- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Yah, if rising is a sun phase than GG is likely rising. Noon feels more oppressive than I think GG wants to be. Noon is likely LanLan's sister. The sun at its strongest and harshest.
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.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
So here's another bit of wog about the Sun from last thread as a sidenote:
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
I am excited. We haven't learned much about the sun and that looks to be changing soon. It will be interesting to see how this revelation GG had effected his arts and his domain. I am pumped to see Ling Qi's and GG's domains interact.
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The Sun, Moon and Stars. The heavenly trio returns!
Rereading Forge of Destiny on Royal Road I noticed something we should be taking into consideration (though it may be derailed entirely by the war)
"What a good girl you are," the woman said with a throaty chuckle. "Lastly, in eighteen months, the next competition between my province's three Great Sects will take place. I expect you to assemble a suitable group with which to win the junior division."
"What a good girl you are," the woman said with a throaty chuckle. "Lastly, in eighteen months, the next competition between my province's three Great Sects will take place. I expect you to assemble a suitable group with which to win the junior division."
Huh can we speed run GG through the cultivation process to catch up?
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Likely. Right now he is really restricted because of the quality of outer sect sites and resources. Once he gets into the inner sect Cai will be free to stuff him with as many spirit stones and pills as he can take. This should let him to make large strides.
There is also the fact that no matter what the team ends up being GG brings a very useful skill set. Keeping Cai grounded. I fully expect him to be on the team because of that.
- Location
- Staring into the void
Do remember, he has less talent then LQ does. He will never match our speed, even with max pills and drugs, as LQ is already hitting up against those limits as well.
Also, this chapter has all sorts of fun hints and references that would be relevant to the expedition if Ling Qi knew about them. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21188/forge-of-destiny/chapter/573030/threads-of-destiny-prologue
Gan's an NPC though, so his talent is far more fluid than Ling Qi's, and then there's the matter of Renxiang spending some of her own resources to bypass the pill gatcha and straight commission some higher end elixirs for Guangli, to catch him up. Three or four turns with stuff of the quality of the medicine obtained for Darkness Month, would do a ton to close the gap.
What Gan probably needs more is scarier encounters to provoke Domain Insights. Getting stabbed eleventy billion times by a dancer with a knife or get hit on by Lin Hai's fox spirit to induce jealousy in SOMEBODY UNAMED are experiences he just can't get playing kiddy games in the Outer Sect.
Going on some damned fool idealistic crusade out into the Deep Wall as part of his bosses quirky miniboss squad is a start hopefully he gets molested by some Land of the Midnight Sun spirit who showers him in techs and babby spirits to glomp because he suplexes some burly ice prince in a friendly shirtless wrestling contest at the behest of some rando in his diplomatic party can't imagine who.
Going on some damned fool idealistic crusade out into the Deep Wall as part of his bosses quirky miniboss squad is a start hopefully he gets molested by some Land of the Midnight Sun spirit who showers him in techs and babby spirits to glomp because he suplexes some burly ice prince in a friendly shirtless wrestling contest at the behest of some rando in his diplomatic party can't imagine who.
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ehhhh
anyone know how sun, moon, star qi interact in a red cultivator when the poor sod gets hit by all the buffs? then again prob not matter, ling qi was buffed up to the gills during sneaking into the barb conference
anyone know how sun, moon, star qi interact in a red cultivator when the poor sod gets hit by all the buffs? then again prob not matter, ling qi was buffed up to the gills during sneaking into the barb conference
The best high you can ever imagine probably.
- Location
- UK
Just wait until farmer dude finds out his roommate is the younger brother of a direct retainer to the heiress of the Emerald Seas. Guy just can't catch a break.
Zhengui explaining they can be replanted in the best spots with good fertilizer.
Or they can be the fertilizer.
Zhengui apparently became a gossipy socialite when we weren't looking.
Hmm, I wonder how good is the grassroots intelligence network...
