Okay. Overall, you have a point that Ling Qi is rather passive, but many of your individual points/arguments here are somewhat questionable in their logic, or outright incorrect.
In regards to Ling Qi, after re-reading the quest I agree that she's rather passive, non-confrontational, and closed-off. After about half a year, all of her friends know a grand total of two things about her past, for example; that her mother worked at a brothel, and that she ran away from home. And even that is split between two different friends/groups, with Suyin knowing about her mother's profession, and Xiulan knowing that she ran away from home (IIRC; could be mis-remembering and getting things mixed up). After their initial conflicts, there were no efforts to try and make some sort of peace with Fan Yu or anything like that; not just as a matter of player choice, but there simply wasn't any option for it given in the choices for the turn plans. She also avoids confrontations with her friends unless it's impossible to avoid (like what happened with Meizhen), even when clearing the air might be ultimately better in the long run. For example, she clearly notices Gu Xiulan's bitterness and jealousy at Ling Qi's cultivation speed and some other successes (like gaining a spirit), yet doesn't do anything to address the issue - for example, by pointing out how jealous she is of the resources and support the nobles have.
We have actually worked at making the jealousy angle a bit better with Xiulan. It's something we can't do by pretending to be someone else than we are, so we have done it by being honest with her and following the same paradigm she has: stopping for no one.
As for some of your arguments made in the quote; Suyin was crippled because it was voted to spend the start of the Thunderdome with Xiulan. Whether that was a good or bad thing for her character development can be very much debated, but relationship choices - whether by the character or the players - made no difference here. Even if the relationship with Suyin and/or Su Ling had been better, players still might have voted to spend the start of the Thunderdome with someone else, and Suyin still would've ended up crippled. Simple as that.
Talking with Chu Song, on the other hand, wasn't passivity, but information gathering and delaying, which is what allowed Meizhen, Ling and Suyin to arrive to help, which in turn is why Ling Qi afterwards was able to seek out Xiulan and Fan Yu to help them. If she had tried to flee or duel Chu Song, it's quite possible and even likely that she would have been beaten, or intercepted and then beaten, thus losing some or even all of her stuff and being unable to help anyone else for the rest of the event. Arguing that the "passivity" there somehow crippled our ability to make a better impression on Xiulan and her fiancee frankly sounds like wishful thinking to me, rather than anything based on facts.
To paraphrase Blackadder; "There's a teeny, tiny flaw with the plan; it's bollocks."
There might be instances where sabotaging opponents could be useful, like the tournament at the end of the year, but those are the exception rather than the rule.
I'm sorry, but that seems completely wrong to me.
Hong Lin was just one named disciple amongst a number of others, with no real hints that she had a personal enmity against Ling Qi until she revealed herself as Huang Da's fiancee during the first Thunderdome; until then Ling Qi (and the players) had no idea what the other girl's issue with her was.
The Zhu twins got very little mention beyond them laying low, and even that was more a case of Ling Qi still being insecure and paranoid, thus keeping an eye out. Their grudge wasn't even against Ling Qi, but against Gu Xiulan.
As for Xu Jia (the girl who crippled Suyin's eye); she only was named after the events of the first Thunderdome. Before then there was no real indicator of her existence.
So, no, the players didn't choose to ignore them until an ally got crippled.
There are a few arguments there being mixed up, I think, and maybe some wishful thinking above.
First, Chu Song: we could have, during the week, gone and went to meet Ji Rong/See what was up with Chu Song's group. That would not be something I want because I don't want to be either friends or enemies with Ji Rong, but doing so had consequences. Given we would very likely had talked to Chu Song then, she plausible would not have agreed to stop us for Sun Liling and instead done something else, as half of her stated reason to come to us was talking to us.
As for running away, it would have given us more time to get to Gu Xiulan first. It might have made a battle royal, obviously, but the whole point of leaving early was finding our friends. If we had managed to leave, this would have meant going toward Xiulan as a priority, and we could have stopped the whole thing before it was where it is currently. Of course, we chose to go to her as a 'second choice', so it's not impossible to help, just harder.
So, now it comes to Li Suyin: There are three major things we could have done there. The first was that she had told us that she was being bullied by people because of us. We could have looked at what was going on and intercepted the whole mess before it began.
The second thing was that we knew Ji Rong, Huang Da, Li Suyin and us were competing for archive pass. We knew we could have significantly weakened Huang Da back then- he had no contact with his family as those were forbidden then, so having all his spirit stones stolen would mean not being able to cultivate for the last 3 weeks before the thunderdom. This would have most likely helped Li Suyin get the archive pass... but would have created a real enemy.
The third is the thunderdom: We know that she was attacked significantly after the thunderdom began. We had time, after our duel with Hong Lin, to go see her. We instead chose to spend time at the market. This was not, however, because we feared making enemies (though there were arguments about how the market was a safe place) but rather that people didn't want to believe that she was in danger (same for Xiulan currently) even though we had been told previously she was being hunted.
Hong Lin, Zhu Twins, Xia Ju were all said, multiple times, to have personal animosities against us or our allies before the thunderdom- Xiu Ja wasn't named, but was referenced to before. Hong Lin was both named and her animosity referenced to multiple times, and Zhu twins the same.
