Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.
If you write a new Good Seed, or write an omake, please update the spreadsheet if you have access.
If you do not have access, please ping a collaborator (Swordomatic, Alectai, Quest, TehChron, Insane-Not-Crazy, Humbaba, ReaderOfFate, Kaboomatic, no., BungieONI) letting them know what you want and they will update the spreadsheet here. To gain access, you will need a gmail account of some kind. Throwaway emails are fine (I'm using one for the spreadsheet), but to gain access it's as simple as sending me either your email via PM, via DM in Discord, or just in Discord's #spreadsheet-requests channel.
This is mandatory. If a Good Seed does not record their omake by pinging collabs (or just requesting access and editing things themselves - this is the preferred option), I won't give out awards. If a new Good Seed is not recorded here, they won't advance. By doing this it makes the whole thing manageable for me - it's gotten pretty unwieldy!
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Omake Writer Instructions:
There are four fields you need to fill out.
Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly
Requested Bonus, which is your requested bonus for your omake. You can leave it up to me if you like. You can see more info in the Good Seed infopost here.
Cultivation Aims. For those following unorthodox paths - higher than 9th Heavenstage or later than 7th Dao Pillar paths. Please put in what you are aiming for before you break through. I have left it as 'default'. If you do not edit it, I'll go with that.
Turn Notes - Do you want to do something specific? Enter a Secret Realm? Help the Clan out in some way? If you have something specific you want to accomplish on this turn, put it in turn notes so I can adjust your Fate around it.
All other fields are for QM use to record character information to properly run the flow of the game.
The Poison Witch frowned and groused under her breath "This is why leaving survivors behind is such a bad idea."
Minervina couldn't believe it when an entire squad of Righteous Cultivators ambushed her. Beyond the fabulous wealth and exotic opportunities on offer, one of the key reasons Quigai was so popular with Sects and Clans throughout the Flipper Region was the potent whirlpool effect that greeted Disciples who entered it.
Upon arrival, hopefuls were pulled remorselessly into the vortex and scattered across the vast territory that made up the strange realm. You never know where you could end up, and many visitors go their entire trip without running into a familiar face. While this might sound like a problem, this phenomenon has a potent hidden benefit.
It makes orchestrating an assassination very difficult.
Unless one invests in incredibly expensive arrays and talismans beforehand, arranging locations and meeting up with co-conspirators is practically impossible, and tracking your target is even more arduous. This means that Sects, both Demonic and Righteous, can send their most precious darlings into this dangerous realm confident in the knowledge that their best sproutlings will not be cut down by their rivals. Conflicts between disciples are still common of course, but those are mostly random affairs. While the vast majority of aspiring adventurers do certainly perish, the well equipped and trained Young Masters still invariably dominate the surviving fraction.
As a result, Minervina almost felt flattered when her journey through the wilds of Quigai was cut short by the sudden appearance of a half dozen assassins. A number of whom were quite familiar to her.
"Witch Bitch! Today I will finally have my Justice. At least as much Justice as the Heavens will allow." Time had not been kind to Jingsheng Hui Lue, he was still a powerfully built man, thickly muscled and radiating a potent aura, but something in his posture indicated exhaustion and his eyes were glazed. But a broken man can still kill. He threw his gleaming white trident with the force of a collapsing castle wall, Minervina dodged by the barest of margins, the resulting impact obscuring her position with a vast cloud of dust and shattered stone.
The battle took place in a dry and dusty ravine. Barren and unnoteworthy as it was, it did have plenty of good spots to hide. So Minervina didn't realise how badly outnumbered she was until two more Jingshen Experts dashed out of cover to close the distance with her. One was a hulking man with jian who slashed at her wildly, shouting about a dead son. The other was clearly a veteran, a hirsute giant dual wielding axes with the grace of a dancer. All three were at the peak of Foundation Establishment.
Not quite enough pressure to make Minervina truly worry.
Channelling the grace of her water pillar and swathing her sword in deathly black flame, she kept pace with the three of them while preparing a counterstroke. With her off hand she reached into her dimensional bag and dug out three Ash-Borne Viper Pearls, casting them at her enemies feet with precise motions. A fourth poison pill she crushed in her hand, a glimmering red thing that released copious amounts of hallucinogenic gas all around her.
The three conjured constructs threw themselves on the attackers. A massive horned snake made of venom, spite and toxic sludge rocketed from each of the spots where the Pearls landed, pushing the assassins back and buying time for the hallucinogen to worm its way past whatever defences they had assuredly invested in before hunting a poison mistress.
"CRICKET! NOW!" Hui Lui bellowed, and his command was answered by a song.
It was a song of pure discord. As if some monster who despised the concept of music had taken a vast compilation of errors, bung notes and disharmonies and somehow woven them into something that could technically be called a melody. It rolled through the battlefield, cutting both flesh and figment with equal gusto. The three assassins each took surface wounds, losing long strips of skin and small gobbets of flesh to the searing, toxic notes.
It was Minervina's arts that took the majority of the damage though as if the 'song' had been aimed at them specifically. Conjured Serpents cried out in agony before falling apart and her cloud of poison gas was ripped asunder.
At this point, Minervina became somewhat concerned.
She didn't recognise the Demonic Tune in question, but creating such an effect below Core Formation should be incredibly taxing. This 'Cricket' hadn't chosen to show himself, so it was possible his arts made him vulnerable in melee as well. She just had to keep ahead of her attackers and keep pulling out new alchemical weapons. It would tax her reserves, but she was willing to gamble that her dimensional bag had more deadly tricks stored away than her enemies had Qi to counter them.
