Han Jian's making great progress, and he finally believes he has great odds to get in the inner sect. Gu Xiulan somehow is going even faster than him, and have a huge amiable rivalry going on. Except they have noticed the girl who was a first stage cultivator now is mid yello/silver like them. She has no friends and no contacts, and Han Jian and Gu Xiulan can do the math: only 2 out of their three can get in the top 8.
Fan Yu constantly shows more and more hate for Su Ling, and Han Fang is getting more scared. So he does what a good leader does and prioritise his men against enemies. He tells Kang Zihao about the vent Bai Meizhen and Su Ling are using while he makes sure Ling Qi is busy elsewhere. That's just one example. Other examples are Gu Xiulan wounding Su Ling heavily just after she gets to Yellow, or Fan Yu doing something foolish, etc.
They aren't friend. They are not just rivals, even. They actively dislike Su Ling, and places are limited. Han Jian is not going to sacrifice either Han Fang or Su Ling for a stranger.
Errr, you probably got a name or two mixed up in there (why wouldn't Han Jian sacrifice Su Ling for a stranger?), but I'm catching the gist of what you're saying. I'm not going to say
haha this is impossible, but if I read an omake along these lines I'd consider it bad fanfic material because there's nothing in the prior text to suggest that they'd do things like this. It'd come shockingly out of the blue.
So, basically, absent the argent vent, he'd do the same thing to any talented person that could threaten his comrades' position, right? Only we've never actually seen him to do that, so, it must mean that the right set of circumstances (a sufficiently talented commoner) just hasn't arisen. But wait, that situation
has arisen. So, it's an opportunity cost: it's not easy enough to get to Ji Rong, so he won't go after Ji Rong. That's Han Jian all right, an opportunistic bastard who'd backstab Su Ling or Bai Meizhen after they shared resources with him and trained with him for most of a year for the sake of a kid who his family forced him to become friends with. This sounds shockingly plausible.
But, no, wait, that contradicts basically
all of his previous characterization.
Has Han Jian actually
done anything to make you believe that this is something he'd do? Or is this one of those general xianxia tropes that people who haven't read xianxia can't wrap their minds around? Because from what we've seen of Han Jian, that's not something he'd do. Sure, most people (except for Bai Meizhen) are jealous. Jealousy towards Ji Rong and Ling Qi are
natural. If you practiced something for five years and someone comes in and manages to do what you did in three months? That hurts.
But that doesn't mean you're about to stab them in the back or toss them off a cliff for it.
Hell, I can't even really see Fan Yu doing this. He wanted to run around the forest trying to stumble into fights during the first test. He is not a very subtle guy. If he's going to do someone in it's going to be from the front where people can see him coming. He's not intelligent enough to pull off ambushes or long-term cons.
Gu Xiulan
might do this. Honestly, I'm of the opinion that she's already doing something like this, albeit in a more romantical direction, trying to keep Han Jian's attention off of us, but that's not something I can really blame her for. Would she try to sabotage Su Ling's chances? Maybe. But as far as we have been able to see, she's mostly tried to stand out... by standing out.
Look, this back-stabbing thing... I find this logic dubious and based on the flawed assumption that was being bandied about earlier that due to our talent 'we are now a threat to these nobles, they will turn on us like a boat flipping over'. I suspect it's bleedover from those who actually read Xianxia and these things just... happen.
No??? Like, try to write it as an omake, envision it in your heads, it comes out farcically. I can't support any positions that I can't imagine, and I can't even imagine Fan Yu doing it and he's the resident asshole friend no one likes. I've even recanted my earlier position that
not having them cultivate together would be sufficient reason for hostilities to erupt, and that was something I
could see happening, albeit in a cold, gray way where Han Jian and Ling Qi simply parted ways.
This is a setting where talent equals worth. Worth is not something that you dismiss out of hand just because what you thought was a quartz mine turns out to be a diamond mine. They're going to be jealous of us. Yeah. That's normal. That's... kind of what happens when a complete beginner suddenly makes such huge strides that they start eclipsing the regulars on the team. A period of social readjustment will have to occur. Regulars don't want to be benched, they'll work harder.
What they
won't do is knife us in the back and toss our corpse off a cliff. Like who exactly do you think we've been talking to for the past three months? Can you really see them doing anything more than maybe being a
little more reticent in offering us goodies and advice since we're progressing so fast? Do you think they'll actively try to sabotage us or our friends as opposed to trying to sabotage, idk,
their actual competition that's not in alliance with them?
Because if yes, then, fine, I'm all for abandoning these assholes.
But, no, Gu Xiulan's objections to Su Ling were 'she's weak, she'll waste your time, she'll
hurt your chances.'
You saw what happened when Cai announced we'd broken through, yeah? Suddenly even Sun acknowledges that Bai made the right choice. If Su Ling's strength increases prodigiously due to her talent, then the nobles who acknowledged her first are not going to get all '
she's the competition! Kill her!' they're going to be seen as particularly perceptive and others are going to go:
goddamn they're hogging all the talent.
People are already trying to tempt Ji Rong into their camps. We're going to get offers too.
In a world where sufficiently talented people can shatter mountains, I am pretty sure that the Empire has adopted China's historical policy when it came to foreign invaders it couldn't beat: let them in and then assimilate them. Hence all the people fluttering anxiously around Ji Rong, and a number of people probably going to try making advances towards
us. Han Jian
wants loyal, trustworthy people working under him and if they're strong, even better.
This is a setting which despises 'dead weight' not 'potential assets.'
After some supper)
