[X] Combat Perception
-[X] Ear Cuffs
Ling Qi looked away as someone called her name. There was Li Suyin, looking haggard and exhausted wearing a physician's smock, spattered with blood and other things.
"Li Suyin? Are you alright?" Ling Qi asked, stepping out of the crowd. She scanned her friend for injury, silver gleaming in her eyes. She saw only exhaustion. There was the echo of burns, and the lingering marks of cleansed shishigui corruption. "Were you one of the ones down there?"
Li Suyin nodded tiredly and swayed. Ling Qi was at her side in an instant, catching her before she could fall. At some point, Ling Qi noted absently, her friend had reached appraisal stage in her cultivation.
"I was, but I wanted to keep helping. Went to the Medical wards after," Li Suyin muttered as Ling Qi helped her move out of people's way. "Elder sent me away, ordered rest."
Huh, you know, I thought Suyin was as far in the backlines as you could get while still on the mission.
Coupled with this:
Shen Hu had been assigned to the mission below, to defend the construction and formations disciples. Already there were rumors, a whisper from one of the production disciples he had defended. He'd taken one of the tunnel entrances and held it against all comers until the defensive arrays behind him had finished, and Elder Jiao's project had snapped into place.
That suggests that the lines were bypassed.
The question is
how
That was something. "Li Suyin, what happened down there?"
"They just kept coming," Suyin whispered, her voice barely audible over the noise of the hall. "They fought and they died and it just didn't stop. Dying only made them stronger."
Suyin paused and took a shuddering breath. "Elder Jiao was fighting, and it-it felt like we were the infection, and they the body fighting back."
"There was so much pain."
...I'm guessing that nobody seems to have understood how they respond to attacks. They treat every attack as if its all in.
Hmm...theoretically the right strategy there is skirmish and exhaust their reserves, except the Sect isn't positioned to skirmish, being a fixed target they can assault.
That said if you squint at it, it seems Suyin found some kind of insight(no caps) into warfare like Ling Qi's "Its a heist" revelation.
They sat together in Renxiang's study. The furniture had been pushed aside to make room, and yet, even then Renxiang's rooms were a study in clockwork precision. Everything spaced just so. Her liege sat across from her at the center of part of the repeating geometric pattern in the carpet.
Ling Qi sat opposite, in the center of another. Briefly, she had considered seating herself just a touch to the right, but she didn't have the energy for jokes.
=.=
Ling Qi don't do that to OCD people.
"We were already at war," Cai Renxiang said quietly.
"It didn't really feel like it before," Ling Qi said. "The barbarians just got a sucker punch in, using a method we didn't expect. That was what it felt like, didn't it. They weren't a real threat. That's why we were still worrying about Sect ranks and the Elders were still taking volunteers instead of giving orders and…"
Cai Renxiang's fingers tightened on her knees, and Ling Qi fell silent. For anyone else it would have been nothing, but she could read the frustration and regret in the girls posture. Their talk from before the mission felt a little wrong now.
Well, nobody wanted to acknowledge it. Wishful thinking is only natural.
"Zhengui is well. He's very tough, even the injuries he took will be better in a couple of days, now that the impurity is out of his system," Ling Qi replied. She had visited them after their release from the physicians. Zhengui seemed satisfied by his performance for once. "Hanyi… she'll be fine too, given time."
Zhengui feels good for a change. He was useful. He got hurt, but he stopped others from getting hurt.
"I believe you had an event planned for her, will her wounds allow it to go forward?" Cai Renxiang asked. Faint radiance flickered in the room, casting shadows at perfect right angles.
"She won't let it stop her, even if it takes awhile to heal, it's not like she actually needs her throat to sing, any more than I need my flute to play," Ling Qi said quietly. She was confident in Hanyi because hanyi was confident in her. Half of healing the body came from the mind.
In before punk style Hanyi.
She already looks like a corpse so its one path she could take for style.
Her eyes strayed to Renxiang's own bandaged throat. "What about you? I saw those stains on your domain weapon."
Renxiang continued to breath steadily and rhythmically in her mediation. "The stains will out. It is merely a matter of time. Their resistance is vexing however."
