This update was fantastic.
Scout and Skirmish is where I would have put LQ, and it's a good reason to keep up our stealth skills even if we don't slot all that many.
Where Ling Qi supplemented her movement with minor boosts of flight, Liao Zhu simply seemed to blur from one outcropping or scraggly tree to the next.
Looks like either an advanced Athletics skill or he's simply that fast. Or both; could easily be both.
though she had come to terms with it somewhat could she really be relied upon in danger.
Ah, she's still nervous; of course she is. It hasn't been that long, and she hasn't really faced it.
Liao Zhu is either the best person she could be talking to or the worst.
Justice is also cruel."
"It shouldn't be," Ling Qi replied stubbornly.
"Hah, well spoken,"
Justice is blind, and bears a scale. The scale takes no context into account; all it works to do is become even once more.
Justice must be tempered with compassion, understanding, and sincerity.
Justice is decided by those with power, if you wish to make it align with your vision, then do so with your own hands, your own words. Convince those around you that your justice is correct. A great spirit cannot change, it can only BE changed."
"...You really are arrogant, Senior Brother," Ling Qi replied, perhaps it was the vein of music twisting through her spirit, or perhaps it was the clear sight given her by Argent Mirror, but she could feel his sincerity. Liao Zhu sincerely intended to change the nature of a great spirit.
He's absolutely right about how Great Spirits are made and 'adjusted'. That he plans to Ascend to make such a change can only be commended.
It also fits with the Moons he choose - Bloody, Reflecting, Reflecting, and is also why he was actually a good choice to bring this up. The Reflecting Moons do cover diplomacy.
No doubt of his arrogance, well deserved though it seems to be.
Then again, maybe you needed that kind of arrogance, to reach the peak of cultivation.
It almost seems like a requirement.
I do like this guy, and I have few doubts that we'll be working with him when we're out of the Sect - whether he stays within it or not, really.
Something about not allowing us to 'languish in mediocrity'. I think we might be getting an advancement for something out of this...
*-*-*-*
I can also see why this turn is going to be busy; this is almost the equivalent of 'free' Core tutoring, no matter that Zhu is still Green - or at least, he still seems to be Green; there is no indication to the contrary here. Probably at Green 8 now though.
And that's on top of the two planned 'vote for this' 'bond advancements', Sixiang's bond advancement, and the challenge research that went through.
Even at only ~four updates per Arc, we've got at least
five Arcs, which is
twenty updates.
As far as bonds go, the only bond that is currently time-critical appears to be meeting with our new retainers - a good first impression of 'the boss' can only help, I think.
We'll do better down in the depths with both Zhengui and more advanced everything allowing us to go farther and kill more things, while we'll do better in the tomb raiding excursion with higher levels of CDE.
[X] Ling Qingge: Your new household is arriving from Tonghou, perhaps you should put in an appearance and see how your Mother is handling things?
Edit: forgot about Sixiang's automatic advancement this turn, which puts at somewhere around five arcs, instead of four. Yikes.
