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

Voting is open
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.

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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.

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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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Voting is still open, for those who are more keen on an aggressive approach!

I'm going to be

(1) Threadmarking omake and new Good Seeds.

(2) Responding to Qs

(3) Writing up the effects of Qi Condensation 10-13 so Good Seed players can have a notion if they want to try and go even further beyond.
 
Some brief musings, but would any of the other Good Seeds who have a Spirit beast mind if i include them with Xiao Yi in a future Omake ? I'll keep the interaction low but i just thought it would be interesting considering we have at least 3 or 4 Good Seeds with Spirit Beasts and everyone has a different interpretation about them.

Just off-hand, i noticed the following:

Peta = Is the True Beast as Kin Method, where the Beast is as intelligent as it's Partner.

Ninth Prince = Is very much of the Pet method where the Beasts are animals given a dash of training

Xiao Yi = While what i was trying to convey was a midpoint between the 2 where the Spirit Beast is intelligent but with a pure animal mentality. I'm very aware that i did not convey this well lol. Especially since Qing Yun has only appeared as a Plot Device in all my Omakes.
If you want, I have a low level beast that I have been feeding new poisons to make more poisonous, you can take it off my character if you milk it's poison to give me Once a month

it's not really trained yet, more like livestock
 
I'm also open to people using ambrus in omake's. just run it by me here, in pms, or on discord and i'll tell you if he is acting in character or not.
 
Hmmm, it looks like due to Time Differences, it's going to be hard for me to vote in time. But for discussion sake, can i ask the Thread on perhaps developing 1 action to come up with a Qi Formation specced Formation.

As they are the ones with the greatest numbers in the Clan, it would really be great if we can develop more methods to leverage their numerical advantage.




@occipitallobe can i have the Omake threadmarked ? I will add the bonuses to the Background if this Omake counts for bonus sakes. If not i'll just leave it as a lore + future goal.

Omake threadmarked and done. I'm never going to turn down an omake!

I'd note for future purposes, a young genius could quite possibly both develop a Qi Condensation specced Formation and improve it through the use of Omake.

Thanks for the response, about what I thought was the case. I do get the roll bloat that you are suffering and understand why this might have happened.

Also would it be helpful on your end if the people making good seeds outlined their end point in Heavenstep stage?

I'll keep note of cultivation progress from the last Good Seed report in the thread - the main thing is to follow the process in the Good Seed info-threadmark. Once you have a request, edit it into your first Good Seed post, so I can look in the same place every time to know what to look for.

Yes, true. But the impression i get from the given Formations is that they are pretty modular in the sense that everyone can essentially be a part of it. As such, i'm assuming that to make it work part of the formation has to be used to basically " smoothen out " the Qi differences between each member so that no one explodes from dealing with to much.

What i'm trying to aspire for is something more along the lines of a niche/specialized formation. Like how the Twin-Eagle formation requires the Bloodline, something along the lines of Qi Condensation only but for every 100 members, allows them do throw one flying spear at Early Core strength but unlike the main formations cannot be scaled up to Core Cultivators to use.

On a more personal note. As the Formation Clan, i feel it's a shame if we don't leverage Formations to make use of numbers in ways that other more conventional powers do not use.

Like the example i gave above, the ability for 100 Qi Condensation to launch 1 Early Core strike will be great at both fighting other Qi Condensation cultivators or tie up Core Cultivation enemies by making them have to spare Qi to parry the blows.

This also doesn't take into account potential Utility Formations, like maybe a illusionary formation etc.

@occipitallobe can i just clarify with you on how exactly formations work ?

So far i've been assuming that when a Formation is used, there will kinda be a Aura shadow/Stand that overlays the cultivators. The cultivators are still there but within the Stand.

If that is the case, for the Kataphraktoi Formation, does this means that the Cultivators charge in tandem with the Kataphraktoi ?

Formations are really, really broad. A formation boils down to 'magic spell that can take in Qi from many cultivators'. Some might funnel power to the guy at the front. The Clan mainly summons apparitions with weapons of bronze - or creatures fully made of bronze because they play nicely with the Clan bloodline and gives them an extra boost. Synergy and all that.

The Kataphraktoi can charge without the cultivators moving, and the Two-Headed Eagle can fly a distance away from the cultivators powering it. Not too far, though.

Formations generally speaking are inferior to regular spells if cast by a single cultivator - but most spells/techniques/etc can only be used by a single cultivator, so formations outshine regular techniques once the numbers scale up.

I would say, though, that 100 Qi Condensation cultivators could in theory equal maybe 1 mid stage Foundation Building expert if the formation was made very efficient. Assuming a perfect formation with zero Qi loss, you'd need maybe 10,000 Qi Condensation cultivators to launch a Core Formation strike. For a very, very good formation at the edge of the Clan's abilities to create over a century or two, you could probably get away with around 200,000 or so.

Fighting across a single great realm - even with formations - is exceptionally hard, and the Clan's ability to do so is unparalleled by any other power in the region. Two great realms is unheard of.

Illusory and utility formation development might yield considerably more fruit, though.
 
@occipitallobe what possibilities do illusion and utility formations potentially offer. Aren't those 2 things more suited to arrays? Also can we actually make illusions higher realms can't see through?
 
@occipitallobe what possibilities do illusion and utility formations potentially offer. Aren't those 2 things more suited to arrays? Also can we actually make illusions higher realms can't see through?

Yes and no. Arrays are amazing, but usually fixed. Defensively an illusion array, a healing array, an empowering array, all good.

Fighting on someone else's turf usually means only using mobile arrays (which tend to be less effective), but formations are really just cultivation techniques used en masse. Illusions scale, though - being able to trap someone in an illusion means being much more powerful than them, but trapping 10 people in an illusion isn't that much harder than trapping one.

Very situational sorts of stuff, but potentially very useful.
 
Updated the cultivation bonuses for Qi Condensation 10-13. A brief explainer follows:

10th Heavenstage - 108 (Benefit: Body Purification Stage - Cultivator's body is cleansed of all impurities, gains considerable strength, speed, and toughness.)

10th Heavenstage is of immense benefit to Foundation Building (offering one small realm worth of strength) and of mild benefit Core Formation cultivators (offering roughly a quarter of a small realm), but falls away during Nascent Soul.

11th Heavenstage - 188 (Benefit: Qi Purification Stage - Cultivator gains pure Qi that flows through a pure body. This pure Qi allows them to fuel more powerful techniques, and makes a cultivator unparalleled in their small realm.)

11th Heavenstage is of mild benefit to Foundation Building (offering half a small realm), and Core Formation (offering half a small realm), but falls away during Nascent Soul.

12th Heavenstage - 208 (Benefit: Soul Purification Stage - Cultivator purifies their soul, allowing them resistance against soul attacks, a boost to soul arts, and a large boost to soul cultivation in the Nascent Soul realm.)

Crucial for Nascent Soul cultivators. Offers 1.5x cultivation speed, but costs no more resources.

13th Heavenstage - 288 (Benefit: Dao Purification Stage - Cultivator purifies their Dao in the same way breaking into the Core Formation Realm requires. They are able to cultivate the One-Pillar Foundation Establishment path, yielding many benefits.)

Offers considerable benefits in the Foundation Building realm as only one pillar is required. The cultivator will consume 7x the usual resources to advance through Foundation Building, but builds a pillar of immense strength. In Early they will be able to challenge Late, in Mid they can challenge the Great Circle, in Late they are unrivalled in Foundation Building, and on reaching the Great Circle they will be able to stand against Early Core Formation experts.