The battle continued in this fashion for almost an hour. The three assassins would press her in close combat, almost managing to corner the Poison Witch. Each time they got close, she would reveal some new horror to push them back, slow them down and wear them out. It would buy her a few moments of respite, then the horrifying tune would return to dismantle whatever venomous aura, transmutational curse or conjured creation she had summoned.
Bleeding from countless wounds, his fine clothes largely destroyed by acid or marred with venom and his chest heaving with exhaustion, Hui Lui should have looked a sorry sight. Instead, he smirked, a look of pure triumph. "This ends here Devil! I will cleanse the world of your evil! Now Mrs Zhou." Right on cue, a veritable tide of clinging vines, rich with four-inch-long thorns, burst from the barren soul beneath Minervina's feet and seemed to swallow her whole. She cried out in surprise and pain as the glistening red thorns pierced bronze armour and skin with equal ease.
The infamous resilience of the Bronze Bloodline and the hidden wonders of her Natal Poison Constitution was all that saved her. She kept her feet and didn't panic or blackout from the agony. Instead, with just a thought her blood became the most potent plant killer she could concoct quickly. Fortunately, most of her blood was in contact with the vines, so they smouldered and rotted away in seconds.
Minervina mentally upgraded her status from 'concerned' to 'alarmed.' A fifth peak expert, fresh to the fight and possessing techniques that seemed perfect for slowing her down and preventing retreat. She couldn't be certain more reinforcements weren't lying in wait either. She would need to change tactics, fighting to wear down her enemies for the kill wasn't working. Instead she should work to enable a tactical retreat. Only a fool would continue to fight when it became clear that her enemy had put this much work into preparing the battlefield.
Her next trick was something she had been keeping in reserve for a rainy day. A bottle of Forget Me Venom, brewed long ago for the very mission that had put her at odds with Hui Lui. She crushed it in her hands, and its colourless vapour covered the three fighters she could see stalling their movements. Their minds were too fogged to call their assistants for help, at least for a moment. Instead of using that moment to strike one of them down, she muttered the words of her latest incantation, something she had been working on in the long lead up to her Quigai expedition. A powerful art that draws deeply on her Dao of Transformation. She had been inspired after seeing the Grand Flood Dragon Elder practising her own arts around the Dawn Fortress.
When Hui Lui recovers his senses, the Poison Witch is gone, the only sign of life beyond his group is a large golden eagle flying high into the sky. Slapping himself and his bewildered colleagues he points at the bird and shouts. "Curse the Heavens! She's getting away!"
With much-frustrated yelling and cursing, the five assassins regroup and head in the direction they saw the transmuted Minervina flee to.
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A much-delayed continuation of the Conspiracy in Quigai arc. I've sat down to write this 4 times now, and I'm still not happy with it. Hopefully, the final part where Minervina finds the spatial slingshot and uses it to put down her attackers won't be so painful. My requested bonus?
CULTIVATION SPEED
The 8Th Pillar is a hella hard mountain to climb and I need all the help I can get to reach that lofty apex.
So happy this is back. Hopefully I can get back into my usual 3 Omake a Turn groove!
Threadmark please @Alectai@ReaderOfFate@Kaboomatic
1450 Words.
I mean yes, but then again, someone like Lady Jiao might well be able to achieve something similar just by flexing her Dao of Acceptance at the masses of sub-Nascent cultivators in a place like this. Breaking down the front door might have been more difficult for her, but shutting down the minds of juniors who dare to stand against her? Probably easy.
That's not really what he did, though. Sure, she could hit their personal pause button if she wanted, and they might take a short while coming out of it after she left, and she might be able to stretch the effect to cover the lot of them... but he injured them all. Precisely. The thing that happened to them wasn't "you are within the range of my domination", it was an attack, and one that will linger. Throwing out an attack like that, that hits each of its targets precisely as hard as is necessary to really hurt them without hitting them hard enough to kill them is really not trivial. The fact that he did it more or less instantly is pretty normal, but the fact that he was able to target them so precisely down in the middle of the mine is really, really not.
Good Seed Report - What We Have, We Hold - Foundation Establishment
Aliki Floros
Bonus: LST
Fate: Aliki was the first unfortunate to be caught in the All-Blinding Array. Uncovering the plot nearly by accident, she attempted to disarm the trap to save a junior of hers. Unfortunately she failed, her junior dying and the slightest piece of light burning her badly, a treasure managing to allow her to retreat before suffering truly terrible wounds.
Impact: 14 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 114 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Badly Wounded --> Lightly Wounded (LST) --> Healthy
Amaranth Castellanos
Bonus: Healing
Fate: Amaranth was the second unfortunate, studying the array with Aliki as it began to do its work. With the power of a Nascent Soul behind it, the refined Light Qi burnt through him absolutely, shattering meridians, searing his dantian, and causing him to glow with a constant light that made him feel the urge to vomit at all times. Weak and nearly dead, he was dragged out and rescued - living solely through sheer luck. A single step closer to death and he would have been truly dead.
Impact: 10 (+0)
Cultivation: Single Pillar 2 of ??
