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

[occipitallobe]

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Omake Writer Instructions:

There are four fields you need to fill out.

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[TehChron]

She made enough of an attack that if he'd been inclined to retaliate, he would have had reason. Going that far and no further didn't make a lot of sense

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Because she was testing the limits of what she could get away with?

Yes Manuel couldve done more, but he determined that the offense hadnt been so great as to warrant retaliation in kind. Not like the low level intrigue games hes always engaged in with Old Jingshen.

We saw what Manuel did in response to the poisoned wood for example, and that absolutely was costly to Jingshen.

This perspective is baffling to me.

...except that it's not the same kind of attack. There's a difference in kind between the two. These are Daos, not psychic powers.

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Even if I accepted that theres a meaningful difference in this context, if mind altering super powers arent psychic powers to you, then what exactly is?

Heck - from a somewhat later bit, we know that Jiao is particularly bad at the kind of "memory alteration attack" Nascent Combat that Manuel brought against her. She has a powerful attack, but it is different in kind. Just because her Dao can be used in one kind of mental attack doesn't mean that it opens up mental attacks in general.

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That's why I said arguing over the minutae is pointless in favor of assessing the potential risks in terms of inserting herself into other Nascents Monkeyspheres.

Setting aside the near century shes had to shore up said weakness

 

[atrophy]

im voting for the combat spec one . It is a weakness currently for us to be honest and this also makes us semi safe from jingshen unless they get several nascents to help them . And she will be very useful against the devil bees when our treaty ends against them aswell to be honest. I assume we did a treaty for like a century of non agression when the blood cannibal nascent migrated to the devil bees.

 

[Mellowfellow]

im voting for the combat spec one . It is a weakness currently for us to be honest and this also makes us semi safe from jingshen unless they get several nascents to help them . And she will be very useful against the devil bees when our treaty ends against them aswell to be honest. I assume we did a treaty for like a century of non agression when the blood cannibal nascent migrated to the devil bees.

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I don't recall any treaty with the Devil Bees. It was talking about Od Cannibal not returning to the desert personally for 200 yeas, we never opened diplomacy with the Devil Bees since they were still in a civil war till Diaxiang neatly solved it.

Also @occipitallobe did Sun Diaxiang swear a promise not to return under binding oath, or was it just empty promise/platitude?

 

[The Grey Mage]

Definitely feeling Kleisthenes, nepotism aside. She's the strongest in direct combat, and I'm pretty sure Self Sacrifice is the closest thing to a hard counter to Acceptance we're going to see.

The way I see it, winning that matchup hard enough could give the clan more advancement potential then either of the other two NS picks could.

 

[cheesyme]

I don't recall any treaty with the Devil Bees. It was talking about Od Cannibal not returning to the desert personally for 200 yeas, we never opened diplomacy with the Devil Bees since they were still in a civil war till Diaxiang neatly solved it.

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Yes, but if Old Cannibal is stupid enough to send devil bees into the desert without him we'll probably slaughter them for no return. He needs to be present to give Nascent Soul weight to have a chance of winning/conquering us.

 

[kitsune9]

My view is that since uplifting a second Nascent soul destroys the Jinshen's planned endgame of raising cash for a third Nascent soul they are going to try to do something. I can tell that Xie would be a huge boost but there's a point where I start to worry about overspecialization. We are already good enough to counter most Intrigue schemes but we aren't anywhere near as good in combat or diplomacy.

To me that means we should either grab Casia to calm them down and negotiate over time to try and come to a peaceful settlement where they get whittled down over time until they become a vassal or at least stop them from offering a large payment of spirit stones to get the righteous paths to come over and crush us or Kleishenes so that we can talk the flood dragon Nascent soul into helping us crush them and take the desert well the righteous powers are distracted with the Devil Alter sect or at least have two Nascent Soul fighters when Old Cannibal drops by with his new sect.

 

[Olivebirdy]

However, [Casia] is unlikely to be the most powerful combat-oriented Nascent Soul, and will suffer a minor penalty due to her lack of ruthlessness.

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A "minor" penalty isn't that bad, her Dao would likely still be good for stalling enemies even if she won't kill them. If we're willing to cripple Jingshen in the next couple of turns, we will still have Yao as another Nascent.

