History's Most Mediocre Cultivator (Xianxia Quest)

[Ayashi]

Li Clan, Governors of Four Rivers Province:
I tried to get some family resemblance going on, not sure how it worked out but overall i'm rather happy with these.

Spoiler: Li Shaohuo

Seems like a good decent average look. Someone you could see in any army rather than the special snowflakes...

Spoiler: Li Xiaoli

Halfway between the classic beauty she has been groomed as all her (short) life, and her inner free spirit.
And the sword, of course.

Spoiler: Elder Li Lee

Because Violet is kind of a Big Deal. He already is more spirit than man, more Qi than flesh.
Alone he can hold enough power to allow his clan to remain rulers of a province for centuries, do not fuck with him.
And he's old.

Spoiler: Li Jun

Mostly for the family resemblance, and ... well he is only a Green dude. He looks a bit young to my taste but cultivators are supposed to look young even when well into adulthood.

Spoiler: Li Xiuying

The Harp is ... not the most chinese musical instrument ever...
Also i don't remember her being a significant level'ed cultivator, so more an image of a middle level noble with all it's attributes as she would need to "make up" for her low(er) born status by appearing more than proper.
I mean as opposed to a girl marrying into her social status which would be free(er) to be natural.

Spoiler: Li Meiling

because i wanted one that was smiling like Xiaoli

Spoiler: Li Zihao

An obvious step up from Jun at Blue. He is the current Heir so i'm thinking he's significantly older too. A few specks of white does him good.
Also, yes. The Li clan is now a Spear using clan, deal with it.

Spoiler: Li Shui

Are those specks of white i see in her hair ? Yes, i believe they are.
Do you know how rare that is ??? Do you know how long i had to look to find that ??? Good Lord but does wuxia hates middle age people !

---

I started looking for Suyin but ... Axe wielding girl, preferably earth/water, shy or demure, wuxia style picture ? Yeah... not going to happen.
Best i got are

Spoiler: these

1
2
3
4
5

but none of them feel like Suyin to me.

 

[Timewinders]

Not a lot of physical description to base an image upon ... :/

Click to shrink...

I will put that in later, wasn't sure if it was needed. Shaohuo and Xiaoli both have auburn hair and silver eyes. Shaohuo is about 6 ft tall and wiry build with muscles, short hair. Xiaoli is 5'8" or 5'9" and she wears her hair loose, medium length. Suyin has brown hair IIRC and wears it in a medium length ponytail with bangs. She's like 5 feet tall at most.

Xu Kuo has black hair I think, about 6'2" and well-built. Face of a thug. Yu Yazhu is average height with long, purple hair. Princess An is short but not as much as Suyin. She has white hair which she wears in a bun.

Thanks for the pictures so far, I will look at them when i am back at a computer rather than my phone.

Edit: In the process of incorporating some of these.

Edit 2: And suddenly I regret making the entire Li family redheads. Hard to find wuxia-style pictures for that.

 

[Timewinders]

Dramatis Personae - Abyssal Spirit Sect​

Located on an island just east of the coastal town of Shandong in the Plum Forest Province, the Abyssal Spirit Sect is one of the premier sites of cultivation training. It draws students from all across the northern half of the Empire. Like many sects, it was initially founded by monks to serve as a center of worship and for cultivation with the intention of reaching enlightenment and ascending to the heavens. The Abyssal Spirit Sect specifically has traditionally worshiped the Abyssal Spirits, powerful and highly intelligent spirit-beasts of the oceans that cultivate primarily water and shadow arts. In the modern era, sects such as the Abyssal Spirit Sect focus on teaching cultivation with a focus on combat applications. For this reason, the Abyssal Spirit Sect, like many others, allows violence between students so long as no permanent damage is done, no valuable property belonging to the sect is destroyed, and rules of propriety are adhered to.

The sect takes a hands-off approach to education aside from some introductory courses for commoners, with additional education by elders, access to the arts library, and tutoring are earned by completing tasks for the sect in return for sect points. The sect also has a ranking system in which students can challenge one another to improve their rank, with sect points given to those ranking higher. Students generally attend for only two years, as the sect is intended to provide an introduction to cultivation and access to arts up to the green level Nobles generally pay tuition to attend, while commoners with at least a mediocre level of talent are recruited by the Empire to attend tuition-free, with the caveat that they must serve in the military for four years afterward. Commoners who reach the blue level of cultivation are exempt from military service and, like all cultivators who reach blue without a fief of their own, are given land and a noble title. In practice it almost impossible for cultivators to reach blue by the end of the two years of instruction, but reaching blue while in the military will still exempt the cultivator from the remainder of their military service so long as there is no current major war.




Shaohuo's Friends and Friends of Friends

Spoiler: Xu Kuo

Shaohuo's roommate. He is a commoner from a family of farmers in the Plum Forest Province. He is very highly talented at cultivation, having managed to reach orange in a short period of time with very minimal instruction. However, he has difficulty adjusting to life at the sect due to his aggressive personality, fierce pride, and preference for blunt speech. Like many commoners, he distrusts nobles until proven otherwise, but unlike most commoners he is willing to speak his mind. He has several younger brothers.
Description: He is tall at about 6'1" with shaggy dark hair and a violet aura.

