Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
[X] Plan: Last stop before Breakthrough Week
-[X] Expenses: 2 YSS, 3 RSS, First Level Earth/Water/Fire Pills, (6 RSS), Flowing Rivers Pill (6 RSS), Steady Growth Pill (6 RSS) Sturdy Oak Pill (18 RSS), Bear's Heartsblood Elixir (10 RSS), Bear's Marrow Elixir (4 RSS), Soul Concentrating Elixir (8 RSS), Soaring Charm (300 RSS), Blinding Fate Charm (50 RSS): Total Cost: 431 RSS
-[X] EPC Bonuses: Abyssal Exhalation, Argent Vent Bonus: Argent Current
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Green)
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Bronze)
-[X] Major: Train at the Vent with Su Ling (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Argent Current)
-[X] Major: Cultivate on your own (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Abyssal Exhalation)
--[X] Attached Minor: Zeqing has been quite busy, but you received a message inviting you to meet her... at her home?
-[X] Major: Cull the Black Soil Worm Population
--[X] Attached Minor: Zhengui is up and around again and didn't get to do much on the raid. Go hunting with him
-[X] Minor: Cai Renxiang has something important to announce. It seems you will need to attend a council meeting
-[X] Minor: Meizhen is right... the two of you should probably talk, it seems there is still a lot you don;t know about each other
-[X] Minor: You've learned what you can from simply observing Cai Renxiang. Ask her about the capital and about herself
Success! I figured out how to crowbar in an action! It gets us that extra chunk of Sect Points that we need to get a Level Three Art, it gets us Zhengui training in something he can mostly carry the weight on while we secretly be his backup, it gets us EPC bonus progress on AE, two breakthrough attempts, and it should let us get the Zeqing action because one of our cultivation sites is our meeting spot!
Finalize the CRX research and discussion, straighten things out with Meizhen, and cover our major obligations before breaking through (Except the Favor, but if our tools aren't ready yet, then the same arguments will come along). This should work!
-[X] Expenses: 2 YSS, 3 RSS, First Level Earth/Water/Fire Pills, (6 RSS), Flowing Rivers Pill (6 RSS), Steady Growth Pill (6 RSS) Sturdy Oak Pill (18 RSS), Bear's Heartsblood Elixir (10 RSS), Bear's Marrow Elixir (4 RSS), Soul Concentrating Elixir (8 RSS), Soaring Charm (300 RSS), Blinding Fate Charm (50 RSS): Total Cost: 431 RSS
-[X] EPC Bonuses: Abyssal Exhalation, Argent Vent Bonus: Argent Current
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Green)
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Bronze)
-[X] Major: Train at the Vent with Su Ling (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Argent Current)
-[X] Major: Cultivate on your own (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Abyssal Exhalation)
--[X] Attached Minor: Zeqing has been quite busy, but you received a message inviting you to meet her... at her home?
-[X] Major: Cull the Black Soil Worm Population
--[X] Attached Minor: Zhengui is up and around again and didn't get to do much on the raid. Go hunting with him
-[X] Minor: Cai Renxiang has something important to announce. It seems you will need to attend a council meeting
-[X] Minor: Meizhen is right... the two of you should probably talk, it seems there is still a lot you don;t know about each other
-[X] Minor: You've learned what you can from simply observing Cai Renxiang. Ask her about the capital and about herself
Success! I figured out how to crowbar in an action! It gets us that extra chunk of Sect Points that we need to get a Level Three Art, it gets us Zhengui training in something he can mostly carry the weight on while we secretly be his backup, it gets us EPC bonus progress on AE, two breakthrough attempts, and it should let us get the Zeqing action because one of our cultivation sites is our meeting spot!
Finalize the CRX research and discussion, straighten things out with Meizhen, and cover our major obligations before breaking through (Except the Favor, but if our tools aren't ready yet, then the same arguments will come along). This should work!
