SPS NEGAVERSE Pre-Turn 13 Interludes - Collaboration with @Insane-Not-Crazy (Lipita)
Interlude: No quiet on the Eastern Front
"Explain it again, from the top." Elder Xi Shi commanded, sticking his pipe between his teeth. The Elder of Intrigue's windowless office was lavishly decorated with expensive rugs and wall-hangings commemorating famous ambushes of Blood Altar forces. On one corner of the large desk, two incense sticks burned away in their bowl.
"Yes, sir." The analyst standing before his desk, Sheng Xin, straightened. "Our reports indicate that the Golden Devil forces have successfully begun laying siege to the Jingshen clan's last and greatest fortress, the Underworld spirit Palace."
"Which means?" Xi Shi leaned back, eyes half-lidded. Waiting for the words to wash over him. Waiting to see how it all connected to the great web in his mind.
"The Underworld Spirit Palace is heavily reinforced and holds both Jinghsen clan Nascents. We should expect the siege to last some time, but barring further extraordinary events, we should treat the war as being essentially over."
"How long do we expect the defences to last?"
"Frankly sir, they should be able to last decades or more. However, with the failure of our prior estimates…" Xin's answer was not encouraging.
"Indeed." Xi Shi's exhaled smoke. "Continue."
"At present, we have heard no major reports of significant explosions in the vicinity of any of the major Jingshen Mines. As such, it is probable that they were captured at least somewhat intact." Xin cleared his throat. "In all sir, while the situation is not desirable for our strategic ambitions, there are potentially significant positives in the immediate term." He cleared his throat again, nervously.
Xi Shi waited impassively; eyes fixed as he puffed away at his pipe.
"Firstly, the incredible pace of the war and the intact capture of the mines means that the spirit stone supply is unlikely to be significantly disrupted by the war, which was a major logistical concern with the new offence."
"Secondly, with the Jingshen nascents besieged, we may be able to negotiate for Junjie and Jiao to come west to us, providing another two Nascent Souls, which are much needed."
"Mmph." The Elder made a sceptical noise. "Would Old Gold be willing to let them go?"
"Sir?" Sheng Xin asked. "I don't understand why he would not? A negotiated end would free him of decades or centuries of grinding siege. Time in which the Jingshen might well resurge. They have much strength still in the fortress and the Devils will have to spread themselves thin to cover their new territory and hold the siege; and if they can last until close to the next winnowing…."
The Elder snorted dismissively.
"Old Gold is no fool." He exhaled again, clouds of smoking darkening the room. "If the Jingshen come to us, they may be a problem for him for centuries to come. Given how we all regret the last… negotiation that let a bested foe of his escape, he will be all the more reluctant to do so again." More smoke drifted about the room, pipe smoke and incense mixing in the air. "He also knows that we face unpleasant odds in the west. If we wish to extract the Jingshen Nascents it will likely be… expensive."
He closed his eyes and sighed.
"Now, to the more important question." Sheng Xin felt the smoke around him as an almost physical presence.
"Tell me Sheng Xin.
How were all our estimates so off?" The question thunders through his mind, driving him half to his knees. The smoke chokes at him, clawing at his lungs as if he was a weak and sickly mortal.
"S..i...r." The pressure recedes, but the Elder's eyes are still hard. The smoke is no longer choking, but it still coils about him like shackles.
"Sir." He rasps. He tries to clear his throat, but instead descends into hacking coughs. Eventually he rallies. "Sir. I. I have…" He stammers for a few moments, then recovers.
"Sir. I have identified a number of factors that led to the war ending much faster than anticipated.
" He stands straighter, staring at the wall a full foot above the sitting Elders head, delivering his report with perfect parade ground posture.
"While I stand by the earlier analyses by my people Elder, the strategic situation has moved fast, and most of our attention has been occupied with the Noble Devil alliance and the rapid rise of the Ancient Blood Demon in the south. The rapid change in the strategic calculus, along with a number of other surprises, led to the war being much shorter than anticipated."
A deep breath, trying not to taste the smoke.
"First, and most importantly, Nascent power. Old Gold has demonstrated significantly greater ability on the offence than previously expected. Despite his performance against the Ancient Blood Devil, it has been felt that Old Gold was an extremely defensively focused Nascent. Extraordinarily dangerous with preparation or on his own land, but with his powers dropping significantly outside prepared ground. Despite this, he took up a much more offensive tempo in the war than we expected."
"Additionally, reports from early in the war suggest that the Golden Devils may have successfully raised a new nascent, concealed from us until now." He paused for a second.
"Within months of the war beginning, the Jingshen early nascent attempted an ambush on Konstantinos, backed by a powerful nascent level spirit cannon. However, Jiao became distracted in eliminating one of the Devil's promising upcomers, and was caught off guard by an ascender's tribulation, unable to escape. With his new strength and the damage inflicted on Jiao for interference with a tribulation, Konstantinos was able to turn back this ambush and wound her."
