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

[occipitallobe]

Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.

If you write a new Good Seed, or write an omake, please update the spreadsheet if you have access.

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!

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

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.

 

[Insane-Not-Crazy]

TURN 14, OMAKE 6 [Auspicious Nine]
Auspicious Nine 21: Damocles & Auspicious Nine - What Strange Beings these Mortals Be​

The Hoplite Formation was the mainstay of the Golden Devils, their first method of attack and last line of defense. It was the Hoplite that had ensured the clan's survival when their enemies had pushed them into the Desert, and the shadowy boot of the figure summoned by the formation had once trod upon the necks of those who would oppose the Optimatoi on any of the nine Seas. It was for this reason that acquiring proficiency in the formation was mandatory for anyone seeking to rise up the ranks of the clan. If the Hoplite Formation is ever lost, the clan elders were fond of saying, the clan will surely crumble under the weight of Heaven.

It was for this reason that the youth known to his fellows as Damocles found himself arrayed in an unsteady phalanx with forty-nine other junior disciples, gritting his teeth in pain as a senior instructor in the Seventh Heavenstage guided them through the process of pouring their essence into the formation. It was a disorienting experience for those unfamiliar with the process - the very essence of their beings, a thing the vast majority of them were still learning to properly sense and manipulate, was grasped and pulled by the flow of the formation with insurmountable force. It was like having one's insides pulled out by a river, one that puppeted their limbs and thoughts and souls to fuse them into something greater.

"Again," the drillmaster barked as the group faltered and the flickering shadow that had begun to be conjured above their heads faded. "The Chant of the Hoplite must not be interrupted once it is undertaken, nor should it be besmirched by incorrect intonation. You cannot simply say the words, you must feel them in your dao-hearts! The core of your being must want for them to become a reality! Learn this well, or you will never survive a true battle."

A chorus of 'aye, legate' sounded out, and the group was put through another series of exercises to properly align their minds and qi with the principles of the Formation. As his limbs moved in and out of stances, his breath rasped in and out alongside his fellow recruits, and qi bubbled up through freshly-activated meridians like black tar, the mind of the child stayed detached, watching himself go through the forms like it was someone else. The words of the instructor stayed with him, bouncing off his skull like echoes in a dry canyon, distorting with time but never quite losing their form.

Dao-heart.

The core of your being.

You must want.

Anyone familiar with cultivators knew that they all inevitably subscribed to bizarre philosophies, fundamental tenets of their life that shaped their behavior, thought, and soul. The Dao. There were as many paths as there were grains of sand in the desert, and yet each soul could follow only one, for the strength of such beliefs was as tyrannical as any other force in the world - to be unfaithful to one's dao was to invite certain death upon oneself, for in betraying the dao, one's own self was betrayed. Indeed, certain philosophers throughout the years had espoused the view that there was no such thing as a person, that each and every individual that had ever lived did not actually exist - there was only the infinite permutation of Dao, and the trappings of personality, choice, and flesh were merely impediments born of the mortal world, ones that must be shed to pursue the only true state of being.

While not much credence was given to these more extreme theories, they shared one thing with common wisdom among cultivators and mortals alike - everyone possessed a Dao, whether it was known to them or not. It was a thing at the ultimate center of their beings, and the only way of finding fulfillment in life was to find and follow it.

The child's brain buzzed numbly with these thoughts as he distantly observed his body lining up with the others in preparation for another attempt at the formation. The chant was spoken, rolling up and out of their lungs in deep tones of brass. Their shields were presented in an unbroken wall, their spears held ready in the proper place. Qi surged, and a shadow began to form above their heads.

You must want it in your Dao-hearts, the words had been. Without reaching into their true desires, aligning the smallest fragment of their philosophies with this formation, it would fail. They would never achieve the truest measure of strength the Clan could gift to them. Their fates as inconsequential lessers would be sealed, and they would eventually die.

Driven by this certainty, the child's gaze turned inward, closing his inner eyes as he dove past memories of blood and ash, and beheld for an instant the faintest shadow of the desire that had coiled itself inescapably around his heart.

The child's empty eyes snapped open, seeing nothing as the qi currents of the formation began to snarl and tangle over each other. As his hands began to burn with black light, his shield and spear fell broken from his hands. Their instructor was yelling warnings, those near him backing away in concern, but the child who had been called Damocles heard nothing. The shadowy figure their cohort had conjured above themselves froze, shining armaments held aloft, and a single speck of something that was infinitely darker than mere shadow appeared at its heart.

The construct exploded a moment afterwards, some sort of internal reaction igniting the gathered qi and expelling a wave of force that scattered all the gathered legionnaires, sending many flying into the walls of their training compound. Only their instructor remained on his feet, having been able to brace himself against the eruption of qi. Thus it was only him that remained to see the child he knew as Damocles, the only other one who had not been blown back by the explosion, retching up strands of black bile as what remained of his essence boiled strangely inside of his body.

It was said that the truth of one's dao lay inside of everyone, and to find it one only had to look clearly. There were never any guarantees about what it would be, however, or that your fated path would not in turn look back at you.

***​

As a naive inexperienced young man, Auspicious Nine had imagined that leaving his home in Pleuron to search for wider vistas of knowledge and experience among the Legions of the Golden Devil Clan would be greatly eventful and exciting. Barely four months old and curious about the world around him, Nine had scoured texts for insight and enlightenment. He'd pestered the household staff of the Pleuron family for their anecdotes and testimonies, weaving a picture of the wider world beyond the city of his birth. Passion to expand his horizons and discomfiting boredom had pushed him to seek out firsthand experience of the world he'd only encountered in the memoirs and observations of the learned minds he aspired to emulate and surpass. Reality had both over- and under-delivered on his expectations.

There had been plenty of excitement enough, considering he'd survived the Hundred-Year Trials and then shortly after participated in the war with the Jingshen. In the course of becoming a Legionnaire and serving the Clan's interests he'd formed relationships with both erudite and low-browed persons, developed interests and passions that would have befuddled his younger self, survive mortal and Heavenly prosecution, and settled into his path of advancing of Research and the Mind.

The high notes weren't everything, though, to Auspicious Nine's experience. There had also been the unsettling realization that he was as vulnerable to being blinkered by sentiment and emotion as revealed in his reaction to Jin Muyi's passing. Then there had been the humiliation of being defeated by a cunningly brutish beast despite long hours of preparation and expensive provisioning for the hunt, not to mention the added insult of needing to be rescued by the same porcine quarry. The crowning humiliation so far had to be stumbling out of the gate in his advancement as an Expert and eking out decades of cultivation and research with little to show for the expended effort in growth or knowledge.

Ambition burned in Auspicious Nine's breast, a desperate flame flaring bright to prove himself worthy to his goals and that of his seniors. The only fear he felt in leaping into the deathtrap of the Qiguai secret realm was the apprehension of failing to plunder the means of advancement from the jaws of death. The same desire that had seen him sacrifice and bleed to acquire sufficient means to make the challenge of his goals in Qiguai survivable rather than suicidal had Nine confidently striding through the Dawn Fortress lugging a large cloth sack on his back in the direction of a private training ground.

The wooded practice area was secluded and empty just as Auspicious Nine arranged for with a bribe slipped to certain acquaintances in the Office of Disciples. They had thankfully not asked for substantial currency in return for the favor but had wanted the creation of novel dyes to score points in their arcane internal fashion parade/competition within the Office. The favor had been a project Nine had been glad to sink his teeth in and he'd spent several days cheerfully ingesting several species of gastropods and coleoptera in order to extract and refine a masterwork of alchemical dye from their bodies through internal alchemy. Hypnotically iridescent and attuned to the qi of the user, the Beguiling Rainbow Pigment was a smash hit with his customers.

Auspicious Nine's arrangements for privacy proved prescient when the contents of his sack began stirring and moving violently just after he'd entered the practice area. A faint aura of power wafted out from within the sack to Nine's spiritual senses, projecting a sensation of decay and entropy. Nine dropped the sack on the loamy and stepped a distance away, to wait patiently. The tough jute fabric of the sack crumbled to dust in seconds, seemingly undergoing the weathering caused by exposure to the environment over centuries in mere moments. In the dusty cloud raised by the sack's destruction, wary eyes that have seen more than childhood should have allowed darted in every direction searching for threat as weak slender limbs pushed a pale form to its feet.

Just as the gaze of the child landed on Auspicious Nine, the treeman bowed once and spoke, "Good morning to you, Damocles. I hope you can forgive the rather unorthodox means of our introduction. I can assure you that I mean you no harm and merely took such unusual measures because of the need for haste and privacy."

"Who are you?" the young man – really just a boy – identified as Damocles asked in a hoarse rasp, his eyes warily fixed on Auspicious Nine's form and hands lifted into an open palm guard, "Why did you bring me here?"

Auspicious Nine carefully reached into his pockets and retrieved a badge from them, jade embedded in Spirit Bronze. He pushed qi into the badge and spoke as a hovering emblem was projected from the artifact in his hands. "My name is Auspicious Nine, centurion of the 1313th Legion. I would like to reiterate that I truly have no ill intentions toward your person."

If anything this identification made Damocles warier and he backed up several steps from Auspicious Nine.

"Why is a centurion kidnapping a junior legionnaire from his quarters and transporting them in a sack to an isolated area? That doesn't exactly at the best of intentions in any scenario I can think of." Damocles said, voice heavy with suspicion.

Auspicious Nine lifted up a finger in the air as though making a point. "Actually, I haven't kidnapped you. I put in a request with your optio to have you assigned to me for a couple of days and had the request approved. I merely preempted notice of the assignment in making your company. You happen to have drawn the interest of several parties other than myself recently and, well, better to be forgiven for earnestness than have to follow protocol for permission and lose out on an opportunity."

"This is about the incident in training with the Hoplite Formation." Damocles stated, not asking but telling.

"That's one part of the recent interest but really it's about those two," Auspicious Nine said, pointing to the center of Damocles' palms facing him where two pinpricks of black were barely visible, "Entropic effects are not often seen in persons of so little advancement as you were when you made yourself known to the Golden Devil Clan. Fewer still are those that appear amenable to control and don't kill their users at the slightest backlash from disrupted application. That makes you unique and very interesting. The forceful relocation was to get a headstart on the other researchers invariably desirous of making an offer to you on the basis of your novelty."

Damocles relaxed and let his hands down to his sides. "You still haven't explained what exactly you want from me or what's in it for me."

"Clear-minded and quick to seek the advantage, I see," Auspicious Nine commented, "I'm glad to see that I haven't frightened you overly."

Damocles gave Auspicious Nine a look as though he'd said something foolish. "You're in Foundation Establishment. I'm barely into the 1st Heavenstage. There's no point in being frightened when I can't put up any meaningful opposition. Can we get on with your offer, please?"

Impressed by the calm calculation in evidence before him, Auspicious Nine wasted no more time and presented his proposition. "I want full access to your medical records, past, present and future. So far, all the records I have access to indicate that you have admitted no knowledge of the source of your abilities. I wish to lift the veil of ignorance that currently enshrouds your situation. The goal is to explore the mechanics of how you generate the entropic energies, analyze those energies, determine if they can be replicated, and answer any further questions that come up in the course of the inquiry. This will require that you submit to a regimen of regular physical and spiritual examinations for the next two decades. In exchange, I will include you as co-author on any findings and research writing. I will also provide the Contribution Points needed to supply the means to get you to at least the 5th Heavenstage under the Office of Disciple's training program for good seeds. In addition, I provide a minor life-saving treasure."

Damocles blinked at the succinct proposal and considered it in silence for several long minutes. "I tentatively agree but withhold the right to back out without penalty and retain the continued funding, if your examinations pose a risk of death or crippling injury."

Auspicious Nine cocked his head at at angle as he rapidly thought through the counteroffer. Nodding, he replied. "I agree to your terms at present though we will need to clarify what risk of death and injury covers before the Contribution Points are provided."

"That is acceptable to me," Damocles said.

Rubbing his hands earnestly, Auspicious Nine's face brightened in excitement and he blurred to stand beside Damocles who flinched back at the sudden movement. "Now that we are done with all the boring stuff, it's time for the fun of investigating the mysteries of the unknown. Come along, there's knowledge to be uncovered. I have reserved this practice area to put you through your paces and establish a physical baseline."

Eager, Auspicious Nine headed deeper into the practice area trailed by Damocles, wondering if he'd been too hasty in signing up with a man who had quite literally abducted him. Perhaps he should have held out for the other competitors that Auspicious Nine had talked about. They couldn't be as off-putting, surely? This was all too much for him.

AN: (2750/2=1375 words) Another Training Juniors Collab with @Xantalos.

 

[Xantalos]

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

Run your own Xianxia faction! Offend old monsters! Raise good seeds! Face heavenly tribulations! And remember, always support your Young Masters, no matter who they offend.

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

A second Training Juniors collab with @Insane-Not-Crazy - he's certainly earned the name with how many of these he's been putting out this turn. 1375 words.

 

[JowKeen]

Turn 14 Omake 12 Seed Money Part 3

Hong Xiao didn't comment on his interventions as they made their way to the other bank of the mighty Yangtze. The Old City didn't seem like anything particularly foreign or gold, despite the way the locals of the Garden muttered about it. The shore was, however, full of new growth. Fishing shacks, cottages and huts sprung up like reeds amongst the taller and more solid compounds of the Riverlord Sect. The hard labor of many decades caught on a swell of Golden Devil Wealth, the shore of the Old City seemed significantly more defensible than the shore of the Sunset Gardens did. Perhaps an advantage of being able to design layered defenses with the expertise of many decades of combat. Perhaps an advantage of building in the shadows of long-ruined stone fortifications, built with the expertise of the local cultivators before the Daylight Monk had ever come to Seven Temples and the name had changed. Seeing the green buildings sprouting up beneath the structures, Sun Ji was reminded of the clusters of life that sprouted up around the sunbaked bones of Great Beasts in these deserts. He wondered what sort of people the original inhabitants had been, before the cannibals had swallowed them all. Shivering slightly, he was grateful to reach the shore and step from the rocking boats.

To be able to see and hear such slaughter, and do nothing over something as trivial as bridges. These river spirits could be no true friend of man, though were any spirits able to be called such? Sun Ji stowed his thoughts and resumed a more active vigil, now that threats could approach from more than just two directions. Well, if something had leapt from the river and dragged Hong Xiao in there was likely nothing he'd have been able to do. Better to keep his awareness to his front and back, then fret over threats that may or may not overwhelm him from the treacherous waters. Besides, the bridge was built and maintained by mortals. Surely the river wasn't so dangerous during the day like this, when mortals were able to walk too and fro with such ease.

Sun Ji shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. Apparently Hong Xiao had noticed as she led them to the side of the main path and asked, "You alright Sun Ji?" with her hands on her hips.

He nodded a touch too sharply. "This one is unmolested." He frowned, better to be more fully honest. "This one did not like the look of that river, nor the shadows that flitted within it."

She gave him a considering look, up and down. "Mmm. Not used to the river, huh?"

Sun Ji shook his head. "I saw it once before, but with my sense for flows now." He shivered again, getting it out of his system after distracting himself from it the whole way across. "It grabs and pulls with so much desire I'm unsurprised that I had to stop so many pickpockets."

Hong Xiao turned and gazed out to the river, and he saw a pulse of qi flood her eyes. He wondered what sort of Art she was using. It was rather rare to work with something so delicate as the eyes in the First Heavenstage. Perhaps something from her Honored Mother?

~~~~~~~~~

Hong Xiao activated her Eyes of Desire while looking at the river, and immediately regretted it. Such depth of Want. The information that surged into her brain was scrambled in a way that training with her mother had informed her was unsafe, and she scrunched her eyes shut as quickly as possible while gathering the dangerous information into her mouth. "Snnrghhh" she snorted it into the back of her mouth. "Ptoo!" She spat a loogie of dark and dangerous qi onto the ground, where grass quickly folded around it like a grasping hand. Then the earth began to sink, quickly collapsing shut around it like a hungry mouth. She exchanged a glance with Sun Ji as they stared at the patch of churned mud, looking entirely too much like a bite mark in the otherwise unbroken carpet of grass.

She could still taste the desire in her mouth, and smell it in the back of her nose. She was suddenly very hungry. She was hungrier than she'd ever been in her well off life as a topsider. An aching empty that made her want to move, to get to somewhere she could eat as fast as possible. "Well damn." she said, to break the uncomfortable silence. "Guess it's really true that sometimes you're better off not knowing." Sun Ji gave her a quizzical look at her non-sequitur, but she'd already started moving. She nodded in the direction they needed to head and called out, "Well, with that settled let's get a move on! I wanna see where they make Scorpion Treats! Come on!" She began to jog along the upper shore, not quite on a path but a flattened ridge of earth above an incline that fell to the nearly flat shore and narrow shallows. She didn't care for when it had been made, or anything much at all but her next meal. "You think they're gonna have some on offer? I hope so. Hell, I'd take squid sashimi if they don't. Or maybe just a brief fry to get the juices going." She wiped her mouth as she drooled a little. There were thin filaments of dark, and with hardly a thought she schlurped them back up.

"Hong Xiao, are you well?" called Sun Ji from behind her. He was running for some reason just trying to keep up with her. Oh, thought Hong Xiao, when did I start running? Unbidden, she remembered the air charged with energy that first day he'd entered the shop. Perhaps they'd have a squid like that for her to tear into. She felt like such energy would be just the thing to get rid of this Hunger, this Want that she had.

"Yeah I'm fine. Think I can push to the next stage with this," she murmured. It felt almost like her veins were burning, but not quite her veins? They weren't where veins were supposed to be, and if they were her veins she was certain they weren't supposed to feel hungry.

"Oh." Sun Ji stated in an understanding tone. "The Yin energy you took in was certainly intense. The Yang I've absorbed as part of my morning routine is less than a pale candle compared to what you've absorbed. Do you have any exercises to integrate such a thing into your cultivation?"

She shook her head as she ran, uncaring of whether he could keep up at this point. Something told her that she needed a meal to pin it down, to bolster herself with it she'd need something to fill her up. "Just gotta eat. That's what my intuition says." She remembered the way the grass and the earth had ruined themselves around the loogie she'd hocked. Perhaps she wasn't in a great state of mind, if she thought she shouldn't just try to spit the rest out.

But how good would it feel to satisfy this kind of deep Hunger?

She ran over the directions she had to the supplier again, and decided to cut through part of the shoreline settlements to get there faster. "Come on, let's just see if I can handle it!" She flung herself over a wooden fence (or had it been a wall?) and activated her Eel Slips the Net Art along her spine. Sun Ji was Second Heavenstage, right? He'd be able to keep up, right? It wasn't like he'd have no movement Art at such a stage, right?

She justified her selfish behavior as she ran, slipping between mortals that were apparently surprised by her appearance. Maybe it was the manic grin, or the fact that she'd definitely tripped some sort of wire a few streets back, but Hong Xiao didn't care as she sprinted towards her destination. Well, she didn't care until a tripwire moved of its own accord to try to snare her after she'd stepped cleanly past it. She huffed and glared around her, "Oy! Which jellidick fry is tryna get in my way! I'm a growin girl you know!" She growled at the various cottages and huts around her as a mortal gang coalesced from their shadows.

"Oho, so you are." A cultivator leered at her as he wound up the wire she'd so cleanly slipped past. "Almost didn't believe it when they sent the signal for cultivator coming towards our Sticky Fings Gang. And so well dressed too! You lookin for a lure to tug on?" He grabbed at his crotch and licked his lips.

She turned her Eyes of Desire on him and got "Desire for Wealth" and "Desire to Protect". A local boss acting big to reassure his subordinates, not looking for sex? Not really her problem. Hong Xiao turned and started running again, "Notta chance yaki-ball. 'M on my way to get fresh squid, no time for hagfishin' right now". It wasn't three steps before she felt something wrap around her ankle. Even with her Eel Slips the Net Art, she still ended up sprawled out in the mud. She flipped herself back to her feet and whirled on the gangster, whose arm had replaced itself with an impressively long tentacle.

The man snarled, "Oy. I may not be the most handsome cultivator but even hagfish got feelins, yeah? Plenty a women don't mind my face with arms like these." He flexed and his hand erupted into five much shorter tentacles. "and I think I've got all the squid you could want right here."

She rolled her eyes, cautiously stepping further away from him. She snorted, "I'm no blood path filth. If a man can't feed me, 'm gone, yeah?"

He shrugged, "I could see about givin some for gettin some. Gimme a minute to do some knife work and-Grah!"

His next words devolved into cursing as Sun Ji slammed into his back. The assembled mortals reached for sharp poles as the two men began to wrestle. Hong Xiao sighed. "Well if I'm being delayed my meal the least you can do is offer a lady a good pounding." The nearest mortal turned to her in confusion, and gripped his pole all the tighter as she closed on him with closed fists at her side and mischievous crescents in her smile.

"Come on then, come take yer poundin'"

~~~~~~~~~

Sun Ji asked himself what decisions had gotten him to this point. Another tentacle slapped against his face, suckers puckering his skin and popping wetly as he pulled them away. He was muddy, wet, cold, and worst of all it felt like he was losing somehow. Grunting, he pushed hard with his legs as he tried to keep hold of the tentacle. What a mess this all was! How had it come to this?!

