Ad Astra

The Unknown Arts 11: Useless (II)

She’d done it—she’d taken Ruyi’s hand! She’d been brave and done it and she was so proud of herself.

As she led Ruyi along, princess Song dearly hoped she was doing a good job hiding her nervousness. Every night in her diary she wrote a snippet about Ruyi. Some nights she wrote mortifying things, things she blushed at and crumpled up and threw in the hearth once she’d read them in the light of day.

Ruyi was even more beautiful than the last time they’d met. Song wasn...

The Unknown Arts 10: Useless (I)

A/N: Think I will start scheduling uploads at 12:30PM EST

//

She looked like any other peasant girl. Tattered tunic, trousers ratty but sewn neatly, with care. Rather plain-looking, Ruyi thought.

“Ah,” said Jin. “Mei—I… didn’t think you’d be here.”

“Ren,” she said again, looking shattered. “Who’s this?”

“Oh!” Only then did he realize how things looked. He got off Ruyi, thank Heavens, since she was starting to turn bl...

The Unknown Arts 9: Unwind

Soon Gao let her start work on her own research.

Most of it was purely observational. For instance, Alchemists from the western Frostbite Peaks province had isolated an extract of frost dragon saliva. It was her job to stare at its energy patterns for hours and hours, for so long she started seeing its shape in random places, like in clouds or puddles on road. Then she tested it with a medley of fires, tossed it at some cinnabar, mixed it with saltpeter, tried to make it play nice with ...

The Unknown Arts 8: Banquet (II)

At first Ruyi thought she’d hallucinated it.

Until she turned, and her last coherent thought vanished from her head.

“Who are you?” She croaked.

But in truth she didn’t need to ask who this was—she knew. Just look at her! This was what folk thought of when they thought of a princess. This small angelic face, almost heartbreakingly lovely. She was wrapped in flowing silks with a tasteful touch of gold. Imperial gold.

“We met at the Alchemis...

The Unknown Arts 7: Banquet

You knew when you entered the Emperor’s territory when you saw the flowers. Orchids, peonies, plum blossoms and lilies dotted hill after hill. The road to the palace was lined with the Emperor’s favorite: Cherry blossom trees. They were planted so their branches embraced, making a natural pink canopy.

It was autumn and the trees were starting to shed. To Ruyi it looked like the sky was crying pink tears. She held out her hand, curious, and as Fate would have it a blossom landed in h...

The Unknown Arts 6: Thief

“We can’t have you going to the Banquet looking like this,” said Mother. “I won’t allow it.”

“What? Why?” Ruyi did a little turn before the full-length mirror. She had on a blue dress which had no tears or stains as far as she could tell. “It looks fine to me. Even Father says so.”

“Oh, honey...” By the way Mother was looking at her you’d think she was in rags. “Father has no taste, despite my best efforts. You really shouldn’t trust his opinion on fa...

The Unknown Arts 5: Early Years (V)

Ruyi took a written test and a practical test, and she was told she’d be mailed her results in a week.

In that time, a stranger came to visit.

It was Ruyi who answered the door. “Can I help you?”

“Rue?” whispered the stranger, removing her cap. “Is that you?”

The stranger’s eyes were almond-shaped, just like hers. They were watery as they took her in.

The stranger had curtains of straight dark hair, just like her. But this stranger’s features we...

The Unknown Arts 4: Early Years (IV)

Ruyi knew in a vague way that Jin meant a lot to people. But he was always just Jin to her. They grew up together. It was hard to idolize someone when you’ve seen them wet themselves.

So she wasn’t prepared for the warzone she walked into.

A huddle of guards shepherded her to the arena, pressed so tight to either side it was like walking a corridor made of iron and flesh. Like they were trying to spare her the sight of the filthy public. Certainly she wasn’t spared their sou...

Twinned Destinies 3: Early Years (III)

Ostium, Demon Lands

At the heart of the Demon Lord’s Palace there was a garden. Cherry blossom trees lined its pebbled paths. It was late spring and the trees were in full bloom, a festival of pink under a clear blue sky. The Lord stood there in perfect silence, watching a single blossom sag, droop, and at last break from its branch, drifting once, twice, thrice to land in his waiting palm. Just as he’d known it would.

He wished for a flower, but there was no ...

Twinned Destinies 2: Early Years (II)

Father was true to his word.

