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!

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Omake Writer Instructions:

There are four fields you need to fill out.

Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly

Requested Bonus, which is your requested bonus for your omake. You can leave it up to me if you like. You can see more info in the Good Seed infopost here.

Cultivation Aims. For those following unorthodox paths - higher than 9th Heavenstage or later than 7th Dao Pillar paths. Please put in what you are aiming for before you break through. I have left it as 'default'. If you do not edit it, I'll go with that.

Turn Notes - Do you want to do something specific? Enter a Secret Realm? Help the Clan out in some way? If you have something specific you want to accomplish on this turn, put it in turn notes so I can adjust your Fate around it.

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

 

[TimEd]

Probably a combination of great talent, Blood path, and also being fed resources by that mysterious backer.

if they had been bad rolls... well, I'll probably do the same thing

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Evil. Truly Manuel is right to follow his Way of Darkness.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

Child Corpse Gulper was in fact a Heaven-Defying Talent. If he wasn't very, very stupid about it he could have been the greatest power in the region once Old Cannibal died. Part of the problem with growing so quickly of course is that it tends to make you arrogant and greedy. Old monsters who have fought for every scrap of power they have tend to be far more dangerous because they're smart about how they use it.

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That's just a tragic waste, tbh. I'd even be sad if he wasn't as blatantly evil as he was.

As you said, if he had just kept his head down, he'd have ended up dominating the region completely. A Heaven-Defying Talent following the Orthodox path may reach the Great Circle of Nascent Soul at the age of 1050. One following the Blood Path instead might reach it between 600-700, which is a ridiculous thing to even write. Spirit Severing wouldn't be unreasonable, even with the dearth of spiritual energy this Turtle region has.

 

[Zaealix]

*shakes head* Manuel is hilarious to watch him work.
taking his leg again, before finally decapitating him. Hooo~

 

[Shard]

Hmm, just a random thought, but on a narrative level can we stack multiple realm exceeding Treasures?

 

[ReaderOfFate]

Hmm, just a random thought, but on a narrative level can we stack multiple realm exceeding Treasures?

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Unlikely, barring truly exceptional circumstances. Fighting across a single realm is rare enough, fighting across two is practically unheard of. A good example that Occipitallobe brought up was an array that would allow Qi Condensation to launch a Core Formation attack by pooling Qi. At perfect efficiency, 10,000 should be enough, but more realistically, for our Clan who is specced into Array Carving, if we spent 200 years of development on that array the amount needed would be more like 200,000-300,000.

This is for the smallest gap of two Great Realms, between Qi Condensation and Core Formation. The gap between realms only widens from here.

 

[Leon12431]

@occipitallobe can I request for my good seed to be killed so that I could try again? I only ask as I don't have anywhere to go with him but I do want to have an actual good seed to write for and I figure that making a new one might help me.

 

[Minion#2]

You're the real Xianxia hero.

 

[occipitallobe]

Hmm, just a random thought, but on a narrative level can we stack multiple realm exceeding Treasures?

Click to shrink...

I just want to say @Shard , you ask my favorite 'yes, but no' questions.

Yes - you can use multiple treasures that increase your strength - usually speaking.

No - they're not that much more useful. Generally speaking xianxia follows a geometric power progression (with rough adjustments here and there), so having 2 treasures with the strength of Early Foundation Establishment won't make you the equal of a Mid Foundation Establishment cultivator. Usually a treasure might let you block an enemy blow, or strike with the strength of a higher Realm - having more treasures that can do this certainly helps, but usually the goal isn't to beat up people in higher realms, it's to block them, hurt them, or just dissuade them from hunting you down and killing you.

@occipitallobe can I request for my good seed to be killed so that I could try again? I only ask as I don't have anywhere to go with him but I do want to have an actual good seed to write for and I figure that making a new one might help me.

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I'll kill Telios off in the next Good Seed update, so feel free to write someone new. You can write a death scene if you'd like and count it as a bonus for your new character (or just write a regular omake for them, either-or).

