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

[occipitallobe]

Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

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If you write a new Good Seed, or write an omake, please update the spreadsheet if you have access.

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This is mandatory. If a Good Seed does not record their omake by pinging collabs (or just requesting access and editing things themselves - this is the preferred option), I won't give out awards. If a new Good Seed is not recorded here, they won't advance. By doing this it makes the whole thing manageable for me - it's gotten pretty unwieldy!

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Omake Writer Instructions:

There are four fields you need to fill out.

Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly

Requested Bonus, which is your requested bonus for your omake. You can leave it up to me if you like. You can see more info in the Good Seed infopost here.

Cultivation Aims. For those following unorthodox paths - higher than 9th Heavenstage or later than 7th Dao Pillar paths. Please put in what you are aiming for before you break through. I have left it as 'default'. If you do not edit it, I'll go with that.

Turn Notes - Do you want to do something specific? Enter a Secret Realm? Help the Clan out in some way? If you have something specific you want to accomplish on this turn, put it in turn notes so I can adjust your Fate around it.

All other fields are for QM use to record character information to properly run the flow of the game.

 

[ninjastar]

I really like our elder he just seems like an actually decent person.

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The only decent person in all of Xianxia

 

[atrophy]

This one of the most promising new quests on the forums for me so please keep going.

 

[Alectai]

It has been everything I hoped for.

Seriously, I was not expecting to cripple a Blood Cannibal Nascent Soul at trivial expense this early. Was this just plain Good Fortune or was it just Manuel's absurd hypercompetence talking?

Either way, it is a powerful flex, a greater one than anticipated. This is good, as it'll spook any of our rivals from making a play that might actually hurt.

 

[Twisted Mind]

Based on what we just saw im Hoping that the elder wont find out about Lin Fans More,"Demonic'' Actions because i feel like that wont go over well.

 

[Alectai]

Based on what we just saw im Hoping that the elder wont find out about Lin Fans More,"Demonic'' Actions because i feel like that wont go over well.

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Notably.

It not illegal to employ such techniques in the Golden Devil Clan.

What is illegal is employing them on mortals, cultivators of the Clan, or cultivators allied to the Clan.

What is done to our enemies is your own business.

That being said, if you're going pure serial killer preying on our own dudes, yeah, you can probably expect to eventually get made an Example of.

 

[Nordlending]

Like watching an adult watching over squabbling children, and taking pay for helping.

Love it.

 

[occipitallobe]

The power of a gap of small realms in the Nascent Soul stage seems to be significant, especially considering that we have a penalty to combat from low stamina.

But I suppose the combat-skill of the Slowly option mitigates that penalty.

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Part of this was some incredible rolls behind the scenes.

Manuel got the drop on his enemy, and forced him into a bad situation as well. In a knock-down fight he'd do worse. If he was defending a hard target with no array defenses, things might go differently.

 

[Alectai]

Part of this was some incredible rolls behind the scenes.

Manuel got the drop on his enemy, and forced him into a bad situation as well. In a knock-down fight he'd do worse. If he was defending a hard target with no array defenses, things might go differently.

Click to shrink...

Hah, I'm guessing the sheer rampage that the Tour went on is going to mitigate the initial "Approval hit" that we would have taken?

Crippling a Blood Cannibal Elder and costing him two life saving treasures? The guy's pretty much the walking dead--and this is coming right on the heels of my plan to prop up the far more successful than expected Oasis Rebels to cause them to do better and thus reduce the pressure on us.

Like, this was a terrible time for them to have one of their strategic deterrents get their ass handed to them--and probably eaten by a rival to be honest.

Unless he just fucking books it because he knows that full well too and runs off to another region where he is officially No Longer Our Problem.

 

[occipitallobe]

It has been everything I hoped for.

Seriously, I was not expecting to cripple a Blood Cannibal Nascent Soul at trivial expense this early. Was this just plain Good Fortune or was it just Manuel's absurd hypercompetence talking?

Either way, it is a powerful flex, a greater one than anticipated. This is good, as it'll spook any of our rivals from making a play that might actually hurt.

Click to shrink...

Statistically, you can expect opposed rolls of that caliber in your favour to come up less than every 1 in 400 times. This was Manuel being like 'wow, this dude really fucked up by being seen by me', and then executing the fight perfectly.

Based on what we just saw im Hoping that the elder wont find out about Lin Fans More,"Demonic'' Actions because i feel like that wont go over well.

