Tbf, he was allowed retribution. He was given an army of 100k and a free hand to destroy anything up to a certain point. He just wanted to go into the jungle itself tho and genocide em all.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Man, people are all "glad we didn't end up on Liling route" and all I can think of is all the Qi/Liling Dark!LQ AU's this would fit so well into
People are being biased. I could easily see Ling Qi befriending the gregarious Liling.
Also, they are white-washing Cai and Bai because they are Ling Qi's side.
I am not sure Shao would have felt that desperate if Sun was triumphant in the Outer Sect (and Tournament).
Cai-Bai alliance could have potentially fallen through, or even if it was made anyway, Sun wouldn't have lost face.
They would have been better off politically, hence no need for the adoption.
Ps. @Thor's Twin I don't think Shao parlayed with the Goddess until the Bai Super-Squad came knocking.
I have no proof, it just feels consistent.
Yes, they should all be solidly into G4. Probably looking at G5 around the end the year (though all bets are off with Liling now)
DeusExBritannia
Red-White-Black-White
- Location
- Texas
We still don't know what her name is.
Bai: "Let's go into the jungle, who cares what the Bai say, what do they know, they've only been around for thousands of years, they're probably just full of shit anyways, yeah, they're just a bunch of cowards who don't care about their subjects or the Empire or anything, but we know better, and when we go take care of that jungle for them, they'll look like a bunch of idiots, that'll show those Bai. Tch. Fucking Sun..." *downs bottle of Zheng tears*
Weilu Skeleton: "Do you need a hug?"
Bai: "Don't touch me."
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
It's actually worse I think. I don't think his Domain distinguishes between "People I killed" and "People who died in my name."
It was a question for a while how his army was maintaining 'Replacement Rate', I think we just figured out how. He just took the parasitic themes of the Jungle and adapted his own "Blood spilled by my hand or in my name" domain to empower his surviving soldiers, and then to reclaim that power plus the soldier's might whenever they died.
Eh, people has acknowledged that the Bai and Cai are monsters (Meizhen and CRX being themselves is beside the point).
If anything Shao was seen as the loving granpa.(With a bit of a murderboner tho)
This is just an action so vile that he gets boosted up to the same type of monsters as the worst of the Bai and Cai.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
So more disturbing stuff
Apparently this
Apparently this
has implications
Xepheria, Glorious Oppression Admin:
where being 'adopted' is being wholly subsumed and remade into the Sunflower Goddess's own designs
the point was never sun shao, but the sunflower goddess acting outside of her previous containment
Yrsillar:
yah
they weren't married before
that's why he said, 'you have accepted my proposal'
Xepheria, Glorious Oppression Admin:
the world's most fucked up wedding ceremony
Katreus:
he offered a proposal but they weren't married?
Xepheria, Glorious Oppression Admin:
>here, take my great grandaughter as a wedding present
>have fun
Jowkeen, Conspiracy Cactus:
"and to commemorate our vows please pour your cultivation juice into this grand-daughter of mine who is the most exemplary Sun and will be our new line's Progenitor
where being 'adopted' is being wholly subsumed and remade into the Sunflower Goddess's own designs
the point was never sun shao, but the sunflower goddess acting outside of her previous containment
Yrsillar:
yah
they weren't married before
that's why he said, 'you have accepted my proposal'
Xepheria, Glorious Oppression Admin:
the world's most fucked up wedding ceremony
Katreus:
he offered a proposal but they weren't married?
Xepheria, Glorious Oppression Admin:
>here, take my great grandaughter as a wedding present
>have fun
Jowkeen, Conspiracy Cactus:
"and to commemorate our vows please pour your cultivation juice into this grand-daughter of mine who is the most exemplary Sun and will be our new line's Progenitor
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That he won a fight against the jungle that took on the combined empire is enough proof for me that he allied with the Goddess sometime during the war.
I think the only real horrible thing happening here is that Grandpa didn't ask Liling to volunteer for this?
Maybe I am misunderstanding here, I don't really see what's happening here as that horrible in the long term for Liling? I think if given the chance, she would have probably agreed to it.
Maybe I am misunderstanding here, I don't really see what's happening here as that horrible in the long term for Liling? I think if given the chance, she would have probably agreed to it.
