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Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

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Lavaflow said:
On a similar note, anyone have any reading recs for stories similar to this one? Quests or not, don't care.
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I'm a fan of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. The protagonist has actual morals and character unlike a lot of xianxia protagonists, the power levels are reasonable, and the plot is interesting. It's comedic, but also does nice action, and can get very dark and sad at times. There's also a nice anime and manhwa. The English subtitled anime just finished season 1, the series itself is complete, though the English translation is only about 2/3 of the way through.

About the only warning I'd give is that you shouldn't read this if you're not at least tolerant of boys love. Nothing explicit happens, and the protagonist is pretty much clueless of the other guy's feelings for him, but it's pretty obvious to the audience that the other guy is super into him even if the protagonist currently just thinks they're good friends. They apparently end up happily together, but the English translation hasn't reached that point yet.
 
Sirrocco said:
Hmmm... point. I hadn't remembered that part. I tend to doubt that it's at the same level as medicines for the same tier, but it's certainly a point that it's not trivial.
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veekie said:
A cultivator's intoxicant needs to get through a cultivator's supernatural constitution. Ling Qi own drinks so far point quite clearly to that. Considering the refreshing ice wine she took at her birthday party would be sufficient to kill a mortal, and the Delusion Nectar was enough to send her and Zhengui completely and utterly smashed at a thimble worth(i.e. she took a shot about the size of the top of her pinky)...

...well, a cultivator delving into alcoholism can be quite expensive indeed. Especially when a lot of these drinks are likely to be made to be cultivation boosters as well as their primary demand. Heck, simple way to get utterly smashed: Use a drug rated for a higher tier cultivator.
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His father was a low talent but 'of considerable valor' guard who was crippled in the line of duty and cast aside. I'm guessing his cultivation level wasn't high enough to require the more expensive stuff (if he was, then he'd probably not be cast aside too easily), and I suspect the crippling wasn't simple or 'clean'. Probably damaged his physical cultivation and undone much of it.

I can all too easily see the crippled and cast aside guard falling into drink to numb the pain, the shame, and everything else.
 
A/N said:
His father was a low talent but 'of considerable valor' guard who was crippled in the line of duty and cast aside. I'm guessing his cultivation level wasn't high enough to require the more expensive stuff (if he was, then he'd probably not be cast aside too easily), and I suspect the crippling wasn't simple or 'clean'. Probably damaged his physical cultivation and undone much of it.

I can all too easily see the crippled and cast aside guard falling into drink to numb the pain, the shame, and everything else.
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Keeping in mind that their family income is proportional to their cultivation, so said father would be buying intoxicants of whichever tier he was on. If he was say a 50+ year old Yellow who's forced to do a Red level job due to crippling thats quite an expense and a pride hurt. Mostly because I doubt any drugs that's not at least Red realm is going to have any effect close to drowning the pain, which in turn means a cultivator has to be involved in producing it.

This is made worse if he's higher cultivation due to the wealth gap between levels widening, and the higher requirements for employment. You might hire a Yellow with legs as a Red Guard because frankly most of the time they're just garrison forces. So he's getting drunk on Red wine in bulk, on a Red's pay and that leaves nothing much.

You're probably not going to hire a crippled Green to do a Yellow Guard's job, because they'd be escorting wilderness expeditions or low officials, where their crippling is important. So he's getting hired as a Red Guard or not at all, he needs Yellow wine to even get drunk and that means he's saving up over the week to buy a dose of Yellow Numbing Wine.

Compounded by low Talent, since that means respeccing into a different trade which isn't so impeded by his injuries isn't really on the table. It takes time and resources he doesn't have.
 
w4terghost said:
Anyone else notice just how many times Gan made mention of Meizhen's beauty?
I mean, that could just be a natural part of his internal monologue, but still.....
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Ling Qi mentioned how Bai Meizhen and Gu Xiulan look like classical beauties, but the person who is batting three out of three ducal scions is Cai Renxiang.