"At the same time, the heretofore hidden nascent was able stall Junjie Jingshen, the mid-nascent patriarch, preventing him from freely inflicting destruction on the Devil's conventional forces or infrastructure. With Jiao's wounding, Junjie, was unable to challenge the devils lest he face a two to one nascent ambush. This left the Golden Devil nascents free to utilise their abilities to remove obstacles." He took a long breath.
We cannot also ignore the fact that Yao Zhihao of the Flood Dragon Bandits has apparently followed through on her faction's long-standing support for the Golden Devils. The initial assessment already had Nascent parity between the two forces from that alliance, a third Nascent tipped the scales in the Devils' favor. She might not have taken part in the offensive but her very visible presence in the Golden Devil territory means that Old Gold had his backline secured, which we felt was a major reason for his unusual offensive positioning.
"Additionally, whilst the nascent factor was most key, the Golden Devil's new Elder of War appears to have adapted an unusually aggressive andmuch more high mobility strategy, utilising giant Scorpions as cavalry to cover much more ground than a conventional legion would be able to."
Reports from the southern holdings of Jingshen indicate that the Golden Devils managed to subvert one of the vassal territories of the Jingshen, opening up an unexpected Southern front that bypassed the main defense lines established to prevent an attack from the West of Jingshen. The Flood Dragons appear to have lent the cachet of their reputation as Righteous Bandits to win over an unruly mass of barely suppressed bandits and raiders.
"This shift into high mobility warfare, a historical area of weakness for the devils, caught our analysts off guard and allowed a higher than expected operational tempo. Combined with the Jingshen being slow to start up their war machine due to corruption, much territory was taken without the resistance we anticipated."
"Finally, the Devils were reportedly able to turn back at least one trap which might have altered the course of the war through early detection."
Elder Xi Shi digested this, before his posture relaxed fractionally. Smoke began to clear from the room.
"Save their hidden nascent, none of this would be useful in further expansion beyond the desert, correct?"
"Correct, sir."
"So then," The Elder stroked his chin. "How can we improve things so our analyses cannot be so off again?"
"With permission sir, we'd need much greater investment. Our mortal networks are very good, but they were hampered by the trade disruption and both sides seeking out any sound transmission tablet uses due to suspicion of enemy action.
Our contacts among the devils themselves are sparse though. Their bloodline binding ritual enforcing their curse on anyone joining makes finding spies difficult. We have focused on guest elders previously, but with the war we were more inclined to bribe anyone that could be bribed to come West.
As for the Jingshen, their corrupt and competitive internal culture made any information extracted unreliable at best. We spent more time sorti….."
A great surge of qi from the east. Both turn and despite being unable to see the sky, both men feel the presence of a figure in the air. Thunder pealed, and the wrath of Heaven descended, as strong as either had ever felt.
An instant later, blood covered the skies, blotting out lightning and Sun alike.
Bloody Darkness descended.
============
Enkidu said:
Clevernamehere said:
Well. That's concerning.
Temporalobe said:
If we wish to extract the Jingshen Nascents it will likely be… expensive."
How expensive is expensive?
Anarchist Lorekeeper said:
Well, let's take a look historically shall we? In the cannibal war, they negotiated 60% of the cannibal lands. 30% of that went to the Stork Clan refugees, but in return they got them as vassals. The Jinghshen got 30% of the lands, and we got 10% to set up buffer zones. We might have been able to negotiate 40%, 40%, 20%.
This also got Old Blood Devil out of the desert with the use of a soulbinding oath, which was a pretty penny for the artefact. And a lot more expensive given what the bastard did afterward too.
I'd guess their big demands would be:
- Forbid Junjie and Jiao from coming back to the desert at all. Or for at least 500 years. I can't imagine we'd be allowed to get away with 200 again.
- The tricky thing here would be getting the Jingshen to agree.
- No sabotage of critical assets on the way out.
- A large proportion of the wealth the Jingshen are storing in their fortress.
- Nascent treasures.
Our desires:
- The Nascents, obviously.
- Dependants. I can't see this being too much of a problem. I can't imagine the Golden Devils would allow us to denude their new conquests entirely, but getting out the immediate family will at least remove a bunch of their big trouble makers.
- As much wealth and treasures as they can carry.
- This is the tricky one, but I think we could get some sort of decent settlement here.
So what cards can we play?
Threaten to reinforce the Jingshen with another nascent.
- Hah. No. The threat would be beyond empty at best and probably tank the negotiations.
- The bribes. It hurts, it really hurts. But we could let them stop sending massive bribes south for their observer position on the Righteous Council.
- Wei Ning. The Golden Devils seem to be forming a nascent 4th Great power, but at present they're the only ones lacking a late nascent. Make a binding oath that Wei Ning won't come over the border to ruin their day unless attacked, even after the Noble Devil War is over. Not even in 500 years to help the Jingshen take back their lands.