Mmm, I'm not sure that we could have done much to change the big picture here. At the end of the day, the big calculus here is that the Sun are on their last legs. Shao is old. He has no heir. Liling is far too young and unproven, and she can't reach White in time by normal means - even if she was 100% going to (which is very much not something you can count on). In contrast, the Bai are recovering and are reasonably expected to have a new White in several decades.
Basically, my read is that people are looking at the situation and going "yeah, in a hundred years, the Sun aren't going to be a thing anymore. RIP". Similarly, while the Meizhen/Renxiang friendship was convenient, we also know that the diplomacy there was largely done outside of them, and wasn't really dependent on them - which makes sense. The broader geopolitical issues are there regardless of what happens in AS.
So yeah, I think this would have happened regardless. Maybe slightly later if Liling was doing better at AS, but it still would have happened eventually.
- Location
- UK
If Liling ever shows back up at the sect, we should introduce her to Su Ling. She can share advice over living with being half a seductive, maneating monster that you hate. They could bond over it.
Joking, but could oddly see it working.
In other news, the fact that Ji Rong seems to be cultivating as your expected protagonist heavenly cultivator, and now his crush is made into the blood descendant of the Goddess that killed the historical founder of the Celestial Empire doesn't bode well for their romance. It seems like it's building up to be the classic case of history repeating itself romantic tragedy. He even has a heavenly dragon for gods sake.
Hopefully fate-defying protagonist powers can turn it into a more overturning the expected repeated history sort of story. Despite being at odds I'm really rooting for the two of them, they didn't deserve any of this.
Joking, but could oddly see it working.
In other news, the fact that Ji Rong seems to be cultivating as your expected protagonist heavenly cultivator, and now his crush is made into the blood descendant of the Goddess that killed the historical founder of the Celestial Empire doesn't bode well for their romance. It seems like it's building up to be the classic case of history repeating itself romantic tragedy. He even has a heavenly dragon for gods sake.
Hopefully fate-defying protagonist powers can turn it into a more overturning the expected repeated history sort of story. Despite being at odds I'm really rooting for the two of them, they didn't deserve any of this.
Yeah, he is as monstrous as Cai and Bai. Or rather, when desperate, he proved he can be as monstrous as them.
As for the pact with Sunflower Goddess, I respectfully disagree.
I don't think Shao would have allied with her unless as last resort.
His domain combined with the enormous army he led would have sufficed.
Red Garden was never assaulted by the whole Empire iirc.
It warred with the Bai, it got burned as a punishment by the Celestial Dragon but then it got regenerated due to the Goddess, and it's a jungle hellhole not worthy of the cost of occupation.
- Location
- Greece
Man, people are all "glad we didn't end up on Liling route" and all I can think of is all the Qi/Liling Dark!LQ AU's this would fit so well into
Eh, I think that if we allied with her, we could stall this or even prevent this. We could actuallyindirectly help her win both the political competition and tournament like we indirectly helped Bai (she got boosted both because we went with her ona mission and because character development gives tangible power in universe). Then, the political wind would maybe favour the Bai and the Cai less. Then we could keep helping/ winning/ turning small tides until she became strong enough to not need this. Remember, Sun Shao did notwant to do this, he simply thought he had no other options, so it is possiblethat this would be a Damocles sword if we allied with her, rather than an unevitability.
Heck, maybe we'd even get a similar interlude where the Bai use their own desperation threshold as their power waned. Or one where Shenhua remodeled CRX again...
The idea that she was "hollowed out and remade into something entirely different" is not confirmed fact and shouldn't be treated as one. Sure, it could be what happened, but as far as the range of possibillity goes, that is worst case scenario for her, not every possible scenario. Best case scenario for her would be that this is "merely" a very painful and traumatic powerup. Most likely posibility is that she is still mostly her, just... not entirely. There are several more possibilities that could be true between the 2 extreme cases, too. Until we have confirmation, taking any scenario as fact is premature.
Check bonus chapter 10 "Death of a Sage" on RR.
Rome often bribed the local gods to support their military campaigns. The Sunflower Goddess likely betrayed her cult because he gave her a better offer.
