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

[occipitallobe]

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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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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

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All other fields are for QM use to record character information to properly run the flow of the game.

 

[TheCount]

Hopefully, it's only a small reduction, because nobody was blood path cultivators, but we will see.....

I fear for the mortals though, as heaven randomly smiten the region in general.

And then, there is the oasis..... That will be a whole other sea of shit we will need to deal with.

....Any in favour to elevate Casia to NS?

 

[Faraway-R]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we even have to reveal our third Nascent during the Jingshen war?

 

[Alratan]

So, in terms of other benefits, we should now have two immortal apertures to make spatial treasures from.

 

[Faraway-R]

So, in terms of other benefits, we should now have two immortal apertures to make spatial treasures from.

Click to shrink...

I don't think so. Last time Stone Spear stabbed a Nascent to death (Lady Jiao), it ate the body whole.

It should still be the case.

 

[Resonant]

Still, not even Konstantinos can simply beat his opposite into submission and take his lands, and so this war will take a very long time indeed. Decades, if not centuries. Inch by grinding inch the Golden Devils will have to take Jingshen land, and if they reach the Underworld Spirit Palace in the next fifty years I'll be much surprised.

Click to shrink...

*miraculously conquers the entire Desert in 11 years...*
*kickstarts the Great Era, causing Heaven to awaken*

Old Cannibal: "WAS THIS YOUR PLAN ALL ALONG, KONSTANTINOS?!"
-spits blood-

 

[moon-llama]

Hopefully, it's only a small reduction, because nobody was blood path cultivators, but we will see.....

I fear for the mortals though, as heaven randomly smiten the region in general.

And then, there is the oasis..... That will be a whole other sea of shit we will need to deal with.

....Any in favour to elevate Casia to NS?

Click to shrink...

We have to wait for her to be ready for her ascension first(which i think is in 280?)
But yeah i absolutely support it, we need more nascents.

 

[Sirrocco]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we even have to reveal our third Nascent during the Jingshen war?

Click to shrink...

Not to outsiders. Like, the Jingshen knew about her, because Old Dead Dude had to face off against her directly... but we've been doing pretty well at keeping the information about the details of that fight from spreading.

*miraculously conquers the entire Desert in 11 years...*
*kickstarts the Great Era, causing Heaven to awaken*

Old Cannibal: "WAS THIS YOUR PLAN ALL ALONG, KONSTANTINOS?!"
-spits blood-

Click to shrink...

Manuel (inwardly): I am leader to a clan of maniacs, and I am barely hanging on while they run the show. These people are crazy. This whole thing hasn't been under my control in a very long time.

Manuel (outwardly): *Smiles smugly. Says nothing.*

Tisamenos: *Takes notes*

 

[Ct613hulu]

*miraculously conquers the entire Desert in 11 years...*
*kickstarts the Great Era, causing Heaven to awaken*

Old Cannibal: "WAS THIS YOUR PLAN ALL ALONG, KONSTANTINOS?!"
-spits blood-

Click to shrink...

It is even worse than that. The Light Array ultimately played a key role in securing this overwhelming Golden Devil victory as the Jingshen's belief that the Light Array could serve as a hard counter to Konstantinos made them overconfident and the fact that it could eventually be turned against them sealed their doom.

If Old Cannibal hadn't sold them the Light Array then this entire campaign could have gone very different. The Jingshen would have either devoted their resources to finding a more effective weapon against Konstantinos or relied more heavily on their allies in the Righteous Path. From this perspective it would make some sense to hypothesis that Konstantinos had deliberately displayed his seeming weakness to the Light Array knowing that Old Cannibal would sell it to the Jingshen as an act of revenge and a profit. I could easily Old Cannibal coming the conclusion that Konstantinos had deliberately set up their initial confrontation over the Light Array in such a manner as to directly lead the Jignshen to become overly reliant on a flawed weapon once the Golden Devils had finished absorbing the Blood Path lands and were finally ready to conquer the rest of the desert.

 

[Sol Zagato]

The Shadow of Heaven was choking, whimpering at what was happening.

Click to shrink...

Heaven had awoken.

Click to shrink...

This part was terrifying. I was expecting Heaven to cornhole us directly.

