Nice! Is that supposed to be little Cui sitting on top of Zhengui? Because Zhen is basically Gui's tail.
Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Depends on whether Ling Qi even knows that Meizhen is dealing with him. Cause to Ling Qi, Yan Renshu is just a bit annoying so she isn't going to go after him for no reason.
@Lazy Minx Does Zhengui actually have a snake tail to be poking around the side like that? I was under the impression that the snake half ultimately goes back under the shell at its root.
*Likes post before it can vanish again*
Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
What foisting? Look, Meizhen is clearly way ahead on the 'beat Yan Renshu' front. I'm pretty sure by the time Ling Qi attempts an action to hunt him down and chastise him, he's already going to be thoroughly beaten up by our best friend. Like I said, Meizhen has it covered. It's not like we asked her to do it, and we'd probably have to deal with it eventually if not for her, but if she's going to do it earlier than us, do we really need to track him down ourselves to beat him up again after Meizhen beats him up the first time? I mean, I wouldn't be opposed, but action economy.
Pretty sure Ling Qi knows Renshu has a grudge against her and that he'll continue hunt her both for revenge and to take back his jade slip. Ignoring him won't make the problem go away. Personally, I'm not keen on leaving him alone and hoping Meizhen actively tries to hunt him down. I'm also skeptical of the idea Ling Qi will remain ignorant of Renshu's attacks her on home. That would be a horrifying level of ignorance, if only because that's pretty much asking for getting our shit taken eventually.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
I believe you're correct, but the traditional way of depicting a Xuánwǔ would be a snake tied around a tortoise.
So long as Renshu is only trying to sabotage her missions it's just not worth the effort of hunting him down. Especially since we couldn't do anything permanent to him to make him stop. And frankly I don't think Meizhen is going to tell us what she's up to.
Last edited:
Oh I see. You're arguing under the assumption Meizhen will actively starting hunting Renshu.
Personally, I don't think she'll dedicate any more to Renshu than she would Sun Liling. Her getting info out of his minions was incredibly convenient for her to do at the time. I'm leaning towards the idea that she won't go out of her way to spend an excess of time on this, other than what basically falls into her lap.
It's implied in the interlude that this isn't the first set of cultivators that Cui has stalked. This is the first batch that were confirmed Renshu followers. She seems to be dedicating quite a bit of time to this. Fear a Bai with a grudge.
Mother Nyx
Mother of Elpis
- Location
- The Kei Klub
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What TheLastOne said, but, still you guys are right. I'm running through a cycle, Cui, Fu Xiang, and Post-Breakthrough Gu are next but I'll switch out this Zhengui for true snake-turtle later if you guys think I should.
LOL. I didn't tag Yrs last timmme, give me a break. Lmao.
We do need to consider options to pro-actively deal with Yan Renshu ourselves, if for no other reason than Ling Qi would want to and she doesn't know that others are on it. But honestly we're kind of barreling towards breakthrough and heavily going in on Hunt The Worm is probably postponed until after we're green.
So, it looks like we traumatized Renshu, he's staying literally underground and using his spirit and puppets to do everything.
To prevent a ghost from walking his base and stealing everything, then prying out the nails, NOBODY will know his base, and there will be no physical access save for his worm.
So like a feather boa?
Like some of us have been repeatedly and fruitlessly stating. Ling Qi is ridiculously sneaky. She's successfully hiding against a Bronze 2 kitted out with Perception talismans and Perception arts, who needed to activate a special condition tracking buff AND double team with her perception buffing spirit to catch her.
Further investment in stealth is diminishing returns because the only people in the Outer Sect with a reasonable chance of finding Ling Qi outside of a fluke are:
-Sun Liling
-Bai Meizhen
-Cai Renxiang
We don't really need a further stealth art(much as it would be very nice), once we breakthrough even Sun will have difficulty.
Still hoping for a Larceny Wind Spiritual Attack art. Breathstealer anyone?
Its comfy and warm and its not like she's protecting the little idiot or anything.
Isn't Sun Liling Water/Wood/Blood?
Pretty cool.
Cai is hotter.
I don't really see the benefit of that compared to the New Moon(again, Xin is looking forward to us trying out her quest), when Renshu is being priority targeted by a Monster, and wasting his time cockblocking our missions.
He's burned a lot of resources in his attempt to assault us, considering how expensive in time and resources the puppets were to make, and he doesn't seem very confident in a direct confrontation either.
