Disciples of Red Dew Sect (Cultivation Riot Quest)

Omake - Sergeant Wu

"Left foot first!"

Wu Ji Nin singsongs to the rhythm of marching feet.

"Right one next!"

The half-organized ranks of children following behind him mirror his steps.

"Not com-plying makes you'n in-sect!"

He calls out the words, letting his voice carry as far as his tempered lungs allow. The cadences are meant to keep the children synchronized, interested and, on some level, concentrated.

The boy marching at the end of the line trips over his own foot and sprawls out on the ground. His fall starts a chain reaction, and a few of the marching children in the rear collapse on top of each other. One of the fellow disciples escorting the contingent of evacuees scampers around to re-establish order.

Wu Ji Nin cannot deviate from his task or it'll be total chaos, but he does shorten his steps even more, so as to allow the regrouping boys and girls to catch up.

"Left foot first! Right one next!" he resumes, brain racking for another pseudo-rhyme. "March so you can join the Sect!"

The scene repeats itself for quite some time until, a long way ahead, Wu Ji Nin's eyes spy the vanguard meant to make sure they won't stumble on any problem, and it's clear that they have encountered one such situation. He quickly changes tack.

"Brace to stop!" he singsongs, "though if not! Brace your-self to be curbstomped!"

And he halts his march, feeling mighty pleased with himself when the children halt with him, more or less. It is literally child's play to move to the least disciplined line and use a single hand to prevent all the stumbling from causing the front girl to fall and eat dirt.

Once sure the whole company is safe, his head swivels back to the vanguard. A few worried whispers come up among the children, but when their untempered eyes can't quite make out what is going on so far ahead, they turn into complaints. Wu Ji Nin's own guts clench in preparation of trouble, but it soon becomes clear that whatever hindrance was found, has been quickly dispatched by the disciples in front.

When the red cloth, signal for the all-clear, is waved back at him, Wu Ji Nin nods resolutely. True safety is still a long way off for the children and disciples alike, and for the time being, marching is all they can do.

"Companyyyyyy!" he calls out, immediately shushing the buzzing that has risen among the children. "Leeeeeeeeeeeeft foot first! Right one next! March to ward off bo-ttle-necks!"

As the caravan makes its way back to the Red Dew sect Gan Jia sets up their stall everywhere there is even a modicum of other people. Herbs are sold and spirit stones change hands. It's actually fairly good business. The tournament seems to have drawn a fairly steady number of people heading towards the Red Dew sect and many of them are willing to try a few "Red Dew Special Herbs"

Gan Jia: +1 Insight Merchant

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The Red Dew mountain is riddled with old caves and tunnels. Some are natural, but many were dug by cultivators for one reason or another. Cai Delan finds one of these and at the end a stone door with an inscription promising great rewards for any who beat the trials within. Emboldened Cai Delan spends nearly a week dodging traps and solving puzzles. At the end of the trials he finds a plaque offering him one personal lesson from the Elder of Strategy. Someone he's fairly sure died more than a year ago.

Cai Delan: +3 Insights Path of Striving

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Bingxi visits the spirit ranch and volunteers to help with the llamas for a few days. She hauls hay bales around, brushes the llamas, and gets spit on an indecent number of times. She gets the uncomfortable sensation that the llamas are calling her names behind her back. But the senior disciples are encouraging saying that she has a real knack for llamas seeing as how she didn't get kicked even once.

Bingxi: +2 Insight Path of Beast Handling

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Wuyin studies the archives while Tien does battle with some of the more rambunctious scrolls. From her reading it seems that spirit beasts in the wild tend to grow as much as the available qi sources allow. However this tends to leave their cores unstable and give them mental deviations. By contrast a tamed spirit beast will attune their core with that of their human partner. This gives them increased stability and control, but has the side effect of more or less limiting their cultivation to the same level of progress as said partner.

Wuyin: +1 Insight Path of Beasts, +2 Insights Path of Change

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There's actually quite a few things related to alchemy in the sect. Stan Li finds several rumors about the elders and their alchemy practice. From the rumors of the Sect Mistress's not so secret alcohol stash, to those saying the elders have perfected a pill that can instantly promote a peasant to soldier. To even the darker rumors that the entire sect is a lie and the disciples are merely being cultivated to be turned into pills themselves.