He roared as he slung the beast cultivator around by the tentacle, slamming him bodily into a number of his mortal lackeys. Three sprawled out with the air knocked out of them, while two slid only for a moment before getting back up. The squid man simply laughed at him as he slammed into the earth, "Oh yer a real fighter huh? That's alright." He drove his feet into the soil down to his middle shins. "I don't mind wranglin' a scrawny Sunset topsider like you for our great Riverlord. You lot always did bite off more than you could chew." He whipped his arm and suddenly it was Sun Ji's turn to be flying through the air. As he soared into the sky, he had a brief moment to see Hong Xiao fighting a set of mortals with fishing spears. As one jabbed in, she used a bare handed style to grab on and pull, knocking the man face forward into the mud as she deflected pokes from the other two with her other arm and a leg. As graviter began to pull him back down, he saw her dive low and slide through the mud towards the sprawled man. He had no idea what she was thinking, but refocused onto his own combat as he fell.

The man had swung his tentacle out wide, and brought momentum with it as he sought to slam into Sun Ji at the point he fell into range. Sun Ji smiled as he extended an arm. He could use this. He channeled his Dao of Sacrifice as he closed into range of the attempted death-blow.

The pain of the arm pulling out of its socket as he blocked was well worth the look of shock on the squid-man's face as he used the momentum to slam his feet into the tentacle and begin to slide down it. Squidman tried to throw him off, but he'd already leapt into an axe kick. To his credit, the squid-man did roll forward and the blow that was meant for the base of his neck landed on a shoulder blade instead. There was a snap, and then the cultivator was flying face-first into the hut at the center of the congregation while Sun Ji sprawled face-down in the muck. He'd bled off most of his momentum between his dislocated arm and the axe-kick, but damn if it still didn't hurt.

A few of the mortals shouted "Bastard!" at him as he quickly rolled to his feet, but two things caught his eye just past them.

The first was that the walls and roof of the center shack had been blown apart to reveal two massive squid corpses, one gutted already but the other nearly pristine. Well, pristine if you didn't count the splinters of newly broken building now jabbed into it.

The second was a manic Hong Xiao, who fell upon the first mortal and knocked him unconscious before he'd even noticed he'd been struck. Energy flowed from the man into Hong Xiao's fist, which made its way down to her foot as she kicked the next man into the third mortal and ended the fight. "Hey did you see!? Squid!" She exclaimed, before bounding over to the corpses. Sun Ji hurried to the mortals, to make sure they would survive. Clearly, something was wrong with Hong Xiao, but one of the duties of a cultivator was to care for the mortals of their land.

And if the Squid-man was still up for a fight, he suspected Hong Xiao would be more than equipped to handle it.

~~~~~~~~~

Hong Xiao eyed the squid with glee. Perfect! It could only be more perfect if they were cooked! She wasn't really that far from the Scorpion Snack suppliers. She could wait until then, right?

There was a groan as the gangster rolled beneath the rubble. Sliding around one of the still-standing posts, she made sure he was safely breathing on his side before returning to her haul. Not a bad distraction! She thought to herself. Humming, she decided to only take the pristine squid along. "Oy, Sun Ji! We ready ta go?" She laughed a little at her Shoreliner accent. Dad hadn't entirely approved of her mother's insistence that Hong Xiao should be brought on so many trips to the shore in her youth, but after this mom'd be proven right. There's no way a spoiled topside brat like her woulda been able to keep her cool in this situation and not kill anybody! They'd definitely have outed themselves as a topsider and been threatened with ransom, that's for sure.

It had been ages since she'd last been allowed to go to the shore and street fight. It felt great to be able to take what she wanted and know there was no punishment coming. Now she'd lug this squid on towards her contacts at the Riverlord Sect and get an excellent meal out of it. Her stomach growled, "Oy, Sun Ji! Hurry up and help me carry this!"

Her coworker looked more mud than man as he rounded a corner and lightly bowed to her. It still felt good to see such deference be shown to her, even if he seemed to act that way towards everyone. "My apologizes, I was simply making sure that the mortals of this Riverlord Sect weren't overly damaged by your chastisement."

She blinked.

She groaned, "Urghhh of course these guys were Riverlord." She looked at the perfect squid corpse, which stared mournfully back at her with a great black eye. "Well. Guess we'll just deliver this early and hope they forgive us. So long as I can eat, I'm alright."

Sun Ji grimaced, and then slammed into the wall. There was a pop, had his arm been dislocated? "Ideally we can get your overdose of Yin sorted as well. I know that whenever I hold overmuch Yang I feel . . ." he cleared his throat. "Uncomfortable."

A smile spread across her face. To tease him now? Or later? Her stomach, her veins, her very soul was still hungry. There was time for teasing later. "Yeah, well right now I need you to help me carry this thing. S'not that heavy, but damn is it hard to keep hold of."

He bowed, "Right away ma'am." He stepped to the side and followed orders like the good little soldier he was. Apparently his pain tolerance was pretty good too, seeing as he'd relocated his shoulder without much complaint.

Hong Xiao bundled the tentacles under her arms as she began to march towards dinner. Frankly, even if they ended up punished as long as she got to eat she'd be happy. And besides that, there was some indescribable feeling that it would all work out some how. Like the Heavens were watching over her, and making sure it all went well.

Perhaps she was simply favored by Heaven?

~~~~~~~~~

Hu Song sighed as she handed over another bag of payment to another group of guards that had gotten their preparatory traps sprung by her foolish daughter. When Hu Song had set off to shadow the pair, she'd expected that she'd only have to step in if they'd encountered danger. After her fool of a daughter had turned her Eyes to the river though, her flows had gotten increasingly unstable at the same time as she'd decided to begin sprinting willy-nilly through the defensive works of the shoreline! Her daughter was a cultivator, and the Eel Slips the Net Art prevented her from getting caught, but she was not yet so talented as to not set off all of the mortal traps that had been layered deep enough to catch the average bumbling shore monster. Really, that girl was going to get a stern talking to if she didn't successfully break through!

"thankye marm" mumbled another mortal shivering in fear at her presence. Seriously? Hu Song didn't mind the Golden Devil policy of doing right by their mortals, but wasn't interacting with mortals in such a way more trouble for them than the paltry trinkets she gave them in return were worth? Hmph. Better to do it immediately since she was in the area, but perhaps they achieved this through delegation? Yes. This definitely sounded like it should be someone else's problem, rather than something someone such as herself should be doing.

She inclined her head and slipped from the room without a word. Really now, the things she did for this troublesome daughter. How often had she had to pay the medicine bills for the street fighting habits she used to get up to!? Thankfully her and Hong Zhuo had curbed the habit by the time their little girl had become a cultivator, but still.

Hu Song sniffed in disapproval. If her daughter had gotten into a fight for some reason, she worried just how much she'd have to pay in face to keep the matter from escalating.
Her daughter was certainly lucky to be so favored by this generous mother of hers!

3345 Words

 

[Sirrocco]

By the way, for whoever winds up writing up the event blurb for Kakos... he almost certainly winds up rendering that bow he got down for insight and using it to refine his combat art (fires darts made of his own blood at people). I'm just really super-behind on writing his story so I hadn't gotten that far.

Basically, you don't need to worry about him using the art or whatever, but he specifically wouldn't be using the bow.

 

[JanusIIV]

When Snakes Cry
Blue Steel Town, Grandiloquent Staff Province, Year 222​

"This shit isn't working," I said, rubbing my eyes.

"Fucking brilliant insight," Junius said. He had his chin resting on his arms, and his arms resting on the table we'd stolen- borrowed from some local card sharks. Don't get me wrong, we won a completely fair (they cheated, I cheated: fair) game of cards, then took it anyway when they refused. "Mind telling me what colour the sky is, while you're at it?"

"I mean we need a new plan." I flipped him off, earning a snort. "I don't know if she's just stonewalling us, or just hard committed to saying nothing but…"

"I think it should be fairly obvious why the snakewoman you stole away from her children to keep as a bedwarmer isn't willing to speak with you," Chun Bo intoned. He took a sip of his tea, his dumb smug stork eyes closed.

I waited until he put the cup down, then pounded the table. The cup flipped over, spilling tea everywhere, and I grinned at him. "First of all, suck my dick," I said. "Second, we've already tried telling her we're trying to help her."

"Really?" Chun Bo asked, raising both of his eyebrows and tilting the table to run the tea towards me. "Help her? Obviously, no wonder she's been tied up in a corner of the room for the last day and a half." He swept his hand towards the now-obviously-a-girl snakewoman crouched in the corner of the room. Her legs and arms were locked behind her back in the best spiritsteel manacles you could buy, assuming you weren't willing to spend more than the cost of a used piss bucket.

She glared back at me, making some spitting sound around the gag in her mouth.

"Well, she's dangerous," Junius pointed out.

"Is she?" Chun Bo shrugged. "Janus defeated her without much effort, while poisoned. She's hardly even in the second heavenstage."

"So you think we should let her do whatever she wants," Junius rolled his eyes. "Just let the poison-spitting snake hermit wander around the town, maybe start her own pottery shop."

"Why would she have an interest in pottery?" Chun Bo frowned.

"Junius, shut up for a second," I said, looking over at the snakewoman. Chun Bo had a point. I've been picked up by city guards, toll collectors, and general authority figures on much more agreeable terms and I was still more of a problem than this. As a cultivator? Hell, I've slapped a few faces.

"Don't tell me to shut up, you shut up," Junius groused.

I pushed my chair back from the table, and walked around the edge of it, dropping to meet eyes with the snakewoman. Her pupils narrowed into slits, and she went completely still as she watched me.

"Yeah, you better," Junius added.

"Hey," I said. "I'm gonna let you out a bit, alright?" She didn't respond. "Don't bite my head off. Seriously, I'm trying to help you."

"Squad, I found a new spirit chef grill that opened up in town," Remus said cheerily, as he wandered into the building we'd been operating out of. "They- oh no, Janus, you said she wasn't-"

"I seriously am going to murder you in your sleep one day," I said, reaching out to the gag and gently wiggling it side to side. It was…stuck on something, like my ass between the bars of a gate, and it took some serious effort before it finally-

She hissed, and I barely ducked under a thick wad of gunk she spat out. I could hear the floor behind me popping like chalk and vinegar, and I raised an eyebrow at her, dropping the loose gag by her feet.

"See? That's exactly why this is a bad idea," Junius complained.

"I never said it wasn't," Chun Bo replied.

"That's not important," Remus cut them off. I set to work unlocking the chains at her feet, while she watched me with very obvious mistrust. "These guys are doing some serious high-tier food. Seems like they're on some kind of ascetic adventure to master their stuff, so they're selling the food basically at cost."

"Oh yeah? They got any bison?" Junius asked.

"I wouldn't be opposed to some good soup," Chun Bo added. "Do they have tofu?"

"You bet your sweet bippy, they do," Remus said. "They've even got menus. Look, they've got paper and jade fragments."

"Jade fragments?" I whistled. "That's fancy." Where were they from? Jade fragments were like jade slips that only let you see what was inside of them, and not much of it. Jieyue had told me how they were made once, but the only part that stuck was taking a jade slip and breaking it just right.

"Yeah, it's- Janus, what are you doing with the captive?"

"Our guest here hasn't really been enjoying the place. Keeping to herself, not really up for conversation, hasn't even thanked Junius for his hospitality. Seemed like maybe we should let her out a bit, see if that helps."

"Has she eaten?" Remus asked, raising one eyebrow over his blindfold.

"Well, I haven't fed her," I said. I quickly unlocked her wrist chains, and she rubbed them with her gaze still locked on mine.

"Here, catch," Remus said, and I heard something whip through the air. I stood up, and snatched it out the air with a glance- "Remus, this is...is this a menu?"

"Yes," he said, nodding.

"I can't read. You know this."

He looked at me, matching my gaze somehow, then shrugged. "Ask your friend."

"Right," I grumbled. "Excuse me, snakewoman who grew up in a poisoned wilderness, do you think you can read this menu?" I held it out in front of her-

She perked up, and stabbed her finger at something on it.

"...you're fucking kidding me," I muttered.

"Wait, she can read?" Junius said. I could hear the chairs scraping across the floor as the rest of the squad made their way over.

"I cannot believe this," I said. I glanced at the sheet of paper, and the clusterfuck of squiggles written in ink, then turned it back to her.

She vigorously jabbed the same point, narrowing her eyes at me.

"You think maybe she just doesn't speak the language?" Junius asked.

"A simple test." Chun Bo pulled a delicate feather from his braid, and dipped it into a shallow inkpot that appeared from and quickly dipped back into his waist sash. He scribbled some other mysterious shit on the back of the menu and held the feather out for the snakewoman.

She looked at it, then at him, and took it cautiously. She looked around at us uncertainly, then started filling out the empty space with a solid block of squiggles.

"Wow, she's really going," Remus said.

"Bronze my balls," I muttered. "So, the only ones that can't talk to her are me and Remus."

"Why wouldn't I be able to talk to her?" he asked.

"Because it's written-" I looked up at him, and he gave me a slight smile. I sighed. "Forget it. At least now we're getting somewhere."

=============================​

The wagon creaked and shook as a pack - a herd? a swarm? - of short snakechildren bounced around in the shade of the covered back. The older set watched them nervously, watching as the snakewoman I'd dragged back here first got the closest thing to a check from a Medico we could think of. Older was…relative, with even the oldest of them looking like they'd barely seen 10 summers. The youngest looked like they weren't even old enough to piss in their own pots, and by Old Gold, I was not cleaning up snakepiss. Kid piss? Snake…kid…piss? I wasn't cleaning it up.

Although, they weren't nearly as snake-looking as the one I'd dragged back. They hardly had any scales, they didn't have the head ridges, and aside from the yellow eyes and fucky thing they did with their jaws when they ate, you wouldn't think they were different from any other random wagonload of orphans. Which…I guess might explain the concerned looks from people walking by. Hm.

"Again," the legionnaire said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Not a Medico. You understand that, right? That I tend to spirit beasts?"

Somewhere on the other side of the Golden Heartlands, there's a prince of something with enough snakes to poison half the desert. Normally, cultivators - especially beast cultivators - manage all of their spirit beasts on their own but the Prince is…well, he's something of an icon. That meant he had more important things to do than dumb work, he had a ton of people copying him, and it meant there were a lot of people who learned how to take care of snake spirit beasts.

The snakewoman - shit, snakegirl. Seeing her in sunlight and uncovered made her age obvious too, and she was fourteen years at best. The snakegirl squirmed in place as the man held her under the chin with one hand, and used the other to poke around at the shiny wet fang pouches in her mouth.

"Yeah, you know snakes, she's kinda snake-like," I shrugged. "It'll be fine."

He frowned and looked over at me. "That's fucked up. You can't just call a snakeman a snake," he said. "I think people get their ass kicked saying something like that."

"That- shit, stop running around," I said, turning and snatching a pair of the kids who'd scampered off the wagon to made a break for it. I looked over at where they headed at the pair of street dogs fighting in the street, the two kids making quiet hissing sounds as they literally drooled over the prospect of fresh meat. "Calm down, you goddamn brats. You just ate." I stood up, tucking them under my arms like amphora.

"Hey," I said, to the snakegirl. Not that I needed to get her attention; her eyes were glued on me the moment the two kids moved near me, and they'd narrowed to slits once I'd grabbed them. "I'm gonna stick these two back in the wagon. Mind telling them to stay put when you get a chance?"

She blinked at me blankly, and I sighed.

"Yeah, because you can read and write but fuck me, you can't talk," I muttered.

"Well, the good news is," the legionnaire said, as I reached up into the wagon and rolled the kids on their back like balls. They screamed like excited hell-wraiths, and I turned back to look at the man. "She's not dying, or anything. But she has been severely fucked up several times in her life.

"Some bones that didn't set properly, her jaw isn't unhinging smoothly, doesn't seem like she's producing poison properly…" He paused. "That said, I'd have pegged her at probably like…six or seven if she were a snake, and she's got two heavenstages under her belt. For all I know, she's just in the middle of maturing." He shrugged. "The other kids seem fine, I guess. They're…mostly human, so if they start growing poison sacs or fangs in the next few years, I guess we'll know it's an age thing." He brightened. "Hey, if I file a report about this, I might get some contribution points from Elder Duca in a few years."

"Great," I shrugged. "My contribution points'll be in the mail."

"That's not how it works." Shit, he got me. "Anyway, I said mostly human. I don't know how you did it, but you picked the right guy for the job. Probably not that many people who've had to treat spirit snakes' internal injuries." He rose to his feet and dusted his knees off. "These kids? This girl especially? They're snakes."

I frowned. "Yeah, I know."

"No, no," he shook his head. "Not snakepeople. Snakes." He sketched a wavy shape in the air. "See, snakepeople would have chakras and meridians that are largely in line with a regular cultivators'. Maybe a few divergence points like an extra chakra, or an unusual meridian connection to facilitate whatever they can do. Right?"

I nodded, and wheeled my hand for him to speed it up.

"She's not like that. She has snake meridians. It's the wildest shit I've ever seen," he shook his head. "Just…from head to tailbone, snake meridians, and then her limbs are basically like somebody grafted regular meridians on top."

"Oh, really?" I nodded, rubbing my chin in thought. "I understand perfectly."

"Whole thing's a mess. Extra fucked if she's as young as those meridians are, forgive my language."

"What do you mean?"

"They're adolescent," he looked at me. "I doubt she's even 10."

"Oh," I said, glancing over. Originally, I'd assumed she was the kid's mother but 14 was already pretty damn young for that. I mean, I've seen some shit but I didn't really want to think about the implications there. But if she's even younger than that…

"Best advice?" He pat me on the shoulder. "Scour wherever these guys came from for eggs, just in case. And maybe pick up a book or two on caring for reptiles."

==============================​

"That's robbery," I said. I crossed out the number on the page and wrote another, substantially lower one.

Si, the snakegirl, looked at it and recoiled, hissing acidly at me. I think, at least. Snake sounds are all kind of the same.

She grabbed the quill from me, and quickly rewrote my figure with two extra digits.

"You're out of your mind!" I yelled, and slapped the table.

Si rose to her feet, jabbing at the figure before underscoring it.

"Are you two still arguing?" Aelia asked, using a…garden spade to eat pork fried rice from the wok in her hand. She laughed, covering her mouth with one hand. "I've never seen anyone haggle over numbers like you two."

The snakegirl watched Aelia warily as my largest squadmate wandered over and took two seats at the table.

"We'd be done already if she wasn't trying to rob me blind at every opportunity."

"I can't believe you're even going through with this insane plan." She paused, leaning closer to peer at my face. "You know it's insane, right? To go with a Remus plan?"

I grumbled under my breath, and focused my attention back on the sheet we were quickly filling up.

Finding out how young the snakes were was a surprise. My gob got smacked. I just went out there to put down some weird forest monster, and instead came back with a medium-sized flock - a pride? an infestation? - of snakechildren and their acerbic sister-guardian.

I was happy to hand the whole thing off to Remus and the Legion, but.

But.

Animalpeople were…kinda spicy, as a topic. Outside of the clan, they were often kept as slaves or used as fodder in war, but our concerns were a little more practical. Generally, we were more open to people like them in our lands. Heck, there was a pretty sizable cut of land that was dedicated to some goats to the South. But for whatever reason, the Golden Heartlands would occasionally play host to violent animalpeople outbreaks in empty patches of desert.

This should be obvious, but the Organ Meat Desert is fucking big. By the time they stumbled onto a village and word got back to us, we were way behind catching them. And unlike stupid, flesh-hungry blood path bastards, they weren't driven by a need for flesh or anything like that and would keep making stupid decisions.

Sometimes, a village just got flattened by some ornery dromedary-men then they vanished into the sands to…I dunno, chew on shrubs for the next two hundred years.

That meant contact with animalpeople swung hugely based on the first meeting, and since I had one of them spit poison at me and nearly take my head off…

Basically I didn't feel right consigning a bunch of wide-eyed kids to death, scales or not. Which led to my current situation: arguing over hourly stavraton for my first underling. It was a first for me, since I was used to being on the other side of the table trying to swindle a beter rate, but it made her trying to rob me blind warm my heart even as it pissed me right the fuck off.

Her goddamn name didn't help. After a couple of days, Aelia had shown up from clearing out a bunch of Plague-Spitting Rat-Bats in a nearby town, heard our story and went "So, what's her name?" So we asked her.

And she wrote some shit down, that made Remus and Junius double over laughing, while Aelia and Chun Bo smirked. Then they explained it to me. Her name was Sī. Her name was Hiss.

"Hiss!" she spat at me.

"No, you don't understand!" I slapped the table twice. "I could just go get like nineteen random punks from a shitty bar at that price! Why would I even need you anymore?!"

She hissed something back at me.

"Y'know, she still doesn't understand you," Aelia said around a mouthful of rice.

