Distant Stars. (a WH40K/Xianxia civ Quest).
- Thread starter uri
- Start date
Tribulation.
On a lonely field they gathered, far from any mortal habitation, far from anything that might be harmed.
Thousands of cultivators gathered, old and young third step to first.
They all gathered for one singular reason.
To witness.
To witness a tribulation unlike any other.
For no Keku has reached the fourth step, many did not even know there was a fourth step, such was the overwhelming power of the third that it was thought to be the peak.
And should the tribulation be surpassed a new one will be created.
Yet they were worried, they all knew the power of heaven, many have lost friends and lovers to its wrath and the elders have seen scores of promising youngsters extinguished by its rage.
And now the first will challenge them again, spit in the face of heaven that seeks to hold you down and either rise to the occasion and claw righteous power or fall and break.
For Kuvara the worry was for a more personal nature.
Though young in years, she had known her father for many centuries before her birth.
As the simple wind she has yearned to coalesce into the world, to become truly aware and help care for the Keku from which she was born.
She did not know the meaning of a father but long nights over the last few years where Shikatu taught her of life and its great mysteries, have shown her that she would trade it for nothing in this world.
And looking at her father, with his head held proud and absolute confidence radiating off his form she could not help but worry at the little cracks in the mask only visible for those who truly know him.
As the sky darkened and heaven power gathered, she could see a golden power rise in response unseen by all but her.
Compared to the power of heaven it was nothing, even she – a newly born goddess could wield ten times that amount of power.
And yet she could not hope to achieve what Okertaku managed even if she used a hundred time more power.
As he expertly used his power to district and interrupt heavens working, she knew that the difference between them was like night and day.
Lightning fell and a thousand throats held their breath.
There was nothing Kuvara could do but hope and pray.
Green lightning fell and your Qi rose to bash it out of the sky.
Another one fell and this time some of it managed to get thorough.
Your body singed by the power in the few strands of lightning that hit you.
After the green lightening came purple ones.
They attacked the mind rather than the body.
Showing you visions of your failures, of all those you failed in your long life and they gave you visions of your family.
it was same visions as the one two hundred (and then some) years ago and you were ready for them this time, and the unnatural visions once meant to induce doubt and suffering broke upon the walls of your mind.
There was a brief respite after the ninth lightning bolt fell as heaven gathered its power once more.
The world itself held its breath beneath heavens might.
And then in a moment the tranquility was broken by nine red lightnings bolts flashing towered you.
The lightning reflection met them for but a moment before shattering like glass.
You raised your claws full of divine Qi and shattered a lightning bolt.
You then did it twice more.
The power of the lightning ravaging your body instead of completing it function.
The six lightning bolts struck at the very pillars that you held within your soul.
And in them they showed you visions, visions of fire consuming your empire and loved ones, of the sky becoming red with the blood spilled in its domain, of the earth rumbling and collapsing your cities, of rivers flooding and tsunamis drowning cities.
And above all they have shown you death, so much death.
But it was all a part of life and how could you doubt life itself?
Then they showed you the Keku of the trust they placed upon you and you placed upon them.
Yet a voice deep inside wondered if you truly did trust the Keku, you had after all unified them because you knew they wouldn't manage without you and how can you say you trust your race when you didn't trust them to fend for themselves?
With centuries of experience, you crush the false thought but the damage was already done.
The lightning surrounding your Keku pillar has used the moment of doubt, of the slight crack in its otherwise pristine exterior to slip through and corrupt it. becoming a blackened thing serving as a getaway for corruptive power to pour into your foundation.
Yet even with one of your pillars corrupted a thick Qi shell still covered your pillars, the sky cleared as you rose a fourth step.
The core within your chest briming with power.
Congratulations you have reached the fourth step (core formation) but you haven't reached it unscathed, your body is injured heavily, normally it would heal naturally at all but your healing factor is good enough to heal you fully in 5 turns (3 if you pick a core concept that increases your regeneration), using ap to heal would lower the timer by 1 turn per AP used or pay 50 life span ad 5 divine Qi charges to heal instantly.
Additionally, one of your pillars has been corrupted which has a few implications on your core.
Now we must pick your core concept, this is important because it will both determine your stability and harmony but it will also influence the core insights you gain. Because this is an important vote were having a 4-hour moratorium to allow discussion.