To begin with, Kang and Huang Da are both nobles from fairly major families, which means that any material losses we inflict on them are easily recovered from with fairly little effort on their part. The same applies to a lot of the other successful cultivators in the sect. Pretty much the only potential enemy amongst our current ones that this sort of tactic might work with would be Ji Rong, because he's a commoner without a noble family backing him and thus reliant on what resources he can acquire on his own. Though even that's iffy, given he's now part of some larger clique who'd quite likely help him out in various ways.
Which also ties into the next issue; we can only really target one major enemy at a time per action, if that, and doing so would mean not spending that time on our friends or our own cultivation, which in turn would leave us weaker overall. All the while the remainder of our enemies are free to improve themselves as they wish.
Admittedly, the profits from stealing could help alleviate this to some degree, by allowing us to purchase more drugs, better talismans, etc, but "alleviate" is not the same as "remove entirely"; there's only so many pills we can take for cultivation actions, and only so many talismans we can wear at once. Action slots are ultimately far more scarce a resource.
Overall it's simply more effective to invest our time into our own cultivation and into friends and allies, because doing so will help us against anyone and anything we might have to fight against - other sect disciples, spirit beasts, and whatnot - instead of just helping against a single, specific opponent.
Well, yes, I have said this many times in the last few pages: we are currently not that well served by spending non-cultivation actions, though 'making enemies' is one of the best possible non-cultivation actions we can have it's still very doubtful stealing itself can really help us currently.
Kang Zihao and Huang Da's resources are fairly different from our own, but they have their own weaknesses there: beside Kang Zihao not being from a major clan and is one out of many sons, and as such has to prove himself, he is playing a political game, and weakening him and his power base is the way to really hurt him. As for Huang Da, yeah, it's going to be hard to really hurt him... which is why it wouldn't make a mortal enemy out of him to steal from him. It will weaken him, as he would need weeks to get new gear, and be slowed down as well as be scolded for messing up. It won't, however, create real animosity there.
Which was the whole point of the example: weakening a rival without creating a mortal enemy.
While I think this whole line of argument is completely stupid, since it has completely veered off into an idiotic digression...
To address the premise of "making enemies by thievery"? We've already seen the results of a thieving spree. As of right now? The negative results of Ling Qi's thieving spree among Kang Zihao's followers are precisely nothing. We have experienced no push back from his faction, no revenge duels or ambushes, no thievery attempts on our person, not even bad words spread to our friends' ears.
On the flip side, we have been told that our refusal to consider thievery has negatively impacted Ling Qi's favor with the Grinning Moon.
So on the balance of things? Thievery versus no thievery seems to land solidly on thievery.
I'm rather less ambitious in my argument than you seem to assume. I'm not trying to go so far as to demonstrate that we are going to make enemies by thievery and therefore it is bad; I merely want to establish that enemies are bad in-and-of themselves.
Again: we have had bad things happening to us previously because we chose to not act. Indeed, we chose to not act against Huang Da because we were not willing to make an enemy, and so Li Suyin didn't get the archive pass. We chose not to act to look at Ji Rong earlier because we didn't want to have to decide to make an enemy, and got Chu Song interrupt. We chose not to follow up on a prior mortal enemy's own ambushes to us, furthering their grasp and their animosity and culminating in thunderdom redux 2, in which we did decently.
First, Chu Song: we could have, during the week, gone and went to meet Ji Rong/See what was up with Chu Song's group. That would not be something I want because I don't want to be either friends or enemies with Ji Rong, but doing so had consequences. Given we would very likely had talked to Chu Song then, she plausible would not have agreed to stop us for Sun Liling and instead done something else, as half of her stated reason to come to us was talking to us.
As for running away, it would have given us more time to get to Gu Xiulan first. It might have made a battle royal, obviously, but the whole point of leaving early was finding our friends. If we had managed to leave, this would have meant going toward Xiulan as a priority, and we could have stopped the whole thing before it was where it is currently. Of course, we chose to go to her as a 'second choice', so it's not impossible to help, just harder.
So, now it comes to Li Suyin: There are three major things we could have done there. The first was that she had told us that she was being bullied by people because of us. We could have looked at what was going on and intercepted the whole mess before it began.
Yes, if we had focused on different things and done so successfully, we could have avoided some of our current problems. Only, you seem to be smoothly glossing over the chance of failure, picking actions with the benefits of hindsight, and ignoring the fact that whatever we did pick would have opportunity costs that our current action set didn't have.
But, when we do want to make enemies and get into a rivalry, "striking first" means being able to dictate the flow of the rivalry. It is very, very important. OTOH, letting our enemies come to us because of our alliances or because they are jealous means letting them prepare and attack us at our most vulnerable, especially if we are not careful and are not even aware of such enimities (Hong Lin, Xia Ju, Zhu twins).
If by "dictate the flow" you mean "speed up", then sure; we can do that by entering a rivalry. But that hardly amounts to control.
Furthermore, even if we have the opportunity to meaningfully weaken our enemies or force them into attacking when it is convenient for us instead of convenient for them (which I find unlikely in most circumstances), we are still getting our enemies to come down on us HARDER.
You give examples where we rob Huang Da to weaken him; how would that have worked out? Well, instead of having a person who is mostly neutral to us and if anything on the same side, we would have provoked him into attacking us. Oh, and if we did it early enough he may not have helped Su Ling and Li Suyin lay low in the thunderdome.
