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.
A bigger question is what the Scorpion Road entails. Is it a Road that stretches, meanders and splinters across our territory, or is it a fairly straight line from the Mountains to the Jingshen's territory? The first would mean that the Road would in fact offer significant logistical aid to any that control it. The second would mean that only a "small" stretch of land is supported logistically by having control of it.
Ruled by Demonic Path creatures, the only reason the Desert matters is the massive numbers of Spirit Stones there. The Golden Devil Clan and Battle Blood Cannibal Sect are threats, though as they are kept to the desert they are of no danger to the Plains powers. Jingshen Clan has the greatest Spirit Stone mines of all, bringing constant necessary Stones to help raise favored disciples in the Plains. The greatest concern of all is to keep the Scorpion Road open, to ensure the flow of Spirit Stones never stops. Internally, the Cannibal Sect attacks other powers, and they defend against it.
A Demonic land, where Cannibals slaughter and the fearsome, alien Golden Devils kill according to their own laws, skinning and mutilating those cultivators who are brave enough to stand against them. Among them, the cowardly Jingshen hide, hoping not to be fought. But who can blame them?
There is little Qi, and without Spirit Stones one cannot cultivate beyond the 1st or 2nd Heavenstage of Qi Condensation at all, and such an act might take a person their entire life. However, the meat of the Third Turtle Child has crystallised into many veins of Spirit Stones, and the wealth beneath the shifting sands is immense...
Golden Devil Clan:
Cursed by the Heavens, they use evil magics, poisons, and mutilation without a thought. Killing one brings the blessings of Heaven upon a cultivator, but they are rarely found alone. Their capability at fighting in unison is tremendous, and even a powerful and clever cultivator may be brought down by such numbers. They are kept in line by fear of the Righteous Path, and guard the Scorpion Road to allow the trade in Spirit Stones to flow into the mountains and plains. They charge dearly for the privilege, though.
Jingshen Clan:
Jingshen Clan are notable for their massive treasury and endless mines, and trade with the Righteous powers in the plains for much else they need. Their Spirit Stone mines are as rich as any five Sects in the plains, and if there was Qi in the air, they would be a true power of note. They have kept their lands through constant war, as two different Demonic powers once reigned in the desert - prior to the arrival of the Golden Devils, they were constantly on the defense. Ever since then, they have grudgingly paid the tariffs for the Scorpion Road, and the uneasy tension between the three powers mean none truly wage major war against another.
Battle Blood Cannibal Sect:
The third of the Demonic Sects - third in strength. The most powerful faction in the Desert, kept in check only by its own all-consuming nature and civil wars. As befits Blood Path, new disciples are raised, and led to slaughter one another for strength. The complete lack of discipline means civil wars are common, and all stand against all, willing to kill one another for little excuse. Without such betrayals, the Cannibal Sect would have long consumed the other powers in the desert. They wax and wane, occasionally losing territory during a civil war, only to roar back and seize it once they have rebuilt. Their name comes from their long-practiced Flesh-Digesting Guts Art, allowing them to gain more than other Blood Path forms by consuming the flesh, blood, and bones of their enemy. More powerful cultivators can use such an art to swallow their dead enemies in a single gulp.
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After this will be an infopost on Regional Barriers - why you can't leave the Virtuous Flipper Region (easily).
Well if they were able to conquer all those mines and cities we will have a bigger problem.
Just because the road is better doesn't mean that an enemy could use it to the extent that you are impaling, sure any invader from the direction of the road could use it to ease logistics and move his troops faster but so could we.
Also attacking in the desert is a huge investment of spirits stones, the mines and cities they would be able to conquer won't pay for themselves for years and will require more investment to actually get to that point
A bigger question is what the Scorpion Road entails. Is it a Road that stretches, meanders and splinters across our territory, or is it a fairly straight line from the Mountains to the Jingshen's territory? The first would mean that the Road would in fact offer significant logistical aid to any that control it. The second would mean that only a "small" stretch of land is supported logistically by having control of it.
It's largely a single major road that passes through the core of Golden Devil territory and from there into Jingshen territory. It splits off into other, smaller roads which are sometimes considered part of it, but it basically winds in such a way to try and include a good number of Golden Devil cities and Spirit Stone mines. The purpose is to ensure trade flows through Golden Devil-controlled lands. More powerful cultivators might just go directly through the desert.
But the Scorpion Road has:
(1) Guards from the Clan. Bandits and monsters are less likely to be able to fall on you and kill you, especially if you move in a convoy.
(2) Magical arrays repelling weaker monsters at various points, meaning you're less likely to be attacked in general.
(3) Waypoints with Golden Devil cities that have cheaper ways of recovering Qi for weaker cultivators than simply consuming Spirit Stones - most non-Desert cultivators use Spirit Stones very inefficiently (usually as a quick recharge in combat, which is very inefficient but works fast) and Golden Devil setups such as magical Oases or Spirit Baths can recover Qi for most weaker cultivators more slowly but more cheaply.
(4) Various guides and free jade slips informing travellers of nearby dangers and how best to avoid them.
(5) A long, broad road that carts and beasts can move on easily. Moving through the shifting sands is easy for nobody.
Most of those things can be ceased or removed in the event of a fullscale invasion or major raids, but a better road does make it more likely spies might come and look at what you're doing. It won't be a major loss to your attrition. The main problem any raiding force faces ultimately is you need to expend Qi to do stuff, but there's no free Qi in the Desert - so you'd better be able to make your expenditure back.
Well if they were able to conquer all those mines and cities we will have a bigger problem.
Just because the road is better doesn't mean that an enemy could use it to the extent that you are impaling, sure any invader from the direction of the road could use it to ease logistics and move his troops faster but so could we.
Also attacking in the desert is a huge investment of spirits stones, the mines and cities they would be able to conquer won't pay for themselves for years and will require more investment to actually get to that point
I fell like you are ignoring that the clan are demonic cultivators. One of the few demonic cultivator powers in the region. Whereas the "righteous" powers outnumber our one clan by a lot. We do not want to be gained up on.
Making the Scorpion Road safer would make attacking our clan for that road more of a benefit for the righteous clans to try for.
Making the scorpion road safer will probably make the righties sect less likely to attack us because it would mean more trade going through and that's what they actually want, the righteous powers have other concerns and they would prefer a demonic power that keeps the scorpion road open and expends it, then expanding the huge amount of spirits stones it will take to conquer us and maintain the road, especially when they are going to be in a huge war that fighting and recovering form it will keep them busy for at least a century.
Can we turn the Scorpion Road into a literal thing? That is to say:
(a) The Scorpion Road (or at least our section of the Scorpion Road) becomes a gigantic scorpion whose size encompasses the entire length of the caravan route in our territory.
(b) Any caravan who crosses our territory has to travel on the scales on the back of the Scorpion.
(c) The gigantic venomous stinger(s) of the Scorpion looms in the air above the road, ready to sting anyone who strays off the road, as well as anyone who tries to cross the road without paying the Golden Devils' toll.
To occipitallobe- How much Wealth would it cost to acquire and install a literal Scorpion Road?
Making the scorpion road safer will probably make the righties sect less likely to attack us because it would mean more trade going through and that's what they actually want, the righteous powers have other concerns and they would prefer a demonic power that keeps the scorpion road open and expends it, then expanding the huge amount of spirits stones it will take to conquer us and maintain the road, especially when they are going to be in a huge war that fighting and recovering form it will keep them busy for at least a century.
The Heaven's curse that blesses those who kill a Golden Devil would make the cost of fighting the golden devil's for the improved road a factor in wether or not to attack for the riches. In addition to being demonic cultivators thus the righteous cultivators have the duty to take from the golden devils.
At best the Strength Purity sect can stop all righteous cultivators from atacking us, but they are but one group. If they ever get taken out then the righteous cultivators can give in to their greed.
I fell like you are ignoring that the clan are demonic cultivators. One of the few demonic cultivator powers in the region. Whereas the "righteous" powers outnumber our one clan by a lot. We do not want to be gained up on.
Making the Scorpion Road safer would make attacking our clan for that road more of a benefit for the righteous clans to try for.
Should also be noted that we seem to have a bit of a reputation as great lootboxes for the righteous powers. And we don't follow the Blood Path, which means they don't have an imperative need to crush us as much as they can or we will outscale and overrun them. Which means we are acceptable and rewarding targets for their own Good Seeds to fight and grow against.
I don't think any of the Righteous Powers outside of the Seven Saber Palace and potentially Jingshen Clan really wants us dead. We're way more useful to them alive, when they can hit us with Good Seeds to make loot fall out. The Sabers only want us dead to remove their humiliation and Jingshen Clan wants local supremacy and to link up with their main customers. For neither of them it is about us being demonic cultivators.
At best the Strength Purity sect can stop all righteous cultivators from atacking us, but they are but one group. If they ever get taken out then the righteous cultivators can give in to their greed.
the Strength Purity sect are paramount to halting the expansion of the demonic alter sect, if they are gone both we and the righteous powers have bigger problems.