Guo Si, Xuan Shi and Bai Meizhen are all attracted to her; and even Sun Liling is fixated on her dress. For all that Cai was described as looking more handsome than pretty.

Like, what is her secret?
 
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SITB said:
Ling Qi mentioned how Bai Meizhen and Gu Xiulan look like classical beauties, but the person who is batting three out of three ducal scions is Cai Renxiang.

Guo Si, Xuan Shi and Bai Meizhen are all attracted to her; and even Sun Liling is fixated on her dress. For all that Cai was described as looking more handsome than pretty.

Like, what is her secret?
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men are moths smart enough not to dance in flame but not too wary of bright light.
 
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SITB said:
Ling Qi mentioned how Bai Meizhen and Gu Xiulan look like classical beauties, but the person who is batting three out of three ducal scions is Cai Renxiang.

Guo Si, Xuan Shi and Bai Meizhen are all attracted to her; and even Sun Liling is fixated on her dress. For all that Cai was described as looking more handsome than pretty.

Like, what is her secret?
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Bai Meizhen is terrifying and Gu Xiulan isn't a ducal scion and is engaged. Also, it seems like there are an awful lot of "classical beauties" in the Sect anyway, and Cai is much more likely to have social arts than the others.
 
Ayashi said:
Cultivation being the refining of the self, it makes sense that a lot of girls would physically drift towards society canon of beauty as the go up the cultivation ranks.
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I saw a study of faces, where they took 100+ faces from each major ethnic group, and overlaid them at 1% opacity. Only the eyes were matched. The end result was a face that looked extremely beautiful, but distinctly of that ethnicity.
 
Yeah, that is one effect of cultivation, a lot more people tend to drift toward the societies standard of physical attractiveness and 'good' physical traits, due to simple psychology.

Of course, at green and above, many cultivators therefore end up developing attractions toward less physical traits due to their natures and the common-ness of 'beauty' and 'handsomeness'.

Ask Jiao what his wife's best feature is, you'd probably be surprised. :p
 
yrsillar said:
Yeah, that is one effect of cultivation, a lot more people tend to drift toward the societies standard of physical attractiveness and 'good' physical traits, due to simple psychology.

Of course, at green and above, many cultivators therefore end up developing attractions toward less physical traits due to their natures and the common-ness of 'beauty' and 'handsomeness'.

Ask Jiao what his wife's best feature is, you'd probably be surprised. :p
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she gives him formation traps he has to get out of :p
 
yrsillar said:
Yeah, that is one effect of cultivation, a lot more people tend to drift toward the societies standard of physical attractiveness and 'good' physical traits, due to simple psychology.

Of course, at green and above, many cultivators therefore end up developing attractions toward less physical traits due to their natures and the common-ness of 'beauty' and 'handsomeness'.

Ask Jiao what his wife's best feature is, you'd probably be surprised. :p
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Her airless, meteor pocked grey surface!
 
yrsillar said:
Yeah, that is one effect of cultivation, a lot more people tend to drift toward the societies standard of physical attractiveness and 'good' physical traits, due to simple psychology.

Of course, at green and above, many cultivators therefore end up developing attractions toward less physical traits due to their natures and the common-ness of 'beauty' and 'handsomeness'.

Ask Jiao what his wife's best feature is, you'd probably be surprised. :p
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When everyone is a supermodel, then you start getting exotic fetishes.
 
+pondering if Gan was being literal when he thought of alcohol consuming his father+

Probably not, but... Like, there are spirits of stuff. So, Spirit of spirits? Plausible?

Drink meeeeeee...
 
Killer_Whale said:
He had 2 spirit beasts and a domain weapon, yet she beat him with just Cai.
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this is delving a little into the thread of LQ-wank, but the real killer is the comparison to LQ; KZ got nothing and didn't even strain Meizhen (did he even have a plan besides throwing his spirit beasts away before becoming a glorified rock?) while LQ had a plan, 'got treated seriously', and simply couldn't execute on her plan
 
Lavaflow said:
On a similar note, anyone have any reading recs for stories similar to this one? Quests or not, don't care.
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I don't know about 'similar to this one,' but Xianxia as a genre has a few definitive works that can help one understand as a whole where this quest is coming from and what problems it surpasses by being written by a competent writer who isn't paid based on word count.