Nope, instead: premature Great Era, courtesy of the Golden Devils. Enjoy, Turtle World.

 

[thefoolswriter]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we even have to reveal our third Nascent during the Jingshen war?

Click to shrink...

Remind where we got the 3rd

 

[Humbaba]

It is even worse than that. The Light Array ultimately played a key role in securing this overwhelming Golden Devil victory as the Jingshen's belief that the Light Array could serve as a hard counter to Konstantinos made them overconfident and the fact that it could eventually be turned against them sealed their doom.

If Old Cannibal hadn't sold them the Light Array then this entire campaign could have gone very different. The Jingshen would have either devoted their resources to finding a more effective weapon against Konstantinos or relied more heavily on their allies in the Righteous Path. From this perspective it would make some sense to hypothesis that Konstantinos had deliberately displayed his seeming weakness to the Light Array knowing that Old Cannibal would sell it to the Jingshen as an act of revenge and a profit. I could easily Old Cannibal coming the conclusion that Konstantinos had deliberately set up their initial confrontation over the Light Array in such a manner as to directly lead the Jignshen becoming overly reliant on this flawed weapon once the Golden Devils had finished absorbing the Blood Path lands and were finally ready to conquer the rest of the desert.

Click to shrink...

It appears Old Cannibal too is suffering victory disease.

He chuckled.

"I never used to make plans like this. They failed in humiliating fashion every time. You cannot imagine how gratifying this is for me."

Click to shrink...

Manuel: "HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN"
Old Cannibal: "KONSTANTINOS!!!! 🌩️🌩️🌩️"

 

[tenchifew]

Ok, Soup Chef was absolutely terrifying, given how just his shadow is… absolutely overwhelming.

I actually felt for old Jingshen and his daughter.

The long term consequences of blood craze and Heaven escalating are extremely worrying.

…and the outsider reactions to this will be hilarious!

Edit:
That a Callista was mentioned on 40th floor is very interesting…

 

[Valkyrien]

All I can say Is I can't wait to see negaverse chat

 

[Garlak]

If Old Cannibal hadn't sold them the Light Array then this entire campaign could have gone very different. The Jingshen would have either devoted their resources to finding a more effective weapon against Konstantinos or relied more heavily on their allies in the Righteous Path. From this perspective it would make some sense to hypothesis that Konstantinos had deliberately displayed his seeming weakness to the Light Array knowing that Old Cannibal would sell it to the Jingshen as an act of revenge and a profit. I could easily Old Cannibal coming the conclusion that Konstantinos had deliberately set up their initial confrontation over the Light Array in such a manner as to directly lead the Jignshen becoming overly reliant on this flawed weapon once the Golden Devils had finished absorbing the Blood Path lands and were finally ready to conquer the rest of the desert.

Click to shrink...

Being fair, when Old Cannibal sold them the Light Qi, he probably told them: "Look. Manuel is a Darkness Dao Cultivator. His obvious weakness is Light Qi. I used a trap with a ton of Light Qi. He turned it against me, by contaminating the pool of Qi with a single speck of the wrong sort of Qi. Don't fuck this up like that. If you don't use the trap right, Manuel will turn it against you and he will gloat about it and it will hurt."

It's just they did not manage to, uh, avoid having Manuel turn it around on them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we even have to reveal our third Nascent during the Jingshen war?

Click to shrink...

I believe it was said that it's very difficult to hide the after-effects of a battle between Nascent Souls; and Kleisthenes did skirmish with Junjie a bit.

Even aside from that, Kleisthenes did do some clean up of the Bandits in our western territories that were menacing the Storks. I think the Golden Devils will not be able to hide the fact that we have a new Nascent Soul now. Not for very long anyway; I think we were only able to hide it from the Jingshen and surprise them with that. Which is good, as that was precisely the situation we needed to surprise them with our new Nascent Soul with.

... And also: Kleisthenes was often the diplomatic outreach to the Righteous Powers when she was a Core Formation. If she suddenly stops showing up, they're probably going to wonder, and reach for their intel sources in the Spirit Oasis and stuff, and look into news from the Jingshen campaign, and eventually find out stuff.

