Not just an inflation, but a lot of the ones who are getting a lot of CP are the high fliers who normally don't have time to grind for CP, as they are constantly cultivating instead. This basically means a lot of people who only challenges 'safe-ish' spots because they can't really afford a loss while challenging are now going to try for harder jumps toward ranks that didn't receive a lot of CP.
Or just challenge people to make them use up CP in the worst case, or try a fun fight in the fun case.
A vote for Gu Xiulan is a vote for one of our best friends we haven't seen enough of and insights into her personal struggles. A good vote. A vote for Su Ling is a vote for a good friend and details of how this effects mortals and everyone around the events. A good vote. A vote for Cai Renxiang is a vote for our liege and the larger implications of the war. A good vote. All of these votes are good, how could you do this to us @yrsillar, you monster. Seriously though this was a great update and I'm really exicted about where this story is going. Thanks for all the effort you've put into to it! (Also please write all the updates kthkx).
On a larger note, I'm worried about this war. It doesn't seem like this is going to end with Opression Mom Opresses, Victory is Assured. It seems like it will be a war on two fronts, and one will feature a possible counter to the Cai's power. If what we heard about the Cloud's ancestor (?) is true then it probably counters the Cais object spirits. It was something that countered dragon formations which are probably highly related to creating object spirits. And our dress didn't even want to be near some random run off from it. This could be a really bad match up for the Cai. Which would be really bad. But hey, personal growth comes through overcoming obstacles, right! Maybe this is just what is needed for Cai to enter high White or something?
That would technically be an anti-centralization move. The Great Sects are de jure under the direct authority of the Imperial throne. Having a province's Duke install their heir as head of a sect would represent an effective devolving of an Imperial authority to provincial authority.
The qi flowing through her veins seemed so very sluggish as she felt the pressure of metal points through the fabric of her gown. A thousand thoughts flew through her mind in a fraction of a second, but soon, there was only clarity. Ling Qi jerked her head back, buying herself bare millimeters of space, and the knife sparked as the threads of her gown resisted it's cut for another fraction of a second. Uncaring for the expense, Ling Qi flooded her spine with vital wood qi and her aura flared violently as it rippled out over everyone nearby. Ancient strength seeped into her skin and flesh, the strength of One Thousand Rings Unbroken..
But it would not be enough, she knew with perfect clarity, to survive this, she had to make sure that they would not be able to strike like this again. Her hand closed around her enemies thin, clammy wrist just as time seemed to resume it's normal course. Hot pain bloomed as the knife penetrated her gown and cut into flesh, but she dragged her assailants hand down with all of her strength, and combined with her reaction, it was enough. Cold metal cut deep into her resisting flesh despite her art, but it met her collarbone, and though she felt a deep uncomfortable grinding as the serrated edge struck bone, it went no deeper. The blade still cut deep, but instead of taking her throat it carved deep into her shoulder instead. Horrible pain and heat flooded her senses, but she refused to scream, and mentally batted aside Sixiang's intent to cleanse the poison. As Ice cold qi froze the blood seeping from her wound, the muse understood.
Fortitude and Resilience advances to Unbroken Will
Unbroken Will: A skill representing Ling Qi's raw, tenacious will to live, even in the face of insurmountable odds. Allows the use of Resolve in the place of Stamina for physical armor.
You know, this move is usually used by badass old men to trap the enemy blade in themselves so their foe can be struck down. And that advanced skill. Reduced stat dependency is amazing for training efficiency.
Also it occurs to me the gown would have absorbed all that blood wouldn't it? Wonder if that might do a thing or two.
With her expression contorted into a snarl of pain and effort, Ling Qi tightened her grip on the assassins wrist, fingers digging into disgustingly rubbery flesh. Qi scented with moonlight and celestial wine burst from her every pore, washing over the assassin in a wave of confusion and momentary madness. With the roar of Xiulan's flames in her ears, Ling Qi held her grip on the assassin and turned, dragging her enemy with the motion.
She could already feel the assassin slipping free, their wrist growing still softer, almost boneless in her grip as they tried to slip away, but all the same, she heard a high pitched almost canine wail of pain as Xiulan cast a blinding white lance from her fingertips. Barely more than a finger wide, it was not just flame, nor lightning. It seemed almost liquid behind the shimmer of heat, a lance of sunlight, devastating in it's purity.