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 333 (+21)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled
Antonius Emmanuel Eleanora
Bonus: LST
Fate: The All-Blinding Array was a trap a long time in coming. Designed to burn the blood of the Legions living above it, the blood link established would permit it to target the Archegetes directly. It would not kill him, but rather blind and weaken him for months, forcing him to retreat. With the Legions lacking their northern head, the following plan was obvious enough - the Jingshen would destroy and clear out the invasion, forcing them back to the border and beginning the slog of war once more. Antonius was later on the scene as the Array began to activate, and managed to figure out what it likely meant. If the Array activated, it would mean the death of half of the invasion. He dove into it, finding the source of Light Qi and redirecting into his own bloodline alone. He burned, and burned impossibly at the centre of the array for six weeks, and when he was recovered all thought he was dead. He had formed his blood into a mirror of Bronze, reflecting the light back at the array itself, and causing it to be destroyed. The damage done was tremendous - but not only to the Clan. Carried out catatonic and burned beyond recognition, he would be a long time recovering.
Impact: 21 (+0)
Cultivation: Single Pillar 2 of ??
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 350 (+0)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Dead (Overkilled!) --> Crippled (LST)
Chrysanthos Krimta
Bonus: LST
Fate: Chrysanthos Krimta uncovered several Foundation Experts of the Jingshen beneath the Haoshen Fort. Beginning a game of cat and mouse, he slew three in return for no wounds, and was returning to report his findings when the All-Blinding Array triggered. Caught at one of the focal points, he would've died - only a treasure allowed him to preserve his life, his burns both inside and out things of horror.
Impact: 7 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 2-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 154 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST) --> Lightly Wounded
Jiang Chrysanthos/Chrys
Bonus: LST
Fate: Chrys sought the same as his newfound friend who shared his name, catching conspirators putting the final touches on an aiming array in the mines beneath the fort. Chasing after a young Jingshen woman, he caught her, only to find her begging for her life and offering him useful secrets for the war if he took her out of the fort to escape the Golden Devils. Sealing her cultivation, he agreed, but halfway there the All-Blinding Array activated and he found himself burnt by it, unable to protect the Jingshen cultivator. She burned alive in his arms.
Impact: 2 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 102 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Lightly Wounded --> Healthy
Lihua Kokkinos
Bonus: LST
Fate: Lihua led her squad, chasing a criminal who had stolen several Gravebronze suits of armour beneath Haoshen Fort. She descended far below any others, and without her knowing managed to reach below the All-Blinding Array. Here, she slew a single Thoughtful Owl that sought to kill her squad, a creature that she did not know was crucial in preventing any issues with the array above. In its nest she found a Fascimile Lightkey (+6 Impact), a copy made of one of the keys that could allow one to wield a Heavenly Star. While it did not truly tap into the Heavenly Daos, it allowed one to command and use Light Qi around yourself, focusing it into powerful beams and illusions for as long as there was light from the sun to use.
Impact: 12 (+6)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 4-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 187 (+24)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy
Magnus Centenius
Bonus: Healing from Crippling
Fate: While the All-Blinding Array triggered, Magnus was outside the city, chasing a fleeing Jingshen Core Formation Elder. Previously poisoned and badly wounded, the man was trying to flee with some sort of peculiar artifact, almost twice his own size. Not knowing what it was, Magnus chased him, repeatedly poisoning him and slowing him down before knocking the artifact loose. It seemed to be pointed directly into the sky, and it began to glow. Unsure of what he was doing, Magnus rapidly turned dials and smashed panels, until it stopped moving. Later on it would turn out he had disabled the initial targeting of the Array, saving nearly five thousand lives.
Impact: 13 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 7 Pillar (Great Circle)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 350 (+39)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy
Wei Feng
Bonus: LST
Fate: Wei Feng saw Amaranth nearly die. Beneath the Haoshen Fort, where the All-Blinding Array's least part was uncovered, two went in before him. Wei Feng leapt into action, relying on his indomitability to save him. He grabbed Amaranth and saved him, dragging the nearly-dead man out of the array. However, Wei Feng did not find himself injured - quite the opposite, in fact. The absorption of the Light Qi fused into his much-vaunted powers of the phoenix, and brought him blinding rebirth. If he was injured to near death, a store of Light Qi built up could regenerate him in an instant, triggering a burst of deadly focused light rays around him. This would bring massive retribution upon his enemies, and was aptly named the Light Phoenix Constitution (+4 Impact) by Clan researchers who had seen nothing like it before.
Impact: 25 (+4)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 4-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 189 (+31)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Healthy
Amaranth Castellanos
Bonus: Healing
Fate: Amaranth was the second unfortunate, studying the array with Aliki as it began to do its work. With the power of a Nascent Soul behind it, the refined Light Qi burnt through him absolutely, shattering meridians, searing his dantian, and causing him to glow with a constant light that made him feel the urge to vomit at all times. Weak and nearly dead, he was dragged out and rescued - living solely through sheer luck. A single step closer to death and he would have been truly dead.
Impact: 10 (+0)
Cultivation: Single Pillar 2 of ??
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 333 (+21)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled
Then again, I suppose it would make sense that taking on a Dao that echoed Soup Chef while climbing upon his Path would make Amaranth more prone to Heavenly disfavor. Might be able to spin that into something neat in the omakes.
Wei Feng
Bonus: LST
Fate: Wei Feng saw Amaranth nearly die. Beneath the Haoshen Fort, where the All-Blinding Array's least part was uncovered, two went in before him. Wei Feng leapt into action, relying on his indomitability to save him. He grabbed Amaranth and saved him, dragging the nearly-dead man out of the array. However, Wei Feng did not find himself injured - quite the opposite, in fact. The absorption of the Light Qi fused into his much-vaunted powers of the phoenix, and brought him blinding rebirth. If he was injured to near death, a store of Light Qi built up could regenerate him in an instant, triggering a burst of deadly focused light rays around him. This would bring massive retribution upon his enemies, and was aptly named the Light Phoenix Constitution (+4 Impact) by Clan researchers who had seen nothing like it before.
