Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
A Pleasant Ride with the Caravan
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Ah, caravans! What better way to travel the sands then with plenty of friends, food, an comfy cushions that you could make a small fort out of and just sleep the days away, content and napping, clear of all dangers, threats, and much in the way of hard work.

Yes, Aliki was confident that joining the mission to escort a bunch of Array carving tools was an excellent way to pass the time, and get warmed up again after... Gosh, was it six years missing since her disappearance in Qiguai?

That's a long time!

It was good though that the Qiguai Clan accepted the use of an escape Life Saving Treasure to be fair game, as long as no treasures were brought out with her. She even managed to get her needle set back from the guys who pawned it off for loot!

Admittedly, while they were nice tools they were still relatively weak so there wasn't a huge market for them, so she wasn't banned on coming back in if she later made it to Foundation Establishment and got an eye out in that direction too--so that was nice of them.

She kicked her feet, knocking some cushions away as she peered up at the sky ahead. So she was back on the active duty rolls! Which meant that she was once again supplied with decent food and challenging work! Her skills as a healer even surged from the lessons taught by the Spooky Voice in what had turned out to be the Blood Mask of all things. Her skills were actually getting to be somewhat in demand! She even knew enough that she could patch up an expert in Foundation Establishment long enough to get them to someone higher ranked! All that fiddly stuff about chromowhatsits and legacy helixes turned out to come in handy when it came to exotic injuries too! Just figure out how those were disrupted, carefully apply Mister Spoon to chomp-chomp the gross and damaged bits, then stimulate regeneration to move things along all lickety-split-like!

After all, if there weren't any records in the broken up area to mess things up, the body could just draw from records in the undamaged part, and then rebuild them with certain potent medicines and more advanced treatments. Less capable experts just had to carve out what they could and then the spiritual echo of the damage just comes back unless you could brute force it with even more expensive medicines. It was a nasty, expensive cycle and having the tools to beat it was just swell!

She also noticed some people looking at her funny every so often when she was out and about--she did keep the outfit that the Voice handed her--she mentioned it was designed to not be damaged when her Divine Abilities were employed, and it did fall in the line of being acceptable attire since she could just pin her badge of rank somewhere on the collar and call it a day, but she was getting a lot more attention now!

She couldn't quite tell if it was bad or good--was it that "Baser Instincts of Man" thing the Voice commented on? But she saw some girls staring too and that's clearly not right... Still! She got invited to a lot more parties since, so she'd call it an absolute win regardless! There were always better lunches and meals found in those places too--better than just the jerky she lived on normally!

Which wasn't to say her little vacation on this little caravan was completely without excitement--there was still a war going on after all, and beating up supply people and taking their things was apparently fair game in a war! A bunch of other groups had excitement fending off Blood Cannibal Raiders here and there, and it was probably going to happen that more would show up here.

She did wonder how they'd taste... Did the fact they were doing some funny thing with just shoving people whole down their jaws and melting them down make them tastier? More nutritious? It seemed kind of pointless and also a waste to her--while sure, you weren't leaving anything to waste there... Bones were too tough and non-nutritious to digest! Sure you might get a bit of flavor out of the marrow but that still left you with a few pounds of useless dead matter that you had to deal with! The energy it would cost burning those away would use up much of the surplus you acquired by more efficient consumption of the body.

Aliki wrinkled her nose at the thought. No wonder the Voice went off on a rant when she brought that up, and then even explained why it was dumb. Better to simply extract the value from the target, and discard that which would be too inefficient to digest. Even if this causes a minor loss in overall blood-essence absorption, not needing to break down the bones still left you ahead of the matter. Then she started going off on a tangent about the early days of the Great Master's Followers and the paradigms they practiced and her eyes just kind of crossed and she checked out until the Voice was done complaining.

It was a good few years for her, but that didn't mean it was entirely without issues.

She yawned, settling herself back on her cushions and flopping down in a fluttering of silks, hair, and jingly tools. There was just so much that she needed to learn still, and only so much time to do it--she was starting to understand now why so many of the Clan's big talents were always in just such a big rush, this was a Great Age of... Something--heroism maybe? Evolution? Something with an 'E' in it she was certain, where talented experts were as common as the clouds!

Which was a funny saying for a people who spent most of their time in an arid desert--but apparently it was a more accurate phrase once you got over the Hardshell Mountains and were in the comfier regions beyond it. Comfier, but also a lot more dangerous because then you had a lot more people and the Blood Path tended to get out of hand as someone found some legacy or whatever and went mad with power on the sight of it.

Peasants one and all.

She giggled to herself, maybe the Voice was rubbing off on her--she was probably evil when alive, but now she's just a silly ghost yelling at clouds. It was a little funny, but even now, Aliki saw a few of its insults and rants slip in with her reverie--and on occasion even her discussions with other Cultivators. She could see the reasoning behind the disdain though--even if she still asked about the why

*what else can one call a creature that--at the first sign of power--immolates itself, greedily seeking immediate power and gratification? The Master's Art is a holy sacrament, the subordination of one life to another, the claiming of its destiny and potential. to employ this on the weak is to become as the weak yourself. to employ it on the strong, the foe who can stand against you--that is nobility, that is to be mighty.*

It was a good philosophy, even if it was coming out of the echoes of an ancient monster, she'd probably sneak little bits and pieces of it from time to time, right?

Her nose twitched, and she immediately sat back up... A scent... Coppery, saline...

She hurled herself out of the wagon just in time for the corrosive ball of blood to land on it, melting it to a black sludge on the ground and getting all splashy all over the place even as it threw up dust and sand everywhere.

Aliki frowned at this, brushing herself off. This was an attack then?

This would be a great opportunity to practice some of the things the Voice talked about!

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Seven Devil Blade smirked as he watched the attack land home--prepared through the consumption of a small village in an area thought secure by the wretched demons of the West. It wasn't much to write home about, an attack to look like a higher leveled Expert was striking in one place, while they slipped in to get the business of sabotaging this shipment in advance. The Great Elder did promise significant benefits for participants in this assault after all!

While not as many peak experts could be spared as he might have liked--not with the great campaigns at Three Frog City, that one Devil fortress with their strange names, and the main front where the brunt of the Sect's strength sought to crush a great tithe of the Devils in open battle--this was a group selected for talent and speed among all other things.

Speed that his detachment was making good use of, storming past the initial caravan guards--barely Cultivators at the third and fourth Heavenstages--and rapidly began to approach the hardened core of the caravan. With their best experts distacted, the rest should be clear sailing.

A quiet noise, almost as though a woman coughed drew him up short--his blade lashed out in the direction of the noise--no witnesses would be permitted until the deed was done.

"Are you quite finished?"

He looked to his comrades, gesturing them to advance as he turned to face the foe--and missed a beat.

Hair black as the deepest night, skin as pale as finely wrought jade, displayed through a nigh scandalous robe. She was unarmed, save for a few pouches she wasn't even reaching for.

And yet her eyes--her eyes! Glowing a sanguine shade, brighter than any blood he had ever seen, even here in the confusion of the attack.

She chuckled, his own movement arrested. "I would think so--did you really believe that this place was left undefended?" She tilted her head and grinned. "No, to your sorrow, this caravan is protected"

He could sense her Cultivation, the uttermost peak of the Ninth Heavenstage--matching his own. She would be a fine sacrifice for his breakthrough. His reaping blade rose, and he licked his lips in anticipation.

"Not well enough--you are fair indeed woman!" He gathered his courage and his will--always greater than those of his peers, and settled into a battle stance. "But I have not before lost to any within my realm! My Crimson Bloodletter Technique makes me peerless within this great realm!"

Her grin never faded--if anything, it merely grew more pronounced as her lips parted, baring her pristine teeth. "Well, if that's what makes you happy--but peasants don't become kings just with one little toy."

One hand raised, and black and crimson things burst from it, writhing and twisting in the shadows as they tightened around her hand. Five bronze-tipped razors emerged from the tips--claws like he had never before seen.

"Besides" She added, even as he began to gather his Qi to retreat. "Mine's bigger, don't you think?"

He kicked back, to lead this beast in a running battle.

But her speed! Her strength! She closed the distance, that terrifying reaper of souls always just an inch away! He used every trick, every foot technique, and when he could finally flee no more, he finally deployed it.

The blood accumulated through years of slaughter formed at the back of his blade--and he spun around on his heel, slamming his weapon against her claws. It shuddered, cracked--but it held. Long enough for him tilt his blade--and discharge his second attack in the opening.

Then he shuddered, as the second claw buried into his guts.

"Nice try, incidentally" The angel whispered into his ear, leaning in close enough to feel her breath. "This was good practice, I'll make sure to put your legacy to good use. Promise."

Then he knew nothing more, his soul and flesh rendered to fuel for the Sleeping Princess.

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"Mmmm" Aliki mused happily as the skeleton that had once been her foe crumbled to the ground. "That was pretty yummy!" She nodded, and assessed the state of the caravan before her. "I hope everyone else is doing okay there too though..."

She trailed off for a moment, as a thought percolated across the back of her mind.

"Oh! Right! I can help with the recovery too!" She grins, and takes off back into the scrum, now that the scary bladesman was down, she could start seeing about stabilizing the wounded, and maybe grabbing a few more Cannibals on the way.

After all, wasting food was a sin

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
Subtractive Medicine​

"We've got another one here!"

Jingshen Chen looked up from his files, the messenger calling out to him with a hint of urgency. The recent years since the collapse of the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect and the occupation of much of their old territories proved to be a great boon for the greater Clan--allowing them to expand their territories greatly at no cost in blood and only modest investments of treasure--but Good Fortune rarely comes without a catch, and this one was proving to be something of a nuisance.

The Ravaged Husk Plague--a calamity unleashed in the desert from the former holdings of the Cannibals. It always began with feelings of hunger and deprivation in the bodies and spirits of the infected, persisting through any attempts to provide food and water. Slowly, surely, the victims begin to shrivel up upon themselves, the plague robbing them of their strength and will to continue even as the pain of their hunger slowly and steadily decays their mind.

The final outcome is nothing more than a ghoulish creature, driven beyond the limits of endurance as it bites and scratches at any it can find. Nothing remains but a husk to be put to the sword and burned alive to ensure its ashes do not spread the disease.

He grimaced at the thought. Even that method seemed ineffective at arresting the spread of the disease, as those who handled the bodies still often ended up sick.

The most frustrating thing about the matter is that the illness rarely manifested in Cultivators above the middle reaches of Qi Condensation--which meant that as far as the greater Clan was concerned, this plague was an irritant that would burn itself out on its own, and thus, no additional resources would be committed to stamp it out. Let the mortals die as they must, for the greater foe lies in wait, ready to leap out at the first sign of weakness.

His grimace turned to a sneer then. 'Besides' he had heard once. 'This is probably an attack from the Golden Devils anyway, we can't let them draw us out in these critical moments, when we cannot resist their assault!'