[] The cycle of creation and destruction. (fire, water, sky, earth, flight, life, teaching, death): stability: 90%. Harmony: 76%. A core of creation and destruction and the cycle of all things from their inceptions to their end. Basic effect: Increase your regeneration factor to major (this replaces your healing factor from insights), as you get injured and heal you slowly temper your body (to a cap of tempering 1). Empowered by: Dao of life, Dao of death, Dao of creation, Dao of destruction, Dao of decay, Dao of growth and more.
[] The four elements (fire, water, earth, sky): stability: 40% Harmony: 78%. A core encompassing the four elements of creation. Basic effect: grants sublime and effortless control of the four elements. Empowered by: Dao of fire, Dao of water, Dao of wind, Dao of earth, Dao of metal, Dao of ice and more.
[] The cycle of life and death (life, death, water, fire, flight, teaching) stability: 60% harmony: 75%. A core representing the cycle of life and death, from life comes death and form death comes life. Basic effect: once every century you may resurrect yourself after dying. Empowered by: Dao of life, Dao of death, Dao of growth, Dao of decay, Dao of family, Dao of community and more.
[] write in. (give me a concept and the pillar you build it from and I'll give it an effect and attributes).
Thousands of cultivators gathered, old and young third step to first.
They all gathered for one singular reason.
To witness.
To witness a tribulation unlike any other.
For no Keku has reached the fourth step, many did not even know there was a fourth step, such was the overwhelming power of the third that it was thought to be the peak.
And should the tribulation be surpassed a new one will be created.
Yet they were worried, they all knew the power of heaven, many have lost friends and lovers to its wrath and the elders have seen scores of promising youngsters extinguished by its rage.
And now the first will challenge them again, spit in the face of heaven that seeks to hold you down and either rise to the occasion and claw righteous power or fall and break.
For Kuvara the worry was for a more personal nature.
Though young in years, she had known her father for many centuries before her birth.
As the simple wind she has yearned to coalesce into the world, to become truly aware and help care for the Keku from which she was born.
She did not know the meaning of a father but long nights over the last few years where Shikatu taught her of life and its great mysteries, have shown her that she would trade it for nothing in this world.
And looking at her father, with his head held proud and absolute confidence radiating off his form she could not help but worry at the little cracks in the mask only visible for those who truly know him.
As the sky darkened and heaven power gathered, she could see a golden power rise in response unseen by all but her.
Compared to the power of heaven it was nothing, even she – a newly born goddess could wield ten times that amount of power.
And yet she could not hope to achieve what Okertaku managed even if she used a hundred time more power.
As he expertly used his power to district and interrupt heavens working, she knew that the difference between them was like night and day.
Lightning fell and a thousand throats held their breath.
There was nothing Kuvara could do but hope and pray.
Green lightning fell and your Qi rose to bash it out of the sky.
Another one fell and this time some of it managed to get thorough.
Your body singed by the power in the few strands of lightning that hit you.
After the green lightening came purple ones.
They attacked the mind rather than the body.
Showing you visions of your failures, of all those you failed in your long life and they gave you visions of your family.
it was same visions as the one two hundred (and then some) years ago and you were ready for them this time, and the unnatural visions once meant to induce doubt and suffering broke upon the walls of your mind.
There was a brief respite after the ninth lightning bolt fell as heaven gathered its power once more.
The world itself held its breath beneath heavens might.
And then in a moment the tranquility was broken by nine red lightnings bolts flashing towered you.
The lightning reflection met them for but a moment before shattering like glass.
You raised your claws full of divine Qi and shattered a lightning bolt.
You then did it twice more.
The power of the lightning ravaging your body instead of completing it function.
The six lightning bolts struck at the very pillars that you held within your soul.
And in them they showed you visions, visions of fire consuming your empire and loved ones, of the sky becoming red with the blood spilled in its domain, of the earth rumbling and collapsing your cities, of rivers flooding and tsunamis drowning cities.
And above all they have shown you death, so much death.
But it was all a part of life and how could you doubt life itself?
Then they showed you the Keku of the trust they placed upon you and you placed upon them.
Yet a voice deep inside wondered if you truly did trust the Keku, you had after all unified them because you knew they wouldn't manage without you and how can you say you trust your race when you didn't trust them to fend for themselves?
With centuries of experience, you crush the false thought but the damage was already done.
