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

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New Good Seed and Omake Rule Updates
Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.

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

If you do not have access, please ping a collaborator (Swordomatic, Alectai, Quest, TehChron, Insane-Not-Crazy, Humbaba, ReaderOfFate, Kaboomatic, no., BungieONI) letting them know what you want and they will update the spreadsheet here. To gain access, you will need a gmail account of some kind. Throwaway emails are fine (I'm using one for the spreadsheet), but to gain access it's as simple as sending me either your email via PM, via DM in Discord, or just in Discord's #spreadsheet-requests channel.

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.

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All other fields are for QM use to record character information to properly run the flow of the game.
 
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Scarletglyph seems really cool, is the Trismegistus thing something from actual history? I've seen the term thrice-great before and I was wondering where it came from.

Hermes Trismegistus was widely considered the patron of hermetic sorcery and philosophy--though the three great disciplines he taught were quite a bit different than the ones in the Codex :p
 
I have seen the term thrice-great in three different xianxia in each of them it meant the person was a prodigy in 3 different unrelated field which allowed for all sorts of amazing combinations. In all three examples the 3 fields were different.
 
From reading it feels like the Golden Devil's were the only professional army on the Righteous Forces side with the rest being powerful irregulars.
Yeah, but the same can be said of the Blood Path's side of the line, only they have much worse cohesion.

A well-prepared irregular force fighting in a way they are accustomed to, with strong social bonds of cohesion to take the place of what we today would call 'conventional' military discipline can be surprisingly effective in wartime. Remember that these same sects and clans of Righteous Path cultivators defeated the Golden Devils in the past, when they were much stronger than they are now. They didn't do it by being weak or ineffectual.
 
Yeah, but the same can be said of the Blood Path's side of the line, only they have much worse cohesion.

A well-prepared irregular force fighting in a way they are accustomed to, with strong social bonds of cohesion to take the place of what we today would call 'conventional' military discipline can be surprisingly effective in wartime. Remember that these same sects and clans of Righteous Path cultivators defeated the Golden Devils in the past, when they were much stronger than they are now. They didn't do it by being weak or ineffectual.
The Golden Devils were much more Cursed then of course, and the higher Qi probably made formation strategies just not as good.
 
Thanks for the link it was interesting reading. Has anyone gone into similar details of the Golden Devils command structure? I assume that we are copying Rome quite a bit, but I don't even know most Good Seeds ranks.

Massively variable between legions, actually; we know they all have Legates, who are either core formation or (in the case of some good seeds) foundation estsblishment, we know they all have centurions, and we know that they all answer to the council of elders. Everything else fluctuates. I have the 263rd organised as a combat and peacekeeping organisation with a command chain of Legate - First Centurion - Centurions - Captains - Legionnaires, but again, that's just me.
 
Yeah, but the same can be said of the Blood Path's side of the line, only they have much worse cohesion.

A well-prepared irregular force fighting in a way they are accustomed to, with strong social bonds of cohesion to take the place of what we today would call 'conventional' military discipline can be surprisingly effective in wartime. Remember that these same sects and clans of Righteous Path cultivators defeated the Golden Devils in the past, when they were much stronger than they are now. They didn't do it by being weak or ineffectual.

This is accurate.

Note also that in a world where individuals are concentrations of force all by themselves and there are key points that need to be held, warfare looks absolutely nothing like physics-based warfare. The reason the Clan resemble a proper military force is because they have formations which mean they're more effective close together rather than fighting in what is something more like skirmisher warfare. Also they're highly defensively-oriented due to the lands they occupy.

Conventional military discipline isn't a superpower in a world where one guy finds your army and kills everyone. Cultivator warfare is based more around lower levels facing off against lower levels, the higher levels sitting in reserve and only called out at need, specifically to avoid having to fight an unfavourable battle. The Clan has optimatoized (forgive the horrendous pun) around defensive warfare with a large focus on wearing enemies down. This is not a plausible strategy everywhere, and largely works because the Clan can guard its sources of income (which also serve as the fuel for warmaking) while simply abandoning large swathes of useless territory and forcing enemies to take large numbers of unfavourable siege battles to the point where even if you take a fortification, it's rarely worth it.