 

[Mochinator]

Without any further words I completed the requisite incantation gestures with my left hand and crushed the pill in my right. Foul ichor flies from the pearl, an expensive melange of over three dozen lethal venoms. The spell catches it in mid air, and Transforms it. The nascent seed of my future Dao Pillar seems to sing in sheer joy as my power reaches into the febrile liquid and brings forth life! A Snake, three times my size with iridescent purple scales and blazing red eyes blasts forth from the remains of the pill and engulfs the three men. They wail and flare their Cultivation in a desperate defense, but its far too late.

The Ash Borne Demon Viper only lives for the space of ten heartbeats or so, but it was enough time. As the great serpent dissolved back into being a mere liquid, it left behind nothing but the scorched bones of the Iron Tigers.

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Damn! That difference once she no longer needs to go stealth! This is really fucking cool, i've always love the concept of tailsman + objects that basically summons a one hit attack!

Also, i think this is the most Xianxia like attack i came across in all the omakes so far, most of us have it in the style of Qi reinforcing Martial Arts which i do personally like. Just that it's cool that the more xianxia aspects are coming into play as we all get stronger

This is also my take on the crossbreed between crazy xianxia wushu bullshit and the organised military drilling that probably constitutes the Clan's training regimen

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Fellow Commander Welcome! Nice to see another Good Seed that seems to be aiming for Formation focus ? I'll really like the idea of leading cultivators into battle and i'm glad that there are other good seeds aiming for the same!

Instead he barrels forwards, bending his torso forward. The sword comes whipping round again but this time he is ready. Gathering water qi again in fist and arm he punches upwards from underneath where he hopes the blade will be, aiming to hit the flat of the blade and direct the strike upwards and over his head, leaving the cannibal vulnerable.

It costs him. His opponent must see his ploy and turns the blade. Qi forged Metal meets qi hardened flesh and flesh gives first. The sword hits bone, but then the Flood Dragons' roar completes. The sword flies upward, taking with it a chunk of flesh but Wei Feng's other hand is free and the cannibal is wide open.

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Sweet fight scene! I love the very Wuxia feel of it, where it's Qi reinforcing Martial Arts!

It was a Divine Saber technique fused with Blood Path - that made him think the former, but Righteous Sects researched these things all the time, in the guise of 'understanding their enemy'.

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Lol, that tease about both theories being possible

There was every chance this would fool Old Cannibal into thinking he was stronger than he truly was, and Old Cannibal was the real enemy here

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Old Monster. Already 5 steps ahead

Child Corpse Gulper was in fact a Heaven-Defying Talent. If he wasn't very, very stupid about it he could have been the greatest power in the region once Old Cannibal died. Part of the problem with growing so quickly of course is that it tends to make you arrogant and greedy. Old monsters who have fought for every scrap of power they have tend to be far more dangerous because they're smart about how they use it.

Click to shrink...

This reinforces the relief i felt that the Heaven-defying talent didn't win. Considering that so far we only have input on the decisions, imagining Manuel as the kind of young punk Corpse Gulper is coming across as is making me sweat!

Love the Experienced folks showing the young'uns how it's done!

Yes - you can use multiple treasures that increase your strength - usually speaking.

No - they're not that much more useful. Generally speaking xianxia follows a geometric power progression (with rough adjustments here and there), so having 2 treasures with the strength of Early Foundation Establishment won't make you the equal of a Mid Foundation Establishment cultivator. Usually a treasure might let you block an enemy blow, or strike with the strength of a higher Realm - having more treasures that can do this certainly helps, but usually the goal isn't to beat up people in higher realms, it's to block them, hurt them, or just dissuade them from hunting you down and killing you.

Click to shrink...

O.O! I thought the Realm Surpassing treasure was the usual Sword Qi from an Elder or Explosive pellets etc, not a power boost for the duration of the fight!

 

[Aoinfinity]

"Diaxiang, aren't we friends? We're helping to put down this precocious junior of yours, after all."

Old Cannibal fired several arrows of fletched bone, Corpse Gulper dodging them easily.

"Fuck off, you pile of miserable feces. Once he's dead, and your time is up I'm coming for you next."

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"You know, I'm glad your old Elder died! I wish I'd been there to kill him myself!", Old Cannibal yelled.

Corpse Gulper was if anything looking confused, unsure why he was suddenly not the centre of attention. As he dodged another flight of arrows, Manuel flared his Qi and struck.