We should just step past him and leave him behind.
Incidentally, a random think: Darkness + Wind = Adorjan?
Darkness says to hold on tightly to what you desire. Wind to Let It Go.
Though Music is the opposite.
- Location
- Cyberspace
Mmmm... the increased difficulty in gaining Sect arts and resources with the Renxiang vassalship bothers me quite a bit - neither we nor Ling Qi knows just how comprehensive the sect's library is (both proper "sect arts" and what they've picked up) and, while Shenhua is indeed a powerful duchess... she's also a recent riser and her family may not actually have access to a broad enough library for Ling Qi to have plenty of choice in her chosen areas.
I don't know how much Ling Qi might be able to learn in a year - if that's long enough for her to grab more or less all she'd want from the sect, then great! I mean, it could be that arts beyond Green are extremely difficult to get in the sect (rarity and/or having to work really hard to get access), or Cyan+ arts are really a matter of individual cultivation and development than anything else. Or the Moon might have some things to offer at that point (you could see Ling Qi as belonging to two "sects" in that sense - the Argent Sect and "children of the Moon").
But if these aren't the case, picking Renxiang (especially so early, before the extent of Sect support and conveniently available resources is known) might actually be detrimental to Ling Qi's future.
I don't know how much Ling Qi might be able to learn in a year - if that's long enough for her to grab more or less all she'd want from the sect, then great! I mean, it could be that arts beyond Green are extremely difficult to get in the sect (rarity and/or having to work really hard to get access), or Cyan+ arts are really a matter of individual cultivation and development than anything else. Or the Moon might have some things to offer at that point (you could see Ling Qi as belonging to two "sects" in that sense - the Argent Sect and "children of the Moon").
But if these aren't the case, picking Renxiang (especially so early, before the extent of Sect support and conveniently available resources is known) might actually be detrimental to Ling Qi's future.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I seriously doubt that we'll have no opportunities at all this way. We're still getting a year in the Inner Sect this way, which is plenty of time to grab what we'll need for our future Cultivation.
- Location
- Ohio
Honestly, I think the ideal position for someone like Ling Qi is a sort of Spectre-type position. A position where, within a sphere of influence, we aren't bound to a rigid structure, but are instead a free roaming agent that answers to a specific individual. That is what I would aim for with someone like CRX, a roaming hand she asks and trusts to poke into things she passes along, but not bound to land or traditional political paradigms.
In the interlude Bai Meizhen specifically directs Cui to follow people because they are connected to Yan Renshu, to wait until Yan Renshu reveals himself, and to attack so that she can use them to get at Yan Renshu. In no way was that a spontaneous target of opportunity.
All signs point to Meizhen setting up Yan Renshu's Bad Day II: Things Get Worse. Entirely on her own. If she asks us to pitch in I would vote to tag along but so far IC there's no reason for Ling Qi to know about it or to think that it's urgent for her to assault Yan Renshu's base herself.
I strongly suspect that anything available for purchase for Sect Points will be available for "Cai points" after we perform sufficiently glorious tasks for CRX in the future. Maybe not exactly the same arts, but functional equivalents.
To me the super mega top priority to snag before year two is out is a cultivation art with the most possible room for future growth and high end virtual stones. That probably means finishing up EPC and associated missions with sufficient flair and possibly doing other things to impress Jiao and Xin.
Nice to haves would be any esoteric arts we can pick up from hanging out with Zeqing, or anything on the Music element in general (my personal preference for our long term triad is Music/Darkness/Wind). Maybe also stuff on formations but that seems to be largely based on self study and CRX ought to have access to standard reference works.
- Location
- Cyberspace
One way to look at it is that Ling Qi currently has three major "themes" in her arts:
1. Argent Sect. She has a cultivation art and three of four foundational combat arts. Available in the future is a second-tier cultivation art, the fourth foundational combat art and successors to those combat arts.
* Looking at the sect, there is almost definitely enough breadth and depth of arts available to raise to prism.
* The nature of the Argent Sect's philosophy means that its arts are very compatible with any other theme or path.
* The quality of the arts so far seems to be high.
* Arts can be gained through the favor of seniors or through performing jobs for the sect; doing so seems fairly plannable and there's probably a wide range of options in doing so.
2. The Moon. She has a cultivation art and three combat arts. There are probably more combat arts available in the future, but to what extent and how many is uncertain. Whether there's another 'tier' of Moon cultivation art or not is unknown.