Stan Li: +2 Insights Path of Alchemy

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The sounds of music fill the air as the Changjian twins practice whenever the caravan stops for a bit of free time. Combined with Gan Jia's mercantile activities the caravan takes on a lively air despite the dangers of traveling through the wilderness. Indeed because of those very dangers it soon attracts numerous loose cultivators hoping to find safety in numbers. They wouldn't normally infringe on an official sect caravan, but the sound of the guqins is enthralling enough to override their common sense. And the Red Dew sect is sociable enough to not make that a mistake on their parts.

Changjian Twins: +2 Insight Path of Music

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It takes a cultivator to tattoo the skin of another cultivator so Sun Won doesn't have a lot of choice in who he goes to. The artist he finally selects is more used to tattooing fierce drawings of conquered spirit beasts on the more thuggish brand of disciples, but thy take pride in their work and after Sun Won describes what he wants the artist tattoos a very distinguished set of scriptures on both of his arms. They aren't formations, but made with Qi ink they glow when Sun Won channels Qi into his strikes.

Sun Won: +2 Insight Path of Wisdom

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By this point the Orange mountain has turned from a remote landmark to a bustling outpost of the Red Dew sect. The miners delve deep into the earth and Pan Tingfeng finds several taverns who serve dumplings and rice. It's simple fare, but wholesome and filling. Just what a person needs to be filled with enough energy for a hard day's work.

Pan Tingfeng: +1 Insight Path of Cooking

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Fortunately there isn't actually much damage for Hawk to help repair as he goes around the barony helping the mortals. The Red Dew sect was able to intercept most of the beast tide. Most isn't all however. Several villages are being terrorized by spirit beasts that slipped through the net. Mostly wolves, but one shadow panther gives Hawk a decent fight. The villagers are grateful to their savior and welcome him as a hero as he continues his patrols.

Hawk: +2 Insight Path of the Guardian

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There isn't much damage to repair either. A few barns were destroyed here and there and a few fields burned. But the sect was able to protect most of the mortal villages. The worst damage is from the farthest villages. There the sect chose to evacuate rather than defend. With no mortal to actually hunt most of the spirit beasts ignored the abandoned villages, but a few more gluttonous ones did a great deal of damage looking for food stores. And it is this damage that occupies most of Gu Jin's time as he brings supplies to the villagers and helps them rebuild their destroyed granaries.

Gu Jin: +1 Insight Path of Community

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The manuals that Ding Dong found are incomplete. It isn't damage so much as if the author of the manuals wasn't quite finished putting their thoughts in order. Most of it is quite comprehensible. But occasionally it diverts into a topic that is far more advanced than the rest of the material or mentions a technique for forging that has never been discussed before. Still Ding Dong manages to figure out quite a bit about how to smith different metals more effectively.

Ding Dong: +1 Insights Path of Blacksmithing

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Li helps the orphans set up their stall selling little tea cakes and statues for the festival. It doesn't bring in much money, but it helps give the orphans a little pocket money. Once he's satisfied that they're all set he finds his date for the evening. The daughter of a local innkeeper who he has met several times on his visits to the orphanage. He thinks it's going well.

Li: +1 Insight Path of Family

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Do Mwin doesn't spend much time outside the sect. Instead she concentrates her time in the Forge hall. So much so that one of the forges practically has her name on it, and there is a small mound of scrap nearby from her abandoned or failed projects. Still she's managed to make a few swords that are actually of a decent grade according to the grizzled eye of the senior blacksmith.

Do Mwin: +2 Insights Path of Blades

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Xingyun spends an enjoyable day with Shufen. It seems she has some trouble making friends among the other disciples of the Righteous Wildfire sect. And the two commensurate about spending most of their time alone. Unfortunately after just a few hours the Red Dew caravan departs and Xingyun has no idea if he'll ever see his new acquaintance again.

Xingyun Xing: +2 Insights Path of Loneliness

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Jiang Chen's meditations gradually draw a gathering of appreciative onlookers. A few of the more daring disciples even attempt to emulate his single minded sword meditations, but few can make it more than a day or two before they give. Leaving the oblivious Jiang to be admired by his growing fan club.