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I'm getting vibes here of Byakuya and Kenpachi vs. Yammy Ridalgo Byakuya vs. Kenpachi with Yammy in the background.

 

[Garlak]

Whew, that's a relief. Hm. A shame that, despite his knack (and Dao) for ferreting out secrets, Manuel could get no hint as to who was behind him. But maybe it's not the end of things. Maybe Child Corpse Gulper's body, and storage ring or however it's called (Aperture?), will reveal some of his secrets?

Give him a read, you won't regret it.

"Also, his mysterious background will become far more relevant on Turn 5, so there's that.

Click to shrink...

Turn 5 is 100 years after start. And we started right after the centennial Tribulations had just hit us. Which means... So, yay, people from other Seas coming over to wreck our stuff. And maybe some of them will go after the Ninth Prince himself. Or at least recognize his clan or name or something.

 

[TehChron]

Trading a Supreme Spirit Stone for Child Corpse Gulpers corpse as a reagent and his aperture for materials is a hell of trade

In addition to revealing the presence of whomever his Backer is and the fact that they could afford this level of investment shows that Manuel got a great return on investment

And then it turns out that he got to remove a Heaven-Defying Talent from the field before it could fully blossom as an unanswerable threat to the Clan!

I cant wait to see the blowback!

 

[ninjastar]

There's already 130k words of omake(Though some of it is just good seed backgrounds,). I have no idea how any of you can keep up with it.

 

[Shard]

I just want to say @Shard , you ask my favorite 'yes, but no' questions.

Yes - you can use multiple treasures that increase your strength - usually speaking.

No - they're not that much more useful. Generally speaking xianxia follows a geometric power progression (with rough adjustments here and there), so having 2 treasures with the strength of Early Foundation Establishment won't make you the equal of a Mid Foundation Establishment cultivator. Usually a treasure might let you block an enemy blow, or strike with the strength of a higher Realm - having more treasures that can do this certainly helps, but usually the goal isn't to beat up people in higher realms, it's to block them, hurt them, or just dissuade them from hunting you down and killing you.

Click to shrink...

See, I was thinking of 'How would I make a Qi condenser utterly slaughter other Qi condensers in the Trials' and my answer was something like 'Buff them up hilariously'. Th closest approximation was 'tons of realm exceeding treasures'.

So like!

A 13th Heavenstage Qi Condenser, supported by an Array that effectively buffs them to Mid Foundation Establishment (Due to 100x Qi etc) with one time use pills and high grade weapons = High to Great Circle Foundation Establishment (or even Low Core Formation) vs Endless Qi Condensers. And add-ons, and stuff.

Is such a setup.. viable? Or, more importantly, effective?

 

[occipitallobe]

There's already 130k words of omake(Though some of it is just good seed backgrounds,). I have no idea how any of you can keep up with it.

Click to shrink...

I read them all before threadmarking. It takes up a lot of my other reading time, but I'm more than okay with that.

O.O! I thought the Realm Surpassing treasure was the usual Sword Qi from an Elder or Explosive pellets etc, not a power boost for the duration of the fight!

Click to shrink...

Usually. It might be a sliver of will, a magical sword that can store more Qi and let you fight temporarily above your Realm, a teleportation talisman to allow you avoid attacks... 'fighting above your level' is an incredibly broad thing.

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As an aside, the new Mechanic I'm going to be trying out this turn is and the minor changes to the quest:

To my mind, the core mechanics of this quest boil down to 'Manuel doesn't actually run stuff'. He's like a CEO but moreso. Maybe more like the entirety of a Board. Choices will remain as is, as will Actions. Some Choices might become Requests, though.

I think what I'll do is keep Focuses, but Focuses will no longer impact Wealth. They'll impact Income on the following turn (or more turns), however. They represent where you focus your manpower and incoming Spirit Stones for the turn, but won't be expenditures as such. They'll change very little, though I'll quantify them a little more.