"Do you think your mother will notice?" Ling Qi asked quietly. It wasn't the real question. Obviously the duchess will notice, but will she react.
Nasty, if the grade of treatments she had available couldn't flush it.
Reminds me of Ling Qi's sunfire burns, it wouldn't just leave via treatments, its an antitheical force and that means you have to grow to erode it.
"We performed above any reasonable expectations, given the situation."
Did they perform above the Duchess' expectations though, Ling Qi wondered.
We have the answer now.
Ling Qi said, speaking up carefully. "Before we start preparing, I think there is something I should tell you."
Maybe it was her tone, but when Renxiang opened her eyes, Ling Qi thought she saw a hint of dread there, even with the radiance shining from her pupils.
...She wasn't that bad, was she?
Ling Qi-ness is beyond the understanding of mere immortals.
No, it was Xiangmen itself.
It thrummed with power, this place. Even projected here by the formations device, Xiangmen itself threatened to overwhelm her. Each of the twelve bone columns that supported the ceiling hummed with a primal beat. The stamp of hooves, the howl of wolves, the shrieks of birds. It resonated in her ears, cacophonous and distracting. The march of all the forest enraged. The disc of marble which made up the floor of the court, held in tightly curled branches, practically vibrated with uncounted ages of formationwork.
Twelve, the Zodiac animals?
Also assuming those bones are all of a single piece those are some huge ass critters the bones came from.
The air was thin here. There was so little wind, but solar and lunar qi were thick here. So thick that even as she watched, motes of it congealed into the fluttering forms of faeries that drifted about providing light to the court.
Using spontaneously spawning fae for style points is a Thing apparently.
Would guess they're too minor to actually bother the court.
Wonder if the place used to be used for Sun/Moon worship earlier on. The tree is old enough that fae may have been members of the court at some point.
Then there was the tree itself. Stretching out in the sky beyond the court, immense branches supported a canopy of leaves that stretched for kilometers in every direction, penetrated by dappled beams of sunlight. There was power in the ancient bark that supported the platform, power in the sail sized leaves that drifted down on the wind, power in the immense branch which supported the Duchess throne. It was a quiet, steady, and patient power. Power fit to endure the world's ending.
It was one thing to know that Xiangmen had been here before the Sage, before the Diviner, before even the meanest of recorded history.
It was another to feel it.
First on screen Sublime!
If sleeping rather deeply.
At her side was the minister Linqin, dressed in a resplendent rose pink gown, a circlet of roses adorned her wavy brown hair. Her hands were hidden in voluminous sleeves, and she looked down upon them with a cold and blank expression.
"It does not appear to have went well," Minister Linqin said evenly.
Minister Linqin looked as if she was about to speak up, but she fell silent as a Radiant hand clasped her own. It was a bizarrely intimate gesture, given the setting.
Already lightly sniping even before we said anything huh?
"Eight meters and thirty seven centimeters in diameter," her liege answered immediately. Ling Qi wondered how she had been able to measure it so closely. "It was roughly spherical in shape."
Perception arts. Pretty precise and mathematical one, but that's useful for targeting assistance if you use ranged attacks or do crafting work.
And Renxiang did. In great and precise detail, she described the events of the raid. Her own battle in the Caldera, Ling Qi's stand against the bulk of the barbarian forces, the clash of Elders. She described their escape, and the coming of the thing in the south. She described the hatching of the starstone and the spirit within.
By the time she was done, the atmosphere of the court had darkened, and there was much grumbling and whispers among the courtiers.
Methinks the court didn't like hearing about the Nomads having a being on that scale. It doesn't fit their preceptions for those away from the border and its concerning to those on the border - they can't be sure of winning such a commander's duel if it came to that.
At least until Shenhua raised her hand, silencing them all at a gesture.
"It seems that you became involved in matters significantly above your head, my daughter," Shenhua said. "It is good that you sustained only minor injuries."
Ling Qi saw a tiny bit of tension bleed out of her liege.
Implying that the injuries and tainting might have been grounds for censure and correction, if things weren't so far deep in the shit to justify it?
"You have not erred in your judgment thus far. Baroness Ling, you may raise your head and speak."
