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

[occipitallobe]

So the Cloud Demon Cave is now open to Good Seeds this turn.

It operates a little differently to other Secret Realms in three ways.

Normal Secret Realms are a maximum of Four (4) Fate Rolls, with more risk and more reward per roll. They are very swingy. You can be kicked out before you get four rolls, though, and realistically you should expect to use at least one Life-Saving Treasure.

The Cloud Demon Cave is a big collaborative endeavour which has a number of Floors.

Each Floor comes with a Clear Reward - that is, being the first person in offers a bigger boon for clearing a Floor. Once a Floor is cleared, it becomes much easier for subsequent characters to clear, but also offers a much smaller reward.

Secondly, each character can only go in once. Your Effective Cultivation is big here - being more powerful and at the top of your Great Realm really helps. Going in at the 1st Heavenstage is unlikely to yield you many rewards. So there is a strong tradeoff between 'waiting to be more powerful' and 'going in first to get the cool early rewards'.

Thirdly, you can only clear stages at or above your Great Realm. Foundation Establishment cultivators can't go steal all the Qi Condensation treasures, for fairness's sake. They just skip those floors automatically and they're not cleared.

Unlike a normal Fate roll (which goes to bad), you either Clear or Fail a floor. If you Fail, you roll on a Wound Table which is not effected by your Fate Bonuses (or threadmarking bonuses), so the risks are very real even if you've written one million words this turn.

It also has more rewards than normal Fate rolls.

The Cloud Demon Caves offer Cultivation, Impact, Lifespan Treasures, Tribulation Treasures, Life Saving Treasures, and Plot Coupons - the latter open up some cool options and plot-lines for the characters who unlock them. The latter of course are seen much more in the latter stages of the Cloud Demon Caves. In the higher echelons of the Cloud Demon Caves there are also Clan Bonuses of various sorts, Secret Treasures that offer interesting and one-off effects unique to your characters, and even one-off Manuel Bonuses allowing him to operate at a much higher level in combat briefly.

It's a bit of an experimental idea, so don't feel compelled to have your Good Seed enter, but from this turn onwards it is now open to all Good Seeds who have not already entered.

 

[occipitallobe]

Diaxiang sat in the air, gesticulating with one hand.

Below him the bees marched, and danced, the traces of human blood he'd placed in them some months ago serving to puppet their bodies to his will. It wasn't a Beast Taming art in truth, but it was enough to interfere with Xia Xinyue's control.

She looked up at him and snarled, trying to wrest control from him as she herself flew surrounded by her swarm.

Honestly, it was refreshing. Corpse Gulper had constantly shifted between licking his boots and plotting against him. If he'd been killed during a proper plot to seize power that had left his apprentice in charge, it wouldn't have been so punishing. It wasn't that just the boy he'd raised betrayed him and tried to kill him, it's that he did it so stupidly. He had, he thoughts, been too lenient. Too willing to let his apprentice make his own mistakes, discover the truths about the world that were available to him in his own way. It had killed him, and it had ended his Sect.

Xia Xinyue was named the Hive Queen in the Devil Bee Sect. Amongst the people of the Verdant South, she was known by another name. Buzzing Apocalypse. Her ability to command hundreds of thousands of bees from afar made her able to strike without exposing herself, and her raids on the Yu Clan were a thing of legend. Her failed strike at the Divine Tunist Sect a century ago had left her dangerously exposed, and that had led to the rise of her junior, Lin Gengxin.

Both talents. Xinyue was only six hundred years old, and Gengxin was four hundred and thirty. Even for Blood Path that was a mighty accomplishment, but it had left them untempered in many ways.

The bees swarmed at him, and Old Cannibal simply tore them into pieces, blood worming its way out of their bodies, slicing and tearing as it did so. Thousands of Devil Bees fell from the sky, screaming in agony before their deaths.

He huffed.

"Xinyue, why are you here?"

She looked at him imperiously. She was a peculiar-looking woman, he had to admit. She had the blonde hair of the Golden Devils, but lacked their larger eyes. Despite that, her eyes were blue as the sky, and she herself was quite plump. One of the Core Formation elders he'd disassembled for information when he'd first arrived at the Devil Bee Sect had described her as a slim woman, a 'true jade beauty'. With that in mind, he suspected she cultivated a body cultivation art that allowed her to resist poisons, and was probably made more effective the heavier she was. He himself had briefly cultivated the Nail-Forging Poison-Imparting Art in his youth, allowing him to temper his fingernails and toenails, and even infuse most poisons into them provided the dosage was small enough, providing him both another offensive means and some minor immunity against all poisons. They had left his toenails and fingernails a viridescent shade of green, of course, but that was a small price to pay.

She looked up at him.

"Gengxin said you were lecturing. I refuse to be left out."

He smiled benignly.

"This was a lecture more suited to Lin Gengxin, but as I previously mentioned, you are both welcome to any of my lectures."

It had proven difficult at first to get the two women to listen to his teachings. Threats could not truly teach, and he had no desire to bribe or cajole. Instead, he merely offered lectures to one or the other, and made it known he would not prevent the other one showing up. They spied on each other - and him - relentlessly, and their rivalry did all the work he might have otherwise had to do.

Moments later, Lin Gengxin flew down, the Mistress of Seven Poisons looking at Xia Xinyue with barely-restrained fury.

Diaxiang clapped his hands.

"Good! We can begin. Firstly, with questions. Are there any thoughts on our last lecture?"

Xinyue spoke.

"We attacked the Saber Palace, killing some insignificant rats. We were then driven off, taking little loot and gaining no cultivation for our efforts. I have thought on this, and there are many answers. Will you finally give me the truth today?"

He smiled.

"Yes. Four hundred years ago I obtained a copy of On Solved and Insoluble Mysteries, by Ioannes Meliae. A brilliant map, who established several theories I had considered but had not been able to flesh out. I suggest you try and arrange for the theft of a copy from the Golden Devils - Konstantinos mocked me in Emperor Peafowl City with its name, and only a fool lets a defeat go to waste."

He looked at the two. They were both sitting patiently, listening. Good.

"The truth is not so complicated. The two of you cannot work together, so you look for a short-term future where one consumes the other, or, more ideally, consumes me. Conversely, I need to you exert control in the Devil Bee Sect, so I must not consume you. This tension between your desires and mine is the cause of your confusion. You believe ultimately that I am aiming to destroy you in some sense, whether that be an ultimate betrayal to found my new Sect, or misuse of you to weaken you relative to myself. Meliae wrote about the Blood Path Dilemma - where two Blood Path cultivators might wish to consume mortals in a city. If they both restrain themselves and eat a few and allow the population to recover, they do well. If they both gorge themselves, they do worse. Conversely, if one gorges and one does not, the gorger grows much more powerful and can consume his rival to boot. So the best decision is always to gorge."

Xinyue looked bored.

"This is known. What else do you have to say?"

He sighed.

"Old Konstantinos wins because the Golden Devils are excellent at co-operating. They restrain themselves. Conversely, I lost, not because of any personal deficiency, but because I cannot reach sufficient heights to conquer the Region on my own, but neither can I trust my subordinates to act in the interest of something greater. This is not an easily soluble problem, in truth. Nascent-level binding artifacts are limited in number, scope, and do not work so well for Nascents of differing strengths."

"So, why the Saber Palace?"

"It was an example. To weaken the Saber Palace will cause them to retreat like a turtle into its shell, allowing us to strike at the Yu Clan, Chuan Clan, the Joyful Blacksmiths and even the Great Drunkards. Confused and without a leader, there will be an extended period of time in which the Verdant South will not be able to resist us. A more sensible strategy for me if I wished to advance my cultivation would be to kill one or both of you, or to misuse you in such a way you were wounded or weakened against the Saber Palace. Conversely, I have shown my hand - I wish for you to be strong, able to run rampant over our enemies in the Verdant South, and ultimately for you to rise into Mid Nascent Soul each, leading your own glorious Blood Path factions. Fools wrestle one another off the ladder to escape a flooding well, and all drown. Sensible people simply climb one at a time, sacrificing the weakest or those who cannot speak in their own defense where necessary."