Each realm increases the chances you die during tribulation, though, and as a Golden Devil Clan member your Good Seed is already at significant risk here.
 
Each realm increases the chances you die during tribulation, though, and as a Golden Devil Clan member your Good Seed is already at significant risk here.

Nice.

Is there anything that helps Tribulation Chances? It's not supposed to be a 'Dumb Luck' thing so much as a 'Final Exam to make sure you're actually ready to progress' sort of thing, but you never see characters who get any real narrative focus failing a Tribulation either.
 
Nice.

Is there anything that helps Tribulation Chances? It's not supposed to be a 'Dumb Luck' thing so much as a 'Final Exam to make sure you're actually ready to progress' sort of thing, but you never see characters who get any real narrative focus failing a Tribulation either.

Yes.

Tribulation chances are usually best helped by various Heavenly Treasures - Dao-Masking Pills to make the tribulation think you're weaker (and thus require less power to knock down) when headed into Foundation Building, Lightning Attracting Fans to remove some of the deadlier lightning - usually a treasure of this kind is expensive or incredibly difficult to find, but they do exist. The Clan has a few Bloodline Masking Pills that can remove the Blood of Bronze temporarily in order to have an easy tribulation, but they're irreplaceable treasures.

Secondly, time. Ascending into Foundation Building, Heavenly Tribulation tries to shake your belief in your Dao - Heavenly Lightning strikes at your forming Dao Pillar, which is supported by your certainty in your Dao. Any doubts will be ruthlessly exploited, and if you can't hold onto your belief to form a Pillar, the forming pillar will shatter, and you'll die. More time in Qi Condensation allows a cultivator to more thoroughly develop their Dao.

Thirdly, a powerful senior willing to sacrifice their cultivation base for you. Manuel could easily advance any Good Seed into Foundation Building even past the Thirteenth Circle, but he'd fall back to Early Nascent Soul to do so.
 
If you want, I have a low level beast that I have been feeding new poisons to make more poisonous, you can take it off my character if you milk it's poison to give me Once a month

it's not really trained yet, more like livestock

Thanks! I may not be able to work it in with Xiao Yi since i'm going for a Kingdom style General with him, but it strikes me that it would be possible for a poisonous beast to be a core of a Poison Formation.

Formation Of Philoctetes = A Formation that gathers the Qi of those within and Shoots blasts filled with Poison Qi. :whistle:

Sure! I think the discrepancy is easy enough to resolve with different beasts holding different mentalities and levels of intelligence. Wajo is Peta's unique special thing, not a talent in beast taming or anything, so he's a genuine mythical beast with the same potential she has.

That's a good point! One avenue could be the cliche of bloodlines. Like how in Xianxia the Super Smart beast are those with extremely mythical bloodlines. I think i will go that route for Qing Yun, since it makes sense that his Clan won't be able to get beasts of that much potential without being wiped out by the stronger sects.
Formations are really, really broad. A formation boils down to 'magic spell that can take in Qi from many cultivators'. Some might funnel power to the guy at the front. The Clan mainly summons apparitions with weapons of bronze - or creatures fully made of bronze because they play nicely with the Clan bloodline and gives them an extra boost. Synergy and all that.

The Kataphraktoi can charge without the cultivators moving, and the Two-Headed Eagle can fly a distance away from the cultivators powering it. Not too far, though.

Formations generally speaking are inferior to regular spells if cast by a single cultivator - but most spells/techniques/etc can only be used by a single cultivator, so formations outshine regular techniques once the numbers scale up.

I would say, though, that 100 Qi Condensation cultivators could in theory equal maybe 1 mid stage Foundation Building expert if the formation was made very efficient. Assuming a perfect formation with zero Qi loss, you'd need maybe 10,000 Qi Condensation cultivators to launch a Core Formation strike. For a very, very good formation at the edge of the Clan's abilities to create over a century or two, you could probably get away with around 200,000 or so.

Fighting across a single great realm - even with formations - is exceptionally hard, and the Clan's ability to do so is unparalleled by any other power in the region. Two great realms is unheard of.

Illusory and utility formation development might yield considerably more fruit, though.

This is very useful details about Formations, any chance they could be added to the Informational post about the Clan ? Also, that 10,000 Qi condensation cultivators strikes me as a Challenge! :D

@occipitallobe what possibilities do illusion and utility formations potentially offer. Aren't those 2 things more suited to arrays? Also can we actually make illusions higher realms can't see through?

For me, i was thinking of it in a more army context. So my imagined Illusion formation would be something like the Hidden Mist jutsu in Naruto where 1 group can disorient the enemy while another group strikes etc
Updated the cultivation bonuses for Qi Condensation 10-13. A brief explainer follows:

So erm, if i'm interpreting this and the Cultivation post right, after reaching Stage 9 our Good Seeds can make a attempt at Foundation Establishment but that makes them average or mediocre. If they wanna remain at the top, they gotta take some risks and go further along the stages before ascending ?

P.S: I also edited in the Omake Bonuses in Xiao Yi's background. Do let me know if i made any mistakes on the eligible bonuses.

I'd note for future purposes, a young genius could quite possibly both develop a Qi Condensation specced Formation and improve it through the use of Omake.

I shall insert this into the background as well! Xiao Yi is now attempting to research and develop Formations for the Qi Condensation Stage (Since he is just a Qi Condensation Cultivator)

I guess depending on the rolls, the Omake for it is either going to be a success or hilarious since i can imagine him trying to get people to " just channel your Qi like this! "
 
Yes.

Tribulation chances are usually best helped by various Heavenly Treasures - Dao-Masking Pills to make the tribulation think you're weaker (and thus require less power to knock down) when headed into Foundation Building, Lightning Attracting Fans to remove some of the deadlier lightning - usually a treasure of this kind is expensive or incredibly difficult to find, but they do exist. The Clan has a few Bloodline Masking Pills that can remove the Blood of Bronze temporarily in order to have an easy tribulation, but they're irreplaceable treasures.

Secondly, time. Ascending into Foundation Building, Heavenly Tribulation tries to shake your belief in your Dao - Heavenly Lightning strikes at your forming Dao Pillar, which is supported by your certainty in your Dao. Any doubts will be ruthlessly exploited, and if you can't hold onto your belief to form a Pillar, the forming pillar will shatter, and you'll die. More time in Qi Condensation allows a cultivator to more thoroughly develop their Dao.

Thirdly, a powerful senior willing to sacrifice their cultivation base for you. Manuel could easily advance any Good Seed into Foundation Building even past the Thirteenth Circle, but he'd fall back to Early Nascent Soul to do so.

Hmm, so I could effectively use my turn related "Bonuses" to shore up Tribulation Chances, right, and they can crop up on occasion with Fate rolls? Or can these only show up from Fate rolls?
 
Are there any members of the clan that have gone beyond 9th stage? While the benefits seem massive if you go all the way to the 13th the costs also seem to scale even worse. Seven times the resources to advance as well as whatever extra murder-death-kill difficulty settings the heavens impose on top of what there already are for the clan. Admittedly I am massively tempted to go all the way with Hektor... (Cool overpowered bullshit is cool)
 
10th Heavenstage - 108 (Benefit: Body Purification Stage - Cultivator's body is cleansed of all impurities, gains considerable strength, speed, and toughness.)
I think my guy might want to do this to clean out any left over poison or pill residue. Anymore seems too much for my guy

Thanks! I may not be able to work it in with Xiao Yi since i'm going for a Kingdom style General with him, but it strikes me that it would be possible for a poisonous beast to be a core of a Poison Formation.