Foolishness, desecrating savages they may be, but the Golden Devils knew better than to call up that which they could not put down--and they would suffer far more from this plague breaking containment than Jingshen ever would, with the Great Cordon dividing the core territories of the Clan from the satellites that exist to serve as tripwires from the treachery of the Demonic Barbarians abroad.

The Devil King is long dead, and while the withered ancient that took his place is not to be underestimated--as the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect learned to their sorrow--he could not overcome Jingshen's own experts upon their home ground. What sense was there in continuing this policy of scorched earth when there was all of this new land to develop and exploit first?

His pride as an apothecary bristled at the dismissal, and each new case brought into his estate another failure of his clan to react to this threat.

Indeed, if he hadn't delved into his own stipend as a Foundation Establishment son of the Clan to establish quarantines and secure supplies of herbs from all corners of the Virtuous Flipper Region--it may have already run out of control. If he could not come to a breakthrough on treating this plague soon…

He would just have to give up--and such a failure to act would serve as a devil upon his Dao-Heart in the days to come. Sure, he may be able to muddle through the remainder of Foundation Establishment--but forming a Core would forever be out of his reach.

There had to be a solution to this within reach! Some combination of treatment that could do more than simply slow the spread of the plague! Indeed, he had secured new ingredients since the last time he had tried, and if he could form the right pills from them… Maybe it would have a better effect.

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The peasant writhing on the bed, restrained by leather straps did not respond to treatment.

As always with the Ravaged Husk Plague, no level of medicinal energy introduced could do more than delay its march. The pills dissolved within the stomach, and their energy trickled through the body--but ultimately found themselves exhausted and depleted before they could complete their journey.

He even begged forgiveness and conducted an autopsy on one of the victims, hoping that he could identify the cause as some kind of parasite suckling off of the innards of the victim. But there were not even any signs of such a terrible creature! Merely the ravaged innards of one who has starved to death in an ocean of food!

His robes were ruffled, his hair standing on end, and his fingers steepled together as he stared at the symbol of the Clan that hung on the opposite wall of his study. Was he really going to have to concede defeat? That all of the resources, skill, and insight he had gathered over three hundred years of life be reduced to nothing?

Was Jingshen Chen truly a failure? Was his Dao incorrect? To have lost here in this place, to some little bug emerging from the shadows?

He was unwilling to concede!

And yet, had the Heavens backed him into a point of no return? Must he accept his Dao as incorrect, because of encountering a plague he could not treat?

These thoughts swirled in Jingshen Chen's mind, his heart a storm, his pillars shuddering as the turmoil began to impact his Foundation--when his door burst open, the greater light of the hallway filling the air.

"Lord Chen!" His aide spoke. "Important news!"

His face turned up, once clear blue eyes darkened by his turmoil, bags visible beneath his eyes. Yet there still remained a slight spark within--his head inclined to give the man a chance.

"We've found someone who's developed a functioning treatment!"

"Investigate their background!" Chen's voice boomed. "And bring them to me!"

Was this the breakthrough he desired?

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"Her name is Cinnabar" His aide read off, flanking Jingshen Chen as they marched to the guest chamber. "Adopted by refugees of the former Oasis Rebels in their flight from Child Corpse Gulper's rampage--given her features, it was thought that she was the child of a slain Cannibal, but as she was an infant, she was considered blameless."

Chen nodded at that--he had cleaned himself up and gotten some rest since the initial report was made. His men had gone to the merchant's caravan that the woman had been attending, and invited her to attend his estate. If the technique she had practiced to cure this Plague was one he could incorporate… His calamity may finally be at its end.

"Our man took a sample of her blood, and confirmed no traces of the Bronze within." The aide continued. "And the Blood Wards barely gave a flicker--this seems to confirm the information that her cultivation is Beast Path--though achieving the Tenth Heavenstage is noteworthy, it is within the boundaries of a Loose Cultivator's good fortune."

"So, not likely to be a spy?" Chen mused--to get a wry grin from his aide and a confirmatory nod. "Good, I would have hated to have fallen for such a trick. Have you extracted her method from her yet?"

"She's spoken on the matter somewhat…" The Aide started. "But… To be honest, our man barely understood what she was going on about."

"So, a conwoman or a genius." Chen considers. "Regardless, I will get to the bottom of this." The door to the guest chamber loomed ahead. "Get your men ready in case she turns out to be an assassin." He adds in an afterthought, and pushes the doors open.

It takes but a moment for him to identify the… creature laying sprawled on a divan before him. Clad in robes of beast fur and leather, spliced and stitched together into a semblance of covering, while still revealing far too much jade skin to be fit for polite company.

Her feet absently dangled side from side, unshod and unadorned--her hair a sable cloak of night spilled across her perch--her face the appearance of an angel.

But then her nose twitched, and she opened a single eye partially--and it was red as the sun on the eve of a storm. The gaze caused even Jingshen Chen to hesitate for a moment.

She was Beautiful

"Ah" She spoke up, a lazy smile forming on her face. "Is it time to go then?" Her other eye opened, and she shifted from her sleeping posture to one straight up, her feet disappearing into the folds of her robe once again. "You're the one who was asking about that poor soul, right?"

Chen forcefully maintained a neutral expression, disregarding the radiance sitting before him. "Indeed." His voice sounded more imperious than he felt. "This one is Jingshen Chen, I have been informed that you had some success with the treatment of the Ravaged Husk Plague?"

"Is that what you call it?" She mused, lips pursed ever so slightly together. "Mmm, I guess it would look that way to most people. It's as good a name as any I suppose."

"It has been ravaging my holdings for the past several years," Chen continued, hoping to recover his wits through small talk. "Naturally, I was suspicious to hear a Loose Cultivator had successfully treated it, when the finest herbs and medicines that my skills and resources could prepare were of no effect."

Her lips split open--and he sees for an instant an impression of sharpened fangs before being intoxicated once more by her eyes--even as she breaks off into a quiet giggle. "Well, of course you'd have problems, silly." She chides in a voice Chen couldn't even feel offended in. "It's a problem with their ability to eat and drink, right? It'd be weird if you could solve it by giving them something to eat, wouldn't it?"

Her words were like a bolt of lightning. "Give them something to ea… Of course!" Chen was a skilled Pill Forger, but he had forgotten that most fundamental trait of low level pills!

They were all ingested as the easiest way to introduce them to the body's system, as well as allowing some of the impurities to be passed through ordinary digestion… But if the problem was the ability to consume in the first place, wouldn't most of the medicinal energy be lost before it even began to work?

Cinnabar tilted her head, and he could almost feel the shame of his own misconceptions--for him to bash his head against this wall without even noticing the problem at the starting gate?

He could feel the insight congealing together in his heart, merging with his understanding of his Sixth Pillar.

"That's…" He began, and finally gave up the ghost of hiding his excitement. "How did you come up with your solution then?"

Her head tilted ever further--almost looking comedic in a sense, but he could hardly accuse her of that when her crimson eyes remained fixed upon him.

"I explained it to the other mister…" Her voice rang through his mind. "But… Well, I could show you I guess? If you have someone who's sick around anyway."

Chen was too enraptured to say no.

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The infirmary was a place of misery, men and women strapped down and suffering as the Ravaging Husk Plague continued to do its terrible work upon them. The Lady Cinnabar simply looked upon the sight, shaking her head and making a disapproving set of tisks as she advanced on them, reaching into a portion of one of her sleeves.

From it she drew a thin, finely sharpened blade, sporting a strange, stained wooden handle.

"First things first, Mister Jingshen." Cinnabar began. "The most important thing when dealing with stuff like this is to know that everyone's a little bit different, and you can't be too squeamish if you really want to heal someone properly."

She flicked her blade, and drew a thin line of blood from one of the patients. Her nose twitched, and she stepped up to them. "First things first, you need to know, this stuff's in the water--it's got little chewy guys that swim around in it and think people are delicious. They're extra small and they're easy to miss if you don't know they're a thing that can exist. So you need to find out where they're waiting inside first. For me…"

She bends her head over the injury--and licks it clean, pursing her lips tightly together as she spreads the blood along her tongue.

"That's…" Jingshen Chen pales. "D…"

"Blood Path?" Cinnabar interrupted. "Nah, not really, I'm not cultivating using it, I've got sharp senses, and all kinds of things hang out in the blood. I take a taste, and can figure out what organs are starting to chip off because of the little bugs. Which tells me where to look for the next phase." She wrinkles her nose. "I… guess if you want to do something yourself, you could make a pill that spreads a dye or something that lights up? I don't really know, I'm not much of an apothecary."

Chen was about to say disgusting, but her rationale was… Well, it couldn't be helped, he just admitted to a degree of disappointment that such an enchanting beauty had such an unsightly method.

"So, for this poor fellow… Looks like parts of his stomach and liver are already owned by the little guys." She monologues. "Good thing it hasn't gotten to the spine yet, that's usually when it gets beyond the point of being able to do much about it."

Her blade flew up--and several more streaks of blood flew out--the victim too starved to care. "Now, step two, once you know what's damaged so you can minimize hurt--you need to get inside the damaged organs and remove the bad parts."

She reached up into the incisions, fingers dipping within. The patient seemed to finally notice something was going on and leaned forward, eyes widening and starting to scream into their gag.

"Easy, easy." Cinnabar chided. "I'll be done in just a sec…" She inserts her blade after a moment of feeling, rummages around--and comes out eventually with a hunk of superficially fine flesh. "You have some magic that can look *really* close at something? Give it a shot." She wiggles the piece of organ at Chen--who gulps,but focuses.

And finds himself taken aback--the entire portion of stomach was crawling with tiny, insignificant creatures, latched on and secreting foul liquids onto their home.

"Yeah, they're pretty ugly." Cinnabar agrees, closing her fist around the organ piece "But anyway, once you've gotten their home removed, what you need to do next is fold the undamaged parts into the functioning parts--kind of like using a bandage of itself, you know?"

She does so, fiddling with the injured organ. Disregarding the weeping of the patient. "The thing is, these little guys don't outright eat the stuff they're stuck on--because they're smart, you know? They'd die too. So they drag it out until they're ready to move on. First you lose the ability to eat, then to drink, then it gets into your spine and starts to realize that they've gone too far--so they start getting ready to move on to the next person and hang out in the blood. So the person goes crazy and everything about them starts spreading because they're jumping out of the sinking place, you know?"

She repeats her feat with the liver, extracting the damaged portions, and stitching some of it together again.

"But once you've gotten them out, give it a day or so to get everything going again, and feed them a basic Organ Regeneration Pill--and there you go, full recovery!" She claps her hands together--somehow pristine despite the work she was doing. "That's all there is to it!"

Jingshen Chen was stunned by this. "Who… Taught you how to heal?"

Cinnabar brought one finger to her chin and thought hard about it for a while. "A bunch of people giving bits and pieces here and there" She admits after a moment. "Then I used those bits and pieces to figure out the rest, and adapted for how my body works, and the rest kind of worked itself out, you know?"

He intuitively understood the idea--that someone had to begin the process of understanding a new discipline.

But what was this? The methods were borderline heretical! She gouged and maimed the subject of her ministrations like some common mortal physician!

