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Chapter 7: FROM THE MIND
CHAPTER7FROM THE MINDJIEYUAN—∞—“Maeva,” Jieyuan said. He stared at her, tongue-tied. He’d known it’d work, but… She so looked real. Like she was really there.“It’s been a while, Amyas.” The sadness left Maeva’s face, but the smile remained, now bright and cheery. She stepped back, taking a look around the room, turning this way and that, yellow dress and lab coat fluttering as she moved. He could hear her sandaled feet tapping and shifting on the floor. He could even faintly smell the vanilla perfume she often had on. ...
Chapter 6: BE THE DARK
CHAPTER6BE THE DARKJIEYUAN—∞—By some unspoken agreement, neither Jieyuan nor Meiyao gave voice to what they were both clearly thinking.Briefly, Jieyuan considered telling her that the cost of a Command in terms of chroma was in part determined by its consequences. That Commanding someone at the same soulsign as him to kill themselves would use up almost all the chroma he had.Instead, he asked, “Again?”The reply took a while to come as Meiyao studied him, visibly tense. When she did speak, her voice came out tight, controlled. “The s...
Chapter 5: KILL YOURSELF
CHAPTER5KILL YOURSELFJIEYUAN—∞—“I came to check up on Daojue,” Yunzhu was saying. “Father told me what happened on the mission.”Yunzhu sounded normal enough, Jieyuan would give her that much. Lively, almost cheery. Though that in itself was rather odd. She was a Crystalsoul like all trueblood Liangshibai, a variant of Earthsoul, but her bubliness was more in line with an Airsoul, or maybe a Lightningsoul. He didn’t know much about Crystalsouls, but Earthsouls were known to be more grounded, if not placid.“Well, as you can see,...
Chapter 4: IN THE GAZE
CHAPTER4IN THE GAZEJIEYUAN—∞—Meiyao stared up at Daojue. Daojue stared down back at her. Neither of them moved. Both looked impassive. They were on Daojue’s doorstep. Meiyao had finished giving Daojue the same explanation she’d given Jieyuan earlier and had then half-asked, half-demanded to come inside so they could further discuss the matter.Jieyuan stood to the side, minding his own business. If Meiyao wanted to be the one to deal with Daojue, all the power to her. Heavens knew she’d need it.Just as he was starting to think they...
Chapter 3: TO UNVEIL
CHAPTER3TO UNVEILJIEYUAN—∞—Murder, as it turned out, was mighty profitable. Assuming you could get away with it, of course. As the son of a merchant, Jieyuan had known as much since he was seven, when his father had sat him down to tell him when and how he should go about eliminating the competition, literally and figuratively. Commerce was, after all, a cutthroat business—again, literally and figuratively. Sitting in front of his desk, peering inside Rongkai’s glyphstretch pouch, Jieyuan found that now that he was a cultivator, murde...
Chapter 2: UNDERSTAND
CHAPTER2UNDERSTANDJIEYUAN—∞—Awareness came as gently as a sucker punch.Eyes flew open to a brightening sky and then shut themselves just as quickly. Jieyuan jerked up halfway into a sitting position before lying back down. His head throbbed as if a jagged blade had been repeatedly rammed into it. Groaning, he fully turned his body over so that his back faced the sky, then pushed himself off the ground, slowly. Already he could feel the headache letting up, receding like water down a drain.He pushed himself into a kneeling position, legs f...
Chapter 1: OVERWHELM
CHAPTER1OVERWHELMJIEYUAN—∞—About two hundred feet off the ground, Jieyuan sat perched on the tallest branch of a fatebloom tree, legs swinging lazily under him. From his vantage point, the crown of all the other fatebloom trees around him spread out like a sea of crimson streaked with green and dotted with gold. Higher above, dusk bled into the sky, nighttime gloom creeping in as the sun sank out of sight.Jieyuan wasn’t often given to contemplation. Thinking, he believed, was merely a means to an end, nothing more than a prelude to doin...
Prologue: TO KNOW PAIN
PROLOGUETO KNOW PAINJIEYUAN—∞—The moment Jieyuan entered the room, his eyes fell on the pill. It drew his attention invariably and inevitably, surer than any magnet, and he came to a sudden stop one step past the doorsill.Pink and about the size of a thumbnail, the pill sat on the far right side of the table on a small purple pillow. Under the orange and yellow glow of the gemstone lights on the ceiling, it looked so small and round and harmless.But it was called Cultivator’s Agony for a reason.“Jieyuan?”He pried his eyes away from ...