Formation Of Philoctetes = A Formation that gathers the Qi of those within and Shoots blasts filled with Poison Qi. :whistle:
There is a small tamer family my guy knows who has several more of the scorpions, write in my guy introducing yours to them
 
Amaranth Castellanos 1 - Bandit Attack during Caravan to Shen Kingdom!
Amaranth Castellanos
Bandit Attack during Caravan to Shen Kingdom!​

He woke to the sound of feet shuffling around in the sand. Amaranth rubbed his bleary eyes and got out of his tent. Were they traveling again this soon? The caravan usually started traveling after a break a little later than this, he could have sworn, but he supposed that catching the majority of the hours before noon for travel meant that getting up before sunrise wasn't a bad idea. Amaranth stretched out his limbs, and got himself as awake as he could this early in the middle of the desert. Well, if he was going to be awake anyway, he might as well chat. He was traveling to Shen Kingdom for the experience of meeting people in a place where bronze was uncommon anyway, so he might as well enjoy the journey as well as the destination. He headed over to where the guard Chen Wuming was, along with several other guards.

Chen Wuming was a body cultivator who looked like a middle-aged mortal, and unlike the many body cultivators Amaranth knew from his Clan, he lacked the bloodline of bronze. It made sense. After all, he wasn't part of the Clan, so naturally he wouldn't. Still, Amaranth marveled at that ordinary fact. For the vast majority of Amaranth's life, he'd only seen body cultivators with the power of bronze backing up their motions— unlike him. Amaranth, with bronze so weak that a fall that shouldn't have left a scratch made him bleed, Amaranth, whose fists couldn't even crack stone. Lacking that, the path of body cultivation should have been the last spot he placed his efforts, yet it was. He didn't back down from the challenge, because inefficient as it may be, he loved to fight with his fists. Amaranth trained as hard as he could to keep up, but in the end clan members who spent just as much effort would dumpster him in a spar. He remembered the jeers from those who believed that he was just wasting his time doing what he did. Amaranth brushed it off as best as he could, but he couldn't deny that he didn't envy them for their natural ability. Still, he knew that there were many powerful body cultivators out there who didn't have bronze in their bones at all. He couldn't give up. He wouldn't give up.

So, when Amaranth saw a person who was a successful body cultivator even without bronze, it made him smile, since it made that intangible knowledge in his head feel like it had some weight to it beyond the weight of books and rumors.

Still, as much as he tried to suppress it, he couldn't help but remember. Remember that there were those in his clan at the very same stage as Chen who would have much more combat power, which made him uncomfortable, to put it lightly. A smile, but then a frown.

After some banal chatter about the day-to-day issues of the caravan, Amaranth mentioned his experiences to Chen, and if he'd have any advice. Chen only had one thing to say.

"That's just how Fate is at times, so you've just got to settle with it. A person with a bloodline is always going to—"

Suddenly, a dull red flash appeared in the distance. Chen quickly became alert.

"Get to your tent," he said curtly.

"What is it?"

"The Battle Blood Cannibal Sect. Now, get to your tent if you want to live."

Amaranth quickly nodded, and rushed to his tent, but watched what was happening from the opening.

He still can remember exactly what happened to this day if he just closes his eyes.

The guards try to reason with them, saying that the locals already paid the tribute so they should have no reason to do this, but the Blood Cannibals just laugh.

"Tribute? Do you honestly think that'd actually stop us?", the one in the front finally says. "Besides, all I see are some particularly juicy slices of meat, ready for the eating. What's wrong with taking advantage of that?"

And then the battle ensues.

The Blood Cannibals burst into blurs of frenzied motion, and one slashes at Chen Wuming with claws the shade of congealed blood. The guard retaliates with arms that shift to solid ice in the middle of the counter, parrying the strike and returning the attack. The cannibal takes a battering ram of freezing power to the stomach, turning the point of impact into a mess of frozen and shattered flesh and bone. He's staggering now, face twisted in a rictus of rage and hateful promise. However, Chen can't care less. After a strike like that, the guard is confident that he's got him done for, and moves in for the finishing blow. Just one more job completed, and he's gonna retire from this. As exciting as this life is, there is such a thing as too much of it. With thoughts like these in his head, he makes a rookie mistake. He's taken his focus off a cornered foe. With a look of madness in his eyes, the cannibal bites his tongue and burns his life force to boost his ability for a final, suicidal lunge. Chen hastily moves into a defensive stance, his arms like a wall of ice glinting under the light of the moon, but a crimson flare shears straight through the barrier and into his neck. His last thoughts are of regret. He was so close... The cannibal exults in his kill, sending his claws into the heart of his foe while roaring in triumph. A red haze emanates from the corpse, traveling into his body and stitching his wounds together. As the cannibal turns around to rejoin the melee, his head is crushed like an overripe watermelon by a bronze fist and sliced in half by a silvery arc of sword intent to confirm the kill.

Amaranth watches this completely horrified, but as he sees the red haze get absorbed by the cannibal, he feels a strange resonance in his body, and a faint eagerness to join in on the murder. The much larger portion of him is utterly repulsed, which intensifies even further when he sees the face of the person who just got killed. It was the guard he was talking to! Those damned Blood Cannibals, I'll tear them apart for what they've done! I'll kill them, I'll kill them, I'll KILL THEM ALL!!! There is blood everywhere. On the ground, on the swords of the clashing combatants, and unbeknownst to him, in his own eyes as he tenses to strike.

However… he can't join in. He knows that he can't join in, as much as he hates the fact, because he's just a mere mortal while these are full cultivators. He'd just get slaughtered, so he shouldn't try it, or so he repeated to himself again and again, while his body twitched and his eyes impotently glared.

The fight continues. Many guards fall, just like Chen Wuming did. Valiantly, but ultimately to the end. But, for every fallen guard, another Blood Cannibal meets the grave, and there are many more guards than Blood Cannibals. Slowly, realization comes to the eyes of the remaining Blood Cannibals, and they head to flee. The guards don't stop them. They've taken enough losses as is, and can't— won't spend more just to wipe out the rest. The Blood Cannibals aren't worth that anyway, and keeping the caravan safe is paramount, which means advancing to kill them off would be counterproductive. Still, it's not like the guards like doing this anyway. Throughout their careers, they've seen Blood Cannibals, bandits, and all sorts of others try to rob caravans, and end the lives of comrades and even close friends in the process, so the resentment can grow deep. Oftentimes, there are lone guards that break from the group to chase them, but they just as often get killed. But in the end, keeping the caravan safe is paramount, or so they repeat to themselves again and again.
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The rest of the trip wasn't nearly as exciting. Amaranth visited the stalls of the streets of Shen where there were some pretty tasty local foods that he hadn't tried out before. And of course, there was the experience of having the vast majority of people he saw not have that distinctive bronze in their skin and hair, which was nice. However, his thoughts always returned to the face of that guard, and the sound of those wretched claws shearing through the ice. He remembers the flow of the red mist strengthening the cannibal, and that strange feeling in his body when he saw it happening. He remembers that final bronze fist that ended the cannibal.

That final bronze fist. He looks at his own hands, as weak a shade of bronze as a member of the bloodline could have. Even here, the weakness of his bronze blocked him off from his dreams. With a bloodline as thin as this, how could he ever hope to pay back the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect? A memory bubbled to the surface.

"That's how fate is sometimes kid, you just got to settle with it."

No. He refused. If fate had decided that he'd have to settle with being mediocre compared to the others of his family, then he'd defy fate. He stood up in his bedroom. He hadn't noticed the details of the feeling before, but the bronze of his own fists sung to be sunk into the flesh of his enemies. Perhaps with this, he'd be able to make his body match, no, surpass the rest of his clan.

