The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)
- Thread starter Vesvius
- Start date
- Original
-
- Tags
- original xianxia cultivation quest
- Location
- Brazil
Vesvius
The Wicked God
After two weeks are up, yes. You'll no longer be going day by day and moving into a weekly structure, though you will be getting an action or two more.
22. Overworked and Underworked
Vesvius
The Wicked God
A/N: A big thanks to the 7 people who have pledged to me on Patreon! If you'd like to join them, (especially if you're interested in an exclusive 10PG short story) you can do so here.
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Your morning begins much like yesterday's did. You wake up feeling good, feeling right, feeling like nothing can go wrong in the world. Then your body decides to correct your perception and remind you that the world is an awful unceasing symphony of pain. You force yourself to rise, throw on fresh robes, and make your way downstairs to join the Jai twins.
Kong Zhi recovers 2 points of his damage threshold. He currently has three open physical stress boxes.
Jai Shouxi barely pays you any mind. He greets you, of course, but is distracted with some of his notes. At your curious look, he explains, "Our trip yesterday yielded several interesting ingredients and a few new ways of looking at things. I cannot waste time if I wish to finish my projects in a timely fashion." Then he goes right back to his scroll, and as soon as his plate is empty he's downstairs, painstakingly scribing a formation on the floor in something viscous and foul-smelling.
The scent of Jai Shouxi's pigment is really all the motivation you need to throw your door open without any of Jai Fa's cajoling. Still, you hurt, and it takes longer for the pain to go away as you run towards the training field. You push yourself harder so that you can run alongside Jai Fa and grunt out, "I thought this was supposed to get easier with practice!"
Your roommate spares you a look. "Three weeks," she says.
You wait for her to go on. She doesn't say another word though, so you repeat, "Three weeks?"
Jai Fa nods. "Yes. Three weeks. That is how long it takes someone to ingrain a habit into themselves, and that is how long a body can take to adapt to new routines."
You can't help but gape at her. "You're saying I have three weeks of this to look forward to before I stop feeling like offal every morning."
"Two and a half weeks," she corrects. "For you have already begun. Sometimes, it takes less. Sometimes more. It is not an exact art."
You're too horrified by the thought of suffering like this for another three weeks that your urge to make conversation dies. The two of you jog to the training ground in silence. Once again, you are not the first ones there. But it isn't Mei Daiyu that beat you this time. Instead it's Xu Yun that's standing on the mossy ground working over the dummy.
Jai Fa pauses, and she seems as surprised as she can be. "Xu Yun," she greets him. "You're early."
Xu Yun turns to face the two of you, raising a hand in greeting. "Good morning," he says through ragged, uneven breaths. "Am I early? I hadn't even noticed." He stops and glances at the pillar. "Oh, my, yes. It has been some time. Yes, I was here early and I decided to get some work done."
You study your third sparring partner. Xu Yun is practically bathing in sweat once again, and his hands look rough and raw. A glance at the training dummy he was working on shows small discolorations decorating nearly the entire dummy. He was striking the training aide until his hand bled. How did he not notice that?
Jai Fa's eyes flick from place to place, finding the same things you did. But instead of acknowledging them, she merely nods. "Very well. Kong Zhi, begin your warm up. We shall exchange pointers afterwards."
As you return Xu Yun's greeting and make for the edge of the crater, Xu Yun takes a step towards Jai Fa. "If I may make a request, sister," he says, fighting to make his breathing even out. "I was hoping that perhaps we could spar. It may not prove challenging for one such as yourself, but it would be invaluable to me. I have also developed some strategies that you may find interesting."
But to your surprise, his question is quickly answered by Jai Fa shaking her head. "No," she says. "You are overtrained. To do more would be detrimental to you and without point for me."
Xu Yun's mouth drops open and a sound not unlike that of a dying whale emerges from his throat. He gets himself back under control quickly though and moves to protest. "I bow before my sister's wisdom, of course, but there is a chance that you are mistaken. I feel fresh and ready for what the day may bring. Please, if we could but trade pointers for a moment-"
"I have given you my answer," Jai Fa answers. Her voice is hard and merciless, pressing down on Xu Yun like a cold inevitably. "And it shall not change. If you wish to spar, then do not wear yourself to a nub before the opportunity arises."
Still, Xu Yun tries. He takes another step towards Jai Fa, more pleading on his lips. You don't hear exactly what he says as you start your warm ups, but whatever it is is less than effective. By the time you are ready to spar, he's sitting in sullen silence. Jai Fa ignores him entirely and you do your best to follow suit, instead taking a ready position across from your roommate.
