a post-cyberpunk xianxia epic
“Please,” Yuhui pressed again, voice depleted in the peak of his petitioning, “This would mean the world to me, Laike.” Laike bowed his head, jaw tight. He didn’t turn into Yuhui’s insistent touch. Instead, he implored him gently: “You should get dressed, my prince.” And so, Yuhui, youngest prince of the Tian clan, middle heir […]
With his amber eyes still caught on every dip and curve of Yuhui’s nonsense markings, Laike made a single innocent request: “Take off your clothes.” “Um… why?” Yu’s eyes were wide even as his fingers indicated he was not opposed to following the order. The boy’s hands moved to fuss with the sash looped around […]
A month before Xueyu proposed Laike come to the Tian family complex, Jiling posed the young disciple a riddle at the tail end of prayers: “Laike,” she said. “Orphan of the deluge, my castaway child of the endless sword, tell me: if you stand at the epicenter of a flood spirit’s anguish, how do you […]
Yuhui stood next to the door of the Tian family’s grand sitting room, deferential to the guests he allowed to pass him—the lady of the mountain and her master of swords, his brother and the two young girls, the alluring boy in black followed by the Tian clan’s youngest child, his sister. When Miyan was […]
Fanxing city, separated from the hollow mountain that lurked distant in its periphery by a long shadow over the landscape, was just beginning to stir to life in the swell of morning. The Tian clan’s manor functioned as the sprawling heart of that land over which they ruled, perfectly sectioned between matters public and private. […]
Xueyu’s steps were brisk on the sliver-stone salvaged hallways leading him away from Jiling’s private chamber. He made quick work of the angled corridors, followed all their twisting and turning around sacred spaces until he hit the day in full. The large man stood in the main doorway of the mountain’s deeper recesses for a […]
When Jiling opened her delft blue eyes, she no longer prayed before the living Buddha. She was no longer surrounded by the million retronascent pearl hearts she was charged with protecting. Instead, she, High Priestess of the Empty Mountain, was laid on her bed platform swaddled in soft silver blankets and yesterday’s silk. The grey […]