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[X] Plan: Last stop before Breakthrough Week
- Location
- scrabbling
[X] Straighten Some Things Out First
-[X] Pills: lol I dunno
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough
--[X] Green
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough
--[X] Green
-[X] Explore and Train with Golden Fields
--[X] AE
--[X] Attached Minor: Zhengui is up and around again and didn't get to do much on the raid. Go hunting with him
-[X] Major: Train at the Vent with Su Ling
--[X] Recover from failure or else AC
-[X] Attempt to placate the Dragon of the Valley
--[X] Attached Minor: Meizhen has done a lot for you, tell her about the Dragon and the Valley, let her do as she wants with it.
-[X] Minor: Cai Renxiang has something important to announce. It seems you will need to attend a council meeting
-[X] Minor: Your feelings regarding Gu Tai are... conflicted, maybe you should speak with him a bit. You know where he is staying.
-[X] Minor: Zeqing has been quite busy, but you received a message inviting you to meet her... at her home?
One more doomed try; into the breach.
-[X] Pills: lol I dunno
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough
--[X] Green
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough
--[X] Green
-[X] Explore and Train with Golden Fields
--[X] AE
--[X] Attached Minor: Zhengui is up and around again and didn't get to do much on the raid. Go hunting with him
-[X] Major: Train at the Vent with Su Ling
--[X] Recover from failure or else AC
-[X] Attempt to placate the Dragon of the Valley
--[X] Attached Minor: Meizhen has done a lot for you, tell her about the Dragon and the Valley, let her do as she wants with it.
-[X] Minor: Cai Renxiang has something important to announce. It seems you will need to attend a council meeting
-[X] Minor: Your feelings regarding Gu Tai are... conflicted, maybe you should speak with him a bit. You know where he is staying.
-[X] Minor: Zeqing has been quite busy, but you received a message inviting you to meet her... at her home?
One more doomed try; into the breach.
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If we are going hunting, at least make this the Worm Extermination mission. Intermediate Hunting is just too low level.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Eh, I did call it, but like I said, I had nothing to argue with that with aside from "He hasn't openly used it in a year" as evidence, along with "If I was a production cultivator who knew that a monster combat track high noble was on my ass, I'd spend whatever I had to to make them go away". Nothing that I could convince the masses with.
I'll change it to Worm Extermination though.
I'll change it to Worm Extermination though.
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- Location
- scrabbling
To be honest I'd vote for Alectai's plan since it's so similar to mine, except the extra Cai action sort of makes me feel ill. Mostly cause I've worked myself up about how I can't even get that choice delayed, to be sure, but it does still sit badly...
(Seriously, Cai pushing for a decision so quickly is just predatory. I had the (extreme) thought the other day that it was sort of like someone grooming a girl to go into the porn industry on her 18th birthday. Obviously Cai's service isn't pornography, but it's a big decision and Ling Qi/the thread doesn't really understand available options beyond the surface level.)
(Seriously, Cai pushing for a decision so quickly is just predatory. I had the (extreme) thought the other day that it was sort of like someone grooming a girl to go into the porn industry on her 18th birthday. Obviously Cai's service isn't pornography, but it's a big decision and Ling Qi/the thread doesn't really understand available options beyond the surface level.)
NaanContributor
Provider of delicious flatbread, and nothing else.
- Location
- Hawaii
[X] Plan: Last stop before Breakthrough Week
- Location
- Cyberspace
Err... I don't think I'd vote for a third level art any time soon. Ling Qi's got a number of arts to work on (in approximately this order):
- Eight Phase Ceremony
- Forgotten Vale Melody
- Argent Mirror
- Sable Crescent Step
- Thousand Ring Fortress
- Argent Current
- Abyssal Exhalation
- Argent Storm
She might also get an art from the puzzle box (who knows what's in there?) or come across another suitable art while cultivating the above. I'd rate getting a new art, even one from the top floor, maybe above Argent Current, above. FVM, SCS and TRF all have at least two levels to go in Green (AE probably does too). That's plenty of high-level arts to work on.
