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Chapter 36: TALKS AND TESTS
CHAPTER36TALKS AND TESTSJIEYUAN—∞—“You’re back.” Meiyao had eyes narrowed, looking him up and down. Arms crossed over her chest, standing by the door. “And whole. Early, too.”Jieyuan was in front of her doorway. On his way back to the sect, he’d thought his next few steps through. ...
Chapter 35: BORN ANEW
CHAPTER35BORN ANEWJIEYUAN—∞—The senior protector’s footsteps sounded faint, muffled, and they grew fainter, until Jieyuan could barely hear them. He lay on the ground, head to the side, grass prickling the right side of his face. Darkness crawled around the edges of his vision, creeping in. ...
Chapter 34: TAKE YOUR TIME
CHAPTER34TAKE YOUR TIMEJIEYUAN—∞—Immediately, the Fatebloom Heart stopped beating. Jieyuan felt his own heart race even faster, like it was picking up the slack, compensating for the Fatebloom Heart’s sudden lack of movement.Chroma started vanishing from Jieyuan’s soulprism, sacrificed by ...
Chapter 33: FATEBLOOM HEART
CHAPTER33FATEBLOOM HEARTJIEYUAN—∞—It took Jieyuan a couple of seconds to remember himself and get a sense of what had just happened—what was still happening.His thoughts were faint, unfocused—and mingled, he distantly realized, with those of Yikongwei Beidao, which droned on faintly and in...
Chapter 32: IN THE HEART
CHAPTER32IN THE HEARTJIEYUAN—∞—That was the second Fusongshi he’d killed. First an inner disciple, now a core disciple.In a way, it was like he was moving up in the world. Maybe too fast, though. At this rate, he’d be dealing with a core elder next, and he wasn’t even halfway through Red...
Chapter 31: TO DISTRACT
CHAPTER31TO DISTRACTJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan threw the pill—and it’d barely left his fingers when the elk at the front charged forward, and barely a moment later he felt something pulling him forward, like he’d just jumped off a cliff and was falling—except in the direction of the elk chargin...
Chapter 30: IN THE WOODS
CHAPTER30IN THE WOODSJIEYUAN—∞—Hardly a month and a half ago, the Fatebloom Woods had been quite the sight. Jieyuan remembered quite clearly his first impressions of it. To him, the trunks of the fatebloom trees had been like massive, towering pillars of gold that reached impossibly high, Heav...
Chapter 29: TO PREPARE
CHAPTER29TO PREPAREJIEYUANJieyuan was standing in his doorway, clad in his new set of topaz robes. Just in front of his residence, rising into the air on a cloudcraft, was the Management Bureau elder who’d just now processed his induction to the Inner Court. It’d been a short, straightforward vi...
Terminology Changes
TERMINOLOGY CHANGES(Dated 2024-09-27. If you've started reading FaUn on or after that date, feel free to ignore the announcement below.)As I’m now starting to publish Volume 2 here, I’ve gone all over the feedback I’ve gotten on the story so far, picked out which ones I could feasibly appl...
Chapter 28: AND THEY PLOT
CHAPTER28AND THEY PLOTQINGSHI—∞—Back straight, legs crossed, hands resting on his thighs, Qingshi sat on the floor of his cell, his back against the wall. Although he didn’t know the exact location, he could tell that he was in the lowest levels of the Justice Bureau. He’d been here many t...
Chapter 27: TO SET FORTH
CHAPTER27TO SET FORTHJIEYUAN—∞—Meiyao sat in Jieyuan’s living room. Jieyuan sat across her, the small table that had come up with the house between them. He had all the windows closed, and the yellow-white gemstone light embedded on the ceiling lit.The Justice Hall elder had brought them str...
Chapter 26: AMONG LIES
CHAPTER26AMONG LIESJIEYUAN—∞—“Is that so, Daojue?” Taishou asked Daojue. “You were the one who found the cave?” Taishou didn’t seem particularly surprised—he didn’t seem like anything, really, his expression now inscrutable. His gaze was even more intense, though, and entirely co...
Chapter 25: IN THE SECT
CHAPTER25IN THE SECTJIEYUAN—∞—It was at much lower speeds—but still far, farfaster than Jieyuan could hope to run, at least at his soulsign—that Taishou flew the cloudcraft through what Jieyuan assumed to be the Inner Court. From this high above, he couldn’t really tell—everything the ...
Chapter 24: TO RETURN
CHAPTER24TO RETURNJIEYUAN—∞—Yunzhu slowly lowered her cloud to the ground.Jieyuan stared at her throughout the entire length of her descent, mystified. Nobody reacted.Yunzhu alighted not too far away from where Qingshi was standing. The prime disciple had his head facing her way and was comple...
Chapter 23: CROSSING REALMS
CHAPTER23CROSSING REALMSJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan had headed straight back to their initial location after his fight with Sunqiu, and seeing Daojue’s fight with Qingshi hadn’t ended yet, he’d stayed to the side, beside a gleamstone tree and out of sight. From his position, he’d also been able ...