And yet, she applied that with a precision of a genius, the harm was minimized--and the effect maximized. So that she could mend the wounds of anyone, whether she had resources on hand to rely on or not.

Genius and insanity walking hand in hand with the face of an angel. Subtractive Medicine. How had he never imagined such a thing? "That which can cure can also kill, in the right dosage" was something he had known for sure. This was more like… "A blade can cure as well as it can kill, so long as it is aimed well enough."

There was a lesson to be had in that, Chen thought.

He had the samples now from the source of the plague--could he perhaps prepare a poison harmless to humans, but would selectively destroy the creatures here? Perhaps reacting with the paralyzing fluid that they secreted?

The doors that had opened were many--he needed to explore every one!

"So…" Cinnabar asked, dusting her hands off. "Can I go back now? I've kind of promised to be their doctor until the trip is done, and I do need the cores for my breakthrough…"

He waved her off, focused on his own endeavours once again--he would not waste this chance to wipe away his shame as a cultivator!

Chen did remember though to pass on to his Aide to give the Lady Cinnabar his contact information though--madwoman she may be, her skills were real--and corresponding with other fellow Daoists on the path of medicine--heretical or not--could only benefit his own growth.

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
The Red Queen
​

*Your Cultivation has advanced to adequate levels* The Voice whispered in its usual quiet, breathy, 'not really there but actually i'm in your head' way. She tended to chime in from time to time, even when outside of the big mountain-face that she normally lived inside. Something about a 'Sympathetic Linkage through shared blood and soul lineage?'

Just strange and complicated stuff across the board really!

Aliki sat cross-legged in the center of a great diagram, staring up into the starry sky. The place she had chosen--on the Voice's recommendation--was one of the newer places in the Blighted Lands--easy enough to make a trip down to after she finished her work off to the East fiddling with people's insides and grabbing papers full of useful information and copying them out!

Of course, the other part did involve using her stabby bits in a way she hadn't been familiar with beforehand. 'An Ancient Technique of the Master's Path' The Voice said. 'Barred from his disciples by the uncaring heavens'. It apparently involved nibbling on their knowledge before their soul went poof while you were drinking them off--and going all fwoosh and suitably punishing them for getting grabby left her with opportunities!

Hiding the bodies was also pretty easy when they're reduced to hollow skeletons, just a bit of stomping here and there to turn them to dust and throw 'em out into the wind! It was polite and pleasant and would probably eventually contribute to fertilizing the ground somewhere at some point! That was very important!

Still, she did good work, sent lots of good information back, and blew all of her new points on the reagents she needed for this big aray here!

*Advancing further on the Unorthodox Path would be of minimal value to you and introduce greater risk in the process* The Voice continued. *Your Tree of Death will ensure you do not fall behind such adherents in the long run, but the value of optimizing flesh and bone vs the increased difficulty of the tribulation is valuable for you. It will be possible to take advantage of your Tribulation to awaken an additional two chakras.*

"Mmm" Aliki nodded, which was kind of pointless because the Voice was stuck in the big Mask and that was like whoa far away. Still, it was important to emote from time to time to prevent people from getting spooked! "Because there's all those bad guys coming in soon, right?"

*Subjects from other Seas are not something I had a chance to study in my life, you will need to capture subjects and compare and contrast with local phenotypes* The Voice mused in response to that. *It should be of great value to your own evolution, as your Dao begins to germinate.* Aliki then feels the Voice's attention focus. *You have spent time meditating on the Path, correct?*

Aliki nodded, hair bobbing in the motion. "Mmm, I think it's..." She paused then, gathering her thoughts together. "I think it's... Incomplete, you know?"

*Elaborate* The Voice's pressure built, it still sounded as emotionless as ever, but Aliki had heard enough from it to know that it didn't like her answer either.

"Well, take a look at everything you've been telling me so far." Aliki added, opening one hand and holding it before her. "The Master's Path of Consumption is one that stands against Heaven's Will, that defies what is allowed and seizes instead what it wishes--drawing on the transcendent power of the human condition and gathering all knowledge and power into a single transcendent vessel, refined through the crucible of conflict until reaching a sublime state of mastery." She opens her other hand then, raising it parallel to the other. "That's the way you defined it to be when you were lecturing me, and I sort of felt it was a lot of big words... But between the fighting against those Blood Cannibal guys who also follow that path, and then looking at those Jingshen guys to the east, and... Hmm, it didn't sit right with me?"

She clenches her fists, curling them back to her stomach. "It's... I'm not good with words like some people, but... Where does that path even go?. You drive yourself up super high, you eat and eat and eat, and you don't put anything back afterwards? It's just..."

Memories of her youth flashed before her eyes, the affection of her adopted family, the kindness of the people who took her in.

But most importantly, was the gnawing hunger that walked aside her--it had gone into remission of late--clashing against bandits, cultists, and monsters that travelled the sparsely populated frontier. But it was never gone--it was that fear of hunger that drove her to this day--to put her back into earning her keep so that she could keep it at bay until the end of time.

But to hear the Voice talk about it, that Hunger was... Desirable?

"It's just going to leave you with nothing to eat if you take it to the limit, isn't it?" Aliki continued. "If you're the strongest--if you can just take what you want--you also need that much more. Then you're just hungry all the time, and that feeling is the worst... I don't think you can imagine it, really." She raised her head. "You were born strong, you could take what you wanted--hearing you talk, you were so strong that you could even scatter your cultivation and rebuild most of it stronger--and you didn't fall behind until you were stronger than anyone alive in this Sea today. You never really had anything to worry about... But.."

She shook her head sharply. "If I were to follow the Path as you described it, I'd just be hungry all the time. Sure I'd be strong, I'd even be smart, but is it worth it if it just makes my appetite grow out of control? To be so hungry all the time that I have to scour everything to the dirt to keep ahead of it? I've seen some of those farms that the Cannibals made, and they're just..."

Emaciated, miserable people, hollow eyes, little more than cattle--and the look of feral animals looking for the next meal.

She didn't participate in the settlement mission for a reason, she had enough of that when she was young.

"It's not right, and if the Master is as wise as you claim, he'd know that too." Aliki concluded. "So the fact that this isn't known... Kind of suggests to me that it's not the whole story--and so I don't want to dive head first into a path that will make me hungry."

The Voice was silent for a time. Processing the remark.

*... Acceptable rationale* she grudgingly allowed. *Your alternative?*

Aliki smiled. "It's simple then! For everything that dies by my hand, I need to save at least one life!" She brings her hands out again. "Because every person I save, is likely to bring more life in the future. Fighting is unavoidable in this world, and Wasting Food is a Sin, but that doesn't mean that has to be all that I am." Her mouth opens, revealing her toothy grin. "But! If I save people who otherwise would have died, they'll go on and build things, and they'll ensure that no matter what happens, I won't go hungry! Because the beasts will have things to eat, people will continue to cultivate and pick fights, and I won't have to worry about going hungry because there'll always be something else that wants a piece of me!"

She crossed her arms then and smugly nodded. "It's as simple as that! If I kill two, save two! If I kill a hundred, save a hundred! As long as I can maintain that balance of consumption and preservation, I can reach my potential without going hungry!"

*It will not be a swift path* The Voice cautioned, but Aliki huffed at that. "What's the point of cultivating fast if you're just going to outgrow your surroundings anyway? Look at all those guys from the Cannibal Sect? How many of them were my match despite how fast they cultivated?" She smirked. "Not a single one of them, even the best could barely manage a draw!"

*Acceptable, it is not the place of the dead to demand anything from the living* The Voice concluded. *Then, a Dao that seeks balance--a [Red Queen] that dictates who will live, and who will die.* It seemed to muse over the idea for a time. *It is not the Master's path, but it is a logical extension of his ideals. I will concede that a path of unrestrained Consumption does have unacceptable risks if taken to the pinnacle, especially in this benighted era where its holier attributes are barred to mankind.*

"Right? Right?" Aliki chirped. "So it's just a matter of doing my breakthrough and starting to figure out how all that works, right?"

*Essentially correct* The Voice concludes. *Prepare the formation, there is no sense in putting this off any longer, if you already understand your direction.*

Aliki grinned, and bit her thumb, clear Ichor spilling from it, pouring into the primary character that defined the Formation. It flashed brightly for a moment, and a strange haze came over the immediate surroundings of the hill she had chosen to provoke the Tribulation upon.

*Heavenly Tribulation is as much an attempt by the Heavens to identify unorthodox characters and secrets as it is a genuine challenge* The Voice explained. *To allow the secrets of your [Tree of Death] to be noticed will provoke them to make corrections to the restrictions on the Blood Path--you will lose the freedom that your body allows you. This Heaven-Concealing Formation will shield you from its casual inquiry, but against its direct attention, there will be no defense. Take great care not to employ its power as the lightning descends.*

"So I just need to take the hits, right?" Aliki mused, flicking one of her sleeves as her needles emerged. Her hand flashes again and again, striking the needles into her own acupoints. "No regeneration, no claws, and no topping up by having lunch mid battle, right?"

*Correct, though the regeneration brought on by the Bloodline of your adoptive Clan is within tolerance.*

"And that's what this medical technique is for! [Bronzeblood Galvanzation!] Aliki explained, her jade skin darkening into the shade of a reasonably strongly blooded Golden Devil. "I overcharge my bone marrow to produce high concentration of the Blood--more than the [Soul Rending Claws] can absorb in short term! For at least a little bit, I can borrow their power instead of my own." She clenches her hands, and frowns. "A bit stiff, but you can't run away from Heavenly Tribulation either, right?"

*No, prepare yourself--it's already locked on to you.*

Aliki raised her head, and witnessed the clouds darkening over with Heaven's Wrath. Sparks of lightning arcing out as the pressure and threat increased, feeding upon itself to generate Heavenly Wrath from... Honestly, nothing at all.

There was probably a trick behind that--maybe something to look into when time allowed?

The first strike of the Heavenly Tribulation came--an arm-width bar of white-hot electricity, sparking off of Aliki's implanted needles while leaving her skin tingly and rattling. But...

*Curious, those needles appear to be acting as pathways for the Heavenly Tribulation* The Voice clinically observed as lightning arced off of her. *Channeling them into your body, but in a controlled fashion that limits the havoc they can wreak... Ahhh, a Core Formation scorpion, of course it would have effect on a Qi Condensation's Tribulation.*

"Wasn't the plan, but I'll take it!" Aliki chimes in--bracing herself for the second stroke, crashing into her and splashing off into the sands about, glassing the terrain around her. The formation remained at full strength though--such a thing wasn't so easily broken.

*Indeed, this is good, on the fourth stroke, channel the energy of the Tribulation Bolt into Sahasrara*

"The Crown?" Aliki asked. "Isn't that a bit out of--Eep!" The third bolt struck, and this one actually started leaving a mark, leaving Aliki's knees wobbling as she adjusted to the force. "Out of order?"

*The order of awakening is irrelevant, each ability is standalone. This one will be of use to you*

Aliki frowned, but nodded, bracing herself as the Tribulation clouds roiled--the fourth stroke!