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The Clan is very utilitarian. Murder dudes who hate you and want you dead anyway? No rule against it. Manuel just exploded a dude for what were solely PR reasons for a minor vassal.

If you go out and find evil bandits and torture them to death. Well, kinda weird, but it's ok. Basically, if you're only killing people the death penalty applies to in the first place, you're fine.

Hah, I'm guessing the sheer rampage that the Tour went on is going to mitigate the initial "Approval hit" that we would have taken?

Crippling a Blood Cannibal Elder and costing him two life saving treasures? The guy's pretty much the walking dead--and this is coming right on the heels of my plan to prop up the far more successful than expected Oasis Rebels to cause them to do better and thus reduce the pressure on us.

Like, this was a terrible time for them to have one of their strategic deterrents get their ass handed to them--and probably eaten by a rival to be honest.

Unless he just fucking books it because he knows that full well too and runs off to another region where he is officially No Longer Our Problem.

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Approval hit is still on the books. Manuel absolutely soaked the minor powers, and pushed the two major Allies as well. He basically aimed to max out resources for a given approval hit. And yes, the Blood Cannibals are in about as much trouble as they could be expected to be this early in the quest. They do have two Elders, though - they can maintain more cultivators by virtue of consuming mortals and each other which is part of what makes them such a problem.

Like watching an adult watching over squabbling children, and taking pay for helping.

Love it.

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Admittedly, most of these minor factions have one Core Formation cultivator - very, very rarely in the middle stage. They exist in part because their territories are poor and not worth governing directly for most. Having a Nascent Soul visit you is your number one opportunity in your lifetime to resolve conflicts in your favour. King Shen Ya was at risk of losing his throne, and paid through the nose for not being a good governor. Conversely, Hua Empire got a spirit stone mine for 20% of its income, compared to spending blood and treasure taking it.

 

[Alectai]

Approval hit is still on the books. Manuel absolutely soaked the minor powers, and pushed the two major Allies as well. He basically aimed to max out resources for a given approval hit. And yes, the Blood Cannibals are in about as much trouble as they could be expected to be this early in the quest. They do have two Elders, though - they can maintain more cultivators by virtue of consuming mortals and each other which is part of what makes them such a problem.

Click to shrink...

Hah, was this the Blood Cannibals going for a probe in our time of apparent weakness, and backfiring on them hard?

If they have two Elders, and one just lost an arm and a good chunk of his emergency 'Press button to not die' contingencies, they're more vulnerable than I think anyone around us could dream of them being. Next turn will be a very good opportunity to kick them while they're down I think.

Doubly so as buddy's going to have to go into seclusion for a while so he doesn't get eaten by the other Elder. If we're lucky, we might even hit them while they're in the middle of a throwdown.

 

[occipitallobe]

Hah, was this the Blood Cannibals going for a probe in our time of apparent weakness, and backfiring on them hard?

If they have two Elders, and one just lost an arm and a good chunk of his emergency 'Press button to not die' contingencies, they're more vulnerable than I think anyone around us could dream of them being. Next turn will be a very good opportunity to kick them while they're down I think.

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The Blood Cannibal situation tl;dr at the moment (this will all come up in the report that Nikephoros Theophylaktos will give) is that they've oppressed their mortals too hard. Too many cultivators, rapidly declining population. The next obvious move is to start sending your guys out to raid to both let your lands recover and cull your own numbers some.

Poor Child Corpse Gulper knew this was coming, and decided to go consume a few cities before the raids (technically a war for the smaller powers, but considered an extended raid for the major ones - no Nascent Soul cultivators usually get involved) put everyone on high alert and made it impossible for him to do so.

 

[Alectai]

The Blood Cannibal situation tl;dr at the moment (this will all come up in the report that Nikephoros Theophylaktos will give) is that they've oppressed their mortals too hard. Too many cultivators, rapidly declining population. The next obvious move is to start sending your guys out to raid to both let your lands recover and cull your own numbers some.

Poor Child Corpse Gulper knew this was coming, and decided to go consume a few cities before the raids (technically a war for the smaller powers, but considered an extended raid for the major ones - no Nascent Soul cultivators usually get involved) put everyone on high alert and made it impossible for him to do so.

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Hah, I see, and he had the bad luck to get noticed by a bigger predator, and the worse luck for that bigger predator to have a really fucking good plan to fuck him up.