 

[Sirrocco]

I'm realizing... the whole "Jingshen are a pile of sand" thing. That's true, but to some extent, everyone else who isn't us is a pile of sand. Our juniors have a history of punching up - not just because they can create formations to punch up with (though that's both literally true and metaphorically associated) but because They're willing to pull crazy stunts and throw themselves into the teeth of probable demise for the good of the clan, rather than in any hope of personal gain. I think what it really is is that everywhere else in the region, juniors are undervalued, because you can't wield them properly. The one thing that matters is the nascents at the top, because there the power is concentrated in few enough people that a standard sect can afford to put in the effort to keep those under control and headed in more or less the right direction. Consider what happened in the most recent set of events. "FB+ cultivator does something to draw the attention of a nascent, barely survives a single blow at the cost of a precious lifesaving treasure and long-term injuries, then is saved from fully dying by another FB+ cultivator who steps up to pull the attention of that nascent away again, fully expecting the same thing to happen to them." That's... just not the sort of thing that people in other sects do.

It is even worse than that. The Light Array ultimately played a key role in securing this overwhelming Golden Devil victory as the Jingshen's belief that the Light Array could serve as a hard counter to Konstantinos made them overconfident and the fact that it could eventually be turned against them sealed their doom.

If Old Cannibal hadn't sold them the Light Array then this entire campaign could have gone very different. The Jingshen would have either devoted their resources to finding a more effective weapon against Konstantinos or relied more heavily on their allies in the Righteous Path. From this perspective it would make some sense to hypothesis that Konstantinos had deliberately displayed his seeming weakness to the Light Array knowing that Old Cannibal would sell it to the Jingshen as an act of revenge and a profit. I could easily Old Cannibal coming the conclusion that Konstantinos had deliberately set up their initial confrontation over the Light Array in such a manner as to directly lead the Jingshen becoming overly reliant on this flawed weapon once the Golden Devils had finished absorbing the Blood Path lands and were finally ready to conquer the rest of the desert.

Click to shrink...

Manuel (inwardly): Oh *bleep*. Light Qi. Okay. How am I going to make it through this time.
Manuel (Outwardly, mugging for the audience): Oh No! Someone Has Targeted My One True Weakness Yet Again! Whatever Shall I Do? However Will I Survive?
Old Cannibal: Wait. You mean...? You asshole.

I mean the guy's three for three on severely punishing people who target his very real Dao Flaw. Two of those times, he managed to turn it back on them directly, and in the third, it was just a no-sell. From outside of the aura of FUD that he constantly keeps around himself, it's starting to look like his vulnerability to light is faked.

Beyond that... I almost feel like Old Cannibal is refining Manuel's dao for him. Like, Heaven's Shadow is (in one way of looking at things) all about hiding and finding secrets, and playing the mastermind who knows everything while others know nothing, and Old Cannibal is rampaging around the Righteous Lands playing Glorious Xanatos Bastard games while also being utterly convinced (and outright saying) that Manuel beats him like a chump every time they go up against one another. It's like he's funneling meaning into that thing from afar.

Oh... and the really interesting thing is... the victory was complete. No one expected it to end this soon. No one else is here. It's just us. "The Golden Devils own the desert now" is just a fact, and nobody else really gets a say in it.

That's going to upset a few plans and expectations.

 

[thefoolswriter]

We may get a few enemies from this but being powerful tends to do that

 

[Simon_Jester]

If Old Cannibal hadn't sold them the Light Array then this entire campaign could have gone very different. The Jingshen would have either devoted their resources to finding a more effective weapon against Konstantinos or relied more heavily on their allies in the Righteous Path. From this perspective it would make some sense to hypothesis that Konstantinos had deliberately displayed his seeming weakness to the Light Array knowing that Old Cannibal would sell it to the Jingshen as an act of revenge and a profit. I could easily Old Cannibal coming the conclusion that Konstantinos had deliberately set up their initial confrontation over the Light Array in such a manner as to directly lead the Jignshen becoming overly reliant on this flawed weapon once the Golden Devils had finished absorbing the Blood Path lands and were finally ready to conquer the rest of the desert.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, if someone had asked me 'how would Old Cannibal try to fuck over Old Gold,' I would have dismissed 'attempt to arrange for a giant array to zap him with one point twenty-one jiggawatts of Light Qi as being too obvious, because he already did literally that exact thing, and its backfiring is in large part how he came to be an exile in the first place.