Jiang Chen: +2 Insights Path of the Sword

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Tan Bo helps the teams of workers dismantling the palisades and butchering the thousands of spirit beast corpses. It's a lot of work and the pace is relentless in order to get everything harvested before they go bad. But Tan Bo knows that everything will be put to good use.

Tan Bo: +1 Insight Path of Scavenging

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The idea that formations can be used for mundane things sparks inspiration in Lucky Dong. He runs around the sect looking at such minor and mundane uses as cleansing the water in washrooms, cooling rooms during the summer days, and the ubiquitous light spheres. Formations are used almost everywhere.

Lucky Dong: +2 Insights Path of Formations

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Everyone gives Loutuo the same story. The Elder of Beasts and her most stalwart companion accompanied the Baron to war. And like so many other of the sect's elders she was slaughtered by the Count's son. Loutuo is sure that isn't the full story however. For one thing, did she really only have one companion? Surely there were other spirit beasts she trained. Where did they go?

Loutuo: +2 Insights Path of Mysteries

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Not much has happened with the charcoal makers. A few of them are gone. Loners who spent more time in the forest than the city and paid for their tendencies with their lives. But otherwise the beast tide didn't make it anywhere near the ash quarter. Instead Liang spends most of his time praying to Grandfather Ash and considering the purity of Ash.

Liang Xinyue: +2 Insights Path of Ash

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Riyadh spends some time going around the sect and interacting with his peers. It isn't hard to find them as out of the thousands of outer disciples only a handful of names are on everyone's names. Seeking these prodigies out Riaydh finds himself traveling all over the sect helping with the beast cleanup and enjoying the festival with other disciples. It is certainly a different experience from his single minded training.

Riyadh: +1 Insight Path of Friendship

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Daiki greatly enjoys the festival. It was a fascinating experience and he found that the experience helped temper his cultivation. Curiously when he examines the mask later he finds a small slot in which a coin has embedded. Pulling it out he finds that it is embossed with the image of a chained sword.

Daiki Inoue: +2 Insights Reflection

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Unfortunately while most disciples are out enjoying the festival many are not. The sect paid to stop the Beast Tide in blood. Many disciples lost their lives and many more were grievously
injured. Cheng Nan spends several days helping out in the infirmary running errands and performing small healing techniques on the lesser injuries in order to free up the senior healers for more serious wounds.

Cheng Nan: +2 Insights Path of Medicine

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To Liu Jin's dismay he finds that he missed the perfect opportunity to go to the Fern Ferret sect. A sect caravan left several months ago to go there, and in fact should be back soon. As for making the trip himself it isn't advised. It's several baronies away, nearly ten thousand li. As a soldier he might be able to make it, but it would be much safer in a group. Either one of the merchant caravans or preferably something sponsored by the Red Dew sect itself.

Liu Jin: +1 Insight Path of Travel

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The hardest part of holding a drinking contest is that Hanyi has gotten a little famous. Everyone knows he always has a drink on hand, and is in fact the largest distributor of peasant grade alcohol in the province. So it's not really a fair contest. So instead of a participant Hanyi finds that he is roped into being a judge instead. Something he takes to with a gusto matching every contestant drink for drink.

Hanyi: +1 Insight Path of Drinking

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It isn't hard to make friends when you have the talent of a genius. It might not be obvious to himself, but June Peng has already passed most of those who entered the sect with him. Even beyond those who want to latch onto a rising star there are plenty of disciples having trouble with things June Peng finds simple. A bit of helpful advice here and there goes a long way to turning acquaintances into friends.

June Peng: +1 Insight Path of Friendship

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Wu Ji Nin plants sunflowers everywhere where it seems they might grow well. He finds they tend to grow best near mortal villages, usually in small groups near the fields or between the villages and any groves of trees. He also finds that spirit beasts tend to avoid any sunflowers he plants. As far as he can tell they don't have any sort of qi that would cause such a thing. The spirit beasts just seem afraid of sunflowers.

Wu Ji Nin: +2 Insights Path of Curiosity

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Zao Zao performs all his activities with precise movements and careful planning. In his mind a cultivator must be perfect in all they do. From the smallest gesture to the grandest fight. Only by refining himself in such a way can he ensure that he achieves his utmost ability.