At her signalling nod, you charge forward.
Athletics Check! 2d10s8. Dice Rolled: 3, 5. No Successes! Fail!
Athletics Check! 2d10s8. Dice Rolled: 7, 9. One Success! Pass!
One success banked towards Hummingbird's Dance.
Once again, for all your supposed natural talent at the physical arts, this all feels wrong. Something in the movements of the Hummingbird's Dance just doesn't flow correctly with your natural instincts. When someone strikes at you, your natural inclination is to run as far away as possible, not move your head a fraction of an inch to the side to allow their blow to pass by harmlessly.
Attacking is even worse. Punches and kicks just aren't something you're used to doing. You know that it's only been two days, yet you remember your first time working with a hammer and chisel. With that, it felt effortless and easy. With this, it feels like harsh, brutal work.
Jai Fa can tell you're growing disheartened and she deals with it the only way you think she knows how: by pressing you harder. Each of your dispirited blows is deflected and countered with six passionate strikes from her. It's only because she's handicapping herself horribly that you don't have a new collection of bruises and cuts to go with your slowly healing ones.
Eventually, even Jai Fa knows a lost cause when she sees one. She slows her actions and glances and shakes her head minutely. "You should spend more time on the dummy, ingraining the forms into your-"
A fist flies at you from out of nowhere, and you act without thinking. Your head dips to the side to let the blow by. With one smooth motion you reach up, grab the wrist attached to the hand striking you, and bend at the waist. Your assailant flies over your shoulder and lands heavily on their back at your feet.
Mei Daiyu looks up at you. "No," she says, answering Jai Fa. "His issue is not the forms. Those he knows. His issue is battle experience. Should he be called upon to fight, he will lose, but he will learn more in that fight then he will in a thousand hours of even sparring."
You blink and stare down at the painted girl below you. "Excuse me, but may I ask why you just attempt to strike me?"
Her answering frown is somehow imperious, despite the fact that she's literally lying at your feet. "As a test of ability. Why else? Now, if you don't mind…" She trails off, and you just look at her, uncomprehending. Mei Daiyu sighs. "Either release my wrist or I shall make you."
You let go and jump away from her for good measure as if she's made of fire. She doesn't say anything about your ignoble display though. Instead she just pushes herself to her feet and brushes off her robes. "Very good. Now, Jai Fa, are you prepared to begin?"
Whatever Jai was going to say is interrupted. Xu Yun pushes himself back to his feet from where he'd been sullenly sitting near the dummies and walks towards the girls. "Excuse me," he interrupts. "Mei Daiyu. You are here well past our planned start time. May I ask what kept you?"
Mei Daiyu shakes her head and flips her hair over her shoulder. "No," she answers. "Now Jai Fa-"
"I beg pardon, but excuse me?" Xu Yun answers, voice incredulous. "No? That's how you explain your lateness?"
"No, that was my answer to your question. You asked if you could ask. I said no," Mei Daiyu drawls. "If you must know, I had urgent matters to attend to and that is all you have to know."
Xu Yun looks like his head might explode and you take a cautious step away from him. The last thing you want is his blood upon your robes. "That's what you say?!" he replies through gritted teeth. "Yesterday, I was late, and you spoke to me like I was the lowest of worms! And now you are guilty of the same crime and it is no big deal?!"
"Yes," Mei Daiyu answers. "I am glad that your understanding has proven sufficient." Xu Yun continues his sputtering, and Mei Daiyu rolls her eyes. "Do you want to know why, Xu Yun?"
"Yes!" the normally happy-go-lucky disciple almost spits. "I would love to know why!"
"It is simple. It is because when I am late, it is because of something that could not have been avoided. I would not be late otherwise. Meanwhile, you were late because you lost track of time when unloading boxes down at the waterfront. That is something that could easily be avoided, yet you made a choice to stay in it's path. That is why it is different. Now are there any further distractions or may I begin my training?"
Xu Yun clenches his fists. "Yes. I would be happy to assist you with your-"
"You are still overtrained," Jai Fa cuts him off. "That is not something that goes away in such a brief span of time. You are done with martial training today. If you still wish to work, then it is suggested that you train your mind instead. The Ninth Circle Archives are unlocked should you wish to follow that advice."
This time, you're sure he's going to explode from sheer frustration. But once again he does not. He does, however, spin on his heel and stalk out of the training ground like a perturbed cat. Mei Daiyu pays his exit no mind. Instead she strikes her ready pose and moves to engage Jai Fa.
You watch their spar for a brief time. They were both definitely holding back when they were exchanging pointers with you. Mei Daiyu moves far faster than before; if she came at you with this speed days ago you doubt you ever would have been able to track her movements, let alone hit her. Jai Fa has that same problem. Mei Daiyu is like smoke around her blows and less than half of them find their mark. But those that do have their effect, landing with far greater strength than those punches she hit you with today.
You would love to do nothing but watch these two fight. There's an elegance in their movement that for the first time tells you why anam wielders are called 'Artists'. And so you stand there, trying to absorb every movement for over an hour.
But all good things must come to an end. Eventually you bid the two farewell and make your way from the crater, moving back towards the Spire. You make it home quickly and find that Jai Shouxi is long gone, taking with him whatever he was working on and leaving only wisps of that foul odor in it's place.
...even now, hours later, it's still sickening.
You shouldn't linger on it though. You have a charm to develop.
Almost everything about this charm is set. It needs to be water and light aspected. It needs to be a rod as per Jai Shouxi's request. It needs to have some slight activation cost to work, otherwise it will discharge all of it's anam in seconds, leaving nothing but a decorative stick.;
But there is one question remaining. You have three ingredients to use: the beetle husks, the natural glass, and the whale teeth. You need to use at least two of them… but perhaps you could save one for your own collection.
Which ingredients do you use in the charm for Jai Shouxi?
[] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3) (Automatically selected, due to lack of other proper aspects available).
[X] Your fingers itch to begin work on a new charm. You shall begin planning one out.
-[X] You will begin work on the charm requested by Jai Shouxi
[X] Jai Fa and her group have a duel three days hence. It would be helpful to both them and you for you to be there and serve as a training partner.
-[X] You will begin work on the charm requested by Jai Shouxi
[X] Jai Fa and her group have a duel three days hence. It would be helpful to both them and you for you to be there and serve as a training partner.
Your morning begins much like yesterday's did. You wake up feeling good, feeling right, feeling like nothing can go wrong in the world. Then your body decides to correct your perception and remind you that the world is an awful unceasing symphony of pain. You force yourself to rise, throw on fresh robes, and make your way downstairs to join the Jai twins.
Kong Zhi recovers 2 points of his damage threshold. He currently has three open physical stress boxes.
Jai Shouxi barely pays you any mind. He greets you, of course, but is distracted with some of his notes. At your curious look, he explains, "Our trip yesterday yielded several interesting ingredients and a few new ways of looking at things. I cannot waste time if I wish to finish my projects in a timely fashion." Then he goes right back to his scroll, and as soon as his plate is empty he's downstairs, painstakingly scribing a formation on the floor in something viscous and foul-smelling.
The scent of Jai Shouxi's pigment is really all the motivation you need to throw your door open without any of Jai Fa's cajoling. Still, you hurt, and it takes longer for the pain to go away as you run towards the training field. You push yourself harder so that you can run alongside Jai Fa and grunt out, "I thought this was supposed to get easier with practice!"
Your roommate spares you a look. "Three weeks," she says.
You wait for her to go on. She doesn't say another word though, so you repeat, "Three weeks?"
Jai Fa nods. "Yes. Three weeks. That is how long it takes someone to ingrain a habit into themselves, and that is how long a body can take to adapt to new routines."
You can't help but gape at her. "You're saying I have three weeks of this to look forward to before I stop feeling like offal every morning."
"Two and a half weeks," she corrects. "For you have already begun. Sometimes, it takes less. Sometimes more. It is not an exact art."
You're too horrified by the thought of suffering like this for another three weeks that your urge to make conversation dies. The two of you jog to the training ground in silence. Once again, you are not the first ones there. But it isn't Mei Daiyu that beat you this time. Instead it's Xu Yun that's standing on the mossy ground working over the dummy.
Jai Fa pauses, and she seems as surprised as she can be. "Xu Yun," she greets him. "You're early."
Xu Yun turns to face the two of you, raising a hand in greeting. "Good morning," he says through ragged, uneven breaths. "Am I early? I hadn't even noticed." He stops and glances at the pillar. "Oh, my, yes. It has been some time. Yes, I was here early and I decided to get some work done."
You study your third sparring partner. Xu Yun is practically bathing in sweat once again, and his hands look rough and raw. A glance at the training dummy he was working on shows small discolorations decorating nearly the entire dummy. He was striking the training aide until his hand bled. How did he not notice that?
Jai Fa's eyes flick from place to place, finding the same things you did. But instead of acknowledging them, she merely nods. "Very well. Kong Zhi, begin your warm up. We shall exchange pointers afterwards."
As you return Xu Yun's greeting and make for the edge of the crater, Xu Yun takes a step towards Jai Fa. "If I may make a request, sister," he says, fighting to make his breathing even out. "I was hoping that perhaps we could spar. It may not prove challenging for one such as yourself, but it would be invaluable to me. I have also developed some strategies that you may find interesting."
But to your surprise, his question is quickly answered by Jai Fa shaking her head. "No," she says. "You are overtrained. To do more would be detrimental to you and without point for me."
Xu Yun's mouth drops open and a sound not unlike that of a dying whale emerges from his throat. He gets himself back under control quickly though and moves to protest. "I bow before my sister's wisdom, of course, but there is a chance that you are mistaken. I feel fresh and ready for what the day may bring. Please, if we could but trade pointers for a moment-"
"I have given you my answer," Jai Fa answers. Her voice is hard and merciless, pressing down on Xu Yun like a cold inevitably. "And it shall not change. If you wish to spar, then do not wear yourself to a nub before the opportunity arises."
Still, Xu Yun tries. He takes another step towards Jai Fa, more pleading on his lips. You don't hear exactly what he says as you start your warm ups, but whatever it is is less than effective. By the time you are ready to spar, he's sitting in sullen silence. Jai Fa ignores him entirely and you do your best to follow suit, instead taking a ready position across from your roommate.
At her signalling nod, you charge forward.
Athletics Check! 2d10s8. Dice Rolled: 3, 5. No Successes! Fail!
Athletics Check! 2d10s8. Dice Rolled: 7, 9. One Success! Pass!
One success banked towards Hummingbird's Dance.
Once again, for all your supposed natural talent at the physical arts, this all feels wrong. Something in the movements of the Hummingbird's Dance just doesn't flow correctly with your natural instincts. When someone strikes at you, your natural inclination is to run as far away as possible, not move your head a fraction of an inch to the side to allow their blow to pass by harmlessly.
Attacking is even worse. Punches and kicks just aren't something you're used to doing. You know that it's only been two days, yet you remember your first time working with a hammer and chisel. With that, it felt effortless and easy. With this, it feels like harsh, brutal work.
Jai Fa can tell you're growing disheartened and she deals with it the only way you think she knows how: by pressing you harder. Each of your dispirited blows is deflected and countered with six passionate strikes from her. It's only because she's handicapping herself horribly that you don't have a new collection of bruises and cuts to go with your slowly healing ones.
Eventually, even Jai Fa knows a lost cause when she sees one. She slows her actions and glances and shakes her head minutely. "You should spend more time on the dummy, ingraining the forms into your-"
A fist flies at you from out of nowhere, and you act without thinking. Your head dips to the side to let the blow by. With one smooth motion you reach up, grab the wrist attached to the hand striking you, and bend at the waist. Your assailant flies over your shoulder and lands heavily on their back at your feet.
Mei Daiyu looks up at you. "No," she says, answering Jai Fa. "His issue is not the forms. Those he knows. His issue is battle experience. Should he be called upon to fight, he will lose, but he will learn more in that fight then he will in a thousand hours of even sparring."
You blink and stare down at the painted girl below you. "Excuse me, but may I ask why you just attempt to strike me?"
Her answering frown is somehow imperious, despite the fact that she's literally lying at your feet. "As a test of ability. Why else? Now, if you don't mind…" She trails off, and you just look at her, uncomprehending. Mei Daiyu sighs. "Either release my wrist or I shall make you."
You let go and jump away from her for good measure as if she's made of fire. She doesn't say anything about your ignoble display though. Instead she just pushes herself to her feet and brushes off her robes. "Very good. Now, Jai Fa, are you prepared to begin?"
Whatever Jai was going to say is interrupted. Xu Yun pushes himself back to his feet from where he'd been sullenly sitting near the dummies and walks towards the girls. "Excuse me," he interrupts. "Mei Daiyu. You are here well past our planned start time. May I ask what kept you?"
Mei Daiyu shakes her head and flips her hair over her shoulder. "No," she answers. "Now Jai Fa-"
"I beg pardon, but excuse me?" Xu Yun answers, voice incredulous. "No? That's how you explain your lateness?"
"No, that was my answer to your question. You asked if you could ask. I said no," Mei Daiyu drawls. "If you must know, I had urgent matters to attend to and that is all you have to know."