Ling Qi could hardly breath as she straightened up. She scanned the crowd. Most seemed indifferent to her, merely eyeing her with idle interest. They didn't really expect anything of interest from her. They thought Shenhua was merely indulging her daughter. A few eyed her with something more like interest or disdain, but it was only a few.
Hmm, didn't think Shenhua was the sort to give that impression. They're seeing someone vastly different from what we see?
Of the representatives, the Bao gave her an encouraging smile. The Wang representative seemed generally approving, though it was hard to read his face behind his beard and brows. The Luo and the Jia watched with disinterest. The Meng frowned at her but… didn't seem too hostile, actually.
The ambassador from the peaks, a man who reminded her of an older Kang Zihao, simply continued to observe in silence, his arms crossed over his chest.
Funny, is this their official stance on us and they don't care to mask it in Shenhua's presence since she tends to shred any such, or is it their personal stance and their Way precludes hiding it.
It was a frightening thing to have the attention of the court of Emerald Seas. It was a pressure weighing down on her. A static skittering across her mind and a prickling on her skin. It reminded her of the last time she had faced power like this. It made her wonder what in the world had possessed her to want to speak here, and why Cai Renxiang had agreed to allow her to.
In a court of so many potent cultivators, could the court's combined attention pose such a pressure as well?
"You consider your judgement superior then?" Diao Linqin asked mildly.
Lady, prodding at us at every turn is a bad look you know.
"It is not unusual for the tribes to form alliances," The Luo representative grunted. "But she is correct that such terminology is not common. The last time the barbarians spoke of such a thing…"
"Ogodei," The Wang representative grunted.
Renxiang knows how to craft a speech. This got their attention and let them raise the significance, without being crass.
"She lacked the beast bond of the tribes, and her features were foreign. Neither imperial nor tribe," Ling Qi continued carefully. "Her garments as well, bore the marks of civilized hands. Nothing to match imperial finery of course, but not the rough rough furs and stolen patchworks which the barbarians use. She did not seem to speak their common tongue either."
"Of those, only a lack of beast bond is convincing," Diao Linqin said. "And even then it is known that some of the southern tribes behave strangely, compared to their kin."
"If it were only such circumstantial things, I would agree, Prime Minister," Ling Qi replied. "However, the White SKy also showed little interest in the starstone, and what is more not even slight interest in alliance. In fact, the Twelve Stars seemed to regard the woman in particular with the same distrust with which the underground envoy was viewed. Together, this gave me an inkling that she may have been an outsider as well."
"But," Ling Qi continued swiftly before she could be interrupted. "I only became firm in belief after the foreigner attempted to speak to me in the middle of the battle, using a maneuver that made it appear as if she was containing me, but which conveniently shielded both myself and my spirits from attack."
There was silence in the wake of her words, and here Ling Qi could not help but swallow nervously.
Behave strangely.
This is a court led by a White weaver.
The presence of fine woven fabrics directly implies at the ability to source weaving equipment, ensure a stable supply of raw stock for thread, spinners to work stock to thread.
That they have embroidery suggests all of the above at a sufficient frequency to develop a separate art form for the purpose of a canvas which requires civilization to produce.
A good point to emphasize here.
"Hoh, interesting."
Cai Shenhua's words echoed in the vast hall, and Ling Qi felt her shoulders buckle as twin beams of radiance fixed upon her back. She didn't have to look up, she could see the limitless pools of radiance in her mind's eye, the punctures in the human face worn by the Light that was Shenhua.
"It is my belief that the foreigner saw some similarity in our arts. "Ling Qi croaked. It was hard to breath, sweat broke out on her skin. It felt something was intruding in her skull, precise and clinical. "If it may please the court to know, I practice an art passed down directly from the ice spirit of White Cloud Peak, and am as a sister to that spirit's daughter, now that my teacher has passed. I think the foreigner mistook me for kin of some kind."
Someone said something, but it was hard to hear.
We have her attention. That's basically the point of success here - Shenhua considered it Interesting, and she is a woman of action.
Someone said something, but it was hard to hear. One of the representatives murmured something about honorable lineages. The Imperial Ambassador, said something less kind. Someone else said something sniping back. Tears sprang up in the corners of her eyes as the pressure mounted. Ling Qi's arms shook as she struggled to stay upright and kneeling.