She raised a hand, and caught the bolt of lightning as it landed, letting it be drawn into her--coldfire from the heavens surging through her veins and meridians, empowered and purified by the additional Cultivation. They flew into the path of least resistance, surging up past Vishuddi, sizzling around Ajna, and gathering at the crown of her head.

Her hair hurt. It twitched, writhing wildly at the introduction of heavenly Qi and power.

And then...

Once, I was the Sable Crescent Widow

I journeyed through the Mountains, weaving my webs as I willed.

My foes turned against me, gathering together such that even my Thread Arts could not bind them all

I fled to the desert, and chose to make my stand by the Bloody Face

My foes died in its wrath, and I laughed as the Spirit claimed me for its own.

My legacy exists only to Bind

*Seal it, you can explore the Black Weave when the Tribulation has ended.* The Voice cautioned as the vision faded. Aliki nodded--still a little disoriented, but an exertion of her Will saw her hair steady itself once more. *On the Eighth Strike, focus the energies into Muladhara*

This time it was the Root? Aliki really didn't get why it was going in this order, but if the Voice seemed to think it was a good idea... No sense ignoring it!

More bolts continued to strike, and Aliki continued to weather the blows. The pace was... Well, it was painful--but it was better than starving, and her needles were really taking the edge off of much of this. Bolts five, six, and seven passed without too much drama.

But then came the eighth--which should be the final one by her count. Just like before, she needed to channel the Tribulation Lightning into one of her Chakras to awaken an additional Divine Ability. She didn't know what the first one did aside from a weird shady introduction, but hopefully this one would also come in handy.

She brought her arms up--both of them, to split the force evenly, and cried out as the eighth stroke of lightning slammed inside, much of the power bled off by the needles--but much still sailing through her body, narrowly dodging her organs before concentrating into Muladhara.

Her eyes grew wide, as the vision came over her.

Once, I was Wang Lin.

I travelled far and wide throughout the Third Sea, learning many a secret within.

I learned the tale of the Sanguine Reaping Angel, and sought out her tomb

Little did I know, that her spirit lived on, hungry and eager for more.

My great armor failed me, and my soul was taken to her throne.

My shell exists only to Ward

And then it was over.

Aliki's hands still crackled with lightning--the Heavenly Tribulation having taken its toll and turned its attention to other matters. The [Tree of Death] emerged from its apertures and greedily devoured what lightning remained.

And within Aliki's spirit rose a great pillar, quietly leaking and unsteady--but the first Pillar of Hunger stood proud in her Qi Sea.

She flopped over on her back then, staring back up into the sky.

She'd have questions to ask, sooner or later.

But for now, she could take solace in knowing she had ascended another level. That was a good thing, right?

It almost definitely was, probably.

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
In the Thick of It
​

The Hundred Year Trials--a centennial calamity that befalls the Golden Devil Clan, bringing low their best and brightest at the hands of heartless and wicked cultivators from beyond the Third Sea--each bearing power far beyond all but the best of the best the Clan could offer. They had nigh unlimited resources, Dao Protectors of horrifying power enforcing horribly one-sided rules--and most importantly, they were just so nasty in general!

Aliki could see why nobody liked them! The really bad Trials were before her time, but this stretch? Rotten people end to end really!

Her claws sunk deep into the foe who face her--bronze-tipped razors slipping past their wards and soft-armor to plunge deep into their chest. She shuddered as Blood Essence began to pour into her body, filtered by the [Tree of Death] into new reserves of Ichor before the Fifth Sea Hunter's token burst and they were pulled off of her impalement. She settled to the ground, tendrils of black and red folding back into her arms and put her hands on her hips, pouting. "How rude!" She sniffed. "All of that funny talk and they didn't even stick around for lunch."

The sound of clashing steel and magic arts continued to rage behind her--but she pivoted in a twirl of loose fabric and hair to view the battle behind her. Qi Condensation fighting Qi Condensation! Foundation Establishment fighting Foundation Establishment! All holding their ground and giving as good as they're getting, as any proper fair match needs to be.

Oh sure, the Golden Devils were getting their arses handed to them in general, but the legendary vitality of the Clan allowed them to keep getting back up, and eventually even lucking out to hit the Tokens and eliminate their opponents! It was a courageous act of heroism that was definitely not being cheated in some fashion.

Because Aliki had read the stories as the Trials came up! Taking advantage of her new authority as a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to get into the better records, and she found that apparently seniors healing juniors? Well, it didn't count as interfering beneath your level--there was that evil Core lady from the last trial and she didn't get eliminated after all!

Of course, it's ludicrous to rule against that--why would you need to? Healing medicines are the only effective technique in the middle of battle, and why eliminate something that you held all of the advantages on?

Aliki licked her lips--and the jungle that was her hair rippled--tiny strands flickering with clear qi as she channeled another strand of Ichor to the most injured. They didn't count on her body being special though! It was Aliki's First Original Technique! The [Lifeweb Binding!] Oh sure her hair was supposed to be used to grab onto anything that got too close to her and wring their blood out for easier consumption while keeping them at bay--but what goes one way can go two ways! All she had to do is run the Divine Ability in reverse and she could send Ichor over to anyone. As a universal blood replacement, that meant she could use the [Art of Transfusion] all that she wanted to stimulate and galvanize the Blood used by other members of the Clan!

That she also floated a bit and radiated clear light as the technique operated also made her look very scary and very cool--even her eyes glowed a bit in that state! It made the bad guy seniors come right at her, babble things in their funny language and then jump at her--and then swish! boom! She got good meals and could share with everyone else so they could handle their bad guys!

It was a brilliant strategy that couldn't fail! Her cultivation base after all was just barely in Foundation Establishment--not even worth a moment's notice by the real super elites, and the ones who thought they could punch down?

Hehehe, they found themselves very surprised! Mister Spoon got a couple, and she got a couple more, and there was always stuff to hand out to the growing band of Legionnaires that seemed to think following her around was a good idea. Did this mean she was making friends? Is this what it was like to have lots of friends?

Who knows! But she liked the feeling, she liked the validation, and she liked people calling her Lady Aliki because it was flattering! She was important now and people liked and respected her! No more being the creepy girl with big hair and a burning stare!

She hummed a little tune as the last of the Fifth Sea Hunters were Eliminated or retreated, her hair gently letting her back down to her feet as she pulled back on the strands that bound her vitality with the others--the ones who were only slightly injured left to recover on their own while other strands intensified on the more badly injured ones--until they could get back on their feet.

"So!" Aliki clapped her hands together and smiled--remembering to keep her teeth hidden this time!--"We're making great time and keeping our losses down, do we have any idea of where a good place to move towards is?"

There's a rumbling of noise from the little Legionnaires--and one raised a hand, a smart looking young man with a pack full of array-tools and communication receivers. "We've gotten word from the Network that there's some lunatic Super Chosen flying all over the place and headhunting our Foundation Cultivators." He explained. "It's a big winding road, but it looks like the Shining One's moving to take the fight to Pleuron--so we should avoid that place if we don't want to be collateral damaged."

"Wasn't someone making a stand there?" Aliki wondered, getting a bunch of shrugs from the group. "Well, I'm sure it'll be just fine if we avoid that path of destruction! We're just a small bunch, right?"

"We're bigger than we started..." Another fellow mentioned. "And more come for every fight we intervene on--we're becoming a bigger target."

"Well, that's just natural!" Aliki lets a little teeth show this time. "The more bad guys that fight, the better my healing magics get! If enough of them come in, I can just go." She makes a snapping gesture with one of her hands. "Shnick Shnick and then everyone does even better!"

"What happens if you run into someone too tough to handle that way though?" The first fellow asked--and Aliki shrugged. "I guess we die then? But I mean, maybe we'll live, and you can't just act assuming you're going to die the moment you try to do something good!" She crossed her arms and puffed herself up. "We're the good guys here after all, and that means saving as many lives as we can while breaking as many of the bad guys that come for us! If we just run and hide, doesn't that mean the bad guys win?"

She shakes her head, hair billowing like an ebon cloud. "So nope! We're going to beat the bad guys by letting me turn their cultivation into healing magic!" She pumps a fist in the air. "So just follow me and I'll do my best to keep everyone in one piece!"

There's cheers... Of a sort anyway--it wasn't one of those big booming 'Yeahs!' you heard from a fully organized Legion on the march--but that was okay! These were people she had saved, and she didn't need enthusiasm to do her job anyway!

She had taken on the path of the [Red Queen], and any Queen needs a Kingdom, right? This is just the first step in her rise to become a great heroine!

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
Potentially Ominous Long-Term Plans​

These Trials Stung!

"Yes, that is typically what is expected to be the weaker party in an inter-Sea war" The Voice observed. "When the foe possesses unanswerable initiative and superior strength, one cannot expect more than calamity"

"That's nice and all." Aliki mumbled, reaching at one of the scabbed over, charred holes on her body, wincing as her hand brushed over them. "But nothing I've done is doing much to fix them!"

"They are blows infused with the Heavenly Daos, it is a natural law that you be harmed--that you survived two blows from such a source is a testament to the durability of that body."

"You say it, but I'm not used to this!" Aliki deflated, curling up, the glint of red on her ear the only sign of the minor treasure that put her in contact with the Voice without needing to run back in. "Normally I can either stitch it up or just have lunch and fix it up! This is super uncomfortable though!"

The Voice is silent for a moment. "Perhaps inhibiting the pain response of your shell was a suboptimal move" It observed. "Consider this a tempering trial then."

Aliki puffed her cheeks out and blew a lock of her hair out of her eyes. "Tempering, Tempering, Tempering, it's all hitting people with hammers in hopes that they get better instead of stronger--it's very inappropriate!"

"It is the nature of the world that power is always accompanied by Pain" the Voice dispassionately recites. "Regardless, we will soon have company, pay attention."

"Company?" Aliki wondered--only to hear a knock at her door. She gave a little yelp of surprise and automatically hopped up into one of the upper corners of her meditation chamber, where she would count on her hair to root her up there and have something solid to her back while having the high ground on the intruder!

Or… That was the dream anyway--but her injuries twitched again as she started her leap, and she ended up stumbling mid-step, flinging herself into the incense burners and medicines left in the side in a clattering of brass and copper and all kinds of other jingling, musical metals struck by a larger, heavier object.

The door opened, a Legionnaire in ill fitting armor standing there--hair cut short and freckles of bronze standing out on otherwise ordinary features. "Ah! Centurion Floros, are you alright?"

Aliki's robes and hair were a wild tangle, her control and strength only leaving her further suppressed--one red eye stared back, blinking, glowing slightly in the dimmed light of the meditation chamber.

"Ummm…" The Legionnaire looked for a way out of this situation. "Ah! There's… Err, an invitation for you?" She reached into the satchel at her side and pulled out a parchment. "To a luncheon on behalf of Centurion Flavia Karkinos…" She looked frantically from side to side. "I'll… Just…"

She folds up the letter, and tucks it into the cushion at the center of the chamber, and backs away bowing. "Apologies for the interruption!" She squeaks, before slamming the door shut.