The lightning surrounding your Keku pillar has used the moment of doubt, of the slight crack in its otherwise pristine exterior to slip through and corrupt it. becoming a blackened thing serving as a getaway for corruptive power to pour into your foundation.
Yet even with one of your pillars corrupted a thick Qi shell still covered your pillars, the sky cleared as you rose a fourth step.
The core within your chest briming with power.
Congratulations you have reached the fourth step (core formation) but you haven't reached it unscathed, your body is injured heavily, normally it would heal naturally at all but your healing factor is good enough to heal you fully in 5 turns (3 if you pick a core concept that increases your regeneration), using ap to heal would lower the timer by 1 turn per AP used or pay 50 life span ad 5 divine Qi charges to heal instantly.
Additionally, one of your pillars has been corrupted which has a few implications on your core.
Your core has 3 attributes.
Stability- this attribute represents how stable your core is, serving both as a defense against shattering your core and limting the amount of power your core can accept at once, it goes from 0% to 100% and this percentage influences how much energy you get form a single AP. (if you have stability 90% for AP you spend you openly get 0.9 AP worth of energy).
Harmony- This attribute represents how well your pillars fit together in the concept chosen, it both influences the power of your core formation powers and impacts the chance for successfully combining your insights, Harmony naturally rises by 1% every turn (to a cap of 10%) as your pillars adapt to the core.
And finally, Chaos- this attribute represents them amount of pure chaos energy that lies within your core, normally this attribute starts of as 0% but heart demons and corrupted pillars increase its base amount. This attribute is both positive and negative, you add this attribute to Harmony to determine the strength of your core formation powers but whenever you cultivate or use too many core powers your roll against this attribute for gaining heart demons. This attribute is mostly raised by using core powers and slowly decreases with time.
Stability- this attribute represents how stable your core is, serving both as a defense against shattering your core and limting the amount of power your core can accept at once, it goes from 0% to 100% and this percentage influences how much energy you get form a single AP. (if you have stability 90% for AP you spend you openly get 0.9 AP worth of energy).
Harmony- This attribute represents how well your pillars fit together in the concept chosen, it both influences the power of your core formation powers and impacts the chance for successfully combining your insights, Harmony naturally rises by 1% every turn (to a cap of 10%) as your pillars adapt to the core.
And finally, Chaos- this attribute represents them amount of pure chaos energy that lies within your core, normally this attribute starts of as 0% but heart demons and corrupted pillars increase its base amount. This attribute is both positive and negative, you add this attribute to Harmony to determine the strength of your core formation powers but whenever you cultivate or use too many core powers your roll against this attribute for gaining heart demons. This attribute is mostly raised by using core powers and slowly decreases with time.
To advance in core formation you need two things, a fuck ton of energy (with your bonuses 5*stage AP) and insights.
Advancement in core formation comes form combining two or more insights from foundation to create something greater than its parts (note: you still keep the insight base form), the more insights combined the better.
Notably, this is the first stage that failure becomes a possibility, the chance to successfully combine insights come from your harmony and how well the insights fit together (I didn't bother to give you fluff for no reason).
Note 1: divine insights can't be combined.
Note 2: you may combine already combined insights as well as their combined result.
You may challenge the tribulation when one insight form all of your pillars is combined with one insight from all of the other pillars (whether by combining them directly or combining the results of previous combining).
Example: combining insights 1-9 would work, combining insights 1 and 2 and then using the result to combine with insights 3-9 would also work.
Advancement in core formation comes form combining two or more insights from foundation to create something greater than its parts (note: you still keep the insight base form), the more insights combined the better.
Notably, this is the first stage that failure becomes a possibility, the chance to successfully combine insights come from your harmony and how well the insights fit together (I didn't bother to give you fluff for no reason).
Note 1: divine insights can't be combined.
Note 2: you may combine already combined insights as well as their combined result.
You may challenge the tribulation when one insight form all of your pillars is combined with one insight from all of the other pillars (whether by combining them directly or combining the results of previous combining).
Example: combining insights 1-9 would work, combining insights 1 and 2 and then using the result to combine with insights 3-9 would also work.
Now we must pick your core concept, this is important because it will both determine your stability and harmony but it will also influence the core insights you gain. Because this is an important vote were having a 4-hour moratorium to allow discussion.
