17 A New Day

Iris put forward a valiant effort to keep her new friend awake, but it was no use. The boy was too exhausted and the lecture too dull. Fortunately for Boneroot, she did eventually manage to wake him up, albeit violently, when it seemed that Master Bo was finishing his speech. The boy jerked his head

16 The Brightmoon Sect

Boneroot’s first foray into socializing with his peers had ended poorly, to say the least. On the bright side, Kuroki was awake and ready for any future debacles. “I would have beat him up! Why didn’t you beat him up? The next mean person is getting beat up! OK?!” “I wanted to! Venh stopped me.

15 Making Friends

In contrast to the rest of the city, the bathhouse proved quite familiar to Boneroot. His village had something similar set up at a nearby spring. Though he couldn’t identify the source of the hot water at this particular location, he wasn’t complaining. As soon as his body hit the water, some of his anxieties

14 Mountain’s Rest

When the sun roused Boneroot from his meditation the next morning, he knew immediately he should have slept instead. While he had replenenished his energy reserves in their entirety, not to mention assimilating a surprising amount of ambient essence, he felt just as tired as he had the night before. Now that he was in

13 Boneroot and Kuroki’s Excellent Adventure

Boneroot felt little more than a gust of wind and suddenly he, Venh, and Kuroki were in the middle of a clearing. Looking around, he saw the familiar surroundings of the Sentoru Forest, but he couldn’t tell where they were within it. He was interrupted by Venh’s voice. “Ah, wait here. I forgot something.” Again,

12 Leaving the Grove

Later that day, when Boneroot began individual practice following his meditation, he found that he had an observer. He suppressed the shiver that arose when he remembered the last time his training was interrupted in such a way. Turning to face the intruder, Boneroot got another look at the remarkably unremarkable Venh. The man strolled

11 Binding

In the days following his deathmatch, Boneroot said little and trained relentlessly. Whenever Kroshieshi tried to engage him about the killing of Gangwei, the boy brushed him off. He wanted to talk about the fight even less than he wanted to remember it. Whenever he had a moment to think, images of his opponent’s corpse

10 To the Death

Boneroot was still struggling to come to grips with his current circumstances. Even though he wasn’t in the most stable frame of mind, he was completely unable to figure out what sort of game Felindei was playing. She brought this human for Boneroot to kill. He had the thought that perhaps she wanted to set

09 Ten Months’ Work

The next day, Kroshieshi knew immediately the boy hadn’t slept. He’d cultivated for sixteen hours straight, it appeared. True, cultivators needed less sleep and nutrition as they rose higher through the realms, but Boneroot was not there yet. If he forewent sleep too frequently, especially in the fledgeling stages of his path, he would only

08 Sparring

It took another month, but when Boneroot succeeded in using the Sunless Stride a single time, he felt like he’d achieved something significant. Every aspect of his cultivation seemed to benefit from his practice with the technique. He immediately dove into cultivation, sensing his Void ki with a new-found clarity. The culmination of his work