- Time. The Devils always have a 100-year countdown clock. When it hits, they're rolling the dice for how badly they get hammered. Emphasise, strongly, the time this gives them to consolidate their new territories.
- Threaten – Blacksmiths. We've already given the Blacksmiths the ultimatum that they need to join up properly or leave. They're sitting on a bunch of Golden Devil ruins and legacies. Offer some covert help with raids or such. Or just a blind eye, and a promise to ignore anything they do there.
The Eyes have it said:
No touching the bribe money.
I'm really not convinced the last is a good idea. Focusing on the time aspect seems good. I don't really see much of a downside to agreeing to keep Ning out of the borders unless they come at us either.
Anarchist Lorekeeper said:
The Eyes have it said:
I don't really see much of a downside to agreeing to keep Ning out of the borders unless they come at us either.
The downside is that we're pressuring the rest of the RP to unite behind us, and hating on Golden Devils is one of the national sports. It's going to piss a bunch of people off. It might also be harder to convince the Jingshen to go with our rescue deal as well.
That said, we might be able to quietly point our allies to the fact the oath would bind Ning. Not any hypothetical successor. A few rumors about potential successors, or people pointing out the average lifespans of our Sect's Late Nascent leaders may help quiet things down.
I have no intention of losing Ning, but it is true that past leaders didn't tend to last long. It's 2 full nascent lifespans since soup chef and we've been through 31 Leaders for goodness sake.
I_WANNA_BE_THE_SEED said:
Is no-one going to talk about what happened at the end???
Marinated_in_Brine said:
I love a good panic as much as the next person, but there isn't much to go on until we get more info next post.
It did say it came from the East though. Ancient Blood Devil in his mountains or some god-awful legacy in the Deep Desert, do we think?
Thus_falls_the_Sword_of_Fate said:
Diaxang has been merrily screwing us ever since we let him go. So probably him again.
HATS_OFF said:
Doubt it. Unless he's ascending into Spirit severing I don't think it'd be visible from here. Who could he have even eaten to do that? This is something new.
Please don't let him be ascending to spirit severing.
Enkidu said:
Wasn't there the abyssal bee queen in the mountains? You don't think he could have taken her do you?
Yes said:
I wish you hadn't reminded me that existed.
ShackledSaint said:
Something odd here. I rolled 6 dice on a whim to predict the result of that ending and I got six 1s. That doesn't meant anything? Right guys?
Somebody tell me that everything's going to be okay because my spine is making like and icicle
THE BLOODY SKIES
To her eyes, Bo Chang felt the battle was going well.
Several hundred Foundation Building experts clashed against near equal numbers of Demonic experts, techniques flashing across the battlefield. Reaching out with her senses, she tried again to locate the enemy's two remaining leaders. Mothing, she could feel their presence, but their auras were too spread out amongst the enemy forces to pin down to individuals.
The enemy had begun with three core formations, but she and Chu Chang of the Windswept Leaves school had managed to take one out when he exposed himself to take out a heavy formation of Foundation builders. Chu Chang had bracketed him with the falling Autumn leaves technique, allowing her to blast him with a descending imperial palm technique.
The corpse retrieval teams were already on their way to secure his corpse. With any luck one of his companions would make a play for his body and provide an opening.
Corpse retrieval teams were not, strictly speaking a new idea, but they were one that had become much more important, and been expanded upon, since the rise of the Noble Devil alliance, and the increasing number of righteous cultivators from outside the SPS on the battlefield.
The reasoning was simple. The power of the blood Altar allowed the blood path to consume corpses with no loss of cultivation below nascent soul. It did not matter if they lost ten core formations in a single engagement. So long as their corpses were retrieved, the Blood Altar sect could instantly raise another ten core formations.
Historically, the SPS had focused on their own arts and overwhelming strength. Winning every battle was worth more than a few Altar acolytes escaping with a corpse or two. Especially when the SPS' own arts prevented their dead form being used to strengthen the Blood path.
With the increasing numbers of other righteous path cultivators joining the fight, the calculus had changed. Thus, the concept had been dusted off. Originally, the intention had been to create corpse destruction teams, but it proved quite difficult to destroy a body beyond usefulness to the Blood Altar, and the idea that this might be necessary for even the righteous dead remained deeply unpopular. In light of this, retrieval for later destruction was instead made the main objective.
However, such a duty was highly risky, as it often left the hands of the team members occupied and made the members high value targets to the Demonic forces. Worse the duty was seen as lacking in glory at best or even shameful. Thus, such teams were treated extremely generously in terms of contribution points.
Bo Chang watched carefully as the team made it to the dead core formation, the bodyguarding members of the squad holding off assaults. This was the time of greatest risk. The enemy knew what the team represented, and were likely to either strike at the team itself or try to take advantage of her need to watch them to assault her or Chu Chang directly. If not, then she would begin wiping out their foot soldiers until it either provoked a response or they retreated.