Zao Zao: +2 Insights Path of Meticulousness

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There are always rumors going around the sect. Who is hooking up with who. Who is most likely to break through. Who has the elders' favor. But currently most of the rumors are about the tournament. Mostly on when it will be, but there are also many about who is participating. There are rumors that the Count has put up a tremendous prize and it has drawn cultivators who would never have even heard of the Red Dew sect previously. The Wandering Axe, the Mountain, the Wind Blade, even the renowned Jade Sculptor.

Jian Ke: +1 Path of Rumors

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Hong Xing wanders around the sect getting a grasp on where he and the other disciples live. He finds that the mountain is delineated into sections according to height. The base of the mountain is where the mortals live in Roaring Furnace city. Next comes a section deliberately left to wilderness. Wild forests have been grown to separate the sect proper from the rest of the barony and provide a ready supply of spirit beasts to train disciples with.

Next is the start of the sect proper. This is a collection of common buildings such as the resource pavilion, the market, the mess halls, and so on. Many of the disciples spend most of their time working or using the facilities here. Slightly higher are the pavilions housing the outer disciples though there isn't much difference between the two sections.

The next layer is accessed by several flights of stairs carved into the mountain. They lead to a variety of training halls and meditation courtyards where the senior disciples lead the outer disciples in their actual cultivation. Most of the senior disciples also live in this section since there's plenty of room and a good bit of privacy.

Even higher up the mountain are the sect's administrative halls. The technique pavilion, archive, pavilions for guests, and the airship dock. Not that there is actually an airship for Hong Xing to marvel at currently. The inner disciples would usually live here, but currently most of them have moved even further up the mountain. There they are taking advantage of the sparsity of elders to occupy the abandoned elder pavilions and meditation caves.

Finally the peaks of the mountain are devoted to the remaining elders. There they have erected magnificent pavilions that Hong Xing can only stare at in admiration.

Hong Xing: +1 Insight Path of Community

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The instant Liao Chuanli enters the forging hall an inner disciple appears and asks him if he's interested in forging. He soon finds himself regaled with tales of wondrous weapons and amazing feats of forging. If the grizzled blacksmith is to be believed the path of forging is the peak of cultivation and all other paths are wastes of time.

The blacksmith shows Liao around and lets him watch as several blacksmiths pound out exquisite swords and artifacts that seem to glimmer with restrained power.

Liao Chuanli: +1 Insight Path of Blacksmithing

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If I missed anyone let me know.

Mission Board​

Returning Home
Mission: Elder Mei Fenfang is leading the caravan home at last.
Overseer: Elder Mei Fenfang
Disciples 1+
Skills: Diplomacy, Combat
Reward: 20 Merit

Ruins Exploration
Mission: A short time ago, ruins were found by enterprising disciples. A later batch explored deeper, but were stopped by a door they could not open. We shall be going beyond that door.
Overseer: Elder Huo
Disciples 2-4
Skills: Combat, Exploration
Reward: 20 Merit

DEATHLY LESSONS
Mission: Go to the field of sorrows, find and put at least one soul to rest using violence, guile, trade of services or what you wish. Come back having learned something valuable [technique, secret or lesson of enlightenment]
Overseer: Elder Smiling Vulture
Disciples 2-5
Skills: Combat, Utility, Social, (be creative)
Reward: 20 Merit, one week mentorship to prepare them to deal with spirits.

Mass butchering
Mission: The beast tide last month has left the sect with a rather large excess of corpses. Naturally they should be turned into useable ingredients
Overseer: Inner disciple
Disciples: 3-5
Skills: Butchery
Reward: 10 merit

Building a boat
Mission: The great flagship of the Red Dew fleet has sat in the docks uncompleted for almost half a year, it is time to change that disciples. Soon the lake shall be ours and the grouper menace defeated!
Overseer: Inner disciple
Disciples 3-5
Skills: Construction
Reward: 10 merit, a boat ride

Getting to know your peers
Mission: Many disciples of other sects and lose cultivators have shown up due to the impending tournament. This is your time to get to know them, exchange pointers and maybe even learn something Disciples. Get out there and socialize.
Overseer: None
Disciples: Any
Skills: Social, Combat.
Reward: 5 merit, +2 Reputation