Or, perhaps a more recent example. Imagine we had found out that Song was allied with Sun earlier, and moved to attack her earlier. Then, maybe she wouldn't have come to the vent to talk; instead, she would have joined Sun in the breakout directly, or come to knock us out, or done any number of things that were more hostile than what actually happened.
There are a few arguments there being mixed up, I think, and maybe some wishful thinking above.
First, Chu Song: we could have, during the week, gone and went to meet Ji Rong/See what was up with Chu Song's group. That would not be something I want because I don't want to be either friends or enemies with Ji Rong, but doing so had consequences. Given we would very likely had talked to Chu Song then, she plausible would not have agreed to stop us for Sun Liling and instead done something else, as half of her stated reason to come to us was talking to us.
First off, your argument here relies almost completely on hindsight; there was no certain way to predict that another Thunderdome would happen this week, or that Chu Song would be directly involved.
For that matter, even if we had talked with her, it wouldn't have changed anything; she didn't oppose Ling Qi and her friends due to some personal grudge - in fact, she was arguably one of the friendliest and most reasonable major opponents so far - but because of their alignment with Cai. Short of abandoning Cai and somehow convincing both Meizhen and Han Jian and his group to do the same, she would've ended up in conflict with us anyway. And the likelihood of both the players agreeing on such a course of action AND Ling Qi somehow succeeding on short notice with her relatively mediocre social stats, would have been pretty much nil.
As for running away, it would have given us more time to get to Gu Xiulan first. It might have made a battle royal, obviously, but the whole point of leaving early was finding our friends. If we had managed to leave, this would have meant going toward Xiulan as a priority, and we could have stopped the whole thing before it was where it is currently. Of course, we chose to go to her as a 'second choice', so it's not impossible to help, just harder.
Except it wouldn't have given us more time to get to Gu Xiulan, because we would have been up against 5 opponents - 3 cultivators and their 2 spirits - all of them roughly at our own level in cultivation but a fair bit more experienced and specifically prepared to stop us from just running away. Believing that we could have managed to run away without issue anyway hence is wishful thinking. The actual outcome would have been that they'd catch us, quickly overwhelm us with their vastly superior numbers, then take at least a few token from us, if not everything we carried, and either leave us there for the others to find, or if Song felt particularly honorable, dropped us off at the healers. In which case we wouldn't have been able to help Xiulan at all.
Dueling Chu Song would have been marginally better because we would've been up against only one opponent, but she's specced for direct combat to the point where she can give Bai Meizhen some trouble, whereas Ling Qi is specced to support others, but wouldn't have had anyone else to support. The end result thus would've been almost entirely the same as attempting to running away.
Talking and delaying until our own reinforcement showed up was the best outcome; simple as that.
So, now it comes to Li Suyin: There are three major things we could have done there. The first was that she had told us that she was being bullied by people because of us. We could have looked at what was going on and intercepted the whole mess before it began.
The second thing was that we knew Ji Rong, Huang Da, Li Suyin and us were competing for archive pass. We knew we could have significantly weakened Huang Da back then- he had no contact with his family as those were forbidden then, so having all his spirit stones stolen would mean not being able to cultivate for the last 3 weeks before the thunderdom. This would have most likely helped Li Suyin get the archive pass... but would have created a real enemy.
The third is the thunderdom: We know that she was attacked significantly after the thunderdom began. We had time, after our duel with Hong Lin, to go see her. We instead chose to spend time at the market. This was not, however, because we feared making enemies (though there were arguments about how the market was a safe place) but rather that people didn't want to believe that she was in danger (same for Xiulan currently) even though we had been told previously she was being hunted.
First, Suyin mentioned people giving her a hard time, yes. Except it's a bit of a jump to go from there to "she'll be maimed when the thunderdome starts". Additionally, as I will lay out further below in more detail, it's quite possible that the people she refered to bullying her aren't the same as those who maimed her. And lastly, even if we'd somehow done something to her bullies despite the truce, it wouldn't have changed anything. The only thing that would've changed something is if we'd been with her at the time the thunderdome started; simple as that.
As for the archive pass; Hong Lin was also in competition for it, so even if we had managed to interfere with Huang Da sufficiently, there'd be no guarantee that Suyin would've been the one to receive it. And there's no guarantee interfering would have been successful; even if we had stolen all of his stones - for which there was no option in the turn plan choices - it wouldn't have made a difference, because Huang Da still would have had access to the Argent Vent and its benefits - including not needing a spirit stone to cultivate. It might have slowed him down, but given that red spirit stones only provide a fairly small amount of dice, it probably would've been negligible.
And, of course, there's the question whether we even would have been able to steal from him in the first place; there is the gender segregation that might very well be enforced via powerful formations, and given how he seems to be somewhat "assassin-esque" in his overall style, it's quite possible that he's also skilled with security formations that we might not have been able to bypass at that point.
During the thunderdome we could have visited her and Su Ling after finishing our duel alongside Xiulan, yes. Except that there was no real reason to assume that things would be going so badly for the two of them, because the worst we'd heard from Suyin at that point was about some people "giving her a hard time". Which doesn't exactly evoke the mental image of someone getting maimed.
Hence why this argument is purely based on hindsight as well.