She waited, watching the battles play out in miniature around her. Feeling her subordinates wills clash against the power of the demonic. Felt the will of the Righteous path as a clean sharp blade clashing against the jagged, blood stained edge of the Blood path horde. As the body was loaded up onto a stretcher, she feels as parts of that blade fall away, dying as they slowly grind down that bloody blade. It grieves her, knowing she could save them. Yet the loss is necessary. Intervening now could lead to her own demise, and a battle lost would be far worse.
The body is moving now. The team sprinting back through the Righteous lines. It's nearly fully back to the reserves now, and she gathers her power. The enemy is not coming to her, so she must go to them. Her qi ignites, and amongst the Demoic lines she feels another power rising to answer her. The Sharp and Bloody blades in her mind begin to shine.
Then, suddenly, to the East a great power flares. She turns, and feels the entire battlefield do likewise, helpless to resist this thing that commands attention. An unknown figure is visible in the air for a moment, before she feels the power of heaven, vast and terrible and filled with a killing rage she has never felt.
She has faced tribulations before and the power of Heaven has always been nourishing as well as dangerous. A stern and deadly teacher, but one that gives life to the worthy who pass their trials. No such life giving force is present here. Power enough to crush even the Princess crashed down.
The sky darkens, bloody mist covers the earth in a haze of red...
Lightning deflects from the figure into the earth, the rage of heaven tainted crimson.
ReD.
The sky is full now, bloody clouds occasionally pierced by sanguine lightning reflecting from the great figure.
RED
Twin swords in her mind. One red, jagged, dripping blood and murderous intent. The other clean, sharp and promising a cold and relentless execution. But something is wrong.
The clean blade begins to tarnish. Flakes of metal on the edge begin to rust and fall away, forming into another jagged edge. Cold, relentless intent begins to warm. Pulsing, throbbing, emotion burst forth , no longer cold but a hot, ravening hunger for the blood of the foe. For the blood of the friend.
For Blood, and death, and
Power.
She releases her power In an instant. The imperial palm, blasts out ahead of her, turning all in it's path to bloody mist. To her left she feels another power, equal to her own, doing the same.
She breathes in the bloody air, tasting the copper on her tongue. It isn't enough. Another great power rises across from her. Her foe, her prey. One whose blood could offer her true power, not the dregs of those who became this bloody rain.
She reaches out again with the imperial palm, now blood red. It is met in mid air by a gigantic finger of blood. Fool, do they not know that their arts cannot stand before the might of a Righteous
warrior?
Power flares far behind her, in the old lines. She cursed. Of course, the body. She should have gone there first. Not that it matters. A fresh ascendant? She'd finish her meal here, then take them too.
Another palm, and another. Met by bloody fingers, but each time, the fingers weaken. Her imperial palm comes closer. They cannot stand before the Purity
of her technique. Again, and again, until her foe is crushed beneath her power. She walks closer, seeing their terrified features, held beneath the giant translucent palm. An old man, long sideburns and goatee dyed red. Colour, not blood. How pathetic. He opens his mouth to beg, and your aura looms larger. He's speaking rapidly now, raving. She places a boot upon his chest, her foot sinking through her own technique.
Another flare of power behind, like the susurration of wind through the trees. New blood flares and gutters back.
Blood falls from his lips as sharpened, pointed teeth catch on his own tongue. She licked her own lips. Perhaps she'd take that tongue first. Why bother begging after all? She'd never spared any of the Blood Pat-
She comes back to herself, waking from a dream. Around her the battlefield is a blood frenzy.
Half the battlefield is on the ground, biting and tearing at their foes, blood dripping from their faces. She sees young Honoured Root of the Sleeping Forest sect lapping at the blood of a foe he'd impaled on a new grown tree. A demonic cultivator
(are they all demonic cultivators now?) lifts the leg of a paralysed opponent, pulls their boot off and bites at their toes.
Scenes of horror surround her in all directions. The cries of the battlefield turned into a cacophony of sleeping and chewing against the backdrop of pain.
(What can she do? What can she do).
Laughter from the earth. The monster beneath her boot is laughing at her. No longer begging for his pathetic life but LAUGHING AT HER.
"What's the matter girlie? An attack of squeamishness? That blood rain you bathed in not-" Her foot crushes his skull.
No. There is plenty she can do. She clasps her hands, gathering her qi. First, hold them. Stop them from enacting the madness they are infected with. The imprisoning palm, for an entire battlefield. Justice of the Imperial seat: One Thousand Imprisoning palms. He power double, the redoubles. Her power is distant, weaker. She feels her channels straining at the cost. Too much, far too much even for a technique of this scale. But it must be borne.
She leaps, ready to deliver justice from above.
Ten Thousand Autumn leaves rise to meet her.