Casia, Yao, Manuel, our Core Hoplite and in an emergency, our Nascent Will, will be enough to beat Jingshen, Jiao and their potential third Nascent. J&J were worried about taking on Manuel alone.

I'm interested in the result of putting up Yao vs Jiao. Would Yao transform away from Jiao's acceptance, or would Jiao accept all of Yao's transformations? Their Daos seem very opposed to each other.

With Casia, vassalizing the rest of the desert and forstalling a Righteous Path Devil-Crushing Coaltion becomes much more feasible.

We currently have enough power to deal with the short term, especially after choosing Sheng Yu, it would be better to be prepared for the mid term.

(Also, I'd rather not marry XX, while the power boost would be nice, it's giving up a pretty diplomatically powerful tool. Marriage is important for forging ties.)

 

[Mellowfellow]

Yes, but if Old Cannibal is stupid enough to send devil bees into the desert without him we'll probably slaughter them for no return. He needs to be present to give Nascent Soul weight to have a chance of winning/conquering us.

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Uh, the Devil Bees do have 2 Early Nascents they could send in place of Old Cannibal. He could delegate responsibility to them once he's gotten enough trust built.

 

[cheesyme]

Uh, the Devil Bees do have 2 Early Nascents they could send in place of Old Cannibal. He could delegate responsibility to them once he's gotten enough trust built.

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yes and they don't work together pretty much at all last I checked, which means odds are at least one of them is going to die. Furthermore, the Bees combat standard doesn't work at all in the desert, so they're not going to be bringing back much of any wealth to make up for the casualties they'll be taking.

 

[Lampshade]

We can't make her value us, Manuel, more than she'd value her family.

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Raising her up to Nascent Soul seems pretty valuable to me. What could anyone else do to top that?

Because there'd be no love or romance in that marriage, and she'd sense that, so.

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That's a big assumption to make. People can fall in love slowly and be happy together even if their relationship started as a transaction.

Moreover, Manuel getting married could have massive symbolic value as a sign of a new era of prosperity, especially with the Storks sprinkling some glitter on top.

Finally, there's the receiving side. XX would be ecstatic about the gesture since it fits in her world view, whereas Kleisthenes could even end up disappointed about missing the chance to let her accomplistments stand on their own merit.

As for Jiao, the scaremongering seems a bit much. Manuel didn't just manage to defend, he found critical weaknesses in her Dao that he could use to undermine it IIRC, she's the one on the backfoot right now.

 

[Mellowfellow]

yes and they don't work together pretty much at all last I checked, which means odds are at least one of them is going to die. Furthermore, the Bees combat standard doesn't work at all in the desert, so they're not going to be bringing back much of any wealth to make up for the casualties they'll be taking.

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Look, I'm not contesting that it's stupid for them to invade. I'm just saying we didn't make a deal with the Devil Bees so they can still invade if they want to. The restriction is only against Old Cannibal and we don't even know if that was a binding agreement or if it was just empty talk. The one who pushed to let him go was Glorious Strike, Manuel didn't bring it up himself.

 

[no.]

Casia is close enough to her tribulation that I think it would be a waste to use this boon on her. She has a pretty good chance of succeeding in the normal way. Thus, I think we should go with Kleisthenes. Xinya empowering Manuel in combat would be a big deal, but Kleisthenes is a capable generalist who would improve us across the board - exactly what we need right now. Plus, when the chips are down, she'll be able to perform impressive enough combat feats on her own through her Dao.

Plus… let's let the old man have this. He's a miserable old bag of bones. All his other friends are dead. He deserves to have one who will stick around.

Finally, Xinya is the fastest cultivator of the three. So even if she's behind Casia now, I think she will also make it eventually.

 

[Lampshade]

Finally, Xinya is the fastest cultivator of the three. So even if she's behind Casia now, I think she will also make it eventually.

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Breaking through with Manuel's help rather than on her own could make a big difference in how her nepotism looks at Nascent Soul level, though.

 

[no.]

Breaking through with Manuel's help rather than on her own could make a big difference in how her nepotism looks at Nascent Soul level, though.

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Oooh, true, true. That is a weird situation, outright gaining combat power from political corruption… I'm not so sure anymore. If there's another opportunity cost there, then the balance shifts.