Impact: 25 (+4)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 4-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 189 (+31)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Healthy
Wei Feng's taken one more step on his path to glory. Bronzed Phoenix-Salamander? How about adding Light to the mix?
EDIT: Also, with this, his total Impact counting Unorthodox is now 25 + 13 = 38, which surpasses even Muyi's 37 to become the highest ever in the Clan. Impressive stuff.
As Fourth-Pillar is the fifth small realm of Foundation, Wei Feng currently counts as FE17, borderline FE18. For reference, Muyi in Turn 10 was FE16, and he was able to insta-kill Foundation at the time.
Wei Feng has entered the hallowed ranks of those who are truly invincible in Foundation no matter the amount of (low-Impact) Foundation-tier enemies thrown at him. In other words, congrats @Humbaba!
Then again, I suppose it would make sense that taking on a Dao that echoed Soup Chef while climbing upon his Path would make Amaranth more prone to Heavenly disfavor. Might be able to spin that into something neat in the
Magnus Centenius
Bonus: Healing from Crippling
Fate: While the All-Blinding Array triggered, Magnus was outside the city, chasing a fleeing Jingshen Core Formation Elder. Previously poisoned and badly wounded, the man was trying to flee with some sort of peculiar artifact, almost twice his own size. Not knowing what it was, Magnus chased him, repeatedly poisoning him and slowing him down before knocking the artifact loose. It seemed to be pointed directly into the sky, and it began to glow. Unsure of what he was doing, Magnus rapidly turned dials and smashed panels, until it stopped moving. Later on it would turn out he had disabled the initial targeting of the Array, saving nearly five thousand lives.
Impact: 13 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 7 Pillar (Great Circle)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 350 (+39)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy
It galled. He had no idea some enormous trap was under his city until he had been hit by it. Worse, if it had gone off... well, he had no illusions. With the Archegetes out of the picture for a few months, the entire northern invasion would've been cut off and destroyed, him along with it. No doubt new Legions could've been raised and the war continued, but it would have been a disaster.
As it was, half of his face had been burned off, along with his right forearm. The light had just... caught him somehow, and set his veins and bones alight, burning them into ash in seconds. It had been excruciating.
The Grand Elder had brought up a jade mask for him, which consumed Spirit Stones like water but let him operate at the same pace as before. The only problem was the persistent agony.
He had to take the mask off twice a day to clean the injuries with a series of herbal ointments because unlike most injuries, this one didn't heal. He cursed as he touched bone, and the cloth wiped off pus again. Something about the light targeting the blood - he had nearly two thousand Legionnaires who would likely never fight again unless they were very lucky, and another thousand dead. Compared to the butcher's bill he could've paid, well.
Besides, he hadn't paid it alone. The slab of burning meat that had been one of their Single Pillar Kings had managed to do something - he didn't know what yet - and turned the array back on itself. The source had been up in Wangshen Fort, and apparently the array there had detonated fiercely, killing thousands of Jingshen. Apparently Junjie Jingshen had been so terrified he'd fled back into the Underworld Spirit Palace, and the Grand Elder had stayed only a few hours after that to give him the mask and then had left.
"The situation has changed. Sent a Legion to the Jingshen Bei, I'll ready them. You don't need your best, there won't be any real fighting."
Sheng Yu hated Nascent Souls sometimes. One trap from a Nascent Soul nearly wipes out his entire force. His own disables a city and gives it over to a Legion for safekeeping and mining. The Legions worked so hard, trained so well, and sometimes it felt as though it were for nothing. Was the inevitable end of decades of discipline and honour simply being killed out of hand by an old madman?
He flew off, and left Yu to figure out what needed to be done. The pain had been worse then, and the light infused into him had blinded him permanently. Not the usual blindness, mind you. A constant, blinding light in both of his eyes - both the one that was there and the one that wasn't.
After a few minutes he used his remaining hand to place the mask back on his face. Sight returned in one eye, along with more hearing, and the constant pain became muted as he looked through the Dispassionate Mask to see what needed to be done.
Apparently word had been sent down from the Grand Elder - the Jingshen Bei had fallen in a day. Bloodlessly.
The mines were working well, and the roads were being repaired.
Sheng Yu let out a strangled scream as the mask settled in. The pain was not normal - it was unhealing and unending. The light that burned in his missing eye meant it was nearly impossible to sleep, and while he managed to do so with a regimen of expensive and rare potions, most of his Legionnaires were not so lucky.
Nearly forty suicides last week among the afflicted, and it increased week on week. He didn't know how to save his men - he didn't even know how to save himself from this. No doubt they'd find a way, but the guilt sat heavy on him. For his Legionnaires to die for the cause was one thing, to endure unending torture until despair took them was another.
Still, as the mask settled in the horror of the situation faded away and he could think. Advance camps near Wangshen Fort, begin scouting towards the Spirit Palace itself. Secure the Spirit Stone trade from Jingshen Bei - use the situation of the Bei to try and get the Xi to fall in line. If the north was secured fully, the south could be captured more thoroughly as well, and that would mean they could settle in for a siege if need be, or storm the Underworld Spirit Palace if it was necessary.
He didn't want it to be necessary. The trap below a fort alone had done so much damage mitigated, but the accumulation of a Clan that had existed for millennia? Who knew what traps and the like lurked there.