A second later, the assassin was free of her grip and she spun back to face it, the mantle of Winter's Aria already around her shoulders. Ling Qi tried her best to ignore the faint edge of raggedness in her voice, though she had avoided the worst, she could still feel the ragged hole in her flesh where her throat had been pierced, just above the collarbone, now sealed with a pack of crimson ice. She felt the fetid heat of poison in her veins bringing sweat to her brow and making her hands shake. However, her attention did not waver from the one who had caused all of this.
Something in the hunched figure triggered an instinctive and visceral disgust, even beyond what she felt toward a foe who had nearly her taken her head. Wrapped in a spiderweb of leather straps through which it's pale, rubbery hide was visible, the thing seemed to fall just short of seeming human in shape. It's apelike arms too long, the contours of it's skull holding just a touch of beastliness. It's face was concealed behind a strange leather mask with prtruding sacs hanging from it that grew and shrunk with it's breath, all stretched over a vaguely canine muzzle, and flat black lenses of smoked glass stared back where eyes should be. A single whip like cable of dull grey hair hung from the back of the things skull, and where it able to straighten it's hunched spine, it would stand almost two and a half meters high. Certain features gave the impression that it might be female, but Ling Qi felt an instinctive revulsion toward giving it even that much identity.
@yrsillar
Typo bolded, I assume you meant Protruding.
So, that looks like a gas mask, which makes sense, the surface air is toxic to them after all, and an assassin couldn't use Suyin's safe air bubble without being obvious as hell.
Probably light sensitive too, which also makes sense.
Even as she summoned her Singing blade, she sang the Hoarfrost refrain, and the creature still staggering as the blanket of twisted darkness qi receded like a rippling oil slick from the point where Xiulan's fires had struck, even with the distortion the creature represented in her senses, even with that defense, Ling Qi smelled the scent of burned leather and meat. It had no time to throw up another defense as the Cold washed over it, biting and hungry. Yet still the assassin moved with preternatural quickness, vaulting backwards with signs of great effort to avoid the onrushing song of winter, and the darting mist blade. Though it avoided the full weight of the melody, Ling Qi still saw flesh blacken and freeze on the creatures feet and legs as it flipped through the air, her qi punching through the creatures paper thin defenses.
A worry for later, Ling Qi kept her attention fixed fiercely on the assassin as it landed further down the wall, startling soldiers who were just now beginning to react to its presence. She heard Zhengui bellow in rage, but a single harsh thought stopped him from barreling back. She needed him to hold the line against the disease spirits. For the first time in a long time, she felt him balk at obeying her. She shot her little brother a startled glance through a single mirror-eye and met Zhen's frustrated gaze.
"Please, little brother. I can't afford distraction. I need you to stop them," she pleaded. She knew he wanted to help more directly, but if the swarm and the titan centipede were able to press down on them while they were still fighting the assassin. She did not have time to watch him, but Ling could feel it as he turned his attention back to the disease spirit, could feel the massive surge of vital qi flooding into the increasingly barren earth as a veritable spear wall of roots erupted across hundreds of meters of ground, impaling countless lesser spirits. She felt Hanyi try to leave her dantian to help, but she was out of time, she sent the young spirit to aid Zhengui, she did not want Hanyi being a target for the assassin.
Hmm, did Zhengui breakthrough SOMETHING right there?
Because that looks like he fused Roiling Forest Regrowth with Spearing Roots to create an Anti Army Impaler move.
In one smooth motion, the creature reached into a pouch at it's belt and flung something toward them. Ling Qi glimpsed a dark purprle crystal tumbling through the air for a fraction of a second before it exploded a rippling wave of black smoke engulfing both her and her friend. She felt the mist seeping into her channels, through her eyes and her ears and her nose, eating away at the qi enhancing her senses like acid.
"No," she snarled, and her left hand rose, to the sound of tiny bells chiming. The jeweled symbols of the moons hanging across the back of her hand flashed and grew hot, ruby inlay blazing, and drank in the smoke, the air howled as the foulness was sucked in, vanishing into the delicate talisman as if it had never been.
Somehow, even with its face wholly covered, she read startlement in the assassins frame as it was revealed, halfway into shimmering out of visibility by twisted currents of air. Xiulan's lash struck out, and the creature did not have the time to reverse momentum, not enough time to adjust course as tongues of flame curled around it's limbs and slammed it into the rough green wood of Zhengui's rampart. The column of flames and distorted air around her friend hissed with the fury of an uncontrolled wildfire as lightning roared out to scourge the trapped assassins pale hide.