Aliki had nothing to add to that, she was too busy trying to wrap her head around that.

"A… Luncheon?" She mused, a trace of drool appearing on the side of her mouth. "Just… Giving me food?"

She slowly started to unwind herself. "That's… Does this mean I have friends?" She wondered. "There was that tiny girl a while back, but she sort of stopped appearing after a while? Did that count?" She grappled with the problem. "I don't know what to do with this. This hasn't happened before!"

"Victory forgives much in the way of character flaws'' The Voice recites. "The most toxic of beasts and the most hedonistic silkpants are all equally desirable guests to any who seek to build influence."

"But I don't have silk pants and I don't use poisons?" Aliki pushed back, finally getting the biggest tangle out and stretching herself out of the bundle she had gotten herself stuck in. "You made it very clear that I needed to use soft leather for the best synergy in empowerment after all!"

"They are expressions--regardless, your performance in the previous tribulation--however injured you may have been in the aftermath--proves you to stand a cut above and beyond the common masses of Cultivators. As you are presently politically and fraternally unattached, this makes you a highly desirable figure to form a relationship with."

"That doesn't sound very friendly to me though…" Aliki frowned, rolling back up to her feet and going to tidy her cultivation equipment. "Seems like a lot of problems."

"A partnership of that kind nonetheless opens many opportunities--both in gaining patronage within the greater houses of this Clan and in the resources such a position entitles you to." The Voice lists out. "So long as no children are demanded of any such partnership, there should be no issue."

"Why would that be a problem?" Aliki asks. "I don't think I'm missing anything down there…"

"You are not yet in full control of your physique, any such exposure to it would kill your partner in short order, such would be a violation of the laws of your patron clan and result in your expulsion, limiting your ability to survive this time of troubles."

"Oh." Aliki nods in understanding. "So don't let the doohickey into the special place, got it."

"... Technically correct." The Voice actually seemed to take a minute to react to that! Was that a good thing or not? "Avoid such relationships until you break through to Nascent Soul and can fully control your power." The Voice pauses again.

"On that topic, now that you have stabilized your cultivation into Foundation Establishment, we must begin determining your long term plans". The Voice aggressively changes the subject, and Aliki returns to the cushion to settle back down, all ears.

"There are two options available to you at the current juncture." The Voice agrees. "Two opportunities to seize greater advantage for yourself. You can seek the Emperor's Pillar and assert the dominance of your [Red Queen] over the will of the Heavenly Daos. I am uncertain as to the consequences of taking this route--the Master may have blazed the trail, but this would be extending it on a pathway he did not take. It should be an interesting case study either way."

"That's gonna be tricky…" Aliki mumbled, rubbing her chin. "There's a lot of Cultivation needed just to get to the Eighth Pillar, I can move pretty fast if I put my mind to it, but that's a lot of time for things to go wrong, isn't it?"

"True, and the Heavens are unlikely to tolerate a follower of the Master's Path to advance into the realm beyond the Ninth Pillar." The Voice elaborated. "While the Cultivation requirement is relatively limited, the Tribulation is liable to be of exceptional difficulty. Success is far from guaranteed. However, the effects should be interesting either way."

"I'll think about it and see how fast Foundation Establishment goes by--there's apparently this funny labyrinth that Old Gold dug out in the middle of the desert somewhere, if I can get strong enough, it might be worth trying out!"

"Secret Realms are a reliable way of building strength--though a repeat of your adventure into the Qiguai Realm would be undesirable at this time--and I lack the inclination to continue salvaging your vessel in times of peril--you will need to learn an Escape Technique"

"Oh! Oh! I heard of those!" Aliki chimed in. "It's part of why the Blood Path is so hard to stamp out, right? The ability to just go fwoosh and pop up somewhere else?"

"Yes, at your current level, you are capable of learning my Sanguine Body Shift." There's a buzzing in Aliki's head, beginning from where the earring sat. Transmitting the knowledge into her head…

Infusing a drop of Blood Essence into the tip of the finger, drawing a Blood Rune into a cask containing enough of one's own blood--or Ichor in Aliki's case--to reforge the body. Upon breaking the link to the Blood Rune, the soul follows along that shattered link and reforges the body from the material left behind. A peerless evasion technique so long as enough food could be supplied to prepare the cask in the first place.

"That's gonna take a lot of hunting," Aliki groans. "And I can't hide them all in one place either"

"Regardless, it will allow me to avoid expending further wisps of my Will to prevent your destruction in times of calamity" The Voice elaborated. "Doing so while you were at Qi Condensation was easy--doing so now that you are Foundation Establishment is hard. You should rely on your own strength now anyway."

"I guess you're right" Aliki sighs, and flops on her back. "So, that was one path, what's the other one?"

"Stay the course of Orthodoxy, when the time comes that your Core is at its full flower, call down a partial tribulation and divide it. Rebuild each of the lesser cores, enter Nascent Soul from there."

"Dual Soul? There's stories about that, but how is that better than some kind of weird fundamental thingie like the Emperor's Pillar?" Aliki wonders.

"The Soul is the most powerful thing in the cosmos, to the best of my studies. Mere wisps of it can infuse life into the lifeless, drive an otherwise mundane shell into demigodhood. More importantly, thought and creativity are rooted in the presence of a Soul--and by dividing yours in twain and then empowering each into a Nascent Divinity, you maximize your capacity to thought and conceptualize--even beyond the enormous supply of Qi this arrangement permits."

"Huh, that's a big deal, isn't it?"

"It is the path I walked at my peak. I simply converted one of my Souls into a great wealth of Will and the energy required to permit adaptation while I allowed my younger Soul to disperse its cultivation and start fresh. I gambled that its Lifespan would have started from scratch." A note of frustration entered the Voice's ordinarily emotionless tone there. "Alas, they barely reached the Twelfth Heavenstage before the Body began to decay, and I began my final project. It is a shame that the younger soul's degradation now is terminal, or I would have infused it into your vessel when it was prepared."

"Huh," Aliki blinked there. "Well, I'm glad it didn't come to that? I suppose?"

"Mmm, this has not been a complete waste of my afterlife" The Voice concurs. "Regardless, it is a potent path in its own right--at the very least, establishing a Great Sect of your own would be no problem."

"Hmmm. Would that be a good thing though?" Aliki wondered. "This place is doing well enough, isn't it?"

"Should it stand strong when you reach Nascent Soul, true--but much can still change in the centuries that would take you. It is wise to keep your options open."

"Huh, so, go to the party, try to make friends, but don't commit to anything unless it's really valuable, right?

"Correct."

"Easy enough!" Aliki bends over and picks the parchment up from where she had flopped down over it. "I wonder if they'll have anything new? I like being surprised…"

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
The Doctor Will See You Now!
​

The Golden Devils were weird.

Of course, weird was relative--when weird leaves a marching band of strangely colored cultivators entering the walls in tight formation, after having torn an opening into the Noble Devil Alliance's siege lines with their great mounted soldier formation, bearing badly needed supplies and defenders for the overextended defenders of Thousand Song City? You take what you can get.

Qian Chao would take weird barbarian soldiers right now--Demonic or otherwise--this war had just been a complete mess from end to end after all, and with so much of the allied Coalition's experts drawn away into the front lines to do... Something or other.

Maybe burn down that big extension on the Noble Knowledge Sect's scary poison maze that they were supposed to be setting up? It'd be awful if those horrible witches could expand their numbers!

It still did leave the people living here in a bit of a pinch though! The constant swarm of Blood Cultists was kind of exhausting and while watching a bunch of them get run over by barbarians was satisfying there was always the cleanup afterward which was just all big piles of ughhh.

Qian Chao only had so many herbs after all!

If she was really quick though, maybe she'd be able to get her hands on some of the Good Stuff? This bunch of barbarians should have supplies with them...

She picked her her pace, gathering up the hem of her robes as she drew on the depths of her cultivation base. She had only been a little girl when the Sect fell down--one of the handful of people who could gather up the herbalism legacies of the Thousand Arrows and Flowers Sect while the masters fought desperately in a losing battle against the demonic ancients. All this talk about revenge and all that was all...

How was she even supposed to care? It was nice that they still let her do the records--and she had made a good living for herself as an apothecary here--but when it came down to a future... How many of the legacies she had extended forever? How many were dependent on rare herbs that were now either trampled over or in the hands of the Noble Knowledge Sect?

She was doing her best with the basics of the basics--and in a few more years she may even qualify to get enough treasures to push into Foundation Establishment! But with supplies being as tight as they were, she could only go so far--and given the level of warfare that was going on, how many people actually survived long enough to limp home and be treated?

She sighed as she jaunted her way in the direction of the gatehouse--the barbarian soldiers fanning out as supply carts were steadily being rolled out. One with particularly fancy looking armor discussed things with Elder Jadeseal of the Strength Purity Sect, probably about little details here and there. Laborers slowly started trickling in to unload the carts.

But she got there first! Hah! The first to the table always got the best choices.

"Excuse me!" Qian Chao chirped, waving her hand to get the attention of the Foundation-level guy in only slightly fancy armor and a weird helmet there. "Did you get any spirit herbs with this package that can be spared?"

The armored man frowned, lifting up a jade slip and sending his Will into it for a moment. "Name and profession?" He curtly asked, a funny sounding accent in his tone. Qian Chao nodded. "Qian Chao, Apothecary currently associated with the Broken Arrow..." Her lips twist in distaste at that--garnering a look of sympathy from the organizer guy. "Hmm..." He said. "We do have a disbursement for Qi Condensation Healers available. Two Taels of Silver Mending Leaf, One of Azure Peace Grass, and five portions of Minor Yang Fruit."

Qian Chao frowned at that... It wasn't a bad amount--enough to make a good pile of Physical Recovery Elixir if she was careful with the brewing... But that only went so far. The barbarian captain shook his head. "The disbursement is fixed, unfortunately." He apologized. "Given the haste of the expedition and the resources that could be shipped, we can only allocate so much towards those without an extensive record of contributions." He nonetheless reached into the great cart for a moment, and withdrew several sealed packets. "As supplies and records are developed, your ration may be improved."

"Well... How can I develop that?" Qian Chao asked, frowning as she took the packets in hand, squinting through her Layer-Piercing Spectacles to confirm that the quality--at least--was good.

"Notarized delivery of resources to accredited logisticians" He explained. "Work performed under accredited observers can also raise one's merit rating... Normally we would be working with local groups to establish credentials, but with the current chaos of the war, the contribution records of the remaining cultivators are a shambles--so we're attempting to rebuild from scratch."

Qian Chao blinked--that was... Fairly reasonable. "So wait, as long as I do my work under someone you've vetted, I can get a bigger share?"

"That's how it works." He nodded.

"Great! Who's hiring?" Qian Chao tucked her rationed herbs into her bag and put her hands on her hips. "I've got nothing but time on my hands!"

