Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

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Hmm..., based on the conversation we overheard on top of the Bridge, I do not believe that attacking the village will be a productive use of our time. Attacking logistical centers to test their response to attacks on logistical centers doesn't seem particularly useful unless the higher-ups want to develop a plan of systematically targeting their logistical supply chains. While likely to be at least somewhat effective, we don't even know the scope of their operations in the area let alone how redundant their supply lines are. As such, it seems a bit premature to target those logistic chains.

Attacking the Rivermouth fort is appealing, but I feel falls under the same problems that attacking the village falls under. While it is a vital resource, how accessible is the resource, and where are the other sources of said resource? It might test their response to such an attack on the resources, but ideally, an attack on such resources will be overwhelming and done before a response can be mustered. Which isn't the purpose of this test.

That leaves the forward base as my target of choice. Not only will there be potential to hinder their operations above ground, buying the Argent Sect a little bit more time to prepare, it should also provoke a substantial response, which is what we want. As such, I think attacking the forward base will reveal much more clearly what they are willing to devote to defending their military assets which give us a better picture of the breadth of their overall forces.
 
She only glanced over the majority, noting only their armaments.
Does someone really glance only over the majority? This reads strange to me. Maybe a different adjective is needed?

'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."
It seems they are using this mold to give their Soldiers instincts, but the conscious use of them needs to be trained. Interesting and completely different from surface cultivators. Ling Qi can utilize her potential through spirit stones after all.
I questioned whether this is an actual adjective. It is, I looked it up. It means someone can react sporadically or another description of this adjective is a sudden yet brief action.
It may not mean much to most people, but you guys have no idea how happy I am that Yrsillar can consistenly write the right form of their and the other version so many get wrong sooo often!
I looked it up and that is not a cutefied description of a pebble, but a description of actual greco-roman architecture. It´s either the middle of the three main divisions of an entablature or some kind of long, narrow, horizontal panel on an object.
I think you meant corridors.
that she stopped suddenly , slipping into a shallow cubby in one of the increasingly natural tunnels.
That comma is definitely not supposed to be there.
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.
Generating Power seems to correlate in some way with generating heat with the Shishigui.
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.
I may be just be me, but the first part of the sentence reads strange to me. My personal problem lies with the because. It is far away from the comma and I do not write that way often. Some insight form english natural speakers would be appreciated here.
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.
What is the "White Cloud Village"? Where the shaman summoned the worms and an elder had to flatten an earth, or is it the village on the base of the sect? I don´t remember that name.
Yet, despite herself, she couldn;t help but glean meaning from the spinning, agile dance they performed, around the roaring column of 'water'.
1. "couldn´t.
2. (...)"from the spinning, agile dance they performed"(...) Should the "dance" part also be conjugated into the present progressive form?
3. This seems at first glance to me that you used way to many commas. Maybe split the part "(...) spinning, agile dance(...) with an "and" and lose the last comma? It ready better to me, but input from other people is, as always, more than welcome.

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.

I feel at this point a new sentence should have begun. Maybe instead of the comma a new sentence there? (...)"as the creature turned slightly gesticulating with a knife in one hand, she saw"(...).

I did not know this word and at first assumed it to be a wrongly typed name. The context and THE INTERNET helped me out again to get a definition. Apparently, they are either the eyelashes or "minute hairlike processes that extend from a cell surface, composed of nine pairs of microtubules around a core of two microtubules. They beat rhythmically to move the cell or to move fluid or mucus over the surface." according to medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com
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,
This is the exact moment Ling Qi knew she need to needed to leave. I love this section. The sudden reaction part, not the cthulu-like body horror.
What is a zephyr you may ask? Apparently it´s a light breeze in this case and in most works the west wind.

My unironic first thought was "Star Wars? That can´t be the case!". It turns out "wan" simply means something is unnaturaly pale.
I can´t figure out what "daughty" means, but a similar word would be "doughty", which means someone is perserving, hardy or resolute.
Side Note: I am learning so many new words for things and I like it.
Internet search doesn´t give me an exact answer what that is. I assume it is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross. I don´t know? Clarification from someone more knowledgable would be nice.
"So the grave beasts have knowledge of numerology then," Xuan Shi mused.
Xuan Shi refers to them as grave beasts. is this some kind definition of Xuan-Variant for the some people or is he just philosophically describing them as usual?

It turns out I wrote a whole hour and a half on this post. It´s now 2 O´clock a.m. I am going to bed. Reading this is fun, but I need energy for the morning.

Thank you for reading whatever this is.

Tl;dr: Yrsillar makes some interesting grammar choices and the plot around the Shishigui thickens.
 
[X] Support an attack on the forward base

We aren't here to do damage, we're here to test their response to an enemy attack. Also we don't want them to suspect how deep we infiltrated them.
 
[X] Support an attack on the forward base.

I'm going to parrot what a few others have been saying.