A golden jade slip with bright red silk. A missive from his granduncle – or one of his secretaries at least.
"Dear Aristoteles. It grieves me that I have not had the time to see you the past five decades, yet the news that travels to my ears brings me great joy. You show promise and little propensity towards the foolishness that other juniors so readily exhibit.
The Head Quartermaster had informed me that you requested a pricy technique slip with your saved contribution points – the Bronze Arhat's Flawless Body Technique. Such an art doesn't match your potential, so I took the liberty of substituting it for something more suited towards your skillset. Meditate well on its lessons, your father benefited greatly from them himself, so many years ago.
Staurakios Palaiologos."
Aris held the beautifully carved surface of golden jade in his hands, slightly longer than his outstretched palm. He ran his thumb over the neat characters carved into its surface – Fivefold Meditations on the Path: Golden Deva's Immortal Body Art.
The words that popped into his mind when he channeled a trickle of Qi into the strip of jade sounded like a crystal bell.
"Meditate on this first lesson; a ruler's Body is the whole of the Law. It is inviolate and perfect."
--
Aris felt like he was holding his breath while needing to pant heavily. His every acupoint was closed off and hardened, his Qi flow largely closed off and circular within him. The technique was orders of magnitude more difficult than anything he'd ever attempted before, and he had the feeling so much more lay beyond the mundane Qi effect, gated behind the insight of the meditation.
Time stood still as he could feel the immense pressure of the creature's teeth on his metallic skin. He could not hold out for a second more. If the creature applied more pressure instead of backing down, his arm would be gone.
But he didn't need to.
A fraction of a second stretched out over hours, and he felt the creature ripple ever so slightly – shock, displeasure? Or a mere pulsation across what passed for the creature's bloodstream? It mattered not.
The creature had taken the bait supremely, and was effectively pinned down in a fixed position.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that their commander had his greatbow out, silvery bowstring drawn but without an arrow nocked.
Then, his entire world went white, and he felt his skin heat up enough to warp in moments, the focus needed for his Art broken. He lost all feeling in his left arm, and a cool breeze seemed to touch the skin of his scalp.
Then, the world is rendered again in bleached-out hues of white, and more than ninety per cent of the creature's body is gone, rendered into nothingness. His feet crunch on grey, vitrified glass, the ground around him repainted in black and grey glossy hues. A broad line of pitch black ashy glass went from their commander to where the beast was, and continued on for about hundred meters further. He noticed the distant wall marking the edge of the erosion formation's effect had collapsed like an avalanche where the trajectory of the projectile had intersected with it.
The maw that clung to his body had dissolved, and the last of the grey matter clinging to his arm – sizzling, smoking and bubbling wickedly – drips down onto the ground, forming into a creature reminiscent of an Emperor Slug in both size and features. It slithers away with blistering speed, towards a recently-opened small cavern, as the erosion formation reveals more and more of the inside of the cavernous subterranean space.
He distractedly notices four deep recessions in his arm where the beast had set its teeth – almost perforating it – stains of coppery blood around the wounds, cauterized by heat almost immediately after. Recovering from such an injury would take a while.
His focus returns in full, and he quickly realizes his role here is played out. He needed to get out of dodge, before things got truly hot under his feet.
"BACK!"
His order was largely superfluous, his vanguard had scattered at the first sign of the kill-team taking positions.
He pushes the last bit of Qi he has into his legs, and jumps backwards, then again, again and again, crossing a hundred meters in a flash.
The redhaired and sweating member of the crack team jumps high into the air, and clacks the soles of his wooden sandals together twice. Red array script is flash-seared deeply into rock and sand in a circle of about fifty meters in diameter, centered around the opening to the underground cavern.
The fire cultivator falls to the ground, and puts his palms against the edge of his array, and the inside of the formation turns to white-hot lava in an instant, suddenly sinking several meters as the now molten rock fills up the inside of the cavern. Heat and pressure washes over Aris, and his backwards jump carries him nearly fifty meters back, carried on currents of superheated air. He was far away enough now. Now to enjoy the well-earned show.
He casts a glance at the infantry, who were boxing in the last smattering of the thralls, most of them already taking up Formation positions to support the higher-level combat going on.
He looked back at the circular pit of lava, and it suddenly flash-cools to black obsidian. The absence of heat which felt suspiciously like cold washes over most of his skin. He looks down, and notices that most of his tunic, gambeson and even the reinforced leather onto which the lamellar was sewn had burned away, some of the spiritual bronze lamellar plates superficially flash-welded to his skin. He still glowed a light orange with heat, and his feet scorched his footprints in the rock underneath – no trace left of his sandals. He was intensely thankful for his Bronze skin, and the accurate assessment of his commander concerning Aris' ability to withstand his technique.
The obsidian is suddenly and violently pulverized, projected upwards in a large column of fragments of shimmering black glass. The third member of their small army's kill-team stands at its edge, both sabers held at his side, his expression one of intense focus. Aris couldn't truly make out the spot the expert's technique was aimed at, but it looked like a matte lump of black coal to his eyes, amidst the fragments of shimmering glass.
"Cobalt Phoenix's Third Flight"
The expert moves both his sabers upwards in a flowing movement, and a phoenix-like figure of blue flames flies out of the pit, the force of its movement projecting the upper half of the obsidian shards even higher, making it rain small shards of the substance everywhere. The phoenix's heat destroys the shards of obsidian caught in its flame body, a small black core however remaining stuck in it, slowly becoming smaller as the phoenix flies upwards. It then swoops downwards, dissolves into flames as it lands in the expert's hands, and he is left holding a mere handful of ash. A bright flash of blue flame, and the ash too is gone.
A two headed bronze eagle lands at the kill-team's side, seemingly ready to fly at a moment's notice.
Aris moves back towards the kill-team and the circular pit, its bottom meters below now only slightly dusted with obsidian fragments.
Their commander takes out a medium-grade spirit stone, and holds it in his hands, ready to drain. He puts on the wooden sandals of the redhaired expert, readies his bow in one hand, closes his eyes, and waits.
The dual-saber wielding expert speaks to Aris and the few vanguard soldiers who have already made their way back to the site of the creature's demise.
"Ain't over 'till the bronze clock sounds lunch, brothers. A fragment might've gotten'n'way still, and we'll have only a moment to get it if it touches the detection array."
He steps onto the eagle with one foot and the redheaded fire array user – even though he looks on the brink of passing out – does the same. The erosion formation finally stops as the teal light in the distance – on top of the tall walls surrounding them – slowly fades out.
Like this, they wait for ten, twenty, fifty minutes, their commander's concentration never faltering even once. After more than an hour has passed, the commander's shoulders relax slightly, and Aris can see the bone-deep exhaustion on his features. The one shot must have taken everything he had.
Their commander walks back to the infantry, and bodes them to release their formation. He addresses the surviving members of their expedition – one in five infantrymen was dead, one in three vanguards. A grim toll, but not an unexpected one.
"The creature is either dead or hasn't left this area. If it doesn't run now, it won't anytime soon. We make the detection formations surrounding this place more permanent, and we put in a request for the creature to be scried to find out if it is still around. Maybe a hundred years from now the Office of Divination will get down to it, and we'll know for certain whether we were successful here or not.
Let this be a lesson to you all. Victory is seldom clean, seldom truly glorious. It is often messy, ambiguous and overall disappointing. Let duty be your reward, for you will find little in victory."
A good lesson, Aris thought. But True Victory, true immortal triumph existed, the sort that immortalized men into legend and established ten-thousand year dynasties. The sort that he would claim as his birthright, no matter how many Pyrrhic or ash-tainted victories he had to bear in the meantime.
That might be the road he was truly meant to walk – his Dao.
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A/N Quite satisfied with how the ending of this one turned out!
@occipitallobe here my completed offering for this turn. As a boon I'm requesting the Cool Thing below, which also features in the omake! Continuing in the vein of the omake, Aris spends his next turn leading smaller groups of his comrades into battle, hunting dangerous Spirit Beasts.
Fivefold Meditations on the Path: Golden Deva's Immortal Body Art
"Firstly, a Ruler's Body is the whole of the Law. It is inviolate and perfect."
A difficult technique, closing off and hardening all acupoints to create a perfectly self-contained flow of Qi within the body, rendering it many times more durable against attack and harm. A master of this Art can even render his body largely impervious towards techniques of a lower or equivalent cultivation level. Increases personal effective combat strength.
Some people die particularly messily in this update.
Ferenike 4 - Disaster in the Sands
Ferenike sat on top of the tallest spire of the Fortress under the huge expanse of the night sky. The thing was gold and white, and the roof was at a nearly 45 degree slant in a sharp conical tower big enough at the base to hold a moderately large mansion. Tiled in pretty white tiles of subtly varied shades it blended together to create a swirling cloud like image. Fittingly called the Cloud Glass Spire, below her butt there were a seemingly endless number of Glass Spear Engines, being carefully nursed and cared for by Array disciples of the Clan.