Chapter 22: PROMISED FIGHT
CHAPTER22PROMISED FIGHTDAOJUE—∞—Daojue and Gleaming End were one.The spear Daojue was as if a perfect extension of himself. As he swung and thrust it, he felt the weapon’s thirst for blood and battle. Although he had yet to grow fully accustomed to the ego gear’s constant presence in his m...
Chapter 21: TO BRING DEATH
CHAPTER21TO BRING DEATHJIEYUAN—∞—Over to Jieyuan’s left, Daojue and Qingshi began a battle that, by all accounts, seemed to be long-awaited on both sides. Even further over to his left, Meiyao and Liangjie got up to some bloody business of their own.As for himself, Jieyuan tracked over to th...
Chapter 20: TO ACCUSE
CHAPTER20TO ACCUSEJIEYUAN—∞—Confused though he was, Jieyuan still took quick stock of the situation. Qingshi was a mostly known element—blind, sword user, veryskilled, no realmskill—but the two inner disciples beside were pure unknowns.Both men. Black-haired and black-eyed, so probablynot ...
Chapter 19: TO CONFUSE
CHAPTER19TO CONFUSEJIEYUAN—∞—What in the Heavens?It was like he’d hit a roadblock not even a step past the starting line.He quickly scanned through its contents, but it was all just more of the same, utterly unreadable text. Like it was in a different language. Which was very much curious, b...
Chapter 18: SO IT GOES
CHAPTER18SO IT GOESJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan had spent fifteen nights in the Gleamstone Forest. The first handful or so of them, he’d been tense, on edge, and it’d been a rather unfortunate confluence of factors that had led to that less-than-pleasant experience.One was that, new as he’d been to...
Chapter 17: OF THE STONE
CHAPTER17OF THE STONEJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan turned around to face the entrance pretty much together with Daojue, and he did it just in time to see Daojue snap his arms forward and send Glistening End flying out of his hands, the spear cutting through the air like an arrow.A grossly oversized crysta...
Chapter 16: IN THE CAVE
CHAPTER16IN THE CAVEDAOJUE—∞—The Ring burned.It sat wrapped around the forefinger of Daojue’s right hand, the hand with which Daojue held his spear as he ran. Daojue felt himself being pulled forward, and it was the Ring that pulled him.It was as if he was a spear thrown, with the Ring as it...
Chapter 15: TO ESCAPE
CHAPTER15TO ESCAPEJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan was caught up trying to come up with both a reason why this was happening and a way out of it—and coming up awfully empty on both accounts—when Meiyao stepped forward, pointing her finesaber at the inner elder.“I know you. I rememberyou. I’ve seen yo...
Chapter 14: TO ADVANCE
CHAPTER14TO ADVANCEJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan’s soulprism fell apart in a slow, prolonged outburst, the chroma comprising it dispersing evenly throughout the prismgap like a blooming cloud of red. As the first particles of chroma began penetrating the spiritshell, imbuing it, Jieyuan felt the familia...
Chapter 13: TRUTH AND LIE
CHAPTER13TRUTH AND LIEJIEYUAN—∞—The fight had barely begun, and already Jieyuan was losing.He was on his back foot, literally and figuratively, as Daojue’s spear stabbed at his neck. Jieyuan managed to lift his own spear to bat it aside in time, but that barely gave Daojue a pause, the talle...
Chapter 12: NOT TO FIGHT
CHAPTER12NOT TO FIGHTJIEYUAN—∞—What came next wasn’t the wet, crunching sounds of flesh being torn and bone being shattered—the sounds you’d expect to come from the collision of a fullgauntlet and a face—but the dull ring of metal meeting metal.Daojue’s own fullgauntleted hand was wr...
Chapter 11: HAZE OF RED
CHAPTER11HAZE OF REDJIEYUAN—∞—Jieyuan got about twelve steps in before the wolf reacted. From absolute stillness it snapped into a crouch, four legs bending, body tilting forward, and then it leaped—pushing off against glistenstone, launching itself forward, paws barely touching the ground a...
Chapter 10: TO PREDATE
CHAPTER10TO PREDATEJIEYUAN—∞—It was Meiyao who’d whipped her hand out, a signal sure as any for them to stop, and there’d been something so sharp about the motion that Jieyuan reacted immediately, soulstilling as he snapped into a stance.Then she’d pointed to the left, and Jieyuan had se...
Chapter 9: GLISTENSTONE
CHAPTER9GLISTENSTONEJIEYUAN—∞—It was in almost complete silence that what looked like a line of gray clouds appeared on the horizon, coming from the direction of the Inner Court. Beyond the Topaz Arch, a light gray cut across the blue-white skies.As the gray clouds drew closer, Jieyuan noticed...
Chapter 8: SO THEY MEET
CHAPTER8SO THEY MEETJIEYUAN—∞—As Yunzhu and Qingshi walked over, the crowd parted around them like Jieyuan had often seen mundanes get out of the way of cultivators back in Radiant Gold City—hurriedly, but discretely, so as not to draw attention to themselves. They were all cultivators here,...
