Ling grimaced as the Elder's voice died down, staring glumly down into the cup in her hand. Gu Xiulan had acquired some kind of strange fruity wine from somewhere for her 'celebration' and cajoled her into drinking it. She didn't care for the overly sweet drink much, and the announcement only made the aftertaste sour in her mouth.
"Why so glum?" Xiulan asked brightly, swirling the liquid remaining in her own cup from across the polished table the two of them were seated at. Gu Xiulan occupied one of the larger homes, and as such had a separate dining room appointed with comfortable cushioned benches. They had stayed up through the night chatting and eating sweets. Well Gu Xiulan had done a lot of chatting, Ling Qi had just been doing her best not to think about the following morning and the trouble with Suyin, and everything else. "We can finally stop restraining ourselves after all. Do not tell me you don't wish to have a few of those ruffians who have hassled you at your feet."
Ling Qi gave Gu Xiulan a sour look, setting down her cup, to instead take her mostly finished bowl of grass jelly. "I wouldn't mind a humbling a few of them, but I don't care much for the idea of everyone being allowed to attack me," she replied flatly, downing the last of her portion of the nights sweets. The sticky, syrupy drink more to her taste. It had gotten a little warm, but she still enjoyed the soothing flavor, she wondered if it would be rude to use her fingers to scrape up the last traces from the bottom of the bowl.
"You really do worry too much," Gu Xiulan replied. "Once you have proven yourself strong, most of the little yapping dogs will fall silent," she responded dismissively, daintily nibbling on her last piece of crystal cake afterward. "It is the way of things. Now is the time to stand out and gain glory for yourself."
"I'd rather just stick to the shadows until the worst of it blows over," Ling Qi replied dryly. "I've never had much use for glory." After deliberating for a moment, she decided that being a little uncouth was fine, she scraped a finger along the bottom of the bowl and popped the resulting dollop of jelly into her mouth.
Gu Xiulan gave her an amused but long suffering look as Ling Qi licked her own finger clean. "Well, that was when you were a mortal wasn't it?" She responded chidingly. "Mortals have a use for obscurity, and I will not lie and say that there isn't a time for your talents in that regard. One cannot expect to go anywhere in the world without forcing those around you to acknowledge and praise you, though. You cannot mean to say that you wish to languish at the bottom forever. I refuse to believe that I have misjudged you so badly," she added pointedly as she finished her cake and pushed the plate aside.
Ling Qi glanced to the side, not quite meeting the other girl's eyes. It was true that she had a temper, and these last few months had made her more prone to indulging it than her previous years. The other girl… wasn't wrong though. What was the point of gaining strength if you were just going to cringe away and let yourself be bullied anyway? While she didn't dare compare herself to the disciples at the top of things… why should she just allow people who weren't any stronger than her to do as they liked? To talk about her like she was still just gutter trash? Hadn't she been in the Elder's advanced classes? Hadn't Elder Su acknowledged her specifically even?
"There it is," Gu Xiulan said brightly, smiling savagely. "You like to play at being reserved, but there is a flame in you," she added, clearly pleased.
"I'm mostly worried about getting ganged up on," Ling Qi admitted finally. "What's to stop a dozen people from getting together and deciding to put me in my place?"
"Well, I will do my part to help of course," the other girl preened. "I have reached the Yellow stage, and have mastered the next technique of my family arts," she replied proudly.
"As you've said a few times already, today" Ling Qi replied dryly.
Gu Xiulan pouted at her and huffed. "Must you? Allow me my pride, you cruel girl," she replied teasingly. "In truth, I doubt such a large group would form unless a stronger disciple instigated it. After all, who would get the spoils from such a thing? Who would get the glory? That is another reason you should stand out and accept challenges from your peers, it will deter such scavengers."
Ling Qi sighed, it went against years of instinct… but Gu Xiulan knew more about cultivation culture than she did. It helped that after weeks of being whispered about and snubbed, she dearly wanted to slap a few people around. She could use their spirit stones better than they could anyway. "Fine, so what do we do?"
"We walk down to the lecture hall with our heads held high of course," Gu Xiulan replied cheerfully as she stood up, a savage grin lighting her beautiful features. "I doubt we will have to wait overlong for a challenge… and if their courage fails them? Well I am sure I can arrange something."
Ling Qi sighed and stood up herself, expression set in one of determination. She had to face this sometime. When the two of them left Gu Xiulan's home and set out into the street lit by the light of early dawn the other female disciples were already out in force, clustered in groups of three or four that all eyed one another warily. It was an ominous atmosphere, charged with tension and anticipation.
Then the earth rocked under their feet and the a boiling hiss like a thousand teakettles screaming at once sounded from further out. Ling Qi startled, as a wave of icy cold and familiar qi washed over her, and a bright red figure shot from the dust cloud now roiling over the rooftops. Squinting, she could see that the figure was Sun Liling, with malevolent and spiked crimson armor forming over her torso even as the red mist she emitted in sparring fights erupted and spiralled into her hands, forming a thorny, twisted black and red monstrosity of a spear. It was the first time she had seen the girl with a weapon.
"Well, someone is starting early," Gu Xiulan mused beside her, squinting upward as the red haired girl slammed back to earth with a thunderous crash and kicked up another plume of dust, passing back out of sight. "Did you want to go see?" She asked, eyeing Ling Qi.