Gengxin smiled at him. She was plain - drab, even - for a Nascent Soul, and it was surprisingly difficult to keep his attention on her for more than a few moments. She simply slipped out of the mind when not beign focused on, and for a moment he was concerned she had poisoned him again.

"Yet you cannot prevent us from plotting against you, and trying to kill you. Just like your former apprentice, Corpse Gulper."

Old Cannibal stood up midair, and cracked his back, stretching this way and that.

"A fool gives into despair because he has been betrayed once. The grand project of forming a true Blood Path power is no easy task. You might think me foolish for trusting once again, but what other alternative is there? Eat one of you, kill the other, and rule in these mountains until Konstantinos or Strength Purity dig me out of them? I intend to trust you two as I trusted my traitorous disciple. Perhaps you will betray me and eat me. Or perhaps we will rise to power unheard-of together."

He leapt down out of the air, landing on the ground lightly.

"In either case, both of you will need to prepare your finest warriors, your swarms, pull together what disciples you can. Let me show you my sincerity by feeding you the Chuan Clan."

 

[occipitallobe]

Bhrigu cursed, and limped. Twenty years after being driven out of the benighted Third Sea by that worthless whore and the traces of lightning still lingered.

He hated them. Hated the old man, hated the dead woman.

Most of all, he hated Anush Naag. The other man had almost killed him at Jharkand, and would have if his grandfather hadn't interfered.

Everything had been going smoothly. His friendship with Anush, the luck he had when he had found the Imperial Heavenly Star. From being his grandfather's least-favored dog of a grandson to someone of might, someone of worth. Cultivation had gone from difficult to nothing but ease, his path smoothed in front of him. Breaking through to what the savages called Core Formation had been easier than he could've imagined, the Star allowing him to walk the path of Heaven's Prince. Beloved by the Heavens themselves, every barrier was made as nothing to him, and Nascent Soul - he reminded himself to think as the savages did to prepare for the next Hunt - had not been overly difficult.

He remembered seeing it. The Firmament Key in that hands of Anush's little sister. The girl who had been so annoying growing up, who had seen him as a brother.

He had longed for it, the Star within his dantian making him desire it constantly, making him feel a hunger, a desire he had never felt. A need to claim it, no matter the cost.

In the end, the choice had been easy. Remain a nothing and a nobody, or take everything, no matter the cost to the people he chose to step on. First had come the girl, and from there he had claimed the Firmament Key. It could draw on the power of Heaven itself, a direct link to the light and fury of the stars above. For the Naag, it had merely been a key. For the Heavenly Prince Bhrigu, on the other hand, he could draw on the Imperial Heavenly Star, turning in to a weapon of unimaginable worth. It was dark, now, however. A few minutes every century, but it was enough. He suspected even his grandfather would have some difficulty dealing with him while he was using the Key.

No matter.

He would return in but a year's time, and now the time was close he could draw on the powers of the Key to begin opening the way for himself. He was not, according to the rules of the Iron Pillar, technically supposed to be involved in the Trials. Only by using the Firmament Key could he reach the Third Sea. But with it... he felt the desire rise in him. The promise that the Heavenly Star had made, the glory he had felt slaughtering the devils that inhabited those benighted lands. The power not yet gained - for Anush Naag was the rightful heir to the Firmament Key.

For now.

Once the last of the Naag was dead, it would fall to him, and everything would fall into place.

He began preparing the visions, opening the way between the Seas. It was easy enough to open doorways enough for Qi Condensation fragments of his consciousness to enter, and so he did. A massive portal of shifting, swirling space, all purples and oranges and blues and yellows, the colour and shape changing from moment to moment. At the very end, a tiny doorway leading into the Third Sea, the desert shining in the morning sun below.

Widening the doorway with the power of the Key, he saw...

The Naag!

The hated Prince, striking out with snake and spear.

No.

The hated Prince, impaled on an iron pillar.

No, it was...

The hated Prince, closing the doorway in front of him, laughing scornfully.

All three visions merged, and the fear he had felt at Jharkand rose in him again. He pushed with his will, and-

He fell backwards, two fangs neatly puncturing the skin of his hand. He cried out in fear, and the way began to close.

The Key flickered, and the light within it died.

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

All seven Sage Clans had gathered there to demand an explanation from him, that year. Old Bhrigu himself took his name from the Sage Clan he was descended from, though his own personal dynasty - the Randhawa Dynasty - was far greater than the other remnants of his Clan.

Most Clans were like that - the bloodlines of the Sage Clans could not be compromised, but they were mere extra identities on top of the dynasties they ruled. The era of the Saptarishi was long gone, and while that bloodline granted advantages, and brought alignment with certain Karmic Treasures, one's power was far more important.

He still remembered the day his foolish grandson had attacked the Naag, and the reprisals that had come. While the Naag were not popular, they had allies among the Sage Clans. Their nature as guardians of the Bronze Demon Hunt had made them valuable, and Old Kutsa and Vasistha had both challenged him. If the matter had not been a fait accompli by the time they had arrived... he suspected there might have been war. But Anush Naag had disappeared, believed dead until recently. His grandson had managed to activate the Hunt without the Naag, and the war that was brewing had disappeared. He had paid tremendous fines, of course, and Old Kutsa had personally seized the mani-chaka he had spent the last three thousand years condensing from moonlight.

His idiot grandson had wasted all that time and power for some Naag girl, and had almost died to Anush before he'd intervened and wiped out the rest of the family. He still wasn't sure what had happened to the Ninth Prince, but he had, at the time, doubted it would matter.

This year, however...

He had found his namesake screaming, in the midst of killing his servants when he had entered.

"Boy!", he shouted, Old Bhrigu's power rising within him. His grandson had not been able to resist, though Old Bhrigu had found it necessary to wipe the memory of the surviving servants before sending them off.

Pinning him in midair for a few minutes, he looked at the young man.

"What has happened? Tell me."

His grandson babbled, pointing at a snakebite on his hand, cursing at his peculiar keyblade artifact.

Old Bhrigu clenched his fist, delivering pain through his grandson's meridians. Enough to shock him out of his little lapse.

Tears sprung to his eyes, and Old Bhrigu casually slapped him across the face, once, twice, and three times.

"What is it, boy?"

"The Key. I... I can't enter the Hunt."

Old Bhrigu's blood ran cold. If the Hunt failed... there would be more reparations to pay.

"The Hunt will not happen?"

"No, no. The Hunt will happen. I will not be able to enter!"

He relaxed.

"So? I know you want to kill the Naag, but this is the Third Sea, grandson. Their Atman Manifest cultivators are weak, and take forever to arise. He will not challenge you for centuries. Take some time. Kill him at your leisure."

Old Bhrigu shook his head. Honestly. Taking another hundred years to kill an enemy wasn't exactly the worst thing, especially an enemy banished to the weakest Sea of all. Perhaps the fear would temper his grandson's will, something he desperately needed.

"No... he blocked me.... he blocked me from coming..."

Old Bhrigu shook his head.

"So? It is a thousand times easier to block travel between the Seas than it is to travel them. Opening a spatial corridor is the work of a master, or one with the correct artifact. Even a great fool can shatter such a doorway, however."

His grandson looked up at him.

"Use your power. Send me there."

He slapped his grandson again, a tooth coming loose. He had beaten him much worse than this when he had taken the Naag girl - the cost of it - but this was just entitlement.

