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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Humbaba said:
Similarly, Ji Rong has a set of established sources for new cool toys. @TehChron has invested a large amount of time creating an interesting (if infuriating) canon mentor figure for him. He has backing from Liling. If Ji Rong had turned up with a strong new spirit which his shady wind mentor had taught him how to get that would be irritating but fine. Similarly if Sun had sprung for a super lightning spirit. Hell, if he'd really impressed some elder and got a month's tutoring it wouldn't be beyond the pale (even if we might grind out teeth), because it's a well established part of the story that that sort of thing happens. But dropping in "Oh he has a dragon now" is well outside of that and should recieve appropriate narrative buildup/attention.

That is not to say that other people can't have fortunate encounters; but if you're going to bring in something of on the level of "Oh and your rival character now has a dragon" we could do with some more foreshadowing than our friend saying "by the way I've been trying to catch one of the rarest seen types of dragon" in the very same update. I'm sure you're capable of writing an epic that fully justifies Ji Rong's acquistion of a dragon companion, but that is not the story we actually see, we're seeing the one line.
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Ji Rong is only our rival in that he's followed a similar strength progression curve to Ling Qi since joining the sect. Ling Qi herself barely thinks of Ji Rong at all, let alone considers him a rival. Ji Rong can honestly barely be considered a side character - it would be completely out of place if an excessive amount of time was devoted to foreshadowing or following his activities. A small hint might have worked, perhaps when Ling Qi encountered him in the sect archives, but even this could have seemed out of place if it wasn't handled well.

I also don't think Ji Rong's new spirit is as big a deal as you're making it out to be. It's possible that we could have obtained a flood dragon ourselves had we made different choices earlier on in the quest. I also doubt that Ji Rong's dragon is comparable to Zhengui in rarity.
 
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Huo Yuhao said:
I also doubt that Ji Rong's dragon is comparable to Zhengui in rarity.
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He's not, this is already established. To borrow a metaphor from above:
Thor's Twin said:
It's like, for example, looking for polar bears. They are objectively rare in that there are not many of them in the world, but they have a very specific locale that they will be living in (the north pole). If you know that, and want to find a polar bear, looking anywhere but the north pole will show you zero results. Even going to the north pole might not give you the opportunity to spot one, but at least it will dramatically increase your chances.
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If the Dragon is the equivalent of a polar bear, Zhengui is an african desert-dwelling bear, a species that literally isn't in the books found in a place that isn't supposed to have bears.
 
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[X] Seek out Liao Zhu, there were things she wanted to get out of her mind, and she thought her senior brother might have useful insights.
 
065tdsa said:
He's not, this is already established. To borrow a metaphor from above:

If the Dragon is the equivalent of a polar bear, Zhengui is an african desert-dwelling bear, a species that literally isn't in the books in a place that isn't supposed to have bears.
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I prefer to think of Zhengui as Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster.
 
The talk with Meizhen about her first kill was nice too see. I'm surprised her Grandfather personally helped her deal with it, I figured he'd be busy.

She had not seen the beast in question, she had been absent when Sun Liling had engaged in a duel and revealed her new spirit beast. A three eyed raven with a body half consumed by parasitic plants, it certainly sounded gross. "You're familiar with it Bai Meizhen?" She asked.

"They are a type of spirit that lurks in the sunflower fields of the jungle, living off carrion. 'The Eyes of the Goddess'." she named with a sneer. "It is bad fortune to see one and allow it to live."
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Sun's new spirit beast sounds spooky and continues the plant theme that her other spirit has. I wonder if every spirit she'll get will be related to the Sunflower Goddess in some way. That's actually kind of creepy, it'd be like Sun's always being watched and reported on by her spirits.

Though I find myself more irritated that her little lapdog managed to contract a Heavenly Dragon
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I'm not surprised there are Heavenly Dragons around the Sect. It's the same place where Xiulan found a heaven tribulation that left her injured until she hits the fifth realm in physical. Seems like the kind of place that could attract a couple dragons.