She didn't bow.
Also damn, Ling Qi has remarkably tough resolve for her stage and mere attention has buckled her.
Renxiang's first meeting was, IIRC, when Shenhua was actually
annoyed at something else. At Red. She melted.
So going over the exchange that Ling Qi was too blanked to comprehend:
-Honorable lineages mention probably was the Old Tribes reps. They have the best context for how lineage might be considered for passing down arts. Pity we missed it all.
-Imperial Ambassador goes all barbaric practices
-Weilu Moderates defend their fellow Emerald Seas practices.
"You stated that this barbarian did not speak the tribe's common tongue. How then did you communicate?" A voice, Diao Linqin's cut through the pressure, pale pink rose petals closed around the burning radiance that threatened to crush her, loving and covetous.
Is that a Yandere Way? Because it smells like Smothering Love from here.
Through bleary eyes, Ling Qi saw the throne. Shenhua's radiance had grown less diffuse. Ling Qi could see her now, leaning forward in her seat. She wore a sheer and scandalous gown, a pure white thing with a deep cut out that could not be called a neckline. A deep 'V' that went all the way down to her navel, with only thin strips of fabric preserving a hint of modesty. A feathery white pibo floated around her shoulders, and coiled around her bare and muscular arms.
Diao Linqin's hand rested on her back. Or at least she thought it did. Nothing aside from blazing light was visible above the Duchess' shoulders.
Minorly confusing here. Not sure which is going on:
-Shenhua's focus is her light's focus, when she's relaxed and at leisure her attention is spread evenly across the court and everyone is slightly pressed. When she's focused nobody feels anything(and thus everyone can look at her) except for the one she's focusing on. Linqin distracts her so she doesn't splatter the poor Green.
-Shenhua's brightness directly scales to her mood, but Linqin is absorbing it. This suggests she wasn't in the best of moods from the start due to learning her heir was used as part of the bait in a trap.
"She offered aid I think, and asked after my…. Lineage," Ling Qi continued, despite the dryness of her throat. "I did not have time to decipher much, Lady Cai was battling the underground beast even then, but I sang my teacher's Name, and it seemed to distress her. She threw a sliver of iron from her weapon at me before disappearing to flee the battle."
"I do have to wonder why you bothered with even that much for a barbarian," the Imperial Ambassador said.
"We were already outnumbered," Ling Qi said. "It seemed foolish to bring another peak third realm into a battle in which we were already struggling."
"Reasonable enough," the Wang representative grunted. "No use holding principal above effectiveness."
"An intelligent action," agreed the Luo, casting a sour look at the ambassador.
The ambassador sniffed dismissively. He obviously disagreed.
Renxiang: [Conceals exasperation]
Ling Qi pretty much called the imperial ambassador foolish there lol, and the Wang/Luo backed her up.
"Produce the sliver," Cai Shenhua spoke and all other conversation stopped.
Ling Qi didn't hesitate. She was only an image, here in the court, but she doubted that would matter to Shenhua. The sliver appeared, painfully cold in her palm as she presented it. Before Ling Qi's eyes, it jerked into the air, and radiance crawled across the iron, it sunk into invisible imperfections and cracks, suffusing the item.
However, so close to what was happening, Ling Qi saw Shenhua's radiance pause, stymied if only for a fraction of a second by the cold darkness that slept in the metal. She might have imagined it really, so brief it was. The sliver dropped back into her hand.
And Shenhua verified the credentials.
If a fragment of a fragment's fragment even slowed Shenhua's analysis that's White+ work.
"It is good that you brought this matter to my attention," Cai Shenhua pronounced. "It is interesting. An organically developed escape talisman, meant to draw the smaller piece the larger one. Mistaken for kin indeed."
Organically developed...as in it just directly exploits the inherent properties of a high tier material?
Ling Qi felt the whisper of steel on her skin first, the caress of a blade, whisper soft yet lethal all the same. She caught movement from the figure in gleaming steel in front of her. The General Xia Ren was looking at her now, rather than staring straight ahead.
Huh, whats going on here?
Whats the history with the Xia?
"You are suggesting something absurd, young lady." Diao Linqin said cooly.