The... He was definitely a Captain, yes--took a moment to think on it. "Centurion Floros could use some assistants I suppose..." He said, sounding a little skeptical. "You would certainly be noticed there so long as your ability is on the level..."

Qian Chao tilted her head. "Is there a problem?"

"Not as such--she's actually a quite talented member of the Clan and one of our most adept healers--she gained much notoriety in the most recent Trials." Qian Chao wondered if that was some kind of tempering thing they had going on. "But she is... Something of an eccentric..."

"Oh no... Does she blow up too many furnaces?" Qian Chao blanched at that--the Captain hesitated. "No... She's not that much of an alchemist for the most part... But... Her style is somewhat unique. Effective, but... Highly unorthodox--it may be a bit much."

"But she's good at her job, right?" Qian Chao asked--to a nod. "Then there's not a problem! I'm used to working with unusual people!" How could she not be? The number of burst Pill Furnaces she'd seen in the desperate attempts to rebuild the Sect's Flower Legacy was incredible. Even if she avoided most of them herself. How hard could working with a weirdo be?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ohmigosh!" The lady looked almost giddy when Qian Chao was invited in. She was...

Pretty--incredibly so--almost one of those Fairy Maidens that people talk about! She even dressed in a way that was totally trying to provoke boys into doing silly things to get closer to her! That's not how a healer should dress at all!

Of course, the heavy bandages over one of her shoulders and through her waist showed that whatever condition she was in, she'd seen better days. "Does this mean I've got a cute junior of my own? Finally!? Am I rising up in the world now?"

"Ah... Lady Floros?" Qian Chao whispered. "I... Don't understand what you're saying."

The lady paused there, and brought a finger to her lips. "Oh, right, I need to talk like this around these parts?" She mused--a dreamy voice one foot into sleep rung out. "Well, that's okay. I can talk like this too if it comes to it!" She brushes her hair back in a frustratingly beautiful display and grins--sharply pointed canines briefly visible just past her lips, red earrings flickering in the light. "I'm Aliki Floros! Or that's what they called me when they found me when I got started. Age 120 with my First Pillar recently formed!" She put her hands and puffed herself up, her... Mounds bouncing in the gesture. "It's a pleasure to meet you! I'm sure we'll be very busy soon enough!"

That's... So she was only a little bit older than Qian Chao was?

She looked down at herself and blushed. How unfair was that? "I'm... I'm certain I'll do my best!" Qian Chao said in a desperate attempt to regain the initiative. "Just... Tell me what you need!"

Lady Floros nodded to herself. "Great! Now, I'm certain there's a lot to be done--you said you were an apothecary?" Qian Chao made a little noise of agreement. "Great! I'm okay at that but pillcrafting isn't really my thing." She gestures off into the distance. "A lot of stuff I can do isn't really my thing honestly--I've got a good idea of manipulating vital energies, and I can patch someone up so they can get to a better healer in a pinch, but my best tricks rely on my weirdo constitution so anyone who can help me stretch that a good ways can go a long way."

"Umm... Weird constitution?" Qian Chao's cheeks pinked at that--goodness, was she one of those loose ladies who just goes around and does unspeakable things to people that somehow leaves them better off? That was incredibly inappropriate!

"Yeah! My body generates a whole lot of untyped Blood Essence" Lady Floros chirps. "So I can directly transfer vital force from myself to others to stimulate accelerated healing and recoup my losses using other methods. My body's constantly a cauldron that removes and disposes of impurities too, so I can recoup my own losses with pills, beast cores, good spirit beast meat and all that nonsense! So as long as I can keep scarfing down Blood Replenishment Pills, I can help a lot of people get back in action a lot faster than they normally would!"

"That's..." Qian Chao thought it over for a minute. "Isn't that kinda really close to Blood Path? Won't it hurt their future prospects?"

"Nope! We've been poking and prodding my weirdo body forever!" Lady Floros boasts. "The worst side effects people get is a bit of an energy buzz if I try shoving the stuff into someone who's already in good shape. I was actually hoping to poke around and integrating it into certain pills as a binding or stabilizing agent too--so as part of your time working with me I'll be drawing on your skills to experiment!" She hopped up onto a funny looking nearby stool. "Great to meet you Qian Chao! I'm sure we'll have a great time together!"

Qian Chao didn't know what to say about that, the lady's grin just kind of grew wider and wider and she could just see the pearly whites in there ready to eat her up and...

She gulped.

She still needed the proof and the evidence and all of that stuff that she could do her job well. If she were to back down from that now, in the middle of the siege? What was she going to amount to in the end?

Qian Chao did see though now why that Captain seemed so hesitant about his recommendation here. Maybe it would have been safer to work with someone more normal? Even if it took longer, at least it would be predictable.

On the other hand... The lady wasn't really giving off any vibes that she was a bad person either? A scary one, and those bandages were big and a little damp with something that she couldn't see--and that suggested she'd seen frontline action in recent times.

But injuries like that and she was still alive? And not even especially deterred? How many people would just go into Closed Door Cultivation for a while after being injured like that--but she's just chugging along and even came in to a warzone like this?

What kind of person would she be if she showed any less resolve than that.

"I... I'll be in your care then, Lady Floros!" Qian Chao gathered her courage and took the first step into the abyss.

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
Trauma Care
​

Everything Qian Chao had once thought she knew about healing was wrong, apparently.

Oh sure, she could brew up some fine healing elixirs given time and materials, she could monitor and treat the injured, ill, and poisoned. She was even a fairly solid hand at using pulse reading to determine more subtle injuries!

But all it took was one weirdo doing insane things to cast her life's work into doubt.

"Well, the way I see it." Lady Floros was saying, that gigantic plume that was her hair ruffling in the motion. "Someone being hurt is someone's vitality being damaged. You get however much when you're born, you get a bit more as you cultivate, and that's that--when you run out you just go poof" She gestured in all directions there, enunciating that last... onomatopoeia with a pop to her lips. "Someone getting hurt is like... Say your vitality is water, and everyone's body is a barrel for instance. Someone gets hurt? Their vitality spills out--and even if they patch the hole, it still takes a good while and some pills to make good on what you lost in the spillage."

She glances back into the infirmary, dozens of wounded disciples committed to bed rest--the light reflecting off of hairline thin strands of hair connecting them to the healer. "I mean, I could just study herbalism and all that, I could just study how certain parts of a spirit beast can be repurposed in elixirs and pills. I could come up with formulas that can stimulate the body's ability to replenish lost vitality. But that's super expensive, super picky, and I'd have to get into all kinds of horrible business and icky stuff to make good on it."

Qian Chao stared off into the mess of wounded, their injuries drawn closed--needle and thread apparently with bits of the slightly older lady's hair. Supposedly they could be absorbed harmlessly after the wound closed naturally, and they served as a great binding agent in the meantime. "It still kind of bothers me though." She admits--they had had close enough association in the past several months to allow for candid talk. "It feels like Blood Path, you know? And those are all outside and would eat everyone in here if they had a chance."

Lady Floros snorted dismissively at that. "Well, yeah, that's because they're crazy people." She turns her attention to the walls--formation characters flickering into being as attacks scattered across the defenses, only to be responded to in kind. "It's like..." She bites her bottom lip in thought, a trace of fang briefly being visible. "It's like they don't know what it means to be hungry, you know?"

Qian Chao turned to Aliki then, confusion on her face. "Uh, the fact they eat everything that moves kind of says the opposite you know?"

Aliki shakes her head. "Nuh-uh" She says, almost childishly. "That's exactly why I say they don't know what it means to be hungry." She crosses her arms and swirls back around to Qian Chao. "The big thing when you're hungry is that you're always trying to find out where your next meal is going to come, and you have to plan everything out, bit by bit by bit. You have to ration it out, stretching what little you get so that you may be hungry but you're at least not starving." For all that her voice was a languid, soft tone--she spoke with no small amount of authority. "I mean, yeah, they look like they're hungry in the sense they keep eating everything. But they're not Hungry hungry, you know? Because they eat everything they can. You get it?"

"Not quite..." Qian Chao frowned and tried to mull the idea over. "It seems either way, they're still eating people?"

"Well, yes, but it's not because they Need to, but because they Want to." Aliki places her hands on her hips and leans forward a bit. "I know I'd certainly like a bottomless supply of spirit stones and good spirit beast meat! I'd get as much as I can if I could! Does that mean I'm hungry for them?"

Qian Chao's expression went dull for a moment as she recalled several little events that had occurred over her time working in the Devil's Clinic--tossing spirit stones in her mouth and chewing on them like candies. Draining the life and flesh and blood from captured spirit beasts in the space of moments, shriveling them up into desiccated husks.

"So... The fact they get something out of it taints their motivations?" Qian Chao came out of her reverie with the explanation--eliciting a big grin and a clap from Lady Floros. "Exactly! You eat because you have to, because the alternative is going hungry! But the Blood Path out there eats because they Want to, because it makes them more powerful and lets them live longer! So yeah, they don't know what it means to be hungry because if they did, they wouldn't be bashing down our doors just because there was something they could eat in here! Just spending all your time eating because you can but you're not hungry is super bad, because when do you stop?"

"They don't, right?" Qian Chao sighed, strength leaving her shoulders as she slumped. "They just keep coming until they burn out or they're stopped by someone."

"And that's exactly what my job to do is here!" Lady Floros nodded eagerly. "To make sure that they fail, because guys like that means I have to keep explaining myself all the time!" Her face returns to its usual pout as she straightens up, cracking her back. "But, it's all well and good I suppose, a bit of exposition never hurt anyone, and it gives us something to..."

Her nose twitches, and she glances up into the air. "Oh, that's not going to be good."

"What's not going to be..." Qian Chao asks, following Lady Floros' gaze. Another bombardment? Those had been getting rebuffed all day, nothing to worry about, was it?

The shell of power crashed into the city barrier--and this time did not immediately shatter. Instead, it began to grind--array characters flashing to life and fighting back.

"Mmm, yeah, they're definitely going to get in." Lady Floros frowned. "I really did want to avoid getting any exercise."

"Uh... What do you mean?" Qian Chao backed up a step or two. "We'll be fine, right? There's lots of experts who can deal with any problems, right?"

"We're sitting on a place with plenty of injured people who can't put up much of a fight." Lady Floros observed, testing her bandages with a frown and checking her ability to move her arms properly. She winced. "Which means that when you have a bunch of greedy thugs who want a free lunch..."

"... Oh no..." Qian Chao paled and shrunk back. "We... We should run away, right? We're healers, we have no business being on the front lines!"

"Ah ah ah..." Lady Floros raised one finger and wiggled it about. "We're the healers, we are the final line of defense. Sure, we're not supposed to be fighting in the front lines--but that's a long way from saying we should either lie down and die or leave our charges at their mercy..."

The shell in the air flashed, and detonated--a transient hole opened in the barrier as Demonic Cultivators poured out--a shell that carries a sally force inside apparently? Many began using secret magics to slow their descent--and exactly according to Lady Floros' prediction, many seemed to be coming towards the clinic. Not the majority--and their cultivation wasn't very high--but there was at least one foundation establishment attacker coming down and...