"I am not weakening my own cultivation to open a spatial corridor between two Seas so you can hunt down your childhood friend who regressed to mortality."

He slapped him again. A jaw cracked this time. He pulled the next slap, though the broken jaw left his grandson weeping. So weak. The Heavenly Treasure he had obtained meant his path was smoothed and he did not suffer as other cultivators did, but his will was untempered entirely.

"Idiot boy. You cost me so much and now you think to ask for more? Without the protection of the Pillar of the Hunt, how do you intend to maintain your cultivation? Your power would leave you rapidly, and you would be weak and slain by the ants who live there."

He threw his grandson into the corner of the room, blood streaming from his mouth.

"Clean this up, and spend another hundred years in seclusion. If you can't figure out a way to kill your little friend, don't expect me to do everything for you."

He really had neglected his grandson's education. The boy would need to be tempered.

 

[occipitallobe]

The bells clanged.

Manuel felt it shrieking in his soul, the alarm he had heard fifteen times before. The first time he had been but a mortal boy, living in the foothills of the great mountains.

The second and third he had been a Qi Condensation cultivator, fighting desperately to survive, thrown callously into the front-lines to die to preserve better talents. He had hated the Elders for that then.

He chuckled wryly, though the noise stuck in his throat. He supposed he still hated the Grand Elder for that now.

The fifteenth he had lost his apprentice, a friend, and a friendship. He had sacrificed thousands upon thousands of cultivators for an end he could now begin to grasp at. A hope he had previously not dared to reach for. He had expanded the territory and power of the Clan, the first expansion of such size and power in well over three and a half thousand years. The cost had been immense, but perhaps... perhaps it could be worth it.

He sat and meditated almost eighty li beneath the surface of the desert, the bells screaming in his ears, in his mind. He remembered being a young boy, almost dying. The transformation into the butcherbird-man creature he had once become. The loss of cultivation, and his quest for a cure. Where he had first seen Alexios, though he had not known it at the time. He had thought the Core Formation elder a pompous bully, and nothing he had seen in the following thousand years had changed his mind. It was just that he was their pompous bully. There was something to be said for bullying those who wanted to kill you.

The horror of the torture he had suffered in Core Formation. Seizing his Cleaver from a cultivator he had slain when he shattered the tokens of seven in a single blow.

For all the tortures and the misery throughout the lower stages, Nascent Soul had been worse.

All the power in the world, and if he moved a finger he would doom the Clan. Watching and waiting by the side as his juniors perished one after the other, unable to act. Unable to do anything. He could shatter mountains, slaughter armies, and boil lakes into steam, all with less effort than it took an ordinary mortal to complete an ordinary day's work.

He loathed it, and the fear that gnawed at him now was greater than ever. Would he forced to move again? Forced to fight another Nascent Soul he had in truth no hope of equalling, one for whom the only counter was the sacrifice of a Core Formation elder willing to trigger the most powerful lightning she could? Even that would not work twice, he suspected.

The terror rose up in him like bile from his stomach, as the first set of bells continually sounded. They sounded in the ears of every Golden Devil, every last cultivator of the optimatoi. Though you could only hear those bells you were equal to - Qi Condensation juniors would not hear the bells for Core Formation.

His hands shook, and he worried. If Bhrigu returned, wielding the artifact he had a century ago, bent on revenge... what could he do to stop him? All the Nascent Wills in the world would not, and he was not about to throw away his life to chase after possible Spirit Severing artifacts in Turtlebone Mountain.

He had talked to Anush Naag, however. The Ninth Prince had devised a method, he claimed, that would help him avoid Bhrigu entirely.

He didn't pry - better not to know a secret if you were at risk. He had hidden himself deep beneath the surface, as well. Bhrigu would not be able to find him, and with that... there would be little enough for the other man to do.

The bells rang again, their ringing neverending.

He meditated some more. A week passed, and he assiduously did not leave his cave. Did not search out information. Did not take a single action that could be construed as helping his juniors, and did not look. Looking was what had killed Alexios, and being caught might spell the end of the Clan. He did not understand why Anush Naag was crucial to the survival of the optimatoi, only that he was in some peculiar way. Previously he had simply sat in the Dawn Fortress, but he could not afford to either be caught by Bhrigu or to draw the ire of one of their Spirit Severing Dao Guardians.

A second bell. Foundation Establishment. The fear continued to rise, and he waited.

He meditated further. A month, this time. Meditation was perhaps the wrong term. He simply waited, seeing if their doom was upon them. Even if Bhrigu could not find the Ninth Prince, could not find him... he would not fool himself into thinking the man would not wreak havoc. The end of the Clan was still possible if he was infuriated enough. Manuel could only hide, and hope there was some limit to his ability to slay those weaker than him. Or hope that he would not arrive at all.

A third bell. Core Formation. He breathed deeply, waiting.

Four months passed after this. In the last days of the fourth month the fear came upon him more greatly. Had he in his foolishness ended the Clan? Was he to be the last Nascent Soul to guide them, despite his best efforts? He had not been so terrified as Bhrigu had killed his Elders and nearly defiled and killed him, not been so terrified even when Alexios has died. He waited for the bell to ring, for their end to be pronounced.

He heard....

Nothing.

No more bells. He waited for another week, and yet there was nothing.

He shook all over, and wept in the dark by himself. They had a little more time. The Trials were a terror to his people, a wound bleeding endlessly, but they were not yet their end. They would continue.

 

[occipitallobe]

Achille Adephos
Fate: Even Achille was not immune to Aasmi. One of the Indomitable Thirteen, nearly killed in a moment. Furious at the constant interruptions, Aasmi summoned a partial manifestation of her Star, scorching the earth around her, and nearly killing Achille before the gates of abandoned Pleuron. He escaped through use of a treasure, but only just.
Impact: 6 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 2-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 140 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of Turn)

Alastor Cheimos
Fate: Aasmi tore through the Foundation cultivators like paper, chasing Rina Callista. The other woman was unfortunate - never intending to flee towards her fellow cultivators, yet managing to come on them time and time again. Alastor almost died, and only the use of a treasure saved him.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of Turn)

Anastasia Outi
Fate: Anastasia like some many others suffered at the hands of Aasmi Bhardjav. The other woman merely looked at her, igniting her acupoints and sending fire down her meridians, nearly killing her. She managed to save herself, but was wounded and had to drag herself into hiding.
Impact: 1 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Aurelius Mancinus
Fate: Aurelius died, trying to save a young man he had befriended, another First Heavenstage cultivator. He died in moments, thankfully not seeing the death of his friend before he passed.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 22 (+0)
Health: Crippled --> Dead

Daedalus Khimaira
Fate: Daedalus nearly died, hunted by a furious Fire Tortoise seeking goatmen. Saving himself with a treasure, he was then wounded by Trial Hunters, compounding bad to worse.
Impact: 3 (+0)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 141 (+3)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Eirene of Nowhere
Fate: Eirene meditated on her Dao, seeking to break through. She was a very long time away, and shattered the tokens of many who sought her out to slay her. Still... ascension was so far away. Would she ever reach it?
Impact: 12 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage (12 turns from FB)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 209 (+0)
Health: Wounded --> Lightly Wounded

Jiang Chrysanthos/Chrys
Fate: Chrys managed to heal some more, and spent his time hidden away with a small tribe of goatmen who had migrated north. Fending off the advances of one particularly randy goatman, he made friends with several and saved them from a Fire Tortoise in return for their aid.
Impact: 1 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Wounded --> Lightly Wounded

Juturna Cerintha
Fate: Juturna healed, most of her wounds melting away. In the Trials she was hunted, but escaped through paying a mortal boy to show her a secret pass through a nearby set of hills.
Impact: 1 (+0)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 120 (+3)
Health: Wounded --> Lightly Wounded