Tiu was down there celebrating with his sweetheart Mei Ling. The girl was a second Heavenstage like Tiu and Ferenike were and also a low ranking member of the Array group, with milk pale skin and extremely curly black hair.
Ferenike rubbed an eyebrow, pushing her now chin length and bright yellow hair out of the way. It'd really been three years since she joined the Legion. Twenty one and up on a roof towering hundreds of meters above the towering sand dunes, having climbed it with nothing but Qi and strong legs. She raised her bottle of M. Centenius Fire Flower Wine up and watched the light of the stars glitter in its cherry red liquid (she'd first encountered cherries in a pie in the Legion for her last birthday), while she fiddled with the sunburst amulet hanging from a braided Spirit Horse hair cord on her neck.
Taking a long drink she swallowed and then exhaled a misty, alcohol infused breath, which promptly caught fire as pleasant heat filled her lungs and belly. She reached out to the Qi in the red mist in front of her and started trying to shape it. Pretty pictures of her squad and the mortals she had met danced and played in front of her, a little skill with Qi mixing with the hallucinogenic properties of this wine.
Her thoughts went back to a year earlier, the images losing what little sense they had, twisting strangely at the whim of her half-dreaming mind.
...
The sound of five thousand people, so similar to her own family's home, the clank clank of their wheels over the hundred meter dunes calling her back. The hot metal house-wagon roofs and sprawling out on them in the noonday sun to cultivate.
Easy, safe.
Time passing as they passed down the Golden Swan Road, a small subsidiary that led to the Great Scorpion Road, endless white tiles the size of her hand like the scales of a great snake. Sometimes she went out beyond the cooling arrays of the road and out into the midsummer heat, baking her flesh like clay. Inside, where her blood flowed past her soul it became a boiling sea of molten energy flowing through her, sinking into her skull and her heart, where fire was beginning to thrum, out there in the heat.
...
The attack had come at dusk, the Cannibal moving with the sun at his back, eager for the loot laid out in front of them. Her voice had ached as she called for the squad. They'd arrived in flashes of Qi and kicked up dust, standing between the on-rushing death and the caravan atop a two hundred meter dune surrounded by thousands of other golden behemoths, dark troughs making small valleys, where purple flowers grew in little patches dancing in the wind.
She shuddered as she remembered the weight of the Foundation cultivator's presence, his sickly blades dripping endlessly with blood. The sand was black that day, beneath that monster's feet. Fear was hidden under patience and Legion training and the Hoplite rose up to battle the monster. It's spear was a lance of bronze, nearly faster than her eyes could track, and its shield was a golden meteor as it knocked the monster wearing the skin of a man back and buried him in the sands.
...
She shivered in the cold night air as she remembered his laughter and his hands digging into her guts. She still had faint scars from his fingers, puckered star shaped things. Only that Flood Dragon Gong Rencao had saved her having to use one of her treasures. Feather-light touches ran over them absently through her tunic top. Painful flashes of images from before she joined the Legion made her wince and finish off her wine.
A whim had her tossing it out into the Mustering Yard to shatter into pretty red sand.
Up here in the cold, on this roof separated from everything but herself and her thoughts, she was ruminating on the changes she had felt during that fight.
Of the heat rushing to her head from her heart, rumbling in her ears like an earthquake, lights in her eyes from concussions and burning shards.
Hidden from mortal sight, secreted away in her mind's eye, was a red flame. It shuddered with fury and energy, churning, and it seeped out to the rest of her body along with her blood. It had suffused her blood and veins and she felt like it should have lit them from within to shine out from her bronzed skin.
This flame towered larger than her mind could imagine, swallowing her spiritual sight as she held it in her palm between five fingers like great mountains.
Her body had shaken with its pulse.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
And under its beat her blood had flowed molten red, freakishly hot and bubbling as it boiled. Her entire body shaking, blood pouring from wounds she was too tired to count and steaming in the night air.
The Cannibal had died at the hands of the Flood Dragon Gong Rencao then, but she'd changed. Here on this roof, with a massive stack of Contribution Points taller than her burning a hole in her personal vault down below, she was going to try and find that feeling again as the cold air tickled her skin and made her so sensitive to the heat inside her.
Descending, she sought that fire within. Hours passed before she found still warm embers and laying immaterial hands to them, cradled them close and fed them Qi.
To those who might enter the Mustering Yard and look up at Cloud Glass Spire, they might see a tiny red pinprick as a crimson star was born in her fist. She gasped as her awareness bloomed, her every pore, muscle, bone, and veins thundering into her mind like an oncoming army. There ten thousand soldiers worked in her lungs, pumping Qi from the mighty furnaces of her body to the lands beyond the walls of her ribs, drawing raw power from her heart in a river of crimson beauty to power the industry of her body.
In her hand she commanded her veins to twist and turn, and like loyal soldiers they did, the bones in her fingers spinning and her muscles writhing as her fingers bent into impossible contortions.
It was like her veins were red glass, light flowing through them, shaking them with its roaring passage.
...Ironic.
The sounds of that day three years ago when Agrippa died intruded, the horrible crunches as he was crushed under eight thudding insectile feet and massive pincers while grating glass screeches filled her ears.
Then the supernal awareness slipped away and weariness slammed into her in a wave. Further attempts to re-attain that state of being failed, but she was smiling. It was possible and that was enough, and not even bad memories would stop her.
The following decades passed quickly, in the grand scheme of fate. To Ferenike though, it was like the years and months before, each day filled with some new concern or task of import, as she cultivated with a furious, frantic, intensity. Sometimes she re-gained that strange state, but it never persisted for more than a moment or two and strenuous activity caused her to lose her grip on the fire in her blood.
Tiu Shen and Mei Ling got married two years after the squad's fight with the Foundation Establishment expert, in a wonderful little ceremony in the Mustering Yard, the entire Ninth Century turning out to see it. Wasn't long before he had a beautiful little daughter he decided to call Tiu Fen. She had his green eyes and her mother's pale skin. Strong grip too in her little baby hands, and she was just so absurdly adorable Ferenike dissolved into a puddle of giggles and nonsense words when she visited his humble manor.
Ferenike slipped his daughter treats and shiny baubles she picked up in travels and patrols and told her stories of the squad's adventures. Wasn't that long before she started springing up like a cactus and getting up to an absurd amount of trouble for a teenage girl. Though, too be entirely fair, Ferenike helped so it wasn't entirely her fault.
Aside from building his family Shen didn't stand still either, his cultivation smoothly progressing as he hit the stage of Accupoint Awareness and then pushing through it to the fourth Heavenstage with typical joviality. He got taller, filled out a little more, and took to wearing his hair in a long braid and changed his green and brown-black clothing to green and silver to include his wife's color.
Gallius Armenicus spent much of his time wandering between his family's far flung ingredient fields, seeking new and wonderful forms of his and the squad's favorite dishes. Quite a few parties for birthday's and celebrations after successful missions crowded his home, to his happy complaints. Often they would go on well into the night and all crowd out whichever family holding he was using at the time, much to the consternation and bemusement of his servants. His development of a Five Fold Golden Incense Curry firmly and completely declared his victory as the best cook in the squad permanently, after it laid out everyone but Ferenike with the intensity of its flavors for three days straight. She was down for two.
Good times that. He'd been the one to feed her a line to the Centenius Fire Wines as it turns out, shortly after their encounter with that Cannibal and Flood Dragon Gong Rencao and their recovery from their injuries. She'd yet to be brave enough to try the Centenius's Stinking Beast-Repelling Brandy, though. Maybe when she was a higher stage.
Gallius had also gained a suspiciously good ability to acquire things from the strangest places, so the squad never went without whatever interesting new development or pill was available. No one was quite sure how he did it either, seemingly producing things people would want before they could think of them. And through all of that he stayed stout and slightly round, thick muscle on his arms under skin that grew a light patina as his hair darkened with the same and he rose to the beginning of the fourth Heavenstage. The boy had suitors crowding close, and more than once he'd needed to beat some back with an honest to spirits stick.
Nan Fuxi had quite a few adventures with Ferenike, where Ferenike found out that she shared ancestry with nomadic caravaners as well, though the other girl's connection was several generations back. Some intense debate and tracking of lineages found they weren't related but that Ferenike's family actually had encountered Fuxi's ancestors at one point in their travels and traded to them a comb her mother wore and passed on to Ferenike. Along with several other interesting artifacts and goods.
Amusingly as well the girl found quite a bit of time to hang out with Gallius, competing with him for the title of Best Cook in the Squad. One of these incidents happened after she drank some Fire Wine and caught a wiff of Stinking Beast-Repelling Brandy. The events that followed were a stinky, extremely tasty, and somewhat horrifying mishmash of extremely drunken cooking experiments and forays into the wilds to retrieve beast parts. Ferenike was pretty sure they hadn't actually used any of the Repelling Brandy but it seemed to set Fuxi off on a wild chase across the desert.