An entire Legion to guard Spirit Stone shipments from the Bei - they were being looted to the bedrock to provide bribes for the Righteous Path, and with good reason. A massive one-off shipment would win a lot of goodwill, and the uncertainty on when the next shipment would come would mean that the Righteous Path would be a little more cautious in speaking against them. With their man in their Council there, they would be able to reward those who ignored their invasion and leave those who spoke out against it bereft of Spirit Stones. A fine strategy, and one that would see them fighting only a single war.
Even when weighing up all that had happened, he knew this was an excellent outcome. Better than anything he could've expected, he knew as well. The notion that invading the territory of some thousand-year old monster with enough strength to level cities was going to be easy had been a foolish one, but as the victories piled up it had begun to grow more and more attractive.
Despite all that, it galled him to call this a Triumph.
He ruined one of the targeting artifacts that would've helped it kill a lot more people. Lots of failed Light Qi shooting up random places in Haoshen Fort instead of dead Legionnaires.
Specifically Manuel was trying to test the notion of 'if I can hit the sun, do I have the way of causing a localised eclipse to empower myself bigtime?".
So is this what a "I'll take out and cripple the defenders" move from a Nascent Soul looks like from the receiving end, huh? Light and shadow can both be pretty scary.
Unable to sleep, because the light permanently shines in your eye. And that's a Core Formation Cultivator -- Foundation Building ones might have it even worse. Or maybe not worse injuries, but worse ability to mitigate it; Core Formation might have the arts or mental boosts to try to mitigate it somehow.
Specifically Manuel was trying to test the notion of 'if I can hit the sun, do I have the way of causing a localised eclipse to empower myself bigtime?".
Maybe he should have tried to strike the light instead of the sun itself. Though, you'd have to constantly cut the rays of light, and do so everywhere in the vicinity, so...
I was more thinking "So this is what it looks like when the Good Seeds sacrifice heavily so they take horrific wounds but still manage to pull off an amazing victory"
Heh. It's like the FB good seeds are some weird karma sink - the more they suffer (without ever quite dying), the better the clan is doing overall.
so, the spear operates on the concept of hitting what its wielder want?
reminds me, didnt Manuel had an art that swapped precision for number of attacks?
Manuel spoke easily, and the first technique left his hand. The Skin-Flensing Knife Swipe was a useless art to kill with, but it attacked from many angles, and any successful strike drained Qi. A simple matter of attrition.
In its nest she found a Fascimile Lightkey (+6 Impact), a copy made of one of the keys that could allow one to wield a Heavenly Star. While it did not truly tap into the Heavenly Daos, it allowed one to command and use Light Qi around yourself, focusing it into powerful beams and illusions for as long as there was light from the sun to use.
.....How? Just HOW did the jingshen found one of these?? What the hell is coming to the 3rd sea???
and thats not mentioning whatever AL has been preparing.
as for the trap....it was pretty complex, to avoid collateral damage, i guess? would have been more effective to go for a big boom imo, but it targetted Manuel so.... yeah.
Thank you for your sacrifices seniors! *bow*
So... What We Have, We Hold was a double-Triumph. And, indeed, it allowed us to hold both every bit of our advancement against the Jingshen (in spite of Old Jingshen's array monstrosity) and also let us hold the seat on the council in spite of the fact that our first real move after being given the seat was direct assault on a Righteous Clan.
I suppose the FB Triumph is also what netted us the Jingshen Bei.
It's also kind of entertaining... at this point, three different nascents have put together megaprojects at significant cost, trying to wield Light as a way of attacking Old Gold. All three times, it's been an abject failure. Truly it is his greatest weakness! You should attack it more!
Oh, and Old Jingshen... Old Jingshen has that Patriarch Dao (at least, as our best guess). The fact that his most recent attack was targeting Old Gold through his bloodline would tend to support that hypothesis. The light - it kills, yes, but when it doesn't kill, it causes harm that will not heal. Old Jingshen has, by this backfiring, quite possibly caused hundreds of his descendants to live in unending freakish misery. Likewise, if he hasn't lost Heavenly Beauty Palace yet, he's going to lose it soon. It seems reasonably likely that he's taking some pretty bad Dao damage these days, on top of everything else. If his last-ditch "raise another Nascent" plan doesn't work (perhaps because we befouled the treasures he was going to use to make it happen) then he's got almost nothing left. Admittedly, with the resources of the Underworld Spirit Palace, he might be able to put together a treasure that would give him a change to temporarily face Old Gold one-on-one without instantly losing, but he certainly couldn't guarantee victory, and it would be single-use and then done. If that fails, he's got nothing. all of his best tricks require that he be able to buy stuff from elsewhere, and the siege makes sure that he can't do that.
...and, from the sounds of things, A Great Clamor also went pretty well.
It is as good as expected. Even before we got the stone spear and extra nascent power it was well established and expected that the Golden Devils would win against the Jingshen in large scale warfare. The war was always going to be us quickly taking everything but the Underworld Spirit Palace which we then siege. Unfortunately the Jingshen have done an amazing job at concentrating all their wealth in the Underworld Spirit Palace. And time is on their side the longer the war continues the more likely outside rightous path intervention becomes.
It as good as expected. Even before we got the stone spear and extra nascent power it was well established and expected that the Golden Devils would win against the Jingshen in large scale warfare. The war was always going to be us quickly taking everything but the Underworld Spirit Palace which we then siege. Unfortunately the Jingshen have done an amazing job at concentrating all their wealth in the Underworld Spirit Palace. And time is on their side the longer the war continues the more likely outside rightous path intervention becomes.
Definitely, I expected us to win the war, it's just we've done a lot better than expected. Jiao is crippled, a monster of a fortress taken intact along with bribes for the RP, and a tribulation treasure being stolen are something else.