Lihua Kokkinos
Fate: Lihua Kokkinos saw Rina Callista fleeing. With her newfound Foundation Establishment power, Lihua sought to help. A single motion batted her away, consuming a defensive treasure and leaving her near-dead. Only the intervention of Jin Muyi a few days later saved her from a wandering band of Trial Hunters.
Impact: 6 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Matthaias Outi
Fate: Matthaias Outi managed to master the Brief Winged Dash Art (+1 Impact), a transformation movement art that allowed one to dash quickly by gaining powerful wings for a moment. Using it, he escaped hunters with ease.
Impact: 9 (+1)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 118 (+7)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Mildgyð Galene
Fate: Mildgyo snuck into an enemy camp, stealing a Three-Gem Fruit (+10 cultivation-years). He snuck out easily, as well, avoiding enemies for most of the Trials.
Impact: 5 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment True 1-Pillar (Fortified Pillar)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 127 (+27)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Mograine (Leon12431)
Fate: Mograine was badly hurt, and entered a Dao-contest with a Qi Condensation cultivator from the Fifth Sea. He lost, however, his will shaken and almost died in the aftermath, a treasure saving his life.
Impact: 9 (+0)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 134 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Badly Wounded --> Lightly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Healthy (End of turn)

Orphanos
Fate: Orphanos was the second Foundation cultivator to fall to Aasmi Bhardjav. The woman merely raised a hand - he challenged her to fight, and she scoffed at him. Her finger pointed at him, and scorching light scored through his heart, killing him instantly. She turned again to her hunt.
Impact: 6 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Crippled --> Dead

Peta and Wajo
Fate: Peta died of old age a few years before the Trials, her lifespan giving out. Her devoted bear, Wajo, wandered off into the wilderness, never to be seen again.
Impact: 4 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage (4 turns from FB)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 220 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead

Shennong
Fate: Peculiarly, Shennong had no problems in the Trials. Assigned to a small village, no Hunters ever came, despite his worries.
Impact: 2 (+0)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 139 (+18)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Shiro
Fate: Three of Aasmi's coterie faced him down, butchering him in instants. His life ended in moments.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 114 (+0)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Dead

Simon Euaerizo
Fate: Simon was lucky. The death of many of his clansmen meant he managed to recover the storage ring off a dead Elder, containing much wealth. While he returned most of it, an Ascension Stride Herb (+40 cultivation-years) let him break through several small realms.
Impact: 4 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 3-Pillar (Mid)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 162 (+62)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Su Cheng
Fate: Su Cheng saw Aasmi for but a moment. Then there was blinding light, and then? Nothing. A bump in the road the Heavenly Star cultivator walked in her pursuit of her Unorthodox enemy.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Crippled --> Dead

Tasos Basilakes
Fate: Tasos had advanced only a little since the last Trials. Three women following Aasmi Bhardjav attacked him, and he managed to escape only through the use of his last lifesaving treasure.
Impact: 10 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage (6 turns to FB)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 209 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Wounded --> Healthy (LST Interrupt)

Tharros Ateleioti
Fate: Aasmi of the Bhardvaj did not hunt Tharros. She merely swept him aside with a lazy blow while hunting down Rina Callista. A single strike and he was left for dead, the use of a protective treasure saving him, but leaving him desperately wounded for years to come.
Impact: 6 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of Turn)

Theoron Strophios
Fate: Theron was with Vitruvian. Failing to save him against a woman who moved like lightning, he fled. Hunted like an animal for a week, only the use of a treasure saved his leg - and his life. He hid in a cave for the remainder of the trials, weak, and barely able to move.
Impact: 3 (+0)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage (2 turns to FB)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 111 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt_ --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Vitruvian Anasc
Fate: Vitruvian was one of the first casualties of the Hundred-Year Trials. Crippled, unable to move all that far, and slow, he was hunted down ignomiously within days.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: Dead
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 48 (+0)
Health: Crippled --> Dead

 

[occipitallobe]

Abel Angelus
Bonus: LST
Fate: Abel fared quite well in the Qiguai Secret Realm, stealing away a set of Calculator Caterpillars (+4 Impact), fabled beasts that spun silken webs that used their wefts and weaves to add and multiply numbers. While useless in combat, for the managing of arrays (and their creation) they are intensely powerful. This allowed him, despite his low cultivation to assist in the defense of Waycastle Acrocorinth, figuring out the exponentation function of the caterpillars in time to reset the arrays more efficiently, stretching out the siege for an additional two weeks. In the end, an array exploded, and only the use of a treasure saved him from permanent injuries. He was left under the rubble, and thus survived.
Impact: 7 (+4)
Cultivation: 2nd Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 28 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of turn)

Aliki Floros
Bonus: Tribulation Treasure
Fate: Aliki was named the Red Queen by her enemies and friends alike. Wrist-deep in enemies more than once, the gore and bloodshed she left in her path surprised even the Hunters, and her inspired attacks on the siege at Acrocorinth allowed a huge number of cultivators to evacuate, as the arrays there remained intact for far longer than might have otherwise been expected. It was here that a young woman from the Fifth Sea named Aasmi Bhardvaj appeared. Frustrated with her, and happy to hunt down one of the more peculiar devils, the light Aasmi produced burned her, and in truth should've killed her. The first burst left her wounded, the second burst left her for dead. Had Rina Callista not interrupted their battle, Aliki would've been killed. As it was, Aasmi left for more alluring prey, and Aliki was able to escape, saving nearly a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators who had managed to flee.
Impact: 14 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 107 (+7)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of Turn)

Aretaphila Myia
Bonus: Tribulation Treasure
Fate: Aretaphilia was simply unlucky. Beaten and savaged in the Trials, hunted for her former performance, and almost killed, she was driven into a ruined city, Waycastle Acrocorinth. Beaten and bleeding she crawled into the rubble, dragging herself along the ground, a great smear of blood behind her. She managed in the end to hide, hearing the sounds of death and misery around her. Nobody knows what conclusion she came to there, but when the Trials ended and she crawled out, she had entered the 13th Heavenstage, her Dao Purified.
Impact: 13 (+0)
Cultivation: 13th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 289 (+3)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> (Wounded (End of Turn)

Aristoteles Kalokagathos
Bonus: LST
Fate: Aristoteles spent his Trials hunting for the owner of the Death Horn,but it was not to be. His obsession led him to track a Fifth Sea Invader nearly five hundred li over three months, and at the end of it all, discovered the invader was merely similar in looks to the one he sought. Shattering their token in despair, he was caught at that point by two other invaders, suffering some additional wounds and slowing the pace of his cultivation.
Impact: 5 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 4-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 185 (+1)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Wounded --> Lightly Wounded

Cao Wei
Bonus: LST
Fate: Cao Wei proved bizarrely talented. Indeed, he was the most talented Goatman ever known to the Clan by some measure - reaching the 9th Heavenstage was practically unknown for Goatmen, and he did at ridiculous speed. Such a bloodline was investigated, and Cao Wei managed to finagle doctors of the best sort to go see his mortal mother in return for allowing them to test his blood and do other such things. Where others had great encounters, Cao Wei simply cultivated, and did so at a pace that was both dangerous for even a well-established cultivation method, facing each problem again and again with no rest. When asked why he did such a thing, he simply said 'I am very stubborn.'
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 9th Heavenstage (2 turns to FB)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 74 (+53)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Chrysanthos Krimta
Bonus: LST
Fate: Chrysanthos did not prove especially brave in the trials, yet his time at Waycastle Acrocorinth proved most dangerous. Trapped in a city, he managed to escape, following the now-named Red Queen to evacuate. As she faced down Aasmi, Chrysanthos was struck with a reflected beam of pure light, striking off a nearby mirrored rock. Even at one-tenth the power it scored a hole through his head, taking out parts of his brain and making the memories of the Trials themselves at best a blur. The use of a treasure saved him, but he was carried away, barely alive. Many pills and herbs later, he was somewhat intact, though a long way from well.
Impact: 7 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment True 1-Pillar (Fortified Pillar)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 131 (+0)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> (Wounded (End of Turn)