On her own though Fuxi ended up finding a Twin-Tailed Thunder Hawk chick and pushed to the fourth Heavenstage as she cared for it. Ferenike didn't like the creature and it didn't like her, as it clearly demonstrated by trying to eat her hair and fingers but she had a goal and she was going to get it. She had to pet the creature at least once. A cease fire was eventually declared, with it being decided that Ferenike could approach the creature if she brought it sweet cookies as tribute. It had really soft feathers and was absolutely worth her efforts. Fuxi's journey's into the wastes on patrols and exploration with Ferenike led to Fuxi developing a somewhat weathered look and much deeper tanned skin as her silver hair lengthened to the point she bound it in a low tail. And going by the appreciative looks Fuxi kept getting the weathering had done her good.
Markus Salviati still lead them from the front, his cultivation soaring to the fifth Heavenstage as he spent a goodly chunk of his time in closed door cultivation. When he came out though it was usually a whirlwind of adventures and assignments, including one memorable incident with a giant animate golden monkey statue that spoke solely in invective. That had been a harrowing misadventure as the creature nearly ate him before his Golden Milk Reed treasure whisked him away from the battle.
But, through his and Ferenike's and everyone else's activities the squad had rocketed up the hierarchy of the Ninth Century, moving quickly through the ranks below the Centurion Dragoumis. This put them in a position of being at the top of the general body of the Century, and saw Markus being promoted to an adjutant position for the Tessarian Rongnu for the Ninth Century, basically putting the squad on the fourth rung down from the Centurion's place on the ladder.
He'd probably changed the most of them, he was now growing a bushy beard, which made him seem a good bit older. Things were not well with him however, much of his seeming age brought on by grief for his mother who'd died near the end of the second decade after Ferenike joined the legions. Agatha Salviati had died defending a small village of forty thousand from three rebel Cannibal cultivators, though frankly it didn't matter to Ferenike who you kowtowed to if you were a Cannibal on the Blood Path. Agatha had sold her life to kill the three Qi Condensation cultivators and then died later from her horrible wounds, leaving Markus with only his father and older brother for close relatives.
Markus had seemed almost directionless since, with no one to take his vengeance on and had thrown himself into more and more dangerous training. He talked to the squad, sort of. But it was clear he was elsewhere. Ferenike tried to stay close whenever she wasn't cultivating, and sometimes succeeded in getting him to come out on adventures with her. So, slowly he was improving. Very, very slowly.
But Ferenike was patient. Things would get better.
It was near the beginning of the sixtieth year since Archegetes Konstantinos had ascended to Mid Nascent Soul and taken over from Elder Alexios now. Ferenike ran her fingers over her cheek and chin as she stood in the shade below a two hundred meter dune to the north east of the Fortress. Her skin was more brassy in color now, with a reddish tinge having developed once she broke into the eighth Heavenstage. She still had only minimal control over what her bloodline provided her, but she'd also managed to narrow the list down to just ten possibilities. All of them fire or desert related, and deeply connected to glass.
And her cheek under her fingertips felt less like skin now, smoother like metal. Aside from bloodline induced changes, she had changed in other ways. Gaining height so that she met or exceeded most of the Legionnaire families for height, and her hair had become even more bright yellow like bird feathers as it grew out to her shoulders. She'd taken to wearing it in a short tail at the base of her skull, and the whole ensemble made her look older now, more mature. And she was thirty eight now, a fully fledged woman in her own right. All together she knew on an intellectual level she'd become rather beautiful, and many individuals were looking at her with romantic interest in mind.
She didn't care though, not yet, and put it out of her mind as she leaned back on her Ironback Camel's saddle. She was wearing the golden robes and armor of a Legionnaire of the Ninth Legion and around her on their own mounts were her squad, and covering her head was a white and gold circular hat in the Third Sea style over a small cap of Spirit Bronze. She'd become fond of the hats recently after Fuxi found a particularly skilled mortal hat maker in Water Wings and Golden Tile City.
Around her, her squad and their mounts lingered close. She sighed, melancholy bubbling in her chest like a fetid spring.
"Thank you for following me out here everyone." She whispered quietly.
Someone thumped her, hard, on the back. She glanced back under her hat and saw it was a smiling Gallius. "Don't worry about it. We know why you need to do this."
Fuxi's hawk cried in mild smugness.
The others were all nodding and smiling, even Markus. She smiled back.
This was hunting the trail of the Thousand Glass Furnace Scorpion that killed her first mentor Agrippa Parios. She'd told them all the story in bits and pieces over the years when they got enough drink into her and had particularly mentioned her desire to hunt it down once she broke into the eighth Heavenstage and could match its cultivation when she last encountered it.
And so far their hunt was slow going, but bearing small fruit nonetheless. Legends from mortals in the area near the border of the Burnished Crags, growing steadily as funds and people continued to be poured into them, and the Hong Xuan Clan, of a scorpion with a scarred set of eyes and spear scars on its carapace. Centurion Regas, the man who had initially interrogated her all those years ago had welcomed her and her friends warmly to his outpost several weeks ago and made sure they were furnished properly for the hunting trip. The man was getting on somewhat in years by now, but his spry attitude made her smile as she remembered it.
A smile which twisted into a frown as she set her mount up the dune. Something was subtly off, a change in the air arising as she spoke to her friends.
A hand signal had her friends preparing, spreading out into loose box formation around her, Markus in the lead as they proceeded up the dune. The Qi structure of the Hoplite bubbled beneath the surface of the tension of the squad, waiting for trouble. Ferenike could almost taste a... chill, a faint absence of heat on the tip of her tongue.
They reached the top of the dune in moments, camels climbing quickly and quietly and beheld a rising dust cloud moving in their direction. Ferenike's eyes narrowed, and quickly flicked to the bottom of the cloud. Riders, a solid seven of them. Then the desert wind rushed past her face carrying the pungent scent of old blood.
Cannibal Blood Sect. A scan over a lashing standard of a pouncing golden tiger held above them. Rebels.
Good. They were not bound to spare them.
"Ready!" Markus shouted from the front, and everyone's grip tightened on their shields and spears. Their mounts tossed their heads and stamped their feet in eagerness.
"They have a Foundation expert with them! I think they're heading for the outpost!" Ferenike called out. She knew that smell of a Foundation expert Cannibal. They all did, but she was the most sensitive to it. And the destination wasn't too hard to discern from their current heading.
"Bugger." Fuxi said behind Ferenike as she pulled the cord on a signal flare. A bright red fireball shot into the sky trailing red smoke. Her hawk spread its golden wings threateningly on her shoulder and screeched a challenge.
Then there was a silvery glint in the distance from the lead rider and Ferenike had no more time to consider possible reinforcements as a wall of air and dust buffeted them.
"BRACE!" Markus ordered. Ferenike was already leaping off her mount's back, thrusting her shield forward with a yell as the Hoplite's energy surged up from the others and through her. Her inner fire screamed like a demon, swallowing her heart in her throat, her fear, her trembling muscles.
All of it became strength, her eyes and skin flashing bronze as a golden shield half a li in diameter blossomed from her own shield in a wave of manifesting Qi. A sound like a temple gong being struck by a thousand stones at once rang out over the desert as an enormous force impacted the shield. They were unmoved, the shadow of the Hoplite towering above them with a spear a li long from tip to butt in its other shadowy hand.
Unhinged laughter like nails being jammed into her ears rang from the other side of the shield as the Foundation Establishment expert leapt away before they could strike at him and landed several hundred meters away. He landed there, balanced on one foot in a martial stance, and in his hands he held two small red hammers.
"Pleased to meetcha! I'm Zu Jing and you Ferenike of the Golden Devils, are someone I've dearly wanted to meet and eat." He growled, his disgusted tone grating on the squad's ears.
"Took us a bit to hunt you down from the rumors, but then we heard about you hunting some dune critter." He said conversationally, then snorted. "Doesn't matter to me much, me and my boys will have a great deal of fun extracting the price for helping kill my brother Zu Guang from your organs!" He shouted, and then a silver flash blinded them. Collective instinct caused them to slam the shield into place and thrust with their spear at where the speeding cultivator would strike.
He screamed in effort and some pain as his headlong rush was interrupted by the flashing spear of the Hoplite, forced to bring his hammers up to shield him from the blow.
Kraka-thooom!
"Right flankers!" Fuxi shouted as her green painted nails and her pet's feathers smoked from the searing shock wave she had just unleashed. The six other cultivators were here.
"Ferenike, go!" Markus ordered. She was already moving, the ties of the Hoplite trailing behind her and then fading to quiet as she passed beyond it. Not including her in directly fighting the Foundation expert would be a problem, but they had six other problems to deal with.