[] The cycle of creation and destruction. (fire, water, sky, earth, flight, life, teaching, death): stability: 90%. Harmony: 76%. A core of creation and destruction and the cycle of all things from their inceptions to their end. Basic effect: Increase your regeneration factor to major (this replaces your healing factor from insights), as you get injured and heal you slowly temper your body (to a cap of tempering 1). Empowered by: Dao of life, Dao of death, Dao of creation, Dao of destruction, Dao of decay, Dao of growth and more.
[] The four elements (fire, water, earth, sky): stability: 40% Harmony: 78%. A core encompassing the four elements of creation. Basic effect: grants sublime and effortless control of the four elements. Empowered by: Dao of fire, Dao of water, Dao of wind, Dao of earth, Dao of metal, Dao of ice and more.
[] The cycle of life and death (life, death, water, fire, flight, teaching) stability: 60% harmony: 75%. A core representing the cycle of life and death, from life comes death and form death comes life. Basic effect: once every century you may resurrect yourself after dying. Empowered by: Dao of life, Dao of death, Dao of growth, Dao of decay, Dao of family, Dao of community and more.
[] write in. (give me a concept and the pillar you build it from and I'll give it an effect and attributes).
Last edited:
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Thanks god we survived, but the corruption is a massive cost.
I was holding my breath the entire update.
I was holding my breath the entire update.
That seem the best, very decent harmony and by far strongest stability, if we ever try to fix our concept by incorporating Keku after we purify that pillar, this will probably be easiest, as it already has the rest, that of course assume we can do so.
Indirectly yes because it will give you greater control over your fires (and as such you could use the dangerous ones without risk) and it has a better chance of giving you stronger/different fires to use for it.
But it won't do so directly.
- Location
- Italy
For all we know there ISN'T a peak, even.
The only way to find out is to try!
Aw, we love you too!
Well, this gives us a first inkling at the difference between them. It's mostly experience I imagine.
Ok, so the fourth step tribulation attacks the body, the mind and the pillars.
It seems to aim at your doubt about the concepts you pick.
Something important to know... And I see why this would mark an increase in difficulty of the tribulation.
After all, even Shokatu doubted one of his concepts here.
Oh, and the divine ascension seems to have corrupted our body. Probably the least bad option, really.
We can also just use 50 lifespan, convert it into 5 APs, and use those, so the 5 divine charges are unnecessary.
That said we PROBABLY don't need to rush our healing unless the apocalypse happens to be before the five turns... Or, potentially, if we want to project an aura of invincibility to the mortals.
But I don't think that's worth the cost of the healing.
Stability is what we expected, good to know that harmony will automatically gain a 10%
In other words we mostly want chaos low, but shouldn't be overly worried about gaining some.
It's mostly an incentive to not overuse core powers when we have other options.
It helps that Okertatu can remove at least minor heart demons.
This is INVALUABLE knowledge.
Energy can come from divine charges, pills, places of powers and so on. That's the simple if expensive part.
But INSIGHTS... This means that how many insights we get during your time as a third step is IMPORTANT as it determines part of your potential as a fourth!
We have to share this with the other third steps, together with the warnings about the attacks targeted to pillars.
The tribulation condition is pretty peculiar. It means that a fourth step that didn't get compatible insights is extremely unlikely to advance further.
And here we have our massive cheat! WE CAN STILL GAIN MORE THIRD STEP INSIGHTS!
@Roth963 , it turns out we have a decent incentive to get those! Especially considering how much cheaper they are than core powers!
A clarification, @uri what determines our stage? How many insights we've combined in one? How many core powers?
As an interesting side effect, getting more insights in 3rd step makes reaching the tribulation easier, while making more pillars makes it harder, bordering on impossible if they don't fit well with each others.
Destruction.
Highest stability, high harmony, regen to help us recover... Sounds like a great Dao, and what we were aiming for.
Only slightly higher harmony, but the big advantage here is that we need fewer core powers to proceed to step 5.
Basically the option if we want to speedrun to step 5.
Side note, the AP cost is high enough that I can imagine most cultivators being stuck here at this step anyway.
The sublime control of the elements, in particular fire, would come in handy.
Kind of a middle way between the two previous concepts
If we repair the Keku pillar somehow can we add it to the core concept, possibly through abuse of divine charges?
But one is instant healing and the other will be time consuming.
Having a costly but instant heal while having a high natural regeneration factor makes the former only useful when you need something healed fast.