David Pupillus
Bonus: LST
Fate: David's infusion of the Blood of Bronze went well. Unfortunately for him, it was during a time of turmoil before the Trials, and he got a larger infusion than normal. For this, he was hunted more vigorously in the Trials, and would've been badly wounded but for the clever use of a treasure. However, it was during this hunt that he came upon a caravan of Qi Condensation cultivators who had been wounded and were fleeing to another fort. Thirty-four cultivators, all being hunted down. He stood his ground before another set of hunters, using his clones to baffle and elude them, allowing the refugees to escape.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 9th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 66 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Badly Wounded --> Lightly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Healthy (End of turn)

Demetrius Ceres
Bonus: LST
Fate: Demetrius was perhaps the most impressive of those who found themselve in Aasmi's way. The Heavenly Star wielder had, during her chase of Rina Callista, cornered another ten Foundation cultivators of the Clan, using her powers of light to force them into fleeing and using item after item to defend themselves. Demetrius simply attacked her, and twice threw blows that should've been fatal. The first time, one blow deflected off a nearby rock that had been thrown into the air by another cultivator, the second time Aasmi turned, and a ranged attack flew over her shoulder, missing her by inches. The third blow never came, as Aasmi lit him on fire, igniting his meridians and only the use of an item saved his life. However, every one of those Foundation experts lived, able to flee.
Impact: 8 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar (Early)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> (Wounded (End of Turn)

Fierce Fang
Bonus: Tribulation Boost
Fate: Fierce Fang's discovery that his chicken in time had had a few chicks, who grew up, one of them dying to lay a Heaven-Defying Chicken Egg. As it sounded, such an egg allowed a cultivator to consume it and ease their path through tribulation. Such eggs were only laid by the best-treated chickens raised by cultivators, and it was in this case Fang's excellent chicken handling techniques and kindness towards the birds that led him to this point.
Impact: 4 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage (5 turns to FB)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 221 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Helel Ben Sahar
Bonus: LST
Fate: Helel rose into the 9th Heavenstage in time for the Trials. To his advantage, the fort he hid in never came under attack, and he spent his time there learning a series of songs, joining a choir of very bored Qi Condensation cultivators who were hidden away in a tiny fort.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 9th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 66 (+20)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Minervina Barda
Bonus: LST
Fate: Minervina entered the Qiguai Secret Realm. There, she found the remant of an ancient Spirit Severing legacy, from one who had long hated the Clan, trapped there by a former Clan Spirit Severing elder - one who had spoken to Rina Callista centuries ago. All that remained in that legacy were poison traps, vile and deadly things, guarding a single minor treasure. The first, a Dao Revulsion Gas (+10 Cultivation-years) she consumed, pushing her cultivation forward. The first trap failing, a second one triggered. The Twelve Organ Failure Poison was absorbed by her Poison Body as well (+20 Cultivation-years). The third trap was then sprung, a powerful Dantian-Shattering Thousand Revolution Decay Poison, which suffered no better than the others. Minervina absorbed it, her cultivation moving ever-foward (+40 years). At the end of the traps was a Spatial Slingshot (+3 Impact). This was a toy for many, but allowed Minervina to send a small attack to bypass a few hundred metres of space. Difficult to aim, it was still intensely useful for delivering poison clouds and the like at range, making them unavoidable. On her triumphant return to the Clan, she found herself engaged in the Trials. At the height of her cultivation and power, she faced down Aasmi. Yet as it turned out, the Heavenly Star simply burnt away all poisons, making her arts less than useless, searing through any attacks or defenses she might offer. Within moments she was wounded and thrown aside, and she joined a group fleeing from the Fifth Sea invader, using a treasure to fend her off. Without the intervention of Demetrius Ceres, she might well have died, but he ensured she was able to escape.
Impact: 12 (+3)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 7 Pillar (Great Circle)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 461 (+70)
Health: Healthy --> Badly Wounded --> Lightly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Healthy (End of turn)

Paulus
Bonus: LST
Fate: Paulus upon breaking through did much to prepare for the Trials. Among his fellow Foundation cultivators he was new to his strength, and was to be protected. Aasmi Bhardvaj broke through the defenses they had set up, leaving seven of her own in the Great Circle to challenge them. Twelve Third Sea against Seven Fifth Sea, a poor matchup. Paulus did not fight as he might have been expected to, but rather used his mastery of the Double-Headed Eagle Formation, drawing the enemy further and further away, constantly luring them to chase his group across the desert for months. When it had ended, seven powerful Foundation cultivators had wasted their time, killing nobody further, and disappearing, even if the Devils had been unable to shatter their tokens. They had killed eight Foundation cultivators in their first two weeks in the Third Sea - the bloody path they could've carved through others would've killed tens if not a hundred more.
Impact: 10 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Healthy

Rina Callista
Bonus: LST
Fate: Rina Callista found herself hunted for her Token-Sensing Tree by Aasmi of the Bhardvaj Dynasty, the second-greatest Dynasty descended from the Atri Sage Clan. Aasmi was in Foundation Establishment, but was fused with the Purifying Heavenly Star. Her ability to project and use light to destroy her enemies was well into the Core Formation level, and other Foundation cultivators were reaped by her like wheat. As the only Foundation Establishment cultivator capable of truly facing Aasmi in the region, Rina found herself dueling the other woman for nearly six months, mostly fleeing. Aasmi's command over the Purifying Light of Heaven demolished every means at Rina's disposal. For months she fled, facing Aasmi only at the best of times, forced back constantly, luring Aasmi away from greater concentrations of her own cultivators. At the end, she stood once again before the walls of Pleuron, a fated place. The city had fallen earlier in the Trials, yet the gates of Pleuron had a heavy weight about them, a place where it felt even Heaven could fall. There she realised that within her Single Pillar stood the possibility of devouring the power of the Heavenly Star. Using the power of consumption that somehow hid deep within her path, she absorbed a fraction of a fragment of the Star's power, beating back Aasmi with everything she had, weakening Aasmi's connection with the Star - growing in power even as she stole from Heaven. Ten seconds of absorption and she rose into the Third Realm of the Single-Pillar Path. If she had managed to gain an hour of absorption, she reckoned, she would have reached Nascent Soul that very day, at the very least. Instead, Heaven threw lightning down, a force enough to obliterate nations, teleporting Aasmi away as it did so. Indeed, the emptied city of Pleuron was destroyed in Heaven's counterstroke. Rina managed to use the last of the Purifying Light she had stolen to defend herself, the lightning simply refusing to strike through the Light - as she used enough power to rise into Core Formation to keep herself alive
Impact: 12 (+0)
Cultivation: Single Pillar Foundation Establishment Stage 3
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 437 (+104)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Savvas Nicolidis
Bonus: LST
Fate: Poor Savvas. A group of six Foundation experts were trapped, in the inexorable cat-and-mouse game between Rina Callista and Aasmi Bhardjav. His attempt to saved them ended poorly - he leapt in front of one of her beams of empowered light to deflect it, and ended up almost dying. Only that single cultivator escaped, the other five dying as he fled with his life alone.
Impact: 5 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 2-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 147 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> (Wounded (End of Turn)