Or maybe he was just hallucinating from the stress of the battle between so many cultivators. A mortal's physique with the barest tinges of bronze would probably be feeble enough to fall to mundane ills like that. Honestly, that was probably much more likely than him awakening to some secret power. His shoulders slumped. What was he thinking? But the hope refused to be crushed by practicality. (Or was it that he just didn't want the hope to be crushed?) Either way, he resolved to test out his theory at the sect. He'd soon join and finally become a cultivator, so he might as well see if killing one of the sect's enemies on a mission would do anything special. If not? Well, he'd just keep on doing what he did. The hard route is still a route, after all.

A/N: As you might have guessed, Amaranth misunderstood what Chen meant, and it certainly doesn't help that he was interrupted in the middle of his spiel. Though, motivations born of misunderstandings can still be fun nonetheless. If it seems to you that Amaranth's character is different than described in my Good Seed blurb, you're probably correct. This is just what ended up as my end result. @occipitallobe, I'd like my bonus to be to his constitution, so his baseline isn't low enough to lead to an early death. Kind of like that cultivation bonus giving 10 years worth, but to his constitution instead. (So, considering how it grows, offscreen it would be explained by killing more enemies of the sect.)

(BTW, this was my real first omake ever. My Good Seed blurb was more like of an outline than a true omake, TBH. I hope that I managed to make a 4-5/10 one at least, but that's probably too optimistic tbh.)
 
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Are there any members of the clan that have gone beyond 9th stage? While the benefits seem massive if you go all the way to the 13th the costs also seem to scale even worse. Seven times the resources to advance as well as whatever extra murder-death-kill difficulty settings the heavens impose on top of what there already are for the clan. Admittedly I am massively tempted to go all the way with Hektor... (Cool overpowered bullshit is cool)

Yes, but those who go beyond 9th are invariably those with weak Dao-Hearts who the Clan is not interested in raising to Foundation Building, so they may as well make them unparalleled in Qi Condensation. Given the 11th Heavenstage comes at the end of a cultivator in the Qi Condensation's lifespan, usually you see a lot of cultivators ending their journey at the 10th Heavenstage, which isn't a bad deal. It's not as powerful as Foundation Building, but if your only other option is 'grow old and die', why not be stronk?

Hmm, so I could effectively use my turn related "Bonuses" to shore up Tribulation Chances, right, and they can crop up on occasion with Fate rolls? Or can these only show up from Fate rolls?

Absolutely. More time yields better tribulation chances, and you can also use bonuses to get Tribulation-related Treasures.
 
Yes, but those who go beyond 9th are invariably those with weak Dao-Hearts who the Clan is not interested in raising to Foundation Building, so they may as well make them unparalleled in Qi Condensation. Given the 11th Heavenstage comes at the end of a cultivator in the Qi Condensation's lifespan, usually you see a lot of cultivators ending their journey at the 10th Heavenstage, which isn't a bad deal. It's not as powerful as Foundation Building, but if your only other option is 'grow old and die', why not be stronk?



Absolutely. More time yields better tribulation chances, and you can also use bonuses to get Tribulation-related Treasures.

Alright then! Good to know!

I must redouble my efforts in the days ahead!

(Not that I've exactly been slacking, I'm closing in on ten thousand words total produced for Rina's adventures, yikes!)
 
@occipitallobe I have a few questions for good seeds and cultivation in general

1) I am assuming that we would need to buy a few lifespan increases for a full 13th stage to happen
2) Did you change the age per stage formula or is it still the 5 per stage
3) Would the clan even allow a good seed to try for 13th stage
4) I take it that heavenly treasures would be needed for success in the higher stages due to the hate the heaven has for us
5) Do omakes apply bonuses to these rolls
6) In general is the bonus that a good seed gets from omake based on number or size of omakes
 
@occipitallobe question but do Good Seed that aren't part of the Golden Devil's clan suffer from the increased Tribulations or is associating with the 'Evil Demons' enough for the Heavens to go fuck you?
 
Geography and History
I've meant to do this for awhile. It's a collation of what the Clan knows about various powers - not their current strengths, treasuries, etc, but a sort of 'generic info about the powers that be' list that the Quest might be interested in.

There are four sub-regions, which are largely divided by 'who fights who'. First information post will be 'what are these regions and their very vague dynamics'. There'll be future infoposts about all the powers in each region, as well.

Sub-Regions

First is the Great Battlefield.

Draw a line between the Strength Purity Sect and Divine Tunist Sect. Now a second line between Strength Purity Sect and Heavenly Time Shatter Sect. Those 11 powers form the Great Battlefield, with four Demonic powers fighting seven Righteous ones. The two most powerful factions in the Virtuous Flipper Region, Strength Purity Sect and Demonic Altar Sect are here. The Great Battlefield is almost always at war of some kind. The Demonic Altar of the eponymous Sect means war makes them more powerful, and sometimes even the surrounding Demonic powers have allied against them to restrain them.

Strength Purity Sect being the only source of trade through the mountains means it is wealthy, but tends to spend that wealth convincing other Righteous powers to ally with it to restrain Demonic ones.

Second is the Verdant South.

Without constant war, this region is the most populated and wealthiest of all. The Abyssal Devil Bee Sect is the greatest enemy here - able to raid into the region with impunity. It is rarely worth the effort for the other powers to try and invade, and the last Six-Power Pact of all powers against it invaded the Devil Bees, and failed abysmally, unable to siege down its mountain fortresses in unfamiliar territory. The Devil Bees continued to run rampant in the territories of the Verdant South, and eventually the various Righteous Sects obtained an agreement to limit raids in return for various tributes.

Third is the Quiet Peaks.

No easy way through the mountains, the varied clans are only of interest every century or two when Qiguai Clan's magical gateway to a hidden realm opens, or Yuan Clan's stone circles create the Man-As-World Mountain Array, allowing massive cultivation boosts. When these brief events happen, massive trade and power flocks to their doorstep, but for the most part, the Quiet Peaks remain quiet, rarely at war or enriched by trade.

Lastly are the Desert Barbarians.

Ruled by Demonic Path creatures, the only reason the Desert matters is the massive numbers of Spirit Stones there. The Golden Devil Clan and Battle Blood Cannibal Sect are threats, though as they are kept to the desert they are of no danger to the Plains powers. Jingshen Clan has the greatest Spirit Stone mines of all, bringing constant necessary Stones to help raise favored disciples in the Plains. The greatest concern of all is to keep the Scorpion Road open, to ensure the flow of Spirit Stones never stops. Internally, the Cannibal Sect attacks other powers, and they defend against it.


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The Great Battlefield, pt 1

When one thinks of the Great Battlefield, what comes to mind is the screaming barbarians of the Demonic Altar Sect fighting the well-disciplined cultivators of the Strength Purity Sect. The foretellings, the soul-searches and the poisons of the Noble Knowledge Sect defending them against the eternal siege of the Righteous Path. Two-fifths of all cultivators live in the Great Battlefield - together with the Verdant South these regions hold over four-fifths of the total population in the Virtuous Flipper Region.

The 11 powers that form the Great Battlefield are almost always at war, with four Demonic powers fighting seven Righteous ones. The two most powerful factions in the Virtuous Flipper Region, Strength Purity Sect and Demonic Altar Sect are here. The Great Battlefield is almost always at war of some kind - the two aforementioned have not declared a ceasefire in over four hundred years. The Demonic Altar of the eponymous Sect means war makes them more powerful, and sometimes even the surrounding Demonic powers have allied against them to restrain them.