More importantly this means that Ji Rong will have to challenge Ling Qi to a pokemon duel, and who doesn't want to see Zhengui fight a dragon? He'll be two out of three types fought then. We'll have to find an earth dragon for him to fight to complete the set.

He has reached the full third realm.
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It's nice to see Han Jian do well for himself. I wonder if he got any special features from his breakthrough?

Finally we get to see it's Luo Zhong who came to see Ling Qi. It's a neat scene and it's interesting that his uncle seems to be in the early stages of marriage talk with the Gu about Yanmei.

Anway, going to go with voting to see moon sempai for now.

[X] Seek out Liao Zhu, there were things she wanted to get out of her mind, and she thought her senior brother might have useful insights.
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CornyBones said:
i'm glad Wolf-Boy got a dragon. it means when we put his face into the dirt, we're also putting an expy of the emperor into the dirt.
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You are assuming we'll be able to. All things being equal, he has more talent than we do.

Last year, it mattered less because he spent months on ice. We aren't likely to be so fortunate in the next two years.


[X] Take care of her tutoring session with Bai Xiao Fen, to ensure her time afterward was free.
 
I'm happy to see Meizhen opening up around people other than Ling Qi or CRX. Seeing her banter with Xiulan really drives home how much she's changed.
 
[X] Seek out Liao Zhu, there were things she wanted to get out of her mind, and she thought her senior brother might have useful insights.
 
Forgot to mention it but,

, she felt the fluctuation in Luo Zhong's qi, spreading around them, like a pack of canny herding hounds keeping onlookers at bay. He was screening them. Still, she glanced to Meizhen, and cool cold qi washed out in a wave.
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The description of the social arts sound really cool. It's always neat reading about them and how everyone from the clan has their style all over them.
 
[X] Seek out Liao Zhu, there were things she wanted to get out of her mind, and she thought her senior brother might have useful insights.
 
yrsillar said:
It was bad taste to have characters poke the fourth wall like that, regardless of the reason. But whatever I'll edit the update later
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I really don't see anything wrong with Meizhen poking fun at Ling Qi's Ling Qiness.

The Ji Rong "issue" is a complex one that is in many ways more about the thread than your writing. People are annoyed by the memes, and how other people make him out to be more important than he is to the story, and people who keep going on about befriending him. They're annoyed because they look at how he got hammered last year by Xuan Shi and yet it didn't really seem to actually slow him down at all (though I'm on the side of the maths being fine there). They're annoyed by @TehChron's omakes kinda opening up those wounds again. They're annoyed (perhaps) because it feels like he should be a foil to Ling Qi but really isn't so it creates this kinda awkward feeling of "why is he here? How should we be relating to him?"

Ji Rong's going to spark complaints as long as he reminds people of those things. I.e. as long as he's allowed to be anywhere close to us. Tbh I suspect the best thing to do would just be to distract people with other characters doing stuff.
 
Asael said:
You are assuming we'll be able to. All things being equal, he has more talent than we do.

Last year, it mattered less because he spent months on ice. We aren't likely to be so fortunate in the next two years.
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Resources have a huge effect on cultivation such that differences in resources can definitely overcome talent differences; and Ling Qi should have more resources than Ji Rong does.

55mEDIT: heavily edited for clarity, the original was too easily read as me saying Ji Rong shouldn't be able to keep up
 
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yrsillar said:
It was bad taste to have characters poke the fourth wall like that, regardless of the reason. But whatever I'll edit the update later
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It's literally a game with dice rolls and decisions by internet nerds. If people can't handle that level of winking then whatever. If you want to edit it out of the eventual novel version fair enough but don't feel like you have to justify yourself in situations like this in the future
 
[X] Seek out Liao Zhu, there were things she wanted to get out of her mind, and she thought her senior brother might have useful insights.
 
I honestly don't understand why people get up in arms about Ji Rong. He's just sitting over there being ptotagonist-y, and I actually really enjoy that
 
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