"gui-lessly" Hee
Interesting that he can already sense the ley lines, but I suppose he's in his on way a living ley nexus.
...Say, could he incorporate those into Paradise Rampart?
They're as traditional as it gets and the most traditional Sect is a combined Sun/Moon sect.
Though whether its synergy or more that they naturally cover the areas which the other doesn't is up to question.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
GG, leading the way to PROGRESS with smiles and suplex'ed trees! And let's not forget shining armor and literally bigger than life...
Goddamn but is that character beautiful!
Goddamn but is that character beautiful!
Not stars. Remember that in this setting the stars are alien, toxic, and want nothing more than see all of creation extinguished.
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Not after Shenhua was through with them, apparently. There seems to be some kind of connection between Cai and the stars.
Cecylene
Eternal Idea Engine
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Pronouns
- He/They
The LIGHT Qi that CRX uses isn't pleasant to the surrounding area, considering her big attack leaves inert lifeless sand that cannot support any qi flowing through it. Seems still pretty hostile to creation as is, just held and distributed in small doses for now.
- Location
- Greece
Interestingly, yin and yang is the one set of polar oppossites that is intristically made in such a way as to be meant to combine. Can think of no other set like that.
- Location
- Location: Location!
Basically anything cyclical: Day and Night, the Five Elements, Life and Death, the Four Seasons, the Eight Phases of the Moon, the Eight Trigrams and the Sixty-Four Hexagrams, etc.
- Location
- Spain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Woah!! Star related? When was that mentioned? I don't remember...
If someone can tell me which part I have to reread, I would be very grateful ... Please!
- Location
- Greece
But none of those are supposed to fit together, like a puzzle, just to work in harmony within a system.
- Location
- Location: Location!
Why would Yin and Yang fit together like a puzzle instead of working in harmony within a system? Most cultivators we have seen, including LQ herself, cultivate either Yin or Yang, not both. This extends to most cultivation stories outside of the Of Destiny continuity.
- Location
- All around you.
- Pronouns
- Lord/Master/God
Edited Chapter:
From a great enough height, it really was like watching ants at work, Ling Qi mused. She sat atop a scraggly tree clinging to a high cliff, overlooking a wide and shallow valley that lay at the edge of the Sect's territory.
"It's not such a bad comparison," Sixiang mused from beside her. They fluttered around at the edge of her vision, a bird of indeterminate species with shimmering rainbow feathers. "Humans aren't that much different from us. A bunch of smaller pieces acting as part of something bigger."
Ling Qi hummed thoughtfully, she didn't fully agree, but she couldn't say Sixiang was entirely wrong. "Maybe that's why no Great Spirit of the Empire ever formed," Ling Qi mused, staring down at the hundreds of people and beasts tearing up the valley to lay down a road. "It's been here all along."
"Hm, why are they bothering anyway?" Sixiang asked curiously, alighting on her head. "It's not like you really need a road, if you weren't bringing all the building stuff."
"This is how you defeat the Cloud Tribes," Ling Qi replied, thinking back to lessons and books. "If you just defeat them and drive them away, even if you kill tribes entirely, new ones will flow back in like water into an empty river bed. If you want to keep them out you need to take the land."
"Ah, I think I get it," Sixiang said. "It's about making the land and the spirits yours and not theirs."
Ling Qi nodded absently, watching as production students climbed down into the trench that had been formed armed with trowels and formation carved stones to place the foundations. It was a function of geomancy, that is, shaping the flows of qi in the land. Even mortals did it, with dikes and irrigation and windbreaks, but cultivators could do so much more.
Towns and cities were the same, there was a reason that the safest settlements in the empire were the oldest ones, the ones deeply enmeshed in a network of roads and satellite settlements. The places where the spirits of the land had been tamed and bound by millenia of agreements and simple human presence. "You start with a road and fort, and then more roads and forts, and then towns and villages."
"Real expensive and slow though," Sixiang agreed, taking flight once more. They were having fun with their constructed bodies. "Seems easy to disrupt."