Syntyche Theophylaktos
Bonus: LST
Fate: Syntche fought nobly. It was at the small town known as Seven Wells that she rose above the rest. Her Tortoiseshell technique made her a mainstay, defending thirteen badly wounded Foundation cultivators against four Fifth Sea cultivators. She did not kill any, but shattered three tokens and forced the other two into retreat, saving thirteen of her own Foundation allies.
Impact: 9 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 3-Pillar (Mid)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 164 (+2)
Health: Healthy --> Lightly Wounded --> Healthy (End of turn)

Xiao Yi/Jin Muyi
Bonus: LST
Fate: The plant-man became known as many things, but first among them to his enemies was the Devourer. Standing at the gates of Pleuron, he defended the city near-singlehandedly for weeks on end. In the last Trials, he was crippled and transformed into a tree. During these Trials, he became something...more. Once his vine-ji stabbed a cultivator, they were seemingly unable to even use their Tokens to escape. He slew hundreds of Foundation Establishment cultivators, butchering his way through an enemy army, his constant absorption of his enemies making him impossible to put down. Pleuron was to be besieged once more, a symbol that the Invaders were not to be defied. A Core Formation Elder of the Fifth Sea came, and Jin Muyi against all odds consumed him as well. As he did, the Darkness that had once been his Ji grew, consuming all the energy available from the Elder. Losing control of his body as the Darkness within gained power of him, he awoke several days later, having carved a path through an army besieging Pleuron, the city having been safely evacuated. A second Elder had been slain by him during his mindless rampage, and only the use of several treasures prevented the Darkness from consuming his will entirely. It had grown in power monstrously, and his use of it could slay Foundation cultivators with casual ease. The power had not gone to him, however, and his cultivation did not advance due to it. Back in control, however tentatively, he left the abandoned city, having accomplished everything he hoped to achieve and more. (Total +14 Impact from a massive rampage of consumption). What had taken the concerted efforts of so many juniors a century before was now accomplished by him alone.
Impact: 30 (+14)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 5-Pillar (Late)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 257 (+13)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> LST Interrupt --> Badly Wounded --> 2nd LST Interrupt --> Lightly Wounded

yan
Bonus: Tribulation Boost
Fate: Yan cultivated madly, working towards his 13th Heavenstage. He holed up in the desert, and was surprisingly not hunted, living in a small fort, aiming to comprehend more and more. While he went untouched, he was not able to take the last step, though he felt awfully close. A failed attempt to break through to the 13th Heavenstage left him badly wounded, and the use of a treasure aided him.

Impact: 9 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 279 (+23)
Health: Healthy --> Wounded --> Healthy (LST interrupt)

 

[occipitallobe]

Amaranth Castellanos
Bonus: LST
Fate: Amaranth faced down the Trials as he had done before, and found himself almost wounded. Using his treasure in a fit of paranoia to avoid it, he stood at the very edge of the 13th Heavenstage.
Impact: 8 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 287 (+18)
Health: Healthy --> Lightly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Healthy

Antonius Emmanuel Eleanora
Bonus: Tribulation treasure
Fate: Antonius had a simple few decades before the Trials, cultivating excellently. It was in the Trials themselves that he won a minor skirmish with a trio of enemy cultivators, each equal in strength to him. However, two tokens were shattered through the judicious use of an ambush, and the third was killed, leaving with him a Blood-Filtering Qi-Cleansing Potion (+10 Cultivation-years), a useful tonic that allowed one to wash out many impurities from pills and the like, and smoothed the path of future cultivation a little more.
Impact: 9 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 254 (+38)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Anuka Vatatzes
Bonus: LST
Fate: Despite her near-death at the hands of two Fifth Sea Hunters, Anuka saved herself using a treasure she had picked up mere days before. Despite a cracked skull, the loss of a toe, and impalement on spear, she somehow found time to rise into the 9th Heavenstage. There is something more to her story, as well.
Impact: 1 (+0)
Cultivation: 9th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 61 (+4)
Health: Lightly Wounded --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of turn)

Carvos
Bonus: LST
Fate: Carvos attempted to enter the Qiguai Secret Realm, but failed, attempting to fight one of the attendants before being thrown out and hunted back to the lands of the Clan. There, he fought a Trial Hunter who was about to kill a young fairy junior - and nearly died, being simply outmatched and taken apart. The use of a treasure saved him, and he was too badly wounded to continue on, or even to face another hunter. The young woman was saved, however, which was something.
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 7th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 53 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of turn)

Diomedes Cestus
Bonus: LST
Fate: Diomedes found himself lucky in the Trials, fighting a few enemies hither and thither. One he managed to kill dropped a Ten Thousand Beast Feces Stench Bush (+1 Impact), a bush fed by the feces of some of the vilest Spirit Beasts to exist for hundreds of years. Its fruits, when thrown, could briefly overwhelm the noses of most cultivators, and took months to wash off.
Impact: 6 (+1)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar (Early)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 100 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Gaius Antonius
Bonus: Healing Treasure
Fate: Gaius rose into the 12th Heavenstage just in time for the Trials. While some distance from the 13th, his aims in the Trials became a frustrating series of errors, as he found himself repeatedly out of place, unable to properly fight - neither being wounded nor inflicting much damage on the enemy at all.
Impact: 8 (+0)
Cultivation: 12th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 208 (+12)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Konstantinos Papadopoulos
Bonus: LST
Fate: Konstantinos entered the Cloud Demon Caves, suffering much and gaining more. Through wounds and misery, he climbed down through the first ten levels, gaining the Songblade (+2 Impact), a mystical blade he gained by slaying a set of Harmonious Rats. Such a blade would guard him against Demonic Tunes to some degree, as well as those around him. He found the Seven Darksilk Threads (+2 Impact), seven slender silken threads that would wrap around and strangle enemies of their own accord. He also gained much by the consumption of various elixirs left around, rocketing into the 10th Heavenstage. He gained the Plank of Invisible Wood (+2 Impact), a plank that was not only invisible, but made things behind it invisible as well, as though they were merely part of the landscape. Fragile, it was large enough to occlude an advance from a single angle. Lastly, he fought his way through the Qi-Draining Bats, terrifying enemies that could easily butcher any in Qi Condensation each. With trickery and cleverness he made his way onto the 11th floor, where a peculiar Lion Puppet brutally smashed him into the ground, using his last treasure. He retreated with his life, but also with something else he had retrieved from the chest guarded by the Bats...
Impact: 10 (+6)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 135 (+50)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Magnus Centenius
Bonus: LST
Fate: Magnus Centenius finally got away with it. Entering the Qiguai Secret Realm, he seemingly stumbled over a life's worth of luck in the space of a few months. Killing a scion of the Heavenly Time Shatter Sect who had bought a spot, he seized from them a Internal Library (+60 Cultivation), an artifact that allowed one to cultivate within it at thousands of times the normal speed. He used it immediately, knowing that it would likely have some security placed upon it that might activate once back in the Third Sea. He was hunted by two other members of the Noble Devil Alliance, both from the Noble Knowledge Sect. The first was turned upon and poisoned with relative ease, and Magnus found on the dead woman a slip for the Three Thousand Noble Poison-Eating Art. It let one eat poison to further one's cultivation, though only a limited amount - the backlash after overusing it would kill you. He seized their poisons and ate them all, (+40 cultivation-years). The final member played a game of cat-and-mouse with him throughout the sky-sea, Magnus eventually winning. He gained a Poison-Expelling Stench Pill, allowing him to expel some of the prior poisons and consume more to further his cultivation even more (+20 cultivation-years). He saved a substantial force of his own in the Trials, but was ultimately badly hurt and would've been crippled at the end of them if not for the use of a treasure.
Impact: 5 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 6-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 311 (+137)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Maria
Bonus: LST
Fate: Maria suffered in the Trials, being wounded again and again, despite her ability with her clones. She 'died' time and time again, recovering only through the use of her abilities and eventually needed to use a treasure to save her second body. Of course, what she accomplished later was no small feat - nearly a thousand Qi Condensation juniors were saved by her.
Impact: 16 (+0)
Cultivation: 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 173 (+11)
Health: Wounded --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Ninth Prince
Bonus: LST
Fate: The Ninth Prince, of course, had his own tale coming to what was perhaps an end. In-between them, though, he entered the Qiguai Secret Realm. His adventures were grand and glorious, and involved chasing a thieving fish through hundreds of li of sky-sea. Eventually he caught the creature, and it granted him three wishes in return for its life. After the fish denied all wordplay for more wishes, the Prince ended up asking for power three times, figuring it was hard to go wrong on that front. It granted him power, boosting him into Late Foundation Establishment. (+70 cultivation). As it so happened, the fish was in fact the Princess of the Northern Fish Palace, and capturing her had given her father a great rage. A massive fish, almost seven li long, chased after the Prince, nearly killing him twice, leaving him saved only because he used treasure after treasure to escape the sky-sea. It was on his return to the Third Sea that he saved a single Foundation Establishment cultivator, musing on a saying 'to save one is as saving the whole world'. Shortly after this, of course, he died, though that is another tale entirely.
Impact: 18 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 5-Pillar (Late)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 240 (+77)
Health: Healthy --> Wounded --> Healthy (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded --> Healthy (LST Interrupt)