Ling Qi forced herself to ignore the growing pounding in her head, the spots starting to appear in her vision as the wound carved across her shoulder throbbed. The tips of her fingers felt numb, and an unpleasant tingling feeling was spreading through her chest, but the assassin was not down yet. Even now, rising she could see movement where it struggled against Xiulan's lash rising from the smoking pit in the wood that the lightning crashing down on it had wrought. Black miasma rose from it's flesh, absorbing jagged trails of electricity.
The Dispelling screen is a neat trick too, if you just dispel everything passing through you could stop attacks without ever checking defense. Feels like another consumable gadget.
The assassin shuddered, flesh freezing under the harsh melody, the miasma not enough to hold back the effects of her mentors song. A crossbow bolt, whistling with steam, thudded into it's hunched back, punching through leather and flesh. She felt it then, the creatures foul qi surging as it finally slipped the bonds of Xiulan's lash and lunged, dark qi bulging under its skin, filling channels to the point of bursting. Xiulan began to move back, startled, but she could see that it would not be fast enough. Viridian energy rippled across Ling Qi's gown as she activated Deepwood Vitality, gleaming shells of bright green qi shimmering across herself, Xiulan and all the soldiers within range.
Just in time as the assassin's flesh tore apart under the strain of the growing qi, and a wave of utter foulness washed over them. It was not acid, nor slime, nor anything else so easy to describe. It was the essence of filth, foul beyond words, and even beneath her technique, Ling Qi gagged and held back tears from watering eyes. She felt her technique shatter under the weight of it, but it had held long enough. The technique had passed. A vast scoop of the rampart was gone, eaten away, rotted into sludge.
AND a suicide bomb. Nothing to interrogate, nothing to investigate with. And if not for one of the best AoE defense arts we've seen that wasn't a Kang or Bai technique, there'd be a huge hole in the defenses.
I'm thinking the assassin was never intended to survive to begin with.
"Get her down into the ash," Sixiang's voice snapped from empty air. "I can't cleanse the poison, but Zhengui should at least be able to heal the symptoms."
Ling Qi felt warmth. Tongues of flame licked her skin, and gusts of wind tugged at her hair, hot enough to melt flesh and boil blood, they were comfortably warm to her. She felt Xiulan tugging on her arm, pulling it around her shoulder. "That's not gonna work, you're too short," she murmured dizzily.
"Do be silent," Xiulan snapped, and Ling Qi felt the rush of wind as she leaped down from the rampart. "...Idiot girl, why did you take the beasts knife. I know you could have dodged it."
"Wouldn't have been able to set it up for a good enough counter," Ling Qi muttered as they fell down into. "Mighta let it take a shot at you."
"Branches and trunks bend and sway, but the roots must remain unyielding. Retreat only so far and then no more."
She's found her roots.
Given how slippery the assassin was and how potent their attack, I'm pretty sure they'd have managed some serious shit painage if they hit someone without Perfect Soak, dispels and heals.
Also I just realized Xiulan is probably fireproof enough that Zhengui and her make a pretty good team even without IFF on his ashfall.
Ling Qi sucked in a breath of air as Zhengui roared in response, the ash around them flared green and she felt the haze recede from her thoughts. Her qi was still down to dregs, but she no longer teetered on the edge of unconsciousness. She looked up and saw Zhengui bracing himself against the centipede coiled around him even as scores of roots grasped its legs and Zhen struck, biting deep into it's chitin again and again. On his back, Hanyi stood, singing, surrounded by the shattered chunks of lesser spirits as they tried to swarm over Zhengui and burrow into the wound in his shell.
But her wound still throbbed, the frozen blood still sealed the wound, kept more of her life from spilling out, but the poison still pulsed, hot and painful through her veins. The ash flashed again still more disappearing, and she felt the wound struggle to close fractionally, pushing the damage back, but only barely. On top of all that the swarm was still oncoming, and they now stood level with it as spirits crept, crawled and flew through the distracted Zhengui's defenses.
Zhengui best boi. He protecc.
Also holy shit they breached his shell at full buffage. Thats a freaking A33 tank constantly being regenerated and they just ground through.
That should have killed just about any peer short of Xuan Shi, Kang Zihao or Meizhen trying to stem the tide there.
"...Sorry, it still seemed like the best choice though," Ling Qi said quietly to Xiulan.
"I am sure it did," her friend said with a sniff. "You madwoman."