A week later he brought the other four volumes of the Principles of Alchemy. By the time he returned, she’d long since finished them. He picked up a volume, flipped to a random page, and quizzed her on it—on Demon cores and their uses. She recited the page verbatim.

She had seen that soft happy glow adults got when they drank wine. As she saw his grudging approval, she imagined this was what it felt like.

A day later, Father moved he...

The Unknown Arts 1: Early Years (I)

Ruyi remembered when she first realized there was something wrong with her.

There were signs, early on. Every weekend the Yang household welcomed a parade of serious-looking people with big instruments and bigger coats. They would tell her to open her mouth, or press these painful cups on her back, or draw her blood. Most of these people started the day with confident smiles and ended it with the same hapless grimace. “There’s nothing to be done,” they would say.

She remembe...

The Unknown Arts Prologue

A/N: I know I said two weeks but I'm impatient

This will be a slower burn compared to Speedrun; more serious tone too

//

Where the mighty White River met Jade Dragon City, it split into two streams. One stream hugged the city walls to the east, the other to the west.

The eastern stream basked in the sun from dawn till mid-day. Its currents ran warm and sparkled playfully, like there were diamonds hiding in the water. In the lazy days of summer it was b...

302. Epilogue [EXTENDED]

A/N:

you lot have successfully cyberbullied me into adding some more stuff >.>

//

2 years later, Dorian’s Estate, Zenith Realm

The restored Zenith realm floated above all others on an expanse of endless cottonball clouds. Two suns bathed the realm in eternal joyous shine; a handful of phoenixes drifted lazily about, soaking in the light. These days, few peaks broached the clouds—and those that did were were shabby, scarred nu...

Thoughts on the last chapter?

EDIT: 

OK I HAVE EXTENDED IT-- POSTED

302. Epilogue [OLD/ORIGINAL]

EXTENDED VERSION OF THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN POSTED 

//

2 years later, Dorian’s Estate, Zenith Realm

The restored Zenith realm floated above all others on an expanse of endless cottonball clouds. Two suns bathed the realm in eternal joyous shine; a handful of phoenixes drifted lazily about, soaking in the light. These days, few peaks broached the clouds—and those that did were were shabby, scarred nubs.

Atop one ...

Next Story Idea

Deciding between a few ideas, but 80% sure this will be the one. More character-focused, slower paced series. Mix of trad fantasy and xianxia—setting will be largely trad fantasy inspired, with a lot of Xianxia in the magic system.

Title: The Unknown Arts

Temporary Synopsis:

Prophecy tells of a Hero born under a shooting star who shall slay the Lord of Demons and bring peace to the Song Dynasty.

On the eve of the summer solstice, jus...

301. Finale (VII)

Dorian could not stop smiling as he downed his healing elixirs. Houyi, you sly bastard!

For nearly four hours he sat there, letting his bones set back in place, his muscles bind together, skin and scale stitch until they were one unbroken hide.

Then he felt the call.

A sparkling of Dao—a tremor in his Black Hole. A sign. So random. And yet… he felt the the Daos beyond, truths of the Multiverse just beyond the horizon of his knowledge, impatiently waiting. All he...

300. Finale (VI)

Dorian barely had time to wrap Sun behind his wings when the blast struck.

It rammed him into a wall and sent him sliding to the floor in a smoking heap, huge swathes of skin burnt off.

“It’s over,” said Jez. “Listen.”

Silence reigned in the chamber. In the battlefield outside. Hours ago it’d been so loud he could hardly hear himself think, but now…

“That is the silence which follows a won battle,” said Jez. “We exist in the aftermath. Your Godkings...

299. Finale (V)

“Go in the Chamber and stay there,” breathed Dorian.

“Why?” said Sun.

“So you don’t get whiplash or worse. With how fast I’ll be moving, and how much collateral damage this’ll cause, cloaking will be fairly pointless! Don’t worry, you won’t be in there long.”

Sun looked like she had a lot more questions, but she knew better than to ask them right now. With a nod, she went in.

Now he could unleash himself in full. And oh Heavens was he eager to do ...

298. Finale (IV)

The fourth floor was corridors leading corridors to corridors leading to corridors. Each corridors had doors upon doors upon doors. The floor, walls, ceiling were all made of this luminescent marble that looked the same everywhere. It was as though the whole thing were designed to make intruders like them hopelessly lost.

Dorian was pretty sure they’d circled the same block twice, but who could say?