I guess I'm team "anyone but Casia" then.

 

[TehChron]

I'd rather us not trip ourselves up with trying to be too clever when we're already playing fast and loose with setting things up with the Jingshen as is.

We already know they're extremely specialized in soft power to the detriment of their traditional military forces.

No need to try and contest the Jingshen where they're strong when we have ample opportunity to hit them where they're weak, and the sooner and more thoroughly they're crushed the less opportunity they'll have to complicate things in a way that comes back to bite us in the ass.

 

[no.]

We're already so much better at combat than the Jingshen that we don't need further advantages in that category. If we fight the Jingshen straight up, our success is nearly guaranteed. It's not something that should influence our choice.

 

[adamashield]

I will vote for Kleisthenes. The two will have a (more) unified vision for the clan. She will cover her friend weaknesses in combat. Can endure cultivation better, have a chance of punch up. Which is great given what certainly the need to so at some point in the trials, in the desert or the plains. And this is a diplomatic elder that we can do to her work without being killed by other old monsters.

Plus, to those that don't know how this happened, this will give the golden devils hope. Because she is know to not have as much talent compared to her twin. So I can see her 'survive' the lighting being take as 'proof' that even greater times are coming. More than the other two I mean.

Well this is my opinion ^^.

 

[TehChron]

We're already so much better at combat than the Jingshen that we don't need further advantages in that category. If we fight the Jingshen straight up, our success is nearly guaranteed. It's not something that should influence our choice.

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At the Below-Nascent level, yes. But where this is gonna be decided is the Nascent bowl, and whomever we elect to raise up will be made to deal with Jiao, who has had at least two centuries to refine her revoltingly potent Dao effects since we first saw them casually affect Manuel.

Also setting aside that the Jingshens weakness in direct combat against us is so plainly obvious that they'll have assuredly attempted to prepare counter measures to mitigate that.

The simplest way of doing so being some trick on the strategic, which is to say Nascent Soul, layer.

So while having a better ability to see whatever it is coming will assuredly be useful in the lead up to the fight, the fact remains that barring possibly Kleisthenes, chances are that any other newly risen Nascent will need to rely on Yao to work alongside them just as insurance against whatever preparations Jiao can call upon in battle.

Given that Nascents dont die easily, that means an element that grinds away the accumulated advantages that Jiao has accrued with minimal risk is the best method to contain or eliminate her and force Jingshen to take the field directly.

It's a matter of pressure, since a potential peer combatant or at least near-peer gives Yao flexibility of her own in terms of ambushing Jiao or otherwise disrupting whatever larger strategies the Jingshen put into place.

Whether they be as simple as fortifications or as threatening as a third Nascent soul.

Once we strike at the Jingshen, we can not afford to miss. It must be a decisive strike, even if its not an immediately deadly one.

 

[Sparsebeard]

I have to ask @occipitallobe , is Heraclius Staurakius still alive and is there ANY way we could get him to accept such a boon?

Because it seems to me that keeping our old general would at the very least have some advantages, even if he wouldn't make for a perfect Nascent Soul candidate...

 

[TimEd]

I have to ask @occipitallobe , is Heraclius Staurakius still alive and is there ANY way we could get him to accept such a boon?

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Yeah, that was my first thought as well, but I just assumed him not being a choice means he's dead already.

 

[Sparsebeard]

Yeah, that was my first thought as well, but I just assumed him not being a choice means he's dead already.

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I mean, Heraclius left to get his things in order so I think there is a chance he's still (barely) alive.

The main problems, as I understand it, is that he's not very suited to shatter his core AND he doesn't want to torture himself by ascending to Nascent Soul... I'd still like to see if he'd consider it, if possible. After all, he was ready to consign his very soul into an artefact in order to nurture the next generation and that can't be very comfortable either.

 

[Quest]

I mean, Heraclius left to get his things in order so I think there is a chance he's still (barely) alive.

The main problems, as I understand it, is that he's not very suited to shatter his core AND he doesn't want to torture himself by ascending to Nascent Soul... I'd still like to see if he'd consider it, if possible. After all, he was ready to consign his very soul into an artefact in order to nurture the next generation and that can't be very comfortable either.

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A will isn't a soul, it's more like a spiritual AI with memories as data and the user's leftover qi as a power source.