Hong Lin, Zhu Twins, Xia Ju were all said, multiple times, to have personal animosities against us or our allies before the thunderdom- Xiu Ja wasn't named, but was referenced to before. Hong Lin was both named and her animosity referenced to multiple times, and Zhu twins the same.
It doesn't matter how many times you say it, because it'll remain incorrect. Xu Jia was not mentioned or referenced at all beyond maybe a general statement from Suyin about people giving her a hard time. However, given that indications in the updates point towards Xu Jia and her goons primarily targeting Su Ling, with Suyin "merely" as an incidental victim, it could just as easily be that there was no connections at all between Xu Jia and the bullies Suyin referenced.
"It was my own fault," she replied with a listless shrug. "Or I'm sure that's what that girl would tell anyone," she added a little more bitterly. "I should have just held still while my friend was being kicked in the dirt," the wounded girl continued, a hint of anger that Ling Qi had never heard in the quiet girl's voice before.
"You broke into my home, smashed my things and had your thugs hold down and beat my friend," Li Suyin interrupted her. Ling Qi gave her friend a worried look, it seemed like Li Suyin was getting worked up, it was strange, the mousy girl didn't show temper very often. "If that is not a bandit, I do not know what is," Li Suyin's said in soft but cold voice. "I do not wish to talk to a thug like you. Step forward and fight, or leave and admit your shame."
Thankfully, she didn't need to investigate on her own. She had people she could ask to keep an eye out or who could give information. The girl had survived their encounter… she was named Zhu Qing, and and the boy who had been with her down there was Zhu Fong, her twin brother. The both of them had disappeared into near isolation in the wake of the test, hence why she had not seen either of them about.
No indicator of them having a personal grudge against Ling Qi or her friends/allies at that point.
As for Hong Lin; she only developed a reason to have a personal grudge against Ling Qi in Week 9, when Ling Qi and her group fought against Huang Da at the vent and he developed an interest in her. Between then and the thunderdome she gets only 2 mentions/appearances; in Week 11 during a spar in Elder Zhou's lessons, and in Week 12 when she received a Foundation Pill alongside Suyin during Elder Su's last lesson. In neither case there is any sort of mention or indicator of a personal grudge.
Today, they were facing Lu Feng, Hong Lin and a third boy whose name she didn't know, he was armed with a bow though, and hung behind the others.
[...]
She heard the tumbling crack of their male teammates oversized fist cratering the ground, and the the metallic clangs as Hong Lin struck him a half dozen times in turn.
[...]
Hong Lin fell first, grabbed bodily in a gigantic hand and spiked into the ground like a child's ball.
Well, yes, I have said this many times in the last few pages: we are currently not that well served by spending non-cultivation actions, though 'making enemies' is one of the best possible non-cultivation actions we can have.
Kang Zihao and Huang Da's resources are fairly different from our own, but they have their own weaknesses there: beside Kang Zihao not being from a major clan and is one out of many sons, and as such has to prove himself, he is playing a political game, and weakening him and his power base is the way to really hurt him. As for Huang Da, yeah, it's going to be hard to really hurt him... which is why it wouldn't make a mortal enemy out of him to steal from him. It will weaken him, as he would need weeks to get new gear, and be slowed down as well as be scolded for messing up. It won't, however, create real animosity there.
Which was the whole point of the example: weakening a rival without creating a mortal enemy.
I'm sorry, but no. It's quite the opposite; "make enemies" is by far the worst non-cultivation actions we could possibly take. We gain absolutely nothing from it whatsoever, and each enemy we make beyond the ones we already have through our friends, association with Cai, and the like, is a chance to lose resource and/or cultivation time. Arguing that we should go out of our way to acquire enemies makes about the same amount of logical sense as arguing that we should break our own legs; it'd be an act of pointless self-sabotage.
Huge posts like these make me want to pick fights and make enemies just to be contrary. But since there's huge posts on both side, I guess I'll have to refuse all use of thievery to properly disappoint everyone.
Unfortunately, this is going to be another long post. I will make sure to spoiler it so that only people who want to trawl through the various reasons have to.
So, here is what I'm thinking, there are reasons for thievery, there are reasons not to do it, and there are reasons why I think we will be doing it anyway.
Reasons for thievery: money, pills, talismans, and arts. These four things are pretty much the main four reasons why we would want to do any thieving at all. Getting the favor and recognition of the Grinning Moon might be nice, but until we actually begin communicating with her, it is kind of a moot point, especially since we have done a couple of amazing thefts the past couple of weeks (ie. the spiders and the "Cai" mission). The honest truth, regardless of whether we want it to be or not, is that money is useful (not as useful at the moment admittedly, but the more money we have the more we can buy and use), Pills are useful (even if they don't help us with our cultivation as we can just sell them for more money), talismans are useful (even if we don't like what they give us we can still sell them like last time for more money), and arts may be useful (depending on if we can learn it or sell it).
I have not been convinced that theft missions should be done for the possibility of making enemies, as we are not in the traditional cultivation mindset. If we were playing someone else who was a lazy bum (ie. old Han Jian) we would want an enemy to keep us motivated to be better than our enemy. That is not the case here. We are plenty motivated by dint of being a bunch of min-maxing overachievers, even Su Ling has mentioned the weird mindset we have. I would hesitate to say that enemies are bad (as they provide named targets to actively pursue our thieving efforts against) but we definitely don't need them (as we already have one major one, Sun Liling).