The Builder
Bonus: LST
Fate: Prior to his entry into the Cloud Demon Caves, the Builder and his brothers came upon a peculiar artifact, the Amulet of True Will (+4 Impact). It allowed those who wore it when dying to transfer a fragment of their memories and Will into it, being able to offer advice (though not any strength) to those who wore it afterwards. His entry was fraught with problems, however. The Builder was caught in a small alarm trap left for Manuel's re-entry, and should have been killed almost instantly. Without the use of a treasure there would be no more Builders, though the original Builder died, leaving his legacy to the next.
Impact: 4 (+4)
Cultivation: 6th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 49 (+0)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of turn)

Ulysses
Bonus: LST
Fate: Ulysses was simply overmatched in his trials, using a recently-gained treasure to survive. Of course, that is not all there is of his story...
Impact: 0 (+0)
Cultivation: 9th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 102 (+8)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Wei Feng
Bonus: LST
Fate: Where others had heroic last stands once in their lives, such stands had become routine to Wei Feng. The Seventeen Last Stands he performed were impressive, and hurt him quite badly - and accomplished quite a bit! Still, after the eighth time they killed him his enemies began to become quite frustrated...
Impact: 15 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1-Pillar (Early)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 101 (+1)
Health: Healthy --> Badly Wounded --> Lightly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Healthy (End of turn)

Xiao Yingzi
Bonus: LST
Fate: Yingzi entered the Qiguai Secret Realm, and there she won no small manner of battles. Peculiarly, she was dumped into the sky-sea at its very edge, where the realm began to degrade and only the endless, deadly sea remained. Swimming from air-bubble to air-bubble, she managed to meet a massive whale, its eye alone nearly ten li in diameter. It looked her from the edge of twisted space, communicating to her the Path which it had followed through its song. To the creature, she realised, the Secret Realm was nothing more than a soap bubble perhaps to be popped. It stood above any cultivator she had ever seen, and was unfathomably old, as it sang to her its history. On its side it bore a great cut thousands of li long, scored by a brutal bronze weapon, the shining bronze from the blade still cracked and shattered in the cut - a cut still healing. Further down was a massive chunk of flesh excised that had been healed over, as though it had been simply scooped out by a spoon in ages past. The creature despaired, she realised, and had been alone for a very long time. She could not comprehend the least part of what it told her - merely that it was old beyond all reckoning, and had watched the continent itself grow from nothing, and eventually die. As she listened, it thanked her. With a mere swell of power her own cultivation grew (+60 cultivation-years), and it imparted to her the tiniest part of the Note of Despair (+10 Impact), a single song-note that when sung would wreak havoc on enemies, reducing them to despairing, gibbering wrecks. Only the strongest could resist it, and it could destroy an army if used. Of course, it rebounded upon the user and led them deeper into despair and self-destruction - singing the Note had not helped the whale at all. It sang to her its sadness on the death of its charge, the despair in the fact that it failed in all things it was bound to, but it was still alive. Yingzi shared that burden in the tiniest amount, and the whale was grateful. Of course, her deeds in the Trials were no small matter, either.
Impact: 19 (+10)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 4-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 194 (+60)
Health: Healthy --> Crippled --> Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Lightly Wounded (End of Turn)

Xiuying Ten Jiang
Bonus: Tribulation Boost
Fate: Xiuying's breakthrough was no small matter, and her rise into Foundation Establishment saw her firm her First Pillar with ease. Her tale was yet to be told, though...
Impact: 10 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment True 1-Pillar (Fortified Pillar)
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 122 (+22)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

Yang Fangxu
Bonus: LST
Fate: Fangxu was beaten savagely by several Hunters and was almost killed by a third. Despite their differences, Aristophanes saved her life - along with the judicious use of a treasure - and they escaped, though their full story was yet to be told...
Impact: 6 (+0)
Cultivation: 8th Heavenstage
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 57 (+19)
Health: Healthy --> Dead --> Badly Wounded (LST Interrupt) --> Wounded (End of turn)

Zeno Angelus
Bonus: LST
Fate: Zeno cultivated with incredible focus, knowing the Trials were soon upon him. In the space of a few decades he rose into the Second-Pillar Stage, and from there, well, there are more adventures to be detailed...
Impact: 4 (+0)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 2-Pillar
Cultivation Year-Equivalent: 146 (+46)
Health: Healthy --> Healthy

 

[occipitallobe]

Manuel could scarcely believe it when he had first heard it.

Oh, he had checked the young man himself. Konstantinos (and wasn't that a mildly entertaining coincidence) had been free of any mental corruption he could sense, and teasing out all of his secrets - embarrassing or dangerous - had been the work of days. He'd kept the young man unconscious and isolated while he did it, ensuring anything he'd carried out would be easily noticed. An array on an abandoned mountain, set up with enough Spirit Stones to detonate the entire thing and purify the area - along with anything inhabiting the young man's body - had sufficed as security. Konstantinos had proven to be fine, and Manuel took a peculiar vial from Konstantinos - brimming with energy, radiating the sort of power that would be a sin for a weaker man to possess. Even he could not understand the first thing about how it was made.

An artifact for his own use, he had thought at first.

Oh, of course he compensated the young man. Spirit Stones, Contribution Points, a personal lecture in future at need - he festooned him with reward upon reward. If he didn't, nobody would ever give up such things to the Clan.

He'd dedicated Destasia to studying the vial Konstantinos had recovered, and ultimately the two of them had come to understand it.

The vial drew blood from... somewhere. It was pure blood, Destasia insisted. Pure blood - not drawn from any human being, any beast, anything that existed in the world. It was the very essence of blood itself, not mere Blood Qi or the like, something more.

And every hour or so, another few droplets came out of the vial.

At first they'd thought it was a Blood Path treasure, but it wasn't human blood. Anyone could drink it, and gain its power. Well, anyone with a low enough cultivation, or a mortal. It didn't respond even those a little way along the path of cultivation at all, which was a curious thing.

They'd considered diluting it and feeding it to all the Qi Condensation cultivators, or feeding it to the most worthy juniors.

It was Destasia who had come up with the proper use. For all her madness, her genius could not be denied. Manuel could ferret out secrets and trap someone in a web of lies, but properly understanding something and coming up with a new, creative use for it? It was hardly his forte. He followed a path of slow accumulation and learning. Destasia followed no real path at all, blazing into the wilderness of ignorance to find new knowledge on a whim.