Ling Qi nodded absently, but below, her eyes caught a commotion among the people below and a flare of magmatic light.
The thin and clinging tree swayed slightly as she vanished.
"ORRRAAA!!" Gan Guangli's bellow echoed through the valley.
From above, Ling Qi saw him wrap his enlarged arms around the trunk of a squirming pine, ignoring the lashing branches clattering against his armor as he leapt, ripping grasping roots from the earth, and slammed the canopy backward over his shoulder with a thunderous crack, shattering branches and cracking the trunk.
The tree, now buried upside down in the dirt, it's roots wriggling like frantic wooden worms, thrashed all the harder as a spray of boiling venom coated it top to bottom and it began to burn.
Ling Qi reflexively rubbed her ear with her palm, despite the fact that it's cries were wholly spiritual.
All around were shattered and burned stumps, and already disciples were digging them out with tool and technique.
"Everything going smoothly?" Ling Qi called, alighting atop Zhengui's shell.
"Just a momentary inconvenience Miss Ling!" Gan Guangli called back, dusting the splinteres from his gauntlets. "This copse was quite recalcitrant!"
"Hmph, stupid trees dared reject the kindness of I, Zhen," her little brother scoffed from above her. "Now they see their error!"
"It would have been nice if they listened," Gui agreed cheerfully.
"You've been talking to the tree spirits?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"Uh huh, Gui has gotten many to move!" her little brother chirped.
She followed his gaze to the workers around. Here and there she saw trees that were being carried by teams of disciples, their roots removed rather more carefully from the dirt. Alongside the road she saw others that had already been replanted new loam gathered around the base of their trunks.
"Sir Zhengui has been most helpful," Gan Guangli chuckled. "He has grown quite well since last year, hasn't he!"
"He really has," Ling Qi said fondly, reaching up to stroke Zhen's eye ridges.
Zhen preened.
"Gui is having fun, the other road people are very nice. They do not mind answering Gui's questions," his other half agreed. "Mister Gan is funny too."
"Is he now?" Ling Qi asked, giving him an amused look. Below her Gui began to trundle forward, making room for workers to come and clear the debris of their brief battle.
"I am merely doing my duty in keeping spirits up," Gan Guangli chuckled falling in beside Zhengui as he began to shrink from stride to stride, returning to a human height. "Sir Zhengui has had many stories to tell of the Inner Sect."
"It has been quite a year," Ling Qi agreed. She had spent enough time brooding like an overgrown crow for now.
"But you manage to look so good doing it," Sixiang chuckled in her head.
"It has," Gan Guangli agreed. "Ah, might I ask, how Miss Su is fairing?"
Ling Qi tilted her head curiously. She had hoped that Su Ling might make friends with the Cai remnants in the Outer Sect, but this was the first she had heard of them knowing each other.
"I'll put it on the list to needle her over when we get back," Sixiang whispered.
"She's adjusting. Last I had heard she was finishing up her calligraphy lessons," Ling Qi said. "It's been a bit difficult to find time to talk to her, thanks to our schedules."
"I see," Gan Guangli said, stroking his chin. "Unfortunate. Miss Su can forget to take care of herself sometimes, I think."
"You're not wrong," Ling Qi agreed
"Crescent Lady is a grouch, but she is not mean. Gui hopes that she is doing okay," Gui agreed.
"Why the road work anyway, Gan Guangli?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"Hm, I think it is where i am best positioned," he replied thoughtfully. "And as we are currently auxiliary that is the best I can do. I may as well act to protect those most likely to need it."
"I would have expected you to stick to Lady Cai's side," Ling Qi admitted. Even if the girl was deep in the center of the camp, receiving instruction from General Xia on her bladework.
"There is little I can do," he admitted. "Though I will enjoy taking my evening refreshment at her side. There is much for me to be caught up on."
Gan Guangli shook his head, the shadow of a troubled expression vanishing from his features.
