SPS NEGAVERSE Turn 12 - Council Meeting
"Report." commanded Wei Ning, thirty-second Wei Princess and undisputed strongest member of the Righteous Path in the Virtuous Flipper region.
The Elder Council of the Strength purity sect was not meeting in their usual surroundings.
Instead of the usual opulent surroundings of their fortress, instead they were meeting in seven waterfalls city, near the current battlelines. They had commandeered the palace of the city's ruler, which meant that the Elders were only forced into moderately degrading accommodations.
Elder Inexorable Fall, Elder of Logistics, was a beautiful figure, unless you looked at her eyes. Her eyes drew in all those who looked at them, sucking them into a whirlpool that spoke of the death of all things. She spoke first.
"WIth the triumph at Thousand Song, we have pushed back the Noble Devil Alliance. Reports indicate that the populations of mortals in their conquered lands are dangerously low already. With this defeat and their dwindling" her lip curled "… supply of mortals to fuel their cultivation the Noble Devil alliance are again closer to the critical state where they will entirely turn on each other to feed. We estimate that, barring unforeseen developments, within twenty years the Blood Altar disciples will turn on each other entirely.
However, it appears the leadership of the Noble Devil alliance know this as well. The Lord of the Blood Altar and Lords of the Heavenly Time shatter have resorted to desperate measures " She produced a jade slip, pouring qi into it to display the memory within to all.
An image appeared, great vines and trees flowing with poisonous qi, growing and spreading across field and forest. The sun passed behind, showing this was occurring in a span of mere hours. Where the poison passed, life died or twisted into abominable forms. The Elders shared grim looks.
"It appears that they have ceded the territory of the Flowers and Arrows sect in its entirety to the Noble Knowledge sect."
"We cannot allow the Noble Knowledge sect to expand the Poison Maze so far. Even with the Poison crushing siege at full strength, it has already proven nearly impossible to fully prevent the maze from growing. If they expand so far, preventing the complete proliferation of their poisons will be truly impossible."
"Grim news indeed. Quan Yi, what is the status of our Allies?"
Quan Yi, the broad chested Elder of Diplomacy, stood and delivered his report.
"Sadly Elder, it is poor news from the South. The Verdant South still trembles in fear of the three terrors of the Abyssal Bee Sect." He carefully avoided looking at Elder Glorious Strike. "Old Fish of the Chuan clan was injured in the fighting, and his lands ravaged. On the positive side, he has brought himself and most of the Clan's strength here to add to our efforts in the war."
"However, it seems unlikely that any further major forces from the south will come to our aid. Even if the Bees were to be somehow dealt with, I believe that none of the other powers will move whilst the Saber Palace's Elder of Day is in residence."
The room chilled at the mention of the Elder of Day. His poorly concealed attempt to wipe out the Flood Dragon Gang had instead driven one of the few Nascent souls they had been able to recruit all the more firmly into the hands of the Golden Devils. Worse, with his own flight, they had gone from having enough nascent souls to slightly outnumber the Noble Devil Alliance (at 12:11) to spending decades being outnumbered. A poor position, especially since with Heavenly Time Shatter and the Noble Knowledge Sect allied, fully six of the eleven opposing Nascent souls specialised in fields known for Esoteric or Realm jumping effects.
That he had barely enough of a fig leaf to hide his attempt behind, and that Wei Ning was needed in the North, were all that was saving him from a very unpleasant lesson. Nethertheless, if the war was won the Saber Palace's 'contributions to the defence of the Righteous Path' would probably be seeing a sharp increase.
"To the East, the Blacksmiths continue to support us with weapons and battle artefacts. Further east of course, is the Desert. The Jingshen have offered us a discount on Spirit Stone prices, though their increased feuding with the Golden Devils has resulted in them having to reduce other contributions."
"As to the Golden Devils, they have moved from strength to strength. With the benefit of time, our spies have confirmed that they have weathered their centennial storm in far better shape, proportionally speaking, than any of our previous records show. Of course, they are still a shadow of the terrifying monster they once were, but their resurgent strength is of some small concern."
You have 6 purchases:
Elder Scarletglyph wants to
[] Create the Labyrinth Binding Blade array [5 Purchases]
Brothers and Sisters, we know that the end of the fourth demon annihilating war is near. As ever, the blood path is self defeating, and the Blood Altar will soon devour each other. We must think of the future of our efforts to eradicate the Noble Demon Alliance. I will create a grand array to hew away at the expanding poison labyrinth, reducing or preventing its ability to spread for the next twenty years at least.
Elder Keen Eye wants to
[] Re-Form Headhunter squads [1 Purchase]
Elders, the focus on mass warfare has led to our headhunter squads being somewhat cut down. I propose training a new cadre, ensuring that they can also form small scale battle formations to strike strongly or retreat as needed.
Your master of intrigue, Elder Xhi Shi, wants to:
[] Deploy the Desert Rats [1 Purchase]
"Elders, I recognise that the bulk of our attention must go to containing the threat of the Noble Demon Alliance. Yet, a garden untended today might grow terrible weeds on the morrow. The current situation in the desert benefits us, we should take steps to ensure that the Jingshen and the Devils continue their current state of unwinnable contention.
- Effects will be rolled.
Archivist Sima Qian wants to
[] Create the Grand Archive. [2 purchases]
"Elders, I recognise that the situation is fraught and that funds are somewhat tight. However, we have lost much in this war, and the enemy has revealed many new capabilities. Creating the Grand Archive will not only ensure that we do not forget our allies, but that we can interview all our disparate fighters and record the enemies techniques for analysis while memories are still fresh, the tales are not too embellished, and the fighters have not returned to their various sects or clans." - Will give moderate bonuses to actions opposing the Noble Devil alliance members in future.