---
Overhead, the blood mist gleams. Above the bloody battlefield where brother turns on sister. Above the world where the Righteous become the ruined. It glistens as kin feed on kin, as allies turn on each other, and beneath it's glow even the strongest may be found to be weak in will.
The mist waits in the skies. The wrath of heaven deflected again and again from the figure in the skies. Until with a final terrible crack of thunder deflected, the figure in the skies vanished.
The clouds wait. Their gleam tainting the earth. Then light descends.
For the first time in 10,000 years Qi falls to the earth. Light burns away the clouds. Shining treasures fall in shining beams of light. And above it all, shining more brilliant than the brightest treasure, are four characters.
天下万物
The Heavens had come.
------
AN: Behold, the Fruits of your labour. Stick around there's more.
============
Enkidu said:
YES said:
ACMEXPLOSIONS said:
Thus_falls_the_Sword_of_Fate said:
Ok, ok it's ok. I'm just a bit absolutely terrified. It's fine.
Heaven's back. That means everything is fine. Right. RIGHT?
Maximum Paranoia said:
I don't like this:
Temporallobe said:
It glistens as kin feed on kin, as allies turn on each other, and beneath it's glow even the strongest may be found to be weak in will.
I don't like this at all. What does this mean? I mean sure we just saw our core formations go crazy. But that's ok. We've got 400 of them. That's fine. That's ok. I'm sure it doesn't mean anything more than that.
I'm sure it doesn't actually mean what I think it means, right?
Marinated in Brine said:
Maximum Paranoia said:
I'm sure it doesn't actually mean what I think it means, right?
Well…
Temporallobe said:
Stick around there's more.
Yeah. I think it's time to PANIC.
The Collective Unconscious said:
Excellent Idea. *Slams panic button*
🔴🖐🖐🖐
Easily Attached said:
Temporallobe said:
Easily Attached said:
….Yyyeeeesss.
Well. Someone named Chang lived anyway.
Enkidu said:
….
You monster. I regret halloween has passed so I can't give the appropriate reaction.
Take my funny.
Faildspotcheck said:
What does this actually mean?
Temporallobe said:
ThepowrofGoogl said:
According to the mighty translation algorithm:
All under Heaven.
Also, next time, just search it
Na na na na na na HATMAN said:
So… Who was the mysterious figure?
RealityHater said:
Given the lightning was described as enough to flatten Ning, followed by the Blood clouds, could it have been someone ascending from the blood path to Spirit Severing?
Anarchistic_Lorekeeper said:
Maybe, but why would that trigger heaven? Spirit severings basically have to leave the sea or be sucked dry by the Qi differential. And all the other seas are still alive, so they have people above spirit severing that can swallow the blood path whole.
Sending down qi in response makes no sense, since it means they could possibly stay to get stronger rather than stay and die or leave and get stomped.
Na na na na na na HATMAN said:
On the other hand, Heaven is implied to be more akin to a bunch of automatic processes than something thinking. "Big threat detected, trigger great era" might be standard. I doubt the Heavenly processes were built to account for a dead turtle child.
Anarchistic_Lorekeeper said:
That's true, but the heavens did stop sending qi when the Turtle Child died. So clearly some procedures exist.
Granted, though they might not account for a big threat arising on a dead zone since well, how could it with a lack of Qi.
TheDevilandtheDeepBlue said:
It came from the east. So it could be the Golden Devils, could be the blacksmiths finding some horrible in the Golden Devil Ruins. Probably isn't the Bee queen, since that wouldn't be blood path, which this whole thing reeks of.
Marinated in Brine said:
Still betting on horrible blood path legacy.
Thus_falls_the_Sword_of_Fate said:
Dixang discovering a horrible blood path legacy?
Alltheseclevernames said:
Bleh. Please not more of him.
Bet it's soup chef bullshit again.
Lost LikeTears in rain said:
Please no. The Altar's bad enough.
Enkidu said:
Alltheseclevernames said:
Bleh. Please not more of him.
Weekly reminder that Glorious Strike has not been punished enough.
Lost LikeTears in rain said:
Please no. The Altar's bad enough.
On the other hand the compass went off again. Maybe this is to do with that plotline finally paying off?
Na na na na na na HATMAN said:
Ugh. I'm so nervous to see what we lost.
The Victor and the Grave
[SEE MAIN THREADMARK:
INTERLUDE: THE WEI PRINCESS]
AN: Good news. With Heaven Awake we have entered a great era. All Qi Condensation juniors will roll an additional 1d21-1 cultivation roll. Additionally, Heavenly Treasures are available. Mechanically, these will only be found in secret realms, but offer power and more importantly, plot relevance.
============
Na na na na na na HATMAN said:
God, I love Ning. She's absolutely my favourite character.
AXEOMATIC said:
The Altar is gone. Really gone. What?!
Enkidu said:
Soo.. we've... won? No more seeds?