This is not actually top-tier operational flexibility in the Turtle World, and if the Clan moved to the Plains tomorrow they would be demolished by even some of the minor powers there.
 
Thanks for the link it was interesting reading. Has anyone gone into similar details of the Golden Devils command structure? I assume that we are copying Rome quite a bit, but I don't even know most Good Seeds ranks.

Legates and Legionnaires are a standard, most Legions have Centurions, and Aspirants are new Legionnaires-to-be.

I've left the remainder deliberately untouched, in part because Legions are not the well-drilled legions of Rome. Moving an entire Legion is often quite difficult, and they're more modelled after the Komnenian pronoia system with some themata thrown in for good measure.

Legates (through the institution of their Legions) are essentially given over key pieces of state income (Spirit Stone mines, Spirit Herb gardens, good places to hunt Spirit Beasts, etc). They're obligated to pay these resources to the Clan itself, though in practice they earn Contribution Points by doing so that allow them to effectively monopolise the resources they occupy. They also tend to occupy areas, making them a little like the themata in that they're military forces assigned to particular areas, though crucially they're not drawn from them.

The parallels only go so far, admittedly - civilian and military societies are distinct in Turtle World insofar as we're describing mortals and cultivators, and completely fused when we look at cultivators more generally - there's a complete parallel society with its own economy that serves as a military as well on top of a more general population, so it doesn't hold completely.

The second important thing is that authority fundamentally stems from strength - Manuel is the legitimacy of the state. The legitimacy of the Golden Devils as a power derives from one old man with superpowers, not the collective agreement of society to obey a single ruler. So being Foundation Establishment is inherently more meaningful that any title you might give out, and it's why Legates are trusted to more-or-less run things with whatever ranks they please.

Ultimately any difference in opinions over who's rank is superior can be settled by looking at cultivation.
 
Hypothetically, if there was a ritual that could turn 90% of the clan cultivators into False Nascent souls for a week ( enough to conquer the entire Virtuous Flipper region) in exchange for irrevocably burning out their cultivations at the end of the week, would Manuel consider that to be a worthwhile trade-off?
 
Hypothetically, if there was a ritual that could turn 90% of the clan cultivators into False Nascent souls for a week ( enough to conquer the entire Virtuous Flipper region) in exchange for irrevocably burning out their cultivations at the end of the week, would Manuel consider that to be a worthwhile trade-off?

No.

Conquest is an ongoing endeavour, and the Golden Devils aren't given to genocide. The only way to make that stick would be to kill everyone else and hope no other Nascent Souls were in really good hiding spots at the end.

On a smaller scale, if there was a ritual that could turn any cultivator into a False Nascent for a week in return for burning out their cultivations, it'd be a game-winner. A few hundred Qi cultivators each years and you've virtually doubled the Clan power. Any major war, just take up a few volunteers and smash the enemy flat.
 
Hey folks. Just wanted to say, for any of you interested in taking part in the giant-collab-crossover omake I mentioned before (details here) , I'm going to start the group brainstorming on what exactly we're going to do tomorrow at 12am GMT (8:00am EST, 5:00am PST, 7:00am CT). If you want to get in before that starts, now's the time to do it. Click on the link above to get to the google doc (and onedrive doc, but like, let's be honest, you want the googledoc really) and put down your seed's name and screen name.
 
Interlude - Kinslaughterer 2
Kinslaughterer fled, returning to the lands of the north. He had cities there under his rule, mortals and disciples enough to recover from the paltry wound Scarletglyph had given him and to return in vengeance. He would butcher the Callista girl, and then the whore who had dared stop him. Once he fulfilled his Lord's will, the Altar would turn to him, and he would be the new Altar Lord!

He flew north at speed, and stopped.

Standing in midair, looking completely unconcerned, stood Altar Lord.

He spoke.

"Kinslaughterer. Where are you going in such a hurry?"

"I return to the north. I fought Scarletglyph and was driven back by treachery, my wounds must be healed."