... And also: Kleisthenes was often the diplomatic outreach to the Righteous Powers when she was a Core Formation. If she suddenly stops showing up, they're probably going to wonder, and reach for their intel sources in the Spirit Oasis and stuff, and look into news from the Jingshen campaign, and eventually find out stuff.

Click to shrink...

Now in theory, we could try to cover things up with "Kleisthenes died in the campaign," since nobody's gonna be surprised if we lose a few Core Formation Elders and indeed the main surprise will be how few we lost.

But that's as may be. You're not fundamentally wrong that it'll be impossible to keep Kleisthenes' existence a secret for any really lengthy period of time if she's remaining active.

I'm realizing... the whole "Jingshen are a pile of sand" thing. That's true, but to some extent, everyone else who isn't us is a pile of sand. Our juniors have a history of punching up - not just because they can create formations to punch up with (though that's both literally true and metaphorically associated) but because They're willing to pull crazy stunts and throw themselves into the teeth of probable demise for the good of the clan, rather than in any hope of personal gain. I think what it really is is that everywhere else in the region, juniors are undervalued, because you can't wield them properly. The one thing that matters is the nascents at the top, because there the power is concentrated in few enough people that a standard sect can afford to put in the effort to keep those under control and headed in more or less the right direction.

Click to shrink...

I'd waggle my hand and say "cores and nascents," but more or less, yes.

The Bronze Devils are very, very successful in cultivating (heh) willingness to self-sacrifice for the sake of the greater good in their juniors. Which can be a decisive advantage in any more or less equal matchup between the real powerhouses.

I think this was first demonstrated (very impressively) at Pleuron, where a handful of Qi Condensation cultivators who were tough within their Great Realm but more importantly were resolute and willing to die if that was what it took to get the job done were able to punch out a Fifth Sea Core Formation Elder and change the course of an entire battle.


Consider what happened in the most recent set of events. "FB+ cultivator does something to draw the attention of a nascent, barely survives a single blow at the cost of a precious lifesaving treasure and long-term injuries, then is saved from fully dying by another FB+ cultivator who steps up to pull the attention of that nascent away again, fully expecting the same thing to happen to them." That's... just not the sort of thing that people in other sects do.


Manuel (inwardly): Oh *bleep*. Light Qi. Okay. How am I going to make it through this time.
Manuel (Outwardly, mugging for the audience): Oh No! Someone Has Targeted My One True Weakness Yet Again! Whatever Shall I Do? However Will I Survive?
Old Cannibal: Wait. You mean...? You asshole.

I mean the guy's three for three on severely punishing people who target his very real Dao Flaw. Two of those times, he managed to turn it back on them directly, and in the third, it was just a no-sell. From outside of the aura of FUD that he constantly keeps around himself, it's starting to look like his vulnerability to light is faked.

Beyond that... I almost feel like Old Cannibal is refining Manuel's dao for him. Like, Heaven's Shadow is (in one way of looking at things) all about hiding and finding secrets, and playing the mastermind who knows everything while others know nothing, and Old Cannibal is rampaging around the Righteous Lands playing Glorious Xanatos Bastard games while also being utterly convinced (and outright saying) that Manuel beats him like a chump every time they go up against one another. It's like he's funneling meaning into that thing from afar.

Oh... and the really interesting thing is... the victory was complete. No one expected it to end this soon. No one else is here. It's just us. "The Golden Devils own the desert now" is just a fact, and nobody else really gets a say in it.

That's going to upset a few plans and expectations.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Garlak]

Consider what happened in the most recent set of events. "FB+ cultivator does something to draw the attention of a nascent, barely survives a single blow at the cost of a precious lifesaving treasure and long-term injuries, then is saved from fully dying by another FB+ cultivator who steps up to pull the attention of that nascent away again, fully expecting the same thing to happen to them." That's... just not the sort of thing that people in other sects do.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, the main reason that that's just not the sort of thing that people in other sects do is because they don't have Good Seed-tier badasses, nor Good Seed-tier LSTs. Their LSTs just go poof when a Nascent Soul glances in their direction. Hell, LSTs aren't even 100% sure to work even in your realm; I mean, what do you do if you got a blessing from a spirit or a temporary-super-speed-boots artifact, but your peril is "got caught in a zone where time and space is topsy-turvy and ripping you apart" or "trapped deep underwater with no way to get air" or "falling damage" or "got too close to a site of former Tribulation and got hit with trapped tribulation lightning"? As seen here, where Junjie's LST failed because Manuel used his spear to block his Soul from being able to flee back into the resurrection chamber.

