Those that had no idea what was going on finally followed the example of the ones in the know and waited patiently. In just a few moments the Constellation Shell Mirror began to glow. The many hexagonal mirrors on it began to emit light into the air, beaming towards the heaven like a set of gigantic searchlights. The lights continued to twist and transform until finally a fe...
2019-01-02 22:00:09 +0000 UTC
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A hush fell over the crowd. The sight of a famed genius getting killed directly in front of them was astonishing. Other participants who had been planning to do something similar to make their way directly towards the stage had to change their plans, doing all they could to move quickly without harming the crowd members. Soon enough time was up and three of the most arrogant geniuses weren’t able to make it onto the stage in time. The Trial Master glared at them, daring them to...
2018-12-31 23:30:21 +0000 UTC
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There was a roaring in the air akin to the sound of a rushing storm. Heat like the fires of the underworld blasted outward from the restricted opening on the furnace. If a normal person were standing even in the main room of the workshop it was likely they would suffer burns all over their body, and if they approached within a few feet of the forge their clothing and even their hair would combust into flames. Sage was pushing the fire to a crazy temperature with the constant use ...
2018-12-28 19:00:00 +0000 UTC
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An hour later, Sage was standing in front of a forge. To the side was a huge stack of Fire Stones, ready to be put to use heating the forge to more extreme temperatures. For now, there was a mundane fire simmering within the forge. The huge pile of coals was maintained by an apprentice that stopped by every few hours. While this forge wasn’t anywhere near as well equipped as those back in the Holy Flame Sect, it was nonetheless one of top quality for a place like Plum Lantern C...
2018-12-27 19:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Now that Sage was back in the Dou Kingdom, there was the four major businesses for him to rely upon. Long ago he’d joined the Black Dog Company and worked as a mercenary to finance his trip across the kingdom, escaping from the assassin’s that wiped out the remnants of his clan. Now that he was in need of expensive natural materials, he knew just where to go.
Thousand Treasures. They had set up a massive pagoda like structure in every major city in every province ...
2018-12-27 06:58:32 +0000 UTC
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Sage was expecting some sort of blowback or scorn for his proposal, and his main hope was that he would find a way to overcome those doubts. Instead Song Lu Tian merely nodded his head.
“What material?”
Sage was caught off guard, but covered it quite quickly. Immediately he started to describe the appearance and location of the Double Flowered Ice Camellia as they were told to him by the Zhu clan. He made sure to leave out any mention of the Zhu clan or how important the...
2018-12-21 23:32:09 +0000 UTC
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Sage asked about some of the details of his assignment a bit more before he was finally shown out. From the nonchalance of his assignment, either they were very assured of his capabilities, the flowers were not as important as they said, or they had other plans. It wasn’t really his concern, but without knowing the motivation his actions it was too easy to fall into someone else’s plots. Such a thing made him uneasy. If he was going to be used, he’d rather go along willingly and t...
2018-12-19 23:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Sage kept his head down and soon enough the group finished their farewells and were led out of the building by a humble servant. Sage could only shake his head, even that servant who was acting as a guide was a beautiful woman. It was no wonder this clan had risen to power, they sure knew how to use their looks to their advantage. A moment later another attendant came out of the still opened doors and politely invited Sage in to the room. It was quite similar to his first meeting...
2018-12-18 04:47:21 +0000 UTC
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Sage quickly learned that that killed commoner was right. All the inns in town had already been rented out. He spent some coin and learned that something big was going on and a bunch of influential people had pulled the same move as Tang Zhelan. Each of them went and rented out a whole inn, kicking out all the regular customers and putting them out on the streets. Some enterprising locals even started renting out their spare rooms to the evicted travelers for crazy prices. A few of them...
2018-12-14 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Sage left the meeting and set out towards his inn. He’d told the guards where he was staying so that they could arrange for another meeting. There was no telling how long it would take for Zhu Su to contact the proper people, so Sage was forced to wait it out. Heading into the inn, Sage went to his room and sat down, crossing his legs to begin meditating.