"Oh. I see. Well, that makes this easier."

Altar Lord waved a hand, and his Qi simply froze in his body. No matter. His Soul could propel him, and as he reached for its power, he felt... nothing. Moments later he realised he was falling from the sky like a stone, and would've plummeted to the earth had Altar Lord not caught his robes with one hand.

He could still muster speech, though it was difficult.

"...how?"

"Poison, obviously. I know you're stupid, but I thought even you could've figured that out."

"You... poisoned me? How... I would've... noticed."

Altar Lord shook his head.

"I personally don't feel like gloating is a productive use of my time, but sometimes it is satisfying. Everything has been going wrong, lately, and you are simply one more frustration I need to deal with."

The last words were only emphasised slightly, but enough that the man's anger was palpable.

Kinslaughterer blanched. He was unable to move, and in the other man's possession. Death was quite possible. If he could simply use his soul, activate one of his emergency measure... but it was no use.

"Where were we? Explaining why you were poisoned. I didn't poison you, Kinslaughterer."

Altar Lord's smile turned brilliant, his teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

"I poisoned everybody. Six hundred and fifty years of mild poison into every single mortal across the entire Demonic Altar territory. The Paralysis Bloodflower accumulates ever-so-slightly in the blood of mortals, and in fact is shaken off by cultivators entirely. Unless, of course, they eat the mortals. And then those cultivators are eaten, and so on and so forth until it accumulates in the blood more and more. For it to even be able to take effect, why, you'd need to consume enough mortals to reach Nascent Soul!"

He smiled, and it was nasty this time.

"It's not a very strong poison by itself, but it can be used to activate a rather peculiar effect. The twin flower is the Peacebond Bloodflower, and only when two people are poisoned can it truly take effect. One person is paralysed, but the other is peacebonded, and is unable to attack the paralyzed one for the duration of their paralysis. Of course, since I'm not harming you directly and merely bringing you before the Demonic Altar, the point is moot."

Kinslaughterer saw his fate, now. Altar Lord would bring him into the heart of his power, and then-

"Yes, it's exactly as you're thinking. I'm going to carve your rather agonizing death into a number of spiritual jades and send them off to pacify various allies and enemies of mine. Konstantinos needs one, for the Callista girl. Heavenly Time Shatter will want one - once they find out Wei An is dead they'll almost certainly withdraw from my Alliance if you're still alive, and one for the Wei Princess, just to remind her what I'm willing to do. Come along, now."

They flew further north, and in a matter of hours reached the Demonic Altar.

They landed, Altar Lord carrying him inside the tiny cave, right before the Altar itself.

Kinslaughterer felt the poison loosen, but it did not matter anymore. He was nothing before the Demonic Altar, nothing before the Altar Lord who commanded it.

There was.. a girl there.

He looked at her.

"Great-granddaughter?"

Altar Lord chuckled, ignoring the girl.

"...so."

Altar Lord sighed.

"Explain to me why you thought it a good idea to go kill Wei An and Rina Callista. Small words, if you would."

Kinslaughterer began to speak, and Altar Lord backhanded him casually, cracking teeth and breaking his jaw.

"Never mind. I can figure it out."

He breathed out heavily, and drove an elbow into Kinslaughterer's eye. It popped, the eyeball hanging loose and the bone around it badly cracked.

"Let me explain how frustrated I am. I have pigs for allies, and they give me shit!"

Altar Lord kicked at him, snapping his leg, bone poking out from under the skin.

"Imagine, if you will, you are a divine genius. A one-in-eternity genius, who carves a path towards freedom. Towards overthrowing a tyranny as old as time itself. You carve your way up, and realise that you should leave a path behind you. A way for others to follow, should you fail. But you are weaker than the tyrant, and you raise terrible weapons against him. Terrible, terrifying weapons, things of torture and misery and blood."

Altar Lord grinned more widely, taking on a manic tone. Another kick followed, shattering Kinslaughterer's hand. Bones were ground to powder in an instant, pulped flesh hanging off the end of his arm.