I think the problem isn't the lack of fierceness or courage in other Sects and Clans. I think that those people are courageous in a fight and willing to die for their friends and comrades in arms.

Especially because they are often facing Demonic Powers in the Plains or, now, the South. Against somebody like that, who would kill every mortal if you retreat and would kill your friends if you retreat, of course you fight hard.

I think the challenge is getting their Cultivators to commit to the fight in the first place. But once the Cultivators are in the thick of a fight, they fight courageously.

Some of the rest of the difficulty, is the fact that there are a bunch of Sects in the west and they're jockeying with power with each other a lot too. It'd be like trying to get Jingshen and Golden Devils to fight side by side against the Cannibals sometimes. Though perhaps not quite that bad, as Jingshen and Golden Devils have direct economic things to fight over, and one is a Demonic power to boot.

... Also. Our fighters actually tend to be not-the-best on an individual scale. Because Formation Fighting is not the best way to wage war in this setting; war between Cultivation powers more resembles skirmishing or something, I think it was said. It's only recently, with the Technique Palace and Ascension Blood, that our Qi Condensation got buffed decently to be able to match or sometimes surpass others. And our Good Seeds with high Impact are all extremely scary for anyone to face.

 

[occipitallobe]

Ulysses
Ulysses hastily forged pills to drive off the bloodlusted horde that followed him with limited success. While one forges many pills quickly, you lose out in quality, and this became more visible with an issue of this particular volume. After losing an arm and a foot in an ill-fated attempt to blow up a building to take them all out at once and shattering seven of his meridians to overcharge his pill cauldron besides, the mob is suddenly sheared in half by a beautiful, shining cut.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 115 (+0.0)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Crippled

Theoron Strophios
Fate: In the frenzy of bloodsoaked madness after Gaius's tribulation, Theoron Strophios was slain by a swarm of Jingshen cultivators who he had previously thought dead, gnawing him to pieces. As a final effort, the half-eaten Theoron gathered the power of the wild conflict with his Song of Steel and shot out a shining arc of Sword Qi at the attackers of another Devil, saving Ulysses from an untimely death.
Impact: 3 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 122 (+0.0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead

Maria
Fate: See earlier main story post for death.
Impact: 16 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 196 (0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead

Eirene of Nowhere
Fate: Eirene of Nowhere, member of the storied Thirteen and exceptional diplomat. As she hovered near the end of her natural life, her developing first Pillar for her Dao of Peace was shaken horribly by the events of the past two decades. An almost unprovoked war by the Clan. The Blood Eclipse that marked Gaius' Ascent and victory over the Jingshen. Though her path has lead her to many successes over her centuries of life, do the times that are coming truly need the pacificism that has been her strength for so long? Meditating on these questions, Eirene of Nowhere greets the new era.
Impact: 12 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage (12 turns from FB)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 209 (0)
Health: Healthy --> Wounded --> Lightly Wounded (EoT)'

Tasos Basilakes
Fate: Yet another of the Indomitable Thirteen to have been left by the wayside. The crippling Tasos had experienced in attempting to prolong his life had caused the flames of his ambition to gutter out once and for all, retiring to the Basilakes Estate in view of the Turtlebone Mountains, where he turned what experience he had left towards raising the next generation of scouts from his esteemed bloodline. He passed away on the day of Gaius' Ascension, his calming presence and training enabling his family to escape the blood frenzy unscathed in his final moments.
Impact: 10 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 209 (0)
Health: Crippled --> Dead

Armus Hekurion
Fate: The sounds of the clash were thunderous indeed, and this came to a peak during the blood-red lightnings that now boomed through the sky. If it weren't for Armus's own caution with drawing on the tainted power, he may have advanced further, but even so, he moved into the Eighth Heavenstage.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 8th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 59 (+12.0)
Health: Wounded --> Lightly Wounded

