AND a suicide bomb. Nothing to interrogate, nothing to investigate with. And if not for one of the best AoE defense arts we've seen that wasn't a Kang or Bai technique, there'd be a huge hole in the defenses.
I'm thinking the assassin was never intended to survive to begin with.
Eh, its a common trope to give assasins and spies a suicide option.
Even if the assasin or spy is valuable, getting caught burns any usefulness they have plus it incurs an even bigger cost due to info the enemy may gain, thus making suicide optimal for the employer even if its the most valuable assasin they have.
If anything, a suicide button implies top rank training and disciple only a valuable asset would have. After all, even if you know torture is on the table, letting go of your life ain't easy, nor is dedicating part of your build towards doing that.
Edit: making the suicide button hurt the enemy a lot is just more profit for the employer. It may just kill the assasin's captors, giving some final value even to a burnt asset.
Second Edit: That does not necessarily mean that he was valuable, just that there are counterarguments against the "he was expected to die" proposition. Personally, I'd peg him on the lower-mid end of expendability (so more expendable than not, but not to the point he was sacrificial). But I may be wrong, and he might have ranged anywhere from "sacrificial" to "as unexpendable as an assasin can get"
In the end, both I and they seem to be kind of right and kind of wrong. The higher the cultivation the more expendable one's life is with the shisegui. That is... seriously dangerous and scary. I think that is how elder Zhou died, imagine being attacked by a high realm who has allready forfeited their life...
Are there any female cultivators other than those who are born to noble houses or common cultivator families and the high Talent ones recruited by the Ministry of Integrity?
All low-level guards and soldiers seem to be invariably male, which would suggest that low Talent commoner women never become cultivators. Or are there armies worth of Red maids and female clerks hidden in noble estates?
Cultivation resources are limited and so I can see why most noble houses would raise their low-level troops from the gender biologically more suited to combat, but shouldn't there still be more exceptions? If nothing else, male immortals would probably rather have a wife who is also cultivator as it has plenty of obvious benefits and so Red brides would be a pretty hot commodity on the marriage market.
Are there any female cultivators other than those who are born to noble houses or common cultivator families and the high Talent ones recruited by the Ministry of Integrity?
I mean, one of our three scouts back in the scouting exercise arc was a woman, and I'm pretty sure that the guard captain in the Exorcist of Tonghou sidestory was a woman as well.
So I remembered an old discussion I had with veekie, back during the time right after we took down the assasin
In the end, both I and they seem to be kind of right and kind of wrong. The higher the cultivation the more expendable one's life is with the shisegui. That is... seriously dangerous and scary. I think that is how elder Zhou died, imagine being attacked by a high realm who has allready forfeited their life...
Are there any female cultivators other than those who are born to noble houses or common cultivator families and the high Talent ones recruited by the Ministry of Integrity?
All low-level guards and soldiers seem to be invariably male, which would suggest that low Talent commoner women never become cultivators. Or are there armies worth of Red maids and female clerks hidden in noble estates?
Cultivation resources are limited and so I can see why most noble houses would raise their low-level troops from the gender biologically more suited to combat, but shouldn't there still be more exceptions? If nothing else, male immortals would probably rather have a wife who is also cultivator as it has plenty of obvious benefits and so Red brides would be a pretty hot commodity on the marriage market.
Explicitly we know cultivation is mostly gender equal, though certain clans may not be due to their specific cultivation forms.
We see Red guards being mostly male likely because they mostly still operate on mortal lifespans and the one risking death by violence shouldn't be the one raising the children. The numbers seem a LOT more equal once you start looking at Yellows and Talent is much more significant.
there any female cultivators other than those who are born to noble houses or common cultivator families and the high Talent ones recruited by the Ministry of Integrity?
Ling Qi's 2 bodyguards in the Outer Sect were women, and they were daughters of commoners, if I remember correctly.
Eidt: just checked in RR as well, and it seems they really were from "common" cultivator families. Though this still supports the fact that there are a lot more jobs for Reds than just being guards, considering how Reds can still be killed through mortal force (Ji Rong).
Common cultivator origin, their father makes ceramics(I guess he makes elixir and pill bottles, which are probably used up rather quickly and need to be made by a cultivator to withstand the rough treatment they get)
I mean, one of our three scouts back in the scouting exercise arc was a woman, and I'm pretty sure that the guard captain in the Exorcist of Tonghou sidestory was a woman as well.
I mean, there obviously are some non-noble female cultivators, but the fact that you could only name two is telling. I was merely remarking on the fact that more than nine tenths of Red/Yellow mooks have been men.