* The scope of the arts is somewhat limited - even going across multiple phases, there's going to be some constraints on Ling Qi's direction.
* The quality of the arts so far is definitely high - at Argent's tier at the very least.
* Arts can be gained more or less through patronage, with the requirements being somewhat arbitrary and very much "take it or leave it".
3. The Wind. She has three combat arts that involve using the wind and a particular talent for said arts (incidentally, I'm expecting her to have a talent for Riding). There's plenty of wind arts in the sect library, and most anywhere else she can probably find them.
* The element being the theme inevitably limits the scope of the arts. The use of secondary (or even tertiary) elements does help here, but only to a point.
* Like Moon, there's the potential for conflicts with other themes - thankfully, Moon and Wind probably wouldn't clash much.
* The quality of the arts can vary tremendously.
* Arts can be gained through most potential sources of arts.
X. There's some other themes that might become major... music, for example. "Support" isn't really a theme in the same sense - it's more of an expression of themes. "Archery" is likewise more like a means for Ling Qi to stick sharp sticks into unfriendly people.
The Moon is fairly flexible, in that that 'theme' can be advanced as long as she pleases at least one phase of the moon enough. She could be part of the sect, following Cai Renxiang or even be a loose cultivator and she could (in theory, at least) be guided towards tests and jobs that lead to Moon-type rewards.
The Wind is likewise flexible, albeit more in the sense that there are Wind arts most anywhere Ling Qi might find herself. The sect, arts that the Cai family has access to, slips that could be bought with money, at auction, traded for favors or found out hunting.
The Argent arts are the one that's of concern in this sense. I definitely want Ling Qi to pick up Argent Genesis, the fourth foundational combat art, and probably grab some successor combat arts. The Argent cultivation arts are noted for not interfering with any other cultivation art - and I'm not sure how many of those Ling Qi can pick up without such interference. The 'balanced' theme offers a bridge between disparate themes, in my mind, and with the assorted sect combat arts meant to work with the cultivation foundation, that offers a lot of freedom for Ling Qi. In my opinion, of course.
Neither Moon nor Wind (nor music) mesh with Zhengui, for example - if the little guy is going to accompany Ling Qi throughout her journey I feel like she needs a suitable connection. And while "Wood" isn't explicitly an Argent element, the thematic of being all-compatible (plus Fire being one of the eight) is comforting.
More broadly speaking, I'm kind of feeling like I'm sketching out a Green Sun Prince who's headed towards becoming a Devil Tiger and from there a brand-new baby Primordial. Ling Qi is currently cultivating and advancing in power in a somewhat "whatever is available" manner, but I'm feeling like I should try to get a view of what kind of conceptual "domain" she might develop as she heads towards becoming more like a spirit.
What is the core of Ling Qi? She prizes freedom. She's curious. She's tricksy. She's focused. She's talented. She's loyal.
But how does that translate into the above themes? Well, the Moon connection emphasizes cleverness, finding (or hiding) secrets, teaching or protecting and so forth; it's a good match. The Wind element likewise lends itself to dodging around obstacles (cleverness), freedom and curiosity... and for all the willingness to avoid problems there's a certain relentlessness to the wind - it will find a way through. Argent/balanced seems to fit focus, freedom (in the sense of choice or flexibility) and so far is big on assisting talent, but mostly it fits in as an ameliorating factor - preventing Ling Qi from being unbalanced and trapped by her own impulses and elemental nature. So she's yin-aligned and wind-aligned, but neither controls her. She's particularly capable in the moonlit domain and in manipulating the wind, but she's not limited to them.
1. Argent Sect. She has a cultivation art and three of four foundational combat arts. Available in the future is a second-tier cultivation art, the fourth foundational combat art and successors to those combat arts.
* Looking at the sect, there is almost definitely enough breadth and depth of arts available to raise to prism.
* The nature of the Argent Sect's philosophy means that its arts are very compatible with any other theme or path.
* The quality of the arts so far seems to be high.
* Arts can be gained through the favor of seniors or through performing jobs for the sect; doing so seems fairly plannable and there's probably a wide range of options in doing so.
2. The Moon. She has a cultivation art and three combat arts. There are probably more combat arts available in the future, but to what extent and how many is uncertain. Whether there's another 'tier' of Moon cultivation art or not is unknown.
* The scope of the arts is somewhat limited - even going across multiple phases, there's going to be some constraints on Ling Qi's direction.