Xu Yun looks like his head might explode and you take a cautious step away from him. The last thing you want is his blood upon your robes. "That's what you say?!" he replies through gritted teeth. "Yesterday, I was late, and you spoke to me like I was the lowest of worms! And now you are guilty of the same crime and it is no big deal?!"
"Yes," Mei Daiyu answers. "I am glad that your understanding has proven sufficient." Xu Yun continues his sputtering, and Mei Daiyu rolls her eyes. "Do you want to know why, Xu Yun?"
"Yes!" the normally happy-go-lucky disciple almost spits. "I would love to know why!"
"It is simple. It is because when I am late, it is because of something that could not have been avoided. I would not be late otherwise. Meanwhile, you were late because you lost track of time when unloading boxes down at the waterfront. That is something that could easily be avoided, yet you made a choice to stay in it's path. That is why it is different. Now are there any further distractions or may I begin my training?"
Xu Yun clenches his fists. "Yes. I would be happy to assist you with your-"
"You are still overtrained," Jai Fa cuts him off. "That is not something that goes away in such a brief span of time. You are done with martial training today. If you still wish to work, then it is suggested that you train your mind instead. The Ninth Circle Archives are unlocked should you wish to follow that advice."
This time, you're sure he's going to explode from sheer frustration. But once again he does not. He does, however, spin on his heel and stalk out of the training ground like a perturbed cat. Mei Daiyu pays his exit no mind. Instead she strikes her ready pose and moves to engage Jai Fa.
You watch their spar for a brief time. They were both definitely holding back when they were exchanging pointers with you. Mei Daiyu moves far faster than before; if she came at you with this speed days ago you doubt you ever would have been able to track her movements, let alone hit her. Jai Fa has that same problem. Mei Daiyu is like smoke around her blows and less than half of them find their mark. But those that do have their effect, landing with far greater strength than those punches she hit you with today.
You would love to do nothing but watch these two fight. There's an elegance in their movement that for the first time tells you why anam wielders are called 'Artists'. And so you stand there, trying to absorb every movement for over an hour.
But all good things must come to an end. Eventually you bid the two farewell and make your way from the crater, moving back towards the Spire. You make it home quickly and find that Jai Shouxi is long gone, taking with him whatever he was working on and leaving only wisps of that foul odor in it's place.
...even now, hours later, it's still sickening.
You shouldn't linger on it though. You have a charm to develop.
Almost everything about this charm is set. It needs to be water and light aspected. It needs to be a rod as per Jai Shouxi's request. It needs to have some slight activation cost to work, otherwise it will discharge all of it's anam in seconds, leaving nothing but a decorative stick.;
But there is one question remaining. You have three ingredients to use: the beetle husks, the natural glass, and the whale teeth. You need to use at least two of them… but perhaps you could save one for your own collection.
Which ingredients do you use in the charm for Jai Shouxi?
[] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3) (Automatically selected, due to lack of other proper aspects available).
- Location
- The Usual Room
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
I'd rather put our full effort into this.
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
I'd rather put our full effort into this.
Knight-Radiant
Recovering Rageaholic
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
Go big or go home. It's our first commission, let's make it the best charm we can!
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
Go big or go home. It's our first commission, let's make it the best charm we can!
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
We want to make a good charm. For several reasons.
1) We need allies - we've been targeted twice now by people looking to do us harm. Making a better charm gets us more goodwill.
2) Creating a strong charm makes us seem more impressive, and creates incentives for our roommates and possibly others who hear of it to come to us for their charm needs and wants. This is useful in a lot of ways.
3) If our charm ends up being not as high quality as the pill we get in return, that would be really bad. We have no idea what quality of pill Jai Shouxi can create.
4) The Kong family is known far and wide for producing quality charms. We do not want to dishonor the family name.
All and all, using only two ingredients is deliberately half-assing this, IMO. Let's give our full effort.
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
We want to make a good charm. For several reasons.
1) We need allies - we've been targeted twice now by people looking to do us harm. Making a better charm gets us more goodwill.
2) Creating a strong charm makes us seem more impressive, and creates incentives for our roommates and possibly others who hear of it to come to us for their charm needs and wants. This is useful in a lot of ways.
3) If our charm ends up being not as high quality as the pill we get in return, that would be really bad. We have no idea what quality of pill Jai Shouxi can create.
4) The Kong family is known far and wide for producing quality charms. We do not want to dishonor the family name.