When you successfully combine insights (no matter how many) you go up a stage.
That was the intention, I wanted to make perfecting the foundation not just pure benefits.
Yes.
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
All in all, this tribulation went suprisingly great, the damage to the body is basically the best part that could have been damaged, the Keku pillar hurt us, but it didn't really break any cycle, it didn't go perfectly but it did go very well.
Also, really bad stability.
We already have an insight to control our fire, it doesn't capitalise on our already exisiting life and death dao, imagine combining those insights.
Also, really bad stability.
- Location
- Italy
Ok, so we have a strong incentive to combine as many as we can each time, if compatible, as we might have a limited amount of core powers we can get (likely 9)
We also need to heal our pillar quickly for the extra stability and (hopefully) harmony.
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
I am guessing we can't purify the pillar with the life insight.
Assuming we take destruction creation core, I struggle between two combinations, either going with life and death daos.
Or taking our double insight water insight, the greater mental strength we got with it and greater resistance to changes from sky pillar.
One could be our best offensive power, the other resistance to demonic manipulation and gaining more progress.
Correct as it's not a wound but a part of your foundation that is just useless to you.
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Can the tyrant god do anything like he can with heart demons?
He cannot.
- Location
- Italy
Or even Kuvara. She's a wind goddess, but she's also a goddess of the Keku, for the Keku.
And I suspect divine charges gained by the worship of KEKU might also be metaphysically really suitable to be used this way.
We need to research divine QI, the power of intent, the board lessons...
In the meantime here's the question: do we put cultivation on pause a bit while checking our options for healing the pillars, or do we go immediately for the first core power?
Oh, and Uri, just to be sure, can we use divine charges as APs for this? And all our bonuses are counted in the cost, right?
...actually.. do we need to change the place of power allocation? 4th steps require a lot of points after all
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
I am personally most inclined to go with destruction creation core, get two core insights in the time we have, and wait for after the apocalypse to perfect our core.
We might finish it early if the apocalypse is afar, but adding the Keku wouldn't really change the concept much, so we can already get started on our core insights.
- Location
- Italy
Fair. I'm not sure I'd go for two core insights, it depends on how many spare charges and APs we have.
I imagine we'll mostly use our personal share of divine QI for it, but there's some cases in which we might instead want to use it for conversion into APs or for the board.
I imagine we'll mostly use our personal share of divine QI for it, but there's some cases in which we might instead want to use it for conversion into APs or for the board.
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Who is she praying to, herself? /J
I am curious, was the sky insight helpful there?
Runic institution
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
She didn't know what to do now, ever since her ascension, what's now, the question seem to reverberate in her head.
She flew up the mountain, visiting her old home, the one she hadn't been in for years.
And looked over the ice palace, the ice itself was a result of a technique her master invented years back, more durable than ice had any right to be, and slower to melt.
It started off as a simple enough project, simple manipulation of ice to make cover up high in the mountain where qi was plentiful.
But she refined it with time, learning to manipulate it's properties, it's durability, it's texture, even the inner structure of the crystals.
But, she looked at it sadly, it wasn't truly useful as a construction material outside of this mountain.
She flew closer and landed on one of the outer perches, just resting and feeling the resurring cold.
It melted too easily, sure, it took longer than ice, but it wasn't reliable enough, too much heat sapped away it's power, and sooner rather the later it would lose it's durability if left in place not cold enough.
She unfolded a wing and flexed her claw.
A dagger appeared.
It wasn't really built for it, at least initially, but making weapons with it simple enough, refining the technique in that direction now easier than it ever was before.
Although many in her sect had already started the process long ago.
And the ability of changing the structure of the ice inside into otherwise impossible forms could allow her to make it harder than diamond and sharper than obsidian, a powerful weapon and a shield in equal measure, if one more effective against physical threats than energy based ones.
She felt the delicate movement of qi, if a mortal asked her to describe it, she would fail to do so in a way they would truly unse, how can one explain colour to someone who didn't see any.
Cultivators assigned words to it, flow pattern, conceptual variant, same way one might say an object is "red", but mortals couldn't really understand the words.
One who awaken to qi slowly refine his awareness of it, like how an eye develops in a newborn chick, first it would notice light and dark, than shapes, and than colours.