"Regardless! Miss Ling, you should be most proud of Sir Zhengui, he has taken to this work with great talent. It seems he has a natural head for geomantic principles."
"I, Zhen am naturally talented," Zhen said proudly.
"Once Gui figured out that all the big words were just talking about making the funny lines look right it was easy," Gui said guilessly. Zhen gave him a dirty look.
"Is that so, is it something you're interested in Zhengui?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"I, Zhen think that we could fix the garden if we understood better," Zhen hissed self consciously.
"Garden?" Gan Guangli asked curiously.
"Something we're working on together," Ling Qi said. "A little joint cultivation project."
"Ah, how wonderful!" Gan Guangli boomed. "I am sure it will be a beautiful sight!"
Ling Qi remembered the mud slide and smiled a little stiffly.
"Yes, it will be very pretty," Gui said determinedly.
…And then immediately felt bad for her doubt.
"I'm sure that our work will bear fruit," Ling Qi replied.
"I should have things ready in a day or two. Little Big Guy isn't the only one who's been benefiting from observing this stuff," Sixiang said confidently.
"How have you been though, Gan Guangli?" Ling Qi asked, their walk had taken them out to the front of the work crews, where a variety of earth cultivators were at work adjusting the ground and sinking the trench that would become the road, following the contour of the small river that ran through the valley. "I've heard the reports of the Outer Sect, but after last year…"
Gan Guangli's expression sobered. "I appreciate the concern Miss Ling. I will admit I was out of sorts in those first months, but I have found my motivation and my balance. I see now that I had become complacent, although events were stacked against me, I cannot allow myself to become discouraged. It is only our own selves which we may truly command."
"That doesn't sound like you," Ling Qi mused. "You were all about others before."
"That has not changed," Gan Guangli replied confidently. "However, my trials have taught me that Mastery of self must come first. Achieve excellence and others will follow you there. Achieve that excellence and inspire them as well? This is what makes loyalty unbreakable."
Ling Qi gave him a sidelong look. Around her she saw people straighten up, begin to walk a little faster, perform their tasks with just a little more zeal. Even she felt a certain stirring of confidence and drive. She looked at Guangli and saw the way his armor gleamed just right, the way the fading sunlight caught his hair and gleamed on his smile, projecting confidence and charisma.
She recognized the feeling of qi coming from within.
"Oh no," Sixiang muttered. "That's…"
"I'm glad you found your answers," Ling Qi said. "Did one of those trials happen to be at a site dedicated to the sun?"
Gan Guangli grinned. "Just so, Miss Ling."
--To be continued.
AN: Breaking things up into two parts, may not be all the way at the top of my game yet but we're getting back on track.
It's fine, Yrs; we can wait, even if we don't like it :Ü™
atop
of their brief battle.
from stride to stride, returning to
Gan
may
Gan Guangli?"
From a great enough height, it really was like watching ants at work, Ling Qi mused. She sat atop a scraggly tree clinging to a high cliff, overlooking a wide and shallow valley that lay at the edge of the Sect's territory.
"It's not such a bad comparison," Sixiang mused from beside her. They fluttered around at the edge of her vision, a bird of indeterminate species with shimmering rainbow feathers. "Humans aren't that much different from us. A bunch of smaller pieces acting as part of something bigger."
Ling Qi hummed thoughtfully, she didn't fully agree, but she couldn't say Sixiang was entirely wrong. "Maybe that's why no Great Spirit of the Empire ever formed," Ling Qi mused, staring down at the hundreds of people and beasts tearing up the valley to lay down a road. "It's been here all along."
"Hm, why are they bothering anyway?" Sixiang asked curiously, alighting on her head. "It's not like you really need a road, if you weren't bringing all the building stuff."
"This is how you defeat the Cloud Tribes," Ling Qi replied, thinking back to lessons and books. "If you just defeat them and drive them away, even if you kill tribes entirely, new ones will flow back in like water into an empty river bed. If you want to keep them out you need to take the land."
"Ah, I think I get it," Sixiang said. "It's about making the land and the spirits yours and not theirs."
Ling Qi nodded absently, watching as production students climbed down into the trench that had been formed armed with trowels and formation carved stones to place the foundations. It was a function of geomancy, that is, shaping the flows of qi in the land. Even mortals did it, with dikes and irrigation and windbreaks, but cultivators could do so much more.
Towns and cities were the same, there was a reason that the safest settlements in the empire were the oldest ones, the ones deeply enmeshed in a network of roads and satellite settlements. The places where the spirits of the land had been tamed and bound by millenia of agreements and simple human presence. "You start with a road and fort, and then more roads and forts, and then towns and villages."
"Real expensive and slow though," Sixiang agreed, taking flight once more. They were having fun with their constructed bodies. "Seems easy to disrupt."
Ling Qi nodded absently, but below, her eyes caught a commotion among the people below and a flare of magmatic light.
The thin and clinging tree swayed slightly as she vanished.
***
"ORRRAAA!!" Gan Guangli's bellow echoed through the valley.
From above, Ling Qi saw him wrap his enlarged arms around the trunk of a squirming pine, ignoring the lashing branches clattering against his armor as he leapt, ripping grasping roots from the earth, and slammed the canopy backward over his shoulder with a thunderous crack, shattering branches and cracking the trunk.
The tree, now buried upside down in the dirt, it's roots wriggling like frantic wooden worms, thrashed all the harder as a spray of boiling venom coated it top to bottom and it began to burn.
Ling Qi reflexively rubbed her ear with her palm, despite the fact that it's cries were wholly spiritual.
All around were shattered and burned stumps, and already disciples were digging them out with tool and technique.
"Everything going smoothly?" Ling Qi called, alighting atop Zhengui's shell.
"Just a momentary inconvenience Miss Ling!" Gan Guangli called back, dusting the splinteres from his gauntlets. "This copse was quite recalcitrant!"
"Hmph, stupid trees dared reject the kindness of I, Zhen," her little brother scoffed from above her. "Now they see their error!"
"It would have been nice if they listened," Gui agreed cheerfully.
"You've been talking to the tree spirits?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"Uh huh, Gui has gotten many to move!" her little brother chirped.
She followed his gaze to the workers around. Here and there she saw trees that were being carried by teams of disciples, their roots removed rather more carefully from the dirt. Alongside the road she saw others that had already been replanted new loam gathered around the base of their trunks.
"Sir Zhengui has been most helpful," Gan Guangli chuckled. "He has grown quite well since last year, hasn't he!"
"He really has," Ling Qi said fondly, reaching up to stroke Zhen's eye ridges.
Zhen preened.
"Gui is having fun, the other road people are very nice. They do not mind answering Gui's questions," his other half agreed. "Mister Gan is funny too."
"Is he now?" Ling Qi asked, giving him an amused look. Below her Gui began to trundle forward, making room for workers to come and clear the debris of their brief battle.
"I am merely doing my duty in keeping spirits up," Gan Guangli chuckled falling in beside Zhengui as he began to shrink from stride to stride, returning to a human height. "Sir Zhengui has had many stories to tell of the Inner Sect."
"It has been quite a year," Ling Qi agreed. She had spent enough time brooding like an overgrown crow for now.
"But you manage to look so good doing it," Sixiang chuckled in her head.
"It has," Gan Guangli agreed. "Ah, might I ask, how Miss Su is fairing?"
Ling Qi tilted her head curiously. She had hoped that Su Ling might make friends with the Cai remnants in the Outer Sect, but this was the first she had heard of them knowing each other.
"I'll put it on the list to needle her over when we get back," Sixiang whispered.
"She's adjusting. Last I had heard she was finishing up her calligraphy lessons," Ling Qi said. "It's been a bit difficult to find time to talk to her, thanks to our schedules."
"I see," Gan Guangli said, stroking his chin. "Unfortunate. Miss Su can forget to take care of herself sometimes, I think."
"You're not wrong," Ling Qi agreed
"Crescent Lady is a grouch, but she is not mean. Gui hopes that she is doing okay," Gui agreed.
"Why the road work anyway, Gan Guangli?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"Hm, I think it is where i am best positioned," he replied thoughtfully. "And as we are currently auxiliary that is the best I can do. I may as well act to protect those most likely to need it."
"I would have expected you to stick to Lady Cai's side," Ling Qi admitted. Even if the girl was deep in the center of the camp, receiving instruction from General Xia on her bladework.
"There is little I can do," he admitted. "Though I will enjoy taking my evening refreshment at her side. There is much for me to be caught up on."
Gan Guangli shook his head, the shadow of a troubled expression vanishing from his features.
"Regardless! Miss Ling, you should be most proud of Sir Zhengui, he has taken to this work with great talent. It seems he has a natural head for geomantic principles."
"I, Zhen am naturally talented," Zhen said proudly.
"Once Gui figured out that all the big words were just talking about making the funny lines look right it was easy," Gui said guilessly. Zhen gave him a dirty look.
"Is that so, is it something you're interested in Zhengui?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"I, Zhen think that we could fix the garden if we understood better," Zhen hissed self consciously.
"Garden?" Gan Guangli asked curiously.
"Something we're working on together," Ling Qi said. "A little joint cultivation project."
"Ah, how wonderful!" Gan Guangli boomed. "I am sure it will be a beautiful sight!"
Ling Qi remembered the mud slide and smiled a little stiffly.
"Yes, it will be very pretty," Gui said determinedly.
…And then immediately felt bad for her doubt.
"I'm sure that our work will bear fruit," Ling Qi replied.
"I should have things ready in a day or two. Little Big Guy isn't the only one who's been benefiting from observing this stuff," Sixiang said confidently.
"How have you been though, Gan Guangli?" Ling Qi asked, their walk had taken them out to the front of the work crews, where a variety of earth cultivators were at work adjusting the ground and sinking the trench that would become the road, following the contour of the small river that ran through the valley. "I've heard the reports of the Outer Sect, but after last year…"
Gan Guangli's expression sobered. "I appreciate the concern Miss Ling. I will admit I was out of sorts in those first months, but I have found my motivation and my balance. I see now that I had become complacent, although events were stacked against me, I cannot allow myself to become discouraged. It is only our own selves which we may truly command."
"That doesn't sound like you," Ling Qi mused. "You were all about others before."
"That has not changed," Gan Guangli replied confidently. "However, my trials have taught me that Mastery of self must come first. Achieve excellence and others will follow you there. Achieve that excellence and inspire them as well? This is what makes loyalty unbreakable."
Ling Qi gave him a sidelong look. Around her she saw people straighten up, begin to walk a little faster, perform their tasks with just a little more zeal. Even she felt a certain stirring of confidence and drive. She looked at Guangli and saw the way his armor gleamed just right, the way the fading sunlight caught his hair and gleamed on his smile, projecting confidence and charisma.
She recognized the feeling of qi coming from within.
"Oh no," Sixiang muttered. "That's…"
"I'm glad you found your answers," Ling Qi said. "Did one of those trials happen to be at a site dedicated to the sun?"
Gan Guangli grinned. "Just so, Miss Ling."
--To be continued.
AN: Breaking things up into two parts, may not be all the way at the top of my game yet but we're getting back on track.
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
Not explicitly but some in the thread have developed theories based on a few hints dropped here and there. Cai Renxiang has been referred to as 'Star Child.' Ling Qi's duel song that characterized her as a star. Her light is blinding and painful in a way sunlight isn't, but yet the stars have a constant theme of maliciousness and ill intent. Also, during the recent excursion into the mountains, when the giant star-thing rose several of us thought it was Cai Shenhua due to similar descriptions.
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