I know... It's so sad thinking about all that has been lost from the various dynasties who wanted to change things to fit their vision of how they think it should be. How many books have been burned, how much knowledge lost, how much wisdom discarded.It hurts it really hurts seeing books being burned. It really hurts.
Meizhen at the lake was a very good plot line and felt in character, but the middle-late portion of the story was long and it took forever to resolve their separation.
If you evaluate these quests as stories I think the biggest problem is repetition in the grinding segments, and that the character interactions are very segmented. Each cycle we choose a small number of people to interact with, meet them at [quest location] and then separate and return home. This is compounded by the fact that people don't eat or sleep so there aren't any central locations or times to produce random encounters.
I loved this section and really appreciated the thought process Ling Qi is having to internalize the different phases of the moon and what they meant to her. Ling Qi is not one for impropriety like what the Dreaming moon can sponsor, Ling Qi isn't one for abject thievery, and Ling Qi isn't one for to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge.Though here in Emerald Seas, she was the sponsor of wild spirit bacchanals and impropriety, the Dreaming Moon itself was more than that. It was actually simple in concept, the unrepressed expression of self and all the good and bad that implied.
The Grinning Moon too, was not just the thief and the flighty fairy. If the Dreaming Moon looked to the future, and the Hidden Moon looked to the past, the Grinning Moon exulted in the now. She was the joy in motion and the rush of triumph over long odds. She was the satisfaction in drawing a startled yelp from a stoic junior, and bringing down an organization in a single night of frenzied thieving.
The Hidden Moon was the desire for knowledge, and through it, power. It was knowing all of the things that could threaten you and how to counter each and every one. It was looking back on her past and not letting her bile overwhelm her when she examined those memories, how they had shaped her and how that related to material reality.
The Grinning Moon was her desire for agency in her own life, of being in control of the world within the reach of her arms. The Hidden Moon was her caution, the desire to build a place of safety, either within or without. The Dreaming Moon was her the desire to grasp for more, seeking always the lights beyond her reach. This was not their whole of course, but Ling Qi was far from being able to embody even one phase. It was what they were to her.
IIRC, Talent 7 expects 17% more successes than 6 (plus 1 extra die (negligible after pills)) so, with equal time and resources spent, we expect a talent 7 cultivator to move 17% faster. Ji Rong lost... what, 6 weeks of time? That's 11.5% of a year. So in the end it comes down more to resources and dedication (time spent) than time available, and it's entirely believable that Liling's bankroll would be equivalent to (or better than) Ling Qi's luck, theft, and spirit guides.I was fine with Liling winning as she did. It was an expected outcome and we performed fairly well. What I didn't like about the tournament was Ji Rong being seemingly rubberbanded to our level. It diminishes the value of all the planning and strategizing that happened in the thread, making it seem almost pointless in the end. I'm not sure how exactly the calculations work out with Ji Rong having Talent 7 though, so I might be wrong about this.