A fair bit of that is likely personal appeal. Stripped of any reference to humanity he is a lord of carrion and she a devourer of the dead. She also views her hunger in terms of affection. Of course she fell in love with him. The empire's resources are probably really good for her too.
She views it as the Sun betraying of the empire but she is getting adopted by a powerful spirit and that's certainly desirable.
This seems like the sort of thing that boosts talent, right? Becoming the adopted child of an ascended spirit?
A fair bit of that is likely personal appeal. Stripped of any reference to humanity he is a lord of carrion and she a devourer of the dead. She also views her hunger in terms of affection. Of course she fell in love with him. The empire's resources are probably really good for her too.
She views it as the Sun betraying of the empire but she is getting adopted by a powerful spirit and that's certainly desirable.
This seems like the sort of thing that boosts talent, right? Becoming the adopted child of an ascended spirit?
The most we've seen of Emperor's Throne is how the Imperial Palace is strong enough to stand White vs. White fight. That doesn't spell "more unity and less infighting" to me. The Empire is supposed to be alt! Imperial China. Don't really see how centralization of power would reduce infighting.
Tbh, all the current Empress has done on screen so far, is demand all the Old Clans send some members to Great Sects. I'd think that's one good way to get more unity....
- Location
- Greece
I do not think the Cai need white-washing. They are so white they are searing my eyes. Ahhh, help, my eyes are burning, don't make them any whiter, please.
This quest fuckin rules.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
I am confident that there is more to the empress than we've seen. The Jiao update gave me the impression that she smart and skilled. A person content with the way things are doesn't push through reform after reform helping mortals. I am sure that the Empress has a game plan. Just that the game plan is different from the previous emperor.
Currently becoming White means that you need a well-established clan behind you (if you aren't Shenhua). No matter how talented you are you basically can't get there on your own. This means that all the Whites of the Empire are beholden to their clans first and the Empire second. The Imperial family's resources means they are a little more likely to get high realm cultivators than everyone else but they fundamentally are at the mercy of the same statistics.
If the sects become powerful enough to sponsor talented cultivators into Prism and White then a lot of that dependence on the established clans disappears. Those levels of stupidly high talent are basically random throughout the population, which means that there are more potential Whites among commoners than the nobility.
This dramatically strengthens the Imperial Family and hurts the established ducal clans.
Not really though? As Shenhua and Sun Shao demonstrate, a newly ascendant White just founds their own Ducal clan that doesn't necessarily has to be beholden to the Imperial Throne any more than the more established Clans.
Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
From my reading, Sun Shao realised that Bai are being placated and supported because they have Grandmother Snake, and Sun don't. So he struck a deal with the Red Garden Goddes for her to become Sun's clan great ancestor and mould them in her image (like Bai are snake-like). And in return, Sun Shao promised to become "hers", whatever horrible fate that is. Everything for family indeed.
Also, his domain was sick as fuck.
Also, his domain was sick as fuck.
Checked it. It sounds like the Red Garden is a paltry remnant of the Red Sun Kingdom.
I can see it fall to Shao and his army.
@Erebeal Regarding the Outer Sect:
Well, there were broader political considerations, but Cai was on the fence about the Bai for some time iirc.
Imagine the following:
1) Meizhen gets isolated without Ling Qi. Per Yrs's words, she turns bitter and spiteful hermit, and likely lags with cultivation compared to Liling. It's doubtful whether she even answers the first call for the council, so soon as it is on the heels of the now successful ambush.
2) Without Meizhen, Cai's position is weaker. When things fall apart, and they do, Liling has Ling Qi in her corner and maybe even the Golden Fields trio.
Sooner or later, Renxiang loses the war.
3) In response, Duchess may decide for the Bai alliance after all, but she might also bide her time.
After all, her heir hasn't proven herself, better to not make waves and remain in the slendid status quo.
4) Or even, she decides that Shao is a better prospect, not wanting to be the junior partner in the growing Bai-Zheng alliance...
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... yes a place with what is effectivly a sublime ancestor and hade the Bai of all people go "Nope not going there" for tens of thousands of years is a "paltry remnant". Sure... moving on.
Both are also mentioned to be extreme outliers.
So yes, it is not impossible, just vanishingly rare.