Further tournament preparations
Mission: The time of the tournament draws ever closer and some last minute preparations are being made to ensure that it is truly a memorable event, to that end Disciples you are being called upon to assist in building further venues, finding ingredients and general prep work.
Overseer: Elder Nianzu
Disciples: 3-5
Skills: Construction, combat, crafting.
Reward: 10 merit

Watching over your Juniors
Mission: Due to the evacuation last month, many of those potential disciples are gathered here on the mountain. These are the future of the Red Dew Sect and they must be nurtured and cared for, simply make sure they stay out of trouble disciples.
Overseer: Inner disciples
Disciples: 3-5
Skills: Social, taming.
Reward: 15 merit points

Body tempering elixirs
Mission: With the recent influx of new disciples, we are in need of a massive quantity of body tempering elixirs so they may begin their cultivation journey, that is where you come in.
Overseer: Inner disciple
Disciples: 3-5
Skills: Alchemy
Reward: 15 merit points

Grouper interrogation (Top secret.)
Mission: The truly IMPIOUS Groupers of lake Taiwei likely have plans to ruin the shining moment of the Red Dew sect, the grand tournament. This mission disciples if you choose to accept it shall be your most dangerous one yet and is highly classified. You are to infiltrate the lake and find out their plans.
Overseer: The elder of fishing
Disciples: 3-5
Skills: Stealth, fishing, social, interrogation
Reward: 20 merit points, a fish fry. (100 if vital information uncovered.)
Revoked by Elder Sunflower

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Please write your action in this format.

[X] Disciple Name
-[X] Action: Description of Action
--[X] [Qi] Qi Used (Optional)
-[X] [Elixir] Whether you are using an elixir to cultivate
-[X] [Organ] If you have tempered a new organ, then select the attribute you improved.
-[X] [Enlightenment] Pick which Path you want to get an enlightenment in.

With the festivities of mid-summer coming to a close, something somewhat new begins to appear throughout the sect. They seem to be... flyers? Well, pieces of woods and or stone scattered throughout the sect with words carved onto them.

The uh... sword-writing, as well as the rambling contents of the scattered pieces clearly indicate that this came from Wuyin.

What was that crazy girl trying to say this time?

Wuyin's Declassified Sect Survival Guide - Special Edition! : I Want You! To Break... Through!

AKA: Don't be afraid of breaking through to Soldier!

Hello everyone! Wow, that was pretty eventful for an interlude huh?

One whole free enlightenment! Quite the gift!

Well, more like a re-adjustment from the Giant Hand in the Sky.

I'll save you all a long conversation over Discord, but in short, the Giant Hand in Sky was rather confused by the fact that it seems several disciples are actually quite reluctant to breakthrough to Soldier! Myself being one of them! Not naming any other names though, although I'm sure you can figure them out!

But this free enlightenment is what came out of those talks. And as part of those talks, I felt it best to be bit less crazy than I usually am.

Don't be afraid about getting your breakthrough perfect!

While having more enlightenment will improve your breakthrough, the difference is not so massive as to make it worth it to spend several turns putting it off solely to scrape out one more ounce of understanding! And while I will not detail it now, the path through Soldier is a long and hard one, far harder than our trials as Peasants! So getting a headstart on such matters while you can is quite the boon! Not to mention that advancing to Soldier represents a rather large increase in one's capabilities across the board!

So please: I'm not asking anyone to breakthrough right this very moment. Take your time. Think things through. It would be quite hypocritical of me to rush others along when I am perfectly content to meander around as I am.

But.

Don't obsess over achieving the strongest breakthrough. Gain enlightenment in the things you believe most important to you... and don't be afraid to take the next step along a long journey.

And if you desire advice, or to simply listen to a crazy girl ramble on for a bit, don't be afraid to ask! The system underpinning our existence guided by the Giant Hand in the Sky is complicated, so if you want advice on how to plan your breakthrough, or even just how to get to a point you're satisfied, I'm always willing to chat people's ears off!

Good luck, and good fortune. So much has changed so fast.

P.S: Path of Change Insights please!

[X]Loutuo
-[X]Action:Bond with foxy the ice fox(name still in progress) perhaps with enough time he would allow for petting of the tail?-Use way of the wool.
-[X] [Qi] Qi Used: 2
-[X][Free Enlightenment] Path of transformations.