All and all, using only two ingredients is deliberately half-assing this, IMO. Let's give our full effort.
Threnodist
occupying Haudenosaunee & Osage land she/her/hers
- Location
- Pittsburgh
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
This isn't about being greedy or not greedy - we might literally not have the time to finish a charm that has too high of a build cost. Remember that 6 is just the base, if we have successes it'll add to the total build. Which not only means the 10 dev charm will have MORE but this 6 one will too. We will most likely provide a good enough charm.
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
This isn't about being greedy or not greedy - we might literally not have the time to finish a charm that has too high of a build cost. Remember that 6 is just the base, if we have successes it'll add to the total build. Which not only means the 10 dev charm will have MORE but this 6 one will too. We will most likely provide a good enough charm.
- Location
- Pee Pee Poo Poo
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
Essentially. We actually won an exchange of blows we had no business winning due to sheer luck.
DracoDracul
Bigender Communist
- Location
- Austin
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Natural Glass (Light 3)
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
@Vesvius are double actions allowed(spending a whole day crafting etc)? Is there a time limit on making this charm? It's implied that it should be done before the 14th day, but I don't think anyone has a actually said so.
[X] The Beetle Husks (Light 4)
[X] The Whale Teeth (Water 3)
@Vesvius are double actions allowed(spending a whole day crafting etc)? Is there a time limit on making this charm? It's implied that it should be done before the 14th day, but I don't think anyone has a actually said so.
I'm really hoping Xu Yun drops this group, there's no reason to put up with Mei Daiyu's abuse. Don't know how he got involved in the duel, but Mei Daiyu dug her own grave, so she can lay in it. If someone's harassing you to a point you're self harming, you need to get the fuck out, whatever you think you're getting, it is not worth it.
This might be something to look at.
Do we know what day it is? We're nearing the deadline, so lowering the build cost to get it out faster might be important, either that or we need to start doubling down on craft actions.
The vibe I'm getting is that he'll quit and they'll possibly ask Zhi to step up.
Btw did Fai hint that the training should continue for another two and a half week?
The Archive sounds very useful, there are probably some techniques there and important knowledge. I'd like to know more about how the core should be formed, before making an irreversible decision.
Edit
It's day 9. So 10 actions left. We're at least looking at 6-7 to complete the charm with all ingredients.
Last edited:
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
I think it's day 10 currently, I'm not entirely sure.
We don't strictly speaking need to have the charm done by day 14. There is some sort of test or trial coming up on day 14, which we know essentially nothing about. Also failing it could have bad consequences (we again, have no idea, but it would be in genre for that to be the case). There's no reason why we have to have it done before then, other then maybe to help the Jai twins with their test. I think some people were hoping to get the time pill before day 14, although that relies on Jai Shouxi being done as much as us.
Depending on how the first few rolls go, we can evaluate whether it's possible to finish the charm before the deadline and potentially get the time pill in return, or if it'd be better to try to cycle hummingbird's dance up to the next level. Who knows, maybe we'll get both.
Note: I do not think it is possible to get the Soldier's step before the day 14 test. Remember, cycling 10 anam doesn't get us the Step, it just reveals the "space" we need to fill to get the Step. And it was implied that filling the space would take more then just cycling anam in. We are not getting another Step before the trial.
I'd like to level Hummingbird's dance before the trial, in case having a bigger combat pool helps, but it only takes like two days of cycling anam to do that, assuming we don't get Athletics successes from the sparring group, which we might. So we can do that later. For now, working on the charm is fine.
EDIT: Also the point raised about the archive is a good one. Maybe there are books on cultivation we can read, or a technique cheap enough to learn in only a few days cycling.
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Should be Day 9 right now. Finishing the Charm is just possible. It might be worth spending an action cycling in preparation of the first phase of the Step.
Cycling on the Step would be more efficient than sparring, but the real advantage of sparring is social development and training Athletics, which we will need.
It would also be interesting to spend time with Xu Yun and find out what he's getting out of this, but I don't know that we can spare the actions.
Archives is likely where the Techniques are kept. Sadly we probably need to pay to rent the books, that's the usual way it works in xanxia sects.
Cycling on the Step would be more efficient than sparring, but the real advantage of sparring is social development and training Athletics, which we will need.
It would also be interesting to spend time with Xu Yun and find out what he's getting out of this, but I don't know that we can spare the actions.
Archives is likely where the Techniques are kept. Sadly we probably need to pay to rent the books, that's the usual way it works in xanxia sects.