 

[Simon_Jester]

I honestly think Kleisthenes being good at punching enemy Nascent Souls in the face will be more useful to us than trying to get cute.

 

[The Fourth Monado]

yeah, right now we could just really use a good beatstick. Sometimes the best gimmick is the lack of a gimmick.

 

[LordEdric]

Magnus Centenius
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Magnus - Wine Menu - Price per cup/bottle - MQS=Mid Quality Spirit Stones - LQS = Low Quality Spirit Stones

Cultivation Boost-

Star Dust Memory Wine - Made with several rare grapes containing Qi from the stars, this wine invokes the feelings of the endlessness of life and death. The wine holds the energies from the birth to death of stars making the drinker feel both the hope and joy of life and the inevitability and emptiness of the end. Aged for 120 in special treasure. It gives a small boost in training speed as the drinker has felt the flow of the universe and has their mind opened, but this effect does wear off somewhat quickly. - 5MQS/25MQS

Fire Wine- The first wine Magnus made in his Elemental series, it uses nectar and juice form the Fire Flower Cactus to make a strong wine that lights itself on fire in open air. It give a boost to Fire Qi and resistance when drunk. - 20LQS/80LQS

Metal Wine - 2nd Elemental wine, this was made from various fruits containing metal Qi, specifically what is in bronze and blood. This wine boost not only metal Qi, but minorly helps the clan's bloodline, though so little that only those with almost no blood in then can feel it. - 20LQS/80LQS

Water Wine - 3rd Elemental Wine created by Magnus. It is a careful mix of Blue Riverweed, 7 Lakes Lotus flowers, Blue River Watermelons and Clear Water Cranberries. This wine has a great cleansing effect, able to help fight off infections and poisons in the body and provides a small stream of Water Qi for cultivation. - 20LQS/80LQS

Wood Wine - 4th in the Elemental wine series. This wine comes from 3 Hours Jade Life Bamboos. The Bamboo will shoot out of the ground and go through an entire life cycle in just 3 hours, but stops growing as soon as it leaves the ground. This wine takes the shoots from the first minute of growth, mixed with the flowers of the second hour, and mash of mature stalks from the third, to make a strong Wood Qi Wine. In addition to the boost in Wood Qi, this wine can also greatly accelerate a plants growth, with 1 bottle equaling about 5 years of growth. - 20LQS/80LQS

Earth Wine - Final wine in the Elemental Series. This wine combines Golden 2 eyed Potatoes, Granite Skin Carrots, and Seedless Stone Strawberries. This wine can fortify a body making it more resistant to physical damage and providing a good boost of Earthen Qi. - 20LQS/80LQS

Yin Wine - Wine flowing with Yin Qi. This rare and exquisite wine is made from various Yin attribute fruits and flowers like century old Icy Omphacite Lotus and Azure Moon Rose Petals. It is aged in barrels made from the wood of special 12 hour Palm trees that are grown over night and never see the light of day. This wine can also boost one's soul energy and physical beauty making a favorite of women. - 5MQS/20MQS

Yang Wine - Wine flowing with Yang Qi. This rare and exquisite wine is made from various Yang attribute fruits and flowers like century old Nephrite Lotus and Crimson Root Orchids. It is aged in barrels made from the wood of special 12 hour Palm trees that are grown over the day and never see the light of the moon. This wine can also boost the strength in one's muscles and longevity making it a popular item with men. - 5MQS/20MQS

Taiji Wine - A perfect balance of Yin and Yang Wine. This careful mixture is made by combining the Yin and Yang wines drop by simultaneous drop. The energies by be equal the entire time, or the mixture will be ruined. Too much Yang energy and it will violently explode, too much yin and your soul could be damaged. Due to this, only a few bottle are made each decade. The wine itself tasted like the universe, as even a sip will produce great epiphanies. - 10MQS/shot - 50MQS/Glass - 300/Bottle

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I cant think of any adventures so I'm adding some wines since apparently Magnus is some kind of Alcohol making meme. I've been lazy in ready the discord and other posts and was told whenever someone need an alcohol of some kind Magnus made one in their stories.

@Kaboomatic @ReaderOfFate

Also, This turn Magnus is going to the Yuan Clan secret realm, so I'm picking up another LST