On to why we shouldn't be thieving, I think I can sum up the various arguments into a couple of reasons: it makes enemies and the cost benefit is too high. For the making enemies argument, I'm unfortunately not convinced of its rationale. Ticking off random people is undoubtedly not something that we want to do. However, plenty of people are already ticked off at us for being one of Cai's chief enforcers. There is nothing we can do that would make us more of an enemy from those people. After this event, the number of people who we know are against us will increase dramatically, and all of them will be "acceptable targets" for us. And by acceptable, I mean that our friends and allies would approve of us hitting them back, just like last time we did a major heist run. Furthermore, while we have tried to not make enemies, the sect and life won't let us get away with such a peaceful mindset. The moment we roomed with Meizhen, the dice were cast and we would be enemies with people. To not commit to thefts because of a desire to not make enemies is not going to help with our current enemies. At this point, it is us against the world because if you are not with Cai you are against her. As long as we don't target anyone supportive or associated with Cai, we will undoubtedly be targeting people who are our enemies.
Now, on to the subject of the opportunity cost of thieving. We are limited to a maximum of 6 actions a week. However, we normally have about 5 actions a week and I would like to keep it that way (I feel that it could put to much pressure on us to do closed door cultivation more than once a month), and so any action devoted to theft will naturally take 20% of our actions away. We will always have stuff to do with that action and so the question becomes will it be worth it. Generally, probably not. We have a ton of things to be doing and we probably don't need to go thieving. The pills would be nice, but only worth an action to acquire if they were good enough to give a valuable action slot back. For money, we are doing fairly well with the additional 50-75 spirit stones acquired from serving on the council, and we aren't pressed into buying pills at the moment. For talismans, they would be nice, but only if they actually worked better for our build than the current talismans, as otherwise we would just sell them for money. Arts are a problem all of their own. It would be nice to have additional arts, but they would need to fit our build to be useful and they may be too difficult to sell or they might be locked against our perception. All of this to say that theft may not be worth the opportunity cost of not doing missions for points that we know will be useful or just straight up cultivation.
However, now we get to my feelings on why I think we will be doing thieving missions anyway. There are three reasons here: we will eventually need more money, the grinning moon may demand it, and they are fun for us to do. So, first things first, the problem about money. We will never have "enough" money and that problem will pertain for the rest of the quest. There are always new pills, new talismans, people to bribe, cultivation to do, and people to gift that we will never have "enough" money relative to our position. Furthermore, our safest and easiest way of getting money, hunting for spirit beast cores to sell, has been overtaken by a hunger so great that none can stop it. Zhengui. In a more serious matter, Zhengui will be eating a lot of the spirit beast cores that we collect and as such, we won't be able to sell them for money. That means that thieving is the best way to gather large sums of money as quickly as possible. Therefore, when we will eventually need the money (for buying loads of pills, extremely valuable talismans, or for convincing someone to help us) the best way to get it will be through theft missions.
Moving on to the Grinning Moon aspect of why I think we will be doing thieving missions. It has been quite apparent throughout the quest that the Grinning Moon has her eye on us, for better or for worse. Through the Jiao interlude, it has also been revealed that the Grinning Moon wants us to do more thieving missions. Should we eventually communicate with her and get communication back, there will undoubtedly be pressure to do more thieving missions from her. As such, the pressure will be there and as demonstrated by the action taken after the introspective communication after the 2 Thunderdome, we will do thieving missions to garner favor and support of the Grinning Moon, for good or for ill (personally I think it will be for good, but others will vehemently disagree).
Now on to the last point I'll be making in this stupidly long post (and yes I know it is stupidly long and so if you have made it this far have an imaginary totally non-fake prize with actual value) that thieving is fun for us to do. Generally, I like having Ling Qi do things that are fun for her to do. This is why I'm such a huge proponent of archery in general, as well as doing thieving missions. Doing fun things are in character and make for an interesting read. We will need to do boring monotony of cultivating spiritual for the 6th time in as many weeks (and as pointed out by Su Ling we are scary good at doing that type of necessary monotonous work) but there is something more exciting and fun about reading things that the main character find exciting and fun. And for Ling Qi, that is pitting her wits, intellect, cunning, and speed against someone else without their knowledge with the prize being treasure and riches (either kept or stolen). We have, in the last 6 months, become a superhuman who is a part of something larger than life. Ling Qi should be allowed to have fun with her superpowers, especially since the targets are against other superhumans and the culture doesn't prohibit it. In fact, one of the spirits that her culture venerates actually encourages it! So, moral and ethical dubiousness aside, I think we will be letting Ling Qi have fun and make a profit off of the adventure.
TL;DR: This is a long post, so in case you missed the arguments, here they are without any rationale or explanation! Theft gets us money, pills, talismans, and arts; these things we may need in the future but it's difficult to say we need them now. Enemies are a hard subject to talk about, I don't think we need or want them, but we should not be afraid to make them (we already have plenty, what's a few more). We are probably going to be going on thieving missions because we will eventually need the money, the grinning moon will pressure us to, and because it is fun for Ling Qi.
I just can see it.
Ling Qi:
"Isn't he the cutest!
You agree, don't you, Su Ling?"
Su Ling, feeling very much like she is being assessed regarding her quality as food:
"Yeah... Sure... Whatever you say...
Could you just tell him I am your friend... and poisonous!"
