...Only it didn't. Ling QI grimaced, restraining the urge to rub her eyes as the spear simultaneously struck Shen Hu's shield and warped past it, it's straight arc bending at a sharp angle once, and then again to shoot past his defense and dig a bloody line across the wide eyed boys shoulder
Hoo, this is an interesting art. As displayed, this is a counter Domain Shield tech, punishing those who offload their defenses to something else. (In other words, Xuan Shi's Talisman project is utterly worthless in the face of this. It's good for him and his that Savage Seas and Red Sun Garden don't share a border. They'll get wrecked face to face against the barbarians of the west.)
Presumably, this can also be used against bodyguards using a defend other tech, ensuring that the only people who can withstand this barbarian art are those who have focused on fortifying their own bodies. Like, for example, the Bai, who are renown for their emphasis on their defensive abilities. It was always apparent that the way the Bai developed was heavily influenced by the pressure exerted by the western barbarians — the defensive counterattack of Meizhen to counter Sun Liling's offensive flurries, for example — but it appears the Bai's insistence that they can only rely on themselves and can't rely on others was influenced by how the western barbarians' strikes could ignore others to attack the Bai directly.
It seems the Bai don't have an answer to this sort of tech save to develop their own defenses. So, I wonder what answer the barbarians have developed to the Bai's Abyssal Mantle? Sun Liling has demonstrated her ability to shatter armor — which seems like it should fail against perers — as well as simply cutting through the spirit-armor of Shen Hu, which seems like it wouldn't be particularly effective against Meizhen.
In any case, this won't be relevant to our Sun Liling fight: Ling Qi focused on her own defenses, and Zhengui doesn't have any body guarding techs.
her limbs already swaying gracefully through the movements of an eye catching dance even as her rich voice rose in a foreign song.
Ling Qi felt a spike of irritation, watching it.
Ahh, bad memories from Jiao's trial, right. Where Ling Qi and Gu Xiulan headed straight into an ambush by a hunter group containing an insect-woman musician. One of the reasons Ling Qi and Gu Xiulan did so badly in that fight was that Ling Qi couldn't shut down the musician fast enough, if I recall correctly. It'll be no wonder Ling Qi reserves a special irritation at the western barbarians' music.
I wonder how Meizhen would try to counter this? The sunflower field can be shredded by her Abyssal Mantle's attack. Does she rely on Cui to take up the spirit's attentions to prevent her from buffing Sun Liling? Or does she have some sort of buff strip/block in her spiritual debuff tech tree?
Hopefully Ling Qi's previous counter of FVM's elegy would still be capable of countering this sort of field setup. Otherwise, she won't be capable of forcing Sun Liling to show any trumps at all.
[X] Accept and allow yourself to be taken to the infirmary
This opens up the possibility of all Ling Qi's friends lining up to look in at her since she dramatically was swept away. I quite like the idea of Suyin and Su Ling being worried for Ling Qi and looking after her, a reversal from their usual dynamic! Meizhen, Xiulan, maybe even Han Jian? Unlikely, to get all or even some, but I am taken by the image of it all.
Also, Cai Renxiang should have a perfect excuse to get some time to recover from her ordeal with her mother: it would go unquestioned if she looked in after her personal retainer and stayed there for a long time. She'd probably like the excuse at least, even if she doesn't use it.