"Imagine that the imbeciles who follow after you worship the weapons. Not the rebellion against eternal tyranny. Not your struggle. The horrifying things that flay skin and flense fat from the still-breathing bodies of the innocent, that you raised up because you had to. Because you had no other choice, because every weapon that could be used must be used, because the line between defeat and victory could not be reached without using every method available. They don't see the struggle, they just worship the things you made."

He raised Kinslaughterer up, gripping his skull in his hand. The eyeball hung loosely, and Altar Lord spoke.

"That is the measure of my frustration. Every single one of you who thinks you are somehow challenging the Heavens by simply consuming mindlessly. As well as think you are rebelling against your master by hunting another mortal peasant down with a spiked whip. The whip is not the point. You worship the tools of the master, and do not see his path. Rina Callista. Wei An. They are tools, Kinslaughterer. More useful ones than you. Less pliant, perhaps, but more useful."

He shook his head.

The girl was weeping in the corner.

With a single motion, he tore the eyeball off from where it hung loosely, and tossed it gently to her.

"Eat, girl."

Horror froze her face, and she quivered.

"You wanted to gain revenge. You wanted to change things, be better than him. So eat. You have one path to power, and if you don't take it, one of the pigs will."

She closed her eyes, and bit down on the eyeball. Power flowed into her, and the little mortal girl stepped into Foundation Establishment.

Altar Lord clawed his hand, and tore the skin off Kinslaughterer's scalp.

"Eat."

She wept, and ate, and wept, and ate. Altar Lord tore her great-grandfather apart, tearing flesh and giving it to her piece by piece, every moment recorded by the jades he carried with him.

Three days later, a new Nascent Soul stepped forth from the Demonic Altar.
 
"I poisoned everybody. Six hundred and fifty years of mild poison into every single mortal across the entire Demonic Altar territory. The Paralysis Bloodflower accumulates ever-so-slightly in the blood of mortals, and in fact is shaken off by cultivators entirely. Unless, of course, they eat the mortals. And then those cultivators are eaten, and so on and so forth until it accumulates in the blood more and more. For it to even be able to take effect, why, you'd need to consume enough mortals to reach Nascent Soul!"
Perfect. Always cool to see one of these long laid plans happen.
 
About those video recordings -- did we see the part where the Altar Lord complained about "I have pigs for allies, and they give me shit!" and bitched about how people worshipped the tools and weapons rather than The Cause(TM), or did we just see the part where he fed Kinslaughterer to his great-granddaughter?

(Needless to say we didn't see the part where he boasted about the poison -- unless of course the poison was a lie and the Altar Lord's actual method was something different, in which case it just becomes another misdirection.)

Not that it necessarily matters, because people will not be very willing to take what the Altar Lord says at face value, buuut. I'm just curious if we heard him rant or not.
 
...I really want a story from Altar Lord's perspective, now. Like, a full novel. The hero desperate to save the world from a cruel heaven, ruining his own morality in the process, watching the world getting darker and darker by his own hand and praying its worth it. That's a freaking Xianxia and a HALF, right there.
 
A poison subtle enough to not be noticed by his garbage allies, and also weak enough to only be a problem when it needs to be.

Plus he gets to replace one idiot with a scared former-mortal who might actually listen.
 
Xiao Yingzi 18 - [Turn 9] [Career Advice]
Xiao Yingzi 18
[Turn 9]
[Career Advice]

A few days after she reached Pillar Fortification, Xiao Yingzi found herself back in the Gymnasium but rather than the meditation rooms she'd frequented in the past, this time she was here to use the body cultivation facilities that were the major draw of the legion. As she entered one of the many training rooms, she found herself unsure how to proceed.

There were many legionnaires around her, but most of them were qi condensing juniors and she doubted that the equipment they were using would be suitable for her purposes. As she wondered where to go for equipment designed for foundation building experts, she felt someone's gaze upon her.

It didn't take her long to realise that it was the legionnaires who were looking at her. They weren't obviously staring but she could feel them sneak glances at her whenever they thought she wasn't looking, not realising that the Soul Farseer she still carried made all of their little movements obvious to her.