Strength Purity Sect being the only source of trade through the mountains means it is wealthy, but tends to spend that wealth convincing other Righteous powers to ally with it to restrain Demonic ones.

The Great Battlefield is stronger due to all this. In a vague estimation, if somehow all the powers of the Great Battlefield faced the combined powers of the rest of the Virtuous Flipper Region in pitched battle, it would be a massacre. Perhaps two-thirds of the Region's total combat strength resides here. Sects here are stronger and more refined for war - it is no coincidence that among the Great Battlefield, only two powers of note are Clans, and they are minor ones at that. Constantly at war, with cities under siege, cultivators going back and forth, and names rising and falling, the Great Battlefield is truly the centre of the Region.

Yes. You come from the weakest sub-region of the weakest region of the weakest Sea in the world.

Going east to west, and then north to south, the first six powers are as follows.

Ma Clan:

Ma Clan are known for their study Spirit Horses, able to ride for weeks without fail. They are unparalleled horse archers, riding around the battlefield and firing arrows with abandon. They practice a Dao of Bow and Dao of Beasts jointly, and while they cultivate slowly and have few cultivators, those they have are strong within their realm.

They are technically a settled tribe of barbarians from the Ghostly Beast Curse Vein to the north that separates the Virtuous Flipper Region from other regions near it, driven out when the beasts rose up more strongly. They intermarried with the former Wen Empire, and put their own name on the former Empire. They mostly serve as mercenaries for the Righteous Path, and are not overly strong en masse by themselves - they are one of the two weakest powers in the region. They are Righteous due a defeat suffered when the Strength Purity Sect sent an expedition north to kill the old Ma Emperor who had begun consuming mortals.

They officially were forced to relinquish their title as a show of shame, and have ever since been a Righteous power.

Great Mountain Bell Sect:

The Great Mountain Bell Sect is actually founded around an old Ten-Scale Bell, a Bell that saw common use before the death of the Turtle Child. It is the last of its kind, and allows the Sect to be virtually impregnable when rung. As such, it serves as a key bulwark - both against beast tides in the north, and against Demonic powers in the west.

The Great Mountain Bell Sect practices Demonic Tunes, as they have learned from the chimes of the bell. They are weak in combat, and mostly use their powers for the defense of their territory. They are well-fortified, and well-loved by the mortals they rule over.

Heavenly Time Shatter Sect:

Demonic in name, the Heavenly Time Shatter Sect practice the Dao of Time. They can freeze and quicken or slow time, though in limited amounts. Such acts tend to warp the fabric of the world itself, poisoning the surrounding areas and making them unsuitable for cultivation for hundreds or thousands of years. Such Qi Knots are viewed unfavorably and were banned by the Righteous Path. The Sect, however, chose to ally with the Demonic Altar Sect, and continued to attack others to practice their bizarre techniques.

Gao Clan:

Known for their extensive marshes and poisons, Gao Clan serve mainly as mercenaries for the Demonic Altar Sect. They are poor and weak, and even their Poison Path is inferior to the Noble Knowledge Sect, who walk many paths. They would have long been conquered by the Demonic Altar Sect, but their lands and poor and their poisons relatively powerful, so they remain free.

Thousand Arrows and Flowers Sect:

It was said when Yu Anagong married Lin Min, he shot a thousand thousand arrows into the air as celebration, each one coming down without harming a guest. She was a famed doctor and herbalist, having cured Anagong's sister. They fell in love, married, and founded a Sect in opposition to the nearby Noble Knowledge Sect. Inside the Sect, they peacefully grew herbs, forged pills, and cured patients, and outside it they used their massive, powerful bows to defend their territory. More the marriage of two Sects into one, the Arrow Path and Flower Path rarely meet in a single cultivator, and it it defies belief to see one who walks both paths in full. They are well-loved across the Great Battlefield, and have cured many Righteous Path cultivators of many terrible poisons and illnesses.

Their Arrow Path is less impressive, and while they are not a weak Sect, nor are they an especially strong one. Their cultivation of Arrow Path is mainly to be able to kill Noble Knowledge Disciples from a distance, as the Sect is one of the four that has maintained the Poison-Crushing Siege for the last six hundred years.

Gemstone Justice Sect:

Wealth is justice. Or rather, wealth is power, and power allows justice. One cannot be just without power, so one cannot be just without wealth. Hence, obtain wealth. Such is the credo of the Gemstone Justice Sect, who serve as the hub for trade across the entirety of the Plains. They manage businesses everywhere Righteous, and make tremendous profits. Some is paid in tribute to the Strength Purity Sect, as the Gemstone Justice Sect is an eclectic collection of cultivators who are not well fit for war. Individual duels, most certainly, but they turn money into intrigue, wealth into weapons. You rarely fight a cultivator of the Gemstone Justice Sect, yet its enemies tend to find themselves defeated nonetheless.

In a broad and technical sense they help maintain the Poison-Crushing Siege, though in practice they largely pay other Sects to handle their part of the responsibility.

Great Battlefield pt. 2

The remaining five powers of the Great Battlefield are as follows:

Demonic Altar Sect:

The Grand Wei Dynasty was once the greatest Empire in the Virtuous Flipper Region. With tremendous wealth and justice it governed well and wisely, ruling perhaps two-thirds of the entire Plains regions a number of millennia ago. However, it had a peculiar custom of testing the Princes and Princesses of the Dynasty, ensuring they passed many tests in order to rule. A number of disinterested Elders managed the system, allowing their juniors to claim the throne provided that they passed the tests and placed first amongst their brethren.

The Wei Dynasty is still remembered fondly in history as a golden age for the Virtuous Flipper Region.

It was in a time of peace and plenty, when the First Prince was primed to rule, and considered by far the most virtuous of his peers. It was his quiet brother, the Seventh Prince who stumbled upon an Altar, apparently used briefly by Demonic Soup Chef as he meditated before his battle to slay the Third Turtle Child. His hideous intent pervaded it, and offered the chance to rise beyond all others for the mere cost of consumption. This was the foundation of Blood Path in the region.

The Seventh Prince rose rapidly, and into the Spirit Severing Realm, which was more common in those days as the Qi had not faded as much. He slew his father, brothers, and sisters, and wrote his famous poem - the Litany of Slaughter on Turtlebone Mountain. This was a magical chant that, empowered by the turtle-bone killed almost all the mortals in the region who were not hidden behind arrays. However, he was unable to find sufficient blood to sate his thirst, and somehow stepped into a new Sea, after delivering the Litany of Slaughter back to the Altar, and founding a new Sect there.

Those who used the Altar to empower their kills would grow even beyond regular Blood Path, and it was the hard-won victories of the Eight Demon-Annihilating Wars over two thousand years that drove the Demonic Altar Sect back to their current borders. They are still considered the most powerful Sect in the region, and even the Strength Purity Sect could not match them without copious support from other Righteous Powers. It also precludes any direct attacks - in the Sixth Demon-Annihilating War four Nascent Soul elders assaulted the Altar directly, but the fragment of will left by Demonic Soup Chef killed them all in an instant.

Strength Purity Sect:

Founded in secret by the Second Wei Princess, a woman of tremendous strength who prized bodily perfection above all else. She fought her demonic brother twelve times, and on the twelfth he slew her and consumed her blood upon the Demonic Altar. She left behind a number of scrolls and body training exercises, and her disciples swore to bring down the Sect that had slain their beloved founder. Their techniques make them immune to being consumed by Blood Path, and require both purity of body as well as purity of intent - those who kill pointlessly or cruelly find themselves weaker for it.