Pokingatthings said:
"You're the idiot who didn't teach me how to scheme in the first place! Absolute strength is all well and good but it's not like you can just beat everyone up like that big dummy from the desert! That moron died and if I acted like him I'd die too!
So who was the desert moron?
Anarchist Lorekeeper said:
Pokingatthings said:
So who was the desert moron?
Previous Golden Devil leader. Super strong, got murdered via young master artefact during their temporing trials. Replaced by their current leader, Sneaky Mcambush
TheSaltFactory said:
"I should beat them up again...", she mused.
Aaw. Don't be sad Ning. You can always go help Elder Glorious Strike understand conceptual regret.
Again.
To_reign_over_Heaven said:
What is it with you people and Glorious Strike?
Enkidu said:
Temporalobe said:
Enkidu said:
Not quite, but you're in the endgame. That said, this cost you. A lot. A full accounting will be in a later post, but suffice to say this is the endgame. You have a chance to really win, but it will be an uphill battle.
Well, sort of. Technically you could call this a win, and it is. Even if you died right now, you achieved the long held objective of your Sect. But it isn't the end of the quest.
You may have wanted the Altar, but the Altar Lord was always playing his own game.
Notagain said:
I think I speak for everyone when I say. Panic button?
Panic button.
🔴🖐🖐🖐
The Lord of Sacrifice
[SEE MAIN THREADMARK:
THE ALTAR AND THE LORD]
AN: You may commence screaming....
now.
============
Notagain said:
Temporalobe said:
AN: You may commence screaming now.
Thank you, I will.
AHHHHHH.
Enkidu said:
Ok. Ok.
So, Altar Lord destroyed the Blood Altar intentionally, himself.
But what I don't get is: even if theTurle Shell wounded the blood Altar magnificently and it's been bleeding power ever since, I thought it still had enough power to kill hundreds of Nascents. It was going to be centuries until it was weak enough to truly destroy.
So, terrible as the mists are, with all that stored power it doesn't seem enough? Was the tribulation that powerful? Have we missed something?
Temporalobe said:
Altar Lord did three things with that Power. You haven't seen all of them yet.
ACMEXPLOSIONS said:
Thenorhc said:
Na na na na na na HATMAN said:
Marinated_in_Brine said:
No offense Enkidu but I kind of hate you right now.
Enkidu said:
Marinated_in_Brine said:
No offense Enkidu but I kind of hate you right now.
Yeah. Me too.
Dissatisfied said:
Don't you think this is a bit much temporal?
Temporalobe said:
Not really. As Ning said, even if your sect is destroyed. You would still have won a great victory.
Beyond that, Altar Lord said it himself, with the coming of a great era the righteous path have won. Under the will of heaven you can grind your way to victory even with crushing losses.
Your disciples can cultivate faster, and there are heavenly treasures for your juniors (or seeds) to find which could grant incredible power.
You could just grind your way to victory in a few dozen turns. But this is the endgame, I don't expect my players would be satisfied with a simple grinding victory. I think you'll want to win.
The Accounting
Elder Xi Shin felt like a condemned man marching to his execution as he presented himself before the Righteous Council of the Strength Purity Sect. Harkening back to distant origins in the Grand Wei Dynasty, the meeting hall of the gathered elders of the Strength Purity Sect was fashioned in the manner of a royal throne room hosting a noble court in attendance. At the end of the room was the tiered dais where the Nascent lords of the Scale-Blood Sea's Nine Islands were seated elevated above the assembly with the Wei Princess set apart alone on the highest tier on a simple throne of carved wood.
Spread out to the sides of the dais like avian wings, the host of elders looked on silently as he marched up the carpet to the foot of the dais and bowed once to each subordinate Nascent Soul and three times to the Holy Justice Maiden herself.
"Report," She said quickly, twining blond locks around an idle finger and tapping her left foot against the floor. The Late Nascent head of the strongest power in the Righteous Path at present looked deceptively at ease, left leg bouncing in the air crossed over right. Stilling his hand's instinctive reach for his pipe to calm his nerves, Xi Shin knew better than to accept the facade as truth, the genuine exuberance of her character going hand in hand with a ruthlessness backed by terrifying power. Certain elders waiting hand and foot on a mere Foundation Expert of the Golden Devils for their unwise daring were experiencing a playful reminder of that fact.
Even had that memory not been enough, the dainty hand that was worrying at the hand rest of her seat, gouging the substance of it, was proof enough of the gulf that spanned between him and his liege lord. Properly cured wood from a Ten-Thousand Year Celestial Redwood could withstand without blemish anything he could throw at it as a Core Formation elder of substantial martial achievement among a sect of accomplished combatants.
Without wasting time, he launched into his report. "As you all well know, our coalition of Righteous Powers has come under severe attack from Blood Path influence and the balance of power has changed drastically, not in our favor. Reports from our assets across the region as analysed by the Glorious Sixty-Two indicate that the initiating event was most likely the Single-Pillar tribulation of a junior of the Golden Devils, Gaius Antonius. It is not known what exactly distinguished this particular breakthrough from the six other successes in recent history, five of those also being by the same Golden Devils.