"It's the fuckin' principle," I said, slapping the paper twice with my most recent offer.

Aelia rolled her eyes and took the paper from me, writing something down in probably the nicest-looking set of weird lines I've seen so far. The snakegirl narrowed her eyes and snatched the brush, and the two of them broke into some kind of silent line contest.

Until, "Alright, she agrees." Aelia smiled and, amazingly, the snakegirl smiled back at her.

"What, just like that?" I asked.

"I talked her around," the giant redhead shrugged, returning to shovelling food into her mouth. "Also, now you owe me two massages."

I snorted, and gave her a thumbs up.

"How the hells is this plan supposed to work, anyway?" she asked. "She can't join the Legions, and even getting her into the auxiliaries is gonna be a huge pain in the ass."

==============================​

"Alright, we're headed to the Stork lands. We're reinforcing the forward lines ahead of some bigger action, but we'll be making a stop-off along the way." Remus tossed a map to Aelia, who unrolled it for us to see the route. "We'll be headed to Downcrest City. There's rumblings of blood path activity, and the Storks are already being tapped." He pointed at Junius, but I missed whatever he said next as Jieyue tugged at my sleeve.

"Janus," she whispered. "Janus."

I glanced down at her, then back at Remus. "Sup?"

"I don't think anybody else has noticed," she said, glancing behind me. "But there's some kind…of snake woman haunting you."

"Oh, yeah, no," I said. "She's with me."

"What? What do you mean? Who is she?" she looked up at me in confusion.

I shrugged. "She's my spirit beast."

==============================​

I'd like a Life-Saving Treasure for this turn, please. Took forever to get back to writing Janus. I had 2.5 omake that I never posted, but coming back to them, I didn't really like them so they got blown up for parts.

 

[JanusIIV]

Dusty Foot Legionnaires
Shen Kingdom, Year 222​

I focused on my breathing.

Everything hurt. I was used to pain. Cultivating was pain. This? This was not regular pain. For one, it was...kinda self-inflicted? I came by it honestly trying to learn the Ecstasy of Bronze technique, but usually I was trying to stop other people from hurting me. Cutting out the middleman here was a...new twist.

Second, it wasn't...my body...exactly.

I focused on my breathing.

My meridians were overtaxed (meridians aren't really in your body, they're kind of beside it and outside. It's complicated). Sort of. They were...bridge tolled? Fuck, they just weren't doing the thing they normally do. In a mortal, what they normally do is nothing. They barely even exist. Major meridians are locked tight, minor meridians are sealed, and tributa- trido- the smallest meridians literally don't exist yet. Once you start cultivating, you open the major ones and slowly start opening the others. Apparently, as you progress, you literally create the smallest ones because your shitty once-mortal body just doesn't have enough space to move all that qi.

Part of that is because of your Dao Pillars.

So, quick point, what's a Dao Pillar? Not "the thing that holds up the Dao Bridge", by the way. I tried that one.

I focused on my breathing.

Honestly, I didn't have a good explanation. Remus went over it a few times, and I sort of understood it, but "the thing that supports your Dao" didn't feel...useful. They matter because Dao Pillars are a requirement to get to the next stage of cultivation: Foundation Building. You create most of them once you get there-

Shit, is the Foundation you're Building supported by Dao Pillars? Does your Dao go on the Foundation? Damn, I might be onto something.

I winced and rubbed my chest, my broken focus sending waves of pain throughout my body as qi whiplashed around. Now I get to start over. Yay.

"Saw something?" Aelia whispered from beside me.

The two of us were lying flat with our heads under a scratchy desert shrub, an illusion of a hump in the terrain covering the rest of our bodies. For safety, we'd actually tossed a sheet and some sand onto ourselves under the illusion, after I blew it into place with some scratchy notes on my Illusion Gudi. We were on watch duty along a relatively quiet stretch of border territory, and I was glad for the company. Wit and an appreciation for dumb and dirty jokes, plus a casual ease about her? Aelia was my favourite, especially for long haul missions like these. No contest.

"Just broke concentration," I muttered.

"At least it wasn't your sword again," she laughed.

"Don't remind me. I'm so far over my requisitions, I've been burning contribution points for the last four missions just to get replacements."

"I don't know how you keep losing all your shit," she laughed.

"It's just," I said, then shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes I see an opening, and it means I need to lose my sword to get to it."

"You are absolutely the worst swordsman I've ever met," she said, shaking her head.

"Well see the thing is, I'm not a swordsman."

She raised her eyebrows, and held up her hand to start counting off fingers. "Well, you're also the worst spearman, axeman, saber-wielder, and staff-user," she said.

I grunted. "At least you aren't shitting on my archery."

"I don't consider what you do with a bow to be archery." I gave her the stinkeye, and she laughed it up.

"You're lucky you don't use a weapon for me to shittalk," I said.

"That's not luck, it's intentional," she said, holding out an arm for a second to make a fist. "Only way for someone to disarm me is to disarm me. And that's easier said than done."

"Mm," I said, giving her arm a glance, the memory of her tattoos overlaid on the surface. Maybe she had a point. I only stuck with the sword because Remus kept forcing weapons on me, and this was the least annoying. But...did I really need to?

"Are you still practicing?" she asked, bumping me out of my thoughts with her shoulder.

"Yeah, I still haven't mastered it," I frowned, rubbing my chest at the fading pain.

"Janus," she said, pausing. "It's been three weeks. On a technique above your cultivation."

"Didn't take me this long with Reflected Purities or Silent Steps," I said, trying not to wince at how whiny I sounded.

She shook her head. "I swear, you kids jump 9 small realms in a couple years and start thinking you can take on the world." She gave me a grin that was equally emotion and teeth, and I laughed quietly. "Don't worry about it. It's supposed to help prepare you for Foundation Building, you're not really supposed to get it before then. It's-"

"Dao stuff."

"Dao stuff," she said at the same time, nodding. "You're just copying the motions, but you won't get it until you're there."

"Like a kid in a brothel," I said.

She paused, then laughed. "Or you in a brothel."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I frowned.

She reached up, patting me on the shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry, Janus," she said, with exaggerated sympathy. "I know you're intimidated by the womanly form but-"

"Like hell," I said.

"One day you'll mature and-" she stifled a giggle.

"No, hold up," I said, gesturing to her.

"Come on, we both know you lean away when I get close," she said, shuffling over slightly.

"That's because you're usually doing it while standing and nearly take my head off, you titty monster," I groused.

"Uh huh. And after showers, you're pretty particular about where you're looking. Or not looking."

"Are you seriously trying to hold me not staring at you naked against me?" I said, looking over at her.

She rested her cheek on one-hand, half turning on the ground and sending her massive trail of hair scarily close to the edge of the illusion. "Well, it's not like you look at Hua or Jieyue either," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's- hold on, do you guys talk about this?"

"I'm just saying, there's nothing wrong with being a virgin," she said. "Most people are shy at first, and you'll grow out of it some day."

"Hey," I said, pointing my thumb at myself. "This guy? This guy right here? This guy fucks."

"Mhm," she said, turning back around to stare into the distance.

"I'm serious!" I said.

"Okay, sweetie," she said, extra nicely.

I stared at her, somewhere between entertained, confused, and annoyed. I huffed and turned back around with a shake of my head, breathing in deeply. "Goddamn it, you win this round."

I focused on my breathing.

==============================​

The Ecstasy of Bronze was a Foundation Building level-technique. I wasn't, of course, so my training was mostly on the first level of moving bronze qi through my body at the right pace. It also required keeping a certain level of focus or, for no real reason, all the qi would just give up and wander into places it really shouldn't be.

Apparently, this was me preparing my body for holding my Dao Pillars and the breakthrough to Foundation Building. My dantian - that's the thing that holds qi - needed to expand substantially to fit a Pillar in, and apparently you shove like seven in there at some point. That sounded about as appealing to me as 'comfort duty' to a bunch of rowdy drunks, with probably about as many things trying to find a place to stick into.

I focused on my breathing.

"But isn't moving qi through your body to prepare for the next stage just regular cultivation?" you probably ask.

Yes but no, voice in my head. Normal cultivation meant moving your qi through your body in a constant stream, stretching out your meridians to let more flow at once, without pause or gaps. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but at a constant and steady pace. The Ecstasy of Bronze basically wanted the exact opposite from me. Because I couldn't keep up with the actual qi demand of the technique, even at the reduced first step, I had to fake it by using huge amounts of qi to try and maintain the right flow. That was stretching my meridians way more than normal cultivation, and it required serious focus to stop them from tearing or any other injury Jieyue always warned me about.

Basically, you know how you piss in a steady stream? Imagine if you knew you were going to a huge party in a week and were going to drink a few barrels of rum, so you started practicing how to piss all of it out in one burst. Then at the party, you could just piss more at a faster speed to keep up the drinking.

That was basically what I was doing. Pissing Qi. Just so I could piss more qi down my meridians later.

It hurt like a son of a bitch, and I was mostly taking it on faith that the technique would be worth it. It sounded decent enough, at least. See, the Ecstasy of Bronze-

Something damp and warm hit me in the face, breaking my concentration and nearly sending qi rampaging through my legs. I grit my teeth as I broke the qi up into smaller flows, the ball of energy diffusing down countless smaller meridians instead of pulverizing my muscles. Again.

"It's your turn to go first," Aelia said.

I reached up, pulling the washcloth from my face, giving the bathing artifact a look of disgust. There were...a lot of ways to get and stay clean, and I'd even heard of some real silkpants higher-ups who had artifact tubs they lugged around in the field. Hell, some of those tubs flew and lugged them around. But us? We were a scout squad, usually sent way out into the middle of nowhere where actual water or real soap put as at risk of being detected - by spirit beasts, by blood path, by Jingshen rats, you name it.

So we got this, the 99th Yin Spring Washcloth. An artifact older than dirt, and that seemed to be mostly dirt after how many years of its service it's seen. It was created to clean the user's body as if they'd been dipped in the spring it was named after and would absorb soaps, fragrances, and water to alter how it worked.

If you're paying attention, you'll realize that means it's impossible to wash the washcloth.

"I fucking hate bath days," I muttered, pulling my armour off.

"Everybody hates bath days," Aelia called back. I glanced up at her, catching sight of her with her tunic dropped to her waist, mid-stretch.

"Uh." ...did my heart just stop?

"Did you say something?" she asked, half-turning to look back at me.

"...I'll be behind that rock," I muttered.

 

[SeptimusMagisto]

Lipp Galanis in: To New Friends​

Fate: Lipp entered the Secret Realm, and for some time found himself wandering. Unlike those with great Fates, Lipp simply managed to sneak along behind an absurdly powerful Strength Purity disciple - one who's fists rivalled the strength of Foundation Establishment cultivators. The first of the Favored that the Clan would meet, this man strode through all challenges with ease. Lipp managed to follow behind, taking cast-offs as he went. Liu Tenchang was named the Favored Fist of the Heavens, and he struck a crab beast with Foundation strength to death, seizing results from its trials and leaving behind its pincer. Lipp seized upon it, forging a Pincer-Blade (+1 Impact), a useful sword specialized in grasping and shattering the blades of others.
Tenchang went into the lair of a fire-breathing lizard, and slew it with six strikes. As he left, Lipp found he had left in the lizard's corpse it's single eye. The Fire-Eye (+1 Impact) could be used to store Fire Qi, and let it out in one great burst.
Tenchang strode into a temple full of traps, disabling them all and taking the pill on the altar there - the Dantian-Satiating Firebelly Gutblast Pill . Behind it sat an old forgotten piece of jade Lipp snatched up, the Analysis Jade (+1 Impact). Imbued with the spirit of an ancient tactician, it could evaluate his past fights and give training advice, as well as advice in battle - though it was limited by its knowledge at the time it died.
Tenchang was then caught and sickened by the Pill, and Lipp thought to leave him. Instead, the Favored Fist called him over, and spoke to him. Tenchang had been saved by the sacrifice of two Golden Devil cultivators in the Plains when he was but a mortal boy, and had ever since sought to repay the friendship he had been given. He had known about Lipp stalking him all along, and had no objections to Lipp taking what he could from Tenchang's battles. He gifted Lipp with a symbol of his gratitude, the Empowering Punch Shell (+1 Impact), a seashell he had been given that could store up energy within it and allow the cultivator to unleash a single devastating punch at times.
Soon after, the Realm closed, and Lipp left, somewhat richer and more powerful.

Click to shrink...

Lipp enters the realm as so many others do - falling helplessly through the air. Unlike most of the others, he doesn't stay that way. With a shouted word the glyphs placed by Lipp's sister deactivate their spacial magic and let the wings grow to full size. And just like that Lipp is in control of his own destiny, free to float anywhere he chooses. Not that he can see any particularly attractive prospects. Honestly, Lipp really hoped that the wings would be an immediate advantage. Like maybe he'd find a secret herb garden surrounded by a giant wall, or maybe a crumbling temple on a tiny floating island. But every landmass he can see looks barren.

Better fix that.

Lipp alights on one of the floating islands like a bird, even copying the motion a crane makes when it lands. Lipp's theory has always been that animals know what they're doing, so if you don't have a better idea, you should probably imitate them. Once he shrinks the wings again, his first action is to pull out a waterproof parcel from the depths of his enormous backpack. Spinning around three times, he tosses it with all the considerable strength he can muster, sending it flying somewhere into the distance, perhaps to be rediscovered thousands of years from now. Inside the package is every scrap of lore Lipp's collected regarding his theories - the changes animals and humans undergo when acquiring spiritual power, the likelihood that life emerged from the sea, reams of data relating to turtles and tortoises, and all of Lipp's plans for creating a new Turtle Child. Lipp's brought dozens of copies, some straightforward and complete, others disguised as the damaged writings of some ancient master, tantalizingly hinting at greater mysteries in the destroyed parts of the manuscripts. If he falls before his theories take root back home, at least he can scatter some small seeds here, where all things eventually find their seekers. Lipp made this plan a long time ago, before realizing just how impossible his quest was. Even so, if there's even the smallest chance...

The thought is ruthlessly crushed by the specter of Despair, but that doesn't change anything. Lipp is going to scatter the copies, useless or not. At the very least there is no real downside.

The second thing Lipp does is plant a garden. He carefully tests the earth for consistency, acidity, and nutrition, and once he finds a patch that seems good enough he takes out the seed packets provided by Grandmama. Each seed is packaged with nutrients and minerals that will give it the best possible start. The herbs that will grow from them aren't particularly rare, but in the qi-rich air of the secret realm they provide some value to a future explorer.

Days pass in this manner. Lipp finds a small vein of spirit stones and a skeleton of a Qi Condensation cultivator who had some minor trinkets on him at the time of death. Not terrible, but so far Lipp has left more behind than he's found here. Which is what he asked for, in a way, but if he can grow stronger now, he'll have even better opportunities to enrich the world in the future. Promise.

As if Lipp's plea has been heard, he finally finds himself stumbling onto something interesting. Some sort of a temple complex, or at least what's left of one. It looks like at one point it was a vast courtyard in the shape of a five-pointed star, with a temple at each of the points and a large pagoda in the center. The pagoda is a ruin, or rather a square of bricks that indicates a building was once there. Three of the star's points have crumbled away entirely. One of the remaining temples is a ruin, but enough remains to be worth investigating. The last temple looks essentially intact and probably unlooted.

Lipp sets down in the remains of the pagoda, partly to be equidistant from potential dangers, but mostly to check if there's a hidden basement. A close examination of the ground reveals nothing of the sort, but that could just mean it's hidden well enough that Lipp can't find it. This is where having Tullia and her echo-gnomics would come in handy. Undeterred, Lipp begins investigating above the ground.

He approaches the ruined temple first, since it has fewer places for potential dangers to lurk. The pagoda was leveled down to the foundation, but the temple has only crumbled away, leaving a hint of what it was. Which was apparently a structure with many floors linked together by a complex network of pipes. A cursory examination suggests that a series of levers throughout the temple were meant to raise or lower the water level, reverse the flow of water in certain pipes and activate or deactivate giant water wheels. So it used to be one of those places. The series of puzzles would need to be solved to gain entrance to the chamber at the heart of the temple that contained the prize...except that chamber has crumbled away.

Still, all is not lost. In front of what used to be the temple's entrance is a large, perfectly round pool. In the center of the pool is a plinth, and perched atop the plinth is a suit of armor. Lipp instantly recognizes it as a diving suit, though different from his own design. He took inspiration from frog skin, and so ended up with something lightweight and skintight. The suit on the plinth looks like a cross between one of the more heavily armored fish and a shrimp, using overlapping bands of armor for flexibility. The fins are all sharpened blades, and the fully closed helmet is an elaborate depiction of a sea dragon. And whereas Lipp designed his suit to be fully mechanical, this one likely uses Qi to grant the user water breathing and great underwater agility. A valuable artifact, to be sure.

But Lipp knows better than to trust treasure sitting in plain sight. The only question is: trap or guardian?

The water makes answering that question easy. The flow of Qi in the air is like a breeze - difficult to notice unless it affects you directly. But in the water it's more like a current - visible even from a distance. Following the currents, Lipp finds a guardian beast in the Foundation realm lurking at the bottom of the pool. His first instinct is to retreat but instead he just makes an effort to hide his own presence and lurks long enough to catch a glimpse of the guardian. It hides well, but Lipp is used to spotting underwater creatures, and eventually recognizes the shape of a pincer in the mud. A giant crustacean, then. Able to follow onto land. Lipp purses his lips and retreats for now.

As expected, the remaining temple is equally dangerous. The defenses are still operational, so the one entrance is blocked by a curtain of supernaturally hot flames. Not insurmountable, but judging by the water temple's remains, only the first of many obstacles. The prescribed way to navigate past them lies just outside. Deep inside a sweltering cave is another plinth, this one bearing a golden rod encrusted with rubies and fire agates and guarded by an enormous salamander with veins of liquid fire running just under the skin. It's even more powerful than the crab, approaching the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment.

How frustrating.

Lipp is no stranger to dealing with powerful beasts. He has dodged a giant scorpion's pincers more times than he can count, hunted sand sharks with nothing but a thoroughly trapped cow, and taken a minor treasure from a tortoise orders of magnitude more powerful than either of the guardian beasts. Given a workshop and several months of time, Lipp could certainly overcome both of them. But with neither time nor supplies on his side, it would be a match of strength and speed instead of intellect. That seems unwise to say the least.

Lipp spends far too much time pondering his options. Blow the whole thing off and seek out a more appropriate challenge? Probably a good idea, but it feels so very frustrating. Skip the guardians and tackle the temple with his own abilities? If the fire temple were the ruin and the water temple intact, he definitely would have. Somehow trick the beasts into fighting each other? Feels unlikely given how long they must have spent here with only each other for company. Grab one of the artifacts and try to run? Poison the water badly enough to at least weaken the crab? Try to somehow collapse a part of the island?

Out of clever ideas, Lipp prepares for the closest thing to a fair fight he can stomach. He begins by poisoning the pool using a colony of microscopic creatures. They will create stores of toxins within their bodies, ensconced within a nigh-impenetrable membrane. Even as the total amount of poison in the water grows and grows, it remains safe for even a mortal to drink - until a specific compound touches the membrane, releasing all the poison at once. This will not be enough to kill a creature in the Foundation Establishment stage, so Lipp goes further. He draws dozens of arrays. They are not subtle nor particularly intricate, but they will charge quickly from the abundant Qi in the air. The ones close to the pool are set up to unleash simultaneous blasts of electricity. The ones closer to the fire temple will draw on ambient fire Qi for a great firestorm. Having completed these tasks, Lipp begins preparing dozens of physical traps, keeping in mind the way crabs move and the anticipated flow of the battle. He digs pitfalls, disassembles parts of the water temple to make sharp metal stakes and small catapults and even a giant metal cage.

After days of preparation Lipp finally feels ready to make the attempt, at least against the crab. The salamander is beyond him. He goes over the preparations one more time, making sure that every detail is perfect.

...And someone drops from the sky.

Lipp has masked his presence and hidden in a trench before he's even finished noticing the stranger. Other cultivators are by far the most perilous part of this realm. Lipp has fought cultivators before, but out here there isn't going to be the opportunity to do an archive trawl or to visit their childhood village looking for weaknesses to exploit. Just a surprise encounter with an opponent who has totally unknown powers and intentions. Lipp would much rather fight the salamander.

The new arrival looks young, though one never knows with cultivators. He lands oddly, one knee on the ground, the other fully extended, one hand touching the ground, the other arm thrown off to the side. Lipp's own practice with landings suggests that's a totally impractical technique. Without even pausing to look around, he immediately heads for the armor.

The crab bursts from the pool, claws preparing to crush. The cultivator grins and throws out a quick jab that breaks through the creature's shell and obliterates half its body with a BLURP! sound.

"Well, well, well," he declares. "Looks like I've found a cure for cancer!"

He grabs the armor and moves on, leaving the crab behind.