We see Red guards being mostly male likely because they mostly still operate on mortal lifespans and the one risking death by violence shouldn't be the one raising the children. The numbers seem a LOT more equal once you start looking at Yellows and Talent is much more significant.
Like I said, cultivator families train (almost?) all their children and so the sex ratio of Green+ immortals should be roughly 1:1. But at lower levels there are a lot more male cultivators than females.
I think this could fall down to prefered (by society, or individuals) jobs. After all, being a guard isnt the only jobs available to Reds. And at Red level, physical size still has some benefits in physical confrontations, especially for intimidation.
Also, lastlly, there is the fact that it could go the other way around. Some mortal guards or soldiers gets boosted to Red, and assuming the pool of guards and soldiers are still primarily male, then that adds a lot of Red level male guards/soldiers.
I mean, there obviously are some non-noble female cultivators, but the fact that you could only name two is telling. I was merely remarking on the fact that more than nine tenths of Red/Yellow mooks have been men.
Most of them are faceless. We don't know what gender they are. Like, if I had to name male ones off the top of my head I'd say that we had, uh, the two other scouts, the Cai guard captain, and the Gu guard captain in the Xiulan sidestory...
Looking at the bandit arc for more we see that the two leaders were a man and a woman. The bandits rearguard was described as "men, and not a few women", suggesting there were quite a few of them. At the same time @yrsillar seems to use "men" as a generic descriptor for mooks, which may present the wrong impression maybe?
So, had some theorycrafting on how the Shishigui function on a cultivation standpoint.
Core of it boils down to that I think the whole point of the City is to concentrate their high-talent individuals and their wealth, protect it with moderately high Realm volunteers, and then crash-evolve their volunteers to deal with crisis situations. In other words, they have a very poor 'Standing Army', but can escalate up to frightening heights for short periods of time and punch way above even their on-paper weight class against surfacers due to their exploitation of the mutual toxicity clause.
This means they're relatively weak against surprise raids, but they're optimized by positioning to absolutely skullfuck conventional attacks by dragging things on long enough for them to commission enough suicide soldiers of high realms to sweep the attackers. This I suspect is the problem inherent with taking too much time in this event--the Argent Sect Expedition is on the move, so the longer we take--the more experts the Shishigui can raise up for the combat phase and the harder the battle we fight is when we go loud.
I think this is meteoric growth is supported by the tactics we've seen and heard them exploiting. Remember mister Fourth Realm shoggoth from a bunch of scrub deaths? These guys seem to have no difficulty whatsoever in raising up experts, they just need fuel.
I think this could fall down to prefered (by society, or individuals) jobs. After all, being a guard isnt the only jobs available to Reds. And at Red level, physical size still has some benefits in physical confrontations, especially for intimidation.
Also, lastlly, there is the fact that it could go the other way around. Some mortal guards or soldiers gets boosted to Red, and assuming the pool of guards and soldiers are still primarily male, then that adds a lot of Red level male guards/soldiers.
Definitely a great deal of other jobs. Red farmers and artisans are needed in great quantities to support the Cultivator economy. All those basic items suited to withstanding being in the presence of cultivators for prolonged periods need to be made and mortals can't manage it.
Partly, I think our view of things is skewed by Ling Qi's experience with her mother's profession. A good deal of the focus on Red guardsmen has been, well, men frequenting a brothel staffed with women. I'm sure there were plenty of women guards just as involved in beating Ling Qi's contemporaries during her time as a street rat as the men were.
Most of them are faceless. We don't know what gender they are. Like, if I had to name male ones off the top of my head I'd say that we had, uh, the two other scouts, the Cai guard captain, and the Gu guard captain in the Xiulan sidestory...
Also I think most of those are actually from clans? Like, Gu/Cai captains might be commoners that were taken in by a sect/etc, but they are more likely to be from clans that serves the Gu/Cai.
Also I think most of those are actually from clans? Like, Gu/Cai captains might be commoners that were taken in by a sect/etc, but they are more likely to be from clans that serves the Gu/Cai.
Also Gus are going to be biased towards men, their cultivation style is Yang heavy which men have a better natural affinity for. So unsurprising the Gu squad are mostly male.
Are there any female cultivators other than those who are born to noble houses or common cultivator families and the high Talent ones recruited by the Ministry of Integrity?
All low-level guards and soldiers seem to be invariably male, which would suggest that low Talent commoner women never become cultivators. Or are there armies worth of Red maids and female clerks hidden in noble estates?
Cultivation resources are limited and so I can see why most noble houses would raise their low-level troops from the gender biologically more suited to combat, but shouldn't there still be more exceptions? If nothing else, male immortals would probably rather have a wife who is also cultivator as it has plenty of obvious benefits and so Red brides would be a pretty hot commodity on the marriage market.
iirc Qingge also at one point said one her cousins from her old clan was prepared somehow differently as they were going to marry or become a concubine to a cultivator from the clan they were in vassalage to.
It's possible that with the lowest talent able to awaken mostly only men get the opportunity (red guardsmen), but then for the stage up where you aren't part of a noble clan but are beyond that (yellow lifers like the He) the men with talent become guard captains, maybe plus manservants and similar sort of stuff to their lords, whilst particularly talented women are basically given as concubines to their superiors in a form of tribute.
Of course Qingge was somewhat talented and never got the opportunity to awaken, so it's quite possible this is limited by available resources. Basically most of the clans resources go to awakening and the training of male heirs and soldiers whilst every now and then the more talented woman will be given away to their lords as tribute.
Actually, thinking on what happened to Qingge, this would kinda make sense if when clans do try to awaken woman as possible heirs and soldiers then some young master from their superiors could come along and just say 'she's mine now' and you've just potentially wasted resources you couldn't afford to waste, so they just don't bother as it isn't worth the economic risk, and meanwhile when it happens to their mortal women (as happened to Qingge) then you've not lost much of an investment, just the food and space from raising them.
...being vassals kinda sucks if you're not lucky with your lords huh?
Most of them are faceless. We don't know what gender they are. Like, if I had to name male ones off the top of my head I'd say that we had, uh, the two other scouts, the Cai guard captain, and the Gu guard captain in the Xiulan sidestory...
Looking at the bandit arc for more we see that the two leaders were a man and a woman. The bandits rearguard was described as "men, and not a few women", suggesting there were quite a few of them. At the same time @yrsillar seems to use "men" as a generic descriptor for mooks, which may present the wrong impression maybe?
It is the male default nature of the english language yeah. i try to correct for it, but I miss things alot. Gender ratio among soldiers does skew male, but like 70/30 at worst.
For just a moment, Ling Qi's mind flashed back to the last time she had tried to infiltrate a fortress. It hadn't gone well then. It had even only been a 'play' set, whereas this was the home of real enemies.
But she had grown a great deal since then.
"I have your back," Sixiang shispered, and the murmur of her other spirits joined them.
She wasn't alone either. So she could afford mistakes even less. Ling Qi inclined her head in acknowledgement of the well wishes of her spirits and flowed down the trunk of the fungal tree she had been hiding in.
As she slipped through the grassy ferns as little more than a shadow and a wisp of mist, she cycled her qi, drawing moonlight to her eyes and lungs. As she flowed across the clear cut ground along the fortress walls, tiny glimmers of silver blinked into being, muted and clouded.
Those silver sparks shot ahead of her, vanishing into the wall, and Ling Qi rematerialized at the base of the wall to take a steadying breath while different perspectives flashes through her mind.
At first, there was only the darkness of solid stone, the wisps of moonlight created by her Roaming Moon's Eye traveling in careful, cross crossing lines as they searched for open space. In a matter of moments, they found purchase. One merged in an empty gray hallway, with a floor of carved bone tiles of irregular shape. One, which had traveled down, poked out into a the ceiling of a large chamber where over a score a second realm shishigui were fighting in trios and quintets, undergoing some kind of drill.
Target Number=40
1d100=60 2 degree success
Ling Qi chose her destination, and her form blurred back into mist and shadow, soaking into the dark grey stone. Traveling through a solid object always felt strange, and this was no different. What was however, was the burning pain sensation that assailed her. The very rock was poison, she could feel, and it was only the protective effects of the talisman mask she had been given that stopped her from having to burn more qi to stave off harm from intermingling her being with the stuff.
Resolving herself back into shadow on the arched ceiling of the training room, Ling Qi took a moment to breath and purge herself of the lingering sting. She would have to avoid overusing that method down here. While she cycled her qi, purging the lingering toxin, she peered down below at the creatures in the midst of their drilling. She only glanced over the majority, noting only their armaments. Lots of straps, but it included light chitin armor covering vital points. If the coverage was any indication, the creatures had similar layouts of arteries and organs to a human, baring their lack of apparent eyes.
Yet, as she turned her gaze to the instructors, a discrepancy stood out. Scattered among the second realms, they stalked along, standing out like beacons to her senses, even if she was sure that they were only early third realm.
These had the characteristic plethora of bandoleers and pouches, and their armor was a bit more ornate, though just as colorless, there was something distinctive about it, but…
"Heat, there's rigid and unnatural flows bound to it, gotta be artificial." Sixiang murmured.
They were right. Perhaps that was the equivalent of an officer's bright plume or banner to them? That might be useful for disruption tactics, Ling Qi noted absently. She was more interested in what they were saying though.
'Stop resisting the instincts," one barked, swatting a second realm who had stumbled mid combat maneuver with the padded rod held in it's paws.
"Cooperate with your meld!" and another barked
"Harness the pain."
"Accept the fear."
Ling Qi frowned as she watched them. Without context it was difficult to really understand, but… the mistakes that the second realms were making were not the same kind of mistakes that she would expect of untrained soldiers. They would execute perfect maneuvers with their weapons, only to stumble or jerk halfway through. They collapsed, not out of physical exhaustion, but something that looked very much like panic, curling up on the ground and letting out canine whines as their limbs twitched spasmodically.
Ling Qi watched a moment longer as her wisps searched out the layout of the halls above and below. Like their construction in the village, the shishigui still seemed to favor curves and rounded rooms, even if the exterior of the fort was a little more angular. It seemed her instinct to go down was the right one though. Above, she found equipment storage, guard posts and other things of the sort but relatively few shishigui walking the halls. Like the village, the majority of actual activity was taking place under the ground.
With one last glance down at the trainees, Ling Qi, deposited a spider into a crevice in the ceiling and flitted down one of the halls that left the room, sticking near the ceiling as a current of mist.
Like that, she began to work her way through the fort, vanishing into the cracks and spaces between blocks of bone and stone whenever a particularly potent enemy passed by. She was able to avoid having to directly pass through the impurity stained material again this way, conserving her energy.
The halls were very busy, and it was obvious that the building was operating at or just above it's intended capacity. In addition to their drilling and training, Ling Qi was able to spy out a few other useful pieces of information. Nothing as useful as a map unfortunately. The chamber that she tentatively considered 'the war room' did have some kind of odd mural which seemed to occupy the place of a map, but was just a lumpy frieze of meaningless shapes encoded with indecipherable trails of heat.
She left one of her dwindling supply of spiders constructs there as well, as she slipped out before the Framing Stage presence moving down the hall could enter the room.
Leaving that room behind, Ling Qi began to skulk her way down the less busy halls which, if her sense of direction had not failed her, were leading down and back into the wall of the cavern, toward what she hoped would be the river's source.
All the while, she had her wisps slipping down different cooridoors and traveling ahead, mapping out tunnels and marking paths while the ceiling overhead grew damp and warm, like the slick heat of a rotting corpse. It was because she had a wisp traveling well ahead that she stopped suddenly , slipping into a shallow cubby in one of the increasingly natural tunnels.
Because her wisp had just slipped into something that made her instincts cry out.
At the end of a passage on the layer below, there was a great amphitheatre. It's shallow carven seating was filled with only a scattering of shishigui, but it was the bottom which drew her attention. There in the floor was a great ravine, and from the ravine roared a rising vortex of tarry black liquid. But, there was something strange about the ravine, it took her moment to pick out the difference, with the distance and only the presence of a single wisp. The floor wasn't stone at all.
It was flesh. Quivering and rubbery, oozing with rot, the black liquid poured from an open wound that could have swallowed the governor's mansion of White Cloud village and around the wound, little shapes cavorted.
Six lithe creatures that were all too similar to the one which had nearly opened her throat only two short months ago. It occurred to her for the first time, that they were the first shishigui that had the same feminine outline as the assassin she had faced. Ling Qi's felt her expression screw up in disgust. It was even more obvious now, naked as they were, with only trailing scarves of some pale white cloth bound to wrist and ankles.
Yet, despite herself, she couldn;t help but glean meaning from the spinning, agile dance they performed, around the roaring column of 'water'. Propitiation, ecstasy, worship, hope and longing and sadness. They performed in perfect synchrony, and it was only then that she noticed the blades in their hands, the match to the one she had carelessly stored away in her ring. Dark metal shot through with veins of green.
Blades flicked across flesh as they danced, drawing droplets of brackish red, and lithe limbs flicked, flinging the droplets of blood into the roaring column.
She pulled her eyes away from the dancers, and focused on the figure at their center, standing before a low slung block of stone. The figure was feminine in profile, like the dancers, but shrouded in what she at first took to be a wet black cloak. It was no cloth though, as the creature turned slightly gesticulating with a knife in one hand, she saw it's withered, near skeletal limbs, and the gaping tears in its flesh, where skin stretched too tight over bone had torn, and liquid impurity poured forth, something squirmed inside of those wounds, and the creatures bald head was marked by spikes of deep green metal, driven into her skull in three even rows from front to back. The largest nails protruded from where eyes should have been, and gleamed with oily light.