Getting another art is an instant disqualifier for me for any plan in the coming weeks, to be honest.
- Location
- Philippines
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
To be honest, she's the best offer we're liable to get, and her being aggressive about it is a sign of just how much she wants it--because she knows she'll have lots of competition--and as we were told by Yrsillar a while back, this is the closest she can come to "Let's be friends!"
And so far, by all indications, CRX is legitimately on the level, she honestly believes in what she says she does, and it's not just some clever ruse to trick us. You could do a hell of a lot worse.
The idea is to give Zhengui some live combat training that won't put him in over his head, so that we can also bolt his minor action to it. A whole pack of second grade wolves with a third grade risks getting him in over his head.
I changed to the Worm Cull though, slightly more Sect points and it's good community service to boot.
We desperately need a spiritual booster art to get FVM and AE relevant against our peers though.
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- Location
- Philippines
Honestly I would like for it if Ling Qi just left the empire all together and explore the world because often times the starting place or kingdom of a xianxia protagonist is often the least interesting and has lowest average cultivation level.
- Location
- Cyberspace
How about seeing if there's something in the existing arts - particularly FVM and AE - first? That aside, I have a strong suspicion that arts undergo quite a bit of transformation in Green and Bronze.
?
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
That was explicitly refuted by Yrsillar. This isn't an infinite treadmill where you start in the shittiest and weakest environment where the strongest possible expert is a joke of a speedbump to the next level up, and the best of the best there barely qualifies as a mook in the neighbouring environment, ad infinitum until endgame.
The Empire is a big deal--there's stuff beyond the Empire, but it's not "The empire is your starting position, and thus is the shittiest and most boring place."
By all indications, in this setting, it took a small miracle to rise beyond the hunter-gatherer level, where small tribes of humans lived at the sufferance of the spirits that ruled their environments, in the form of a complete freak of nature rising who singlehandedly managed to bind several of those hunter-gatherer tribes together into a cohesive unit that could allow for civilization as we could recognize it to appear.
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I disagree. We know from the update that he has had at least one really bad experience with a noble's 'mercy'.
We also know that he has been aware of Meizhen devoting large amounts of effort hunting him down for the past several weeks. Given his hatred of the nobility (or at least their pretence of honour) and the reputation of the nobility (especially the Bai) for hunting down and ;punishing; (read 'murdering or crippling')* anyone who damages their face (by say, daring to survive an attack, nearly fool them into thinking you were dead and getting away with a load of resources) he would be very foolish not to start preparing against his enemies.
Heck Meizhen practically admits to him in this update that she doesn't have any intention of giving him mercy and she's already spent a lot of time tracking him.
On top of this Meizhen practically brought a tank to a playground lightsaber duel with the artifacts she used to attack him in these updates. To the view of a commoner (or anyone really) these aren't the sort of things you use on a rival with vastly lower station and resources unless you really, really want them gone.**
Besides which even if he decides he can't go after Meizhen due to her family Ling Qi is a much more plausible target for revenge (stealing his book, stopping his perfect getaway), and Meizhen can't (from his perspective) want to kill him much more.
We don't want to give him time to completely obscure his trail and fade away only to come back when we least expect it and put a knife in our back.
*Meizhen even admitted to at best not caring about his likely death, and probably even planning it.
**Still glad I voted for preventing Meizhen from outright trying to kill him from the get go but looking at it from his perspective. Yeah this doesn't seem like someone who's going to let things go.
- Location
- scrabbling
I think Cai is, at most, the materially best offer. I don't take aggressiveness in pursuit as a positive, because it means that you're worried you can't match up. If you need to take advantage of someone's ignorance for them to accept your offer then it just makes you look predatory and weak.