"W... What are we supposed to do then?!" Qian Chao asked--and Lady Floros raised one of her arms--the undamaged one apparently--and flexed her hands. "Well, you should probably consider learning a martial art, or a technique that can suppress attackers--Lady Bardos for instance is way scarier than anyone who would dare come into her territory!" Qian Chao had no idea who that was! "But... Well, I guess it can't be helped this time--I'll clean up this little mess on your behalf."

Her lips stretched wide, baring teeth--ivory, fanged things that took on a much darker tone when fully exposed to the air.

The demonic cultivators landed, a Foundation Establishment cultist wearing the robes of a Demonic Altar expert leading them--he sneered at the two women standing against him. "Hah, is this all that stands against me? Women and children?" He scoffed, a lewd grin growing on his face. "Well, I certainly wouldn't object to a little dessert after we're done, heh heh heh..." He snaps his fingers and gestures at the clinic. "Get in and take them!"

There's a rustling of... Something.

Nothing happens. Qian Chao desperately glanced from side to side, uncertain as to what was going on--but the Demonic Altar disciples were simply... Frozen?

No! She had seen this before! The tiny strands of reflective light off of the air.

"Mmm, here's the thing." Aliki Floros said, stepping forward. The Demonic Altar Disciples twitching, paralyzed in the invisible strands of hair. "Vitality is Vitality, where it comes from and where it goes doesn't really matter in the end--and while a lot of people kind of have the misconception that healing arts can't be used to do harm... Nothing could be further from the truth!"

The expert leading the group took a step back. "What are you doing?" He gathered up his Qi--wary of what he may have stepped into. Lady Floros twisted one finger in the air, wrapping up a strand of hair bit by bit--showing the dull red gleam within it. "Using my unique constitution as a filter, I have the ability to neutralize all identifying traits within any vitality I absorb. Spirit Beasts are usually the best as their vitality is stronger to begin with, and I can get the most done using them as a source. Compare to that? What people have to offer really isn't that great." She wrinkles her nose then in distaste, focusing the entirety of her attention on the leader. "The only real upside is how many people there are--but even that's just kinda lazy."

"Y.. Wha?" The Expert stumbles for a moment--but shakes his confusion off after a moment and draws out a spear. "I... How dare you?!" His Qi surges, and he charges! Qian Chao screams and crouches down, hands over her head--was this going to be the end?

There's a wet squelching noise a moment later.

"There's just no point to it, all you're doing is taking you know?" Aliki's voice continued, barely over a whisper--her foe gurgled, a wooden-handled scalpel buried into his throat. "That's not a path that leads anywhere but people going hungry, and I won't have that, you see?"

Qian Chao stared at the rapidly withering man. His blood sucked into the handle of the scalpel. "So go, die, because I've said that the people here get to live. When you decided to turn your teeth on the people behind me, that was the moment your life was forfeit."

He slumped to the ground, a desiccated husk. Lady Floros nodded at that, spun the scalpel in her hand as it slid back into her sleeve--and turned her attention on the frozen Disciples. "So..." She asked, raising her voice so Qian Chao could hear it. "I dunno what the protocol here is--should I finish these guys off or take them prisoner or something?"

Qian Chao looked up at her, at the frozen disciples, and gulped loudly. "I... Don't think Qi Condensation is going to know anything useful? Especially ones attacking our base like this?"

"Ah, well, can't blame me for trying." Aliki sighed, and snapped her fingers--each erupted into a spray of blood, falling to the ground in droves. "So! That takes care of that!" She smiled, turning back to Qian Chao with a clap of her hands. "We'll just wait for the people on the wall to take care of things while we get the patients ready to move, in case the defense line runs into trouble!"

"You just... They just..." Qian Chao blinked from the spotless healer before her, to the pile of dead Demonic Cultivators, and back again. "H... How?"

"Well..." Lady Floros mused, one hand on her cheek. "A lot of people say that poison is just medicine with a couple extra steps" She explains. "I figure healing is just killing with a few extra steps--it's really kind of been working out for me!"

... Aliki Floros was a madwoman apparently.

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
To Feed the Hungry​

"No, no, no, it doesn't need to throw anything!" Aliki complained to the Array Engineer. "I've got that! I don't need to do something silly like that, I just need something that lets us bend space just a teensy bit so I can go reach in and shove good things in them!"

Goodness, this guy was just not getting the point! Aliki did know that her techniques were strange and unorthodox as far as anyone else was concerned, but it wasn't like it was difficult to work with!

She had a brilliant idea, brought to her by little Qian Chao after a few assaults were bounced and she wondered if any more could be saved if we could just administer aid on the spot. That's when Aliki knew what she could do! Anyone around her could be injected and given a trace of her ichor[, but even her hair could only stretch so long. But if she used a magic set of scribbles to bring everyone to her on the spot…

It was a brilliant idea! She immediately went to talk to some of the engineers attached to the relief force, figuring out who was most willing and who was most able, and then poof! She had her little diagram set up and a nice little pose ready to be set!

Now her office was everywhere, nobody was too far away to be given proper immediate first aid even in the middle of combat!

Qian Chao seemed confused about something or other though, given her staring and mumbling of unnecessary words after Aliki slashed her wrists open and filled the diagram with her Ichor, just as the fighting began in earnest. Still! It was just a necessary primer!

"A… Erm… Is this really, really okay?" She asked--all meek and adorable. Could Aliki steal her and get away with it? She always wanted a cute junior to spoil ever since she was the cute junior to be spoiled and it just seemed traditional. "The… Optics on it are just kind of…"

"It'll be fine!" Aliki chirped, her Ichor flowing freely from both wrists. The walls strained and groaned under the weight of siege engines and hostile Core Formation experts, breakthroughs were happening all over the place and for all of their valor, the Golden Devils were still mostly mortal.

Without help, they'd break.

Which is exactly what Aliki was going to offer them!

"If anyone asks…" Aliki licks her lips, and forms a mudra with her hands, the spray of ichor resonating with the array below her. "I'm just giving everyone some nice refreshing juice!"

"T… That's just cutting your wrists though! How is that not the Blood Path?" Qian Chao protested the whole business. "How do you even have that much stuff inside you anyway!"

"I'm pretty sure I've got a big pile of extradimensional spaces inside me." Aliki clarified. "Honestly, my body is just weird…"

She shrugged, and her power swelled, getting her robes to go all floofy and flappy as the winds picked up. "Now, just remember, I'm gonna need like--all of the Blood Replenishing Pills here." She advised. "Literally all of them, including the special ones we worked on."

"Uh… The… The ones that you ground up spirit stones into?" Qian Chao, happy for the distraction, reaches for the giant bag she had strapped to her, and flops it over, a few pills spilling out. "Are you even going to be okay? I'm pretty sure these weren't meant to be eaten on this scale?"

"I'm not keeping any of it, gosh!" Aliki shook her head, her Qi swelling as the array neared full activation. "I'm just having snacks on behalf of everyone else--and sharing the energy."

"That doesn't even make sense!" Qian Chao squeaked and looked for something to take cover behind.

"We're Cultivators! Nothing we do makes any sense! Just accept it and do the best you can!" Aliki grinned, and slammed her hands into the central seal of the Array.

The winds picked up further still--the Array ignites to life, the reservoir of Ichor shining with a prismatic glow.

And space began to warp

---------------------------------------------------------

Across the Siege Lines, the Golden Devils stood--an unbreaking rock that allowed the other, more pedestrian cultivators--a chance to rally, rest, and prepare for another exchange, sheltered beneath the Bronze Aegis.

For all their vaunted durability and recovery, the pressure of the siege was immense. Legionnaires dropped out of formation, Centurions clutched newly opened wounds. They fought on in spite of this of course--no member of the Imperial Optimatoi would meekly surrender when their back was to the wall.

But if left unaided, many would die.

Flickers of darkness, the sound of warping space and black lines emerged from nowhere--stretching across miles through strange magics to bind with the worst hurt. Prismatic light transferred to them--stimulating their bloodlines and replenishing both Qi and vitality. The vaunted constitution of the Golden Devils did the rest--bringing wounded and exhausted combattants back to battle-ready status in moments. The formations rallied, pressing back against foes who thought their targets hobbled.

Again and again these interventions occurred--time and again the wounded found themselves granted succor at the will of the [Red Queen], and the lines held strong against impossible odds.

It was, in short, a winning strategy.

Only a fool would let it happen unchallenged.

--------------------------------------------------

"Mmm!" Aliki hummed as she popped down a vial of her special Blood Replenishing Pills, spiced with ground up spirit stone! Most people would kind of die eating that, but for Aliki's palate? It was a nice, fizzy little topping on top of already savory treats.

Of course, her own Blood Replenishing Pills were mostly made of Demonic Beast byproducts and materials, with the power from a beast core supplementing a batch. It was precisely this that allowed her to scarf down as many as she wanted without consequence--after all, before you feed the hungry, you need to see to your own stomach first.

And there were a lot of hungry people on the walls today!

"Right! That should be good for now!" Aliki grinned, hopping up from the Recovery Stool as she moved back to the array. "How are we doing for pills anyway?"

Qian Chao seemed to have gotten used to the madness going on, and while she was still skittish, she had settled into her role as an assistant, checking the much reduced bundle of medicine. "Umm… I think we've still got a quarter of what we started with? Maybe good for another hour or two at this rate?"

"Sounds about right, I think the fighting's starting to die down too. I think the baddies are losing their nerve?" Aliki tilts her head while tapping her chin. "Well, either way, we made enough and we're winning the battle, that's good, ri.."

Her hand stretched out, and clenched around an arrow going for Qian Chao's forehead. Her eyes narrowed, and she turned about. Three shrouded figures on a roof--once hidden within a veil.

"Impressive!" The leader of them bellowed. "To defy us Three Hungry Sun Brothers takes courage!"

"You tried to take my cute junior away." Aliki deadpanned, dropping the arrow as Qian Chao fell to her knees in shock. "I don't care who you are, because you're all dead now."

"Hah! Arrogance!" The spokesman snorted. "Our Churning Maw Formation is enough to challenge even the Great Circle! A mere First Pillar--and one that hasn't even been fortified yet? A healer no less!" He brandishes a sharp blade. "We'll feast well on y~~"

"Die" Aliki ordered, waving a hand in the air before her, wooden-handled scalpel in her hand.

Briefly.

Before it extended to a pole long and heavy enough to crush a house. Catching the leader in the side, crumpling skin, flesh, and bone, before a great chomp filled the air, and much of his midsection simply vanished.

"BROTHER!" The two other figures screamed as the former Cultivator's remains slumped to the ground, eyes staring unknowingly at what slaughtered him. "You… Witch! How dare you!"

"How dare I what?" Aliki answered, now behind the two cultivators, gazing into her pristine nails. "You are the three who not only sought to attack those who sought to save lives--but attempted to use your sneak attack to slaughter the weakest of them."