The Blood of Bronze they took to infuse their bloodline was weak, a paltry thing compared to the true bloodlines of old. Mixing the pure blood - what Destastia had termed the Ascension Blood for some fool reason - with the Blood of Bronze enhanced it. Those infused with additional Blood of Bronze mixed with Ascension Blood purified their bloodlines, making them stronger. They regenerated more quickly, were harder to put down. Indeed, with the Technique Palace in tow, he believed his Qi Condensation cultivators would not only be the equal of any other cultivator in the Third Sea, but on average their superior.

More importantly, their use of formations was strengthened. By the initial testing, Manuel suspected the formations used by Qi Condensation cultivators would be enhanced by a fifth, and that was no small matter.

After the Builder had died, he had suspected that the Cloud Demon Caves would not be worth exploring.

But this... this was a treasure beyond imagining. What else lurked down there?

 

[occipitallobe]

Manuel had returned to the Dawn Fortress at the end of the Trials.

Over the coming months reports came in, Elders returned, Legions reformed.

He personally overlooked very little, as was the habit of the Nascent Souls. There was much to be done post-Trials, and his first duty was always deterrence.

Having been ravaged, they must show the flag - an absolute need. If they did not, there was always the chance apparent weakness would lead to encroachment on the borders, or vassals might rebel, or... well, the possibilities were many.

It was to his tremendous surprise that Casia had reported to him with the death tallies within the first year of the Trials occurring. They usually took longer as Legates were killed, Centurions lost in their hundreds, and simply taking stock across the Clan became a difficult matter.

"Archegetes."

It was rare for them to have simple private meetings - usually a spiritual jade sufficed for a report, but some things were better delivered in person.

He inclined his head.

"Casia. How did you fare?"

She smiled, a rare expression for her. Some people wore smiles that outshone those around them - when Casia smiled it merely looked like she was in pain.

"Two Core Formation Elders dead. One of Destasia's experiments, and one Mid Core - Elder Pentekonter."

Manuel raised an eyebrow.

"Old Pentekonter died? A sad thing, though his desire to found a great navy was certainly a frustration. Only two, though?"

Casia tapped the jade in front of her, and spoke again.

"Four hundred and thirty-two in Foundation Establishment - these two things are related. Jin Muyi in particular performed exceptionally, slaying several Core Formation Elders."

Manuel blinked. That was rather extraordinary, though the tree-man had concerned him in the past. So far from the orthodox path, and so much power... previously he had been satisfied with the reports that he was not in truth a Blood Path cultivator due to his abandonment of his humanity, but... he would need to bend his will personally on this. For all his heroism, no matter his name, if he became a threat... he could not imagine Muyi would be easily brought down in Core Formation, and his personal intervention was by no means guaranteed. No, he would warrant a closer watch. A poor reward for saving so many, but the risk was too great.

"...our force deployment due to the use of Destasia's scorpion brigades was exquisite during the early phase. We were able to crush several key incursions before major forces could form, and consequently they spent a lot more time chasing down our experts than they did killing them."

Manuel's eyebrow raised further.

"That..."

His voice trailed off before picking up again.

"The last Trials nearly this light were, if I recall, thirteen hundred years ago. I would have to examine the historical record to see how long it has been since such a Trial came upon us that we have done so well in. Qi Condensation?"

"Eighty-two thousand. I am receiving rather excellent reports regarding our forts prepared for the disciples, and my early estimates say perhaps between thirty and fifty thousand might have been saved through the various interventions we have put in place for them above the baseline level of deaths."

He grunted.

"This is what I had hoped for, Casia. Not what I had expected, admittedly. But with this..."

His fist clenched.

"We have been given a great gift. New lands. Plenty of cultivators to man them. A Great Era comes once again, but this time we'll not be crushed as it rises."

He dismissed Destasia.

First things first - to investigate Jin Muyi. He had no doubt in the plant-man's loyalty in truth, but only a fool trusted their own judgement over simply observing. He felt a little guilty, but this had long been his role. The higher someone rose, the more contingencies you needed in place against them, the more you needed to know about them.

Still.

Manuel chuckled.

"Two Core Formation Hunters at barely two hundred? Impressive."

 

[occipitallobe]

For those who haven't, this update is regarding the three megacollab omake, starting here. Roughly 40,000 words in total, so if you decide to dive in, be aware.

This one won't be a big one compared to last Trials - rather, a few words on what happened at the end, with the contributions of each omake writer noted.

You won't understand the below if you haven't read the three megacollab - so feel free to skip this if you haven't!

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

Kalki, the virtuous one. The demon seeking the path of Blood and consumption. He had been called both in his time, and it was his plot to ascend in the Third Sea to the Single Pillar stage that left him endangered.

A plot which succeeded. Fourteen scions of the Optimatoi stood against him, and as he ascended he began to tear through them like so much tissue paper.

Still, they had to attempt to stop him, for he intended to slaughter all the Devils he could to gather good karma, to balance the weights that lay against him.

In twos and threes they came, their allies working desperately to forestall Kalki's own as they aimed as his token.

Fangxu was the first to fall, Carvos striking in to attempt to save her. He did so, and upon throwing her back rushed at Kalki, serving as a vanguard to the others. Despite his personal desire for battle, his Dao was not truly honed, and it was a mere effort of will on the part of the Fifth Sea cultivator that saw him falling back, bloodied and bruised and unconscious.

The rest bought time, fighting his men so that they might survive.

Four Foundation cultivators against four, briefly. Supported by the Dao-might of Kalki's Pillar, it was not at all an equal battle.

Kurma against Xiuying, using her mastery of Sword Law to persistently threaten Kurma. Sword Law was powerful, but his set of treasures deflected and, and slowly she waned, what had been an all-out offense turning into a savage beating. As she flagged, Ulysses supported her, the Qi Condensation juniors coming in from each side to buy a little more desperate time.

Yingzi against Rohini, her raw power against talismans and the like, every seeming-victorious blow turned aside as Rohini simply threw her back again and again, pulling out talisman after talisman until Yingzi was exhausted. Gaius's support meant little enough, and after trying to help her, he found himself thrown aside.

Prakash faced off against Zeno, though this battle was quicker than most. Zeno found himself pushed back rapidly, and had it not been for the intervention of both Maria and Amaranth he might have lost entirely.

Magnus's poisons were a poor matchup for Aavatri, array after array turning them aside. It was in truth the relentless defense of the four that made it so difficult - each distracted and engaged one of the Foundation Experts, and without swift victory there could only be slow defeat. Both Anuka and Diomedes joined the attack at the last, buying just enough time for the battle between Wei Feng and Kalki to finish.

Wei Feng made it to Kalki, striking at the Single Pillar adherent.

He was butchered mercilessly, of course. But Wei Feng had been butchered mercilessly enough times that such a thing was barely notable. He rose again, and again. Each time rising weaker, Kalki fighting with more and more viciousness each time. The eighth time, Kalki began to simply beat him into the ground as he rose, attempting to dismember him, carving him apart.

On the sixteenth time, Wei Feng was more bone than flesh, still moving, still somehow - improbably - breathing. The others were all continuing their fights, hopeless battles to try and buy him a chance at the prize.

In frustration and anger Kalki lifted Wei Feng above his head with one hand, his other readying a final fatal blow. Gathering all the strength of his Pillar into a strike, Wei Feng would not survive this, no matter his blood. Still - for the briefest moment, his token showed. Spitting blood defiantly, Wei Feng aimed with his one remaining eye, his flaming blood searing the token.

The token shattered, and Kalki was returned to the Fifth Sea. In sudden disarray - and to support their friend - the others left, knowing that a Single Pillar adherent in the Fifth Sea would be hunted, and he would need all the support he could get.

The matter was ended here, at least for now.