Lipp idly notes which parts of the crab are useful. The punch destroyed the core, and the statolith. Those are the most valuable parts. The shell could be made into armor, but it's just too bulky to drag around. The meat is good eating and saturated in Qi. Certain cooks could probably work it into magical dishes, but Lipp specializes in ingredients too small to see with the naked eye. If the crab has any parasites, those could be interesting. And of course there's the claw. One of them was destroyed, but the remaining one can be made into a weapon.

But the reason Lipp notes this only idly is that most of his attention is focused on the other cultivator. Not because he's concerned about his own safety, though he is. It's because he's applying every Qi-sensing technique in his arsenal, trying to burn the shape of this man's power into his brain. He's something special. The perfect receptacle for a holy power. Someone deemed worthy by heaven. Like the bearers of the Stars that came to ravage the Clan in previous Trials, except that he is the Star. Strands of luck and destiny, of the sort that Fortune Storks learn to see but never to touch, are so plentiful around him they seem like they'll roll into a yarn ball any second now. This is not just raw power, but also cosmic significance.

Awestruck, Lipp makes himself into the man's shadow, invisibly following him as he descends into the salamander's cave. The creature roars and breathes flame, and such is its power that it takes a whole six punches to finish it.

ZOK!
"Such a warm reception!"

THUNK!
"I don't mean to let this fight dragon!"

PAM!
"That's what I call defeat in de-tail!"

KLONK!
"Now that's using your head!"

AWKKKKKK!
"That's it! You're on my fist!"

GLURPP!
"Nice to beat you!"

Leaving behind the fine pulp that's all that remains of the salamander, the mysterious cultivator - one of the Favored, as Lipp now recognizes - picks up the rod and moves on. While he walks to the temple Lipp slips inside. He finds one of the salamander's eyes, knocked free by the punch, and the smallest of the fire agates that adorned the rod, knocked loose by one of the punches. He can use these.

Then Lipp slithers back out and follows the man as he approaches the temple - not the curtain of fire but the wall.

"Don't you know the way of Strength Purity?" the Favored demands. "We don't play by other people's rules. We smash the obstacles in front of us until they run out!"

And he proceeds to do just that, breaking through every wall and trap with a punch and a quip. He's doesn't use the rod, not even once! Lipp feels mildly offended as he watches the spectacle, until the Favored reaches the center of the temple, approaches the altar, and picks up a pill, completely overlooking the jade it sits on. Even from his position safely outside the temple Lipp can clearly see that it's a fragment of a Will, clearly meant to go with the greater prize. The Favored gobbles the pill up immediately. And it's apparently a mistake. The Favored momentarily frowns, as if tasting something unpleasant. His movements, so certain up until now, slow by the tiniest amount. He walks out of the temple, clutching his stomach lightly, and walks to the center of the island.

At this point the best thing Lipp can do is grab the jade and fly away before he's noticed. But...the Favored really doesn't look well. Well, no doubt this is one of those pills that galvanizes one's marrow or overfills one's dantian. He'll get better soon enough, and nothing and no one in this part of the Secret Realm should be powerful enough to harm him even in his weakened state, and even if someone could, the Favored's luck would prevent them from coming close.

And yet...

Lipp knows that many members of the Clan scorn the Righteous Path. There are some who wish that the Strength Purity sect would extinguish itself fighting the Blood Path. But Lipp hasn't felt that way, not even once. This Favored is Heaven's answer to the terrible blood mist that ravaged the region, a living promise to wipe away Soup Chef's darkest legacy. If there is anything Lipp can do to help, he can't not.

And so Lipp approaches in the most neutral pose he can find. Not that there is such a thing - almost every pose Lipp can think of can serve as the opening stage of an attack. But holding his arms away from his body, parallel to the ground, palms pointed down, comes closest.

"Hail, friend!" he calls out. "I am Lipp Galanis of the Golden Devil clan."

In his mind he's choreographing what he'll do if the Favored is the kind of person who'll attack a Golden Devil on sight. Leap into the air, probably. Based on the way the Favored fights, he'll punch the air so hard that the resulting wind will pulverize Lipp. But Lipp bears a Life Saving Treasure of his own design - an amulet in the shape of a turtle, each facet of its shell inscribed with a tiny defensive array. Lipp is confident it can withstand the air pressure, which means the wind will launch him further into air, at which point he can simply unfurl his wings and float away.

But it turns no such thing is necessary. When the Favored looks up at him, his expression is genial, if a bit pained.

"Hail to you too! I am Liu Tenchang, of the Purity Strength sect. I'm glad you chose to show yourself."

"Ah. You knew I was there, then?"

Lipp has to admit, that stings his pride a bit. Tenchang doesn't seem particularly observant, yet he still noticed Lipp. Are his senses enhanced in proportion with his power, or is Lipp just not as sneaky as he likes to believe?

"Indeed. I assumed you had your reasons. Still, I'm glad to have the chance to speak face to face."

"Well...good. That will make this next part easier. Please breathe on this."

Lipp presses a strip of paper to Tenchang's lips. Tenchang looks startled but it's too late. He's already breathed on the paper, and now it's turning from white to a deep red.

"I thought so," Lipp waves the piece of paper around. "Your body has an overabundance of fire Qi."

"Well, I could have told you that."

"Five pills from five temples, probably meant to be eaten in a sequence," Lipp theorizes. "Getting just one will still bring benefits, but it also leaves you dangerously unbalanced. This us why you can't just swallow every pill you come across. A friend of mine got himself in trouble in exactly the same way and developed irritable bowels."

"Oh..."

"Don't worry. It's fine. You're fine. Here, eat this yoghurt. The milk, fat, and sugar will cancel out some of the burning, and it will restore any digestive bacteria the pill killed off. Long term you'll want to vet pills or herbs from the other elements, even if they're weak. Eat them in the proper sequence..."

Lipp trails off, noticing the amused expression on Tenchanq's face.

"What?" He asks defensively.

"Nothing. It's just...the Golden Devils really are good people, huh?"

Lipp experiences a crisis of conscience, uncertain if he should warn the Favored about all the Golden Devils who would destroy him for being a potential threat. In the end he decides not to. There will surely be plenty of people warning Tenchanq about the Golden Devils already. So he stays silent and lets Tenchanq continue.

"When I was a mortal two members of your clan saved me, sacrificing themselves to save my village. And now here you are, risking your own safety to ease my discomfort. Truth be told, I don't need it. I can process the fire Qi. Render it pure. I just didn't want to do it because the process gives off Heavenly light. I was afraid it would burn someone from a Demonic Clan."

"No need to hold back on my account. My aims and the aims if Heaven are the same," Lipp pulls out his turtle talisman, using it to illustrate his point.

Tenchanq takes a stance and suddenly Lipp is wonderstruck. The light of Heaven doesn't burn, but it's blinding. Lipp is forced to shut his lids almost all the way, peeking just the tiniest bit, trying to gather details of the purification.

When it's finished, Tenchanq stands there proudly, hands on hips, showing no sign of any discomfort.

"You are...quite something," Lipp admits.

"As are you, my friend. I saw that you managed to scavenge some items. Let me add one more."

Tenchanq takes a shell-shaped amulet from his own neck and hangs it around Lipp's.

"This was given to me by the Wei Princess," he explains. "It can absorb energy and send it back out. With it you need not fear any punch."

"Thank you. Really," Lipp mumbles, genuinely touched. "You...should still eat the yoghurt. And if you like I can cook a proper meal for us. We have plenty of crab meat going to waste."

"Then let us share a fire, friend, and talk of better tomorrows."

--------------
A/N: 3467 words.

 

[Insane-Not-Crazy]

TURN 14, OMAKE 7 [AUSPICIOUS NINE]
Auspicious Nine 22: Matthaias Outi & Auspicious Nine – Office Politics​

Χαρτιά, παρακαλώ

Projectiles flew around in the air, moving at speeds that could easily kill mortals. A cacophony of noise resounded, from stamping feet to shouting orders. People huddled behind walls, hoping not to be noticed by their betters. Matthaias flitted back and forth, dodging people running back and forth, delivering things of great importance, unholy energy fueling his body to make it one more step, moment by moment. And finally, finally, the time had come.

For lunch break.

Noon had finally come to the Dawn Fortress, and luckily Qi Condensation cultivators actually got to regularly have scheduled lunch breaks every day instead of downing a skin of kykeon like the Foundation Establishment cultivators typically did—poor bastards, that upgrade in stamina after their breakthrough meant that in the decline of the Clan, as well as the constant wartime footing meant that even the meekest Foundation Establishment cultivator had to take on triple the workload of the typical Qi Condensation office drone.

Mortals had it easiest, but well, that was the whole point of being a Golden Devil, huh? Though honestly any mortal who survived more than a year here deserved to be a cultivator.

Here being the beating heart of the Dawn Fortress, center of the Chamber of Administration, under the purview of Stratopedarches Casia Zimisce. Unfortunately for everyone's expectations under a Core Formation Elder with a Dao of Peace, things were not very peaceable, thanks to the upheaval from the formerly-Jingshen Lands still rippling through, the value of Contribution Points and various other currencies and items fluctuating at a moment's notice. The lands the Golden Devils ruled over were vast indeed these days, and just a few small errors could cost millions of people their lives.

He knew that personally, after all.

Which is why after purchasing a box of Fried Celestial Chicken - no he did not hold a grudge, Anastasia, thank you very much - along with some Spirit Wine, he took a few parcels and began distributing them to a few of his coworkers. It literally paid well to have them be fond of you, and he'd had a ridiculously large amount of back pay anyways. Combined with the fact he wasn't getting horribly wounded or risking his life anymore, his expenses had fallen even further. He was working towards a breakthrough and not another Qi Condensation stage, after all.

---

The first thing you need to know about working an office job is that it's stupidly reputationally-based. Which, to be fair, face was in fact one of the key parts of cultivation culture in the Virtuous Flipper Region, since it allowed for a lot le but the level of scrutiny you faced was worse than training in the Legions. There was a culture here, and you couldn't just be militarily professional, oh no, you had to be professional in a certain way, and no one would have the decency to point it out to you so you'd be awfully confused why no one would help you and you'd get all the shit jobs.

The second thing is that you need friends, because there's no way in the ninety-nine hells that you'd be able to figure this out on your own. Hence the reason why Matthaias fetched fried chicken and the wine without anyone asking, because who the fuck cares about healthy food if you work in administration and cultivate. A spirit stone's worth of sustenance even if it didn't directly benefit cultivation was more than nothing—the difference between zero and one is as big as one and infinity, especially if you were a newbie, after all.

The third thing was that behind all the bullshit, the etiquette, the constant need for clear verbal communication because some bald guy says that he literally cannot read what the fuck why are you working here, is that you need to find your niche. Everyone has a talent at something, and in a place as big as the Dawn Fortress, there is undoubtedly some way you can ply your trade outside of standard work—because otherwise there's no way you can get a leg up.

Pfft, getting up on your own bootstraps, in an office job? Are you kidding? Holy shit—

Anyways, that's why Matthaias was sacrificing his precious break hours to meet up with a contact in a farce of a clandestine meeting. Although, when you considered the fact that they were meeting in a place typically reserved for relaxation, perhaps his precious break hours weren't wasted after all.

"You know, we could have met quite literally anywhere and no one would have paid us the slightest attention," Matthaias said with a sigh into the misty air, his eyes closed as he leaned back in the humid, warm, yet rejuvenating atmosphere. If he was more on-the-ball, he'd have gotten a lot more curious on how they managed to run the baths and business when the more… metallic nature of the Golden Devils ran into things. They didn't rust like some myths said, but it could still be annoying on a day to day business. Well, it seemed functional enough, so he refocused on his… "contact."

Across from him, clad just like Matthaias in only a cloth towel around his waist, Auspicious Nine scoffed and dumped more spring water from a nearby pail onto the lit brazier in the middle of the room. "You must truly be slow at grasping just how seriously the bureaucrats of the Dawn Fortress take their competitions or the means they have available to them in pursuing those distractions. I didn't just pick Feng Theros' Warm Baths and Sauna as our meeting place without careful thought on the matter. It needed to be a place where eavesdropping would be impossible but interaction between the two of us wouldn't be out of place. I would say this steam room fits the bill, won't you?"

Matthaias didn't even bother to crack open one eyelid to look in the direction he knew Auspicious Nine was seated despite the veil of steam—Imperator knows after that last ordeal where he met arguably Jin Muyi's second-most visible legacy, sight wasn't exactly the most significant sense for him anymore. "You could have just sent a jade slip or left a message for me. Nobody in the Chamber cares enough about a grunt like me to pay attention to my interactions or correspondence, and I know while relatively trivial in expense to you, every spirit stone matters even in your level of cultivation, almighty Expert."

"Nobody cares about you, yet," Auspicious Nine corrected Matthaias, "After all, you want to change that fact which is why we are having this conversation in the first place. You'd be surprised what a little investigation can pick up once someone has reason to have interest. Better to forestall any openings now than regret carelessness later."

Realizing that he could continue this back-and-forth with the other cultivator for days if possible, Matthaias decided to just move on, innate cheapskate-ness be damned.

"Alright, okay, fine. That's fair. So long as you got my order as requested, I can't really complain" Matthaias opened his eyes now, questioning Auspicious Nine lightly. "You did complete my order as requested, right? Would be kind of awkward to spend what breaktime I've got on nothing, no matter how nice the venue is."

He did have some measure of faith in his one-time student, all things considered, but this was not the first time he'd been buttered up before someone told him that something was wrong—thank you very much again, Anastasia.

Auspicious Nine grunted at Matthaias' suspicion. "What do you take me for? A petty swindler? Of course I have your order ready. The Beguiling Rainbow Pigment is already too closely associated with another official in the Chamber so that was a no go but I made a suitable replacement. Seven-Color Aurora Paint should be a hit with the dye-obsessed paper-pushers in the Chamber and earn you quite a few favors if you trade it wisely. It's some of my finest work if I dare say so."

Very familiar with Auspicious Nine's propensity to wax over long about his alchemical achievements—although to be fair, a lot of up and comers did too in their areas of expertise in their earlier days, Matthaias internally wincing at his behavior in his first century, he hurried along the alchemist. "I'm glad to hear so, but how about the rest of my order? Having supplies to trade is all well and good, but I do require additional tools in my arsenal. I've already gotten as far as I can get with surreptitious curses, but my current targets are too wary and protected and have begun to familiarize themselves with my standard sets. I really don't want to use artillery when I could've just used a spear or two."

"Please, you have nothing to fear now," Auspicious Nine assured Matthaias, "I brewed up a devil's spread of mischief and misfortune potent enough to affect Junior and Expert alike. Every inconvenience and affliction you asked for I provided and some more to boot. Itching powder, laxatives, tongue-twisters, name it and I have it ready for you to pick up with all the other materials in the dead drop."

"Good—that's very good, thank you for the work," Matthaias complimented. He'd gotten better in his pursuits of alchemy, but why spend time on something he was still inadequate on when he could just spend some resources on someone better-acquainted on the necessary subjects? It wasn't like he was really in need in cultivation resources or blackmail these days. "I suppose I'll fulfill my end of the bargain now—I suppose my down payment wasn't sufficient for these resources as I expected."

"Your information about Damocles was very useful in getting to him ahead of the vultures but given what I cooked up for you I am expecting a lot more of that to settle the favor," Auspicious Nine replied.

"I'll leave a packet of potential leads on what you're looking for in the dead drop when I retrieve my order. I don't know what they've been feeding the Aspirants from the last couple of inductees but there are all manner of interesting mutations and physiques among the crop, just what you're interested in." It was honestly pretty interesting what they let him overhear and get into these days, but honestly at this point, it was basically the same deal as his—Nine didn't really want to spend that much time digging through rumors and whatnot, and didn't have the same connections he did despite him being a Foundation-level Expert, the mere century separating the two of them still significant.

"You know," Auspicious Nine said after opening an incense packet and relaxing in the pungent aroma, "For someone who joined the Chamber of Administration because they were irked by bureaucratic failings, you seem very open to underhanded dealings using the position you have access to. I'm not judging, certainly not while I'm benefiting greatly, but it is odd you have to admit."

"As odd as an Expert having to take lessons from a Junior?" Matthaias teased Auspicious Nine lightly, before answering more seriously, "I abhor corruption in the institutions of the Clan—when it costs thousands of lives, I hardly look kindly upon it. However, these actions I'm taking are—let's say, sanctioned, due to it being a lot cheaper than dealing with duels and wounds. Paper-pushers are still soldiers after all, and no matter how byzantine the battlefield people will still get theirs, so I suppose I'm picking up their rules to get what I need out of this. Honestly speaking though, it's not like irritating my targets would really impact the war effort, considering their behavior…"

He shook his head slightly after saying that, memories of slackers and groups that he had to carry in order to hit their quotas. He'd say at least ninety percent of his coworkers were reliable workers, some going above and beyond on the regular, but with an unreliable ten percent, law of large numbers ensured that even that minority would be quite sizable. Quite natural, considering how old the bureaucracy was, but still disheartening to observe—but he came in looking for it, so the fault of his misery laid with him a bit.

"More power to you then my friend," Auspicious Nine said, "Your gain is my profit because I don't imagine that success will keep you from out of the fray if the foes you defeated to take your current position are any instruction."

"It keeps the mind sharp to exercise healthy paranoia," Matthaias said with a smile, "I don't think I've picked I've had this much excitement in a while without the threat of explicit violence."

The two men remained in amiable silence after that for a while before Matthaias broke the quiet. "I will admit that this is an excellent steam room whatever its qualifications for activities in counter-intelligence."

Auspicious Nine chuckled and simply ladled more water into the brazier.

AN: (2270/2=1135 words) Thanks @BlueHelix

 

[BlueHelix]

TURN 14​

Matthaias Outi 11 / Auspicious Nine 22 - Matthaias Outi & Auspicious Nine – Office Politics / Nine-to-Five​

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

Run your own Xianxia faction! Offend old monsters! Raise good seeds! Face heavenly tribulations! And remember, always support your Young Masters, no matter who they offend.

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

It was nice working with @Insane-Not-Crazy again, especially with how busy things have gotten!

 

[Insane-Not-Crazy]

TURN 14, OMAKE 8 [AUSPICIOUS NINE]
Auspicious Nine 23: Fallen Powers of the Virtuous Flipper Region
​

Spoiler: Historic Map of Region

The last three centuries have been a tumultuous time in the geopolitics of the Virtuous Flipper Region. Multiple powers have been diminished, some extinguished entirely while others have swollen fat on the spoils of conquest. The Great Battlefield has lived up to its name, consumed as it has been in over a century of brief engagements of desperate fighting interspersed between long lulls of repositioning and build up for further battles. The Verdant South have recently experienced a taste of the troubles endemic to their neighbors in the north, as they have been ravaged by raids turned invasions to seize permanently the bounty that so characterizes the south of the Green Scale Plains. The Quiet Peaks are no longer so restful, stirred up by internal revolts caused by Blood Path rebellion and now the Hard Shell Mountains have become home to a second major nexus of allied Demonic powers. Long considered the province of the Desert Barbarians by those beyond its borders, the Organ Meat Desert has recently experienced a collapse in a centuries long three-way standoff that has seen a hegemon rise up victorious over the wealth of the sands. In these days of quickly changing boundaries among powers and the deaths of mighty Nascent Soul lords in unprecedented numbers, it would be useful to take a look into the past to see where the foundations of some of these events were laid in antiquity. The histories of those powers still extant is well established so this brief discussion will merely look at some fallen powers of the region, namely, the Screaming Devil Bee Sect, the Three Stabs Sect and the Shanqu Clan.

Before there was the Abyssal Demon Sect or its successor, the Abyssal Devil Bee Sect, there was the Screaming Devil Bee Sect. Much like those who came after it, the Screaming Devil Bee Sect was a Demonic power who practiced the ways of the Blood Path. This sect existed in the time before the rise of the Demonic Soup Chef and its members were great adepts in the Primordial Blood Path. It held much the same territory in the southwest of the Hard Shell Mountains as its latter incarnations but also claimed territory further to the west in the Verdant South in what is now Yu Clan lands. The founder of the Screaming Devil Bee Sect was a powerful Beast Tamer with complementary expertise in Demonic Tunes. In those days when the vitality of the living Third Sea supported vastly more powerful cultivation than presently, Feng of Kun-Lun commanded a mighty hive of skull faced giant bees whose flight struck fear far beyond what are now the borders of the Virtuous Flipper Region, even as far as the Sea Monster Islands. The swarms of predatory bees that filled the skies at her command were as much living instruments in a grand soul-rending orchestra as they were hunting beasts in her thrall. Vast swathes of land were entirely despoiled of life, inhabitants drained of vitality as bees screamed a fell melody in the heavens, harvesting life from flesh as easily as nectar from flowers. Like many other Demonic powers, the end of the Screaming Devil Bee Sect came when an ambitious cultivator later known as the Abyssal Demon cast down his mistress in treachery and took her sect for his own, changing the name to match.