'Coiling Dragon' is usually recommended as a starting point for Westerners to get into the genre, as purists say it's more like a western fantasy story with a coating of Xianxia 'paint.' If you want a more direct experience I'd recommend 'I Shall Seal the Heavens,' which is a fairly good starting point overall itself, has decent quality, and

Other standard recommendations include stuff like Way of Choices and a few others that aren't coming to the top of my head. A lot of the 'good' Xianxia is actually parody of the genre itself, and should only be read after reading one of the more normal novels to get a grip on what concepts it's parodying. This category contains works such as 'My Disciple Died Yet Again!' Another high-quality work currently being translated is 'A Will Eternal,' written by the same author as Seal the Heavens. It's partially a comedy, and is also one I wouldn't recommend until you have a handle on the genre as it takes itself less seriously than others.

Things to avoid include 'Martial God Asura' and anything mentioned in the same sentence as it.



On another note, I enjoyed the recent fight scene. Not quite so exciting as the last few, but I suppose the child-solider-blood-sport scene is just less intense when viewed from a spectator position, or when the outcome is less doubtful than it was in Xiulan's match.
 
Thanks for the recs everyone.
Now have a humorous totally serious list of how this quest is actually just a Skyrim playthrough.

1. No matter what build you intended at the start, you always end up stealth archer.
2. Plenty of deals with daedra spirits.
3. Pledged yourself to a Jarl Duchess for their questline.
4. Can make esoteric effects with your voice music.
5. An important quest objective is no reason not to loot down to the bedrock.
6. Stupid protag combat skill growth.
7. Repeatable quests from the Guilds Sect.
8. You've had to go through the civil war questline and pick a side in order to continue the main story.
 
tricholysis said:
this is delving a little into the thread of LQ-wank, but the real killer is the comparison to LQ; KZ got nothing and didn't even strain Meizhen (did he even have a plan besides throwing his spirit beasts away before becoming a glorified rock?) while LQ had a plan, 'got treated seriously', and simply couldn't execute on her plan
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In fairness to Kang he was genuinely expecting his Beasts to buy him at least a few turns of set up time while distracting Meizhen for a big attack.His 'gank dhartiri' plan was just in this case, 'Make Meizhen bleed at least once' concede with honor.

She just wombo-comboed them with a massive spiritual attack made in unison with her terror spirit that left them paralyzed and helpless long enough for Cui and Meizhen to finish them with poisons.
 
yrsillar said:
...Even if the news which reached her later of a spree paintbombs, surprise hairdyes, and other prankish things, as well as fights breaking out over stolen property made her hope desperately that no one ever discovered what she had been doing.
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Hmm.
Think that's also part of why people think she's scary and whimsical on top of other things?

Just her doing her things as usual and then she pulls indiscriminate pranking spree out of nowhere.
 
yrsillar said:
In fairness to Kang he was genuinely expecting his Beasts to buy him at least a few turns of set up time while distracting Meizhen for a big attack.His 'gank dhartiri' plan was just in this case, 'Make Meizhen bleed at least once' concede with honor.

She just wombo-comboed them with a massive spiritual attack made in unison with her terror spirit that left them paralyzed and helpless long enough for Cui and Meizhen to finish them with poisons.
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Kinda neat how that matches the suggestion CRX sorta felt obligated to give us and how his decision to go fully commit to this contrasts against Ling Qi's decision to go for "I'm gonna make Liling work for this as hard as I can instead".

Admittedly, I'm sure the fact that Meizhen's poison is a lot more painful than the stuff Liling can pull (at least without abandoning all plausible deniability that this is in fact torture and not a fight anymore) pushed him towards this course, but it's still telling.
 
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