Widely considered paragons of the Righteous Path, they are the regional hegemons - the Righteous Powers look up to them one and all, and their voice is heard in all corners of the Region. Their constant service restraining the Demonic Altar Sect means that they must constantly fight, ever-outnumbered and ever-outmatched, using their superior techniques to overcome the brute force and raw cultivation of Blood Path. The average Strength Purity cultivator has slain ten or fifteen cultivators of the same level by the time they reach Core Formation.

They can walk anywhere in the Righteous Path and face only respect, and their ability to outmatch any at the same level means they usually win exchanges of pointers and the like.

Divine Tunist Sect:

Demonic Tunes is an unfortunate name, the Divine Tunists seek to change this. Primarily a sect who uses tunes in battle, their magical tunes help maintain the Poison-Crushing Siege. Their power is moderate, and they are often seen assisting the Strength Purity Sect. They are obsessed with their reputation, as befits a Sect using frowned-upon techniques, and will often work to try and prove their loyalty and worth to the Righteous Path.

Bear Enslavement Sect:

They ride great bears into battle, and such creatures serve them well. Their Bear Enslavement Art allows them to train and enslave many powerful bears, and their general techniques of Beast Taming allow them to tame horses, eagles, and such beasts for transport as well. They maintain part of the Poison-Crushing Siege, often serving to chase down stragglers trying to escape the bounds of the Siege.

Noble Knowledge Sect:

"Secrets are not for others to keep from us."

The Noble Knowledge Sect believes all knowledge is noble and worthy, no matter how it is obtained. Diviners, those practising curses, and those researching poisons train inside the Insidious Poison Maze, a massive maze containing cities, towns and villages, defended by poisonous traps and diviniations of foul intent of many kinds.

The Noble Knowledge Sect find it easy to ferret out the secrets of of others, and often used their divination techniques in combination with poisons to kill enemies far above their level, often to assist their allies in the Demonic Altar Sect. Many mortals had their fate altered to horror, or poisons who's effects sickened even the hardiest cultivators when they saw them used on mortals. Initially the Righteous Sects merely suppressed them, killing them as they left their borders. The Noble Knowledge Sect took this poorly, and struck against the Strength Purity Sect in an attempt to refocus attention away from them and onto a now-weakened northern front.

The third Nascent Soul elder from the Strength Purity Sect falling in a thousand years was enough, and the Poison-Crushing War began.

Six Nascent Souls elders from various Sects attacked, and were all brought low in the Insidious Poison Maze, a growth that expanded every year. Three dead, two crippled, and one mad. Assaulting the Noble Knowledge Sect seemed implausible, and so the various Righteous Powers settled in, and agreed that the Poison-Crushing War should become the Poison-Crushing Siege. Noble Knowledge cultivators were slain outright on leaving their borders, and allowing one to escape was a demerit for the surrounding powers. Sometimes they bribe their guards and escape, but it is rare for them to be able to leave their fortifications and enter the world at large - the Righteous Path will not allow poisons of such strength and ease of application to be brought into the world and made widespread again.

The Verdant South

Here, the Righteous powers dominate. The Desert Barbarians are the only true Demonic region, and the Great Battlefield sees blows of equal power exchanged between Demonic and Righteous powers, but the Verdant South is the Righteous holy land. Peaceful and heavily populated, aside from Devil Bee Raids, it is the home of exchanging pointers, tournaments, and the governance of rules.

It is a lush land, and despite holding a mere 5 of the 16 Plains Sects, it holds nearly half the Plains population - which in itself is 80% of the total population of the Virtuous Flipper Region. Around two-fifths of all mortals in the region live in the Verdant South.

If one wants to kill another disciple in the Verdant South, you had better be able to do it in secret. The rules and regulations of the Righteous Path dominate, and even Devil Bee raids do little to impact its wealth and power. Indeed, if such raids grow to sufficient height, the other powers would besiege and destroy the Bees. That they have not done so speaks more to their unwillingness to jeopardise their positions against one another, more than a lack of power.

Without constant war, this region is the most populated and wealthiest of all. The Abyssal Devil Bee Sect is the greatest enemy here - able to raid into the region with impunity. It is rarely worth the effort for the other powers to try and invade, and the last Six-Power Pact of all powers against it invaded the Devil Bees, and failed abysmally, unable to siege down its mountain fortresses in unfamiliar territory. The Devil Bees continued to run rampant in the territories of the Verdant South, and eventually the various Righteous Sects obtained an agreement to limit raids in return for various tributes.

From east to west:

Great Drunkard Sect:

A Sect of combined body cultivators and wine brewers. Their Dao of Wine is able to give them immense strength while drunk, and they live in a land of peace and plenty. Rarely involved in wars or raids, the Great Drunkard Sect is much-loved among Righteous powers for their excellent wine.

Chuan Clan:

Chuan Clan are notable for their constant attacks on various sea monsters, who rarely come onto land (even as beast tides, while such things exist, they are usually easily repelled). They have kept their lands through access to the Undersea Gold Palace, a secret realm of considerable might. They are almost irrelevant in terms of powers, however, and pay tribute to the Strength Purity Sect to ensure their independence is guaranteed.

Joyful Blacksmith Sect:

One of the two Sects following the Way of the Heavenly Blacksmith, they are a Sect who seek to forge beautiful weapons and fight with them. A Sect of weapon experts of various kinds, they are a mishmash of many cultivators, and build fascinating magical artifacts. They are a pile of loose sand, however - in war they are weak.

Yu Clan:

Yu Clan are notable for their transformation arts. Into fish, birds, and even wasps. They are the first line of defense against the Devil Bees, and are paid defense payments by other Sects and Clans to constantly and aggressively respond to raids to ensure less spill over. While a small clan in terms of population, they are some of the greatest combat experts in the Verdant South.

Seven Divine Saber Palace:

The Saber Arts are not for the weak of heart. A true tyrannical saber can sweep all away in front of it in a single domineering slash. Weight, power, and head-on confrontation. The Saber Palace is the greatest home of Saber Dao in the Virtuous Flipper Region, and they fight their enemies openly. They have declined somewhat after the Jin War with the Golden Devil Clan, losing much of their power to push them out of the mountains and into the desert.

They pay tribute to the Strength Purity Sect, mainly in disciples fighting in the northern battlefields.

Sorrowful Blacksmith Sect:

The schism within the Heavenly Blacksmith Sect took half their numbers to settle the old Golden Devil lands. Despite this, the Sorrowful Blacksmiths are ultimately a Sect typified by defense. Arrays and artifacts, forged armor - individual Blacksmiths are weak in combat, but their fortresses are things of true legend. They were paid much to ensure the mountain passes from the Organ Meat Desert remained open, and the pass from the Golden Devil Clan - the Colossus Footstep Pass - to the Strength Purity Sect is key to ensuring Sects and Clans retain a large and ready supply of Spirit Stones.

In combat they are weaker than almost any clan around, and focus on their incredible iron-forged fortresses, along with their Thousand-Li Ballista Towers, making attacking or assaulting their territory incredibly hard. Mostly, they forge new items, and collect only minor tolls - they would prefer to collect more, but the Strength Purity Sect is able to exert significant influence on them to have them lowered.

Abyssal Devil Bee Sect:

The bane of the Verdant South. The Abyssal Devil Bee Sect is a Demonic Sect par excellence. They follow a fusion of Blood and Beast Path, taming Devil Bees and riding them into battle. These massive bees are fairly weak, and vulnerable, but allow flight at incredible speeds. Of course, they consume a great deal of Qi, making raids into the Plains the most palatable due to the rich Qi in the air there.