Bai Meizhen: Early Green/Bronze
Sun Liling: Early Green/Bronze last time we saw her
Cai Renxiang: Partial Third Realm (Wasn't confirmed if she broke through in Spiritual or Physical). Probably Early Green/Peak Silver. Keep in mind this was last time we saw her so she might have fully broken through by now.
Xuan Shi: Not confirmed. Likely Late Yellow/Silver, considering Ling Qi hasn't mentioned that he broke through and the fact that he's pretty damn strong.
Kang Zihao: Late Yellow/Silver.
Huang Da: Mid Yellow/Silver
Gan Guangli: Late Yellow/Silver
Han Jian: Mid Yellow/Silver last time we saw him.
Han Fang: Early Yellow/Silver. Probably reached Mid Silver by now.
Gu Xiulan: Mid Yellow and Early Silver
Fan Yu: Early Yellow/Silver
Li Suyin: Mid Yellow/Late Gold
Su Ling: Early Yellow/Silver
Lu Feng: Unknown, but assuming that he's about the same level as Gan Guangli is a fair assumption. So probably Late Yellow/Silver.
Chu Song: Early Green/Bronze
Ji Rong: Mid Yellow/Silver (confirmed by Yrsillar that he's lower on cultivation than us).
Fu Xiang: Peak Yellow/Silver
Wen Ai: Second Realm (probably late).
"There is no need to trouble your sister," Ling Qi answered firmly after a few moments thought. "I have a plan, is Fan Yu able to move?" She asked, glancing warily toward the treeline. "It's only a matter of time before someone notices my presence.
"He is, but his Qi is depleted," Gu Xiulan replied, eyeing her curiously. "Nor is it safe for either of us to take further restoratives," she added regretfully, shooting a glare toward the burnt trees at the edge of the clearing.
"That shouldn't matter for my plan," Ling Qi replied. "I have a few copies of a movement technique stored in cards, and I can cloak our movements. Once we are out we can join with the rest of Cai's people. Can you go and get Fan Yu?"
Gu Xiulan regarded her silently, but only for a moment. "Very well. I hope you know what you are doing Ling Qi," she turned on her heel, heading back into the crevice that she had been hiding in. Ling Qi for her part, turned to keep an eye on her surroundings, even as she pulled her new talisman from her ring into her hand, rolling up her sleeve to put the thing on. Thankfully it shrunk to fit her much thinner arm. Her ribbon soon replaced it in the ring. Now that she time to consider it, her ribbon was no longer very useful, between her flute and her gown, her darkness arts were already mostly reduced to requiring a mere trickle of qi.
When her friend emerged once again, this time with her fiance Ling Qi took a moment to study the shorter boy. He looked pale, and his forehead was bandaged and stained with blood, and he had a few other marks of battle on his body, much like Xiulan he walked with a slight limp. Had their opponent's been deliberately aiming for the legs? She supposed it was a possibility. "Fan Yu," she greeted curtly, tossing him one of the cards. "We don't have much time to waste. Can you run?"
"Of course I can," Fan Yu replied with a scowl, snatching the card out of the air. He glanced to the woods and his expression soured further. "Are you certain of this? They may be cowardly scum, but there are many of them," he added, though it looked as if he had stopped himself from saying more at a look from Xiulan. She didn't miss the way his hands clenched into fists when he looked at her either.
Not that it surprised her. Their mutual dislike had never faded, but she hadn't missed the way that the boys loathing had become more self directed in the past months of minor interaction. He was an ass still, but he wasn't delusional enough to continue acting as if she was nothing either. "It's our best chance. Unless you want to sit here and get worn down one attack at a time," she replied simply, catching Xiulan's eye. "Gu Xiulan, I need you to be my voice, since I won't be able to stop playing. When we come up on any of Lady Cai's people make sure they know to join us. It'll be a little while until we have enough people to deter attack."
Xiulan tossed flicked her partially undone hair out of her eyes. "Look at you, I never thought I would see the day when you took charge," she sniffed, eyeing the card in her hands. "But very well. I am eager for vengeance. Let us be on our way."
Ling Qi nodded and summoned her flute to hand, raising the sleek instrument to her lips as her companions tensed. One of the groups was swinging toward them to her perception, so they needed to move now. Taking only a moment to send thoughts of comfort to her still confused and fearful spirit, she began to play quietly, calling on her mist to surround and dampen their qi. It might allow them to be followed, but it should make more distant tracking and precise attacks more difficult.
33/50 Qi
The moment the mist shrouded them, she felt them activating their cards, and they began to run.
Fan Yu
Dexterity 4, Stealth 2, Mist 2, Shade 3. 11 dice. +4 Cultivation auto
2 2 5 3 5 10 10 2 3 6 10. 3 successes. 7 total
Ling Qi felt the 'line' formed by the alarm with her qi sense, and brushed past it night effortlessly, her long practice at reducing her presence and the dampening properties of her gown allowing her to practically ignore the shoddy formation. Her companions passage was less easy. Gu Xiulan passed it by well enough, but Fan Yu's passage made the line of the alarm thrum and strain, like a rotten beam taking too much weight. To his credit though, she felt him clamp down on his qi, if only for a moment allowing him to pass without setting it off.