"Say's the one who went out to let herself get struck by lightning on purpose," Ling Qi snorted. She looked across the oncoming enemies with an unwelcome trepidation. Perhaps if she fell back into her mist she could drain enough qi from them to overtake the loss from the poison? Zhengui would need to keep healing her though…
Hmm, there does seem to have enough targets to pivot to her sustain game, but if anything stronger shows up...thats a Welp.
Xiulan is genuinely super upset about that, and so is Zhengui. They probably would have a significant talk after Ling Qi keels over.
Ling Qi is really catty when she's disoriented huh?
At that moment, she heard trees splintering and the earth cracking open. From the now ruined copse to the south, a second and then a third titanic insectoid form reared.
"...Bullshit," Ling Qi breathed.
"Language," Xiulan said beside her, staring up at the enemies with a blank expression. "Can you run?"
Just as she began to consider that they might have to abandon the village though, a second sun bloomed in the sky. The two titanic centipedes, already scuttling forward toward the battlefield had only an instant to let out ear piercing screams as a crescent of liquid gold crashed down on them. Rotted and splintered wood was vaporized instantly, and segments of the beasts bodies blackened and swelled, exploding from the heat before the molten metal even touched them. When it did, they were gone.
Ling Qi looked up, unblindinded by the descending light, and saw the source. Gu Yanmei descended from the sky on wings of liquid gold. In her hand was a sword that seemed like a shard of the sun, and her mere presence brought death to the swarm. Lesser spirits died, vaporized in mid air, erased as if they had never been, toxic pools bubbled and hissed, evaporating as if they never were, purified by the light of a descending sun. Below, Zhengui let out a below of triumph as Zhen dug his fangs into a section of exoskeleton shattered by conflicting temperature, and the beast coiling around him began to spasm in it's death throes.
"It is good that you are well Xiulan," Gu Yanmei said evenly as she descended, droplets of molten metal hissing as they flew with each beat of her wings. Wherever they touched the foulness seeping into the earth began to burn away, leaving crisp and barren soil. "We will speak later, with this matter taken care of I must be off to assist…"
"Sister," Gu Xiulan interrupted, and the older girl's eyebrows shot up. "Sister please, my friend, Ling Qi, she has been badly poisoned."
"If there is anything you can do Senior Sister, it would be appreciated," Ling Qi said weakly, she was beginning to feel dizzy again, and the lessening pain probably had more to do with damaged nerves than weakening toxin.
The earth shook beneath her feet again, almost making her lose her balance. She saw the Core disciple above her glace away, hesitating for just a fraction of a second. "I am no medic, but there is a reason I was deployed against this foulness," Ling Qi's eyes widened as Gu Yanmei leveled her sword, the blinding blade pointing directly at Ling Qi. "This will hurt," the stoic girl said curtly, if not unkindly.
Ling Qi had only a moment to brace herself as a beam of sunlight, raw and pure struck her. Her shoulder and neck lit up with renewed pain, and the frozen blood shutting her wound boiled off into so much mist. Ling Qi felt something like liquid fire injected directly into her body and spirit, scouring veins physical and spiritual of corruption and toxin.
However, the last thing she experienced as her consciousness faded was Gu Yanmei's head whipping around in alarm as the earth rocked, no mere minor tremor like Ling Qi had felt before, but a violent quaking that threw her from her feet. Far, far to the south, in the great mountains of the wall, Ling Qi saw the sky split asunder. She saw a mountaintop disintegrate into so much powder, and saw the storm wracked clouds rip apart in an expanding cone leaving behind a bare blue sky. Gu Yanmei's molten wings flared out, and she felt the Fourth realms energies slam into place over the rampart and village shielding everyone from the terrible gale that ripped through in its wake.
But by the time she felt her back impact the dry, burnt ground her vision was already fading.
She had been dressed in silver patients gown, and if she plucked at the collar, she could see a thick layer of poultice packed into her wounded shoulder. "Senior Brother, what happened after I…?"
She trailed off as she turned to look at him. He too was seated on a patients bed in a patients gown, though his mask remained in place. However, that oddity was worth little attention, compared to the empty right sleeve of his gown.
He chuckled. "My apologies Junior Sister, it looks as if this Senior was not wholly invincible after all. He is sorry for disappointing."
"I… will the Medicine Hall be able to fix it?" She asked with faint horror.
"Perhaps if it were merely severed," he said shaking his head. "But no, it is gone, devoured flesh and spirit. Even the channels are gone. I will simply have to adjust."