She looked over the palace and considered, there is a way to use it outside the mountain, carving runes into it to maintain the structure should be easy enough, she dismissed the idea back in the second step, the efforts she expected would be needed to develop such runes seem inefficient, yes, the structure itself was incredibly durable, but if she was going for a fortress, it would be simpler to abandon the structure all together, a simple dome would be much simpler, the math behind of which much simpler, and more easily scalable.
She was tempted for a moment to take this a project, now, but dismissed it, even if her greater control would allow her to form a house with the ruens already inside, it would be a waste of qi to support such a structure, be it from a cultivator or the environment.
And now that she is of the third step, such flights of fancy were even more wastful than before, she had responsibilities.
And this is where the question came, she had two paths in front of her.
The question that stood the most out to her is what to do with her sect.
And with that thought, another Keku flew into her senses, soon she was in her view.
"sister" she greeted, there was the slightest irritation in her voice, she wanted some time alone, this is why she came here, but the real reason she wanted time alone is this conundrum.
Her sister take place close by, and they set silently for a minute, just looking at the snowy peaks.
"You can leave" she said, and Haku's head snapped to her.
"what?" She asked, anger in her voice.
She wanted to stay, she truly did.
"You think you would be more useful out there, don't you" and the words caught in her mouth, because she couldn't deny it.
She tried to think of reply, speaking of the help she could give now, in developing techniques, in more.
"I…"
But her sister just waved a wing and a wind swallowed what words she could say.
"You have been working from afar with the divine scripts institution for decades already, but we both know your cooperation was limited by distance"
She tried to deny "the advancements in communication technology made it an insignificant problem" but her words sounded hollow.
Her sister didn't look impressed "I know why you did the tribulation, even when I argued against it, it was duty".
"It was a duty to our sect" she said so to herself many times.
"You aren't abandoning us if you leave you know"
And so she replied angrily "I would abandon you if I did it, how else could you call working for the imperials, we joined with the other sects to keep our independence, not sell it".
"But it wouldn't matter if we all died wouldn't it" she didn't have reply for this, like she didn't have a reply every time she asked it herself.
So she just looked away, ashamed of being seen read so easily like that.
"The resources of the empire are much greater than ours, you would have a dozen second steps helping your experiments, hundreds of first step handling all the little things, even your cultivation will benefit, as the emperor's places of power are monopolized by the elite over the juniors"
And it was true, she could do so much more there.
"What the point in joining there if I leave the sect for it, you are the reason I faced the heavens"
"Do not let the sect hold you back" that was traitorous words, the sect gave her everything.
Snow started falling, and her beak pressed closed as hard as she could, pressing against itself with more force than the greatest of mortal machines could produce.
"If you wish to leave, leave, you will come back, you aren't a bird in a cage, we trust you Haku" she looked at her and didn't talk, because she felt like a monster for being happy at the acceptance.
Her sister took off, leaving her to her thoughts, and gripped the perch harder.
She thinks she knows how the first felt n
ow, back at the start.
She hated it, but her heart couldn't help but feel joy at being able to protect them better, even as she felt like she was betraying who she was by doing so.
She flew up the mountain, visiting her old home, the one she hadn't been in for years.
And looked over the ice palace, the ice itself was a result of a technique her master invented years back, more durable than ice had any right to be, and slower to melt.
It started off as a simple enough project, simple manipulation of ice to make cover up high in the mountain where qi was plentiful.
But she refined it with time, learning to manipulate it's properties, it's durability, it's texture, even the inner structure of the crystals.
But, she looked at it sadly, it wasn't truly useful as a construction material outside of this mountain.
She flew closer and landed on one of the outer perches, just resting and feeling the resurring cold.
It melted too easily, sure, it took longer than ice, but it wasn't reliable enough, too much heat sapped away it's power, and sooner rather the later it would lose it's durability if left in place not cold enough.
She unfolded a wing and flexed her claw.
A dagger appeared.
It wasn't really built for it, at least initially, but making weapons with it simple enough, refining the technique in that direction now easier than it ever was before.
Although many in her sect had already started the process long ago.
And the ability of changing the structure of the ice inside into otherwise impossible forms could allow her to make it harder than diamond and sharper than obsidian, a powerful weapon and a shield in equal measure, if one more effective against physical threats than energy based ones.
She felt the delicate movement of qi, if a mortal asked her to describe it, she would fail to do so in a way they would truly unse, how can one explain colour to someone who didn't see any.