Spoiler: Princess Song An

A minor princess of the Empire very low in the line of succession, her mother is of one of the Emperor's many wives. She is rather reserved but was won over by Shaohuo and Xiaoli's honest friendliness. She's smart and likes reading, enjoying nonfiction works of natural philosophy and history. She is courteous and has learned to handle herself in social situations out of necessity due to spending most of her life in the capital. She is close to her sister, Song Ai.
Description: She's about 5'2" and has white hair and blue eyes, same as the Emperor and most of his lineage. She wears her hair tied up, occasionally with a gold headpiece signifying her status as royalty.

Spoiler: Yu Yazhu

Suyin's roommate. She is a noble from the Storm Mountain province. She is quiet much of the time, rarely socializing, and has a flat tone when speaking. She gets along fairly well with Suyin and, oddly enough, Xu Kuo, but is not as close to the rest of the group.
Description: She is of average height with purple hair and green eyes.

Yang Mi: Xiaoli's roommate. She is a noble from a minor family who govern a county in the north of the Plum Forest Province. She has a friendly and playful personality.
Description: She is of average height and has medium-length blue hair.

Shi Ziyi: Xiaoli's sparring partner who has been helping her learn how to use the sword. She is a commoner from the Plum Forest Province. She was surprised by her rapid rise in fortune after being identified as having sufficient talent to attend the sect, and is afraid of screwing up the opportunity. She is often a bit too serious and overly formal when talking to nobles, even ones like Xiaoli, for fear of causing offense.
Description: Average height. She has blonde hair kept in a bobcut.


Acquaintances

Spoiler: Liu Shuren

A noble from the Heaven's Tears Province. He takes his duties very seriously and looks down on those who do not. He can be somewhat judgmental and occasionally rude to those he sees as his lessers. His roommate is Mu Tiezhu, who he finds irritating due to finding him lazy and whiny. He works very hard at cultivating and is almost at yellow.
Description: He is of average height. He has dark hair and a cold gaze that (accurately) makes him appear aloof.

Zhao Jinhai: Heir to the Zhao clan, his grandfather is the Governor of Heaven's Tears province and an ally of the Li Clan. Zhao Jinhai is friendly and sociable, but is spoiled by his parents and occasionally naïve. His parents pulled some strings so that his servant Meimei is able to attend him at the sect.
Description: Blonde hair, fairly tall at about 5'10", teal aura.

Meimei: Zhao Jinhai's servant/maid.
Description: She is of average height and has silver hair.


Mu Tiezhu: A noble from the Plum Forest Province, and Liu Shuren's roommate. He is shy and has difficulty making friends. He only came to the sect because his parents made him, as he is not very dedicated at cultivation and has only mediocre talent. He still hasn't progressed past the red level.
Description: He is short for a boy at about 5'5" and has brown hair.

Sect Elders

Elder Wu: A sect elder with an interest in research. Shaohuo has been assisting him in his research, but Elder Wu is not very kind to his test subjects.
Description: He has gray hair kept in a topknot and a long, pointed beard. He has a yellow aura with blue cultivation.

Elder Shishi: One of the higher-ranking sect elders who is more active in the administration. She is a blue cultivator. She greets the new students each year and is often the first point of contact for students who wish to communicate with the sect's administration.
Description: She wears her grey hair in a bun.

Rivals

Spoiler: Hou Lian

The heir to the Hou Clan, which governs the Plum Forest Province and are the rivals of the Li Clan. Xu Kuo has gotten on her bad side. So far she has restrained herself to using her influence to have him bullied at the sect, though Xu Kuo didn't realize that he had offended her until Shaohuo explained it to him. All bets are off on how she will react once the two-week ban on violence is over unless Shaohuo manages to strike a deal with her.
Description: Dark hair, purple eyes.

 

[Nevill]

Should probably go under 'Informational', like the other entry?

Also, perhaps Wang Shen deserves an entry of his own (I'd think under 'rivals', in more senses than one) rather than being listed with commoners under 'Others', unless it is a sign that we can safely ignore him.

 

[Zenbeast]

Abyssal Spirits, powerful and highly intelligent spirit-beasts of the oceans that cultivate primarily water and shadow arts.

Click to shrink...

Clearly we must follow in their footsteps and become Cthonic Xianxia Man.

 

[Timewinders]

Should probably go under 'Informational', like the other entry?

Also, perhaps Wang Shen deserves an entry of his own (I'd think under 'rivals', in more senses than one) rather than being listed with commoners under 'Others', unless it is a sign that we can safely ignore him.

Click to shrink...

Fixed. Yeah, I included him in the other post since he is also from Four Rivers. He's not that important at the moment. I haven't decided whether I'm actually going to make use of him. He might be a potential competitor in the future but nothing major.

 

[exerty]

Fixed. Yeah, I included him in the other post since he is also from Four Rivers. He's not that important at the moment. I haven't decided whether I'm actually going to make use of him. He might be a potential competitor in the future but nothing major.

Click to shrink...

Watch as he turns out to be reincarnation of heavenly pill expert! And with his powers of cultivation drug abuse he will kick our ass.