Devoured? By what?
I have many questions what he even fought, but I suppose that'd come out in the debriefing for the survivors.
This was supposed to be a milk run patrol.
"...What happened though. That was no normal attack, and Xiulan said that a messenger told her that there were attacks all over the Sect, and that earthquake at the end, and the sky…"
"You were awake for that then," Liao Zhu said leaning back against the wall of the wagon, his eyes closed. "I will not say that our whole theatre was a distraction, I saw the lines of too many enemy objectives for that, but… it was a side objective. One of many struck across the Sect lands. The Sect will be shifting its footing after this."
Multiple simultaneous strikes along the whole front by formerly independent foes working together.
They're taking the opportunity to cull the rising young elite cultivators along this front, and to draw out the heavy units who'd sortie to prevent that.
"...If this was just a…" Ling Qi swallowed down bitter words at the idea of everything she had seen being a mere sideshow. "What… what was the main objective then?" She asked, taking a steadying breath.
Liao Zhu was silent for several seconds, staring up at the ceiling of the medical wagon.
That is a lot of CP for hmm:
-Broke the attack on Shen Hu's village by Cloud Tribe Elites pretty much by herself
-Broke the attack on the other village pretty much by herself again.
-Zhengui scores shitloads of credit fortifying his area of concern and fighting endless waves until relieved, including defeating two enemy Greens with Xiulan.
-Taking down the assassin with Xiulan.
And Suyin probably could do a thing or three with the dagger, though I'd expect Elder Jiao would want a look at it first.
So the interlude options, judging by the names:
[] Ripples (Cai Renxiang)
Renxiang would be focused on the repercussions of the attack, the political and provincial level significance, particularly how alliances and rivals shift in the face of the Empire's enemies uniting.
Ripples in other words.
[] Shockwaves (Su Ling)
Su Ling is in the Outer Sect, nearest to the Underdark breach(practically adjacent for the purpose of Greens really, its within sprinting range). We know multiple attacks are launched and its VERY unlikely that they wouldn't strike at the Sect itself if they could, especially with multiple distractions.
Timing wise, its probably after the attack in Ling Qi's zone, right when the Sect had deployed out the Core Disciples and the Elders to quell the other fronts.
Thats probably when they take a shot at the Sect itself. The assumption of safety in a curated environment, the image of Elder Omniscience is torn.
Thus, sending Shockwaves through the Sect.
[] Churning (Gu Xiulan)
Xiulan finally, is internally focused. Her front is DONE, Yanmei had nuked remaining enemies, she's out of qi and she's almost certainly run through qi pills and reserve pools already by the time we got there. So she's left to stew upon recent events and do some introspection.
Her insides are Churning over her friend nearly dying to protect her and the memory of her own recklessness.
AND a suicide bomb. Nothing to interrogate, nothing to investigate with. And if not for one of the best AoE defense arts we've seen that wasn't a Kang or Bai technique, there'd be a huge hole in the defenses.
I'm thinking the assassin was never intended to survive to begin with
Eh, its a common trope to give assasins and spies a suicide option.
Even if the assasin or spy is valuable, getting caught burns any usefulness they have plus it incurs an even bigger cost due to info the enemy may gain, thus making suicide optimal for the employer even if its the most valuable assasin they have.
If anything, a suicide button implies top rank training and disciple only a valuable asset would have. After all, even if you know torture is on the table, letting go of your life ain't easy, nor is dedicating part of your build towards doing that.
Edit: making the suicide button hurt the enemy a lot is just more profit for the employer. It may just kill the assasin's captors, giving some final value even to a burnt asset.
Second Edit: That does not necessarily mean that he was valuable, just that there are counterarguments against the "he was expected to die" proposition. Personally, I'd peg him on the lower-mid end of expendability (so more expendable than not, but not to the point he was sacrificial). But I may be wrong, and he might have ranged anywhere from "sacrificial" to "as unexpendable as an assasin can get"
Or it may mean your plan b is to fall over, die and hurt them doing so... which, in retrospect, is not too strange a thought for a Xianxia assassin... and it IS what happened.
So there was a lot of actual war, yes, but very little of us actually employing the skill. We were a combatant in every fight this arc, not a commander.
For what it's worth, we know War also governs combat tactics and strategy, both alone and when cooperating with others. I suspect we didn't get any xp because we (deliberately) went with idiot-proof strategies on a tactical layer, and got pretty damn lucky our gambles paid off on the strategic layer.