There are hundreds of thousands of wild Devil Bees in the mountains, and while the Sect can pass their hives safely with their Beast Arts, the same cannot be said for the Righteous Sects. As such, they are mostly immune to invasion, unless they enrage the Righteous Sects enough, and can raid with impunity.

They tend to descend on minor cities, using their Blood Arts to consume them, and fleeing on their bees before enemy cultivators can retaliate.

The Quiet Peaks.

Here, there is no easy way through the mountains. No simple passes unguarded and kept clean of Spirit Beasts.

The varied powers are only of major interest every century or two, due to various secret realms opening.

Yuan Clan:

Yuan Clan is the weakest of the three Quiet Mountain powers, and has had historic difficulty in sustaining a mid Nascent Soul cultivator. Yuan Clan is named after the massive stone circles set up in parts of its territory, built before the death of the Third Turtle Child. Every one hundred and sixteen years they regain enough energy to empower themselves briefly, creating the Man-As-World Mountain Array. Spirit Herbs are increased in value, Spirit Beasts gain levels immediately, and various Heavenly Treasures burst out of the earth. This process takes about six years, during which the Array specifically offers trials, with limited numbers of spots behind which many of these things are hidden.

Given the difficulty of the trials, Yuan Clan auctions a certain number of spots off. A certain number (around 20%) are reserved for other Righteous powers in return for longstanding defense and trade agreement, and about 40% are held for Yuan Clan scions. The remaining 40% are auctioned off. Yuan Clan are scrupulous about letting others play fairly in the trials, and the relative poverty of their territory otherwise means this is a major source of income for them.

Qiguai Clan

Qiguai Clan are not dissimilar from Yuan Clan. However, they possess a far more interesting secret realm. It is suggested this secret realm is a scale of the Turtle Emperor, floating between two Seas. Qiguai Clan possess a single doorway, opening once every twenty years for Qi Condensation, once every hundred years for Foundation Building, once every five hundred years for Core Formation, and once every thousand years for Nascent Soul. Notably, two-thirds on average of those who enter never return, but those who do find themselves in possession of considerable benefits.

Qiguai Clan allow any to enter, but charge a fee of one-third of the gains.

Qiguai Clan maintain two Nascent Soul cultivators, one in mid and one in early - they historically raise a new Nascent Soul cultivator a hundred years or so before the Nascent Soul Door opens, and send them in to either death, or tremendous benefit to the clan.

(A note here. Good Seeds can choose to enter Qiguai Clan's magic doorway in any turn while in Qi Condensation. The chance of death is high, though can be reduced somewhat by Omake. The rewards are commensurate, but death is a very real possibility. Having lifesaving treasures is a must. Ideally 2 or 3.)

Magic Oak Sect

Magic Oak Sect are organised around their great Magical Artery Oak. It drops Blood Acorns, which can be consumed to enter the Blood Absorption Challenge. Essentially, those who consume a Blood Acorn may kill one another and gain their powers in full, a much-improved version of Blood Path, though severely limited by acorn numbers. Despite not being used against mortals or innocents, this is enough to make Magic Oak Sect a Demonic Sect, and is usually hated by those around them.

Magic Oak Sect allows their least promising disciples to enter the Blood Absorption Challenge, and also uses it as a punishment - betrayal of the Sect will see you consumed as well.

They are moderately powerful, but their Magic Oak is difficult to defend and requires Beast Cores to be fed, so they spend most of their time patrolling their territory.

Desert Barbarians
Ruled by Demonic Path creatures, the only reason the Desert matters is the massive numbers of Spirit Stones there. The Golden Devil Clan and Battle Blood Cannibal Sect are threats, though as they are kept to the desert they are of no danger to the Plains powers. Jingshen Clan has the greatest Spirit Stone mines of all, bringing constant necessary Stones to help raise favored disciples in the Plains. The greatest concern of all is to keep the Scorpion Road open, to ensure the flow of Spirit Stones never stops. Internally, the Cannibal Sect attacks other powers, and they defend against it.

A Demonic land, where Cannibals slaughter and the fearsome, alien Golden Devils kill according to their own laws, skinning and mutilating those cultivators who are brave enough to stand against them. Among them, the cowardly Jingshen hide, hoping not to be fought. But who can blame them?

There is little Qi, and without Spirit Stones one cannot cultivate beyond the 1st or 2nd Heavenstage of Qi Condensation at all, and such an act might take a person their entire life. However, the meat of the Third Turtle Child has crystallised into many veins of Spirit Stones, and the wealth beneath the shifting sands is immense...

Golden Devil Clan:

Cursed by the Heavens, they use evil magics, poisons, and mutilation without a thought. Killing one brings the blessings of Heaven upon a cultivator, but they are rarely found alone. Their capability at fighting in unison is tremendous, and even a powerful and clever cultivator may be brought down by such numbers. They are kept in line by fear of the Righteous Path, and guard the Scorpion Road to allow the trade in Spirit Stones to flow into the mountains and plains. They charge dearly for the privilege, though.

Jingshen Clan:

Jingshen Clan are notable for their massive treasury and endless mines, and trade with the Righteous powers in the plains for much else they need. Their Spirit Stone mines are as rich as any five Sects in the plains, and if there was Qi in the air, they would be a true power of note. They have kept their lands through constant war, as two different Demonic powers once reigned in the desert - prior to the arrival of the Golden Devils, they were constantly on the defense. Ever since then, they have grudgingly paid the tariffs for the Scorpion Road, and the uneasy tension between the three powers mean none truly wage major war against another.

Battle Blood Cannibal Sect:

The third of the Demonic Sects - third in strength. The most powerful faction in the Desert, kept in check only by its own all-consuming nature and civil wars. As befits Blood Path, new disciples are raised, and led to slaughter one another for strength. The complete lack of discipline means civil wars are common, and all stand against all, willing to kill one another for little excuse. Without such betrayals, the Cannibal Sect would have long consumed the other powers in the desert. They wax and wane, occasionally losing territory during a civil war, only to roar back and seize it once they have rebuilt. Their name comes from their long-practiced Flesh-Digesting Guts Art, allowing them to gain more than other Blood Path forms by consuming the flesh, blood, and bones of their enemy. More powerful cultivators can use such an art to swallow their dead enemies in a single gulp.

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After this will be an infopost on Regional Barriers - why you can't leave the Virtuous Flipper Region (easily).

Regional Powers - The Barriers

The question often asked is simple enough.

"Why is the Virtuous Flipper Region a region?"

It sounds innocuous, but in truth there is more to the the Virtuous Flipper Region than mere lines on a map. Such Regions range in size from large to small, with the Virtuous Flipper Region being on the small end. Regions are defined by being surrounded by Regional Barriers of various sorts - barriers which are usually impossible for mortals to cross, and those below Core Formation may as well not attempt the crossing. Even for a Core Formation elder, the crossing would be a life-threatening endeavour. As such, Regions are defined because most politics happens within the region. Invasions from outside the Region are virtually impossible, after all - to move in and seize resources en masse would cost hundred times the difficulty of the endeavour.

There are a total of five Regional Barriers - two in the mountains, one in the desert, one in the plains, and, of course, the sea.

The Northern Mountain Fenghuang Range

To the north of Qiguai Clan and Magic Oak Sect is a notoriously powerful bird, the Fenghuang. It rules over its range with absolute power and watchfulness, bounding thousands of li in mere moments. As powerful as a Great Circle Nascent Soul Elder, but far, far faster, it kills any human who dares enter its territory with no discrimination. Below it live many flocks of Fire Hawks, each of which strike with Core Formation strength. Nobody below Nascent Soul could make it through the ranges - unless one possessed a particular magical treasure.