For stored Wealth, there'll be a new section called Requests. Basically, your Council all want stuff. New training gear, upgrades to roads, defensive arrays, new magical treasures for favored units in the military, more spies, special Spirit Beasts, money to pay off a minor faction... the list goes on and on. So each turn there'll be up to (if you don't have the money, your Councillors won't bring you Requests) five options in Requests, representing your the things each of your Councillor wants most at that time - but can't authorise expenditure on without your permission. They'll start at five years of Clan income and only go up in price. You can pick as many as you like (assuming you can afford them), or none at all.

I think this'll add a nice sense of long-term planning to the quest - at the moment each turn is a turn, and while choices feed into the next turn, I think portraying 'wealth as power' is difficult if there's not an obvious way for players to spend that wealth and realise that power. It also keeps the quest in the vibe of 'Manuel only makes really major decisions, vast majority of stuff is done by the Council and not seen by him'.

 

[occipitallobe]

See, I was thinking of 'How would I make a Qi condenser utterly slaughter other Qi condensers in the Trials' and my answer was something like 'Buff them up hilariously'. Th closest approximation was 'tons of realm exceeding treasures'.

So like!

A 13th Heavenstage Qi Condenser, supported by an Array that effectively buffs them to Mid Foundation Establishment (Due to 100x Qi etc) with one time use pills and high grade weapons = High to Great Circle Foundation Establishment (or even Low Core Formation) vs Endless Qi Condensers. And add-ons, and stuff.

Is such a setup.. viable? Or, more importantly, effective?

Click to shrink...

The problem is while progression is geometric, bonuses are merely additive - at best. Usually they'll be less than additive because they don't synergise perfectly.

Take your Qi Condensation disciple. They get another fifty 13th Heavenstage Cultivators, and can fight at the peak of Early Foundation Establishment in formation. A one-time use pill might also double their power, but it doesn't double their buffed power. It doubles their original power, so they fight a sliver higher in the peak of Early Foundation Establishment. Then a high-grade weapon allowing them to strike at Early Foundation Establishment offers a few more blows at that level - it increases their stamina to fight Early Foundation Establishment cultivators, but doesn't raise them to mid.

It can be done, but bonuses stack poorly. One superpowered item is far, far better than a large number of bonus items.

 

[Mochinator]

There's already 130k words of omake(Though some of it is just good seed backgrounds,). I have no idea how any of you can keep up with it.

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Well, i personally rely heavily on the prompts given via the Good Seed update since i'm not a very creative person. But for the others, it's probably a combination of worldbuilding + establishing the Good Seed's character in the context of the given worldbuilding.

Our QM is very generous in what can be mentioned in our Omakes, hence the wide variety of styles + terms. As an example, i personally like using Greek terms to show the linkage, but others choose to go more obvious via the training scenes. So really, everything is pretty much collaborative worldbuilding at this point!

The problem is while progression is geometric, bonuses are merely additive - at best. Usually they'll be less than additive because they don't synergise perfectly.

Take your Qi Condensation disciple. They get another fifty 13th Heavenstage Cultivators, and can fight at the peak of Early Foundation Establishment in formation. A one-time use pill might also double their power, but it doesn't double their buffed power. It doubles their original power, so they fight a sliver higher in the peak of Early Foundation Establishment. Then a high-grade weapon allowing them to strike at Early Foundation Establishment offers a few more blows at that level - it increases their stamina to fight Early Foundation Establishment cultivators, but doesn't raise them to mid.

It can be done, but bonuses stack poorly. One superpowered item is far, far better than a large number of bonus items.

Click to shrink...

Hmm based on this, would there be any drawbacks to using such a boost ? Since in Xianxia usually the boosts comes at a price to cultivation

 

[veekie]

The Bone Hacking Cleaver hit Corpse Gulper's leg.

The same leg he'd previously spent so much to regrow.

Corpse Gulper howled, and screamed, and fell out of the sky, Qi bleeding everywhere.

Manuel chuckled.

"So rude, Xiang'er. I cut you a nice leg of pork for your birthday celebration and you call me names? Truly, you are my least filial son."

Old Cannibal ignored him, having decided he'd lost the war of words. The two descended down, and Old Cannibal fired a few more arrows. Manuel pulled out a net, and threw it at Corpse Gulper. The Qi-Restraining Net would only give him half a breath before a Nascent Soul self-detonated, but that would be enough to kill him.