Yang Fangxu
Fate: The Precocious Chef Yang Fangxu had not been assigned to any critical mission for the Jingshen invasion, her culinary skills better served towards rearguard actions to help maintain the garrisons left undermanned by the mass reassignment of the Legions. She worked hard, and ultimately engaged in a contest of Rhetoric with a Centurion over the proper method of braising the flank of a Corrogated Sand Elk. Emerging victorious, the experience helped to prepare her first Pillar in time for breaking through.
Impact: 6 (+0)
Cultivation: 9th Heavenstage (1 turn from ascending)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 81 (0)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Syntyche Theophylaktos
Fate: While many others faced horrific fates, Syntyche was just fine. Through the power of her Tortoiseshell Art and the sheer endurance of an Expert in Late Foundation Establishment, she was easily able to avoid damage from the strikes of the newly minted cannibals, and even managed to shake one back into his senses, who ended up collapsing in horror at the sight of the comrade he had ripped to shreds.
Impact: 9 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 5-Pillar (Late)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 220 (+32.0)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Lee the Smith
Fate: Lee lived a perfectly ordinary twenty years, advancing at an above-average pace, though nothing extraordinary. A brief adventure hunting down a mortal aardvark that was the pet of a nearby forge-spirit was perhaps the most eventful thing that happened to him.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 4th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 37 (+16.0)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

 

[Humbaba]

Yet more seeds pass, and another of the Thirteen gone.

 

[occipitallobe]

The last piece of power in the Demonic Altar winked out, and the man who knew himself as the Altar Lord wondered if it was time to pick a new name.

Cracking and splintering under the weight of what it was supporting, the Blood Qi clouding the skies redoubled its strength as the Demonic Altar spat out its last dregs of power, enough to bring the heir of the Liberation King into following the path of his spiritual father. Even the thought was unwise, he knew. Better to think Soup Chef, because speaking things too close to the truth had an awful way of seeing you obliterated by Heavenly wrath within instants. A single lapse, and all he had built to this day would be undone.

The Demonic Soup Chef would suffice. When he had managed to decipher the truth behind the name he had laughed for days. The world had made sense, finally.

No, that was a lie. The world and its rulers were monstrosities that needed to be overthrown. But the world could make sense, and that had been enough for him. He had dedicated his life to the two pieces his master would need on the game board, and while the latest pawn could well cross the board and be promoted, it could well be any of the others. Shatranj had proven to be instructive.

You needed a king, of course. Without the king, you lost the game. There was a rook, steady and unyielding. And five pawns, each at different stages of crossing the board. One was worthless - blocked in a square by its own foolish nature, and would go no further. The other four all had... potential, but this one in particular sat on an open file, and he doubted anything but enemy action would be able to stop it.

Altar Lord grinned.

Centuries of waiting, of plotting, of tolerating the miseries of what had gone before to dance on the line, to keep the Righteous Path from overwhelming everything so that the conditions could arise for this all to become possible. There had never been any guarantee of victory, nor any guarantee that there would even be a fighting chance. Only the truth revealed to him that he had to follow.

Now there was only one thing remaining.

To cut a swathe of blood and misery so large that chaos could overwhelm the gifts of Heaven, the Great Era he had read so much about. They could grind every last Righteous Sect into dust, every Clan into nothing more than slaves to be eaten, and nonetheless the servants of the Heavens would be gifted with greater power and rise up above them. There was no winning this war, merely delaying the inevitable end by hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years.

No, better to exchange pieces until nothing could stop his pawn's advance.

Then he'd have a queen, and the rest... well, the rest would be out of his hands.

His grin couldn't be suppressed.

He so desperately wanted to whisper the name, but thought better of it.

"Master, you'll never know me. I doubt I'd ever be noticeable in your eyes even if I did, but... thank you. For doing all this."

He bowed towards the shattered remnants of the Demonic Altar one last time.

"And I apologise for what must be done in your name."

He strode out. There was a new offensive to plan.

