I mean she was questioning whether or not this was anything like a structured test where passing it in the right way would reward you.
Moreover, even if you treat it as a challenge, then assuming they are being graded entirely separately (despite entering as a team), or that Ling Qi choosing to try to save him from immanent danger would invalidate his choices would also seem unjustified. Like, unless the test for him here was "how do you feel about being slaughtered by a Cyan+ spirit" then I don't think it would be reasonable to treat it like that?
Why are you talking about grading?
Ling Qi is getting the experience to talk to the King and the problems/boons that go with it. Shen Hu is getting the experience of defending a village of mortals and the problems/boons that go with it. I don't think there needs to be any kind of 'grade' there. Do you think that Zeqing or Xiulan tribulation actually had them being 'rewarded' rather than 'It pushes you to get stronger or die'?
If Ling Qi asks to spare Shen Hu, that does mean that his own experience will be short changed because it would be on a lower level of difficulty, and thus he will learn less from it.
Going 'Shen Hu totally choose to get mauled by a cyan+ entity and Ling Qi should respect his choice' is a really weird take???
Shen Hu explicitly went to protect the mortals both because it was the right thing to do, and because he didn't want to involve himself in the high level stuff. Moreover, both Shen Hu and Ling Qi treated the dream as real and thought that death has meaning (and indeed we saw Shen Hu wounds in the waking world).
Ling Qi choosing the boon while being fully aware that she might have killed Shen Hu with her choice (or was complicit in his death) is the thing that rattled her, with the excuse of 'well I have only known him for a couple of days' while knowing full well that it was bunk.
Like, I don't think you grasp how Ling Qi felt during this entire event?
I completely agree that Ling Qi didn't feel like that, I just think it's hypocritical as fuck.
Shen Hu went into the dream because he felt he was stagnating and wanting to get back into doing difficult and life threatening things. He flat out said it. He then decided to protect mortals because he thought that no matter what this action couldn't be wrong. Once he failed, he was grateful for the experience because it's explicitly the kind of thing he expects to do once he goes back home.
I agree on what thing rattled Ling Qi, I just think it's extremely selfish of her to not realise that it would go against Shen Hu's own desire. If it was Xiulan in Shen Hu's place, can you imagine how
pissed she would be if Ling Qi had asked to save her and stolen her own tribulation away?
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Anyway, about the challenges, I am a bit disappointed by the inability to do research on 785-800. 800-825 bracket only gives us +20YSS/month, which is
nice, but ultimately not worth the 2AP we spend on the research itself even assuming we won.