Then they were off, with her holding back her speed just enough to not leave the two of them behind. She felt a slight ripple in her companions qi, and glanced back to see Fan Yu, with medicinal vapor drifting from his palm as if he had just crushed something. Whatever it was, it smoothed out his gait and made his legs pump faster, preventing him from falling behind Xiulan.
She wouldn't question it in any case. She swerved, through the trees recalling the locations of the disciples she had passed in her search and lead her friends away, the landscape little more than a blur around her. For all their effort though, it seemed that their escape could not go unnoticed for too long. By the time the effects of her qi cards were guttering out on her companions, a bit less than a minute after their escape, she heard a crackling burst of thunder and glanced back to see a bright light in the sky. Some kind of flare perhaps?
They didn't need any encouragement to speed up, and shortly after they ran across the first of Cai's disciples, a boy leaning against a tree and breathing hard over an unconscious foe. His eyes widened when he saw the mist barreling down on him, but Xiulan's shouted command to follow, echoing weirdly in her mist was enough to get him moving. Ling Qi's control of the mist wavered for a moment as it enveloped him and she tried to include the boy. Something she hadn't done before. In the heat of the moment a spark of inspiration struck her though, and he adjusted a few notes in the next chord.
32/50 qi
The next one they came upon, took a bit more effort, given that the girls foe was still standing. A simple jump and adjustment of her trajectory brought Ling Qi's boots down on the back of the rebels head, slamming his face into the ground and ending the fight quickly enough though, and then there were two.
30/50
She left actual command of the two early second realms to Xiulan focusing on their path ahead. She did not forget that she had seen apparent enforcers fighting each other either. It took only a second to decide to avoid those. She had no way of determining loyalty at this point, nor the time to try. A minutes head start was a powerful thing given how quickly they could cover distance, but it wouldn't last forever.
They had just managed to free up a third enforcer when Ling Qi felt the rapid approach of a pair of pursuers behind them. Despite that, she kept things moving, focusing on her own task as she kept half an ear for Xiulan's snapped commands to the others. The first person to approach her mist was met with fire and cutting wind, and the twin arrow shots that came back in reply failed to strike anything in her obscuring mist.
28/50 Qi
The enemies were deflected, and they ran on. Ling Qi knew they didn't have long to gather others. They were getting back toward the main road leading to the central plaza though. She would have to hope there would be sufficient numbers there. She would have to start being careful about who to include in her mist though, she needed to keep up a decent reserve for when they forced to fight.
They clashed twice more with their pursuers, even as they gathered another pair of allies. Most worryingly those clashes came with greater numbers each time and seemed more like an effort to harry and divert them than an attempt to enter a standing battle. One enemy fell, an ugly burn seared across his torso by Xiulan, while one of theirs fell to a well aimed arrow, and had to be carried.
Which was why she made the decision to bull through rather than pausing as they approached the plaza. Even as she kept the mist going, she channeled qi outward, reinforcing her allies with deepwood vitality and brought them crashing through the four enemies in their path despite the additional ones on their heels.
25/50 qi
Even then, they focused on getting through rather than defeating the enemies in details. The senior outer disciples chasing them were coordinated, and with nothing but winded and worn down allies, Ling Qi did not want a standing fight. So she filled her mist with clawing, hungry constructs, and lead her ragged band through, focusing passing them by and confusing their senses.
23/50 Qi
Thankfully Xiulan seemed to know her mind well enough to give the actual instruction, and they made it through, closing in on the plaza
They had the opportunity for safety there, she had intended to join up with Cai, but with their steps being dogged as they were, and how worn out her allies were, in addition to her lack of certainty on the heiress' location, she wasn't sure that was viable.
It was only reinforced when Xiulan spoke up in a wary voice from beside her. "They will not be able to keep this up," the girls voice was harsh, but tinged with weariness. More obviously, XIulan was obviously using… some strange technique, her hair was aflame, and smaller embers licked along her limbs, her face was pale too, and a Ling Qi noticed a slight gauntness to her cheeks that had not been there when they began this run.
Worse, she could feel that their enemies had finally grouped back up, minus the one Xiulan had injured earlier, so they were likely done playing raiders. She thought it likely that they would either need to try for the safety of the lecture hall… or take their chances with a fight.
She kept running even as she deliberated, all too aware of the enemies rapidly catching up with them… at least until she heard an odd sound from above, an odd whistling combined with a wordless roar. In an instant her gaze snapped skyward as powerful qi entered the range of her senses.
A bare second later a terrible impact hit the ground behind them, knocking aside trees and shaking the earth under there feet. From the cloud of dust kicked up by the impact, a single massive hand lashed out large enough to close entirely around the head of the closest of their enemies, a whip thin boy with a narrow piercing sword. The boy barely had time to let out a muffled cry of alarm before the hand gripping his head tore him from the ground and slammed him bodily into a still standing tree with a splintering crack.
Overhead a star blazed in the light afternoon sky, casting a shadow over the steel clad giant emerging from the mist. Cai Renxiang, clad in a now scandalously short gown, floated above on wings of light. Yet, too Ling Qi's eye, the heiress was not as immaculate as she first appeared, small cuts and scrapes littered her form, if she squinted, she could see red stains on her gown.
"To think so many would defy my ladies order," Gan Guangli rumbled, his voice echoing oddly through the grill in the horned full face helm he now wore. "I have crushed so many rebels today, and yet more of you still stand! Fools and scum! I will break each and every one of you!" His voice rose to its normal high volume, amplified by his three meter height as he stood and faced the other seven enemies that had been chasing them.