Our first goal was letting Elder Jiao get eyes inside their base. (Goal Complete)

Our second goal is to test their "test their response to attack".

We're not looking to learn anything else in this attack so going after the river or village to find things that were hinted at is going off mission. We shouldn't jeopardise the first goal by letting them know we infiltrated. Plus, getting an idea of their response to an attack on a military installation seems like the best way to fulfil the second goal. It's probably a trap as it wouldn't make sense for there not to be a Fourth realm there but if so that'll just tell us more about their abilities and tactics.
 
But the point is some cultivators will be building towards a Way of murder-punching everything he/she can.
I doubt that in the extreme. Someone like that would not be a reasonable person, or else, if they're reasonable, is unlikely to get very far down that path. There are some interludes about Sword-guy, who was cultivating towards becoming a sword, a tool of cutting/killing, and he decided to be human instead. Being human is much more compatible with the Empire's social goals.
 
Since moratorium is now actually over (grumble grumble at the people who are Breaking The Rules, you're lucky yrsillar isn't Cai Shenhua and doesn't take enthusiastic walks):

[X] Support an attack on the forward base

I convinced myself with my earlier arguments that this is better than the river mouth.
Whatever happened to that blade? I seem to be blanking on Ling Qi acquiring it, or afterwards.
Nothing happened to it. We haven't done anything with it, we just picked it up from the assassin who went for us and kept it locked away.
 
[X] support an attack on the rivermouth

If we attack base we will show exactly how far we infiltrated.
 
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We are not the ones in charge of the mission, Zhou is. And She is the one who put the option on the table. Therefour, we can consider any of the targets mission appropriate.

Part of the extraction plan is that other teams are going to attack the forward base/bases. We're doubling up here.
With that in mind, we are the only ones capable of striking at the village or at the rivermouth. Of the two, I'm picking the rivermouth.
Seems like the more important strategic target, has mad bug monster vibes, and I don't like the idea of targeting civilians.

[x] support an attack on the rivermouth
 
[X] Support an attack on the forward base

Ultimately, I believe that this location will be the most useful in determining the enemy's response to attacks.
 
Huh, okay. I was just wondering since Ling Qi mentions how careless she was to put it into her storage ring.
Yeah, I think yrsillar was lampshading us not doing anything with it :p
If we attack base we will show exactly how far we infiltrated.
I was parsing this the other way around, since the base is described as a forward base: it's out in their defensive line, a staging point for striking the surface. In contrast, the rivermouth and village are behind their defenses, and so if we attack them, we'll show that we infiltrated through their lines.
"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.
Maybe I've misinterpreted, though?
 
probably would be prudent to donate it to the "artificial hero" project her friend had going.
it seems it has some role in their augmentations
Given my previous comment about it, and their possible similarity to hemalurgic spikes, that might not be the best idea.

Also, compatibility issues would probably abound with how different the spikes are from the local surface cultivation.
 
Being human is much more compatible with the Empire's social goals.

We keep hearing about people who lock themselves in a cave for centuries and we've already met Shen Hua (The mud golem guy), who went and spent a year in the woods just murdering things. There's bound to be a minority of people who just spend all their time away from 'civilisation' constantly murdering things. Mud Guy didn't have a path that really worked with that so mostly fell behind but someone who actually devotes themselves to it would benefit massively. I'd bet thats what the Weilu did.

Jiao talked about 'wild cultivators' (or something similar) as what the talented but troubled commoners would have become before the sects started taking them. So we know its possible for someone to become at least a headache while bypassing the Empire's systems. Given that the nobles look to be about to neuter the sects and ministries we might see more people like that in the future.
 
Leave the horrific civilian murder-blending to the likes of Brother Kill-trophy. No he's not actually a person at the sect (I think) But the point is some cultivators will be building towards a Way of murder-punching everything he/she can.
Welcome to the very effective dehumanizing and propaganda machine of the empire. They made even LQ, a street rat, consider groups that even look human (cloud tribes) as something to just be killed. Groups like the shishigui that comes back as poison to the senses are even easier probably to get under that umbrella.

What I am saying is the "Brother Kill-trophy" you talking about? Probably every single cultivator in the sect when it comes down to it. Only exception would probably be if someone went full pacifist cultivation and then... they would probably not be in the military aligned sect aimed at defending a border.
 
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Given my previous comment about it, and their possible similarity to hemalurgic spikes, that might not be the best idea.

Also, compatibility issues would probably abound with how different the spikes are from the local surface cultivation.
we have to have some faith on Li Suyin though. Smart people would first figure out what it does and try to make their own instead of applying the enemy tool directly on their project (sigh, age of ultron)

Also figuring out what used to work with the black goop and how it differs from her changes improves the final product by elimination
 
[X] Support an attack on the forward base

Punching people in the military is generally more predictable than punching them in the religion, so best not to fuck with the rivermouth until either we have better intel or are forced to by circumstance.
 
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