Why….?

Her first thought was that it was because of her training clothes. Unlike her armor, the traditional light training clothes showed a lot of skin. Was they looking because they could tell she no longer had the blood of bronze? But that couldn't be it - there were a lot of individuals with weak bloodlines within their legion who all sported the same turtle-world features as she now did.

Then her mind backtracked to the start of her train of thought. Could it still be the training clothes? She was well aware that wearing revealing clothes could have profound effects on others, especially those that might be attracted to you. She hadn't had the chance to really test that aspect of social interaction, but even so, her instincts told her that couldn't be the case.

The gazes directed towards her more… measuring rather than expressing any form of interest. Even logically speaking, many of the women around her both wore far more revealing garments and objectively fit better with the legion's ideal of beauty in muscular, bronzed physiques for both men and women.

Ah, of course. She was a centurion of their legion. Perhaps being here among the juniors was some form of social faux pas? She hadn't really used any of the shared facilities before this, not since Qiguai. While some of the legionnaires had likely interacted with her in missions, she certainly hadn't been assigned a century despite the technical rank she'd attained.

Now, how to deal with this situation? She wished Elder Teleos was here, rather than sleeping in her storage ring. He would likely have gone along with the whole thing and enjoyed being the centre of attention but that was the opposite of what she currently wanted. As Xiao Yingzi considered how to deal with the situation, she found help coming from an unexpected quarter.

"Centurion Yingzi!" A familiar voice interrupted her thoughts. It took her a moment to recognise the familiar figure, different as he was in shorts and with a towel around his shoulders. Then finally, Xiao Yingzi gave a unsure smile to Centurion Victor who was also apparently training here. "Making use of the gymnasium, I see?" He looked around, glancing at the legionnaires who very quickly returned to their training. "And your first time even. How are you liking it?"

Xiao Yingzi smiled at him gratefully. "I was looking for equipment designed for foundation building experts." She replied, as she looked around. "Could you perhaps show me around?"

"Right," He said, nodding. "Come on, I'll show you to the centurion training rooms. Oh and congratulations on achieving your fortified pillar."

Xiao Yingzi inclined her head in thanks. "Thank you very much," She replied, smiling back. Then a thought occurred to her. "Oh, is that why they were staring at me?"

Victor nodded. "You don't usually suppress within legion buildings so it was fairly obvious to anyone who saw you." He explained, as he led her away from the legionnaires.

"Ah," Xiao Yingzi considered that for a moment. "I just assumed that it was safe territory. Why would I need to hide from my allies?"

"Wrong point of view." He told her, before considering how to explain it to her. "Xiao Yingzi, you still haven't even seen your first trial, have you?" He asked instead of directly answering her question.

"I was there at Pleuron when it happened." She answered, though she suspected that wasn't what he meant. "But I'm still preparing for my first true trial as a cultivator."

"Most of them have faced trials." He replied, glancing back in the direction of the legionnaires. "Some even have seen two. And they are still qi condensing juniors. How old are you?"

"I am about to complete my tenth decade." She replied, still uncertain where he was going with this.

"And so you were at your sixth when you broke through and then you achieved the fortified pillar in forty years?" He asked casually.

Xiao Yingzi tilted her head to the side. "Ah, you are asking me to consider how they might have seen me from their point of view?" She asked him thoughtfully.

He nodded encouragingly.

"They would be old veterans seeing a young prodigy easily surpassing them?" Xiao Yingzi asked rather than said, her mind racing. "Would they think I was showing off?" She asked suddenly, the thought horrifying some part deep inside her. "That really was not my intent."

To her surprise, Senior Victor laughed instead of answering. It was a short, surprised sort of laugh but he quickly covered his mouth before continuing. "I'm certain some did think that," Senior Victor admitted with a sigh. "But more than that, the real veterans were sizing you up. You might lead them in the future after all."

Xiao Yingzi blinked at that. Before she could reply, he quickly continued.