A few hours later he was interrupted by knocking on the door. Not wanting to be bothered he ignored it. A few moments later t...
2018-12-12 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the delayed post!
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The next day Sage arrived at the Zhu Clan and gave his name for the appointment he had. A servant took him into the compound and led him towards the meeting. As he walked the halls, he was stunned. This place was magnificent. Wide halls with exquisitely carved and crafted wood pillars, beams, and trim. They weren’t inlaid with jewels or precious metals, that would be o...
2018-12-11 23:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Sage was still in somewhat of a daze. He sat in the darkness at the depths of that ancient tomb, trying to come to grips with his situation. He just wanted to improve his strength, to increase his ability, to remedy his lack of talent. Sage pulled out a memory sphere that he used to keep notes on his experiments and started to review them. That’s when he found the ‘plan’. The incident that led him to here. It was an idea he had as soon as he read the true version of the Insect Imm...
2018-12-07 22:00:00 +0000 UTC
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From the Timeless Master’s cave, Sage had been practicing a full set of wood natured techniques. Within them there was a body refining art called ‘Greenbody Training’. Sage had practiced it to the first level, but afterwards he’d stopped any further progress. The reason was simple, it was incompatible with his body.
Greenbody Training was a technique that sought to transform the nature of the body, slowly shifting from an animal to a plant. The first stage merely strengthe...
2018-12-05 22:00:00 +0000 UTC
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The pot-bellied boy held back a smile and tilted his head back. Tossing his white hair back over his shoulder, a slight tint of color climbed onto his cheeks. Then he coughed gentle into his fist, looking up into the air as he spoke.
“This one is known as Tao Ba.”
Sage blinked, this sudden change in attitude was unusual. The boy went from rude and wild to a shy gentleman. After a moment, Sage was quite happy as he realized the difference. Flattery seems to be the key...
2018-12-03 23:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone. Just a little update.
With the busy holiday season I'll be writing 3 instead of 4 chapters a week(M/W/F instead of M/T/W/Th). Sorry! I'm also spending more time planning out some more characters and story, which will make things faster later.
2018-12-03 21:53:48 +0000 UTC
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It wasn’t that he believed beast’s were better than humanity. From the books he’d read in the library, there were easily dozens of humans that had broken the limits of their bodies. They had been struck by heavenly lightning, the divine tribulation. Many of them had failed, but those in the history books were the great successes. They withstood the divine tribulation and ascended past the limits of their human bodies. The legends said they became divinities of their own and ascend...
2018-11-29 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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The silken cocoon suffered a few breaches, many threads being cut at the same time, giving room for its occupant to exit. The threads shook slightly as he slid out and swung himself down to ground height. From when he first started his plan until now, Sage had no idea just how much time had passed.
“You made an unusual choice. I suppose it can’t be helped, go up to the second shelf again.”
The voice of the great ancestor interrupted his thoughts, at first s...
2018-11-28 21:00:02 +0000 UTC
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When the stream of memories finally finished, Sage realized he had no idea what was going on at present. He was still surrounded by those spirits that he now knew were representative of the creatures he had merged with. The spirit behind him released his shoulders and stood beside him, the others still surrounding him in a loose circle. The butterfly wings started to flap and a cloud of silver dust gusted out, sprinkling over each of the spirits. As they were coated they started to glow...
2018-11-27 21:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Floating with the darkness, Sage woke up. Still groggy it took him quite some time to realize that he was within his body. He wasn’t viewing the world, he was only within his sea of consciousness. The usual sea and sky were nowhere to be found. Instead he was floating within a featureless darkness. After another unknown amount of time he realized he wasn’t alone. That realization created a sudden light, illuminating another presence. It was another ghostly body just like his own con...