One had already been thrown away by Fuxi's technique, rolling in the dust with a scream. The other five descend upon the squad like vultures. Ferenike's mount lifted her to meet them, shield out, and her spear flashed. Boom, boom her spear slammed into two of them, knocking them flying away to meet their fellow who was just getting up and slamming into him.
The rest collapsed on her, landing around her. All seemed to be in the sixth Heavenstage. She hissed through her teeth, she had to prevent them from getting close to the squad. She'd felt the ribs of one of those she'd just tossed crack under her spear, but the others...
The remaining three Cannibals leapt at her, swords and hatchets coming for her. With the squad at her back behind her they slowly retreated under the twin assaults as the others hurled attacks at Zu Jing and she held off the three sixth heavenstage cultivators. Then four, five, and finally six. The flurry of blows brought back instincts honed in a desperate battle against a Foundation Building expert by herself.
There was no time for thought or breath or consideration. Only movement and instinct and well drilled reaction, their robes and tunics flapping in the wind of their battle and her mount's stamping feet.
They were at a disadvantage here, but they only had to remain uninjured until the reinforcements from Cenurion Regas arrived.
"Charge!" Markus shouted and Ferenike grabbed up those long, quiet, ties and pushed into the formation with all her might. Qi bled out because of the distance in a warm red flood, but it helped all the same. She was close enough. Then there was a rush and boom of splitting air and then a shriek of shattering metal and the sounds of bones breaking. She paid for it as a man with a hatchet slammed it into her arm and drew blood. He got a shield in his teeth for the trouble.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh! Demon begotten goat fuckers! My arm! Men, cover my retreat and kill them!" Zu Jing shouted. Ferenike glanced back and her spirits rose as she saw Zu Jing's left arm and hammer resting in the dirt, incredible volumes of his blood staining the sand black, thickening it into a stinking morass sucking at their feet.
"Devilish Limb Sacrifice!" He shouted as he made a mudra with his other hand. Shit!
BOOM!
There was a towering explosion of greenish fire and an enormous plume of foul smelling sand which quickly settled onto everything as his arm incinerated itself into an explosion a li in diameter. The Hoplite's shield, braced by the spear, shook like a leaf as the explosion struck it and then it shattered with a sound like ringing glass. She saw her friends thrown back by the shockwave, tumbling off their mounts, which were charred to crisps.
Dammit. She looked over her friends as they righted themselves. Fuxi was beating out fire on her robes, tossing the outer layers away as the flesh on her left arm bubbled away, and Shen looked stunned as he got up from where he'd been dismounted and had painful burns all up his hands and chest. The others were alright but the Hoplite had taken too much damage, the construct's breaking as it saved their lives snapping the connections. Pain rocketed through her meridians even from the dim connection she had maintained and she nearly choked on her spit and stumbled at the impact.
"Reform!" Markus ordered hoarsely and Ferenike threw her Qi towards them again as she dashed closer, Dao-heart a towering pillar of stability even under all of this abuse, rushing to get the construct built back up before the enemy descended upon them.
Then Zu Jing's minions laughed as they leapt forward and intercepted her. Zu Jing himself whipped a cloak of screaming faces about his body and with a sucking sound like a knife pulled from a wound he was flung away by his lifesaving treasure.
"I'll find you again Ferenike!" He screamed back towards them as he disappeared into a rapidly fading dot over the horizon. The bronze mass of the Hoplite's spear began to reform, seeming to rise out of the sands as her squad wheeled and rushed to support her. She noticed that she'd been pushed away from them more than a third of a li, too large for them to cross instantly with no mounts.
But then she had other problems to deal with, one man with a pair of sickles charged too close, hair still smoking from where Fuxi had smote him with her spell earlier and his face marked with burns. Ferenike roared and a flash of her spear carved up and through his armpit, her injury doing nothing to slow her, and separated his right arm from his body! He shrieked like a tea kettle and then her spear thudded into his gut. A jerk to the side brought him into the path of another man's falling hatchet, and it carved through the top of his head out in a spray of bone, blood, and brain matter.
Five left. She glanced to the right and saw the Hoplite still struggling to form looming above her battle, the shadowy man coming together slowly. Her squad was almost here.
With the strengthening connection of the Hoplite bolstering her she stomped the dead man off her spear and leaped into the midst of the enemy, knocking first one man and then another aside with smacks of her spear and carving deep bloody wounds in their sides.
Then one of the five men before her pulled out a small gong with a demon's face carved upon it and a tiny hammer. She dashed for him and found her path stymied by two of the lesser Cannibals as a quickly recovered third slammed his sword down towards her head. With a shriek she caught their blows on her shield as the third man's sword caught her hat and flung it away. She was being pushed even further away from the squad as they raced to keep up! The bonds keeping the squad together strained.
Ding.
The gong rang. A vicious howl slammed into her bones and raced through her flesh to her ears, disrupting her flow of Qi and paralyzing her. Terror plunged into her as the image of a terrible headless ghost arose to loom above her and its disgusting black blood rained down onto her head. She was unmoved by the illusion, her Dao-heart as solid as the deep earth but she heard a scream.
Shen.
BANG!
She screamed herself as a ripping agony pulled at her spirit and the forming Hoplite popped like a bubble. In that moment of distraction and paralyzation a massive impact smashed into her body and face, shattering her Spirit Bronze cap and shield. Something snapped in her neck and fear gripped her as something bubbled in her nose and danced on her tongue. It tasted like her blood, a hint of strange sweetness to it.
She flew out of her saddle as her mount exploded into gobbets of twitching meat under the assault, her vision spinning wildly before she landed flat on her back on the dunes with her mouth tasting sand. Her head... oh god her neck was broken, twisted all the way around, so her face was pointed backwards! How was she not dead!? Then she felt the throbbing, writhing, veins in her neck full of molten glass and she knew. Her head began to crack back into the correct position as her veins pulled on her spine with fantastical strength, almost like a legion of tiny soldiers plugging a breached wall in moments.
"Ferenike's down! Shen oh gods!" Markus shouted. Then he screamed, voice gurgling.
Gallius screamed horrifically as something snapped behind Ferenike. "Got your leg!" A horrid little voice cackled.
Boom.
Her fire roared, higher than ever before. Awareness bloomed and her body was a fortress, manned by a legion of glassy soldiers.
Someone stood over her and she felt her arm shatter beneath their boot as they laughed. "I'll enjoy eating your ugly face before the boss gets back." He sniggered.
Crack!
Her head spun around on her neck and she lurched upright as red light swept over the dunes. The man above her screamed as his skin seared under her radiance. Hands clad in bloody red glass claws emerging from her flesh gripped his legs and pulled her up his body. She could see her veins through her flesh, as bright as the sun with the light illuminating the desert.
The Cannibal burned wherever she touched him, flesh smoking painfully.
Her hands wrapped around his face, his skin peeling away from her furnace hot glass claws and evaporating into reddish steam. She leaned over him and she screamed. A sound like a roaring explosion filled the battlefield, swallowing his cries for mercy as molten red glass and searing heat poured out of her mouth, her legions charging upon the enemy, and revealing his bare white skull as his eyes exploded in their sockets. Beneath him the sand boiled, running clear as water, and then solidifying as the blast of ruination ceased.
The air smelled like cinnamon and white hot glass.
She looked up and gasped, her furnace heart stuttering and the injuries held in check by her veins screaming.
Shen lay limp in the sand, staining it red, a blow having carved out one side of his chest and leaving exposed ribs in meat. His eyes stared blankly up into the cruel Heavens, hair spread out in a pool around his head. His murderer stood atop his corpse, staring in horror at Ferenike.
Her eyes flicked to the side where she heard Gallius screaming. Another Cannibal was seated on his chest, chewing on his right leg, as blood gushed from his stump. Nearby Markus was dead as a Cannibal drank blood from the stump of his neck. His head was resting in the sand at his feet, blood running off his dead lips. Fuxi was battling another Cannibal, bleeding from ravaging wounds on her left arm as she protectively held her unconscious hawk under her injured arm.
They had used the paralyzation to get the better of them while they were distracted by the explosion.
Death for these monsters, then.
"LEGIONNAIRES! FIGHT ON! WE WILL NOT DIE THIS DAY!" Her voice shattered the flow of the battlefield, drawing all attention to her as flames erupted from her eyes and mouth. She soared through the air on a plume of smoke. She pushed her body to move with her veins and blood, twisting bone and muscle as it should move. Her entire body was numb, her spine broken but healing she could feel, new connections being forged by the soldiers in her veins. Her flesh moved as bones and muscles were puppeted by her veins and blood, glowingbruises appearing on her skin as she forced herself forward. Her spear was lost in the sands.
But she needed no spear, because she was a spear. Glass exploded out of her skin, erupting from her flesh with volcanic force and coating her arm in a massive vicious spike of red glass. Like the Glass Spear Engines, she tore through the man battling Fuxi like he was wet rice paper. Her hand went through his chest and burst out in a spray of flash vaporized blood. He twitched as branches of her glass expanded through his channels and veins, invading him like an army invaded countries, and setting the land of his body afire. Fuxi's expression was murderous as she wrapped her own hand around his face and Qi surged in her channels, eyes glowing with white light.