Rogues, thieves, spies and saboteurs, these were the cultivators who called the Three Stabs Sect their home. The sects and clans of the Righteous Path profess to aspire to virtues such as honor, justice and courtesy but this is mere lip service to self-serving interests that makes their relationships resemble a viper's den of politely vicious serpents. Face and propriety are matters of great import to the Righteous powers, now as it was then. To be seen using disreputable and underhanded means to gain advantage earned demerits in relationships with peer powers but greed and avarice are not so easily dissuaded. Here was where the Three Stabs Sect made their coin. They were agents for other powers, doing the work that skirted the strictures of Righteous culture on the behalf of powers who wished to keep their hands clean. As much as they skirted the the norms of what was considered proper for a Righteous power, they merely bent the rules to the utmost limit but never outright broke them. They had a code of honor that was inviolable, a laudable concern for mortal life and a penchant for precise limited violence against their targets. For all that they were never paragons in the eyes of many Righteous powers, their conduct earned them begrudging respect from principals and targets alike. Not all those who suffered loss at the hands of this sect of blackguards were so forgiving. A number of actions against a powerful sword cultivator and his backing saw their territory conquered and their hidden fortress broken apart against the edge of the tyrannical saber. The goodwill the Three Stabs Sect had earned from their honorable roguery brought in other Righteous powers to restrain their attacker from completely extinguishing their vitality. However it did not preserve their territory or most of their strength and they were forced to surrender their lands to what would become the Seven Divine Saber Palace and become roving cultivators. In defeat, they preserved their culture transforming into the Righteous bandits called the Flood Dragons Gang.

The sole clan of the three fallen powers to be discussed, the familial bonds and inherited foundation of the Shanqu Clan failed them utterly in the face of the conquering might of the Golden Devil Clan when the Bronze-Blooded were forced out of the mountains into the desert. They have no remnant save guttered bloodlines of mortals that served forgotten masters. The Shanqu Clan was weakened on the eve of the Golden Devil's exodus, their great lord Shanqu Han defeated when he challenged the Blood Mask in his fading years in an attempt to try for life extending advancement. Vulnerable after his death, they were no match for the fleeing Golden Devils, caught between the invaders and the raiding Battle Blood Cannibal Sect to the south. The Shanqu were a Demonic power who specialized in Geomancy and Beast Cultivation with a sideline in Poison Alchemy due to their favored scorpion companions. Little record remains of their culture save odd mentions of worship of flame spirits called ifrits and the enduring edifice of the Scorpion Road that they created. The Shanqu Clan were traders in name for their control of the most secure transit between the Spirit Stone mines of the Jingshen and the markets of the plains and mountains, but reverted to banditry against those who refused to pay their extortionate tolls on the Scorpion Road.

Fortunes wax and wane among the powers of any land and death sharpens its blade in wait for those influences who falter against opposition. In recent times, the Yu and Chuan Clans have experienced this unfortunate fate as have the Gemstone Justice, and the Thousand Arrows and Flowers Sect. The churning frenzy of these turbulent generations are not yet at end and the threads of other influences are still yet to be spun.

AN: (1225 words)

 

[Insane-Not-Crazy]

TURN 14, OMAKE 7 [LIPITA]
Lipita Delphi 41: Konstantinos Papadopoulos & Lipita Delphi – News from the East​

Economic Analysis of the Future of the Eastern Desert Territories by Apollonius Mercantus, protasekretis of the Chamber of Administration

It has been nearly four decades since the war with the Jingshen Clan was concluded with the results being decisive victory for our Golden Devil Clan. However victory in battle is not victory in conquest - only when the peace has been secured and resources extracted can there truly be victory in conquest. Otherwise, gains from war slip from the imperial grasp like sand in peace, and glory on the battlefield is remembered as a pyrrhic victory in the annals of the Clan.Bucephalus Times this author endeavors to present a brief analysis of the Clan's measures to consolidate its position after the victory by looking at the measures taken to settle newly claimed territories, absorb and revive the economic industry of said territories, transform the preexisting industry of our home territories and establish relations with new vassal powers. As the Bucephalus Times arose to benefit the whole Optimatoi after our previous victory, we hope for many new institutions and industries to arise to benefit the clan after this triumph.

First of all, the most significant action taken by the Clan in the wake of the conquest was the direct assimilation of the captured core Jingshen lands and the southland territory of the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect apportioned to the Jingshen Clan in the Four-Nascent Treaty. The directive by the Optimatoi Kainon to exert direct control over these areas, rather than seed new vassals in them, has given the Clan unchallenged claim to over 50% of the area that is the Organ Meat Desert in the Virtuous Flipper Region. Much of this area is sparsely populated and will require several centuries of growth to settle in full. The successful precedent of the Apoikia program in the wake of the Four-Nascent Treaty has so far provided a sound foundation for the planned settlement of the new territories. In the northeast, the Underworld Devil Fortress built over what had been the heartland of the Jingshen has proved a potent multiplier for settlement efforts, allowing colonists from the home territories to make headway faster and easing the assimilation of those former Jingshen clansmen who took up the Clan's offer of adoption. The southlands lack such a hub for settlement but the relatively greater security afforded by their location has not left settlement there lagging too badly behind.

The next step in the Clan's economic program has been to revive the means of production in the lands undergoing settlement which in this case is Spirit Stone mining. While productive capacity in the new territories is currently much below what it was under the former possessors, the potential economic output remains unharmed and even capable of optimization to heights greater than previously. The swift conclusion of the conquest left much of the necessary mining infrastructure intact and the Clan's policy of immediate takeover of extraction activity even during the active conflict has provided valuable experience with Jingshen technologies and methodology which is only bolstered by the assistance of newly sworn Jingshen adoptees. The increased qi brought by the dawn of the Great Era has produced a small but noticeable uptick in the growth of new Spirit Stone deposits and the replenishment of depleted veins, a gratifying effect that is making even current limited extraction capacity produce more output than would be the case. Likewise audits of prior Jingshen administration has given analysts in the Chamber of Administration confidence that without the endemic corruption and waste that plagued the Jingshen Clan, greater value for equal effort can be extracted from the many Spirit Stone mines now in the Clan's possession.

Turning briefly back towards our home territories, the success of the expansion efforts of the last few decades has seen minor optimization of local Spirit Stone mining efforts, a drastic decrease in revenue from transport tolls and an expansion in foreign trade to the Righteous Path. The Earth Bounty City Spirit Mine had previously contributed about a third of the Clan's regular Spirit Stone income. However at the time, mining efforts were largely unsophisticated and optimization of extracted value was middling. The capture of the Jingshen mining industry has allowed the Clan to improve the output of the Great Open-Cut Spirit Mine and its projected viable lifespan has been extended greatly. The capture of the aforementioned facilities went hand in hand with the loss of the Jingshen Clan as a trading partner. The Scorpion Road trade route which brought in almost as much revenue as the Earth Bounty City Spirit Mine has seen income from tariffs dwindle precipitously. The current tolls paid by existing vassal territories is barely a sixth of previous numbers and even predictions considering the expansion of the road's reach to the new vassal lands do not shift this figure appreciably. There is little prospect of the Scorpion Road being revived to its past prominence, with the focus of the Chamber of Administration now centered on extraction of raw Spirit Stones. The absence of the Jingshen has nonetheless made the Clan the sole supplier of Spirit Stones from the desert, strengthening trade ties with the Righteous powers of the Green Scale Plains, especially the Strength Purity Sect. Demand for Spirit Stones is still high from engagements on the Great Battlefield and the threatened Verdant South so westward trade volumes have grown greatly, beginning from the first haul arranged by the Noble Spirit Lord, Tisamenos the Witness. Trade to the mountain powers of the Quiet Peaks has not seen any appreciable growth though there are recommendations from within the Chamber that the Clan capitalize on the previous trading relationship between the Magic Oak Sect and the Jingshen Clan, replacing the latter power.

Finally, the relationships the Clan has developed with its three newly acquired vassals have interesting portents for the future of the Clan's economy. The Sixty Kingdoms Alliance has the least impact being fairly mundane in its offerings, though the addition of a well-developed economy to the internal trade and tribute networks of the Clan is nothing to scoff at. The Heavenly Bandit Kingdoms on the other hand are an interesting experiment in mixed Clan and vassal control over a territory. Well-watered and fertile, the Heavenly Bandit Kingdoms have drawn coloneia from the Clan as a means to project stronger influence than usual in a territory not directly claimed. The Clan has taken steps to secure the Dreamlike Tower and Beast-Surge Portal, choosing to focus on the lower but surer gains of mundane development rather than the unpredictable profits of investing in Beast Core harvesting from the beast tides linked to the two artifacts. Banditry and raids from the resident robber lords have slowed down this project somewhat but all seems apace for the Clan to entrench itself in the revival of this territory. Certain elements of the Clan have spied great potential in this territory and are ambitiously bypassing the coloneia efforts to plant a flag in the de facto hub of the region that is Seven Temples City. It remains to be seen if House Delphi's ambitions will deliver on the promise that has them looking eastwards. The greatest fulcrum for change undoubtedly has to be the transformation of the Grand Scorpion Sect into the Scorpion Trade Palace. Internal trade between and among vassals and the Clan has already seen a tremendous boost as the great caravan-cities of the Scorpion adherents move freely across the territory of the desert under the Clan's control. Profit brings entanglement and positive interest so it is predicted that internal cohesion and loyalty to the Clan will incrementally but inexorably advance as trade blossoms and expands. Already the first hints of this can be seen in the attendance of the celebration of our latest Elder, Minervina Barda where representatives of all our vassals were observed negotiating mid- to long-term trade agreements. Many reports have been filed within the Chamber of Administration championing for further promotion of such events, in part because of the decent if not spectacular returns from investment in the event but largely as a result of the positive diplomatic opportunities that came up. Reminding our vassals of the nature of the hierarchy in their relationship to the Clan and the benefits to keeping in our good graces was well received after the object lesson of the Clan's might from its phenomenal performance in the Jingshen war.

In conclusion, the last decades have produced a largely positive outcome from the Clan's post-conquest activity. Population growth among mortals and Clan cultivators has been explosive, the opportunities available from settlement in the new territories driving this increase. The internal economy of the Clan has likewise been greatly strengthened and the purchasing power of the Clan estimated to have doubled compared to pre-conquest evaluations from greater value in resource extraction as opposed to tariff collection. Internal stability is secure even with the addition of new vassals and projected to continue on a steady upward trend for the near future. All indications are that the Clan is well prepared to meet any upcoming threats with secure finances and stable internal affairs thanks to the sound thinking of the Optimatoi Kainon and adept execution by the Five Pillars.

***

[START TRANSCRIPT - INTERVIEW 009 UNDER PUBLICITY CONTRACT X56 - HOUSE DELPHI]

Interviewer: Kallista Alandamus, correspondent of the Bucephalus Times in Seven Temples City
Interviewee: Gregorios Delphi, assistant adjunct to the Delphi Family council and chief representative of House Delphi in Seven Temples City.
Date of Interview: Day 100 of 263 E. K.
Location of Interview: Residence of Gregorios in Seven Temples City
List of Acronyms: KA=Kallista Alandamus, GD=Gregorios Delphi

KA: House Delphi has shocked many in the Golden Devil Clan by being the first Old House to announce a full movement to the Heavenly Bandit Kingdoms. What drove this move? From the progress on your compound around us you seem to be in Seven Temples City for good.

GD: Business, miss Alandamus, it is the opportunity for great business that drives all the effort you see around you. The Heavenly Bandit Kingdoms are perfectly placed to serve as a springboard for trade and travel in the east of the desert to those of us from the Golden Devil Clan. To the north, the captured Jingshen lands are just over the border and likewise, the southlands are equally accessible in the opposite direction. East and west, you have the Sixty Kingdoms Alliance and the Scorpion Trade Palace, respectively.

If the Bandit Kingdoms are the gateway to the east, then Seven Temples City is the key to that gateway. The rivers that feed the Spirit Lake stretch all across the Bandit Kingdoms and provide access by waterway to almost anywhere you can go in the territory and from there to the lands beyond its borders. It is no happenstance that Seven Temples City is the de facto hub of the entire region even if it is not recognized officially as the capital city.

KA: Business is all well and good, but many still have concerns about the security of the Eastern Territories, including the Old City of Seven Temples City. You may have allied itself with the Riverlord Sect, but are they not only a minor local influence? Do you have the ability to guide the other local powers to the Good of the Clan or will they seek to undermine all that you build?

GD: The River Pact are certainly influential, but I think those detractors you mention inflate their importance. While they are not partners to our ambitions, they are not noticeably hostile and have little effect on matters beyond the waterways. For our plans of taking advantage of water transit in the Bandit Kingdoms, we will certainly need to treat with them but I have it on good authority that they are amenable to reasonable compensation. As for the Riverlord Sect, they are valuable local partners who bring much insight and access into the workings of the territory.

KA: You mentioned that it is the opportunity for great business that has brought you out here. Are these lands not scarred from Cannibal raiding and Jingshen Corruption? Why does House Delphi think business can prosper out here?

GD: House Delphi has historically concerned itself with beast raising, pill refining and general artifice, and it is those same industries that we seek to grow in these lands. The abundant wildlife of the Bandit Kingdoms presents great opportunity to obtain Beast Cores as well as quite a number of other raw resources from the environment and creatures of the area. Many valuable Spirit Herbs that are not common in Clan territory can be found in the eastern lands and shorter transit will allow for greater potency. In any case, apart from the raw materials that can be extracted the greatest resource available here might just be the untapped markets created by the development initiatives of the Optimatoi Kainon. Already we can see the progress in reclaiming the Jingshen mines, establishing the coloneia and raising up the apoikia. Most importantly, the Scorpion Trade Palace is a neighbor within easy reach and through them the markets of all other vassals the Clan has in the desert. There are cultivator populations to serve here, newly endowed with wealth from our efforts and the absence of the grasping hand of the Jingshen. They need quality in cultivation aids, equipment and armament, and my family has a well deserved reputation for providing such as supply. Older vassals of the Clan have their own needs with the dawn of the Great Era and being able to source varied products for their enterprises is a seller's market.

KA: You describe a very promising future but do you have the resources and manpower to achieve them? Establishing your family so far east must be expensive and while I am aware that you have the support of the Quintia and Rhodessu families among others, your family is still looking for partners in your venture, making appeals to other houses and families to join you. Can you deliver the riches you've been promising?

GD: [Laughs] Miss Alandamus, nothing worth doing is ever without cost. Yes, laying the foundation for our planned expansion into these eastern markets is expensive but the profit potential is secure and vast. The Delphi merely seek to invite influences from the Clan with a similar appreciation of the possibilities to work together for the good of us all.


KA: Well it seems you've got it all in hand out here in Seven Temples. Thank you very much for this opportunity, honoured assistant Gregorios. If your plan works out, I believe that the folks back home will be banging down the doors of Seven Temples to join soon enough!

GD: Thank you too, miss Andalamus.

[STOP TRANSCRIPT]

AN: (2520/2=1260 words) This fine piece of work is a collaboration with @nothingtoseehere

 

[nothingtoseehere]

A report writing/interview collab with @Insane-Not-Crazy for Konstantinos

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

TURN 14, OMAKE 7 [LIPITA] Lipita Delphi 41: Konstantinos Papadopoulos & Lipita Delphi – News from the East Economic Analysis of the Future of the Eastern Desert Territories by Apollonius Mercantus, protasekretis of the Chamber of Administration It has been nearly four decades since the war...

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

 

[Swordomatic]

"Behold, the Virtuous Flipper Region. Perhaps the only tolerable part of this benighted turtle. They should be more appreciative of our efforts and the Tower, these barbaroi."

The Protostrator of the Optimatoi shook his head as he pondered, sighing slightly. His skin shone brightly, purest silver inlaid with veins of teal. Leaning against the parapet, the view that was laid out before them was incredible to behold, vast vistas of fantastical lands under the aegis of the Sea-Conquering Army, with floating islands and flying fortresses dotting the skyline if one thought to look more closely. Yet, his eyes were on something else, another concern in the distance.

But there was always another. Always, always, always another problem. But it was not for her to worry about, not yet. Still in the first Supreme Realm, such matters were not her concern just yet, only gathering strength and developing the strength of will needed to shatter her Core and form a Nascent Soul.

"So speak, interloper. Why come here?"

The Protostrator turned around suddenly, affixing her with his sharp gold eyes. His hair, though midnight, shimmered with a teal hue, an otherworldly aura that had set itself over the superior Cultivator. He carried himself with the powerful control of a born soldier, a shock trooper who lived on the frontlines. At any moment he was ready to spring into action, whether to save or to slaughter. When he turned to look at her, it was with the hard eyes of a killer.

Eyes that immediately softened, when he saw his aide instead. "Ah, Kiera. My apologies, you snuck up on me."

"My apologies, Lord Alexander, for slipping through your senses."

The man, Alexander Theodoros, waved it off and gestured for her to join him. As they looked out from the Obsidian Tower to the rest of the Region, Alexander spoke. "Someday… You will help rule all of this. Their resources will be yours, their swords yours. Through you, the Will of the Imperator will be done."

"Surely you jest, Lord Alexander," Kiera said. "I am but a Soul Seed. There is a great deal more for me to learn before such a time comes."

Alexander chuckled, deep and throaty, amiable in the way old soldiers are. In the way of Old men who have nothing to prove, though his face and body carried the vigour of youth. "All of us were once upon a time, Kiera, even Lord Jovi and Lady Sophitia. It is the nature of our work and our world. We do not hate the weak. We nurture them, bring them up so that they may raise up other weaklings in the future." He said the word with no derision, no spite, simply as a fact. But it was only natural. Alexander Theodoros was the Protostrator for a reason, the Praefect of the Vanguard Houses, and the only Son of Adamant to have lived in thousands upon thousands of years.

"Besides," Alexander continued, though his voice lowered, a shade graver, an once sadder, "You are a rare one, these days. Fewer and fewer of our family are awakening to the Mithril. I know not what the Parakoimomenos is playing at, but I do not like it. Thinning the blood will lead us nowhere good, whatever Curses damnable Heaven casts upon us."

Kiera, seven generations removed from Alexander, great Conqueror of a dozen Regions, furrowed her brow minutely. She considered speaking out, but then she held her tongue. It is not her place to say.

"You seem like you disagree, Kiera. Speak."

The order given, Kiera spoke freely in spite of herself. "There are rumours, Lord, from those who spoke with the few who escaped the First and Second Seas. The Curses sapped their strength, stole their fortune, turned the local auxilia against them. They rotted the foundations of our strength and stole the sea beneath our feet."

Alexander said nothing for a long moment. Then, he sighed. "Faithless fools," the Protostrator of the Optimatoi said. "For men who pride themselves on the strength of their Dao-Hearts, they seem to hold pathetically lightly to their convictions. Trust, Kiera. Trust in the Blood. Trust in your kin. Trust in your Elders. And above all, trust in the Imperator. The storm howls, it always does. But we will weather it." Despite everything, the man smirked, exuding boyish charm. The powerful charisma of a Conqueror. "Faith, Kiera. The Blood of Iron is not so pathetic that it cannot weather a bit of rain."

In the distance, a storm growled. Kiera saw Alexander's eyebrows dip into a frown. Only then did she realise that she was shivering.

It was no simple storm at all, for Alexander's attention turned immediately to it, gold eyes suddenly sharp and commanding, judgemental, empowered with Qi. He rose to his full height immediately, his physique rippling. Even from this great distance, Kiera was suddenly aware of a pressure on her soul, abated by the Obsidian Tower and easily disregarded, but demanding of attention all the same.

Throwing his cloak aside, Alexander kept one hand on the spartha by his side. A powerful relic, a weapon from the earliest days of their arrival. Forged of the Adamant of the last Praefect of the Vanguard. "Kiera. Gather the Vanguard. And send for a runner to Lady Sophitia. She is busied by the culls, but she must know."

Kiera's gaze remained transfixed on the storm in the distance. The rain, spiralling sleet and torrential flood, grumbling with keening sharpness.

"Kiera!"

"A-Aye!" Kiera turned, suddenly found her Elder's face in the fullness of her vision. He was already floating, soon to take flight, ready to challenge the interloper. His presence was oppressive as well, far denser than even the other Legates, his Dao all-encompassing. Kiera found her jaw clattering. "H-How many, Lord?"

"Everyone. This is no mere barbaroi."

Then he was off, a bomb in his wake, a rocket in his passage. Kiera Theodoros watched as Alexander took off. Protostrator of the Optimatoi. Praefect of the Vanguard.

And the last man to ever take the Adamant Blood.

----

In her crib, asleep beneath the moonlight, a child yawned as she dreamed of things that could be. Things that could not. And things that once were.

----

Katha Theodoros 24 - The Little Soldier

Year 266

----

It was not everyday that you were presented with a small child.

She was swaddled in a red cloth, her hands and legs bundled until she was like a small bun in shape. Her large yellow eyes were sharp, constantly darting around, keen but never panicked. As she was held up closer to Katha's face, the little girl sneezed, and while Katha dodged in time the violence of it knocked some of her black hair loose, where it fell loosely over her face.