* The quality of the arts so far is definitely high - at Argent's tier at the very least.
* Arts can be gained more or less through patronage, with the requirements being somewhat arbitrary and very much "take it or leave it".
3. The Wind. She has three combat arts that involve using the wind and a particular talent for said arts (incidentally, I'm expecting her to have a talent for Riding). There's plenty of wind arts in the sect library, and most anywhere else she can probably find them.
* The element being the theme inevitably limits the scope of the arts. The use of secondary (or even tertiary) elements does help here, but only to a point.
* Like Moon, there's the potential for conflicts with other themes - thankfully, Moon and Wind probably wouldn't clash much.
* The quality of the arts can vary tremendously.
* Arts can be gained through most potential sources of arts.
X. There's some other themes that might become major... music, for example. "Support" isn't really a theme in the same sense - it's more of an expression of themes. "Archery" is likewise more like a means for Ling Qi to stick sharp sticks into unfriendly people.
The Moon is fairly flexible, in that that 'theme' can be advanced as long as she pleases at least one phase of the moon enough. She could be part of the sect, following Cai Renxiang or even be a loose cultivator and she could (in theory, at least) be guided towards tests and jobs that lead to Moon-type rewards.
The Wind is likewise flexible, albeit more in the sense that there are Wind arts most anywhere Ling Qi might find herself. The sect, arts that the Cai family has access to, slips that could be bought with money, at auction, traded for favors or found out hunting.
The Argent arts are the one that's of concern in this sense. I definitely want Ling Qi to pick up Argent Genesis, the fourth foundational combat art, and probably grab some successor combat arts. The Argent cultivation arts are noted for not interfering with any other cultivation art - and I'm not sure how many of those Ling Qi can pick up without such interference. The 'balanced' theme offers a bridge between disparate themes, in my mind, and with the assorted sect combat arts meant to work with the cultivation foundation, that offers a lot of freedom for Ling Qi. In my opinion, of course.
Neither Moon nor Wind (nor music) mesh with Zhengui, for example - if the little guy is going to accompany Ling Qi throughout her journey I feel like she needs a suitable connection. And while "Wood" isn't explicitly an Argent element, the thematic of being all-compatible (plus Fire being one of the eight) is comforting.
More broadly speaking, I'm kind of feeling like I'm sketching out a Green Sun Prince who's headed towards becoming a Devil Tiger and from there a brand-new baby Primordial. Ling Qi is currently cultivating and advancing in power in a somewhat "whatever is available" manner, but I'm feeling like I should try to get a view of what kind of conceptual "domain" she might develop as she heads towards becoming more like a spirit.
What is the core of Ling Qi? She prizes freedom. She's curious. She's tricksy. She's focused. She's talented. She's loyal.
But how does that translate into the above themes? Well, the Moon connection emphasizes cleverness, finding (or hiding) secrets, teaching or protecting and so forth; it's a good match. The Wind element likewise lends itself to dodging around obstacles (cleverness), freedom and curiosity... and for all the willingness to avoid problems there's a certain relentlessness to the wind - it will find a way through. Argent/balanced seems to fit focus, freedom (in the sense of choice or flexibility) and so far is big on assisting talent, but mostly it fits in as an ameliorating factor - preventing Ling Qi from being unbalanced and trapped by her own impulses and elemental nature. So she's yin-aligned and wind-aligned, but neither controls her. She's particularly capable in the moonlit domain and in manipulating the wind, but she's not limited to them.
Remind me, is Xin full moon or new moon?
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
New moon.
Ah, so cutely murderous.
Regrettably, the Bai are only fun if they like you and aside from our corruption of Meizhen "friendship" is against clan policy.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I got a bit lazy and didn't post the stuff on Discord, so I was thinking it was probably time to do that:
Sorry for the late post, but here you go.
It's an open secret that Ling Qi has a training spot up the mountain (where the vent is). Not entirely sure they know where it is, but that's why the Ma sisters followed us on our way to the vent and nothing was mentioned.
Meizhen is 15 years old now.
Yrsillar avoided mentioning if Shenhua was with someone. He did dare us to ask CRX about her mom's sex life though. Just to see what happens.
Yrsillar said that because we hired an archer as our tutor, he's viewing things through his lens. AM isn't about ranged vision, so he told us what he thought from the point of view of an archer instructing another archer.