Cultivators assigned words to it, flow pattern, conceptual variant, same way one might say an object is "red", but mortals couldn't really understand the words.
One who awaken to qi slowly refine his awareness of it, like how an eye develops in a newborn chick, first it would notice light and dark, than shapes, and than colours.
She looked over the palace and considered, there is a way to use it outside the mountain, carving runes into it to maintain the structure should be easy enough, she dismissed the idea back in the second step, the efforts she expected would be needed to develop such runes seem inefficient, yes, the structure itself was incredibly durable, but if she was going for a fortress, it would be simpler to abandon the structure all together, a simple dome would be much simpler, the math behind of which much simpler, and more easily scalable.
She was tempted for a moment to take this a project, now, but dismissed it, even if her greater control would allow her to form a house with the ruens already inside, it would be a waste of qi to support such a structure, be it from a cultivator or the environment.
And now that she is of the third step, such flights of fancy were even more wastful than before, she had responsibilities.
And this is where the question came, she had two paths in front of her.
The question that stood the most out to her is what to do with her sect.
And with that thought, another Keku flew into her senses, soon she was in her view.
"sister" she greeted, there was the slightest irritation in her voice, she wanted some time alone, this is why she came here, but the real reason she wanted time alone is this conundrum.
Her sister take place close by, and they set silently for a minute, just looking at the snowy peaks.
"You can leave" she said, and Haku's head snapped to her.
"what?" She asked, anger in her voice.
She wanted to stay, she truly did.
"You think you would be more useful out there, don't you" and the words caught in her mouth, because she couldn't deny it.
She tried to think of reply, speaking of the help she could give now, in developing techniques, in more.
"I…"
But her sister just waved a wing and a wind swallowed what words she could say.
"You have been working from afar with the divine scripts institution for decades already, but we both know your cooperation was limited by distance"
She tried to deny "the advancements in communication technology made it an insignificant problem" but her words sounded hollow.
Her sister didn't look impressed "I know why you did the tribulation, even when I argued against it, it was duty".
"It was a duty to our sect" she said so to herself many times.
"You aren't abandoning us if you leave you know"
And so she replied angrily "I would abandon you if I did it, how else could you call working for the imperials, we joined with the other sects to keep our independence, not sell it".
"But it wouldn't matter if we all died wouldn't it" she didn't have reply for this, like she didn't have a reply every time she asked it herself.
So she just looked away, ashamed of being seen read so easily like that.
"The resources of the empire are much greater than ours, you would have a dozen second steps helping your experiments, hundreds of first step handling all the little things, even your cultivation will benefit, as the emperor's places of power are monopolized by the elite over the juniors"
And it was true, she could do so much more there.
"What the point in joining there if I leave the sect for it, you are the reason I faced the heavens"
"Do not let the sect hold you back" that was traitorous words, the sect gave her everything.
Snow started falling, and her beak pressed closed as hard as she could, pressing against itself with more force than the greatest of mortal machines could produce.
"If you wish to leave, leave, you will come back, you aren't a bird in a cage, we trust you Haku" she looked at her and didn't talk, because she felt like a monster for being happy at the acceptance.
Her sister took off, leaving her to her thoughts, and gripped the perch harder.
She thinks she knows how the first felt n
ow, back at the start.
She hated it, but her heart couldn't help but feel joy at being able to protect them better, even as she felt like she was betraying who she was by doing so.
[] The cycle of creation and destruction. (fire, water, sky, earth, flight, life, teaching, death): stability: 90%. Harmony: 76%. A core of creation and destruction and the cycle of all things from their inceptions to their end. Basic effect: Increase your regeneration factor to major (this replaces your healing factor from insights), as you get injured and heal you slowly temper your body (to a cap of tempering 1). Empowered by: Dao of life, Dao of death, Dao of creation, Dao of destruction, Dao of decay, Dao of growth and more.
What is tempering the body in this context? It sounds different from normal body refining. Also when we eventually fix our keku pillar will it automatically drop into this, or will we have to make a new core to replace our "The cycle of creation and destruction core"?
What is tempering the body in this context? It sounds different from normal body refining. Also when we eventually fix our keku pillar will it automatically drop into this, or will we have to make a new core to replace our "The cycle of creation and destruction core"?
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] The cycle of creation and destruction.