[X] Plan: Friendship takes effort
-[X] Expenses: 2 YSS, 3 RSS, First Level Earth/Water/Fire Pills, (6 RSS), Flowing Rivers Pill (6 RSS), Steady Growth Pill (6 RSS) Sturdy Oak Pill (18 RSS), Bear's Heartsblood Elixir (10 RSS), Bear's Marrow Elixir (4 RSS), Soul Concentrating Elixir (8 RSS), = 81 RSS
-[X] EPC Bonuses: Abyssal Exhalation, Argent Vent Bonus: Argent Current
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Green)
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Bronze)
-[X] Major: Train at the Vent with Su Ling (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Argent Current)
-[X] Major: Cultivate on your own (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Abyssal Exhalation)
--[X] Attached Minor: Zeqing has been quite busy, but you received a message inviting you to meet her... at her home?
[X] Major: Attempt to placate the Dragon of the Valley
--[X] Meizhen has done a lot for you, tell her about the Dragon and the Valley, let her do as she wants with it.
-[X] Minor: Meizhen is right... the two of you should probably talk, it seems there is still a lot you don;t know about each other
-[X] Cai Renxiang has something important to announce. It seems you will need to attend a council meeting
-[X] Look in on Su Ling and the Ma Sisters, see how they're getting alone
I hope this works. Like I said earlier I think the dragon stuff could be interesting and I am willing to try it now, especially since I would really like to spend some serious time with our friends.
-[X] Expenses: 2 YSS, 3 RSS, First Level Earth/Water/Fire Pills, (6 RSS), Flowing Rivers Pill (6 RSS), Steady Growth Pill (6 RSS) Sturdy Oak Pill (18 RSS), Bear's Heartsblood Elixir (10 RSS), Bear's Marrow Elixir (4 RSS), Soul Concentrating Elixir (8 RSS), = 81 RSS
-[X] EPC Bonuses: Abyssal Exhalation, Argent Vent Bonus: Argent Current
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Green)
-[X] Major: Attempt Breakthrough (Bronze)
-[X] Major: Train at the Vent with Su Ling (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Argent Current)
-[X] Major: Cultivate on your own (Recovery from possible Failed Breakthrough, Else, Abyssal Exhalation)
--[X] Attached Minor: Zeqing has been quite busy, but you received a message inviting you to meet her... at her home?
[X] Major: Attempt to placate the Dragon of the Valley
--[X] Meizhen has done a lot for you, tell her about the Dragon and the Valley, let her do as she wants with it.
-[X] Minor: Meizhen is right... the two of you should probably talk, it seems there is still a lot you don;t know about each other
-[X] Cai Renxiang has something important to announce. It seems you will need to attend a council meeting
-[X] Look in on Su Ling and the Ma Sisters, see how they're getting alone
I hope this works. Like I said earlier I think the dragon stuff could be interesting and I am willing to try it now, especially since I would really like to spend some serious time with our friends.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Renxiang is also kind of a stepped on wreck who's trying her best to be good in spite of it? Like, she lives purely at the sufferance and tolerance of her autocratic parental unit. She's probably not used to the idea that she can be less than incredibly decisive and still get what it is she wants.
Seem familiar?
And here's what caused that particular damage
Which sounds eerily similar to something else that I stumbled across while looking up uses of the word "inert" by @yrsillar
That is some serious fucking bad juju that just got tossed at us by Yan Renshu. It might've legit fucked over Bai if she hadn't been prepared for it, plus given that this was Renshus Personal Combat Puppet?
Weeeew lad.
The expense behind that stuff must have been obscene. That stuff is either high tier Argent or Moon Qi effects given Elder Jiaos usage of similar stuff, and we can very safely bet on its effect being Qi purging of some stripe or another.
Scary shit, man.
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You mean like asking a 14 year old girl to get married? Cai making us the offer now does nothing but give us more freedom than if she hadn't made the offer. We have an extra choice we wouldn't have had otherwise. It's the same for the Gu.
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- Location
- scrabbling
That's an explanation for why she acts that way, not an amelioration or offsetting of those facts. It has nothing to do with my negative judgement of her behaviors and tendencies, nor does saying things that are true create an argument. Many abusers were abused and that does not excuse their abuse.