"There is no need for rashness Guangli," Cai Renxiang called down from above, floating lower, her dark saber standing out amidst her glow. "Fools they may be, but it is our duty to see them civilized," she said calmly, glaring down at the partially ruined wood below. "You have harassed my allies, and wounded my soldiers, and brought chaos to the sect!" she barked, cold malice entering her tone. "Yet your rebellion is crushed. The Sun princess was driven away, and still we stand! Yet I am not unmerciful," she announced as Ling Qi continued to put distance between her own group of exhausted allies and the increasingly cohesive group of foes. The run had been a blur, but she knew they had at least one person like her, she had felt her effects dispelled once or twice, and their enemies bolstered. "Sheath your blades and leave this place now, and this foolishness will be forgiven," Ling Qi shot the heiress a wary look, was she bluffing or genuinely being merciful? "Stay and continue to defy me, and not only will you be crushed, but you will be given no courtesy in defeat."
"How scary," A voice rang out from their following, still hidden amidst the trees. "I came down to see why my boys were having trouble with a few little birds, and it turns out we've caught a hawk in the net."
Ling Qi blinked as she felt a change in her qi senses, a new signature among the seven enemies that still stood, it felt oily and unclean She eyed the trees, but no one emerged. Glancing back at her own group, she nodded to Xiulan, and the girl hurriedly sent their more exhausted allies on, running out of the mist with their wounded. It left just her, Xiulan, Fan Yu, and one other boy, who still held a thin metal staff in his hands. He had shown himself to be pretty proficient in deflecting enemy attacks in their run.
"Yan Renshu," Cai said cooly, her hair fluttering on the phantom wind that surrounded her. "Do you expect me to believe you truly crawled out of your hole for this? Do not be foolish. Stand your men down. This is over."
"Hmph, cocky, as expected," The voice grumbled. "I wonder if you and that lummox could really stand up to us though. Do you expect me to believe you came out of your other fights unscathed?"
"I alone am a match for a creeping worm like you!" Guangli shouted, the sound of his gauntlet clad fist clashing on his breastplate echoing through the woods.
"And even then, do you expect that we are alone? The remainder of my allies will return shortly," Cai Renxiang called back. "Do not think so highly of your rabble." Ling Qi caught her glancing down at the mist, and did not miss the way the heiress subtly gestured for her to continue their retreat.
"That's a bluff," the voice scoffed. "I know your type, you'll have the rest out putting out the other fires, while you come and deal with this one. Noble of you, maybe, but pretty foolish all the same."
Ling Qi scowled at the woods, she hadn't gotten a good read on their opponents in the rush. There were at least two archers, and the supporter she had sensed, as well as a couple of melee types. They had all seemed speed focused though. Sensible for raiders. She also knew next to nothing about this Renshu fellow, except that he was certainly getting put on her list. There was also the niggling feeling that they had been holding back in their chase. She hadn't seen a single spirit beast after all.
She genuinely didn't know if Cai Renxiang and Gan Guangli could handle all of them though, the heiress definitely showed signs of being wounded already, and she had a feeling Guangli would loudly bluster even an inch from death. The heiress had indicated that she should continue retreating though, surely that meant she had something in mind.
She did not have much attachment to the girls government really, but… she couldn't help but remember Bai Meizhen's words earlier, the familiar way she spoke of the other girl. She wasn't tapped out yet, not really, she was growing aware that her support could be a powerful thing
On the other hand, the chances of Gu Xiulan retreating if she didn't were basically nil. Which meant Fan Yu would certainly stay too. Did she want to risk Xiulan on something potentially unnecessary?
[] Stay and support Cai
[] Retreat to the safety of the lecture hall
Alright, this event has gone on for a bit, but it's time for the finale
[X] Stay and support Cai
We're commited and if Cai looses this all becomes pointless, plus our mist makes it much easier for any allies that need to to retreat. Also we've finally managed to concentrate some of our forces it would be silly to split up again.
So, it's slightly risky and it would put Gu Xiulan and Fan fucking Yu at risk if it does turn sour. Unlike us, they can't actually run away.
However, they are only at risk if Cai actually is bluffing... and if she is bluffing she is basically telling us to run while she herself is going to get beaten up. That's enough, for me, to want to help her. So, decisions. Putting a friend at risk or leaving a loyal ally alone to be beaten up... or just be there along for the ride too, I guess.
I'm thinking [] Retreat to the safety of the lecture hall
Cai Renxiang has a plan here that we aren't privy to. It would be one thing if she just showed up and gave tuff chat, but she herself indicated that we should continue and I doubt her plan is 'sacrifice myself for Ling Qi to escape'.
Cai is setting up a hard bluff here to give us time to get some distance. Gan Guangli and herself have much better odds of escaping as they aren't shepherding weakened allies. They can leave that in our hands and just book it once they buy a few seconds with the standoff.
Overhead a star blazed in the light afternoon sky, casting a shadow over the steel clad giant emerging from the mist. Cai Renxiang, clad in a now scandalously short gown, floated above on wings of light. Yet, too Ling Qi's eye, the heiress was not as immaculate as she first appeared, small cuts and scrapes littered her form, if she squinted, she could see red stains on her gown.