"Her name is Mia," Rathos said brightly to his sister, beaming with all the joy a new father could express. He brought his little girl close to himself again, hugging her tightly and pressing their faces together. Behind her, the girl's mother, Marlissa, stepped forward with a similarly sunny disposition. "She's a year old! Isn't she cute? You should hold her! She has your eyes, kinda!"

Katha, who was fresh back from a hunting mission where she single-handedly wiped out a Blood Path bandit sect before it could really get off the ground, looked quizzically at her brother for a brief moment before her gaze turned half-lidded. She held up her hands, caked in blood and battered in sand, an eyebrow rising at the same time. "You sure? You really sure?"

"The cloth is red for a reason," Rathos responded, somewhere between mildly offended that his sister wouldn't want to hold her niece and too happy to care. "Come on, just hold her. She's soft, like putty!"

Katha Theodoros, who commanded unreal strength and who was still in the process of mastering it again, decided that she did not need to know that little factoid. Not even a little bit. "I'm sure she is."

"Should we give Katha some time to wash her hands first, dear?" Marlissa piped in. She glanced furtively at her new sister-in-law, and for that Katha was eternally grateful. At least Rathos had the good sense of marrying someone who had good sense - and the political brownie points of being in with a valued scion of the Quintia didn't hurt either. She hasn't had a paperwork snag in years.

"Alright, alright. I'll see you two inside." With a chuckle, Rathos kissed his wife on the forehead, then his daughter, before heading back into the house.

"Thanks, Marlissa," Katha finally said with a long breath, once her brother was out of earshot. The way he was right now, he was not about to listen to reason from anyone else. "You've been doing well. Foundation?"

"Just a few years ago," the violet-haired shieldmaiden said with a nod. "It wasn't easy, but the resources weren't really a problem. It was nothing compared to what your family has faced for generations."

"Psh, nonsense. Tribulation is never a nothing." She sucked on her teeth testily then as she reflected on what Five Element Tribulation was going to entail. "...Some are just more than others. Mm." Katha crossed her arms, right before she realised that she was wearing long sleeves. Now her clothes were stained with sand and blood. Dammit.

Ah, well. Not like they weren't already. "So you're finally moving in?" Katha asked hopefully. Marlissa nodded, to Katha's joy. "Finally! Damn house has been too quiet for too long. I'll show you around the place once I'm done washing up - and I'm sure Rathos told you what happened to me already so I'll explain later as well."

Marlissa chuckled as she carefully brushed her bangs around one ear. "I'm looking forward to it, Katha. Sorry we haven't talked in a while."

"Oh no, that's my fault too. I've just been so busy - you know what the DI Legio is like by now, Aretaphilla Myia just runs us ragged whenever possible--"

Marlissa's smile extended, just a hair. "You can ask, Katha. I won't be mad."

The Iron-Blooded caught herself. She inhaled sharply. "How the fuck did Mia happen? Rathos doesn't have the right equipment right now, and I know for a fact that Mia's way too young to be from before that."

"There are techniques for that, thankfully," Marlissa said with a wistful sigh. "Rather strenuous ritual, however."

Katha blinked. She blinked long, and hard, and shook her head. "Strenuous that way?"

"Strenuous that way," Marlissa nodded.

"...Right! I'm gonna go wash my hands now. See you in a bit."

----

It finally occurred to Katha that her niece was not tan in the slightest.

It was not something that should matter, honestly. Except that for generations upon generations, the scions of House Theodoros have been born with a bronze complexion regardless of their actual talent or reception to the Blood of Bronze. Even she was born that way, despite her sub-par affinity for the Blood of Bronze and general lack of talent.

Mia Theodoros, however, was white-skinned, seemingly destined to become a jadelike beauty. Her complexion was light, much like Katha's was after she awoke the Blood of Iron. And the only other person in the family she knew who was born without dark skin was Saria Theodoros, her estranged aunt.

Who was, amongst other things, one of the Clan's new Silverlords.

It promised a great many things in Mia's future, that was for sure. And so, Katha posed the question to her brother:

"So, are you restricted to girl-babies now?" Her brother nearly choked on his tea then and there, and while he thumped on his chest to get his airways clear she continued. "Am I going to be dad's only hope of ever getting a grandson like he wants-but-refuses-to-admit? Because, gotta say, I don't appreciate that kind of pressure to settle."

Her brother shot her a dirty look, feminine features conspiring to make it seem like he was on the verge of pouting. And frankly, he could probably pull off the look. But that would be his loss and even though they were old enough to literally be parents now, the two of them still bickered and competed in the pettiest of ways. "For your information, the Yin-Yang Union Sutra does not specify. But presumably, if that were at all the case, I'd have heard about it when I bought the scrolls from the Board."

"...So you don't know."

I can and will kick your ass, woman, don't make me do it."

"Clearly," Katha said, as the cheekiest of grins splayed across her face, "You and Marlissa should have another one, just to prove me wrong."

Rathos was standing now, a baby sleeping in his arms and a fire raging in his heart. In the couch seat next to his, Marlissa Theodoros nee Quintia was covering her face with her two hands, unable to face the world. "If it wasn't for the thing about to happen in less than forty years, I'd do it!"

Katha blinked. Ah, right. The Trials. That would be a problem to bring newborn children into. It was risky enough having Mia this early. The three adults in the room would be fine, probably, but children would have real trouble. The Hunters, monsters they were, did not care if the Golden Devils they killed for sport were fighting-fit adults or children barely old enough to speak.

She could do little but think back to her own experience during the Trials almost seventy years ago. They hid in the city with the other children and teenagers, young men and women who were not cultivators yet, and they managed to hide because they were young and their bronze was weak. But what a miserable fucking year that was. Especially when one considers what happened not all that long before then.

If the Trials never happened again tomorrow, it would still be ten thousand years too late.

In Rathos' arms, slimmer than they were but still toned, little Mia mumbled as she stirred in her sleep. Just a little thing, some small baby babble that made her father coo over her like the precious little tot she was, but it reminded Katha that she was hardly going to face a more difficult Trial than most. She was a star talent, a brutally powerful Disciple. In terms of potential foes, she was realistically in the best position to deal with them.

But Mia, she suspected, would awaken to the Blood of Iron by then, if she hadn't already. And she would be… Well, no, she wouldn't be young by any real stretch. When the Fifth Sea came she would be halfway through her thirties, reasonable enough to pick up some tricks to round out her skillset. But she would still struggle, considering just what she was: a massive target.

Tormenos had given her and Rathos the full story on the fall of Nagaeon Theodoros by this point, and she was planning on getting some more details out of the Ninth Prince the next time she ran into him. The Iron-blooded were hunted in a way that a normal Legionnaire was not. Karmic backlash? Notoriety from their ancient past? She had no idea - but she did know that a Pale Devil was going to be very, very noticeable, in a sea of bronze-skinned kinsmen.

So what was Mia going to do? How was she going to survive? As a scion of an old Clan, an up and comer like so many others, she would be taken care of. But there was no one in her bracket that was able to take care of her; her father was all but certain to volunteer for rearguard duties at this point, and she herself was likely to take part in some… particularly ill-advised operations that year.

Her father and mother were both in Foundation, and so was her great-grandfather. They couldn't possibly protect her.

Katha shook her head. Mia mumbled again, sleeping with her mouth open. She was drooling a bit, staining her swaddling cloth. That was still a long time away. Thirty whole years! Plenty of time to pick up a trick or two. Her dear old dad could probably make her an array masterwork or two by then as well. She'll do plenty fine.

With the Trials, at least. She should probably broach the topic with Rathos, at least. "So, uh. About Mia."

"Mm?" Rathos looked over, head slightly tilted as he smiled. "She's cute, isn't she?"

It was a testy question. He wanted her not to bring it up. He wanted her not to drag his firstborn into some stupid nonsense about their family legacy. Katha realised then and there that he noticed the warning signs from day one and was just looking for an excuse not to think about it.

Should she really take away the simple joy of parenthood from him? From Marlissa?

Unfortunately for everyone involved, yes. "I think Mia has the Blood of Iron," she told him, firmly and clinically. No bullshit, no horseplay. The ringing sharpness of her words continued to echo in the room.

Rathos looked at her with a level stare. Then he sighed and handed his child to her mother, a knowing look advising that she go mind their child in a different room.

Marlissa, as dedicated a partner as any other, shook her head. "Dear, I am her mother. I'm not about to be cut off from this part of her heritage, however distasteful."

"...Alright, then." Rathos shook his head. He wrung his fingers, cracking them one by one. "Katha, you're a good sister."

Katha smiled. But there was more, so she waited for it. Several seconds passed and nothing happened, so she gave him a knowing smile and a gesture to get on with it.

Another long suffering sigh. "But fuck you."

"And there it is," Katha said with a knowing smirk. She glanced over at the mildly scandalised wife and shrugged. "Come on, you know how me and him get along. Besides, she's going to learn it sooner or later."

"I don't think that means she should learn it sooner," Marlissa replied. She was glaring at Rathos, but a bit of her maternal ire was focused at Katha. Rathos, for his part, was enduring it perfectly well for a husband. That is to say, he was on the verge of begging for forgiveness. But he hadn't yet, which was pretty good.

"...You know what, that's fair. Sorry." Inhale, exhale. Katha reined in the Iron in her words as she considered what she would say next. "But I do seriously believe that Mia has inherited the Blood of Iron. And judging by Rathos' reaction, I think he does too."

"And I was happily in denial, Katha. Thanks." His hands were up to his temples and massaging them thoroughly. "Why her? Why does it have to be her?"

"...Dude, you know what family you're in, right?"

"But the Blood of Iron has been extinct for generations! Not one, since we were chased from the Mountains! No sign of the Iron has ever reappeared in the Family since the Tagamatarches died!"

Katha held up a finger. "Actually, Nagaeon and mom had the Blood of Iron, too. It just mixed with Bronze, so they just got an ideal fusion of both."

"So why not her?"

Intellectually, Katha understood his worry. Rathos' understanding of the Iron-blooded had only two facets; what remains of history, which describes an army of psychopaths who happily did the dirty, bloody work of the Imperator without question and without hesitation, even if it meant their deaths… Who were also fearless and loyal warriors who were selfless, often to a fault, for the sake of the Clan.

And she is notably not a psychopath who will happily do dirty, bloody work without question and without hesitation. But she is often a fearless, loyal warrior who sacrifices herself selflessly for the sake of the Clan. Up to and including going on campaign while crippled because she didn't want to let the Legion leave without her again.

Even a Legion as eclectic as the DI, which people have been telling her to get out of for a long, long time. Specifically Tormenos, but also people affiliated with him.

Still, Katha protested. "You're saying that like having the Blood of Iron is a bad thing," Katha said, half-jokingly, a hand extended for her brother to walk back his statement.

Rathos Theodoros, instead, gave her a hard look. "Katha, what do you plan on doing in thirty four years?"

"Hunting operations," she replied without hesitation. "Like, dude, I'm one of the strongest Qi Condensers in the Clan. Why wouldn't I try to help as much as I can?"

"Because you're going to fucking die you stupid cow."

Marlissa took special care to cover her child's ears with one hand over one ear and the other lightly pressed into her lap. Because she needed her other hand to chop her husband on the head. "Language!"

"Ow, sorry!"

Katha blinked. "What, that's it?"

"I'm very much a fan of my family members not killing themselves for a nebulous greater good, Katha," Rathos shot back at her. "And forgive me for not wanting my daughter to do that even more than my sister. I can't stop you from doing shit. But I can hope that she doesn't follow your footsteps."

"...Dude." She spread her arms wide. "What do you think this Clan is built on?"

"Way too much goddamn blood sacrifice," Rathos replied frankly. "I am sick and tired of people dying for the Clan. Just once, I want someone not to die for the sake of the Clan. The Clan will be fine! Others will step up! It's one thing to be asked, but it's another thing to volunteer, and we both know that you volunteered!"

"Fuck yeah I volunteered," Katha growled back. Iron bled back into her words, just a shade but it was enough. "I volunteered so people stop dying. Specifically so she doesn't die!" She pointed at the baby girl for emphasis. "What the hell do you think she's going to be doing in thirty four years? Making noodles? Seeing boys? She's going to be a fucking Cultivator, you ding dong. She's going to fight. And I'm offering to teach her because, unless you're not aware, I'm the only Iron-blooded in the entire Clan."

Silence reigned in the keening aftermath of her declaration, and Katha wondered if she had overdone it. The baby had woken up, though ancestors be blessed she did not cry. Instead she looked at her aunt, just as her parents were.

Quietly, Marlissa held up a hand. "A-Actually, I heard that Lady Saria actually awoke an Iron-blooded variant of the Silver Blood, so--"

"She's not an option," brother and sister said simultaneously, their eyes never breaking from the other. "And she's a Core Elder besides," Katha continued, "Not someone who can keep an eye on Mia when it happens."

"You're not fucking doing it either," Rathos pointed out. "You're going to be on hunting duty. You won't be around to keep an eye on her."

"But I can teach her. But before that you need to be ready for the differences in the challenges she's going to pose you, and I can only promise I'll do what I can before I head off to the Yuan Mountains."

Rathos frowned. "I thought you used up your token already."

"I did. This is a different thing, Clan business." As Experts in good standing both were probably in the know already, but that was no good reason to break good opsec. "I'm leaving with the second wave, so I'll have a few years to start teaching Mia the basics. There are key differences in how the Blood of Iron and the Blood of Bronze manifest, and what worked for you will not work for her. She'll still need to go through basic instruction at the Dawn Fortress, same as everyone else. But I can keep an eye on her. The Legatus wants someone to run liaison there for the moment anyways before we post out together."

"More cooking?" Marlissa asked innocuously, as if the Quintia did not do the same thing.

"Sadly yes," Katha replied with a sigh. The only reason she went along with it is because, on aggregate, the benefits were still higher. Damn [Heaven Shaking Song]. "But that means I can keep an eye on her, for the next while at least. And I can do it until the day I post out because we're deploying from the Dawn Fortress for once." She looked at her brother significantly. "But only with your permission. Because your other option is ignoring her heritage while she wonders why she can't fit in with a Formation as well, or why her Cultivation feels like it doesn't fit properly."

After all, that was what she went through. No wonder she struggled so badly with cultivation in the early days, despite the personal attention of a Centurion in the Great Circle. When one was meant for a metal as strong and temperamental as iron, the only thing bronze could be is a stopgap.

The truth, as they say, is difficult to swallow. "...That doesn't sound like a choice at all," Rathos said with narrowed eyes.

"It isn't." Katha allowed some of the weariness to leak through her voice. If it were up to her, Mia wouldn't be Iron-blooded either. "Unfortunately, Mia is going to be the second Iron-blooded Legionnaire born to this family in two hundred years. And I do not want to fail her too. She deserves better."

Katha was talking about Mia, of course. But she was talking about other people as well. Many people, who failed and were in turn failed as well. And Rathos knew damn well who she was talking about, too, even if he never met her.

"...Fine." Rathos sighed. He threw his arms up, then clutched his head again. "Dammit, fine. You're right, of course, and I would have beaten myself into acknowledging it in a decade or two. But fine. Just promise me you'll look after her."

"I'll look after her better than you look after me," Katha said. She looked over at Marlissa, who nodded at her, sold on it from the beginning.

"...Not the words I wanted to hear, but message received." Rathos stewed for a moment, still irritable. "So do you want to hold her now? There's only one correct answer, by the way."

"My hands aren't covered in blood and guts. So yeah, of course."

"I told you the cloth was red for a reason!"

----

"Are all the things the Iron-blooded did really that bad?" Marlissa asked her later, privately. Mia was with her father, being shown the garden. "I mean, Rathos was really angry about the stuff they did, but you seem fine."

"Honestly, I don't think we held a monopoly on atrocity by any means. Our records are just better kept and more forthright than the more sanitised ones in the Archives, because our ancestors seemed to take pride in killing barbaroi." At that, Katha shrugged. "I don't, by the way. But ultimately, Rathos is mad about one thing, and one thing only."

She leaned in closer to her sister-in-law, until their cheeks were almost touching. "Do you hear anything, Marlissa?" Katha asked. "Children? Cooking? Even servants?"

Marlissa shook her head. Even as they recovered, the Theodoros Estate was still short on a good deal of hired help, though the staff was gradually being hired again. More time to mind other affairs. "Rathos resents a quiet home?" Marlissa asked. The gears in her head ground on a little more. "And the reason your home is quiet is…"

Katha nodded. "Like the Myia, our histories are hallmarked by a great many glorious final stands, many of them unnecessary. And I feel it too, sometimes. The feeling that killing my enemy is more important than living to fight another day. It's something I've learned to manage, and I suspect the more sensible Vanguard learned to as well." She grit her teeth and stepped back from Marlissa's side, letting her brush her lilac hair aside again. "I hope Mia will learn self-preservation, too."

Marlissa laughed. She did not notice that Katha did not. Katha was deadly serious as she looked forward, already thinking about the child's earliest lessons.

----

Year 269

Mia was four, and she wanted to go home.

It started when daddy and mommy brought her here in a big carriage. It was scary at first, because there were lots and lots of people, more than Mia had ever seen in her entire life. There were tall people, short people, people who looked like grandpa, people who looked like raisins too, wearing all kinds of clothes and shoes with all kinds of colours. But it was fun, too, because Mommy got her one of those powdery ball things too, which was really sweet and tasty!

But then they left the place with lots of people - the… the city, daddy called it - and then they got to a different place, with really tall walls and people in armour. Mia thought they were statues at first, until daddy told her it was rude to stare. She didn't know people could stand still for so long like that! At home, everyone was always moving around, always playing with Mia.

Then they got through the walls, and Mia saw the tallest building she had ever seen in her life, taller than even the ci… cita… the city was! It was really tall, and really shiny, and it was so cool! Mia saw other kids, too, kids her age! But they were all brown, and bigger, and Mia was white and small. She didn't know anyone like her, and she was suddenly scared.

Then daddy and mommy told her that she would be staying there, because they had important things to do, so she had to stay with the… with the other kids.

Mia didn't cry. She didn't! But she was sad that daddy and mommy had to leave her alone. But they were sad too, she knew, so she tried to be brave and be a good girl. She tried, she really did! But then everything went wrong.

The teachers were nice, and they praised her when she got answers right in class. But the other kids wouldn't talk to her, because she was different. They kept calling her names like 'princess' and wouldn't fight with her, even when they were supposed to! The one time she got a sparring partner, this taller boy with dark skin and golden hair and eyes, he went down in one hit! He was so weak! After that, no one wanted to fight her, and then she had to wait on the side during class.

No one would sit with her, too, when it was time to eat or to read by yourself. She had to do chores by herself, too. Just small chores, because she was too small to carry brooms or hold more than one bucket. The old lady at the library, Miss Hanse, had her carry things around for her, but she was the only one there helping her. And a lot of the books were really dusty too, but it was okay because it wasn't as dusty at the one at home.

It was two weeks of this already, and she hated it! She had no friends, and daddy and mommy weren't here! She wanted to go home!

As she sulked behind the library desk, reading a book and colouring the gaps, she heard Miss Hanse stand up. She continued colouring the book, her extra crayons gently held in her mouth. "Good morning, Principales Theodoros. I'm sorry, but we haven't found anything new with regards to the Vanguard yet."

"It's fine," Auntie Katha's voice suddenly said, and Mia perked up, letting the crayons fall out of her mouth. "I'm here to look for Mia, I heard she was here helping you?"

Mia clambered quickly onto her chair, holding her hands up above her head. "Auntie Katha! You're here!"

Her aunt was big and strong, and she was white like her. She was really strong, and taught her a lot of things, like how to punch or how to read flowers! And the way she did things was better than what they taught here, which made the other kids mad because they were doing things wrong and didn't want to admit it. Auntie Katha could teach them the right way! Auntie Katha smiled when she saw Mia and picked her up by the arms, which made the little girl cry out with laughter.

"There you are, you little peanut," her aunt teased, and Mia giggled. "Thanks for looking after her, Hanse. Mind if I borrow her for the rest of the day?"

"Go ahead," Miss Hanse said, smiling as well. Her face was wrinkled too, like a raisin, but she was nice so Mia didn't really notice until right now. "Mia's worked hard these two weeks, I think I can handle the library on my own for the rest of today."

Auntie Katha nodded, then set Mia down on top of the table, which Mia knows that Miss Hanse hates. She wanted to say so, but then her auntie spoke first. "Alright, kiddo, do you want something sweet or something tasty?"

At that, Mia's eyes lit up. "Tasty! 'm hungry!" She tilted her head. "What's tasty here?"

----

The meat on a stick - the… kebab? Auntie Katha called it a kebab - was hot, and Mia regretted biting into it so quickly. She let it roll out of her mouth, letting her tongue hang while she held onto the meat with one hand. Her auntie saw it and took it from her with a napkin, while wiping her mouth with the other. "Muuuh! I can take care of myself!"

"You're holding meat in your hand and your mouth is dirty. It's too hot isn't it?" Gently, her auntie took the kebab from her hands and gently blew on it for her. When Mia took it back and bit into it, it was pleasantly warm - and extremely good. "There, not bad isn't it? Kleisthan makes a good kebab."