Just when he was starting to get impatient—each breath was a breath longer he ...

297. Finale (III)

With the Blessing of Hecate, Sun’s cloaking had reached surreal levels; as they weaved between the crowds of soldiers, rushing blindly forth, eyes fixed ahead, not registering them in the slightest, it felt like they were but ghosts observing the real world. They had no maps, no real plan, even. All they knew of the tower was that it had floors, and it had stairs. And the Infinity Heart was likely on one of the highest levels. He could feel it now like a North Star of qi, gently pulsing hig...

Book 1 Kindle Unlimited + Audible Launch!

Hey everyone! I’m both excited and nervous to announce that Speedrunning the Multiverse Book 1 comes out today on Kindle Unlimited and Audible! It’s been professionally edited, has a snazzy new cover, and the audiobook features some phenomenal narration from Graham Halstead.

When I started t...

296. Finale (II)

Before the Battle…

“Hey, you’re still alive!” beamed Sun as Dorian pattered up beside her. “Good job!”

“Why, thank you.”

“Would you like a carrot?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Oh, good,” said Sun, relieved. She popped it into her mouth, let her eyes flutter shut, and started happily chewing. In that moment she seemed to exist in a state of perfect happiness—the kind of feeling most creatures spent their lives searching for ...

295. Finale (I)

It was wrong to take pleasure in the suffering of others. Even that of his enemies.

Jez knew this. And yet right and wrong were concepts which only existed in his new reality. A reality which had not yet come to pass.

And so he allowed himself this indulgence. He smiled as he prowled the corridors of the Labyrinth’s dungeons, soaking in the sounds of screaming. At first the sounds had horrified them. But hear them for moons on end and they became a sort of back...

294. The God of Time

The village was abandoned. No smoke left the chimneys. No trails marred the grounds; wild grasses ran free, and ivy had claimed the cobblestone houses for their own. It seemed fitting somehow.

He found his body at its center, slumped in a crater. It looked exactly as the statue had, except its eyes were closed and its mouth drawn in a tight expression, almost a frown. Whoever had made that statue had known him well.

“Here we go again,” he murmured.

He made a careful inci...

293. Speedrunning the Multiverse (II)

The Rainsong Canopies was a realm smothered in giant trees with leaves the size of lily pads. It rained constantly there, and the raindrops drummed out lively melodies against those great leaves day and night. It was humid year-round. Most folk here had at least one set of gills. Even the land-dwellers were amphibians, sporting mottled breathable skin.

Here, they trained some of the most ferocious weather sorcerers known to the Multiverse. On the day of Dorian’s coming the rain poured...

292. Speedrunning the Multiverse (I)

Orynthia

Middle Realms

In Orynthia, everything floated. Gravity was not so much a law here as a helpful suggestion, often ignored. Most buildings were situated on floating islands; cities were merely islands clustered together, making a sort of giant dirt clump mid-air, linked by chains and bridges. At a distance it looked like an unappetizing meatball.

The capital looked like three meatballs stacked atop one another, and none the more appet...

291. The God of Alchemy (III)

“Huh. You’re not supposed to be here,” said Dorian. “It’s only been six hours! Last time it took that other mutant, what, a day and a half?”

Unsurprisingly, the chimera was not interested in what Dorian thought of its timing. It just attacked.

[Blessing of Hermes!]

He was there—but blink, and he was not. Where Dorian had been, a lash of lightning met a lash of fire. There was a piercing blast of sound—a crack of a whip, a roar of fire, a cackle of lightning b...

290. The God of Alchemy (II)

This was not a smart idea.

It was the curse of monstrously powerful creatures the Multiverse over—their bodies failed them before their force did. So it was the case here.

Dorian blinked at the meat paste that had once been his hand. Fourth Form Torchdragons were as durable as you could get in the Multiverse—the greatest shields and armors, the ones given lofty names in the legends, were often made from their scales. So you could imagine the amount of force it’d take to do <...

289. The God of Alchemy (I)

Eden — Upper Realms

There was a saying of Eden: a seed planted at midnight flowers at dawn.

In the Multiverse’s early aughts, Eden’s soils were sampled and carted off to other realms for analysis. Everyone wanted whatever secret ingredient made Eden’s crops grow so much bigger, its flowers so much brighter, its grasses so strong and hale. But they saw only plain, simple soil under their microscopes. Perhaps it was the crops, they said—perhaps Eden’s st...