There's a small list of options that are as good or better than this.
1. Becoming a vassal directly to a Duke.
2. Marrying into a high-ranked family.
3. Becoming the apprentice of a Sect Elder tier or above Cultivator in our specialty.
That's pretty much it.
@yrsillar is there only that one Formation in the book, or are there more we can learn?
In her political position she literally cannot make a more direct statement without going head to head against her mother here. I suspect even this offer is stretching her privileges, to offer vassalhood to a literal nobody
Cai Shenhua's thing is making nobodies vassals to herself and creating a Nobility beholden to her, if anything I suspect she'd praise Cai Renxiang for this.
@yrsillar is it possible to modify pre-existing Formations? Like, make our Osuary Scouts faster, or last longer, or something? If so, how does it work?
Cai Shenhua's thing is making nobodies vassals to herself and creating a Nobility beholden to her, if anything I suspect she'd praise Cai Renxiang for this.
@yrsillar is it possible to modify pre-existing Formations? Like, make our Osuary Scouts faster, or last longer, or something? If so, how does it work?
You learn a couple basic Formations, then you learn a couple new ones, and then you start freestyling once you have that foundation to create your own.
I'm thinking an action each on Meizhen, Guangli, and Renxaing. Meizhen tells us the general politics of vassalage, as well as if she thinks we should do it. Guangli tells us what it's like serving Renxiang specifically. Then Renxiang tells us how this specific relationship would work.
Note that a vassal relationship is VASTLY more open than you think. A personal feudal vassal to a Duchess pretty much has free rein to act most of the time provided they don't violate their lord's interests and edicts. This includes maintaining your own alliances and activities.
A vassal is in many ways closer than an ally. It would basically be Cai giving missions from time to time.
We'll want to discus things with various people (see my above post) and see if Renxiang's vision of the vassalage arrangement will work for us before making a decision either way.
Cai Shenhua's thing is making nobodies vassals to herself and creating a Nobility beholden to her, if anything I suspect she'd praise Cai Renxiang for this.
As opposed to how the Bai household treated Meizhen? Vlad was also a right asshole who impaled people; it didn't stop Matthias Corvinus from tarnishing Vlad's name simply to further his own political ambitions.
So, a random vague curiosity, but... the inner disciples can be assumed to be obligated to provide appropriate tutoring for those with the points, so... how does the system function from their end? Is the inner more regumented/regulated? Can an outer disciple get black listed? Just vague thoughts
I'm really happy to see this. It is nice to have our companions come to us with interesting things to do, instead of everything depending on our own initiative.
Also, it is convenient that our cultivation schedule is going to be more flexible after this week, so we should be able to actually make room for this.
Average is 70 successes overall, first roll had 80 successes, second had 54, so an average of 134/140. OTOH, we also got better than average for meridian roll making us closer to average for Qi(and slightly lower than average for FZ).
As for the CRX offer.... Well, Ling Qi's value is only going to go up, but so is CRX's.
CRX is at the time of her life where she is making her first choices on her actual vassals she will use to stabilise her hold as the Duchy's heir. Note that GG is not yet her vassal, he will only be one when he gets to green, as it appears you need to be a noble to be a vassal. Getting an 'early entry' in CRX's camp is not about the outer sect really, it's about later life and having an in to influencing the politics of the empire on a wide scale.
We'd basically be trading away our ability to enhance our value before getting a vassalship, and our ability to actually know what we are doing, by trying to grab something that looks like a top tier deal.
There are, mainly, 2 issues I have with it: the first is simply that Ling Qi needs to like the person she is working for. She might grow to like CRX, but she doesn't currently, and gambling that it will change is dangerous. The second is that while getting an early in is a huge deal, it also means Ling Qi has to decide on a time table when she doesn't know who she herself is or how the Empire works. Deciding yes or deciding no (and waiting is deciding no) is going to be based on flawed assumptions, and that's pretty dangerous.
Also, people keep talking about the Bai or the Cai, but the Xuan at least are as big a choice. We were told we were being watched, and us having Zhengui gives us an in for the Xuan at the very least: they will almost certainly want to try to keep Zhengui tied to their province.
As opposed to how the Bai household treated Meizhen? Vlad was also a right asshole who impaled people; it didn't stop Matthias Corvinus from tarnishing Vlad's name simply to further his own political ambitions.
...I'm pretty sure you weren't arguing that the Bai actually have a sweet and lovely reputation despite the way they treat Meizhen or anything. So I'm not entirely sure why you brought up the Meizhen example. Just... not sure why you'd say Shenhua's reputation for cruelty was exaggerated? Given that we know she's based on Ragyo, that she has a tyrannic, cruel, and despotic reputation, that Cai Renxiang's interlude itself just adds evidence for that reputation being mostly deserved... Why would one think her cruelty exaggerated? Just because she's smart enough to elevate nobodies who will be personally loyal to her? Like, Ragyo was an awful person, and even she managed to get Houmaru being stupidly loyal to her. Ditto for Orochimaru. You can be terrible, cruel, awful sadistic monsters and still have people loyal to you.