 

[Humbaba]

And five pawns, each at different stages of crossing the board. One was worthless - blocked in a square of too by its own foolish nature, and would go no further. The other four all had... potential, but this one in particular sat on an open file, and he doubted anything but enemy action would be able to stop it.

Click to shrink...

5 Pawns. The clan has just had it's fifth Single Pillar King arise.

Rina has pretty clearly indicated she won't go through with Soup Chef's path, which would match with the single pawn that is blocked by it's own nature.

It seems to fit all too well.

 

[occipitallobe]

And very, very, very lastly before I go to bed, there'll be a new map update this turn!

It'll be either a regional map or a city/sect headquarters map.

Here are the options.

[ ] Strength Purity Sect

[ ] Bear Enslavement Sect

[ ] Gemstone Justice Sect

[ ] Great Mountain Bell Sect

------------

Secondly, I'll do a smaller map of a vassal.

[ ] Peng Kingdom

[ ] Shen Kingdom

[ ] Twelve City Alliance

 

[Alectai]

[X] Peng Kingdom

Undecided on the Sect tho

 

[Garlak]

You needed a king, of course. Without the king, you lost the game. There was a rook, steady and unyielding. And five pawns, each at different stages of crossing the board. One was worthless - blocked in a square by its own foolish nature, and would go no further. The other four all had... potential, but this one in particular sat on an open file, and he doubted anything but enemy action would be able to stop it.

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The King is the Demonic Soup Chef, right? The Liberation King? And the Pawn that could become a Queen is the Single Pillar cultivators then.

EDIT: Wait no, that's wrong. "He had dedicated his life to the two pieces his master would need on the game board, and while the latest pawn could well cross the board and be promoted, it could well be any of the others. Shatranj had proven to be instructive." The two pieces his master would need. So, Altar Lord needs a King and a Queen, basically. Or to use another metaphor, he needs both an Archimedes lever, and a place to put it and leverage it at. The question is, are both the pieces Single Pillar kings, or does he just need one Single Pillar king and one something else?

That name is interesting. Liberation King. Ji Shin announced himself by saying that he was come to bring liberation to this whole sea.

We know that the whole plot of things depends on souls and how only beings with souls can innovate and stuff. The Imperator, the Turtle Emperor, the Soup Chef... I'm wondering whether the conquest of the Turtle World was launched in order to gain a new source of souls; not just more population and more land, but another system -- a Heaven and Planet -- that could regulate souls. Because souls are useful to Immortals to do... ... something. To climb further up reality maybe. Souls can innovate and can potentially break through the limits and bindings of the world perhaps? The limits and bindings that "the tyrants" hold over all of reality somehow?

What the fuck are "the tyrants" doing that this level of rebellion and atrocity is considered warranted by some people like Soup Chef and Altar Lord?

And in what way is the Demonic Soup Chef trying to destroy, absorb, or supplant, the Turtleworld Heaven, in order to stop all this? Is he "just" trying to replace the Heavens and start raising up people according to his standards and goals, rather than that of the Emperor Turtle, and wage war on the Immortals or allow people to advance freely and as high as possible in Cultivation? Or... what?

Cracking and splintering under the weight of what it was supporting, the Blood Qi clouding the skies redoubled its strength as the Demonic Altar spat out its last dregs of power, enough to bring the heir of the Liberation King into following the path of his spiritual father. Even the thought was unwise, he knew. Better to think Soup Chef, because speaking things too close to the truth had an awful way of seeing you obliterated by Heavenly wrath within instants. A single lapse, and all he had built to this day would be undone.

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So the Blood Eclipse was his doing? Madness and cannibalism all across the desert -- possibly the whole region even, for all we know -- all to either trigger the Great Era or to defend the ascension of the most likely Single Pillar heir. People fucked up horribly everywhere.

Now there was only one thing remaining.

To cut a swathe of blood and misery so large that chaos could overwhelm the gifts of Heaven, the Great Era he had read so much about. They could grind every last Righteous Sect into dust, every Clan into nothing more than slaves to be eaten, and nonetheless the servants of the Heavens would be gifted with greater power and rise up above them. There was no winning this war, merely delaying the inevitable end by hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years.

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... And even more are going to be fucked up now.

Woe. Woe, woe, woe to all.