And now he's crippled in an environment of maximum faux-darwinism, and has blown a good chunk of his emergency 'Press button to not die' contigencies, which means he either has to bury himself down the deepest hole he can find or risk getting eaten by the other guy.

And while all this is sorting out, we've got our own attempts to bolster the already rebelling mortals in their time of distraction.

Yeesh, as long as we don't fuck that up, the Blood Cannibals are going to be too busy self destructing to actually stop us as we poach the Oasis Rebels and start chipping them down, and that assumes the Jingshen Clan doesn't decide to get in on the kicking, or that the Flood Dragons aren't around to join hands with us and really fuck the Cannibals up.

 

[Robotninja]

And while all this is sorting out, we've got our own attempts to bolster the already rebelling mortals in their time of distraction.

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Pretty sure the mortals are not rebelling per say. There just are not enough to support them. The mortals cannot meaningfully rebel. The power difference is much too vast.

 

[Alectai]

Pretty sure the mortals are not rebelling per say. There just are not enough to support them. The mortals cannot meaningfully rebel. The power difference is much too vast.

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The intel report we received earlier says otherwise.

Our action means that if we can escalate the situation to the point where 'Only' a Nascent Soul can settle it, we can prepare an ambush to potentially kill that Nascent Soul. And if we have a Nascent Soul and they don't, that's pretty much game, set, and match.

They had two (Though probably weaker than average Nascent Souls because Blood Path is all about rapid advancement off the cost of your scrubs, which means less experience), one just blew probably his entire stock of survival expendables and still lost an arm, which means he's probably going to get his ass handed to him by anything capable of pinning a Nascent Soul down.

 

[LordEdric]

I love that soup sect, it gives me so many ideas for my seed's Dao

 

[Blonddude42]

10th Heavenstage - 108
11th Heavenstage - 188
12th Heavenstage - 208
13th Heavenstage - 288

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Functionally, how big of a benefit do these stages give? Or maybe the better question is how high does one need to cultivate to make the effort here worth it?

"Elder Nikephoros Theophylaktos, Golden Devil Clan. What are you doing here, Cannibal scum?"

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Nice trick here, I almost missed it. This makes it seem like we have two Nascent Soul elders instead of just one.

Assuming word of how that happened makes its way to their Sect rather than him booking it to a different region to become Mr. Not Our Problem.

 

[ninjastar]

Even if the mortals aren't actively rebelling, this is a great chance to end the battle blood cannibal sect before they cause us any problems. It will be a win for PR and allow us to expand our territory, on the other hand having a 'threat' to unite against will allow us to better maintain cohesion with our allies.

I think the best Idea to is to 'farm' the cannibal sect, basically killing of anyone who gets too strong while leaving just enough of them alive we can use them as an excuse for aggressive military expansion.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

Functionally, how big of a benefit do these stages give? Or maybe the better question is how high does one need to cultivate to make the effort here worth it?

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If it's the same as ISSTH, which is the only Xianxia off the top of my head that has perfecting Qi Condensation go up to 13, 10th is a body refinement stage, 11th refines your Core Sea so you have more Qi in later stages, 12th creates a Sea of Perception so your later spiritual sense will be better than others of the same stage, and the 13th stage literally steals talent from the heavens, and raises your base talent.

Unfortunately, going 10th stage and above is unfeasible for our Clan because we took Dangerous Tribulations, and going to these stages increases the strength of future tribulations since you're actively going against heaven's will.

 

[occipitallobe]

Functionally, how big of a benefit do these stages give? Or maybe the better question is how high does one need to cultivate to make the effort here worth it?

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Broadly, getting the 13th Heavenstage is worth a full Dao Pillar, and about half a step of Core Formation.

Nice trick here, I almost missed it. This makes it seem like we have two Nascent Soul elders instead of just one.

Assuming word of how that happened makes its way to their Sect rather than him booking it to a different region to become Mr. Not Our Problem.

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Manuel is a 'give it a shot' kinda guy. Worst case scenario, the ruse is seen through. Best case, his enemies assume they have another Nascent Soul and need to be far more circumspect.

Pretty sure the mortals are not rebelling per say. There just are not enough to support them. The mortals cannot meaningfully rebel. The power difference is much too vast.

Click to shrink...

Blood Path rebellions are weird.

Say you're a regular Qi Condensation cultivator in an oppressed territory. You hide, keep your head down. Lots of people taken as tribute. Eventually the tribute demands come unbearable. You rise up, have a lucky encounter. Kill a bunch of Blood Path cultivators.