"VENGEANCE! FOR MARKUS! FOR SHEN!" Gallius's strong voice roared and taking one of his cooking knives stabbed his enemy in the kidneys. "That's for my fucking leg asshole!" He growled as the Cannibal screamed and leaped off like a scalded cat, and scuttled away.
"VENGEANCE!" Fuxi cried as lightning raced down her arm and blew out the back of the impaled man's skull. Ferenike turned her head as she heard movement behind them. With a glurch she pulled her arm free, turned, and confronted the three remaining Cannibals where they stood over Tiu Shen's body. One was still carrying Gallius's dismembered leg.
"VENGEANCE!" She roared, blast furnace heat screaming from her mouth and melting sand and kicking it up into a storm of molten glass before her as she and her squad sprinted towards them. Even Gallius had gotten up, racing forward on Qi and sheer willpower alone with one leg, chef's knife in hand.
She saw the fear on their faces and saw them turn to run. They weren't fast enough as the Hoplite screamed into being, anger overwhelming pain and fatigue, as it arose furious and radiant. Its spear lashed out quickly, a flurry of unnumbered blows raining down like a storm upon the three men. Two died, perforated by two dozen wounds apiece. The last, with Gallius's leg, disappeared in a flash of shattering silver shards some treasure preserving his life.
Then it was over. The Hoplite faded, task partially completed.
They stopped running and Gallius collapsed against Ferenike. "Dammit!" He growled.
"Fuck!" He slapped her back angrily, aimless frustration as he clutched the stump of his leg.
Carefully Ferenike turned and laid him down on the ground, Fuxi coming close as well as she treated her own wounds. She was missing fingers and muscle from her left arm and her upper body was severely burned on that side as well. Medicine and bandages were pulled from their packs and satchels and applied to injuries. Ferenike consumed Spirit Stones like a bonfire as her neck cracked grotesquely and she felt breath move in her lungs again without her veins forcing them to pump. She coughed and nearly toppled over, barely able to stand under the weight of her injuries.
Fuxi caught her and laid her down beside Gallius. "Rest here, I'll get the others and stand watch." She said solemnly.
Then she gathered Markus Salviati and Tiu Shen and laid them down beside each other, standing over them in the desert wind as they waited. Ferenike's eyes were glued to the two men she'd known as friends, gone now. As did Fuxi and Gallius.
They weren't numb though, she could feel the rage and pain running through them and herself.
"One hundred and twenty two years, twice over. You took that from us Zu Jing. I'll find you, no matter how long it takes me." Ferenike whispered into the desert winds as she cried, barely able to breathe through her injuries.
"Vengeance." Fuxi and Gallius said in unison.
"Vengeance." Ferenike responded.
Eventually Centurion Regas was able to find them and they were transported back to the Fortress without further trouble under heavy guard and medical care. Gallius's leg was a lost cause, the wound curdling with cursed Qi and unable to be regenerated until the person who injured him died.
Fuxi would be able to grow her fingers and muscles back without too much issue, and her hawk would recover. All told she was the lightest injured of the squad.
Ferenike was locked into a bone stabilizing array, freezing her arm and neck in one position. The doctors were rather surprised she was even alive with a broken spine and able to keep walking, if slowly. Not that they let her, as they kept her in bed for the entire trip back so that her spine could heal properly.
When they arrived at the Fortress they were quickly transferred to the medical ward and left to rest and recover. Ferenike's thoughts were spinning, stuck on Shen and Markus like they had been for days. She should have given them her Lifesaving Treasures, but they'd angrily convinced her not to the last, and only, time she offered because they believed her life was more valuable. They didn't get that she held them as more valuable than hers. And now they were dead.
It sat like worms in her mouth, bitterness, causing her to frown and grimace as she laid in her bed. Her room was too quiet, the warmth of the arrays managing the temperature left too cool. Or maybe that was just her, her fire running low.
She'd figured out what it was. The Boiling Legion of Glass Body was a bloodline more than ten thousand years old, arising in the blood of the nomadic peoples who have lived in the Organ Meat Desert for uncounted generations. Sometimes they'd forged empires with it, sometimes they'd led solitary lives of martial excellence as wanderers. In time after the Golden Devil Clan was driven from the mountains the bloodline was absorbed into their territory and far flung peoples.
Now in her it had returned after more than a thousand years of absence. Or that's what the records said and the doctors she had confirmed with had told her. An amazing miracle.
It tasted bitter.
She remembered locking both Markus and Shen into a headlock and giving them each a friendly peck on the hair. She remembered laughing with them.
It wasn't worth it.
It didn't take long for Dragoumis to find her, stewing in her room's chair, adjusting the brace on her arm absently.
He was an older looking man, a Foundation Establishment expert well into his third century, with a glass eye in his left socket and shorn golden hair. His beard was carefully braided and went down to his chest, held at the end with a silver clip in the shape of a demon's skull. His bronze skin was patina'd deep greenish now, and crows feet lingered around his eyes.
Ferenike stood up with a lurch and gave him the best salute she could. "Centurion, sir!" She belted out automatically.
He nodded. "At ease."
Ferenike dropped the salute, nervous at his grim expression. She knew how she'd fucked up.
He hummed and tugged on his beard before nodding. "It is good to see you alright and recovering, along with the others."
His eyes narrowed. "Tell me what happened, in detail."
He sat on the stool across from her chair and waved a hand for her to sit as well. She did and after a sigh of pain, started her report.
Several hours passed as they talked quietly.
At the end of it his expression was dark, and regretful, as he rubbed his temple in frustration.
He sighed, dropping his hand into his lap, where he clasped it and looked at her dead in the face.
"This is very plainly a fuck up, though not one you had much if any control over. The fact this man and one of his servants is still alive is troublesome, particularly for the cities present in our southern territories." He said, narrow eyes looking at her. He continued with a question. "You're hunting him down?"
"I will. Fucker deserves a dog's death." Ferenike swore quietly.
Dragoumis nodded. "Good. I can't let you do that yet however," He waved a hand to forestall any response, though Ferenike stayed silent. "I'm promoting Nan Fuxi to adjutant for Tessarian Rongnu to replace Markus Salviati and I'm placing you in charge of training new recruits to replace your squad's losses, and trainees in general."
That...
Gods dammit that hurt. And she wasn't even sure why.
And this was him being kind. She rubbed her face with a free hand. "Yes sir." She said. She'd deal with it like she did everything else. Patience and tenacity.
He smiled, sickly and wan. "Good. The other thing is that the Salviati are breathing down my neck for what happened to their boy. You know his father and older brother. Get them to make their relatives shut up and I'll let you hunt down this Zu Jing."
She smiled. It was as wan as his. "I can do that sir, give me a few days." She said.
He shrugged. "Get it done soldier."
She paused slightly, tapping her brassy chin. Should she ask when she'd start training new recruits?
She shuddered inside, a complicated bitter knot of feelings choking her throat. She wouldn't ask.
With no other questions forthcoming, Dragoumis nodded and stood. "You'll be receiving a large sum of Contribution Points for badly injuring a Foundation Establishment expert and killing five 6th Heavenstage Qi Condensation cultivators. Use it as you see fit."
She sighed, tiredness stealing what little energy she had. "Yes sir."
He left then.
Due to her gifts and healing time on the road she was fit to walk out of her room after only a little more rest. She immediately left the Fortress and traveled on one of the Legion stable horses to the Tiu manor a few dozen li away. It was a calm, and small little oasis tucked away in a rocky cleft. Clever little defensive arrays Shen had splurged on dotted the walls, and even more places unseen. Walking down a small canyon to a circular depression of rock, filled with a small oasis fed by a waterfall to the right. The entire thing was a few li across and the rest of it aside from the lake with the waving palm trees on its shores, the space within was taken up by a large crescent of cultivated land teeming with greenery. At the end was a house of stone and imported ebony wood, three stories in a sprawling pagoda style, mixed with the arch and column dominated style of the Golden Devils.
In the fields were some of Shen's servants. Controlling the horse with one arm was a pain but she managed as she walked up the curving path to the front door. A servant in the field noted her approach and after a quick word to another beside them rushed off into the house ahead of her.
She arrived at the front courtyard unchallenged, they knew her here, and slowly dismounted as her arm ached. "My Lady, your horse?" A voice asked from her side. She jerked, and wheeled. A mortal servant stood there, unperturbed. She nodded, the wide hat she was wearing bobbing softly in her vision.
"Please." She said.
Then she turned with a sweep of golden tunic and walked up to the house.
The door opened for her, a servant standing there. "The Lady will see you in the sitting room." They said quietly.
She nodded and thanked them as she swept in, fidgeting a bit with the array brace on her neck. Their house was quiet, halls set up to be short and the rooms small and cozy. It took very little time to find Mei Ling in the sitting room. Her extremely curly hair as bound up into several simple braids at her neck and her eyes were red from shed tears.