"Not so much," Whispered the Meng woman, the fan in her hands fluttering. "It is simply a truth too many are eager to forget."
The Luo representative gave the Meng a sidelong look, and gave a grunt of agreement.
"Young Miss," spoke the man with the Jia, who seemed uncomfortable. "It is true that the lotus grows from mud, but it is not the mud, to suggest otherwise is insulting."
"Pfa, fancy nonsense," the Wang representative. "Truth is truth. You're thinking we need not fight these "White Sky' yet girl?"
-Diao - Imperial aligned obviously, but suggesting that its absurd when there are people in this court who identify with Hill Tribes...
-Meng - Traditionalist aligned.
-Luo - Traditionalist aligned, surprised to find themselves on the same side as the Meng for a change.
-Jia - Trying to be moderate, very uncomfortable with either angle.
-Wang - Doesn't really find it all that important compared to the strategic suggestion that we...not engage in a four front war.
The Bao are notably silent, whether not caring or not wanting to annoy a trade partner regardless of their stance is unclear.
"It was my intention to save this announcement for years end, timed with the arrival of the first year's tribute" Cai Shenhua said idly, leaning back to lounge on her throne once more. "But given recent events, it seems necessary to alter the timetable."
"Your highness, might I ask you to clarify?" The Bao representative, who had previously been silent and smiling asked. He looked a touch worried. It was the sort of look Cai Renxiang had worn when Ling Qi mentioned this whole matter.
"I have secured the surrender and tribute of the foes beneath Xiangmen," Cai Shenhua said as if she were discussing the weather.
Bao had dealings with the underground too right?
I recall it was hinted and it IS rather unlikely that a mining clan have no interaction with the Underground.
Shenhua's Enthusiastic Walk did the trick. I'd guess given the need for sacrifice to build up to greater power and that Shenhua was open to negotiations meant that they didn't feel up to sacrificing a city to take her with them if they didn't
need to.
"The people of Ha'yth'kai, as they call themselves. The barbarians of the underground lands organize themselves into city states. These have surrendered and agreed to become tributaries of the Emerald Seas. Others will follow. The words spoken during my strolls have been most effective."
And thus also recontextualizes the conflict near the Sect. If its one city state at war, rather than their entire race...thats doable.
"Obviously, negotiating surrender and integration is possible," Diao Linqin said, sounding aggrieved. "However, treating barbarians as kin is a step too far."
"Perhaps," Cai Shenhua said lightly. "Baroness Ling, do you truly have confidence in your words?"
Ling Qi swallowed, but she could hardly say no. She tried to keep her thoughts clear of the questions bubbling up. "Yes your highness."
"Then, you will have a prominent place in the delegation. That sliver is bound to a location in the central wall. A meeting point no doubt. You will begin making preparations for a journey," the Duchess said easily.
The reward of work well done is more work.
...oh my god Ling Qi is taking point on a
diplomatic delegation.
Her friends are all going to spit blood.
"General Xia?"
"Yes your highness?" Xia Ren answered, and it was as deep and echoing that it seemed as if she spoke from the bottom of a well.
"Prepare One hundred of your warriors and begin heading south. "Regardless of this matter, it is clear that the south of the province requires my direct attention," The Duchess lax tone hardened into steel by the time she finished.
Enthusiastic Walk time.
The cartographers are going to need to redraw the Wall when she's done.
And this has gone past Interested Shenhua to Determined/Grim Shenhua.
"And, select one of your adjutants to accompany my daughter and her retainer."
"As for you Renxiang," Cai Shenhua said. "You continue to perform well. This pleases me. I shall see to providing further resources for your growth and cultivation of subordinates. Should this diplomatic effort bear fruit, I shall consider granting you a boon."
Left unsaid was how badly failure would reflect on them.
Ling Qi finally lowered her head as attention left her. Behind her Cai Renxiang gave her thanks.
She really hoped that she hadn't made a mistake.
I think that's the first ever Well Done we've seen from Shenhua.
And that's an explicit raise in our cultivation budget.
And THEN theres a Boon inbound for Renxiang.
All Ling Qi has to do is broker a peaceful meeting with a people she doesn't share a language with.
No pressure.