Whatever the trigger, we have confirmation that the Will residing in the Demonic Altar latched onto the tribulation and worked its power across the region, covering the heavens in mists of blood and seeking to corrupt all witnesses below to the Blood Path."
To the sides, he could hear a flurry of movement among his peer elders as bitter recollection of recent tragedy no doubt stung at fresh wounds. He did not let his attention move away from his primary audience to look at the missing fingers of his hand and continued apace.
"We are all aware of the sorrow that followed. Blood lust and madness flowered across the land. Men and women run amok, killing and consuming in cannibalistic frenzy. Gemstone Justice and the Yu clan lie broken at the hands of the renegade Ma and Chuan heads respectively. These two traitors have joined allegiance with the two axes of Demonic hegemony in the Green Scale Plains, Ma to the Noble Devil Alliance and Chuan to the Alliance of powers under the former Abyssal Devil Bee sect, now termed the Grand Abyssal Invasion.
The powers of the Hard Shell Mountains are dealing with Blood Path rebellions as well, with the Sorrowful Blacksmiths struggling to hold off a takeover by the former junior elder of the sect newly empowered to Mid Nascent in his defilement, while the Qiguai and Yuan clans are occupied with suppressing less potent insurrections. Notwithstanding the losses of two entire factions, the Seven Divine Saber Palace and Joyful Blacksmiths have lost much territory to an opportunistic expansion of the Grand Abyssal Invasion. Losses from rebellion and consumption across the plains and mountains are heavy, reaching as many one fifth in some cases among our allies."
The information he was presenting was not exactly new to anyone here but the stark reality of it presented so frankly stilled the air. Grimly he pressed on with what would have been unprecedented information in any other time. "Unfortunately, I must also announce that the Jingshen clan has been wholly conquered by the Golden Devils, their Nascent Souls killed and all holdings seized. Inquiries from their observer to the Council of Righteous Powers have not proven illuminating as to how this feat was achieved in the incredibly short timespan of just over a decade of open warfare. At present, our best estimation is that a combination of unleashed reserve strength and very auspicious timing are the cause."
Princess Facesmashing Dominator stilled in her seat and her attention exerted an incredible weight upon Xi Shin's shoulders that he bore stoically in silence. Addressing him, she slowly drawled in question, "Do you have reason to believe that the Golden Devils and the Demonic Altar were allied in this event?"
A terrible question to have to contemplate knowing what he did about the strategic picture of the region but thankfully one he'd prepared for and found a satisfactory answer. Standing tall and unshaken, he answered loudly. "All indications are that there was no collusion between the two factions, despite their shared distance from the Righteous Path. The Golden Devils are loudly proclaiming their continued aversion for the Blood Path and its adherents, a stance which myself and the analysts under me hold to be genuine. They have sworn themselves to maintain the integrity of the Spirit Stone trade and support the righteous forces of the Great Battlefield."
Nodding gently at his response, Wei Ning waved at him to continue. It probably helped sell the conviction of his reply that that line of questioning had been theatre arranged beforehand with the Princess. He was sure the watching elders knew so as well but that was how the game was played. In like manner, after delivering the bad news, it was time to offer the good.
"However, there is good fortune even in these times. The heavens have declared a Great Era, writ in the very skies and refreshed the spiritual energies of the region. We are already seeing juniors benefiting from the extra support in their advancement. The Yuan and Qiguai clans also report that their secret realms are flush with power and stand accessible continuously. In addition, the beneficence of the heavens has extended to the provision of superlative treasures that combined with the bounty of atmospheric qi allow their recipients to leap up the realms. Finally, it is the united conclusion of the Glorious Sixty-Two that taking the strength Demonic Altar has expended in this gambit combined with the damage inflicted by your own efforts, my Princess, the Altar is irreparably consumed and extinguished."
That final note was an almost unbelievable declaration. Bowing once again, he stepped back from the dais and stood at attention. The Wei Princess waved languidly at the gathered cultivators, given leave to the various elders to give voice to their thoughts.
There was going to be a long discussion and as the mouthpiece of much of the information presented he was going to be fielding inquiries and challenges for a while. He remained perfectly in position, not turning an inch in any direction, as much for propriety's sake as to avoid the temptation to look behind him. He'd looked before and there was no one there, yet still he felt the gaze of Sheng Xin upon the nape of his neck. His missing fingers still tingled where they'd been bitten off at the knuckles as he'd smashed through teeth and skull.
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ShackledSaint said:
Welp, that's done. I knew the dice were trying to tell us something but I did not believe it could get this bad. I'm gonna go cry in the corner a bit
Clevernamehere said:
This absolutely did not age well at all.