Corpse Gulper was miserably trying to fly away, but they caught him easily. Manuel raised the Cleaver again, and with a quick snicker-snack cut off Corpse Gulper's head.

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Ah, he was defeeted, and then he lost his head as a result.
Kids these days....

 

[LordEdric]

Since I didn't get an answer earlier, what is your stance on puppets/golems

 

[occipitallobe]

Since I didn't get an answer earlier, what is your stance on puppets/golems

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Whoops, must've missed it. I think they're largely fine - temporarily animated puppets are just another cool combat art, and long-term golems strike me more like Spirit Beasts - in the sense they'd be expensive to create and would require constant input of resources to remain operational, but certainly viable.

None of the Clans/Sects I've written so far use either of them, though, so you'd likely see them in old inheritances (like cultivator tombs) or the occasional unaligned minor power, more than in active use by major powers.

 

[Shard]

The problem is while progression is geometric, bonuses are merely additive - at best. Usually they'll be less than additive because they don't synergise perfectly.

Take your Qi Condensation disciple. They get another fifty 13th Heavenstage Cultivators, and can fight at the peak of Early Foundation Establishment in formation. A one-time use pill might also double their power, but it doesn't double their buffed power. It doubles their original power, so they fight a sliver higher in the peak of Early Foundation Establishment. Then a high-grade weapon allowing them to strike at Early Foundation Establishment offers a few more blows at that level - it increases their stamina to fight Early Foundation Establishment cultivators, but doesn't raise them to mid.

It can be done, but bonuses stack poorly. One superpowered item is far, far better than a large number of bonus items.

Click to shrink...

In part this is from looking at the Cultivation chart - Early Foundation Establishment has about the same strength as Qi Condensers, 5x the Strength and 2x the Speed. The gap doesn't seem that big even getting into Great Circle. I guess there are big qualitative buffs.

 

[TehChron]

I still kinda love how Child corpse Gulpers final moments was like one of those joke being caught in a net memes

What a way to go lol

 

[occipitallobe]

In part this is from looking at the Cultivation chart - Early Foundation Establishment has about the same strength as Qi Condensers, 5x the Strength and 2x the Speed. The gap doesn't seem that big even getting into Great Circle. I guess there are big qualitative buffs.

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I'm still tinkering with that a great deal, so don't take it as gospel. I just added a 'stamina/qi storage' column I'm working on - so much of cultivation isn't just being stronger, it's being able to outlast in a fight and then hit for the kill.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

So, quick question. This is probably unfeasible, but could we extract some of Child Corpse Gulper's talent from his corpse, @occipitallobe? I'm going to guess that it would be "No" since we're not a Blood-Demon primary, but then again we do use Blood techniques against our enemies, so maybe?

Mainly asking because that's some pretty extraordinary Talent lying dead in that corpse, so salvaging a bit of that would be great.

 

[occipitallobe]

So, quick question. This is probably unfeasible, but could we extract some of Child Corpse Gulper's talent from his corpse, @occipitallobe? I'm going to guess that it would be "No" since we're not a Blood-Demon primary, but then again we do use Blood techniques against our enemies, so maybe?

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Short answer, no.

Long answer - once you step onto the primary Blood Path, you can't step off. You have to keep eating people to maintain your cultivation, and Spirit Stones/Beast Cores no longer have the same impact they once did. If Blood Path was just 'eat a dude once in a while' it wouldn't be nearly as reviled. There are exceptions (Magic Oak Sect's acorns are technically Blood Path but don't come with the same problem), but for non-Blood Path sects a Nascent Soul cultivator is much better used as a source of storage items.

For the Clan who are less squeamish than Righteous Powers however, the skin can be dried and used to scribe powerful talismans and arrays, the bones can be sharpened into excellent spears, swords, daggers, and arrowheads, the tendons can become bowstrings, the flesh can be fed to Spirit Beasts in small scraps to help massively boost their cultivation (beasts eating humans is perfectly normal and doesn't come with the risks of Blood Path - much like Beast Path doesn't, as humans eating beasts is also normal), the organs can be refined into various magical items, and the nerves can be used to link Arrays together in novel and useful ways.

The Golden Devil Clan won't waste a scrap of poor Elder Corpse Gulper, don't worry on that front.