Spirits can have talismans. Although they have some variance in slots (You know what that means? We can use the Third Grade Wood Beast core to make something for Zhengui!)
Higher level beast cores provide more nutrition, but they don't have a "hard" mechanical benefit because Yrs isn't tracking them.
The Sage Emperor's blood isn't in everybody, but A LOT of people have his blood. Only a drop or two in a "pretty significant fraction". That drop isn't enough to stop the throne from frying you if you sit on it though.
"Yeah, there's tests and careful reviewing of genealogies n' shit before a butt gets anywhere near the imperial seat"
The reason a person NEEDS to touch the throne to be Emperor is that the people aren't gonna recognize an Emperor who hasn't proved his legitimacy that way.
Also, it's been confirmed that the Emperor's Throne is a spirit. Makes sense considering it's tens of thousands of years old and has been exposed to Prism and White cultivators for most of it's lifetime. Messing with the throne is gonna get you both an angry Throne and an angry Dragon going after you.
As Arkeus said, the Bai have stayed pretty neutral, with them never taking the throne despite some of the people with Bai blood sitting on the throne.
Sun Shao had two sons. Both of them are dead now, but the youngest was Liling's dad. He has several grandchildren, plenty of nieces and nephews, and even a sister married into a Celestial Peaks family. So he's in a better position than Shenhua.
Yrs implied that Zhong Peng is going to mention FSA's successor and which floor it's on.
There is no negative to going to a tutor multiple times, but there is no guarantee we're getting the same one.
Arkeus also shared a PM chain he had with Yrs. The information contained confirmed that all of Sun Liling's elements are "related". It also confirmed she had "blood rockets", and that they're somewhat qi costly, but she's got plenty. She is absolutely a speed-specced melee fighter, "rapid charges and eviscerating people in blade whirlwinds" is how he described it.
Ling Qi can be interrupted from playing if enough damage is dealt to her. This is determined by narrative, as well as a "significant" amount of healthboxes being depleted. So if Ling Qi is significantly injured, she will stop playing.
Meizhen is 15 years old now.
Yrsillar avoided mentioning if Shenhua was with someone. He did dare us to ask CRX about her mom's sex life though. Just to see what happens.
Yrsillar said that because we hired an archer as our tutor, he's viewing things through his lens. AM isn't about ranged vision, so he told us what he thought from the point of view of an archer instructing another archer.
Spirits can have talismans. Although they have some variance in slots (You know what that means? We can use the Third Grade Wood Beast core to make something for Zhengui!)
Higher level beast cores provide more nutrition, but they don't have a "hard" mechanical benefit because Yrs isn't tracking them.
The Sage Emperor's blood isn't in everybody, but A LOT of people have his blood. Only a drop or two in a "pretty significant fraction". That drop isn't enough to stop the throne from frying you if you sit on it though.
"Yeah, there's tests and careful reviewing of genealogies n' shit before a butt gets anywhere near the imperial seat"
The reason a person NEEDS to touch the throne to be Emperor is that the people aren't gonna recognize an Emperor who hasn't proved his legitimacy that way.
Also, it's been confirmed that the Emperor's Throne is a spirit. Makes sense considering it's tens of thousands of years old and has been exposed to Prism and White cultivators for most of it's lifetime. Messing with the throne is gonna get you both an angry Throne and an angry Dragon going after you.
As Arkeus said, the Bai have stayed pretty neutral, with them never taking the throne despite some of the people with Bai blood sitting on the throne.
Sun Shao had two sons. Both of them are dead now, but the youngest was Liling's dad. He has several grandchildren, plenty of nieces and nephews, and even a sister married into a Celestial Peaks family. So he's in a better position than Shenhua.
Yrs implied that Zhong Peng is going to mention FSA's successor and which floor it's on.
There is no negative to going to a tutor multiple times, but there is no guarantee we're getting the same one.
Arkeus also shared a PM chain he had with Yrs. The information contained confirmed that all of Sun Liling's elements are "related". It also confirmed she had "blood rockets", and that they're somewhat qi costly, but she's got plenty. She is absolutely a speed-specced melee fighter, "rapid charges and eviscerating people in blade whirlwinds" is how he described it.
Ling Qi can be interrupted from playing if enough damage is dealt to her. This is determined by narrative, as well as a "significant" amount of healthboxes being depleted. So if Ling Qi is significantly injured, she will stop playing.
Sorry for the late post, but here you go.
Last edited: