Puzzler's Space
Lesson 1: Spring's Spirit Departs
1-3 | 4-5 | 6-8 | Samples |...
Lesson 1: Spring's Spirit Departs
1-3 | 4-5 | 6-8 | Samples |...
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Puzzler's Space
Lesson 1: Spring's Spirit Departs
1-3 | 4-5 | 6-8 | Samples | Answers
Lesson 2: It is my Star who Sits in the Sky
1-3 | 4-5 | 6-7 | 8-9 | Answers
- A sacrifice.
- The Sunken Bar Award, awarded to those who have assisted in the advancement of the Judges' agendas and miscellaneous well-being. It is a horizontal bar of rarefied steam contained in a transparent metallic casing. Engraved upon it is the following: "Rendered for great assistance."
- The Sunken Bar Award, awarded to those who have assisted in the advancement of the Judges' agendas and miscellaneous well-being. It is a horizontal bar of rarefied steam contained in a transparent metallic casing. Engraved upon it is the following: "Rendered for great assistance."
We have no deep knowledge of characters.
An experimental interactive fiction where suggestions are answers to the open-ended, semi-surreal "puzzles," and slowly will bring the world into view.
Don't be intimidated by the puzzles! They are meant to be somewhat detached. I'm really hoping that it doesn't come across as pretentious - it's really just about having fun and having at it, if you're into this kind of thing.
It is a sort of worldbuilding which joy I hope I can share. With lesson 1, which was completed on another forum, we've had a lot of fun, so I hope I can share that here as well. Thank you for your participation!
Don't be intimidated by the puzzles! They are meant to be somewhat detached. I'm really hoping that it doesn't come across as pretentious - it's really just about having fun and having at it, if you're into this kind of thing.
It is a sort of worldbuilding which joy I hope I can share. With lesson 1, which was completed on another forum, we've had a lot of fun, so I hope I can share that here as well. Thank you for your participation!
Lesson 1: Spring's Spirit Departs
1-3 | 4-5 | 6-8 | Samples | Answers
Lesson 2: It is my Star who Sits in the Sky
1-3 | 4-5 | 6-7 | 8-9 | Answers
Last edited:
Lesson 1 :: 1-3
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Lesson 1: Spring's Spirit Departs
Liu Kui and Ban Songqi are walking along a riverside path. The sun beats down, and the flowers are wilting around. Yet the river flows without hesitation, blue in the golden sunbeams.
"Songqi," inquires Liu Kui, "where has the spring's spirit departed to?"
Songqi does not respond.
Puzzle 1: What was the color of Songqi's shoes?
An old hermit sits beneath the willow tree at the end of the path. Ban Songqi, upon arriving at the boundary of the time-smoothed pebbles and the withered grass, stoops down, sleeves hovering above the ground. Liu Kui gazes upon this situation in confusion.
Five minutes pass. Silence covers the scene, a muffled blanket of smothering air.
Ten minutes pass, again. Liu Kui flips through a 760-chapter scroll of philosophical treatises.
Ten thousand years pass.
The old hermit rises from the tree, and defeats the Venerated Judge of the Exhumed Bureaucracy in single-handed combat. The dead rise from their graves in the guise of small rodents and birds, wreathed in the deadly glare of the Unity, and obliterate all surviving civilization in a cataclysm of torrential flame. All fade to dust - all pass away. There is no more.
Two minutes pass.
Ban Songqi stands up from the worn path. "The hermit has long passed away. A burial is appropriate."
Liu Kui brings out a shovel, and they spend two hours preparing a shallow grave.
Puzzle 2: In the seven-and-seven-hundredth reign of the Semi-Immortal Paragon of the Fifth Virtue of Heaven, Avkakathip Tolvittrakhar-Thakartravit, the Assembly of Retaining Avarice fell into internal strife. Out of the conflict, only twelve survived. Why?
The sun is setting, and the faint smell of lightly steaming rice porridge wafts from over the hills, roughly tinged by the sun-dried grass and the dark odor of burning charcoal.
Ban Songqi and Liu Kui, tired from the burial, pack their bags and begin their trek home.
Halfway through the journey, Liu Kui trips on the exposed root of a mangrove tree and drops the 760-chapter scroll into a swamp. It sinks pitifully into the murky emerald waters.
Liu Kui kneels down in sudden agony and grief, for the last position was only the four-hundred-and-twenty-first page, but Ban Songqi interjects. "Fear not," Ban cryptically states, "for the knowledge of nature now returns to its origin."
Burdens left behind, the two have rice porridge under the warmth of their wooden home.
Puzzle 3: When will the mangrove forests rise, hearing the melodies of death, cognizant of hate, and return the endless millennia of suffering inflicted by human hands?
After-school reading: If you were Liu Kui, would you have observed the Accordance of Twelfth Heaven instead of that of Fiftieth Heaven, and set the swamp aflame? Explain in the form of the Law of Coordination why the action would be proper, or alternatively, conduct a psychological analysis.
Liu Kui and Ban Songqi are walking along a riverside path. The sun beats down, and the flowers are wilting around. Yet the river flows without hesitation, blue in the golden sunbeams.
"Songqi," inquires Liu Kui, "where has the spring's spirit departed to?"
Songqi does not respond.
Puzzle 1: What was the color of Songqi's shoes?
An old hermit sits beneath the willow tree at the end of the path. Ban Songqi, upon arriving at the boundary of the time-smoothed pebbles and the withered grass, stoops down, sleeves hovering above the ground. Liu Kui gazes upon this situation in confusion.
Five minutes pass. Silence covers the scene, a muffled blanket of smothering air.
Ten minutes pass, again. Liu Kui flips through a 760-chapter scroll of philosophical treatises.
Ten thousand years pass.
The old hermit rises from the tree, and defeats the Venerated Judge of the Exhumed Bureaucracy in single-handed combat. The dead rise from their graves in the guise of small rodents and birds, wreathed in the deadly glare of the Unity, and obliterate all surviving civilization in a cataclysm of torrential flame. All fade to dust - all pass away. There is no more.
Two minutes pass.
Ban Songqi stands up from the worn path. "The hermit has long passed away. A burial is appropriate."
Liu Kui brings out a shovel, and they spend two hours preparing a shallow grave.
Puzzle 2: In the seven-and-seven-hundredth reign of the Semi-Immortal Paragon of the Fifth Virtue of Heaven, Avkakathip Tolvittrakhar-Thakartravit, the Assembly of Retaining Avarice fell into internal strife. Out of the conflict, only twelve survived. Why?
The sun is setting, and the faint smell of lightly steaming rice porridge wafts from over the hills, roughly tinged by the sun-dried grass and the dark odor of burning charcoal.
Ban Songqi and Liu Kui, tired from the burial, pack their bags and begin their trek home.
Halfway through the journey, Liu Kui trips on the exposed root of a mangrove tree and drops the 760-chapter scroll into a swamp. It sinks pitifully into the murky emerald waters.
Liu Kui kneels down in sudden agony and grief, for the last position was only the four-hundred-and-twenty-first page, but Ban Songqi interjects. "Fear not," Ban cryptically states, "for the knowledge of nature now returns to its origin."
Burdens left behind, the two have rice porridge under the warmth of their wooden home.
Puzzle 3: When will the mangrove forests rise, hearing the melodies of death, cognizant of hate, and return the endless millennia of suffering inflicted by human hands?
After-school reading: If you were Liu Kui, would you have observed the Accordance of Twelfth Heaven instead of that of Fiftieth Heaven, and set the swamp aflame? Explain in the form of the Law of Coordination why the action would be proper, or alternatively, conduct a psychological analysis.
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Lesson 1 :: 4-5
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A flat cloud hovered in from the west, casting the landscape into darkness. Yet this was not a rain-cloud, for it was too flat to contain two days worth of rain. The farmers yelled and struck at their altars to the deities of agriculture, but the flat cloud merely continued to loom.
After three weeks, the darkness had become unbearable. Lamentations rose up from the dwellings of all, and collected together in a great morose chorus.
Liu Kui was at the market with Ban Songqi when this cacophony became known as an infestation of the ears and a consistent, dull pain in the head.
"It is a flat cloud," consoled Songqi, "and not your health, which has yet to fail. This troubles us all."
Liu Kui replied, "Yet, this will surely affect the presence of round-fruit in the markets. Observe: We have not seen it after several hours of searching." For Liu Kui, this was of utmost concern - the presence of round-fruit shared a deep connection with the Spirit of the Spring, and that there was such a lack indicated a terrible deficiency in its health.
Songqi, who secretly held a worldly enjoyment of well-prepared round-fruit, became sullen and did not speak for the rest of their time at the market.
Puzzle 4: What is the punishment for allowing a woven mat into the market?
It was not three-thirds into their return that the two were met by a nameless travelling merchant, whose profession was known by the thick wrappings that obscured any human features.
"I have brought," began the merchant, "the finest jewels under heaven."
But Liu Kui and Ban Songqi continued forward.
The merchant followed in suit, continually hounding the two with further requests. "I have brought the most delicate linens on the earth. I have brought the seeds of the legendary flame-tower tree, the hidden gold of the faraway Shining Wall." Pocket after pocket was unveiled, and brilliant and mysterious goods were presented one after another.
It was when the so-called square-fruit was presented that Ban Songqi motioned for Liu Kui to stop.
"Which assassin are you," Songqi sternly put forth, "to have acquired this variety of goods, and to have targeted us so for such a time?"
The nameless merchant only smiled, casting down the great cloak within which was hidden that great assortment of items, revealing a body entirely covered in text.
Songqi had expected this, for only the School of the Twenty Flocks would dare craft the unnatural square-fruit - and indeed, upon the body of the supposed merchant were the writings of the Twenty Flocks, which described the exact manner of their own inscription. Unable to resist, Songqi was drawn into the script, unable to fully trace their paradoxically self-referential nature.
Liu Kui, not having paid attention to the scene, stooped down and picked up a square-fruit, carving off its edges with a knife, and passed it in front of Songqi.
"There it is." commented Liu Kui, "To think that we were fortituous enough to meet this kind merchant!"
Songqi blinked twice, taking up the carved fruit, and without inspection, placed it into the back-basket.
The two carefully stepped around the kind merchant, who was called Ying Zhong, and completed the journey without further interruption.
Puzzle 5: Your teacher announces that in three days, the Trial of Green Sand will begin. Yet, you do not have coverings for your feet. From which of the epics of the Stellated Valley General, who marches yet in the grave, should you transcribe your death-poem?
After three weeks, the darkness had become unbearable. Lamentations rose up from the dwellings of all, and collected together in a great morose chorus.
Liu Kui was at the market with Ban Songqi when this cacophony became known as an infestation of the ears and a consistent, dull pain in the head.
"It is a flat cloud," consoled Songqi, "and not your health, which has yet to fail. This troubles us all."
Liu Kui replied, "Yet, this will surely affect the presence of round-fruit in the markets. Observe: We have not seen it after several hours of searching." For Liu Kui, this was of utmost concern - the presence of round-fruit shared a deep connection with the Spirit of the Spring, and that there was such a lack indicated a terrible deficiency in its health.
Songqi, who secretly held a worldly enjoyment of well-prepared round-fruit, became sullen and did not speak for the rest of their time at the market.
Puzzle 4: What is the punishment for allowing a woven mat into the market?
It was not three-thirds into their return that the two were met by a nameless travelling merchant, whose profession was known by the thick wrappings that obscured any human features.
"I have brought," began the merchant, "the finest jewels under heaven."
But Liu Kui and Ban Songqi continued forward.
The merchant followed in suit, continually hounding the two with further requests. "I have brought the most delicate linens on the earth. I have brought the seeds of the legendary flame-tower tree, the hidden gold of the faraway Shining Wall." Pocket after pocket was unveiled, and brilliant and mysterious goods were presented one after another.
It was when the so-called square-fruit was presented that Ban Songqi motioned for Liu Kui to stop.
"Which assassin are you," Songqi sternly put forth, "to have acquired this variety of goods, and to have targeted us so for such a time?"
The nameless merchant only smiled, casting down the great cloak within which was hidden that great assortment of items, revealing a body entirely covered in text.
Songqi had expected this, for only the School of the Twenty Flocks would dare craft the unnatural square-fruit - and indeed, upon the body of the supposed merchant were the writings of the Twenty Flocks, which described the exact manner of their own inscription. Unable to resist, Songqi was drawn into the script, unable to fully trace their paradoxically self-referential nature.
Liu Kui, not having paid attention to the scene, stooped down and picked up a square-fruit, carving off its edges with a knife, and passed it in front of Songqi.
"There it is." commented Liu Kui, "To think that we were fortituous enough to meet this kind merchant!"
Songqi blinked twice, taking up the carved fruit, and without inspection, placed it into the back-basket.
The two carefully stepped around the kind merchant, who was called Ying Zhong, and completed the journey without further interruption.
Puzzle 5: Your teacher announces that in three days, the Trial of Green Sand will begin. Yet, you do not have coverings for your feet. From which of the epics of the Stellated Valley General, who marches yet in the grave, should you transcribe your death-poem?
Lesson 1 :: 6-8
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The flat cloud had lain over the region for several months, now, and waking up to darkness had become standard fare for the ordinary folk. There was, of course, the issue of the famine, but there was plenty of food to be found in the vermin that now lay dead in the field.
Thus, it was only expected that a plague was now stirring in the small town of Five Hill Tower. It was the scene of starvation and pestilence which greeted Liu Kui and Ban Songqi as they walked through the formerly cheerful community.
"Traveler," cried out one of the afflicted, who grasped feebly at Ban Songqi's robes, "you who pass through without illness, help - help me!" Fingers closing around the cloth, the one who wore sores in place of skin suddenly tore with an unexpected vigor.
But this was not Ban Songqi. These were not Ban Songqi's robes.
Puzzle 6: Upon returning to your private garden, you find that a stranger has trespassed and left a net of gold upon your moon-cloud flowers. You place the net upon the flowers and realize that you did not plant the flowers, for they had been present for five centuries. Why have you gone to the garden?
Suddenly, a great clap shook the air, and it seemed that the sun had torn in half.
The flat cloud drew into itself, curling like heated sheet-metal, and rolled downwards into the caves and the mountains of the earth.
The ------------- was present. It perfused the air, the water, the earth, in a fit of ------.
The sick one fell away in the color of ----- and observed that the Layering of the Skies was unveiled. For it was the face of the Spring which bore its eyes down from the upper firmament, and separated the yet-youthful from the yet-dying.
"The next shall overturn all which come after," the great face proclaimed, and exhaled a violent breath. The ------ tore through the afflicted and crumbled away the village to ash. In a brief moment, the final enlightenment, the Hidden Truth of the Myriad-Eye Monk, became revealed to all life. Great Conquerer Tai-Yin rose from the fields of the Northern Plains in a great billowing duststorm and proclaimed emptiness into the heavens. The sphere of the earth turned over in protest, throwing the famed poet-warrior into the waters above, dormant for yet another hundred and eight years.
Thus was Five Hill Tower taken up into the skies.
Puzzle 7: In the event that a scroll containing the teachings of the Fourth Seer has impacted the eyes and subsumed the dreams of an unwilling student, what should be done about their remaining lifespan?
Liu Kui stirred, dreaming of round-fruit, moving shoeless feet under the thin blankets. A great battle raged around the ramshackle cottage.
The door flew open with a crack - wind like howling wolves sprinted through the opening and chased itself through the small space, stirring up papers and dust and Liu Kui's blanket alike.
Unable to continue sleeping, Liu Kui sat up from the bed, grabbing the blanket from the air, and stood upon the floor.
Ban Songqi walked in from outside, with a cloak held in the arms instead of wrapped around the body.
"You took my shoes," commented Liu Kui.
Ban Songqi nodded, returning them from age-worn feet, and placed the cloak upon a nearby stand.
Slipping on the shoes, Liu Kui looked outside.
It was merely cloudy - the flat cloud had gone.
Ban Songqi, noticing that Liu was gazing towards the open door, nodded. "We will visit Six Hill Tower."
Puzzle 8: An old saying follows: "The stout ear which listens to the voice of rabbits grows large. The narrow eye which gazes upon the grazing auroch grows wide. Yet, attend to your hands, for they do not..." As you know, the many modern completions of this saying have been colored by inaccurate falsehoods. What is the original completion?
After school-reading: Why did Liu Kui not arrange the scattered papers once Ban Songqi had returned?
Where has spring gone,
feathered with storm,
with wake of grey
and colorless cries?
End of Lesson 1.
Thus, it was only expected that a plague was now stirring in the small town of Five Hill Tower. It was the scene of starvation and pestilence which greeted Liu Kui and Ban Songqi as they walked through the formerly cheerful community.
"Traveler," cried out one of the afflicted, who grasped feebly at Ban Songqi's robes, "you who pass through without illness, help - help me!" Fingers closing around the cloth, the one who wore sores in place of skin suddenly tore with an unexpected vigor.
But this was not Ban Songqi. These were not Ban Songqi's robes.
Puzzle 6: Upon returning to your private garden, you find that a stranger has trespassed and left a net of gold upon your moon-cloud flowers. You place the net upon the flowers and realize that you did not plant the flowers, for they had been present for five centuries. Why have you gone to the garden?
Suddenly, a great clap shook the air, and it seemed that the sun had torn in half.
The flat cloud drew into itself, curling like heated sheet-metal, and rolled downwards into the caves and the mountains of the earth.
The ------------- was present. It perfused the air, the water, the earth, in a fit of ------.
The sick one fell away in the color of ----- and observed that the Layering of the Skies was unveiled. For it was the face of the Spring which bore its eyes down from the upper firmament, and separated the yet-youthful from the yet-dying.
"The next shall overturn all which come after," the great face proclaimed, and exhaled a violent breath. The ------ tore through the afflicted and crumbled away the village to ash. In a brief moment, the final enlightenment, the Hidden Truth of the Myriad-Eye Monk, became revealed to all life. Great Conquerer Tai-Yin rose from the fields of the Northern Plains in a great billowing duststorm and proclaimed emptiness into the heavens. The sphere of the earth turned over in protest, throwing the famed poet-warrior into the waters above, dormant for yet another hundred and eight years.
Thus was Five Hill Tower taken up into the skies.
Puzzle 7: In the event that a scroll containing the teachings of the Fourth Seer has impacted the eyes and subsumed the dreams of an unwilling student, what should be done about their remaining lifespan?
Liu Kui stirred, dreaming of round-fruit, moving shoeless feet under the thin blankets. A great battle raged around the ramshackle cottage.
The door flew open with a crack - wind like howling wolves sprinted through the opening and chased itself through the small space, stirring up papers and dust and Liu Kui's blanket alike.
Unable to continue sleeping, Liu Kui sat up from the bed, grabbing the blanket from the air, and stood upon the floor.
Ban Songqi walked in from outside, with a cloak held in the arms instead of wrapped around the body.
"You took my shoes," commented Liu Kui.
Ban Songqi nodded, returning them from age-worn feet, and placed the cloak upon a nearby stand.
Slipping on the shoes, Liu Kui looked outside.
It was merely cloudy - the flat cloud had gone.
Ban Songqi, noticing that Liu was gazing towards the open door, nodded. "We will visit Six Hill Tower."
Puzzle 8: An old saying follows: "The stout ear which listens to the voice of rabbits grows large. The narrow eye which gazes upon the grazing auroch grows wide. Yet, attend to your hands, for they do not..." As you know, the many modern completions of this saying have been colored by inaccurate falsehoods. What is the original completion?
After school-reading: Why did Liu Kui not arrange the scattered papers once Ban Songqi had returned?
Where has spring gone,
feathered with storm,
with wake of grey
and colorless cries?
End of Lesson 1.
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Lesson 1 :: Samples
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Collected Sample Answers from Different Students:
Warning: Be aware that seeing sample answers is mostly a remedy for those who are fearful in unknowing - for those who want a demonstration of the freedom of breadth they are given.
Aside that, answers are as much a part of the lesson as are the passages and puzzles themselves.
Warning: Be aware that seeing sample answers is mostly a remedy for those who are fearful in unknowing - for those who want a demonstration of the freedom of breadth they are given.
Aside that, answers are as much a part of the lesson as are the passages and puzzles themselves.
Puzzle 1.1:
- Trick question. Songqi is barefoot.
- Ban Songqi's shoes were once brilliant sun yellow. But as the sun fades while the ages pass, so did Songqi's shoes; the gold was long ago browned by mud and bleached by wear. Now Ban Songqi's shoes are naught but a dull gray.
- There was no such battle. In the seven-and-seven-hundredth reign of the Semi-Immortal Paragon of the Fifth Virtue of Heaven, Avkakathip Tolvittrakhar-Thakartravit, the Assembly of Retaining Avarice had only twelve members. The thirteenth had died of old age five days before, and they had yet to appoint a new member. That is what was meant by Grand Archivist Kathiatrakivis of the Khwiu clan (now spelled Liu) when he wrote "Only twelve survived." The conflict mentioned in the scribe Atrakhanaikahr of the Khatatkar-dwellers's A Comprehensive History of the Assembly of Retaining Avarice (and Other, Related Organisations) During the Tolvittrakhar-Thakartravit Period is at best, only an exaggeration of a simple debate, or at worst, a complete fabrication.
- The battle occurred around a great banquet. The twelve members in question had eaten so much beforehand that they fell unconscious and were mistaken for dead by the others, who fought until none remained.
- The world has always been cognizant of hate, for as with all things, hate emerged from the world. The hate of mangrove trees is merely directed towards more appropriate things, such as drought, boats, and particularly irritating mangrove crabs.
- It is said by the nomads on the large island of Jakoa that every 1000 years, a single mangrove tree will bear a single seed that sprouts on land instead of on the sea. And again every 1000 years, a single sea-dwelling mangrove will bear no offspring at all, and die off completely. When every tree, in every grove, on every continent grows on the land and not in the sea, only then shall they wreak their terrible vengeance.
- I would have observed the Accordance of Fifteenth Heaven, I would argue as if I were Liu Kui that I am a mortal being and do not have the luxuries of longevity brought upon by my passive and rooted nature. I would politely demand compensation in the form of a single fruit of the mangrove tree. Because in the grand scheme of things, the value of that fruit could not measure up to the value of the scroll. I would die long before the vengeance of the earthly beings happens. I would feel justified in my entitlement being capitulated to, because trading something significant for something of lesser significance that will soothe the agony of existence in the short term would be rewarding to all parties involved, the beings of the earth are present everywhere and they will observe and mock my suffering til the days that I die and I certainly have a lot of days to live through before meeting my timely end.
- You and your mat are taken to the top of the Tower of Weavesses and cast into the sky. You must complete the Three Prayers of Replenishment before you reach the ground.
- The punishment is that you must decide upon a punishment for someone else involved in such an act, and face a punishment chosen by another who has defied this rule.
- From the Epic of the Yellow-hemmed Garden of Long-zhao-xhai, the Grand Minister of the Third Heavenly Host, you shall transcribe the death-poem, "Lily that yet floats upon the Corpse of the World".
- (an empty response was given)
- To place the net. You trespass here so often that you think of the garden and its flowers as your own.
- You came into your garden to place a golden net upon the seeds of the moon-cloud flower, which will grow five centuries previously.
- Slay them on the spot. It is better to lose your leg than to die of infection, and a rabid dog must be removed ere it destroy the whole pack. Thus shall the monastery be redeemed.
- Cursed with no longer being able to dream, the afflicted shall join the Sleepless Many Faces of the Twentieth God-Emperor of Three Hill Tower and serve as attendant to the Great Heron of Xao, lest the great bird itself grow sleepy and bring upon the land a horde of dreamers.
- There is none, for the wise one who said these words was attacked by hawks before she could finish speaking.
- For they do not grow but learn. Most people miss-attribute the maturation of hands with physical symptoms, when the saying talks about gaining experience and worldly skills.
- The correct completion is simply "... for they do not." Eyes and ears well gain clarity from concentrated idle use, but hands require work, toil, and effort to grow wide.
- Liu Kui could not arrange the scattered papers of Ban Songqi because the mantle of wind that Ban Songqi had retrieved from the Spirit of Spring was still blowing a gust through the space, and would continue to do so until "the overturned bloom into the depths, thus restoring rightness."
- Liu Kui was using the papers as a substitute for the missing shoes. When Ban Songqi returned, there was no further need for the papers so they were not a pressing concern.
Lesson 1 :: Answers
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Answers to Lesson 1 Puzzles
Puzzle 1:
Ban Songqi indeed wears no shoes.
In the twelth year of the Falling Quail, when Ban Songqi completed the Great Pilgrimage from Two Hill Tower, Ban's formerly famous golden-quartz shoes were obliterated by the Sages Named by Fire for offending their aesthetic sensibilities. If Ban Songqi had avoided the mires of the mangrove swamps on the path from Two Hill Tower, the Sages would have instead blessed the shoes for their golden-quartz flame.
Puzzle 2:
Though only twelve survived the internal strife of the Assembly of Retaining Avarice, the conflict was not as severe as is often mistaken. Scarcely days before the date of the conflict, a cruel prank happened upon the Assembly's senior members - their shoes were scattered throughout the Cascading Fathom, a great water-desert that laid far to the west of the space ruled by the Semi-Immortal Paragon of the Fifth Virtue of Heaven, Avkakathip Tolvittrakhar-Thakartravit. Believing this to be the work of the heavens, the entire Assembly set out to recover the shoes by hand. Upon their successful return, Avkakathip was so impressed by this feat that the Assembly was promoted to the Assembly of Returning Footwear. At this time, the twelve who had carried out the scattering came forward, expecting rewards from their role in the matter, but instead were punished with permanent residence in the Assembly of Retaining Avarice, shoeless and destitute, until they perished and were replaced.
Puzzle 3:
The mangrove forests have already risen. Heed the night-wind, for it is the melody that promises death. Those who studiously follow the Accordance of Twelve Heaven - attend yourselves in the presence of the enemies of life. Where Jakoa Island once rose from the water now dwell only mangroves.
Puzzle 4:
A hundred years prior, the barbaric practice of Yangshi was outlawed due to the discovery that spirit-weaving, which, though known to prohibit any proper burial, would additionally empower the Red-Black Seamstress and eventually lead to the consumption of a great number of cities by the Shadow Tapestry. Now, the sacrificial rite has been replaced by the much more civil casting of the mat from the Tower of Weavesses.
Puzzle 5:
While the Ballad of the Snake Pilgrim may come to mind, the parable of the Beggar most prominent, it is indeed the Epic of Tai-Yin that should be the source for your death-poem.
Puzzle 6:
Indeed - You have arrived at the garden to ensure that the net shall guard the seeds as they grow five centuries previously. For then, from where would the Ribbon-Eyed Messenger find the cure for the mind-chaining of the dreadful cults that surround Bone Powder Lake, destroying their final hold over the souls of the faultless?
Puzzle 7:
If the teachings of the Fourth Seer have indeed fully subsumed the dreams of an unwilling student, it is too late to reverse. Lest they upset the Great Heron Xao with improper attitude, the consumed student must be struck down before being incorrectly brought before the ranks of the Sleepless Many Faces, where the fault will be discovered, visiting indiscriminate destruction upon the offender's land of origin. Always ensure that only the willing student accesses the teachings of the Fourth Seer, so that they may glean the knowledge of the Sleepless Many Faces and rise to the proper position of a Master.
Puzzle 8:
The original completion is "for they do not," followed by an incoherent, extended scream. Those who acknowledge the original saying politely end the recounting before it, claiming instead that it expresses the truth that hands must be honed with active attendance in place of unthinking usage. Others offer inaccurate completions to ward themselves from the attacks of nearing hawks, pleasing them by twisting the original proverb. Several popular variants elaborate upon interpersonal relations or on learning, which is not entirely unfounded.
Regarding the blank answers: The Hollow Speech may be applicable in certain circumstances, but until you have stolen the Answer Scrolls and sacrificed them to Emptiness itself, it is not an safe answer, lest you desecrate the sacred non-word.
Puzzle 1:
Ban Songqi indeed wears no shoes.
In the twelth year of the Falling Quail, when Ban Songqi completed the Great Pilgrimage from Two Hill Tower, Ban's formerly famous golden-quartz shoes were obliterated by the Sages Named by Fire for offending their aesthetic sensibilities. If Ban Songqi had avoided the mires of the mangrove swamps on the path from Two Hill Tower, the Sages would have instead blessed the shoes for their golden-quartz flame.
Puzzle 2:
Though only twelve survived the internal strife of the Assembly of Retaining Avarice, the conflict was not as severe as is often mistaken. Scarcely days before the date of the conflict, a cruel prank happened upon the Assembly's senior members - their shoes were scattered throughout the Cascading Fathom, a great water-desert that laid far to the west of the space ruled by the Semi-Immortal Paragon of the Fifth Virtue of Heaven, Avkakathip Tolvittrakhar-Thakartravit. Believing this to be the work of the heavens, the entire Assembly set out to recover the shoes by hand. Upon their successful return, Avkakathip was so impressed by this feat that the Assembly was promoted to the Assembly of Returning Footwear. At this time, the twelve who had carried out the scattering came forward, expecting rewards from their role in the matter, but instead were punished with permanent residence in the Assembly of Retaining Avarice, shoeless and destitute, until they perished and were replaced.
Puzzle 3:
The mangrove forests have already risen. Heed the night-wind, for it is the melody that promises death. Those who studiously follow the Accordance of Twelve Heaven - attend yourselves in the presence of the enemies of life. Where Jakoa Island once rose from the water now dwell only mangroves.
Puzzle 4:
A hundred years prior, the barbaric practice of Yangshi was outlawed due to the discovery that spirit-weaving, which, though known to prohibit any proper burial, would additionally empower the Red-Black Seamstress and eventually lead to the consumption of a great number of cities by the Shadow Tapestry. Now, the sacrificial rite has been replaced by the much more civil casting of the mat from the Tower of Weavesses.
Puzzle 5:
While the Ballad of the Snake Pilgrim may come to mind, the parable of the Beggar most prominent, it is indeed the Epic of Tai-Yin that should be the source for your death-poem.
Puzzle 6:
Indeed - You have arrived at the garden to ensure that the net shall guard the seeds as they grow five centuries previously. For then, from where would the Ribbon-Eyed Messenger find the cure for the mind-chaining of the dreadful cults that surround Bone Powder Lake, destroying their final hold over the souls of the faultless?
Puzzle 7:
If the teachings of the Fourth Seer have indeed fully subsumed the dreams of an unwilling student, it is too late to reverse. Lest they upset the Great Heron Xao with improper attitude, the consumed student must be struck down before being incorrectly brought before the ranks of the Sleepless Many Faces, where the fault will be discovered, visiting indiscriminate destruction upon the offender's land of origin. Always ensure that only the willing student accesses the teachings of the Fourth Seer, so that they may glean the knowledge of the Sleepless Many Faces and rise to the proper position of a Master.
Puzzle 8:
The original completion is "for they do not," followed by an incoherent, extended scream. Those who acknowledge the original saying politely end the recounting before it, claiming instead that it expresses the truth that hands must be honed with active attendance in place of unthinking usage. Others offer inaccurate completions to ward themselves from the attacks of nearing hawks, pleasing them by twisting the original proverb. Several popular variants elaborate upon interpersonal relations or on learning, which is not entirely unfounded.
Regarding the blank answers: The Hollow Speech may be applicable in certain circumstances, but until you have stolen the Answer Scrolls and sacrificed them to Emptiness itself, it is not an safe answer, lest you desecrate the sacred non-word.
Lesson 2 :: 1-3
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Lesson 2: It is my Star who Sits in the Sky
Six Hill Tower was a mire - a city drowning beneath a puddle.
It stood at the cliffs of a faraway sea, perched atop a small rock in a precarious manner, yet submerged in its fuming waters for seven and seventy thousand years. Metal decorated its high buildings and shining places as a testament to the hubris of its architects.
There were no birds here, for they would sink in its depths - plants abhorred the murk, growing about the boundary where Six Hill Tower began, and the coherent world ended. It was the exact environment that Liu Kui detested. Once before in the outskirts of Encircled Waves, this weather had come from the south and produced a terrible congestion in the sinuses of the young and elderly alike.
Ban Songqi and Liu Kui were walking the muddied path into the city, which was hewn from ashen stone, baked under a blinded sun.
"Here it is," proclaimed Ban Songqi. "The final day of Six Hill Tower is before us."
Puzzle 1: Consider the Hunger of Many Tongues. When addressing the beast bearing the name, what language would be appropriate? If you find difficulty in this question, consider the accounting of the late scholar Evitrakkar Amemmiit, on the nature of Word-Thievery.
Entering Six Hill Tower was not so much a formidable feat. Desolation was the natural inhabitant of the city, and emptiness its owner. There were no markets, for their only customer would be the abyss.
And so Desolation greeted Ban Songqi with a wave of its palm and a whispered word. Ban nodded, and reached into a side pocket to produce a small scroll of rites. Liu Kui nervously shuffled about in waterlogged sandals, which were about to dissolve in the acrid mud.
Ban Songqi handed the scroll to Liu Kui, who nearly fell in surprise, face-forward, into the darkened street, and the great stairway that led downward from that point on. Glancing about, Liu saw the imprint of Six Hill Tower against the deeps and began to question the presence of the city itself. "Songqi, when we had stepped on the path towards Six Hill Tower, was there not a great crescent moon hanging above us," asked Liu Kui, "in opposition to the noontime sun?"
In fact, there was no sign of the moon in the skies now, but instead in the water. And it was a halo of pale light, sick in color like a wind-bleached bone.
"No," replied Songqi, motioning for Liu Kui to read the scroll.
Puzzle 2: Answer this question from the perspective of a Teacher of Things, a Student of Things, and a Street-Creature. What is the answer to the question?
Liu Kui began speaking. "Five times before you were the foundation of the earth felled, five times before you were the pillars of the deepest ocean pulled away, and five times more were the plants and animals and all life brought before you and pushed away into cruel emptiness. Five times more will the deeps of your folly be inundated with flame, and five times finally will the spires of your proud construction bend backwards in destruction. The Emptiness of yours which smothers your dwelling will be filled and removed. So it was before all else, so it was in the continuation, so it is as it stands - so it shall be as it proceeds, and so it shall be and no more after."
Desolation immediately fled and could not be seen. An immeasurable change came upon the city, and Ban Songqi squinted fiercely at the distant sun.
With a terrific creaking, the metal which towered up from the darkness underlying Six Hill Tower tore themselves apart in all directions. The waters rose furiously with a tremendous commotion but evaporated with a greater speed, steam screaming outrage into the firmament.
The earth was shorn open, incandescent magma billowing outwards, and for a brief moment, complete blindness flashed across the vision of all which could see.
Then Six Hill Tower was no more but slag in a dried-up puddle, the ring of the moon silently watching from the sky.
Puzzle 3: Dissatisfaction, like a small duckling, must be weaned first on grasses and small leaves before it matures into a great duck. Very few have accomplished the inverse, but despite its immense difficulty, to try it is safe. Document your own attempts and results. What did you learn?
Ban Songqi took out a small fan to assuage the midday sun, and passed it to Liu Kui, who remembered that there was no scroll of rites.
They went on in silence.
Six Hill Tower was a mire - a city drowning beneath a puddle.
It stood at the cliffs of a faraway sea, perched atop a small rock in a precarious manner, yet submerged in its fuming waters for seven and seventy thousand years. Metal decorated its high buildings and shining places as a testament to the hubris of its architects.
There were no birds here, for they would sink in its depths - plants abhorred the murk, growing about the boundary where Six Hill Tower began, and the coherent world ended. It was the exact environment that Liu Kui detested. Once before in the outskirts of Encircled Waves, this weather had come from the south and produced a terrible congestion in the sinuses of the young and elderly alike.
Ban Songqi and Liu Kui were walking the muddied path into the city, which was hewn from ashen stone, baked under a blinded sun.
"Here it is," proclaimed Ban Songqi. "The final day of Six Hill Tower is before us."
Puzzle 1: Consider the Hunger of Many Tongues. When addressing the beast bearing the name, what language would be appropriate? If you find difficulty in this question, consider the accounting of the late scholar Evitrakkar Amemmiit, on the nature of Word-Thievery.
Entering Six Hill Tower was not so much a formidable feat. Desolation was the natural inhabitant of the city, and emptiness its owner. There were no markets, for their only customer would be the abyss.
And so Desolation greeted Ban Songqi with a wave of its palm and a whispered word. Ban nodded, and reached into a side pocket to produce a small scroll of rites. Liu Kui nervously shuffled about in waterlogged sandals, which were about to dissolve in the acrid mud.
Ban Songqi handed the scroll to Liu Kui, who nearly fell in surprise, face-forward, into the darkened street, and the great stairway that led downward from that point on. Glancing about, Liu saw the imprint of Six Hill Tower against the deeps and began to question the presence of the city itself. "Songqi, when we had stepped on the path towards Six Hill Tower, was there not a great crescent moon hanging above us," asked Liu Kui, "in opposition to the noontime sun?"
In fact, there was no sign of the moon in the skies now, but instead in the water. And it was a halo of pale light, sick in color like a wind-bleached bone.
"No," replied Songqi, motioning for Liu Kui to read the scroll.
Puzzle 2: Answer this question from the perspective of a Teacher of Things, a Student of Things, and a Street-Creature. What is the answer to the question?
Liu Kui began speaking. "Five times before you were the foundation of the earth felled, five times before you were the pillars of the deepest ocean pulled away, and five times more were the plants and animals and all life brought before you and pushed away into cruel emptiness. Five times more will the deeps of your folly be inundated with flame, and five times finally will the spires of your proud construction bend backwards in destruction. The Emptiness of yours which smothers your dwelling will be filled and removed. So it was before all else, so it was in the continuation, so it is as it stands - so it shall be as it proceeds, and so it shall be and no more after."
Desolation immediately fled and could not be seen. An immeasurable change came upon the city, and Ban Songqi squinted fiercely at the distant sun.
With a terrific creaking, the metal which towered up from the darkness underlying Six Hill Tower tore themselves apart in all directions. The waters rose furiously with a tremendous commotion but evaporated with a greater speed, steam screaming outrage into the firmament.
The earth was shorn open, incandescent magma billowing outwards, and for a brief moment, complete blindness flashed across the vision of all which could see.
Then Six Hill Tower was no more but slag in a dried-up puddle, the ring of the moon silently watching from the sky.
Puzzle 3: Dissatisfaction, like a small duckling, must be weaned first on grasses and small leaves before it matures into a great duck. Very few have accomplished the inverse, but despite its immense difficulty, to try it is safe. Document your own attempts and results. What did you learn?
Ban Songqi took out a small fan to assuage the midday sun, and passed it to Liu Kui, who remembered that there was no scroll of rites.
They went on in silence.
Lesson 2 :: 4-5
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That night, Liu Kui was given the task of lighting the sighting-lamp on the top of the wooden cottage. This was the custom of those who had seen Desolation with their own eyes - for if no sighting-lamp were lit afterward, Desolation would return and create an infestation in that which had seen it.
A ladder was dropped against the side of the wall, clattering: A rickety thing creaking in the night wind. Liu Kui set one foot before the other upon its rungs and slowly reached the rooftop.
A bird flew down from a faraway cloud and pecked at Liu Kui's hands.
Now, Liu Kui had brought up a torch to light the sighting-lamp, and so desperately held on, intent on avoiding unnecessary arson. With a tightly-gripping hand, knuckles white as the flame it held, Liu Kui crawled forward despite the pecking bird and touched the fire to the wick of the sighting-lamp.
With a soft puff, the oils ignited and began to smoke. Sighing in relief, Liu Kui retreated from the roof and descended the ladder. The bird's talons were sinking into the meat of Liu Kui's hand.
Throughout all of this, Liu Kui did not cry out in pain.
But then the bird flew away, and Liu Kui fell off the ladder, screaming in frustration.
Puzzle 4: Many have sought to quantify authority by measure of those that it commands. For instance, judging the authority of a ruler by the number of subjects, or creating an ordering of logic describing its applicability. After the Indefinite Authority incident which ended the two-month reign of Mikthiparak Yivi-Sharsa, it was apparent that doing so was unquestionably incorrect. Name two of the corrections which were implemented in the following decade and the necessity of their creation.
"Tell me - the night sky, is it not too bright?" Thus spoke Ban Songqi, who was sitting outside the cottage. "Each of the stars which is torn into its thick covering is allotted its reign there, given power and will. Still in their dominion they are isolated like rulers of the overseas cities, surrounded by great unfriendly seas, where meeting, they shall consume each other without goodwill. Invariably there are too many; a great number will be destroyed."
A silence sat momentarily.
Liu Kui, nursing the wounds on that bitten hand, continued: "Then the stars are as lions. They sleep in the cosmos, nestling at the centers of their claimed territory, and in meeting another will circle about until one is consumed."
Ban Songqi responded: "And what is the life-span of a lion? It is measured by the coming and going of the seas, of the clouds and the sun. The seas of the stars, do they come and go? The clouds of the firmament, where do they travel from, from which waters do they arise? Where is the sun of stars? What manner of light does it cast the lighters? Indeed, what is the life-span of the stars, if they are like lions?"
"The life-span of the living is not determined when they are born, for it is often interrupted by both nature and nature through life. That is - the nature of the Earth and the Skies. Have you seen the stars interfere in the realm of the land?"
Ban Songqi knew that this question was best left unanswered.
The night began to grow cold - many questions were left to linger outside, where they drifted away on the smoke of the sighting-lamp.
Puzzle 5: The rocks of the earth cannot witness that they are not alive; They cannot get up and say "I am not living, for I am a mere rock! I am dead, and not alive." No-one knows if any might say to the lives of the ocean and the exhale of the Earthly shell, which houses the deep-fire of the ground, that they live as they do. Is there any method to do so? What would be the consequences if it were to exist?
A ladder was dropped against the side of the wall, clattering: A rickety thing creaking in the night wind. Liu Kui set one foot before the other upon its rungs and slowly reached the rooftop.
A bird flew down from a faraway cloud and pecked at Liu Kui's hands.
Now, Liu Kui had brought up a torch to light the sighting-lamp, and so desperately held on, intent on avoiding unnecessary arson. With a tightly-gripping hand, knuckles white as the flame it held, Liu Kui crawled forward despite the pecking bird and touched the fire to the wick of the sighting-lamp.
With a soft puff, the oils ignited and began to smoke. Sighing in relief, Liu Kui retreated from the roof and descended the ladder. The bird's talons were sinking into the meat of Liu Kui's hand.
Throughout all of this, Liu Kui did not cry out in pain.
But then the bird flew away, and Liu Kui fell off the ladder, screaming in frustration.
Puzzle 4: Many have sought to quantify authority by measure of those that it commands. For instance, judging the authority of a ruler by the number of subjects, or creating an ordering of logic describing its applicability. After the Indefinite Authority incident which ended the two-month reign of Mikthiparak Yivi-Sharsa, it was apparent that doing so was unquestionably incorrect. Name two of the corrections which were implemented in the following decade and the necessity of their creation.