"Ferenike!" She said and stood up, reaching out for the taller woman.
A moment's hesitation and then she came in from her uninjured side to give her a hug.
Ferenike sniffed, tears starting to leak as she wrapped her functional arm around Mei Ling. "I'm sorry." She croaked out.
If she'd been more patient and waited till they were stronger to go after that damned bug they'd have been fine, if she'd they'd accepted a life saving treasure, if she hadn't been so slow, if she'd unlocked her damned blood line earlier... if, if, if, if.
The bitter, galling knot in her stomach tightened.
"I'm sorry." She gasped, burying her head in Mei Ling's hair. The other woman's grip tightened and her head shifted under her chin.
"I'm sorry you lost him." She said thickly, and sniffed before pulling herself up and looking at Ferenike with teary eyes. "Give me a moment, please."
Ferenike nodded and sat on one of the cushioned chairs in the sitting room. Mei Ling left the room from another door and went deeper into the house, towards her daughter's room. Ferenike examined the familiar sitting room, taking her mind off of her tears. It was a simple octagonal room with rice paper wallpaper painted with flowers. White and silver ones, each the size of a pinkie nail. Among them were little spirits painted by Tiu Fen, some of them very old now from when she was a tiny babe and just figuring out the right end of a brush.
It hurt to be reminded like this. But she held onto it with both hands. She'd remember this, it was too important not too.
"She's here?" Ferenike heard the exclamation from the other side of the door and then Tiu Fen blitzed through it, bouncing the door of the wall as she towed her mother after her and latched onto Ferenike pulling them all into a big huggy circle.
She hugged Ferenike tightly and while her sore ribs groaned in protest Ferenike wrapped her arms around them as best she could and held them close.
Fen was sniffling into her tunic. "I'm sorry Fen." She said quietly into the girl's frizzy hair.
"Don't care about that!" She said, fists balling in the back of Ferenike's tunic. She looked up at the older woman with a harsh glint in her eyes. "Did you kill the fuck who did it?"
"Very thoroughly." She said with a nod.
"Then I forgive you." She said, then smacked her in the chest with a palm.
"Oowwwwwwwwwwwwww..." Ferenike groaned, coughing a little.
"Oh god oh god I'm so sorry! Ack shit shit! Fuck! Uhhhhh." Tiu Fen babbled as her hands danced over Ferenike's bent back before her mother towed her away with a tut.
"Let her catch her breath you silly daughter of mine." Mei Ling huffed, looking at Ferenike in concern as she guided her daughter and herself down to a longer lounging seat.
She waved a hand and coughed. "I'm fine." She looked at both of them and smiled, wobbly and wet. "Thank you." She said as she wiped tears out of her eyes with her uninjured hand and sat.
"Don't get hurt like this again, it isn't right." Fen said grumpily.
Ferenike snorted. "I'll try not too. It sucks." She said.
"Yes. What are you going to do now Ferenike?" Mei Ling asked her quietly, eyes sad.
Ferenike sighed. "I'm going to hunt down Zu Jing and his minions, and kill them. Already have leave from Dragoumis to do it once I sort out some things here."
Mei Ling nodded. "The Salviati? I've heard they've been making noise. Though fortunately I've also run into Markus's brother Magnus and he seemed..." She trailed off.
"Bad?" Ferenike supplied, the word utterly failing to contain the enormity of what had happened.
Mei Ling sighed and nodded. "But I think you have a good chance of getting them off Dragoumis's back if you can talk his close family around."
The Salviati weren't a large family, so it was good to hear that there were at least two people she might be able to talk to without getting shouted into the street for her troubles.
She nodded. "Thank you Mei Ling." She said with a relieved sigh as she rubbed her face with a hand.
Now came a part she was conflicted about.
Nothing for it though. She wouldn't disregard Tiu Shen's wishes by ignoring what he wanted her to do for his daughter in case... something like this happened.
"Tiu Fen." The girl perked up at her name and more formal tone as she pulled a sealed box of Spirit Stones and a scroll out of her tunic. "I know you have some talent for cultivation, seemed like all your father would talk about some day. This was something he wanted to give you himself if he came back from our trip. Something to get you started."
She said that easily, calmly, but it hurt something in her to see another one of Shen's family going out into battle and danger. Mei Ling was already bad enough, but his daughter too?
It was a heavy burden.
But with a shift of mental shoulders under the weight she offered the materials to his daughter.
She'd started crying again and took them carefully, holding them close to her chest. "Thank you." She said with a quiet sob.
After that she stayed a day there, relaxing, as much as she could now. Re-centering herself as she told Mei Ling and her daughter what her plans were in more detail before she left around mid-morning to head to the Salviati house hold where Markus had lived.
This place was larger than the Tiu manor, an actual compound built in a circle like a sun dial around an oasis arising from where a subterranean river surfaced in the desert in a boiling pool. It smelled a bit of sulfur and brimstone. From her memories it served about twenty Salviati family members, a small family of some middling status amongst the Clan for their warrior ability and knack with intelligence work.
Here Legion architecture predominated, sweeping arches and columns and colonnades all wrought in golden stone and servants bustled about the place. She was also well known here and left unchallenged, for a moment. Then one of the servants came up to her, a short fellow with cropped graying hair and with a bow inquired as to her purpose.
"I need to see Master Magnus Salviati." Ferenike told the man in quiet whisper. The man paled, and then bowed slightly twice.
"As the Lady wishes. Please, come with me. Master Magnus is meditating with his father." He murmured quickly before shuffling off at speed towards a smaller dome-like building near the one 'o clock position. Not one she'd been in before.
The elderly man ushered her in through its low door and she found it to be a descending stair into an amphitheater of sorts. There were no seats but tier after tier of candles leading down to a flat space in the middle of the room where two men sat in lotus position facing each other.
She didn't know them as well as she did Markus, but like him their eyes were blue and they had bronze beards. She looked over Magnus and his father Gaius. The older man, sitting comfortably in the seventh Heavenstage, had a beard that was thickly braided into three and hung down to his navel while the younger man, Magnus had a more unkempt thing hanging to the middle of his chest. Her eyes danced over the five scars trailing across Gaius's face and down to his throat as they always did and then went on to examine Magnus. His brown eyes opened and latched onto hers as she reached the last step and paused, his whipcord lean chest rising and then he slumped with a sigh. His fifth Heavenstage cultivation thrummed beneath his father and together with hers it filled the room to the ceiling, a roiling feeling of turmoil.
Both looked haggard, stretched thin and wan with their patina'd flesh waxy in the light of the hundreds of sweet smelling candles.
Gaius opened his eyes and turned to look at her. In his hazel orbs she saw only a blackness, his pupils almost too large for sanity, swallowing the irises. He grumbled and waved a hand with a snapping sleeve.
"Sit Ferenike, girl." He snapped in a harsh croak.
She hurried over and once she reached a point close to both of them knelt and then pressed her forehead into the dirt beneath her in kowtow. Their little tableau formed a small triangle in the middle of that silent room.
She blinked her eyes, dust and grief pulling tears to the surface, and took a thick breath. "I'm sorry."
There was a deep sigh from Gaius, and a small hitch in Magnus's regular breathing.
"...I know." The elder Salviati said, his voice full of despair.
Magnus coughed, almost hacking as he cleared his throat. "We know." He said in a rasp.
She struggled to hide her sobs from these two men, that isn't what she needed now. A few breaths and with a fantastic mental effort she was able to push it down.
"Sit up girl and tell us why you're here." One of them croaked. She wasn't sure which one.
Slowly she got up and looked at them both. They were frowning, hazel and brown eyes intense on her face, but they weren't angry. Just sad. Grieving.
"I'd like to offer a favor to the Salviati. The weight of failure lies with me most greatly for precipitating the trip that led to your son, your brother's, death." She said slowly.
Magnus snorts, and shakes his head. "Is my brother's killer really dead?" He asked, seeming almost morbidly amused by some irony he saw.
"Yes. Dead and rendered into scraps of flesh and bone by the Hoplite formation." She said as she nodded.
"That's good." They both whispered at once.
A weight seemed to lift from their shoulders. "We'd received Dragoumis's report. But its... it's good to hear from you, who was so close to Markus." Gaius said gently.
He huffed and waved at his sun. She turned away to give him privacy as his eyes glittered.
Markus's brother wasn't doing much better, breathing heavily as emotions boiled in his chest.
"You said a favor?" He asked her.
She nodded. "Too satisfy the family of Salviati. To start with, half of the Contribution Points I earned, converted into Spirit Stones as weregild."
Gaius choked and snorted. Magnus looked vaguely appaled.
Oh, that hadn't been the right thing to say.
Magnus chuckled and shook his head. "We both know weregild isn't necessary, no matter what some in the family say when they get really angry. You loved Markus like a brother, and I'll take no weregild."
Gaius sighed. "Magnus..." He muttered.