There was some hope that our unexpected nascent power would allow us to get a surprise kill on at least one of their nascents. The wound on Jiao is nice, but if it had been Old Jingshen instead the war might be over already.
[ ] Interest forever! Casia simply lets some inefficiencies slide in the interest of expediency, seeking to gain what immediate efficiencies she can and reaching a local maximum rather than returning to theoretical optimal operating parameters. The Clan will suffer -1 Wealth per turn indefinitely. This will cost 10 Wealth to clear in future.
Is this malus still ongoing, or has it been cleared? Hard to pay attention to what is going on, unless you participated in the voting. And informational tells nothing.
Currently the Clan has 30 Wealth (+7 from last turn, +10 from raiding, +15 from income, -1 from inefficiency penalty, -1 from Strength Purity concessions).
I really didn't intend this to turn into a romance when I started writing it. It just kind of happened and I went with it. Enjoy if you can, and I will return to my usual comfort zones of murder, venom and mayhem in future Omake.
Bright Wing had never seen a Devil before.
Oh, he had heard tales aplenty. Stories of bullish men with bronze skin who could shrug off a spear through the guts. Glittering phalanxes of shield carrying warriors driving blood mad barbarians back into the deep desert. He had never really believed them though. He had seen many strange and wondrous things in his five decades of life, but the idea of people with metal coloured skin seemed too bizarre to be anything but fiction. The rumours that they were benevolent to mortals and kind overlords to their vassals were just blatant propaganda.
He had discussed his cynicism with the other young men of the Gaohao bandits a few nights ago when word came around that a Golden Devil Expert was coming to pay her respects to the Bandit King. They had agreed that the Devils were likely too poor to afford proper Spirit Steel, so more commonly wore bronze equipment, and that was the source of the stories.
Now here he was, leading the greeting delegation, and he couldn't remember any of the damn fancy phrases Laughing Fire had tried to drum into his head that morning. It's not that he was bad at this sort of thing usually, it's that this time he just couldn't stop staring long enough to gather his thoughts.
He had never seen a more alien-looking cultivator. Her skin wasn't just painted in metallic tones, or tanned a particular shade. It had the genuine shimmer of actual bronze, stained with verdigris in places which had been carved into artful patterns around her lips and hairline. It was like she had been imbued with the metal itself, her cheeks certainly seemed to fold and shift like normal skin as her face moved. He couldn't help but wonder what it felt like, would it be cold and stiff like real metal?
Her hair was another mystery, raven black like most of the people he knew, but much longer than most of the local women would keep it. When the light hit at the right angles, it gleamed with a cold resplendence like the blade of a sword.
Oh shit. He had totally missed what she said.
Still mostly agog, his recovery was less than artful. "Welcome again to our humble home, mighty Golden Devil. My apologies, could you repeat your introduction. This humble junior was confused by your accent."
The glare he got back was incredibly doubtful, which he had to admit was well deserved, it had been a poor lie. The woman spoke the local dialect with laudable talent for a newcomer.
She spoke louder the second time, taking the time to clearly enunciate each word, much like you might when speaking to a dullard or small child.
"I bring greetings from the Golden Devil Clan. Old Gold himself has penned the missive I bring to your King. My name is Minervina Barda, I am a Centurion of the 698th Legion, the Three Starred Furnace. As well as the message, I have come to offer my talents as a renowned alchemist to your liege." Message complete she changes from the formal if patronising tone to one that's casual, but quite scathing. "Now, I think that's quite enough fooling around. Do you intend to actually let me into your camp, or are you here to waste my time? If your King isn't serious about this embassy I have plenty of other things I could be doing with my time."
Damn, even the woman's voice is like a bell. Is she metal inside and out?
Bright Wing's panic reached new heights as he finally pulled himself together, he hadn't been picked for this job at random. He had plenty of practical diplomatic experience, he even had some book learning from scrolls they had looted from the occasional Jingshen caravan that strayed too far off the safe paths. He drew on all that to keep his face calm and his stance apologetic. Perhaps the truth would be best? If nothing else, it should focus her ire purely on him rather than the Gaohao as a group.
Hands clasped together in a salute, he bowed his head. "My apologies, honoured guest. I know that the Great King has high hopes for your visit. The error was a personal failing, not a deliberate slight. I was so struck by your beauty that I lost the thread of the conversation. I have been a poor host. Please, let me show you inside and I will ensure your needs are met after your long journey. Our elders are eager to meet you."
There was a long silence, in which Bright Wing contemplated all the ways this powerful woman could kill him if she decided to be insulted. She was an alchemist, right? She would probably set him on fire. Or crush his neck with her freakish Devil strength. The silence only lasted a few seconds, but it certainly felt a lot longer.
"Just… take me inside. I need to wash up and get changed before meeting your King." The strident tone was gone at least. He dared to look up at her face, to see her expression was one of schooled neutrality. Perhaps she had decided to overlook the incident for the good of negotiations?
"Of course, come with me."
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In the weeks that followed Bright Wing found himself frequently tasked with escorting their foreign visitor as she went about her business in their camp. At first, he was startled and tried to get out of it, certain the important dignitary would want someone who hadn't insulted her on their first meeting. But he kept on being assigned the duty.