"Tell me - the night sky, is it not too bright?" Thus spoke Ban Songqi, who was sitting outside the cottage. "Each of the stars which is torn into its thick covering is allotted its reign there, given power and will. Still in their dominion they are isolated like rulers of the overseas cities, surrounded by great unfriendly seas, where meeting, they shall consume each other without goodwill. Invariably there are too many; a great number will be destroyed."
A silence sat momentarily.
Liu Kui, nursing the wounds on that bitten hand, continued: "Then the stars are as lions. They sleep in the cosmos, nestling at the centers of their claimed territory, and in meeting another will circle about until one is consumed."
Ban Songqi responded: "And what is the life-span of a lion? It is measured by the coming and going of the seas, of the clouds and the sun. The seas of the stars, do they come and go? The clouds of the firmament, where do they travel from, from which waters do they arise? Where is the sun of stars? What manner of light does it cast the lighters? Indeed, what is the life-span of the stars, if they are like lions?"
"The life-span of the living is not determined when they are born, for it is often interrupted by both nature and nature through life. That is - the nature of the Earth and the Skies. Have you seen the stars interfere in the realm of the land?"
Ban Songqi knew that this question was best left unanswered.
The night began to grow cold - many questions were left to linger outside, where they drifted away on the smoke of the sighting-lamp.
Puzzle 5: The rocks of the earth cannot witness that they are not alive; They cannot get up and say "I am not living, for I am a mere rock! I am dead, and not alive." No-one knows if any might say to the lives of the ocean and the exhale of the Earthly shell, which houses the deep-fire of the ground, that they live as they do. Is there any method to do so? What would be the consequences if it were to exist?
Lesson 2 :: 6-7
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The following morning, a cloying fog appeared from the earth and suffused the lower air.
Liu Kui and Ban Songqi were a ways into a lakeside stroll when this occurred - it seemed that the lake had reached up from its trough and was emptying itself out across the earth. The nearby grove took on an eerie grey hue as if covered in dust.
"Ban," noted Liu Kui, "Before us is the dominion of the stones."
But they proceeded forward all the same.
The shadowed twigs and saplings began to encircle them from all sides as the path went on. The already-occluded sun faded among the brambles into a dripping slop.
At this point they happened upon a straggler hiding from the elements in a large, burlap sack.
"Don't you see how dangerous it is!" Exclaimed the straggler. "The sky has frowned upon life itself!"
Ban Songqi looked upward - but the clouds were hidden behind the branches of the surrounding trees.
Puzzle 6: I was a boulder rolling down the mountains, crushing villages which obstructed me. They spoke of this: "To cage it is to wither. To describe it is to invite destruction." When I was brought to court, they would not charge me. Yet this was correct - how could it be so?
Then from the thicket arrived a stone-faced lion with a body of granite. Its eyes blazed, for they were coals in its face, and its mane burned with a ferocious roar.
The straggler jumped back in surprise, though the motion was rather a half-trip, half-roll into the side of the brush. "My punishment! You are here, and I will surely be destroyed!"
Ban Songqi stepped forth to console the straggler, but indeed - it was too late. The clumsy fumbling had brought the miscreant away and outwards into the shadows and mists. With a hiss, the sack also was given to emptiness, and was known no more.
The stone-spirit that took on the shape of a lion stood menacingly over the former crouching place.
Liu Kui pointed at the stone-spirit. "That is the fabled - "
The hedge was whole and ordinary. A plum and apricot fell from the trees of the grove and nearly struck the two upon the head.
Puzzle 7: Describe how a pan must be heated properly to, in following, shear the wind, house seven myriad frogs, and produce an excellent dish.
Liu Kui and Ban Songqi were a ways into a lakeside stroll when this occurred - it seemed that the lake had reached up from its trough and was emptying itself out across the earth. The nearby grove took on an eerie grey hue as if covered in dust.
"Ban," noted Liu Kui, "Before us is the dominion of the stones."
But they proceeded forward all the same.
The shadowed twigs and saplings began to encircle them from all sides as the path went on. The already-occluded sun faded among the brambles into a dripping slop.
At this point they happened upon a straggler hiding from the elements in a large, burlap sack.
"Don't you see how dangerous it is!" Exclaimed the straggler. "The sky has frowned upon life itself!"
Ban Songqi looked upward - but the clouds were hidden behind the branches of the surrounding trees.
Puzzle 6: I was a boulder rolling down the mountains, crushing villages which obstructed me. They spoke of this: "To cage it is to wither. To describe it is to invite destruction." When I was brought to court, they would not charge me. Yet this was correct - how could it be so?
Then from the thicket arrived a stone-faced lion with a body of granite. Its eyes blazed, for they were coals in its face, and its mane burned with a ferocious roar.
The straggler jumped back in surprise, though the motion was rather a half-trip, half-roll into the side of the brush. "My punishment! You are here, and I will surely be destroyed!"
Ban Songqi stepped forth to console the straggler, but indeed - it was too late. The clumsy fumbling had brought the miscreant away and outwards into the shadows and mists. With a hiss, the sack also was given to emptiness, and was known no more.
The stone-spirit that took on the shape of a lion stood menacingly over the former crouching place.
Liu Kui pointed at the stone-spirit. "That is the fabled - "
The hedge was whole and ordinary. A plum and apricot fell from the trees of the grove and nearly struck the two upon the head.
Puzzle 7: Describe how a pan must be heated properly to, in following, shear the wind, house seven myriad frogs, and produce an excellent dish.
Lesson 2 :: 8-9
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Several uneventful days had passed since their last journey to the less typical and more interesting.
Like congealing porridge, time had begun to accumulate into a semi-solid shape, its nutrients diffusing uselessly into inseparable detritus and miscellany.
And then, suddenly, like the worms which grow in the neglected harvest, the unsustainable burden of time had begun to fester, and fell through.
That day, a person was sitting on the ground before the cottage, tearing at coarse clothes and bawling with great force.
"I wish for death! There is nothing in this world!" proclaimed this figure.
Liu Kui was woken up by this ruckus, and opened the door to go outside.
But the person was at a short distance from the door, and when it opened, it struck at the head and caused it to bleed.
The figure fell, knees against the ground, and cried out once more. "See! There truly is only pain in the world."
Puzzle 8: It is known that there is pain in the world. Recently, pain was also discovered outside of the world. Despite the controversy surrounding these discoveries, scholars agree that the upcoming investigations into the nature of pain may unite domains of thought previously thought to be separate. Propose some possible unifications and their hypothetical avenues.
Then, without a word, Liu Kui dragged the person into the cottage, and draped about that hunched figure a spare cloak from the wall.
Ban Songqi at this time was roused from slumber by the intrusion. "Where did this rabble come from?"
Liu Kui replied, "From the street."
But Ban Songqi had seen through this immediately. "No - rather, they instead hail from the scholars of the faraway rivers."
"Though they purport to teach the way of the heavens, they are instead moved by the heavens. And when they shall say that they will alter the course of the waters, while entering their feet to the rapid streams, they will be ripped into the current."
"All the while they scream at these proceedings, and afterward they will be self-assured. They will claim the teachings of nature like a thief in the gallery."
Then Ban Songqi stood from the bed, still wrapped in the bedding, and took an empty flask to Liu Kui.
