Well there we go, Renshu deserved everything we threw at him some more. He tried to poison Zhengui! Next time we see him I'm pushing hard for kill or cripple permanently.
Huh. I'd been wondering why he didn't try and do something like that, and took it as evidence that he was being cautiously measured.
Turns out he
did, but Meizhen was blocking it. Best snek is best snek after all. Although she probably should've told Ling Qi at the time (after all, that way Ling Qi could guard against other avenues), but I'll chalk that up to her wanting to not bother Ling Qi about it.
On one hand, I wish we have made the breakthrough rolls before the council if only to solidify Lind Qi's reputation as a cultivation maniac.
On the other hand, the White chamber, assuming we get to use it this week could be of massive help on breakthrough, and help hide Ling Qi talent, and lower somewhat our opponents preparations against Ling Qi in particular. As in "yeah, i broke through, but that's just because of the chamber, not because i was ready to do it for a month or so already".
Renxiang requested the use of one - I wager it'll probably take a couple weeks before it arrives. It did say it was useful for breaking through "bottlenecks"... not sure if that's meant to be realm breakthroughs or if there's other kinds of bottlenecks that'll show up.
Definitely looking forward to what it does. Granted, the usage is going to need to be shared among the Cai faction, so how much benefit Ling Qi will get (especially if she breaks through before it arrives) is unknown. I'm guessing that it was because of the surrender that Renxiang thought she would be able to request more resources from home, by the by (for those who thought the peace was a betrayal of some kind*.
Spoils being shared is good news. Overall, the meeting gave me a good impression of Renxiang; she presented her case, she assured worries and doubts, she wasn't afraid of doing something unpopular (releasing Ji Rong the same as the other prisoners) out of fairness.
Alas, I don't think so.
It should be ready for a bronze breakthrough next week though!
Heh... so, amusingly, it might've been better to hold off one more week on the big breakthrough attempt - if it boosted the chances well enough, that'd have made (with the drugs) Ling Qi doing a 6-action double breakthrough actually quite possible
Do we know where he is? Can't really act on this, and besides that I think we blew our chance to kill him last week so best we can do is break most of his bones and trash his puppets.
Not really - he was never at his residence, so there wasn't a chance on the plan chosen. He was quite possibly not at the production facility either, so actually encountering him might never have been in the cards in the first place. To be honest, I'd be hesitant on Ling Qi going hunting for him... from the present state, at least. It'd be just too much of a time-sink, and it'd still leave the danger of him setting things up so she runs afoul of the sect rules as a final "fuck you" - sending a recording of the 'final encounter' to someone he's paid to take it to an elder or something.
Granted, that thought might be because I've read some similar "screw you" moves in xianxia novels (Desolate Era comes to mind as a recent read)...
Now, if he shows his head again? Or Ling Qi gets wind of his location? Or if Fu Xiang can find it and tells her? Well... we'll have to re-visit the topic of how far Ling Qi can go without risk, I suppose.
* Okay, those who were calling it a betrayal right after the interlude - the prisoner exchange seen in the interlude hasn't happened yet, and Renxiang is informing the chief members of her factions about it, giving them a chance to voice their concerns and addressing them. The material benefits are going to be shared, there's a ransom for Ji Rong, Renxiang is getting her faction an edge with the White Room...