The Southern Mountain Beehive

It is little-known that the Abyssal Devil Bee Sect capture their most powerful Devil Bees, seizing weaker stragglers from the massive hive in the south. These bees often form smaller hives, but breed far weaker Devil Bees than those captured. In the Southern Mountains is the Devil Bee Queen, who hatches Devil Bees in their thousands from her potent eggs. Another existence on the level of the Great Circle of Nascent Soul, her endless angry bees kill interlopers, as they safeguard many beautiful flowering Spirit Herbs that serve as nectar for their food. The wealth south of the Abyssal Devil Bee Sect is immense, but who can escape the incredible speed, anger, and number of the Devil Bees?

The Qi-Draining Desert

As one heads further into the desert, the thinness of Qi becomes something else entirely. A dead zone, where Qi is actively drained from you. For a Qi Condensation cultivator, it is death in minutes. A Nascent Soul might cross at the cost of immense wealth, consuming decades of a Clan's wealth to go from one Region to another. Devoid of creatures, plants, water, and even Qi, the Qi-Draining Desert can be entered, and indeed, some valuable relics have been found there, but straying too far into it is death. This is both west and south of the Desert in the Region.

The Ghostly Beast Curse Vein

Where there were once many Spirit Beasts, there are only terrifying spirits. The Curse Vein was founded by some ancient powerful curse coming to light, destroying cities, monsters, mortals and cultivators alike, each leaving a vengeful, terrifying ghost. They cannot leave the Vein, but the pulsating vein of thick black Curse Blood empowers them, even the weakest of ghosts striking with Core Formation strength. To cross it would be a disaster - even for a Nascent Soul. Only a treasure capable of repelling ghosts might give the hope of crossing it. The Vein is north of the Plains.

The Third Sea

The sea... vast, mysterious... and full of wealth! And the factions of the Third Sea send their cultivators across it without a thought. Well, the sea doesn't care about them, so it lets them pass. But we can give the sea a little hand in teaching the humans a lesson in humility.

- Ul Riksven, former Guardian of the Undersea Gold Palace.

Due to an unspecified slight tens of thousands of years ago, only certain sealanes are open, and only to small islands and secret realms off the coast of the Plains. Any attempt to cross the sea in truth will see massive attacks from angry sea monsters, all of whom are bathed in the Qi of the sea, far more powerful than that of the land. Sailing or flying above the sea beyond certain small negotiated lanes is a desperately dangerous notion.
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The Nine Seas - History

There are nine Seas, each with continents or islands within them. Each Sea bears one of the Turtle Young, the divine children of the Heavenly Emperor Turtle that bears the world on its back. Islands and such surround them, and each of them bears a continent on their back, and each of them keeps to their own Sea. It is said that Heavenly Emperor Turtle has been raising his children for fifty million years, and they will become new worlds of their own once they grow sufficiently.

The Third Sea is the weakest of these seas by far, as a Demonic Path cultivator managed to slay one of the Turtle Young. Demonic Soup Chef was an obsessed cultivator who followed the Dao of Consumption, and invented the path of the Blood Demon using his Dao. He absorbed the life of those he slew, and set his sights on the Turtle Young. He managed to forge his Turtle-Slaying Demonic Sword and slew the Third Turtle Young. The sword pierced the turtle, and he turned the entire Third Sea into a great soup which he drank. He threw the organ meats from Third Turtle Young into the sea to make this, which is why the Organ Meat Desert exists today. With this power he challenged Heavenly Emperor Turtle himself. Nobody knows what happened since then, but the Third Sea has had much sparser spiritual energy and resources - Heavenly Emperor Turtle has no need to feed his child any more.

Indeed, anyone rising to Spirit Severing must eventually leave the Third Sea, as the spiritual Qi is too sparse to maintain their cultivation without copious use of spirit stones.
 
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Hah, interesting.

Knowing that now, it looks like the Verdant South Sects are trying to crash build a coalition against the Devil Bees (Possibly with logistical support from the Strength Purity Sect who doesn't want a Demonic Sect getting out of control in a place where they could very rapidly scale up if they get certain dominance), and tapped the Jingshen Clan with some benefits to get them to open the money bin, hence why they were interested in a temporary exemption from tariffs in exchange for military support against the Blood Cannibals.

Still, it is good for us I think.

Huh, looking at the geopolitics involved, I suppose we have something of an understanding with the Strength Purity Sect, where we keep the Scorpion Road open and tariffs down to a reasonable level, and in exchange they keep the various Plains powers from intentionally raiding us by downplaying our threat level?
 
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@occipitallobe I have a few questions for good seeds and cultivation in general

1) I am assuming that we would need to buy a few lifespan increases for a full 13th stage to happen
2) Did you change the age per stage formula or is it still the 5 per stage
3) Would the clan even allow a good seed to try for 13th stage
4) I take it that heavenly treasures would be needed for success in the higher stages due to the hate the heaven has for us

(1) That, or cultivate exceptionally quickly. An Omake bonus dedicated to cultivation every single turn would get you there ~50% of the time.

(2) Changed it some to make it workable. My original formula was 'here is a cool thing', my new formula is more optimized for gameplay for Good Seeds.

(3) Yes, but they'd have to be damn stubborn about it. The Clan would also likely offer far less resources to assist them in future breakthrough in Great Realms because they'd be more likely to die.

(4) Mostly the Clan just has a lot of people die. Not nearly enough Heavenly Treasures to protect people - they're usually held back to either give out as massive rewards, or to help rapidly develop more disciples in times when the Clan is in desperate strife.

@occipitallobe question but do Good Seed that aren't part of the Golden Devil's clan suffer from the increased Tribulations or is associating with the 'Evil Demons' enough for the Heavens to go fuck you?

Serving under a criminal is enough to be a criminal in the eyes of the Heavens.
 
Hah, interesting.

Knowing that now, it looks like the Verdant South Sects are trying to crash build a coalition against the Devil Bees (Possibly with logistical support from the Strength Purity Sect who doesn't want a Demonic Sect getting out of control in a place where they could very rapidly scale up if they get certain dominance), and tapped the Jingshen Clan with some benefits to get them to open the money bin, hence why they were interested in a temporary exemption from tariffs in exchange for military support against the Blood Cannibals.

Still, it is good for us I think.

Huh, looking at the geopolitics involved, I suppose we have something of an understanding with the Strength Purity Sect, where we keep the Scorpion Road open and tariffs down to a reasonable level, and in exchange they keep the various Plains powers from intentionally raiding us by downplaying our threat level?

The big advantage of the desert is that nobody wants to raid you. Qi can only be gotten from relatively rare beast cores or Spirit Stone mines.

A raid into the plains is self-sustaining, plenty of Qi there to absorb. A raid in the desert is an expense to begin with, and you can't easily raid a Spirit Stone mine - they're mines, not warehouses. Conquering part of the desert can be worthwhile, but in general desert powers aren't worth raiding unless you're a Blood Path cultivator and can consume mortals for power.

Jingshen Clan don't raid you, but if they had the strength to conquer you (and take the Scorpion Road for themselves rather than paying ruinous tariffs on their exports) they absolutely would.

And yes, Strength Purity Sect prefer not to let more... divisive elements across the mountains. They badmouth you constantly in public, of course, but the Clan's discipline in keeping the Scorpion Road open is quite important to them.

Actually, due to the Ninth Prince being in the ninth heavenstage by 35ish, would he have a chance of getting to the 13th heavenstage?

If he took the cultivation bonus every turn, it would take a string of very bad luck for him not to make it to the 13th heavenstage.
 
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