"It's alright if you don't wish to lead,"He said, in a way that felt practised."Many centurions choose to eschew leadership roles and simply focus on performing their own niche to the best of their ability." Suddenly he stopped and looked at her. "You don't strike me as the type though."

Xiao Yingzi blinked once more and then looked away. "I don't know if I'm ready to lead." She admitted. "I was hoping to put off recruiting my century until after the trial."

"That might be wise." He replied, inclining his head. "But you might still want to consider working towards that goal. Figuring out what you want to do. You could go far with your skillset."

"What are you suggesting, Senior Victor?" She asked, as he came to a stop near a door. Xiao Yingzi glanced in to see it was exactly what she needed.

"First of all, don't call me Senior." He replied, shaking his head sheepishly. "Secondly, I was about to suggest you spend some time with me and my century. Admittedly, they are more like hospital staff than fighters but leadership is leadership. Third of all," He gestured to the training room. "We are here."

Xiao Yingzi nodded in thanks and then considered his offer. "Medical training and leadership training sounds incredibly useful for the future." Xiao Yingzi replied with a nod. "Were you going to fold the testing of my lightning alongside that?"

"Yes, I did." He replied, then he held his hand out for her to shake. "Anyway, think about it and let me know. I need to head out now but you know where to find me."

Xiao Yingzi gave him a smile. "Thank you, Victor." She replied, taking his hand. He waved at her and began to move away. "I will definitely let you know my response."

He paused for a second and stopped, turning towards her. "You smile too much." He said, frowning at her. "That's fine if you're putting on a brave face for juniors and patients, but you should just be yourself among equals."

Xiao Yingzi considered what Elder Teleos would do. "Your advice is appreciated, Senior Victor." She replied, bowing deeply.

"What?" He asked, taken aback.

She looked up and gave him a grin. "You said nothing about seniors, did you?"

He blinked and laughed. "No, I didn't." He replied, grinning back. "You see, that smile is much more lovely. I'll see you around, Yingzi."

She waved him back as he left. "And I you… Victor." She said, after a moment of hesitation. His only reply was a wider grin as he left.

As she turned towards the training room, she felt her hands touch her lips. Why did he like that smile more than the others? She wondered, feeling strangely curious. It was just as affected…

….wasn't it?

This would need deeper thought.
 
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...I really want a story from Altar Lord's perspective, now. Like, a full novel. The hero desperate to save the world from a cruel heaven, ruining his own morality in the process, watching the world getting darker and darker by his own hand and praying its worth it. That's a freaking Xianxia and a HALF, right there.

If only we had picked Blood Path at chargen. Then that could have been us doing cool stuff like force-feeding a rebellious subordinate to his great-granddaughter and recording the event for mass broadcast.
 
Blood Path was an option under "Combat Skill", while Array Carving was an option under "Profession", so they are not mutually exclusive. We could have been Blood Path Array Carvers, and we could have ensured that truly no part of our food went to waste. What didn't get consumed would have been incorporated into our arrays.
Pretty sure we already are. IIRC the rebuilt Golden Eye array is literally using Child Corpse Gulper's eye as a central part.
 
Actually the blood path and array combo would make it so that the blood would return to the array meaning we just get more powerful over time.

Though The World May Stand Against Us - a demonic sect even among demonic sects. Your disciplines number many, and they fight for everything they can get. If they kill each other, so be it. Your Sanguine Devil Array means any blood split by the sect returns to the sect, and only by raising the most vicious disciples can you gain victory. You hide behind your secret arrays empowered by many spirit stones, and you often send disciples out to slaughter villages of mortals, minor cultivation clans, and even lesser sects to gain power. Your Sect inheritances and Secret Realms allow you to empower your disciples, and if they fall, their blood returns to the Sect. Still, you have killed many, and if you are found you will certainly be wiped out.

You are the number one enemy of the Righteous Path in the Virtuous Flipper Region, and even offended Spirit Severing Elder Fang Li, by wiping out his clan and consuming them while he was away. One of your disciples tortured his granddaughter to death, and then consumed her raw flesh to gain her power - a truly promising seed! Fang Li will stop at nothing to destroy you.
 
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