Temporalobe said:
If we wish to extract the Jingshen Nascents it will likely be… expensive."
I guess I don't have to worry about the cost of saving a pair of limp wristed idiots who couldn't even last a decade and half in an existential war on their own turf. Seriously even Child Corpse Gulper required two Mid Nascents to gang up on him and he was an overambitious brat who got too big for his britches
The Eyes have it said:
Clevernamehere said:
a pair of limp wristed idiots who couldn't even last a decade and half in an existential war on their own turf.
Huh… I guess there actually was something to those suspicions that Old Jingshen was hiding a vulnerability. No wonder they wanted 4 Nascents to take on Old Gold on his lonesome.
But seriously, that dumpster fire is nothing compared to the nuclear meltdown these Blood Mists appear to have caused. It looks like we're down 5 Nascents total and the Demonic Powers gained 3 new Nascents. Let's not even go into the fact that Chuan clan got cannibalized by their head, Gemstone and Yu straight up got gutted, oh and to garnish it all the force in charge of the transit between the Plains and the Desert where all that Spirit Stone we need is on the brink of takeover by Blood Path rebellion.
I'm not superstitious but I'm feeling a mighty urge to dig around my yard looking for buried earthenware pots with blood offerings to fetish idols. Our luck is just that bad
Temporalobe said:
I'll be honest I'm as surprised as you at the outcome. Let's just say that one Nascent flipping required remarkably bad odds. You got 3, two of whom were in unfortunately tragic positioning.
It's not all bad though. The Heavens always provide a way. Besides, the great goal of the Strength Purity Sect has been accomplished. The Demonic Altar is kaput
Na na na na na na HATMAN said:
Deep breaths. Ok, it's bad but there are still options. Analysis coming soon.
Monkeyswithtypewriters said:
Guys, I have a proposed write in for the council turn.
The Altar Lord has revealed his endgame. Thanks to the work of Xi Shin, you know the identity of the mysterious figure in the lightning. You can guess the identities of his pawns. Take them out. Now.
- Pro's: Scuppers Altar Lord's Plans.
- Cons - May not get all of them
Thenorhc said:
DeepThought said:
Yes said:
Because it puts us in immediate War with the Golden Devils.
- Ning is badly injured. So Ambush Mcambush may actually stand a chance of killing her since he was somehow able to 2v1 the Jingshen early and mid.
- I doubt they keep all the "Pawns" in one place, so there is a good chance we miss some.
- If we do, we may be doing a "Protagonists hometown/sect is destroyed. They flee to power level and revenge" and driving them into doing what Altar Lord wants.
- Even if both of the above succeed, cutting off the spirit stone trade right now will kill us and the remains of the RP. Since this is guaranteed to happen if we pick this, it is essentially elaborate suicide.
Na na na na na na HATMAN said:
Analysis Time:
Ok, it's bad, but it could be worse. What do we need to do next turn? Let's do some analysis:
Golden Devils. This is really high priority. Firstly, because Altar Lord's 5 Pawns lines up startlingly well with the 5 Single Pillars this update mentions. We need intel and we need it now. Secondly, because we need the spirit stone supply to remain constant to keep up any sort of war tempo.
Sorrowful Blacksmiths: Again, this is a big concern for us. With the increase in Qi to our frankly absurd home lands we can probably turtle up fairly well. Without this supply line and spirit stones though, we can't easily go on the offensive.
Great Mountain Bell: They're a strong ally, and they're surrounded by the Noble Demon alliance and the Ma clan at the Moment.
The Yuan and Qiguai clan's are probably not in too much trouble, as they're neutral and sell very valuable secret realm access. While it would be great to get them on-side it's not a priority at the moment.
We do need to look to the south at some point, since it's the regional breadbasket but at present I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it. If we can afford it in a few turns though when she's healed though, sending Ning here is a good idea. As an experienced and absurdly powerful Late Nascent she should stomp all over Dixang, even with another mid-nascent in Old Fish to help.
AnEternity said:
Guys, do you remember a couple of turns back where we got word that the Devil's had had light losses in their tribulation? There was mention of one Fifth Sea cultivator absolutely dumping in their guys. Temporallobe hinted that there was an uncommon player involved "chosen by heaven". I think that person had one of the treasures we're supposed to be seeing now. The Devils are ludicrously tough in the defense so if just one cultivator with this aid could wreck them, I can't wait to see what our juniors rain down on the Blood Path
ACMEXPLOSIONS said:
Yeah. Honestly I can't wait to see what that looks like.
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AN: Phew. 7726 Words. A massive thankyou to my collab
@Insane-Not-Crazy who wrote the entirety of "The Accounting" and many of the responses to it, as well as various other sections.
Another big thank you to everyone in the discord who helped provide betaing services and clear up some of my grammar and syntax errors. And as ever, to Occipitallobe, who inspired all of this.
Final note: SV's text editor is the true final boss.