"Fill this with water."
So Liu Kui wordlessly did.
Then Ban Songqi drank half the water, and returned to bed.
Seeing this, Liu Kui immediately rose, incensed at this apparently callous attitude, and stumbled forward, but tripped on the cloak of the stranger and became tangled in the cloth
and unable to see.
The stranger, having secretly kept one eye open throughout all these events, grabbed the flask, and drank the remainder in one gulp.
Puzzle 9: Identify the truth, the flaw, and the hazard in the following: (Sample from the texts of the faraway river school, dated approx. 291 years prior)
Quick is the lightning when it strikes - what invites it but our regrets? Thus, have no regrets. Then when the lightning shall strike regardless, know that it is not by your cause, nor another's.
Like congealing porridge, time had begun to accumulate into a semi-solid shape, its nutrients diffusing uselessly into inseparable detritus and miscellany.
And then, suddenly, like the worms which grow in the neglected harvest, the unsustainable burden of time had begun to fester, and fell through.
That day, a person was sitting on the ground before the cottage, tearing at coarse clothes and bawling with great force.
"I wish for death! There is nothing in this world!" proclaimed this figure.
Liu Kui was woken up by this ruckus, and opened the door to go outside.
But the person was at a short distance from the door, and when it opened, it struck at the head and caused it to bleed.
The figure fell, knees against the ground, and cried out once more. "See! There truly is only pain in the world."
Puzzle 8: It is known that there is pain in the world. Recently, pain was also discovered outside of the world. Despite the controversy surrounding these discoveries, scholars agree that the upcoming investigations into the nature of pain may unite domains of thought previously thought to be separate. Propose some possible unifications and their hypothetical avenues.
Then, without a word, Liu Kui dragged the person into the cottage, and draped about that hunched figure a spare cloak from the wall.
Ban Songqi at this time was roused from slumber by the intrusion. "Where did this rabble come from?"
Liu Kui replied, "From the street."
But Ban Songqi had seen through this immediately. "No - rather, they instead hail from the scholars of the faraway rivers."
"Though they purport to teach the way of the heavens, they are instead moved by the heavens. And when they shall say that they will alter the course of the waters, while entering their feet to the rapid streams, they will be ripped into the current."
"All the while they scream at these proceedings, and afterward they will be self-assured. They will claim the teachings of nature like a thief in the gallery."
Then Ban Songqi stood from the bed, still wrapped in the bedding, and took an empty flask to Liu Kui.
"Fill this with water."
So Liu Kui wordlessly did.
Then Ban Songqi drank half the water, and returned to bed.
Seeing this, Liu Kui immediately rose, incensed at this apparently callous attitude, and stumbled forward, but tripped on the cloak of the stranger and became tangled in the cloth
and unable to see.
The stranger, having secretly kept one eye open throughout all these events, grabbed the flask, and drank the remainder in one gulp.
Puzzle 9: Identify the truth, the flaw, and the hazard in the following: (Sample from the texts of the faraway river school, dated approx. 291 years prior)
Quick is the lightning when it strikes - what invites it but our regrets? Thus, have no regrets. Then when the lightning shall strike regardless, know that it is not by your cause, nor another's.
ω₁
The Long Count
If interactive, this may be better suited for the Quests or Roleplaying forums.
Lesson 2, Puzzle 1:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 2:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 3:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 4:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 5:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 6:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 7:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 8:
Lesson 2, Puzzle 9:
The proper language in which to address the Hunger of Many Tongues is one which you have created for the occasion, and shall not have need of thereafter. Otherwise, you may find that your speech lacks the concepts, and you the memory, of anything mentioned therein.
Alternatively, if you are of a practical bent, you may choose to employ the speech of your enemies.
Alternatively, if you are of a practical bent, you may choose to employ the speech of your enemies.
Lesson 2, Puzzle 2:
Street-Creature: "What question?"
Student: "Mu. There is no moon except the perception of the moon. Liu Kui once perceived himself to have perceived the moon thus, but now does not."
Teacher: "No."
Daoyuan comments that the student, while not wrong, has missed the point even more than the Street-Creature has. Nityapratima disagrees on both counts, which is perhaps to be expected.
Student: "Mu. There is no moon except the perception of the moon. Liu Kui once perceived himself to have perceived the moon thus, but now does not."
Teacher: "No."
Daoyuan comments that the student, while not wrong, has missed the point even more than the Street-Creature has. Nityapratima disagrees on both counts, which is perhaps to be expected.
Lesson 2, Puzzle 3:
Nothing satisfying.
Lesson 2, Puzzle 4:
The first correction was the vesting of all existing authority in the sun. The second correction was the disposal of all previously existing authorities into the sun.
The former was necessary, despite being a violation of existing law and practice, because there was no longer any legal or moral circumstance under which legal or moral authority could be vested in any entity which had either held or been claimed as subject to any earthly authority. The sun was not the only option, but it was the most immediately practical. The latter was necessary because the sun said it was.
(Subsequent corrections, including the so-called Greatest Sunset, would follow; but all sprang from these first two.)
The former was necessary, despite being a violation of existing law and practice, because there was no longer any legal or moral circumstance under which legal or moral authority could be vested in any entity which had either held or been claimed as subject to any earthly authority. The sun was not the only option, but it was the most immediately practical. The latter was necessary because the sun said it was.
(Subsequent corrections, including the so-called Greatest Sunset, would follow; but all sprang from these first two.)
Lesson 2, Puzzle 5:
None know but Death, who as a matter of principle disprefers that knowledge of duties which he might be abrogating be public. Anyone who figured out a method to do so would keep it under their hat, or else would likely find their body no longer under their head.
Wisely on Death's part, this would remain true even if the answer is in the negative, as negative space will paint a picture all on its own.
Wisely on Death's part, this would remain true even if the answer is in the negative, as negative space will paint a picture all on its own.
Lesson 2, Puzzle 6:
The speaker has assumed the role of Desolation.
Therefore, this question is best left unanswered.
Therefore, this question is best left unanswered.
Lesson 2, Puzzle 7:
In order: every way, no possible way, and any way.
- A pan may trivially shear the wind, regardless of how or whether it has been heated.
- A pan may not house seven myriad frogs at any temperature, unless reshaped into something not a pan.
- For each possible way there is to heat a pan, there is an excellent dish that requires the pan to be thus heated.
Lesson 2, Puzzle 8:
"Life is pain, your highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
—Iolithae Septimian
Lesson 2, Puzzle 9:
Daoyuan denies that the truth is that one should have no regrets; the flaw is that the lightning needs no invitation; and the hazard is that one will be struck by lightning regardless.
Nityapratima denies that the truth is that the lightning will strike regardless; the flaw is that one cannot have no regrets; and the hazard is that one will invite the lightning unknowingly.
A stone lion would deny that the truth is that lightning is quick; the flaw is that lightning remains free to cause itself; and the hazard is that one might not be struck by the lightning.
One should perhaps step lightly regardless.
Nityapratima denies that the truth is that the lightning will strike regardless; the flaw is that one cannot have no regrets; and the hazard is that one will invite the lightning unknowingly.
A stone lion would deny that the truth is that lightning is quick; the flaw is that lightning remains free to cause itself; and the hazard is that one might not be struck by the lightning.
One should perhaps step lightly regardless.