"Mmhm!" Mia tried to say so, but mommy always said not to talk with food in your mouth, so she just nodded and kept eating. Within minutes the meat was in her tummy and the stick was sticky with meat juice, which Mia made sure to lick clean. "Thank you, Auntie Katha! Thank you, thank you!"

"You're very welcome, Mia," Katha said with a pleasant chuckle. She placed her hand on Mia's head but did not tussle it, which Mia appreciated. "Have you been a brave girl?"

"Mmhm! I didn't cry, not once! Not even when all the other kids won't talk to me?"

Katha blinked. Then, she nodded, an 'ah' on her lips. "Right, even the youngest class is normally something like seven or eight years old… But why won't they talk to you?"

Mia shrugged. It still hurt, but now that her auntie was here everything was okay. "Because they're wrong and dumb and call me princess just because I like reading and can fight good. I beat one up in sparring class once and then they stopped talking to me."

"I can't believe eight year olds are doing this shit to a toddler half their age. Wait, Mia, did you say you beat one of them in a fight?"

"Uh huh!" Mia said. Suddenly, she was worried her auntie wouldn't believe her, like all the other adults didn't. "Really! I did!"

"Huh." Her auntie pinched her chin and looked off into the distance, up at the big tower of the Dawn Fortress, then looked back at her. "You know, I'm not surprised. You're really strong for someone your age."

Mia beamed. Auntie Katha believed her, she really was the best!

"But! You should have apologised to them. Even if it's part of class, you can't just beat everyone up like that. You need to be kind."

Mia frowned. "But… But I won, fair and square."

"Yes, you did. So all the more you need to be kind to the one who lost. Do you think they feel good about losing, Mia?"

"...No…" Mia looked down, balling her hands into fists on her lap. "...And I guess they wouldn't like me telling them they're doing things wrong, too…"

Auntie Katha blinked again. "Mia, what are they doing wrong?"

"Everything! They're breathing wrong, standing wrong, holding their hands wrong! I tell them that but they won't listen! They don't believe me when I say you do it that way, too!"

Auntie Katha nodded. Then, she held Mia's hands gently. "Maybe they're wrong and you're right. But everyone's different, Mia. Everyone does things differently. You're a very special girl and a very lucky one, so you can do things no one else can. But that doesn't mean they're doing things wrongly. And it doesn't mean they feel good about being told that."

Mia looked up at her auntie with big confused eyes. "But… What if they're wrong? Why can't I help them?"

Katha pursed her lips. "Well," she said slowly, "If you really want to help them, you need to tell them these things in a kinder fashion. First thing's first though, you should probably say sorry to the boy you beat. Is that okay?"

Mia nodded, though she was still confused. Why wouldn't people want to do things correctly? "Okay…"

"...Seriously though, you're four. I can't believe you were allowed to fight in the first place. Mia, who's your teacher?"

"Legionnaire Hua. B-But she's really nice, though," Mia added quickly. "Please don't get mad at her."

"I'll think about it," Auntie Katha said, in her tone she uses when she is mad at someone. Then she looked at Mia and softened slightly. She picked Mia off the bench, then placed her gently on the ground. "Why don't you show me what they taught you in school so far, Mia?"

"Oh, okay!"

And so she did, talking her auntie's ear off while they continued walking, earlier troubles forgotten.

----

"She's fucking four," Katha said, her mood on the edge between irate and furious. In front of her, Legionnaire Jiaqi Hua stood at parade rest, astutely receiving a dressing-down from a rising star of the Clan. "You let a four year old join in on combat practice for kids almost twice her age. Should I even ask you what you were thinking? Because it seems like you weren't."

Jiaqi held her tongue, watching the Principales carefully for a continuing tirade, her copper eyes trembling slightly. Space offered, she spoke. "Ma'am, I took note of her heritage and her excellent test scores and decided to take a chance with her."

"You took a chance that a four year old wouldn't get hurt by kids old enough to know strength but young enough to forget respect."

"Yes, ma'am. She's impressive, and she wanted a chance. I thought I would give her one." For a moment, Jiaqi remained silent. Then, she continued. "If I made a mistake, ma'am, then I apologise."

"You do realise she's getting bullied by her classmates, right?"

Jiaqi stiffened, and Katha quashed the urge to snap sharply at her. The rumour was that the ones who taught at the creche in the Dawn Fortress were often bottom rung Legionnaires, people who couldn't be trusted with actual responsibility. Katha knew this wasn't always the case, but her formative experiences there had made her bitter and this clusterfuck was only confirming that bias. "I was not aware, ma'am."

"No one's talking to her and no one wants to be her friend. Do you realise how fucked up that is? Far from home, without her parents, and she doesn't even have anyone to talk to." To some extent, Katha sympathised. The Legionnaire had a great many responsibilities, and was herself new to the position. She was no experienced instructor who knew a dozen warning signs. She was just trying her best. But this was still a terrible way to handle the situation.

Katha sighed. "Look. I understand Mia can be a handful. We started teaching her stuff early, so she's going to be somewhat ahead of the curve. But you have an opportunity here, Legionnaire, to encourage the rest of your class. If you're feeling overwhelmed, I'm available to help out."

"Ma'am? Don't you have responsibilities with the DI Legio?"

"My Legatus has me running liaison with the Department of Diplomacy in preparation for an operation, but there's not much to do between now and when we set off," Katha replied nonchalantly. "We'll be heading off partway through 270, but between now and then I can help you get a handle on her. Alright?"

Jiaqi nodded. It was a lucky break for her. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Please don't fuck up with my niece," Katha said with a strained, frightful smile. "She's got centurions for parents and both are especially protective."

----

----

Year 271

"Legionnaire Hua," growled Marlissa Quintia, her modest height irrelevant in the face of her all-encompassing maternal fury. Somehow, the bloodsoaked gladius in her hand was the least frightening part of her visage. "Tell me I misheard. What did you say happened to Mia?"

Jiaqi Hua gulped. Her hands were fully trembling now. The barely-restrained rage of a mother scorned was nothing to be trifled with. "S-She's… She's gone missing, Centurion."

It would be three weeks before they finished clearing the rubble from the ruin that became that wing of the academy.

[Total Wordcount: 7188 Words]

 

[CuriousRaptor]

Ajax Tripedes in Mountain Bell Expedition Part 5 - Climb the Summit

Finding his way through the shattered remains of the Mercury Falls mine was a lot more difficult than Ajax remembered. Not because he was attacked, frankly in the aftermath of the battle there was little enough that was moving. At least not where he could sense it. Even Shellrats, damnable ubiquitous nuisances that they were, were wholly absent. Guess he's the only thing around stupid or brave enough to moving around now. That was good, if the surviving Foundation Building serpents started to move, they'd be a very real threat to him. That was why he was returning to the main shaft of the mine as directly as possible, trying to find work arounds for when tunnels collapsed. Speed was of the essence, and only for the fact he had spent the entirety of the cache entrusted to him by the clan wearing down his hunters. That didn't seem quite right to him, but them again he was burning through them rather precipitously. Hopefully his escape and salvage of the aftermath of the battle would be enough to keep him in the clan's good graces, despite his failure.

Still to get out he'd have to make it to the main shaft, which was no easy feat. Tunnels and caverns had collapsed, destinations of bodies of water had been rerouted, and some of the pools of Fulminating Mercury were in the process of draining out, wreaking havoc on anything and everything unfortunate enough to be in the way, as the poisonous liquid metal discharged its current haphazardly. Still with almost everything still hiding from the combat Ajax could make his way to the main shaft, even if the path he had to take was one he did not access often. It was far too close to where the previous master of this mine slept, and he did not wish to eb close should it have awoken. Still, he could not sense the beast any longer, and after such a cataclysmic fight, he doubted it wouldn't have returned home to sleep off its wounds had it emerged victorious. Thus, did Ajax go downwards in order to climb his way back up to the surface.

Down he went, past burbling swamps of metal, past river of lightning carving new paths in the deep darkness of the mine, past the lairs of beast that would give even Foundation establishment cultivators pause, down past all that and more. Ever downwards to where the Cloud Slithering hell serpent had once slept. Once there he saw nothing, for there was nothing his near mortal eyes could actually see. The darkness of the massive cavern was impenetrable to his eyes, and so he moved in darkness. It was not, however, impenetrable to his ears, nor to his burgeoning spiritual sense created as an alloy of them and his own innate qi. Thus, he sensed something in the cavern, immense so long it faded into the obscurity of darkness where he could not hear. At first, he thought it was another mineral formation, perhaps some form of concentrated semi-solidified Mercury, but that was not it. Only when he came closer to examine it did he figure out what it was, not from his ears, but from his nose. The pungent stench of blood came to him. The massive spires in the formation? They were not rocks, but ribs jutting out of the body when it was unceremoniously cast down. The flesh unguarded as the corpse, large enough for Ajax to have run along it for hours from the tip of the tail to the ragged hole where its head would have been. Because this was the corpse of the Cloud Slithering Hell Serpent, degloved of almost all its skin and cast back down into the hole from whence it came for some arcane reason beyond Ajax's thoughts.

The realization sent Ajax's thoughts reeling. Why would someone kill this beast and not harvest its corpse for everything it was worth? This was by any objective metric a massively important and useful resource, something people would and had killed over before. This was wasteful on a level Ajax could not understand. By the same token though, the laxity and stupidity of whoever did this was something Ajax would HAPPILY make use of, some of the very visible bones alone would be highly useful to the clan, and likely make up for his utter failure in his task. If he got some of the secondary or tertiary venom sacs that'd be even better, though he had some rather severe doubts at his ability to safely harvest them given the serpent's state and his own relative weakness compared to even its corpse. It was with these thoughts that he started cutting into the cadaver, albeit with great effort and care.

---------Later------
What Ajax harvested from the deceased serpent was beyond what he could have dreamed. Even using the remaining spirit stones to create a spatial compression and gravitic reduction array with time expansion corollary had left him only able to harvest a fraction of the usable material and resources of the deceased serpent. Yet what was left was something he could scarcely believe. Of course, anything from the head or skin was written off nearly immediately, what little skin was left was barely enough to make something to carry the rest of the materials from, and the head was wholly missing, likely taken be the snake's slayer for the same reason as its skin. Thus, what was left were mostly bones and organs. The bones were both too hard and too massive form him to break off and spirit away with easily. Thankfully a great many of the bones came pre-broken, and all he needed to do was find the broken bones shards or weakened bones and break them off in order to harvest some small measure of them. Obviously taking the entire skeleton was out of the question, even if his means were not so meagre. It would simply be too heavy for him to carry it all, and a so only a fraction of a fraction could be picked up.

Bones were not the only thing taht could be gleaned from the corpse though. Organs, those hunks of specially designed flesh that kept the serpent alive were also on offer, albeit in far worse shape than the bones. Obviously, something that did so much damage to the bones would deal similar damage to the organs. Still even discount the secondary and tertiary venom glands, pulped muscles (of which the snake carcass had MANY) and other ruptured or otherwise ruined internal organs, there was still a substantial haul. More than he could carry a thousand times over on his best day, much less after being bedraggled and depleted like he had been after this misadventure. Obviusly he'd need to prioritize the higher value organs, especially those with easy access via the degloving of the snake. A intact lobe of the primary liver, one of nine lungs that wasn't too badly mauled by whatever killed this thing, Three nodules that would have connected to what amounted to the snake's meridians, even the quaternary heart of the beast, which was damn near pristine. Infact right next to that redundant organ did Ajax find the greatest prize a spirit beast's core could and would ever yield. It's Core. Beast cores were without any doubt the absolutely most valuable part of a spirit beast, without exception. They could be used for Cultivation, in fact several major powers did so in part of in full, using the cores similarly to spirit stones, albeit with the caveat that the cores were held by beast being the sum total of their cultivation, instead of the condensed solidified blood of a deceased world turtle.

They fact that this was left behind lead Ajax to only one conclusion, that the slayer of the serpent had to be of the blood path, who had no or at least little use for the small fit-sized silverine orb he had found. That was bad. If they had thoughts to come back, he'd be more royally screwed that old Jingshen's harem was after he bit it. He had already gotten a good haul, and despite the relatively small haul he had, he should probably get moving before they came back or the Foundation level serpents got brave enough to check the corpse. He didn't hear them coming, but they were probably trying to enforce their turf right now. If they started chasing him up the shaft he'd be in trouble. Best to start climbing now. Besides the pack he was going to be carrying always felt lighter before a climb than after....

-----Later------

Pulling himself up onto an outcropping Ajax stopped to rest. He hated being right sometimes, that pack WAS feeling heavier now, not that is actually was, he'd checked, double checked and then when he stowed the core triple checked the arrays in the case to make SURE they'd last long enough to get his carried loot back to the forward base. Then he redid them to last longer in case something went totally sideways like what caused him to be stuck in the mine in the first place. Because it'd be his luck that it happens again.

Speaking of luck, he heard down below him the sibilant hissing of many serpents. They had finally gotten brave enough to come out and found the free meal of their progenitor awaiting them. He could hear them fighting over it AND tearing into it with abandon as well. Hopefully the free meal would keep them from trying to follow him going upwards, because in a situation like this? He'd get overwhelmed easily. His ability to maneuver here was lackluster at best, and frankly he had serious doubts about escaping a foundation serpent on. Feeling a lot less tired suddenly, he shouldered his pack once again and started his ascent once more.

----Even Later----

Ajax adjust his handholds slightly before leaping upwards from his position, grabbing a new set and continuing upwards. This was so much faster going the other way. Even his sleep deprived memories told him that. How fucking long was this mineshaft actually? How deep did the people mine? This was getting ridiculous, even he was getting tired climbing like this, and he wasn't even expending his qi! If he hadn't spent the entirety of the remains of the spirit stone cache he'd be digging into them just to keep going at this rate.

Finding another outcropping, he pulled himself up and breathed deeply, even as his shoulders ached from carrying the pack, and his hands ached from digging into the earth for hand holds. He was thankful that he didn't hear the serpent down below anymore, even with his enhanced hearing. Hopefully they were all down there killing each other or eating the carcass and would leave him alone. Taking another swig of his waterskin he nodded off to sleep, dreaming of his imminent escape from the incongruously long mineshaft.

---- So Much Later that the Writer Himself had to Take a Break and Come Back----

Ajax had had to stop and rest five times before he got to the top. FIVE times! That was insane! This mine was staffed by middle condensation cultivators at its height, and they still went this far down? What the heavens were the thinking? What sort of idiocy convince them digging so far down was a good idea, and from only a single central shaft? No wonder the Cloud Slithering Hell serpent took this place over, it was managed by idiots! A mine this big had to have some redundancy! You don't just a pit straight down and pray!

Ignoring the stupidity of Barbarian mining methods, soon Ajax would reach the top and then finally be free of this place. Grasping the ledge Ajax's heart leapt with joy the anticipation of being able to actually see again! To be able to feel the breeze on his skin. To smell something other than the acrid stench of lightning cooked things or the smell of mildew or serpent's blood! All he had to do was get out through the entra--

Oh. Well, that's not good. The entrance was closed, either by the battle or by the victor deliberately afterwards. It wasn't just closed though, the entire entrance was covered in rubble, most of it being taller and wider than Ajax was. There was no way he'd be able to move these things, even with the lever they were too packed in to make shifting one feasible, the rest would just collapse to fill back in. So he was stuck here until someone opened the way or until the beast ate him...unless. Maybe he could remove the spirit stones from his array, they hadn't been used much so maybe they were still were in good enough shape to cultivate!

Shucking his pack off his back he opened his array case, only to find disappointment. The stones were already starting to dim. They'd hold for the array for quite some time but removing them from the array would net him nearly nothing in terms of cultivation as they had already started degenerating. A fist hit the stone. "Imperator's raining shits, I was SO damn close!" Ajax screamed in frustration. He had gotten so far, survived the ambush, getting ensorcelled by that one woman, getting chased down and his fall from the mine's entrance only to be stuck because some overpowered Elder asshole decided to shut the mine after a fight! Damn it ALL!

Recovering from his outburst, and throbbing fist, a gleam of silvery light hit Ajax's eye. The Serpent's Beast Core. It still held Qi, and a lot of it. A core from a core level beast would have an immense amount of qi in it, and if the Clan's cultivation technique was more suited to spirit stones, there couldn't be all that much difference between the two, could there? After all both were from dead beasts, the difference was simply the scope, with the turtle child being so much more immense and powerful taht even its blood could be used to fuel cultivation instead of the core itself. regardless, no matter how different they were, this was his only realistic hope for getting out and not getting eaten when whichever Blood path Core came back for the rest of the Serpent's body. With that in mind, Ajax took the silvery beast core out of his array case, before moving it a fair ways away, just in case the emanation could cause issue in close proximity. He sat in a cross-legged position, placing the core in his lap, and he started to Breathe.

It had been a long time since he had been able to truly cultivate, but the process to Breathe was drilled into him even more strongly than the Hoplite formation or anything else taught to him by the Golden Devils. In comes the air and the Qi to the blood and the flesh and the marrow, out goes the impurity and the weakness. Yet this was not enough to prepare him for the enormity of the endeavor he was attempting in his ignorant desperation.

The Agony started almost immediately as a tidal wave of energy crashed into him, a surge of qi came in nearly blowing out his entire qi network and killing him in the first breath, as even more qi washed past him harmlessly, his breath too different and meager to catch all but a fraction of it. Still he adjusts his Breath even more, making it even more shallow to slow, but not stop, the influx of qi into his system. Stopping now would be the end of him, attempting to create a damn in front of a raging flood.

Breath came in, and with-it pain, not just the pain of cultivation, but something deeper, points inside his body running through him with electric jolts of liquid agony on top of the normal burning of qi being absorbed into his system. Another breath, another tide of qi larger than his cultivation base, more pain as the agony in those points intensified, as though being put under a pressure. A short release of breath followed by a longer shallowing breath in, yet another avalanche of qi introduced into his system, pressing the points even more, to the point they felt like they would shatter wholly, and him with them. Again, and again and again once more did he Breathe and so too did the agony melt, until suddenly something gave way and the pressure oh so slight subsided, yet he could not stop and marvel at the slight relief, the energy he was even now extracting from the core would consume him if he did not consume it first.

Breathe.

Pain.

Breathe.

Pain.

Breathe.

Ajax concentrated on his breathing and that alone, pain was an illusion, even as his acupoints were forcefully expanded by the raw power of the Core funneling into them at a terrifying and certainly fatal rate for one without the blood, it never wavered. Even as Meridians formed spun whole cloth out of raw qi in tempest of raw horrible sensation akin to new limbs punching out of his body with force did his breathing stay consistent and regular, a firm grasp to keep the energy from running wild and obliterating everything. Even as his Dantian the heart of his cultivation where pillars would eventually form was forced open wider than ever before to the point he felt as if he was being eviscerated with a hook, did his Breath stay the same, enforcing order onto the chaos, enduring the waves that would tear all asunder. Yet that was merely the beginning for Dantian expansion had not even burned half of the energy contained within the beast core, energy that raged to escape its confines now after constant agitation.

His Dantian was stretched full to bursting, there was quite literally nowhere for the energy to go, his qi network was full. Even still did Ajax Breathe, panic was something he was simply too far along to even consider. He would either survive this as he had done every other tribulation Heaven had seen fit to drop on him, or he would perish. Anything else was ancillary. Bones adjusted themselves as scars from past battles were erased like so much flotsam on a wave, muscles forcibly reknitted and strengthened, organs were purged of impurities and poisons long accrued from simply living in this hellish world. Body hair was scorched away even as his skin took on more and more of a brazen hue. Yet even the complete remaking of his body, and eradication of flaws was not enough, for the core was only half spent, yet more energy had to be taken in, had to be survived.

The Qi started work in his Dantian, which while feeling gravid and overfull while burning, soon took on a whole new level of suffering. He was burning alive from the inside out, combusting from the heat inside him. He was freezing, his body's ability to Breathe constrained by ice and frozen blood. He was petrifying, turning to stone, unable to move much less Breathe. He was rotting from the inside out, his body collapsing under his own weight, crushing his lungs.

He was being electrocuted, his entire body spasming as electricity that was not electricity set off every nerve in his body all at once. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to run freely forever with his unlimited energy. He did none of these. He stood still and focused on his Breath, for even as far gone as we was, he felt that the worst was yet to come.

He was correct, Thwooooooooom, went something deep deep inside Ajax. His soul was under siege, feeling the uncaring ministrations of the qi from the beast core. So unexpected was this that Ajax skipped a breath, just one, but with that he nearly spelt his ruin, Qi once moving through enforced orderly breaths suddenly ran rampant with no guiding force, he felt his body cultivation starting to snarl, and even though by this point he had consumed most of the qi in the core, such was the force behind what was left his body was already startign to be set alight.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Even though your body burns, Breathe. Even while your cultivation snarls and snaggs and runs wild, Breathe. Even thougt your head aches, your heart falters, and your soul shakes to the point of breaking, BREATHE.