There's only one realistic way to become strong enough, quick enough to defend yourself and the people you love.

Blood Path.

Successful Blood Path rebellions usually just look like new Blood Path sects, ~99% of the time.

 

[Alectai]

Even if the mortals aren't actively rebelling, this is a great chance to end the battle blood cannibal sect before they cause us any problems. It will be a win for PR and allow us to expand our territory, on the other hand having a 'threat' to unite against will allow us to better maintain cohesion with our allies.

I think the best Idea to is to 'farm' the cannibal sect, basically killing of anyone who gets too strong while leaving just enough of them alive we can use them as an excuse for aggressive military expansion.

Click to shrink...

The real thing is that we basically cut off one of their sources of internal replenishment in the same turn we fucked up one of their Elders as long as we don't completely fuck up our outreach attempt. Which means they have to come to us and our defenses if they want to replenish that way, or alternately hit Jingshen and thus potentially bring them into the Cannibal Kicking Crew.

Like, I cannot describe enough just how much of an opportunity this gave us.

Blood Path rebellions are weird.

Say you're a regular Qi Condensation cultivator in an oppressed territory. You hide, keep your head down. Lots of people taken as tribute. Eventually the tribute demands come unbearable. You rise up, have a lucky encounter. Kill a bunch of Blood Path cultivators.

There's only one realistic way to become strong enough, quick enough to defend yourself and the people you love.

Blood Path.

Successful Blood Path rebellions usually just look like new Blood Path sects, ~99% of the time.

Click to shrink...

Huh

Does that mean our intervention during this moment of cresting tensions might derail that usual cycle?

 

[Kaboomatic]

Manuel is a 'give it a shot' kinda guy. Worst case scenario, the ruse is seen through. Best case, his enemies assume they have another Nascent Soul and need to be far more circumspect.



Blood Path rebellions are weird.

Say you're a regular Qi Condensation cultivator in an oppressed territory. You hide, keep your head down. Lots of people taken as tribute. Eventually the tribute demands come unbearable. You rise up, have a lucky encounter. Kill a bunch of Blood Path cultivators.

There's only one realistic way to become strong enough, quick enough to defend yourself and the people you love.

Blood Path.

Successful Blood Path rebellions usually just look like new Blood Path sects, ~99% of the time.

Click to shrink...

Oh shit
I assume this is a 'road to hell paved with good intentions' type thing?
Where the rebellion intends to stop the oppression of mortals and low level cultivators, before getting into power and realizing that, no, htey actually kinda like the system now that it benefits them?

 

[DangerKitty]

he lost a leg not an arm.

and yeah, i doubt we can finish off the cannibal sect entirely, though i do think we can and should injure them severely to give ourselves breathing room. Even if we can finish them off i don't think we should. Having a whetstone upon which to sharpen our young in true combat is not a bad thing when you have the 100 year trials. Especially since those trials apparently take the form of duels against cultivators of the same stage. they are using US as a whetstone to hone their disciples and to keep us down. i think that doing the same to the blood cannibal sect may be worth it.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

Unfortunately, this isn't exactly something we can take advantage of since a Good Seed from our Sect that takes the risk would be playing Russian Roulette, but @occipitallobe, does the 13th Heavenstage of Qi Condensation raise your base talent in this world?

 

[ninjastar]

Does that mean our intervention during this moment of cresting tensions might derail that usual cycle?

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Probably. If the rebels turn to the blood path for quick power to kill their oppressors, we can step in, giving them resources and aid instead and establish a new vassal state, if not simply annex their territory. Either way, we get rid of Blood Path which is overall good since it means fewer mortals being killed and thus more mortals for us to draw on for recruits.

 

[Alectai]

he lost a leg not an arm.

and yeah, i doubt we can finish off the cannibal sect entirely, though i do think we can and should injure them severely to give ourselves breathing room. Even if we can finish them off i don't think we should. Having a whetstone upon which to sharpen our young in true combat is not a bad thing when you have the 100 year trials. Especially since those trials apparently take the form of duels against cultivators of the same stage. they are using US as a whetstone to hone their disciples and to keep us down. i think that doing the same to the blood cannibal sect may be worth it.

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Arguably?

That's even worse.

That's a massive speed debuff even for a Nascent Soul who can fly. Not a good thing to have when you're doing a build that requires you to spend as much time running and hiding as you do actually fighting and grinding.