"No father, we had this discussion already. It isn't right. She has nothing but her skills and her friends. And Markus would say we were both idiots for accepting it." He said, tone barbed.
Gaius subsided. "You're right, you're right..." He settled, watching them silently. Magnus turned back to Ferenike.
"No weregild is necessary for the family of Salviati. However... we both need something we can take to the others. I think, one hundred years of service as a trainer for our children would do." There was a look in his eye she didn't quite get when he said that, but it seemed almost sympathetic.
He continued. "As much as the family might dislike what happened, very little is directly aimed at you specifically. Furthermore, bring us the bodies of Zu Jing and his minions. We already know you'll be hunting him. Our bone carvers wish to make use of his skull and viscera."
She nodded. That was... easy. The thought of training Salviati kids unsettled her nearly as much as training new recruits for her squad did though she couldn't figure out why, the knot of feelings too complicated to dig apart for clarity even under her patient ministration.
"I respect the Salviati greatly. Is there anything else I could do for you?" She asked.
Gaius shook his head, interjecting again. "No. No, I only wish to grieve for my youngest son now. Leave us, Ferenike of the Golden Devils." He said with a weary wave of his hand.
She bowed again and whispered. "Yes sir."
Then she stood and retreated, as she neared the top of the steps, Magnus's whispered voice reached her ears. "Do not return to this place again. We will seek you out when the time comes."
With that ominous command given she had one last place to be, now that she had completed her duties, it was time for the most important obligation of all.
She went to find Gallius and Fuxi.
Travelling by Spirit Horse brought her back to the Fortress and then past it, to arrive at a tiny Armenicus holding as the sun was setting. Gallius had sent her a message at the Tiu manor that he was staying here and to come when she could. Now she was and as she got closer and closer, topping the rise and view the small single story cottage she felt like she was coming home.
Home to an empty, broken, grieving home but home all the same.
She went down the ridge and out into the small garden Gallius had growing here. A post by the door provided a place for her to tie her horse off to and then with a knock she stepped in.
"Ferenike? That you?" Gallius's deep voice asked from within the main room. He was sitting behind a long counter separating the room from the kitchen area. She looked at him, tilting up her hat. He looked tired, his skin looser, having lost weight on the journey back to the Fortress. More shockingly though was that he'd fallen all the way down to the first Heavenstage.
He smiled slightly when he saw her eyes widen. "Yeah. Not doing the best right now. Losing that leg took a lot out of me. But well..."
He was interrupted by Nan Fuxi's voice stabbing into the conversation from behind a beaded screen into another room in the small home. "And you'll get better you big rock, you can trust me on that much. No moping!" She yelled and then she was waltzing out, injured hand bandaged, her hawk dozing on her shoulder.
He laughed. "Thanks Fuxi."
His expression focused for a moment and then he moved, gliding out from behind the counter on a cushioned brass disk about a meter wide. He was seated in half a lotus position, his missing leg's pant buttoned up near his thigh.
She couldn't really remove her eyes from it.
"Hey, hey. Fere, look at me." He said gently. She looked up and met his eyes, Fuxi looking concerned besides him.
"I'll be alright. I know you can hunt down the guy who did this and then I'll get another chance to build back up, and I'm not falling anymore." He said firmly.
She nodded and stepped out of the door. The room was a small sitting room, chairs and two tables put about it in a cozy pattern, with a hearth to her left banked low. At the back was the counter and the kitchen beyond it and to the right of that was the room Fuxi had come through.
Ferenike blinked and turned to the silver haired girl and looked at her curiously.
Fuxi sighed at her confused look. "I'm here to make sure you have a home to come back to dummy."
Ferenike choked, her eyes aching. She held her mouth to her hand and nodded. She couldn't speak, breath sawing in and out as she tried to control herself.
Strong arms enfolded her from two directions as her two surviving friends hugged her tightly.
"Shhhh, it's okay." Fuxi said, gently rocking the bigger woman. "We're gonna be okay."
She felt them gripping onto her hands, squeezing so tight it hurt. She nodded.
She coughed. "I'm going to find Flood Dragon Gong Rencao. And then I'm going to hunt down Zu Jing and his minion, so that I can kill them and Gallius can heal. And then I'm going to come back and train a bunch of wet behind the ears newbies."
Fuxi laughed wetly and Gallius chuckled. "Gong Rencao eh? That guy was an interesting fellow last we saw him when he helped kill Zu Guang. Any ideas where to find him?" He asked.
"I have some, gossip had some Flood Dragons popping up around Triumphant Jade City, in the east. I'll start there." Ferenike said as she pulled them close, whispering it into their hair.
She felt them nod and squeeze her tight. "We'll get through this together." Fuxi said. "I trust you."
The knot of bitterness, slowly, began to dissolve.
"I trust you both too. Together." Ferenike said.
"Together." They repeated.
@occipitallobe another omake for you! This monster crawled out of my brain now, and we're moving into the next arc of her adventures for turn 4. For my Bonus I'd like the Boiling Legion of Glass Body to be a Cool Thing that boosts her ability to fight up small realms/combat ability, though how much I leave totally up to you.
It's been a lot of fun writing in the setting of your quest!
I fell like you are ignoring that the clan are demonic cultivators. One of the few demonic cultivator powers in the region. Whereas the "righteous" powers outnumber our one clan by a lot. We do not want to be gained up on.
Making the Scorpion Road safer would make attacking our clan for that road more of a benefit for the righteous clans to try for.
Execpt right now the cost isn't worth it for the Righteous powers. Ignoring that they're in stalemate, we don't have sufficient resources for them to loot. Most of the resources are under the Jingshen,
While we ourselves are valuable, it being our lands means that incidents where we would be outnumbered are incredibly rare. Not even accounting the attrition cost for bringing such numbers into the desert.
The only time this would be worth it would be when the Righteous powers are no longer bleeding manpower to the Demonic sects and they want to go for us and the Jingshen.
The Jingshen are the wealthiest and thus would provide the most loot. The only reason they're paying us is because of our strength.
The Heaven's curse that blesses those who kill a Golden Devil would make the cost of fighting the golden devil's for the improved road a factor in wether or not to attack for the riches. In addition to being demonic cultivators thus the righteous cultivators have the duty to take from the golden devils.
As long as they're at war, the most that can be sent to attack us would be raiding parties, quick in and out strikes because sending the whole force would be losing the front against the Demonic Sects, which will affect their home bases pretty badly
"One hundred and twenty two years, twice over. You took that from us Zu Jing. I'll find you, no matter how long it takes me." Ferenike whispered into the desert winds as she cried, barely able to breathe through her injuries.
Oh yes, the mainstay of any Xianxia Tale, the pursuit of Vengeance! Execellent work, i really admire how you managed to make it encompass years. I only really able to write mine as scenes/snapshots, so just the character development within the omake itself was interesting
Oh yes, the mainstay of any Xianxia Tale, the pursuit of Vengeance! Execellent work, i really admire how you managed to make it encompass years. I only really able to write mine as scenes/snapshots, so just the character development within the omake itself was interesting
Everything before this was set up for her "adolescence", for a certain value of the term in this sense it was more about her character baseline not being established yet, and from now on we get to deal with a more mature and experienced Ferenike, bringing victory wherever she goes as her name declares.
And of course this was also about really tying her into the setting with a quest to another entire city, and a tie of debt to the Salviati tying her tighter to the Golden Devils, and her training job in the future providing a thing to aim for as a positive goal beyond the vengeance.
And of course this was also about really tying her into the setting with a quest to another entire city, and a tie of debt to the Salviati tying her tighter to the Golden Devils, and her training job in the future providing a thing to aim for as a positive goal beyond the vengeance.
and the fearsome, alien Golden Devils kill according to their own laws, skinning and mutilating those cultivators who are brave enough to stand against them
Cursed by the Heavens, they use evil magics, poisons, and mutilation without a thought. Killing one brings the blessings of Heaven upon a cultivator, but they are rarely found alone. Their capability at fighting in unison is tremendous, and even a powerful and clever cultivator may be brought down by such numbers. They are kept in line by fear of the Righteous Path, and guard the Scorpion Road to allow the trade in Spirit Stones to flow into the mountains and plains. They charge dearly for the privilege, though.
I think this is in reference to the stuff that edges toward Blood Path of making use of enemy cultivator's hardened bones, feeding their muscles to beasts, and other stuff in our arrays like Child Corpse Gulper's skull.
I think this is in reference to the stuff that edges toward Blood Path of making use of enemy cultivator's hardened bones, feeding their muscles to beasts, and other stuff in our arrays like Child Corpse Gulper's skull.
Reduce the enemy into parts, Reuse the parts into useful stuff and Recycle the noticeable stuff like skulls as presents so people know what we do to them if they cross us.
Reduce the enemy into parts, Reuse the parts into useful stuff and Recycle the noticeable stuff like skulls as presents so people know what we do to them if they cross us.