Ajax opened his eyes through caked blood and blackened impurities for the first time in a seeming eternity. The core in front of him crumbling now that the qi inside had been released. He hurt. His body ached, his Dantian felt like a hose had been left running into it too long, and something deep within in felt wholly and utterly changed in a way he could not describe but was unsure that he liked. But it was over. Seeing that, he promptly passed out.

-----Later----

Ajax had awoken to find himself in a sorry state. Covered in dried blood, both his own and that of the serpent whose core he had consumed, with interspersions of Impurity just absolutely make it miserable and awful smelling. Despite his clothes being ruined, the fact he looked like he came from a charnel house and that he felt like he could devour one of the loner mortal serpents whole, he actually felt... pretty great. His body felt like all the kinks and dings he'd accumulated were just gone, and he felt his own Dantian, which was absolutely filled with qi. He actually wasn't sure how much, but he HAD to be stronger than he was before he went through that miniature hell.

Kipping up to his feet, he searched about to his array pack, sending out a pulse with his sensory technique, and got back far far more information from it than he should have. Too much, he was overwhelmed by his own insight, and fell, only to catch himself at the last second. Pushing himself off the form the floor, he put too much oomph into it, and ending up smacking into the cavern's low ceilings. Ooof. So that's why cultivators had to "fortify their gains" after a breakthrough huh? He could feel why that was so important now. He could also hear his qi pulse that was the cornerstone of his technique agitate the serpents far below. They sensed what he had done accidentally and were not fans. At all. Time to get out.

Walking up oh so carefully to the ruined entrance so as to not send himself flying into it face first, because he really did not want nor need a broken nose from walking into it too quickly, he started to examine it in closer detail with much much MUCH lighter pulses of qi. No need to risk information overload, or agitate the serpents below any more than he already had. All he needed to do was find a narrow point, and with the careful application of force, widen it enough to slip past. There it was! It was about three times as thick across as he was wide, but even if the serpents he had inadvertently agitated started climbing up, he had a great deal of time before they'd be an issue. Time to Start by softening up using Earth Shaking Blow. Even as he set his stance, he began drawing qi from his dantian, forming it into the pattern the technique required, pushing a requisite amount of his reserves into the technique was easy, and he barely felt diminished now. Why not go farther then? Twice the nominal amount, three times, four. It was at five times that Ajax stopped, not because he was terribly winded, but because he fear going further might harm him. The technique had diminishing returns the more qi you pumped in needlessly, but even with that in mind too much force could cause him to punch too hard and hurt himself, or for the technique to misfire, which would be... bad. No explosions of the body please.

With the technique formed, in his mind and his body in the position to strike, he let it loose. A torrent of qi and force shot forward with his fists, meeting an unforgiving stone wall. The wall, much to Ajax's surprise did not simply dent, or have a layer shatter under the force for easy removal. The wall, entirely, blew outwards in a thunderous report and a spray of rubble. On the face of such, Ajax accomplishing this would be a joyous occasion. were it not for the rocks over it starting to fall as soon as the force that moved their fellows had expended itself. In short, Ajax has accidentally created a small avalanche. "Shit!" was the only word he uttered upon realizing what had happened and that he had a limited window to actually make good his escape. Quickly, he channeled his Qi for Sure stride of the Colossus, and found quite suddenly he now had a mouthful of dirt as he was face first onto the floor.

Panicking, he pushed himself upwards in an attempt to get his footing before the rocks filled in the gap, only to be sent hurtling into the sky, before coming back down and landing onto the dirt with an earthshaking and breath stealing thud. Riiiiiiiiiight. He was stronger now. A lot stronger. That affect his movement technique too, because that was much further and faster than it was before. He was just going to lay her for a bit, catch his breath and revel in there being actual sunlight for once. He'd return to the forward base...later. Once he caught his breath, enjoyed being in the sun despite being covered in snake gore, and once he learned how not to accidentally break everything using his newfound strength.

-------- Many Weeks Later--------

Ajax was strolling through the forest, appreciating all the various greenery he saw in the dawn's light. Being able to actually see and not having to rely on qi sense and his ears all the time was so wonderful. Of course, Ajax still used them, but being able to use his eyes properly, something that all humans so heavily relied on for most of their lives, baring the aberrant cultivation technique, helped set him at ease. it really was quite picturesque, and he really hadn't had the chance to properly admire it before he got chased down. So much water that it fills even the air itself, making the heat wrap around him like a particularly scratchy blanket. So much life, so much vigor, qi, water, minerals, a wealth of everything that the desert simply lacked at the best of times despite the best efforts of the Clan. Yet, long ago, the Clan had all this and more, until heaven, never content to let things be, kicked them out of the plains, then the mountains, all the way into the desert. If Ajax ever reached the heights of power, he'd want to make a place like this, simple, serene, just a place that's nice to be in. all too often cultivators make works of monstrosity, putting something good back into the world would be nice.

Ajax was broken from his thoughts on the nature of the world by the sounds of conflict. Frowning he started expanding the passive effects of Bat's Unerring Ear into actively sensing things, and what he found did not make him a happy legionnaire. A man, who by the sounds coming from his body was bronzed, was wounded heavily an arrow in his ankle, with a group of cultivators around him. one and all they had Blood Qi aspected to them, even with his still poor mastery of technique he could tell that much. A fellow legionnaire was in danger, and he was in a good spot to try and help. All he'd need to do is get some space and they should be able to escape.

So, Ajax crept closer, it was remarkably easy to do all told, none of the enemy were paying attention. Sure, one or two of them were twitchy and keeping watch, but not in his general direction, at least not for long. They were tormenting their prey like a bunch of rabid fucking wolves. It set Ajax's blood alight, but he surely wasn't going to be able to take them all alone. Still, he was close enough for a straight shot at the presumptive leader. Here goes...

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

Markos Yan gritted his teeth in pain as the bastard leader of the blood path brigands who had managed to chase him down was fiddling around with the arrow that had hobbled him. He could have beaten any of these reprobates easily if they were alone, but even though he was in the 7th heavenstage, they had enough numbers to bring him down, albeit he took some treasures from them doing so. Frankly he jsut wanted them to get on with it at this point.

"Just get on with it, you poncey fuck."

The leader of these inbred Barbarian swine chuckled, "Nah nah, you're not going to be so lucky you Golden Devil. We're going to cut your up and bleed you nice and slow. The agony makes the flavor so much better, you see?" The gigantic flaming blood path asshole asked rhetorically while still kicking his arrow pierced ankle. Prick. "This is going to take a long looooooooooooooong ti-" The man was cut off from further speaking with the sound of a loud buzz, and rushing of air, followed by a loud sound that was reminiscent of a overripe melon getting splattered all over the ground with a mallet.

The blood path leader was now missing his entire upper torso and taking up the place where it would be prior to his legs collapsing was a giant of a man covered in gore. No one moved for a second. After all, someone had just apparently punched through the leader of the group with callous ease. Even the giant seemed surprised as all he did for a follow up was turn his fist and look down at it, uttering perhaps the least profound words possible. "Huh, how about that?"

That seemed to break the spell his sudden appearance had over the other enemy cultivators. Markos called out to the familair cultivator, his possible savior, for the cutlivator directly behind him had recovered the fastest and was charging in a blind spot. "Behind you!" He needn't have bothered, the spear came downwards from a leaping strike right where the big man's head would have been, only to miss and get stuck fast in the dirt below. The big man had stepped into the strike so quickly and easily that it was like he saw it come. his arms rose up, one had grasping and shattered the spear haft while another grabbed the enemy's head from over his shoulder. The splintered wood shot out from a sidearm throw that still somehow managed to activate the blood barrier talisman that one of the others was carrying while he simply pulled the man down onto his own shattered spear face first, before the enemy fell limply against it very much dead.

Then the area right in front of erupted into flame, forcing him to roll over even as the flame cauterized his wounded ankle. Yet his ally was not there, somehow in the intervening time between him rolling over, he had somehow landed elbow first onto the spellcaster, breaking them in two with his mass and momentum. The other Blood path cultivators had had enough and scattered like the ill breeding goblins they were. Markos's Savior turned to him to reveal in full a familiar face. "Be right wit ya in a second Markos, I ain't letting em get away."

Markos could only stare at the his friend who had grown even larger than he already was and had the telltale marks of Bronze on his skin now. "Jax what the Fuck happened to you?"

The giant only shook his head and replied, "A whole lotta bullshit."


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

Ok i think i got the main body of this bad boy done. 5403 words.

 

[Sol Zagato]

Turn 14, Omake 1, Simon Euaerizo

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

TURN 14, OMAKE 5 [Lipita] Lipita Delphi 39: Simon Euaerizo & Lipita Delphi – Standing on the Brink of Perilous Glory Sitting cross-legged on his Harmonious Spirit Prayer Mat, Simon Euaerizo looked out blank-eyed towards the bare walls of his quarters in the Underworld Devil Palace. While the...

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

3450/2=1725 words. Please threadmark @no. @Alectai

I would like to attempt the Qiguai secret realm, and want a LST as reward.

 

[occipitallobe]

She practically skipped.

The poison only worked when she spoke, or if she communicated directly in any way. Preparing pre-written signs of what she intended to say later though worked just fine, though it limited her to what she'd prepared. Her storage ring was just a stack of random statements and names so she could refer to people without calling them "Destasia".

It had seemed worth it at the time, the insight into the nature of names she was likely to glean. The ability to potentially poison the world itself into letting her track things by their names.

Of course, it hadn't worked. That was probably the saddest truth. Calling everyone else by her own name was entertaining momentarily but then became frustrating, as her peons simply didn't understand when she asked for the "uglier but taller Destasia" or the "stupidest Destasia". She had been a little cross that day, but all of them had come together in some sort of contest to prove they weren't the stupidest one.

They should've known she was asking for any one of them to help her with the brewing of the second lot of poison - without discrimination!

However, she had been able to pre-emptively poison her new Lightbeast, Alvertos. The name itself hadn't been what she'd wanted, but when she'd knitted it together, it had immediately tried to kill her, and only the naming poison would have restrained it for very long. Her original pet cat from a few centuries ago had also been named Alvertos, and so it just... slipped out.

Binding all the Qi together into a beast had only really been half possible, but she'd succeeded about as well as she could've hoped. The creature was no Nascent Soul, and was not so much under her command as it was asleep - as soon as she spoke its name again it'd wake up, and it'd burn the poison out in a flash. Still, it'd let her carve its range into its flesh before it awoke, and it wouldn't be able to move beyond it. More akin to a very grumpy Will than a real Nascent, but it'd take a lot of effort from a real Nascent to kill it, so it was nearly as good.

It could be dumped anywhere, though the old man couldn't deliver it. It'd have to be Kleisthenes, the light and dark Qi just... just wouldn't work together quite right. As it was she had to isolate it far away from the Dawn Fortress and inform Manuel to come absolutely nowhere near it, lest he wake it up. After all, it was designed to kill him originally.

Still, the ravening tiger-crocodile would be quite effective wherever she put it, and it'd kill almost anyone wandering through. All the speed of a tiger, the viciousness of a crocodile, and she'd even grafted on a small set of trees so it could more effectively absorb light Qi frpom the sun to power up various attacks! Apple trees had been at hand, and while the apples themselves were simply globes of burning light, she thought it looked quite fetching. Yes, her original plan of a tiger head on a crocodile body had been good, but the neck had been too difficult to get right. The crocodile head on a tiger body with apple trees growing off the back... she sat back and admired it once more.

It was probably the most exciting thing she'd done in decades. Of course, they only had four decades at most before it woke up and started killing people, so they'd need to figure something out by then.

Now... oh, yes. She'd agreed to help out... who was it again?

"Right..", she muttered.

"The administration Destasia."

Yes, her. She'd agreed to help out organising the territories of the Northern Jingshen. She wasn't quite sure why. Possibly she had misunderstood the subtle hint in the letter asking her not to go anywhere near the former northern Jingshen lands, but... no, obviously not. Right, now she remembered! They had all been submitting requests for various resources there and she'd asked for the rights to experiment on one of the mines. She hadn't meant the people living in the big mine-cities, but... well, she had misunderstood what Manuel was saying and asked if it were an option.

So now she had to listen to a lecture, and on top of that 'prove she could consider the needs of the people living in Clan territory' before she'd even be allowed to go experiment with the Qi-Draining lands!

She'd show them. This plan would be so excellent the old man would have no choice but to let her run her studies!

Right, here it was. Oh, it was already done.

What had she written again?

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

The Division of Lands

[ ] One Indivisible Province

This one was obvious. Keep the province and administration as is, just under Clan rule and Legions.

[ ] The Northlands and the Southlands

No, better to divide it up. The Jingshen Dong and Nan, along with True Son Peak and Heavenly Beauty Palace would go into a new more martial province, and the rest would be a more mining-oriented region.

[ ] The Five Provinces

To each former Family, a province - as well as the Underworld Spirit Palace. True Son Peak would be part of the Jingshen Dong territories, and True Son Peak would sit with the Jingshen Nan. The Bei mines would be incorporate into Cloudy Jade City, and Yangshen and Haoshen Forts could sit with the Xi. Wangshen Fort and the Palace would be their own province.

[ ] Something Else

Note - she would need to write in each province's name, no matter how many provinces she split it up into!

(Add names to your plan when writing a plan, even if you're voting for a generic options, or I'll just give them all generic boring Greek names)

Alright, that was the administration sorted. Next... right, right, the Forts.

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

The Forts

[ ] Maintain the Three Forts

The Spirit Palace would serve as a fallback for the Clan, so reinforcing the Forts would just make good sense.

[ ] Reduce their size and strength

No, they'd just serve as targets for the Hunters. Why not turn them into smaller Waycastles that could be more easily abandoned?

[ ] Raze them

No, no, they were a needless expense.

[ ] Write-in

(If you want to keep them, again, feel free to name them in your plan, or I'll rename them or potentially leave them as is.)

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

Heavenly Beauty Palace

Useless, useless place, Destasia knew. Except... well, it seemed as if the arrays and the like Old Jingshen had there really did work for fecundity. Not so well for the Clan as for him, but enough to make it easy enough for Core Formation Elders to have children.

[ ] Sell off the fecundity arrays and treasures

Gain 1 Purchase. There are always buyers for this sort of thing.

[ ] Use them as part of the Clan's economy, selling their use off to Legates and Elders who want more children.

Gain 20 new Core Formation Elders over 5 turns, representing the new privileged Young Masters born from the wealthiest families who now have their bloodlines purified and meridians opened as a mere consequence of being born. They will be eligible for potential Silver-Blood gains.

[ ] Open them up to the Stork Clans for joint research

Gain ??? in a few turns. Will depend on Stork research rolls. At the high-end, new blood purification arts and powers might be gained. At the low end, nothing.

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

The Underworld Spirit Palace

Technically, they'd renamed it the Underworld Devil Fortress. This was already done, of course, but she included it in her plan for completeness. What had Casia ended up building? Well, it was a tremendous new training centre for new Aspirants, it had endless Spirit Stone mines for them to clamber into, and the fortifications were going from impressive to absurd. Excepting whatever old legacies the Dawn Fortress held, it would be tougher to take than the Fortress could be in just a century or two.

It didn't look much different - the truth was in the investment, in the massive numbers of cultivators that had moved there, the Legions Casia had granted power of simply part of the Palace to get it up and running. The banners had changed, but it was still mostly the same Palace, simply with a focus on defense in depth via massed cultivators rather than a reliance on Spirit Cannons and the like. Arrays sat at every corner, and the Clan could be empowered even as their enemies were weakened, forcing an invader to trade tens of lives for one if they attempted to force their way in.

But the special thing Casia had done was...

[ ] Built a Spirit Cannon foundry

Built was the wrong word... repurposed was better. But one with Clan array-carvings, designed to take advantage of Clan tactics and strategy. Churning out new cannons that could safely be used even by Qi Condensation Disciples to challenge Foundation Experts, they would allow the Clan a little more flexibility when defending.

[ ] Began taming the Spirit Beasts that lived on the Stones far beneath the surface

The slavering Rockhounds that chewed on Spirit Stones and hunted all sources of Qi were being tamed, tamed into magnificent allies for the Clan. They were vicious and hungry, but once they had a source of Qi they could find any other part of it, making them excellent for hunting down Blood Path bandits and the like. In the decades to come the Rockhounds would ideally be a small part of almost every Legion, keeping Clan lands safer than ever before.

[ ] Recovered a Truebreath Core Flower

Of course, thousands had died for it. But it would allow the Clan's Core Formation Elders - any of them - to advance a single step forward. Mid to Late. Obviously Casia was going to decide who to give it up, but Sheng Yu seemed like a better choice. Destasia would make her own way forward eventually. Unless Casia decided to give it to her, she supposed. Then she'd have to eat it! Yes, the increase in power would be enough to let her properly test her new hypothesis on core condensation and rapid advancement! Sheng Yu was boring anyway.

 

[Insane-Not-Crazy]

@Gajoti @afterthought53 @Siual Fates are set to start coming out this weekend. If you want the credit for the collabs don't forget to post links to them.

 

[Shaper47]

[X] Plan: For the Great Elder Destasia
-[X] The Northlands and the Southlands
--[X] North Destasia lands and South Destasia lands for the names
-[X] Reduce their size and strength
-[X] Use them as part of the Clan's economy, selling their use off to Legates and Elders who want more children.
-[X] Began taming the Spirit Beasts that lived on the Stones far beneath the surface

 

[TehChron]

This is really cool stuff to find out

[X] Plan Cthonic Nerdery
-[X] Something Else
--[X] Two Provinces, in the larger sense constructed in a style similar to the Mortal Kingdoms so as to diffuse newly resettled additions to the Clan along with more rowdy nouve riche elements seeking to satisfy their ambitions. Divided in two between Persephone Kora to the South, consisting of True Son Peak, and the Southern and Eastern Jingshen Vassal Lands. To the North will be Persephone Despoina, a land of vigilance, devoid of life and filled with deep places. This will consist of the remainder of the Jingshen lands. Both are to be connected by a series of smaller networks of roads with limited connections to the larger Scorpion Road to more easily connect smaller mines and claims to the Clans logistical network.
-[X] The Erinyes Mass Acceleration Array
--[X] Renaming the three forts to "Alecto", "Megaera", and "Tisiphone" they will be connected more deeply into the anti-gravity effects which underlay the Scorpion Road at large, forming a sort of pseudo-Spirit Cannon, with which aerial craft or Experts can be launched through the air at great expense and even greater speeds beyond any beneath Nascent Soul.
-[X] Open them up to the Stork Clans for joint research
-[X] Recovered a Truebreath Core Flower

The first one is purely an aesthetic choice, and I like the idea of turning the Jingshen lands into a massive snarl of freeways and logistical routes with townships and claims that are in constant competition with one another to dominate their local politics. It makes for a fantastic place to concentrate the Clan's more ambitious young masters and newly inducted types, as well as creating a nice cosmopolitan aura to the surroundings around the Underworld Devil Palace.

Occi said its purely cosmetic, so thats the cosmetic I think would be coolest. Very urbanite.

The Erinyes Mass Acceleration Array is mechanically relevant though. And basically serves as a way to speedily deploy assets across the desert in a hurry. Especially relevant given what we may need to do for Yuan and the Colossal Footsteps Pass in the near future. Eliminating that kind of logistical snarl will be invaluable, and make the concentration of resources in the former Jingshen lands less of an issue mechanically if we are able to treat it as a general rear lines for the rest of our holdings. Very valuable.

Occi also said that the joint research thing is rolled for in a vacuum, but due to the investment we've done in researching blood stuff alongside what we've done with the Stork Clans? On the whole, the mystery box is very likely to give us considerable value for going along with it. Plus as its a mystery box related to blood potency, which is the foundational strength of our Legions...This is an opportunity to further empower said foundations in the same way that the Technique Palace kind of could be.

Its worth the cost.

Finally, for the Core Flower...I just want to get ourselves into a position where our Core Elders can become Nascents as quickly as possible. We need a third one and a fourth, and fast.

 

[TimEd]

Rockdoggos though.

 

[TehChron]

Rockdoggos though.

Click to shrink...

Late Core Formation Sheng Yu though.

One step away from Great Circle and prepping for a Nascent Soul breakthrough if youre interested in that kinda thing.

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

[X] Plan Cthonic Nerdery

Gib Nascent.

 

[Insane-Not-Crazy]

[X] Plan Cthonic Nerdery

It has nothing I don't want and hits what I can live with, not to mention evocative design.

 

[Shard]

[X] Plan Cthonic Nerdery

 

[Lampshade]

[X] Plan Cthonic Nerdery

Click to shrink...

That sounds amazing, honestly, especially the gravity synergy, but Sheng Yu as the clan strategist should know he has absolutely no chance against doggos.

[X] Plan randomname
-[X] Something Else
--[X] Northlands, Southlands and UDF.
-[X] Maintain the Three Forts
-[X] Open them up to the Stork Clans for joint research
-[X] Began taming the Spirit Beasts that lived on the Stones far beneath the surface