She swiped out with her hand, and a second of the Brothers fell to three terrible bronze blades. He collapsed to pieces, as Aliki looked upon her Soul Rending Claw with satisfaction.

"Oh good." She nodded. "I thought they were working again now that I've purged the last of the Heavenly Dao energy on those injuries, but it's nice to get confirmation." The red-black tendrils retreated into Aliki's arm, leaving the delicate hand behind.

"Y… M… Mo.. Monster!" The last of the three brothers accused, falling to his back and trying to scramble away. "Y… Get away from me!"

"Nah." Aliki gestured, and her activated hair gathered into a mass. "I'm not in the habit of sparing baddies after all."

Her hair lashed out, splitting into tendrils to grasp him, lift him up into the air.

And then Pull him apart in a scream of shattering blood and bone.

"Messy, messy…" Aliki muttered as he fell. "Do I need to get a disposal duty for this? I'm not really used to leaving anything behind but bones…" She pouted, and turned back down. "Everything's okay Qian Chao! I've dealt with the baddies!"

The pink-haired girl had already fainted.

"... Oh." Aliki's cheeks paled. "Um… Oh, right, you haven't seen any of that yet…" She paced back and forth. "Maybe she'll forget it? That happens from time to time, right?"

She looked back to the bodies of the three Brothers, and took a glance around. "... At least nobody's looking… Wasting Food never stopped being a sin after all…" She mumbled, and her hair began to extend once more.

Disposing of bones is a lot easier than the squishier stuff after all.

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
Out of the Frying Pan​

"We're bullying the funny people again!"

Aliki was full of glee--first there was the trip out west where she got to meet all kinds of interesting people, enjoy interesting meals, and get a lot of satisfaction making her side invincible, undying monsters in the face of an unending tide!

She even had the good fortune of getting a cute junior of her own! She had delicious looking pink hair and soft squeezy features and she even smelled like candy! It was all she could do to not take a taste, and that was because that would probably be construed the wrong way and her handlers made it very clear that she had to be on her very best behaviour for some reason.

Didn't stop her from getting a lick in when they parted--it sure got her out of that blank stare that built up over the course of the siege, which was sad when she was otherwise so adorable! Much better to have her cheeks match her hair color, that's how it should be!

But with all the delicious sights and sounds of the West behind her, it was back to the grind and dust of the Desert again--which really did seem kind of disappointing after she had experienced the smorgasbord of scents from before, but when the orders started going out to start gathering up by Legion and organization because the Clan was going out to bully the Jinjshen guys again?

"Eeee!" Aliki squealed in anticipation, uncaring of the funny stares she got from the sudden outburst. "It's gonna be great!"

After all, she didn't need to be on her 'Best Behaviour' anymore, because these were all bad guys, and you could do what you wanted to them as long as they didn't surrender to you--and boy! There were lots of people who didn't know how to surrender when things were going all sharp-sided!

******************************

A figure with a Bone-Scouring Torch loomed over the storehouse, his juniors engaging the Legionnaires who were cataloguing the contents and preventing them from acting. "In the name of the Jingshen! DIE you bronze De~~"

A blur of black and red from the side, a figure in flapping robes of fabric and furs tackling him from the side, screams of horror heard as his torch tumbled to the ground, never given the catalytic burst of Blood Essence that would have created a blaze great enough to destroy the town

********************************

Aliki was definitely finding that the flavor of Jingshen people wasn't bad either. They were well fed, bloated up beyond their talents from the tremendous quantities of Spirit Stones that could be shoved into every son and daughter of the clan. It gave their Qi a certain sweetness and tenderness that she very much approved of!

It was just a shame this was a depreciating asset--but it was going a long way towards reasserting her balance after all the lives she saved in the Siege. She may have nipped at the edges when she thought she could get away with it, but you didn't grow up big and healthy just off of candy and snacks now, did you?

A growing girl needed actual meat once in a while, so it was great that the Clan was off to war again!

'indeed, your cultivation has been stagnating in recent years, you have lost much of the advantage your initial rapid growth has gained you'

Oh hey! Mystery Voice was back!

'voice projections across the Hard Shell Mountains have always been expensive, you appeared to have matters in hand, so the decision was made to preserve energy until your return'

It was really nice to have company again! She got by with her cute junior while helping out with the Siege, but having advice and observations while she was bullying the Jingshen would be nice too!

'Oh, those ones again' The Voice sounded even less impressed than usual. 'they lack strength and killer instinct--if it were not for the weak nature of this region and the restraint of their neighbours, they would have long since been supplanted by ones more suited to thrive. An excellent target to suppress--and for you to make up for lost time in.'

Aliki nodded sharply at that, a bounce in her step as she continued her patrol through the town her attached force was marching through. "I thought so too! Spirit Stones are just too expensive to eat as much as I'd like, so it'll be good to see what they've got lying around to throw at us here. Maybe scorpions?" She licked her lips. "That big one way back in the day was nice and tangy! There's a bunch of baby ones that are dragging the baggage with them that we're using but they won't let me try them out. I'm hoping we run into some wild ones as we go along!"

'... Quite.' The Voice acknowledged. 'Regardless, you have stagnated for too long, you will need to make up for lost time if you're to have any attempt at expanding your cultivation base. There are methods you may employ safely, now that you have accustomed yourself to the Foundation Establishment realm--with time and good fortune, you may yet be able to leverage these techniques…'

Then came the big droning lectures--but that was okay. Aliki was getting a little bit lonely after all.

After all, her work in the Siege apparently spooked some people even if they appreciated how she kept everyone in good health. Apparently people didn't like being infused with strange, saplike fluid carrying untyped Vitality from afar? It wasn't even like Aliki was easily mistaken for the weird blood magics flying around either!

They were all red and gooey and smelly and all that, because they were super unhygienic! Just literally putting people's bits in their mouths when they could without even paying lip service to preparation! Aliki understood what it meant to be hungry, and she sympathized a bit.

But even at her darkest times, she made sure to properly prepare her meals! It's a sign of respect! And while she could cheat a bit with her Divine Abilities--that was just taking advantage of the Voice's work! Preparations were all done far in advance! It slurped up the delicious bits and left the gross and unhygienic parts behind! Like you're supposed to, geeeze!"

No wonder they all go crazy and evil. You just make yourself sick that way.

She was glad to be with the Clan, after seeing what it was like outside. Even if she gets funny looks, she's still a respected doctor and specialist! And she gets proper respect for her efforts!

Now she had to do her best to help them push the Jingshen out. Easy enough!

 

[Alectai]

Aliki Floros
A Day in the Limelight​

"You're wasting your time with this matter" The Voice whispered in her usual way, as Aliki stared into a vial of luminescent blood. "The treasures of the Plains are rich, and there are many foes you can harvest there. Your Cultivation has slacked, and opportunity knocks, to waste your time rooting out rats from a sunken vessel is folly."

"Mmm, I don't really think so…" Aliki mused to herself, shaking the solution up, stoppering it with her thumb all the while. "This isn't like Qi Condensation, right?" She considered. "It's not just a matter of nomming on everything I see until things are shiny, it's about finding bits and bobs that belong to me alone. In that sense, the most important thing is to get variety."

"And where do you find variety in a place like this?" The Voice retorted. "A cache of Light Qi, set to sabotage, no Dao, no energy, even should you manage to master its secrets, you will find yourself stymied by its ethereal nature."

"It's not about subsuming it though" Aliki pointed out. "It's about sending a message."

She shook the vial more fiercely, and the luminescent blood began to bubble and boil in its container. "It's about being better than I was before. About facing something that foiled me before, growing, adapting, and defeating it on the second encounter."

A memory—working fiercely at a terminal for one of the enemy Array's focal points. Following the instructions along with a comrade, seeking to disarm it, bit by bit. A power fluctuation, a scream, and burning burning burning until her spirit lurched back to one of her backup caches.

By the time she had made her way back to the front lines, the disaster was done, thousands of the Clan crippled from a poisonous, radiant Light that seared flesh from bone, delivered such pain and terror that nothing else mattered. They died and died and died and even her own arts were helpless against that terrible poison.

She even tried siphoning it out more than once, forging the connection through her threads and drinking deep of the substance, trusting in her Constitution to filter it out. Instead, she merely found herself with indigestion until her symbiote could finish processing it, a net zero result.

And the power just multiplied in the aftermath, the poison twisting and corrupting their marrow so all new blood carried the taint with it.

It was pain, suffering, and vengeance–all to mildly inconvenience the Archgetes of the Clan. It was good that he avenged the wounded in the end, but at the end of the day, the threat of this cache of power lingered on.

"Should I just shrug and assume such things will never happen again?" She added, ceasing her aggressive shaking and downing the solution in a single gulp. The burning sensation tickled and seared all the way down, and she felt her organs heating up as her symbiote began to absorb the new source of nourishment, and finding themselves overly fascinated by it. "No, I don't think so.."

She withdrew a handkerchief from one of her sleeves and wiped her mouth, her eyes already glowing with a dark radiance. "So I'm going to beat it this time, it's not about cultivating, it's not about growing stronger. It's ensuring that something this ugly and poisonous is turned into something better. If that means I need to push myself beyond my limits and stuck recovering for a time? Then so be it. But if I just accept defeat here first, I think I'll run into problems later."

The depths of the Underworld Palace loomed ahead, the sickening radiance of the remaining Light Qi visible even from here.

"Is that going to be a problem then?" She adds.

The Voice hums at that note.

"It is not a preferred outcome, but your rationale is sound." The Voice concedes. "Take care not to waste overly much time on this distraction however, you may have considerable lifespan remaining, but if you are to reach your potential, your cultivation must make progress."

"Glad to have your approval!" Aliki grins, a hint of a fang visible through her teeth. "At any rate, that medicine I cooked up should raise my consumption efficiency, I should be able to get right in there and really get some work done. Even if I'm glowing like whoa by the end, I can just jump out before my body turns to goo and digest what I can bring along with me! I'll definitely make progress no matter how much it hurts! And if I can get enough done… Who knows? Maybe it'll matter!"

It was gonna hurt real bad in either event though. She could rely on her constitution to buy her a fair amount of time to work in the depths of the Palace, but…

She sighed, shaking her head. The things she had to do in order to stay true to herself.

One way or another, she'd not be beaten by this plague of Light a second time!

She hesitated for a moment then, frowning, and crossing her arms in thought. "Actually, come to think of it..." She thought for a moment. "There was that big pile of stuff that happened a while back, with everyone kind of thinking everyone else was lunch for a bit. A bunch of people poofed in then, but was there a reason that I just kind of found the whole thing boring?"

The Voice was silent for a moment, then gave a huff of annoyance. "Such wild and indiscriminate madness could only be the result of a thing from this era." She huffed. "The Great Master must have had taste, and a refined palate. It's little wonder that such madness found little purchase upon you, my work is not easily tampered with by the fools left behind today, playing with things beyond their understanding."

"Mmm, thought it was something like that!" Aliki smiled, and turned her attention back to the task at hand. "Good to know!"

She cracks her knuckles, cricks her neck, and plunges into the Heart of Light Everlasting.