They both knew who the girls opponent was. Ling Qi swallowed and shook her head though. A fight between Bai Meizhen and Sun Liling? She would just get in the way. "No, Bai Meizhen can handle herself… I need to deal with my own problems first." Even if she was wounded in this fight, she couldn't see her housemate having any other challengers today. Bai Meizhen would be fine.
"Hm, very well. Playing spectator has never been my preference," Gu Xiulan replied with a shrug. "Shall we be off then?"
Ling Qi nodded as another icy cold breeze washed over them and the other nervously chattering disciples, and that terrifying hissing sound erupted again. The two of them set off down the path, leaving the battle in the distance. Ling Qi was glad that she kept all of her important things on her person though. She wasn't certain how intact her house was going to be by evening.
The plaza was much the same as the residential area, save that the clumped groups were not exclusively female, and the great number of disciples streaming in and out of the lecture hall. Gu Xiulan and Ling Qi did pass several other duels in progress, if none as flashy as the fight that had broken out between the two top ranked girls. They were able to reach the lecture hall and collect their spirit stones with little trouble though.
+5 Spirit Stones
Ling Qi had her suspicions about that though, and they were born out when they left the hall.
"Ling Qi and Gu Xiulan, a beggar and a desert rat, I suppose I should not be surprised to find the 'nobility' of the east keeping such poor company," they were halted by a loud voice cutting over the chatter of the surrounding crowd. The speaker was Hong Lin, the girl with the pink streaked hair who had crushed Ling Qi in her first sparring match. The girl stepped out of the crowd, her arms crossed under her modest chest. She was not alone though. Stepping out behind her were two faces Ling Qi vaguely recalled. However, the staff in the hands of the scowling girl was rather more familiar.
"I wouldn't expect scum to keep good company, no," the boy said tightly, his twinned swords already in hands and a scowl on his handsome face.
"You will both pay for humiliating us and blinding Lei Qing," the girl added quietly, determination on her face.
"I'm sorry, who are all of you?" Gu Xiulan asked blithely, making the two bristle and Ling Qi shuffle nervously. This seemed staged to Ling Qi, they stood in the open plaza, surrounded by enough watchers to make retreating difficult. "Well, no, my apologies. I believe I have seen you in Instructor Zhou's training. Fong, was it?" She added in a sweet and entirely insincere voice.
The pink haired girl scowled at them. "I see poor memory is among your flaws," she replied tartly. "Trash like her never should have wasted the Instructors time merely due to a little good luck," she added glowing at Ling Qi. "Nor should she even be in the sect making pretensions at things she does not deserve, and now that the truce is finished Ino longer need tolerate it." She seemed to have a personal grudge with Ling Qi, which was strange, given that she had hardly given the girl a thought outside of sparring.
"And you picked up a couple of failures with a grudge to distract me while you fight my friend Ling Qi? Well, I suppose that is what I would expect of a girl from the core provinces, your kind have never been much good at fighting your own battles," Gu Xiulan sniffed.
Ling Qi glanced around, this had been what she was afraid of. She couldn't run without leaving Xiulan behind, and she couldn't be certain that some members of their audience wouldn't jump in given the opportunity. Still… this was an opportunity too wasn't it? If she fought off another member of Zhou's class in public, that would warn off weaker disciples. The other two… she had put them out of her mind, and while the girls speech had relieved her a bit, assuming 'Lei Qing' was the girl she thought Xiulan had killed she couldn't really afford sentiment here.
"I don't know what has you so angry, but I've beaten you before in training," Ling Qi stated flatly, doing her best to sound confident. "I don't have any quarrel with you all, but I won't hold back if you start this," that sounded suitably threatening, didn't it?
The twins were too busy glaring at Xiulan to look her way, but Hong Lin bristled. "You… you wretched little gutter rat. Do not pretend that we have no quarrel, even ignoring that you have no place here," she snapped.
"I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about," Ling Qi snapped. "What are you that angry that Gan Guangli put you in a crater last week?"
"No," she replied coldly. "I am furious that an ungraceful little harlot of a commoner has been leading my fiancee along," Ling Qi blinked, then blinked again as the other girls guai appeared in her hands. She couldn't… no...
Dammit Huang Da
[] Battle tactics
Here's you're first personal duel. On your side is Gu Xiulan, who focused on ranged fire attacks, she is a speedy and high damage blaster. She is early yellow and late gold, and has recently acquired a melee/defensive technique.
On the enemy side is Zhu Qing and Zhu Fong, cultivation levels unknown. The girl has the staff you graciously allowed her to get back and wood techniques, at least one of which allows healing. Zhu Fong's abilities are unknown.
Hong Lin, the other enemy combatant is a close combat focused cultivator, due to facing her in spars. Ling Qi knows that she has access to a movement technique of some sort as well as extremely high striking power, she suspects the other girls techniques are metal and wind aspected. She has never shown any more esoteric techniques however and does not appear to have any particularly strong defensive abilities beyond her dodging speed.
Your two groups are on flat, open terrain, roughly ten meters apart
For your vote, please write in how Ling Qi should prioritize things. There is no need to go into a turn by turn breakdown of techniques, just give me a general idea of the strategy you would like her to use, whether you would like her to be conservative with her qi, etc.
. Regardless, we don't need to spin it, as the discussion we were having inthread was about this.