After a while, he just relaxed into the role and settled on being as good a guide as had ever been found amongst the Gaohao Bandits. Minervina made the job easy, since she seemed endlessly curious about the intricacies of life in the camp, so he ended up showing her just about everything. The bustling markets for mundane goods, backed with mortals who couldn't help but stare at the exotic cultivator, the rough caves decorated with plush carpets and cushions where the Bandits gathered to drink coffee and barter choice pieces of loot. She was particularly impressed by the temples to their ancestors carved out of some of the nearby mountains, something about the array work containing unfamiliar script.
He knew little of the work she had negotiated to complete for the King or exactly what the Devils might want in exchange. Though her alchemical profession indicated they might be offering powerful elixirs and breakthrough pills. Most likely their empowered bandits would be expected to carry out more ambitious raids into Jingshen territory in return. Word of the deepening feud between the two great powers had even reached this remote part of the world after all.
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It was a little over a month into Minervina's stay that Laughing Fire approached him and offered to take over his role as the ladies guide. His big sister, she had just come out of a three week bout of deep cultivation. She seemed confused when he declined.
"I heard you tried to get out of it that first week before I went into seclusion. I'm not sure why she keeps asking for you if you don't want the job. Surely that's awkward? I don't mind stepping in."
So, he had been kept in the role because Minervina had asked for him specifically? Why would she do that?
In truth, Bright Wing could think of a handful of reasons, but he carefully squashed those thoughts before they could take root. He needed to reply to his sister.
"Thanks, sis, but I don't mind doing it so much anymore. It's easy enough work, and the pay isn't bad. You should take some time for yourself after working so hard anyway."
Perhaps he should just ask her himself?
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"So, do the Golden Devils really have 698 legions? That seems like a large number." This was a question that Bright Wing has spent some time and care selecting. So far in his brief acquaintance with Minervina all the information had flowed strictly one way, she had asked numerous questions and he had answered them. This was the first time he had offered a question of his own and he was curious how she would respond to it.
She definitely noticed his boldness turning to face him with a raised eyebrow. They were navigating one of the winding 'streets' of temporary tents that made up the market quarter. It was packed with busy people, but they all gave the metallic woman a wide berth. "Yes" she said before shrugging her shoulders "and no." She looked at him imperiously, but he felt he saw the hint of a smile. Was she daring him to ask another question?
"That's not really much of an answer. Surely you either have them, or you don't?" His curiosity was rewarded with a sudden smile. His heart certainly didn't beat any faster than before, he was a Cultivator, far beyond such things.
"It's a matter of tradition. A Legion is never truly defeated, only lost to us for a time. So sadly many legions exist only on paper. Their banners and other regalia are kept in splendour at the Dawn Fortress. Once a new Core Formation Cultivator emerges, they can choose to either form a brand new legion of their own, which will need a new number, or they can take up one of the banners and breathe life back into a part of our cultural history. So you see, they exist and they also don't."
They continued along in silence for a moment, but now that he had begun, Bright Wing somehow felt he had to keep the conversation going. "And which would you choose, if you had the chance. Would you want to create something totally new?"
There was a long pause before she answered. Perhaps that was too personal a question? "When I reach that level, I will return to the Dawn Fortress. There is a banner there for a legion that was founded by one of my ancestors. It was strongly associated with my family right up to the moment where it was wiped out. I would like to see it live again."
Such certainty. Oh all the Bandits boasted and gossiped about what they would do if they ever ascended so high. But he couldn't recall a single incident of speaking of it like it was a sure thing. Bright Wing lacked the ability to accurately comprehend the older woman Cultivation, but perhaps she was at the very peak of Foundation Establishment.
"That's an incredible goal! I'll look forward to hearing about the moment you achieve it."
And with that, the flow of the conversation became much more free and easy. They seemed to have broken out of the mould of guide and respected guest and instead spoke openly of their personal histories and backgrounds. Bright Wing was impressed by the tales of her accomplishments during the Cannibal Wars and tried his best to make his stories of stalking Jingshen merchants sound at least half as exciting.
The rest of the day seemed to pass in a heartbeat. He escorted her back to her guest quarters, as he had done every day for a month now. He turned to her, hesitation coming back into his voice for the first time in hours. "I have one last question I really need to ask. Why did you keep asking for me as a guide? I would have thought you would want someone else. After I made a complete fool of myself when we first met."
She looked surprised as if she was expecting a different question, before turning to him with her hands crossed behind her back and giving him that mysterious smile again. "It seemed prudent. You confirmed you were a terrible liar, and that's a good trait in a guide to a new place. Perhaps you would have been replaced with someone better at deception?" Cruel words, but the smile reached her voice well enough that they landed without a sting. "Though you never did really explain why you made such a hash of it? I thought perhaps you were drunk?"
"But I wasn't lying at all! I meant every word I said. I had never seen anything quite so beautiful as you before. I was just lost in my own thoughts, busy wondering how that skin of yours felt, and I missed your introduction like a demented old man." The words tumbled out long before Bright Wing had a chance to review exactly what he was going to say. The insult to his honour was a little too much to bear. He takes a moment to be glad that it's late and the street is quiet.
Minervina looked genuinely taken aback, for all of a second or so. Then she shrugs, smirks and turns and opens the door to her quarters. "Well, you can find out if you like, but you're going to have to come inside first."
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Omake number 2 is here! Apologies for the cringe-factor, not my usual genre at all. @ReaderOfFate
2250 words.
"No, of course not. Don't be foolish!" Long Min snapped, perhaps more hastily than he had intended. "Now leave me be for I must meditate on the nature of the blade."
As one of the greatest rising stars of the Seven Divine Saber Palace, Long Min stood apart from all others in both ability and disposition. He took pride in both his talent and how many of his juniors looked up to him as a role model to look up to and emulate. He was Long Min, the Azure Wind, and he was perfectly fine.