2018-11-26 21:11:26 +0000 UTC
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In the following weeks, the plight of the Black Skull Squad came to be known among the other mercenary teams. After a few teams seeking revenge also disappeared the assignment was bumped up to a gold ranking. The gold rank teams returned empty handed, unable to track down the beast that had caused such problems. It was like it had disappeared without a trace. No one was able to determine whether it had been taken out by someone secretly, or if it had simply hidden itself too well. ...
2018-11-22 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The storm of flames eventually came to a stop, the energy of the fifth and sixth members of the squad nearly exhausted. The inferno came to a stop and they caught sight of their quarry yet again. The armored plates seemed brittle, every bit of blood and water having been burned away, yet the beast was still moving. In fact, they were surprised to see that the flames hadn’t just stopped, they were being sucked into the beast’s opened mouth. When the last of the fire was consumed, the...
2018-11-21 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The time came for a twittering bird call to come from the front, one of the men on watch having caught sight of their quarry. One of them kept the Beast in their sight while the other six men moved into position, each of them assuming their place in their plan, concealing themselves among the rocks and trees of the narrow valley.
Sweat started to drip down backs, hands started to shake, and breathing began to quicken. The moments right before an attack were the times that te...
2018-11-20 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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A few hours later, a huge beetle flew into that big tree and up to that mass of sticks and grass. Climbing over the edge, a trio of white ovoids were sitting in front of it. Three eggs nestled in the center of a massive nest. The bug, a Charming Lance Beetle, carried the heavily injured Sage within it and went over to the eggs, giving him the chance to reach out from within the beetle’s internal space and pulled the eggs into his Beast Pack. The inner area of the Beast Pack was essent...
2018-11-20 08:17:11 +0000 UTC
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A paw carrying claws each the size of a dagger swiped through the air. A sudden burst of wind blew out from the center of the clearing, seeming to propel a lone figure backwards, clearing the tips of those organic razor blades. That lone figure was of course, Sage. Looking quite the sorry character, his clothing torn up and stained with dirt and blood. Surprisingly, there wasn’t an insect to be found in the vicinity, just one man and one beast. Facing off from him was a huge creature ...
2018-11-15 23:00:00 +0000 UTC
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After Sage built weapons for his friends, it was time for him to make use of his newfound wealth.
Previously, he’d invested most of his funds into a business, then he was lucky enough to stumble upon another small fortune that was just enough to support him in rushing towards rank 4. Now that he was officially level 41 he had entered the level where merely accumulating energy wouldn’t help him break through. It still had to be done, but he would be blocked from advanceme...
2018-11-14 23:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Sage had stabilized at the fourth rank and after celebrating with the members of the Prosperity Company, he immediately started to work on recovering his stores of materials and pills. The spirit stones were mostly just currency, but the spirit jades and piles of other materials were necessary preparations for his Professions. He used to have ample supplies of nearly every low level material sorted into vertical hex shaped patterns, but starting from scratch he prioritized things he act...
2018-11-13 22:59:59 +0000 UTC
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The Stormstone split apart and dissolved into nothingness. In its place was what looked like a blue tinted piece of dry ice surrounded by a swirling vortex of blue vapor. The tiny maelstrom flew up next to the Seed of Life and joined the other unusual objects. Four strange items floated around the seed in the center. A dark stone eye, cyan sphere, white ember, and a blue ice stone. Each of them positioned equidistant from each other around the Seed of Life in the center. They seemed to ...
2018-11-13 07:40:37 +0000 UTC
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With the seed for his foundation completed, Sage had devoted his full attention to gathering and refining more energy. The sudden interruption nearly disrupted the flow of energy, something that could cause massive damage or even a deviation in his cultivation if it wasn’t properly controlled. These concerns prevented Sage from doing anything to stop the sudden internal disturbance, let alone determine its source. A few seconds later he finally got to see the source of the problem.&nb...
2018-11-08 23:00:00 +0000 UTC
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