Elder Yao Zhengsheng wants to
[] Press the South for Material support [1 Purchase]
Elders, the South is beset with its own problems, and say the cannot spare their cultivators. Surely then, they should instead contribute in other ways. [Generates 2 purchases next turn, may cause resentment with poor rolls]
Marinated in Brine said:
Temporalobe said:
[] Deploy the Desert Rats [Minor Purchase]
Ah yes because the last time we got directly involved here ended so well for us. Why I believe it got us…. checks…. A resurgent Devil Bee sect that's busy eating the South!
Clearly we need to do this again. I can't wait to see what it spits out next!
The Eyes have it said:
Temporalobe said:
The Verdant South still trembles in fear of the three terrors of the Abyssal Bee Sect." He carefully avoided looking at Elder Glorious Strike.
Elder Glorious Strike is still in the doghouse, huh?
Anarchist Lorekeeper said:
Elder Glorious Strike is greatly favoured by heaven, in that this has been an unparalleled opportunity for her to meditate on her Dao of Bitterness.
Which is to say, yes, her fellow Elders are still very annoyed that her plan to constrain the Golden Devils by keeping one of their Principal enemies alive has instead caused a Second Tier superpower to form and start messing up the South when we most need them.
Themotivatedmask said:
Anarchist Lorekeeper said:
Which is to say, yes, her fellow Elders are still very annoyed that her plan to constrain the Golden Devils by keeping one of their Principal enemies alive has instead caused a Second Tier superpower to form and start messing up the South when we most need them.
That's not really her fault. We voted for it after all.
Thus_falls_the_Sword_of_Fate said:
Themotivatedmask said:
That's not really her fault. We voted for it after all.
In Grand Xianxia tradition, it doesn't matter who agreed, it matters who you can blame.
I_WANNA_BE_THE_SEED said:
Why do the Golden devils get so much narrative focus?
The Eyes have it said:
I_WANNA_BE_THE_SEED said:
Why do the Golden devils get so much narrative focus?
Because they used to be a superpower before Heaven cast them down. People worry about a resurgence. Which is a bit silly since they've only got on mid-level mid-nascent to their name, but kicking them around gets brownie points from the rest of the Righteous path.
Let me dig out Lorekeeper's world history post and Temporal's clarification of the Golden Devil political situation
Anarchist Lorekeeper said:
A brief history of "the world":
You live on the corpse of an enormous*, immature turtle, surrounded by a 'sea'. You know there are other, still living immature turtles out there with their own civilisations living on them. For some reason these are called 'seas'. You are part of the 'Third Sea', which encompasses the (dead) turtle and a substantial portion of the waters around it.
The death of your turtle is the reason that rising to spirit severing is borderline impossible. Much of the qi in the atmosphere came from the turtle child, and the food brought to it by it's parent.
Long ago, far before the death of the turtle, your worlds (Turtle's backs) were invaded by people who were not born on the back of turtles of any description.** They were known as the Sea Conquering Army.
After a battle lasting uncounted millenia, the army was gradually driven back. During these wars the Heavens cursed the Army and their descendants mightily. The Golden Devils are the last descendants of that long ago people, still suffering under the yoke of Heaven's curse. Despite, or perhaps because of their constant persecution, they cling to their ideals*** like a drowning man to a float. Which is not to say they do not also cling to survival. They are not a Demonic Sect for nothing, and for all they eschew the blood or ghost path, they do not hesitate to extract anything they can from the corpses of their enemies.
Some more uncounted Millenia later, sometime after the Sea Conquering Army had been driven back, a man emerged on your world. He is now known as Demonic Soup Chef, inventor of the blood path. He was a master of consuming energy fields bigger than his head, rising to a level never seen since. In his final known act, he killed the Turtle you stand upon, extracting its organs and using the surrounding sea to make soup of them. He then vanished, apparently to challenge the great Parent Turtle.
To give you a clue about his power level, the Demonic Altar itself was something that appeared after he spent a night in that spot thinking. Not even something he intended to create, just appeared from him spending less than 12 hours thinking.
Then some asshole Wei Prince found it and ate almost all his siblings in an attempt to become a god. The first Wei Princess escaped him and founded the Strength Purity sect to oppose him, before eventually dying fighting him.
*The size of quite a few planets strung together.
**You think. Certainly not any related to the one you live on at any rate.
***Frankly, they care far more about not inflicting unnecessary suffering on people, and specifically mortals than you… and you're by far the best among the 'Righteous'.
Temporalobe said:
In regards to the politics surrounding the Golden Devils:
The Golden Devils match a lot of your ideals. They also provide a useful buffer in the desert, with the jockeying of the desert powers ensuring that the spirit stones flow forth at low prices, each side wanting support and coin to fill their war-chests.
Finally, they are array and battle formation masters, terrifying on the defence. Such expertise is valuable.
That said, they are still demonic, and you are righteous. They defile corpses (to your view), the Heavens that you follow would prefer they die. You are the leaders of the Righteous Path, and many of your nominal 'followers' naturally despise them. Finally, you helped lead the last coalition that pushed them out into the desert, which failed to wipe them out only through the sacrifice of their leader, the last Spirit Severing cultivator in the Third Sea. This attack took advantage of a then weakness from their intercession against a particularly vile blood sect attack.
AN: 2.2k words. Mostly written before Muyi's fate came out. I haven't put info on Kleisthenes or Manuel's new spear in there because they don't know about them yet. SPS does have spies here, but that's been played close to the chest.
EDIT: Literally outdated before I posted it huh. 🤣