Before her, on the slab lay another Shishui, stripped wholly bare, the creature's ribs and abdomen were flayed open, and as she watched, the rotting creature thrust an arm into rising column, and ripped forth a writhing mass. Shot through with veins of phosphorescent light, it resembled a squealing toothy worm covered in wriggling, hairy cillia.
Ling Qi's moment of horrified fascination ended however, when the creatures chanting faltered, and that grotesque face twitched in the direction of her wisp.
Ling Qi cut the connection immediately, and shot upward, uncaring for the burn of toxic bone against her being as she passed through the floor. Like a zephyr, she passed through twisting halls and tunnels as a shadow. While she fled for the exit, she watched and listened. Alarm was going out through the fort from that 'temple' but… from the snippets she caught barked and babbled between soldiers, they weren't looking for an intruder.
She almost laughed in relief as she picked apart the unfamiliar words. There was an alarm for an escaped and wild spirit from the temple, they were scrambling to check and recheck their wardings.
Still, it was probably best not to push her luck, after a close call like that.
As her foes hunted for a wraith, Ling Qi slipped out through the stonework, and vanished back into the tall grass.
***
The better part of a day had passed, Ling Qi was sure, as she finished giving her report to Guan Zhi.
"Retreat was the most purdent option given the situation, your judgement was sound," Guan Zhi said frowning. "Liao Zhu?"
Beside her, Senior Brother Liao sketched a shallow bow as he stepped forward to make his own report. Around them were the rest of the group. Su Ling was looking agitated again, and Ji Rong had an impatient air about him. Even Xuan Shi seemed on edge. Only Bian Ya was less than tense, and that was likely only because she looked tired and wan like a wilted flower.
"I concur with Junior Sister Ling's conclusions on the enemies leadership," he said smoothly. While ranging, I discovered another river similar to the one she described, flowing upward toward the cavern center. I was not able to reach the 'city' of which I heard mention, but it's existence as an administrative and industrial hub is nigh certain."
"And what is it which stopped you from reaching the settlement?" Guan Zhi asked in a clipped tone.
"Defenses. A great wall, likely the destination of the blocks from the quarry we discovered, surrounds their inner lands. While I could likely have slipped their net, I was able to sense the presence of Fourth Realm combatants. I deemed such a zone as beyond our mission parameters."
"Accurate, you placed constructs upon this wall I expect?" Guan Zhi asked.
"Of course commander," he repled smoothly. "Once I had determined the perimeter, I moved out, seeking sites of significance. I believe I have discovered the forward base from which surface operations are being launched. I was able to discern a number of principles behind their strategic movements. It is quite a daughty little fortress, with a five tower pattern."
"So the grave beasts have knowledge of numerology then," Xuan Shi mused.
"Just so, sir Xuan, it is quite heavily fortified, but if there is a fourth realm commander they are not immediately present," Laio Zhu finished
"Bian Ya, relay a message to the surface. There is a potential fourth grade in the tunnels," Guan Zhi said quietly, and Bian Ya nodded, wincing as she raised a hand to her temple.
The commander stood silent for a moment, staring down the tunnel. "There are arguements for striking the village, the rivermouth, or the forward base. The village tests their response to infrastructure damage, the rivermouth holds the potential to damage what these creatures regard as a vital resource, and indeed a source of cultivation, and the base has obvious strategic benefits," she looked up, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "I would hear your words."
[] Support an attack on the village
[] support an attack on the rivermouth
[] Support an attack on the forward base
Looks like a lot of the theories regarding what "melding" is are being borne out. Interesting stuff. And some great body-horror in the "temple"; plus, them confusing LQ for an escaped spirit is amusing on many levels.
My instinct says rivermouth, because hitting an opponent in the cultivation seems like the most obvious thing to do, but striking their forward operating base and screwing with their surface ops is also useful as a source of misdirection -- it conceals just how deeply we penetrated into their back lines and makes it look like we just came down, punched them in the nose, and left.
EDIT: To expand on my forward operating base thoughts, if you get attacked at your FOB, your first, second, or even third thoughts are not gonna be "they crawled around, scouted and bugged our logistics centers, then attacked us in the obvious hard point," it's gonna be "they came down, got blocked by the hard point, punched it, and then skedaddled." They'd be looking at it in the context of a military strike, not an infiltration. On the flip side, if you hit them somewhere that's obviously behind their lines, that proves that you were behind their lines at some point, so they'd be looking harder for evidence of your entry and might be more careful about loose lips in places we've bugged, because they know spies might be around.
We want to limit their ability to wage war without making the civilians more willing to accept deadly power ups. To that end river mouth seems obvious.
