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

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His philosophy about Art reminds me of Zeqing's Dream prison for Ling Qi. That dream where she and her friends and family lived on Zhengui who wandered the Wall distant from the Empire. How Ling Qi in this world of wishes come true was able to love Meizhen. That's the same thing as what he was talking about, what Ling Qi calls ugly is not far from what she herself desires.
yrsillar said:
She didn't even have to lie for her taunt. Echoing through the dream, she could feel nothing but self aggrandizement in this corpse's art. He painted a world where he was master, not for any reason, but simply because it was his birthright.
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Ling Qi ended up rejecting the dream because she realized that One person's desires cannot alone make a home nor a family but lets not forget that this, singing and dreaming forth a sanctuary where she is in control, is her ultimate ambition. It's what we talk about as making a home for our family and perhaps that's what disgusts Ling Qi so much about it. It is so close to her desires but differs in some critical ways. His is the transcendence of the very things Ling Qi deep down dislikes about herself, selfishness and apathy in their purest form, and he did not seek to strive or grow but wallowed alone in his fantasy which is perhaps the fate Qi fears would have befallen herself had she not chosen to the connections to those she loves over the boundless freedom she wished for. This is the Grinning Moon's call to true freedom and perhaps the very path the Dreaming Moon herself walked. I think she understood him perfectly but her own world of dreams and mists will be connected to the world outside, not removed to rot from within.

Edit: I wonder if we could use his brush as material for our next flute upgrade. It's a Ducal tier Fourth Realm Talisman that is used to create constructs from Art, exactly like what we ourselves do with Music and even with the very same Art. It's presumably Dreaming/Hidden Moon related and would fit our theme of renewing and using old things.
 
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yrsillar said:
Ling Qi hummed in agreement. "My most potent damaging art requires physical contact, can I trust you to pin its movements when signaled?"

"You can," Xia Lin thoughtfully, traceries of light began to fill the engraved grooves in the head of her weapon again.. "My most potent damaging arts require me to shed my own defenses. Can I trust your arts?"

"You can," Ling Qi said, summoning her flute with a flick of her wrist.
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I was hoping we will get advanced Fade out of this fight, but I guess gaining new combat forged bond (even if they are bonding over loot) isn't bad at all.
 
Man, his mastery of BSKD should hopefully mean great things when it comes to what possible loot we could be getting.

Also the mention of that hawk, wolf, bear, and songbird just keeps nudging me towards thinking of them as something that could fuse together.

hawk claws, the beak for wolf jaws, wings for bear paws, and its cry for the songbird.
 
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yrsillar said:
Hanyi cried out in pain as a rotting foot struck her in the chest, and rocketed back, striking the corpse of the giant spider with a resounding crack to punch through it's hollow chitin, and Ling Qi choked as a skeletal claw seized her around the throat. For just a second, Ling Qi stared directly into the thing's hideous face, trapped by the echo of higher realm power that remained in it's bones. Flies bit and stung at her face, and fetid claws left pinprick wounds on her neck..

"You… slave, dare wield art against me?" the corpse-immortal hissed. Entire sections of flesh had frozen and shattered under the power of her and Hanyi's song, leaving the corpse near skeletal, but still it stood. Her screaming phantasmal birds tore at its frosted bones, but it seemed not to care. She saw it's gaze flick down then, and the creature paused in confusion, staring at its own hand.
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Broken meridians for the counterattack?
 
veekie said:
Broken meridians for the counterattack?
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Nah, he just didn't realize he was a Corpse Immortal until then, I think. That's why his next words are "No, no, not right, not right," followed by a dream image of what he looked like before--he's in denial about how he's been diminished by his blind obsession and hatred, just as he's in denial about the end of the Hui.
 
Well, that went fairly well. All that remains is setting up our Probability Defying Field Trips with Meng Dan and Gan Guangli, and then we'll be at 100% Group Cohesion (with bonuses to "It's Ling Qi's plan, just roll with it").
 
reigndrops said:
How did he know the same art as LQ?
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In reference to Beast King's Savage Dirge:
yrsillar said:
This art is part of a ballad said to have been composed for the last Weilu dukes, and though its origin is suspect, its power is not.
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The Weilu predated the Hui. This Art has been around for a long, long time.

Not surprising that someone who once had a power-base in the Emerald Seas learned a variation of it.
 
So, as an advance force, it seems like Xia Lin and Ling Qi have some really potent synergies going on. Both can move fast and cover tremendous amounts of ground, both can get into hard to reach places, and both can really stick it to an opposing enemy.

Also, Zhengui was just a beast for this combat, despite his relative lower cultivation. Splitting up a cultivator's summoned forces does wonders when they rely on those summons to wail on opponents.
 
Thor's Twin said:
So, as an advance force, it seems like Xia Lin and Ling Qi have some really potent synergies going on. Both can move fast and cover tremendous amounts of ground, both can get into hard to reach places, and both can really stick it to an opposing enemy.

Also, Zhengui was just a beast for this combat, despite his relative lower cultivation. Splitting up a cultivator's summoned forces does wonders when they rely on those summons to wail on opponents.
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There was also that point where (at least to my reading) Zhengui actually broke the corpse's living seeming by vomiting lava on him. Sure, he was lower cultivation... but again, this kind of foe is Zhen's rightful prey, and at higher tiers, narrative weight matters.
 
One thing I have loved in this arc is how the arrogance of the Hui has been described. We've been told they were arrogant, but in this arc we truly see it.

In the opening parts of this arc Ling Qi describes the formations as powerful but fragile. The Hui weren't interested in building civic formations. Formations meant for use by those who might not be able to care for them. The Hui also believed that there would always be another Hui to do maintenance on their work. Disinterest for those below them and belief in their continued existence was baked into their formations.

Then during the fight Hui Peng refers to Ling Qi as slave. As if the idea that someone would stand against them is so unintuitive that the rebel lacks free will. To me it is a belief of supreme arrogance that those who oppose you have lost free will.

Subtle details that reinforce the incredible arrogance of the Hui are so interesting to see.
 
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