Or so he told himself.
For the last couple of weeks, however, he'd been feeling a sense of apprehension so to speak. Which was ridiculous considering his good fortune. In his time in the Man-As-Mountain Array, Long Min had successfully fortified his fifth pillar as well as garnered a number of favours and benefits from other cultivators that could be considered peers. His enemies as far as he and his informants could tell were currently far too busy to try and sabotage his cultivation, and he was surrounded by loyal followers and scythopants. Any cultivator foolish enough to covet his treasures would have to go through them and those strong enough to do so had absolutely no business with him whatsoever.
No, there was nothing wrong. It was obviously just Secret Realm anxieties playing up. Long Min had heard many horror stories of those who were met with grave misfortune during their foray into a Secret Realm, and with things going so well for Long Min, he couldn't help but wonder if or when the other shoe was going to drop. Clearly, he needed to work on his mental focus and clear his mind of anything that could disrupt his cultivation.
As he cleared his mind of all distractions and his heart began calming down, his junior returned, disturbing his meditation. Letting out a sigh, Long Min shot his junior a very annoyed look. "What is it now?"
"Senior! There's a girl here to see you."
Long Min rolled his eyes. There were many shallow females who wished to become his dao companion and unfortunately for most of them, Long Min had very high standards. There were a precious few who were up to Long Min's standard but like himself, they were far more focused on their cultivation, something that Long Min couldn't say was wrong. "Send them away then. I have no desire for weak, useless dolls or parasites."
"Understood, Senior!"
Long Min snorted at how eager his junior was at following his orders. Such fools would likely never amount to anything of true worth. However, Long Min frowned when his junior returned looking flustered. "Well? What's wrong now?"
"The girl! She refuses to leave. She said she wanted to fight you, Senior Long Min!" Upon hearing his junior's answer, Long Min frowned as he tried to remember if he had done anything for some random girl to come looking for a fight with him. The last few incidents involved men who were all bachelors without lovers or female friends and he couldn't recall doing anything that might upset a girl to call on another to help them.
Wait. Now he thought about it, Long Min began to remember that he had chastised a Golden Devil swordswoman for having the temerity to pursue the path of the sword. Clearing the girl hadn't given up despite his sincere mercy though calling him out for a fight in the middle of his camp was rather a foolish and stupid thing to do.
"Very well, take some of the others with you and beat her up until she leaves. Inform her that there is no point in a rematch as she is not worthy to even stand in my presence. If she continues to persist, feel free to do what you think is necessary."
Without watching his junior leave, Long Min attempted to return to his meditation. The makeshift cultivation chamber had been designed to maximise his peace of mind through the precise geospatial placement of artifacts and arrays as well as blocking out any distractions of the outside world that didn't need his immediate concern.
Just as Long Min was about to enter the zone, he suddenly felt a tingling sensation crawl down his spine. Instantly, Long Min unsheathed his sword and blocked the energy cut that cleaved through his abode. Long Min's eyes widened as he felt the strength behind the cut equaling his own but he gritted his teeth and forcibly deflected the strike away from his person, tearing apart the artifact tent that an elder had given him as a gift to curry favour with his family.
"Who dares strike at this Long...what." Long Min stopped completely in his command for his attacker to reveal themselves when he saw the state his camp was in, or rather what was left of it. All the tents and defences had been cleaved apart and all around he could see the bodies of his followers and servants, almost all of them having been decapitated. The expressions that he could see on the faces of the heads nearby were those of shock and disbelief.
And standing in the midst of the destruction was none other than Xiuying Ten Jiang.
Her appearance had changed from what Long Min could remember. Gone was the clean neat yet professional appearance that sold the image of a skilled friendly chef playing at being a swordswoman. Her simple yet clean immaculate clothes had been replaced with worn-out light-grey leather armour over black cloth with blood splattered over the front and her face. There were many scars on what little skin Long Min could see with the exception of her face which now had a large scar across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes however were what disturbed Long Min the most.
Back when he had chastised Xiuying, it was her eyes that gave him pause during that time. The way that all life seemed to fade from them, leaving behind blank empty eyes, in an instant when she fought had given Long Min a bit of trouble as he was used to his opponents looking him in the eyes with a burning passion or cold calculation. This time though, the golden devil's current eyes were far worse. It was like looking into two dark abyssal pits that seemed to swallow up all light around them. Coupled with the small smile on her face, staring into those eyes made alarm bells ring in Long Min's mind.
Most importantly though was the fact that Long Min could now feel the cultivation of a Five-Pillar Foundation Establishment expert. In the short time since Long Min had spared her life, Xiuying Ten Jiang had somehow jumped from having fortified her first pillar to already erected five dao pillars. Just what the hell had happened to this girl?
Any further musing on Xiuying's fortunes was cut short, literally, as the swordswoman charged towards Long Min with her blade swinging. Eyes snapping wide open, Long Min swung his blade at his opponent, blocking her attack. How dare this bitch attack him without warning!?
"You dare!?" Long Min shouted, only to grimace at the unchanging expression on his opponent's face and the lethal attack coming at him.
It seemed any chance of conversation and perhaps avoiding this fight had passed. This was now a deadly duel between two swordmasters of equal strength. There would be no words between Long Min and Xiuying Ten Jiang.
I'm going to hold off on making any predictions yet but we have 3 of the 11 major Jingshen holdings are are projected to add one more at least by turn end. I'm praying Wangshen falls this turn a d Cloudy Jade, sweeping the north clear.