Also, people keep talking about the Bai or the Cai, but the Xuan at least are as big a choice. We were told we were being watched, and us having Zhengui gives us an in for the Xuan at the very least: they will almost certainly want to try to keep Zhengui tied to their province.
Personally I discount them because Xuan is far away from all the people we know, and I would rather join up with someone that wants us for us than for our turtle.
Basically, part of the problem here is that we're too good.
Because of this, we're drawing all the attention, and people are going to start trying to move in on us earlier than we'd really like.
Basically, over the next couple of months, we need to seriously dedicate minors to a) getting a handle on the political issues, and what cultivators actually do etc., and b) working with Cai so we can work out our relationship with her, and try to get closer to her.
The complication here is that Cai has ambitions that require her to deal with social connections in particular ways. While Meizhen is very similar to Cai, she didn't really have any ambitions that would affect how she interacted with people. Indeed, her aims were largely the opposite - to not deal with all the political crap. In that light, Ling Qi was less of a "strategic asset" and more "my secret friend who doesn't have any political baggage or issues with the Bai".
Can I just say that I'm really glad we don't have to give an answer till after breakthrough? Breaking through will help solidify Ling Qi's convictions and maybe figure out what she really wants out of life.
...I'm pretty sure you weren't arguing that the Bai actually have a sweet and lovely reputation despite the way they treat Meizhen or anything. So I'm not entirely sure why you brought up the Meizhen example. Just... not sure why you'd say Shenhua's reputation for cruelty was exaggerated? Given that we know she's based on Ragyo, that she has a tyrannic, cruel, and despotic reputation, that Cai Renxiang's interlude itself just adds evidence for that reputation being mostly deserved... Why would one think her cruelty exaggerated? Just because she's smart enough to elevate nobodies who will be personally loyal to her? Like, Ragyo was an awful person, and even she managed to get Houmaru being stupidly loyal to her. Ditto for Orochimaru. You can be terrible, cruel, awful sadistic monsters and still have people loyal to you.
I brought up the Bai to show how noble houses treat their children, maybe it's different for the Xuan or the Sun; but from our limited perspective all the noble houses push their children super hard.
As for your second point, just because Shenhua is based on Ragyo doesn't mean she actually is Ragyo, Liling didn't turn out to be exactly Ranko for instance. This isn't Shenhua apologia or whatever, but most of what we heard about Shenhua is from amazingly biased sources (CRX* and Chu Song); Han Jian father didn't see any problem with Han joining with CRX (and by extension Shenhua) so she isn't an absolute tyrant that everyone hates. She does seem like a terrible person, but I'd take Chu Song's words with a grain of salt, and jumping to the conclusion that because Shenhua was based on Ragyo it means she is a direct Ragyo expy strikes me as erroneous.
All that is void of course if yrsillar said otherwise on Discord.
*CRX interlude talked about how hard her mother pushed her to cultivate, and then segued to how her mother knows everything that happens in her domain because she is the smartest and strongest and...
I don't think that CRX has a very unbiased view of Shenhua for good or ill, because ultimately CRX is Shenhua's daughter.
1) We don't need to become a noble. We will we have the right, but we don't have to. Wandering Cultivators are a thing. It wouldn't stop us from hanging out with our friends, helping our friends, or getting some aid in return. It may not be practical, but as far as I can tell, that would be Ling Qi's ideal solution. The freedom to wander and do as she pleases, but able to keep in touch with her friends. Better than any other option, because then it doesn't matter were they end up.
2) Pretty sure the comb has a nascent item spirit, or whatever the term is. Like the staff we stole from the girl way back. We use it for a while and it becomes nifty, with the ability to become increasingly nifty as we get better.
1) We don't need to become a noble. We will we have the right, but we don't have to. Wandering Cultivators are a thing. It wouldn't stop us from hanging out with our friends, helping our friends, or getting some aid in return. It may not be practical, but as far as I can tell, that would be Ling Qi's ideal solution. The freedom to wander and do as she pleases, but able to keep in touch with her friends. Better than any other option, because then it doesn't matter were they end up.
Wandering Cultivators are a thing yes, but they are distrusted and looked down upon in the empire. Especially powerful ones like Ling Qi will be after she is done with her military service. If we want to stay in the empire we will have subordinate Ling Qi to someone, be it Cai, Bai or any other noble family or joining the ministry or the army full-time.
Going Wandering Cultivator will also mean that Ling Qi's advancement will pretty much stop. Without access to high rank spirit stones and good drugs.
