[X] A Wife (Want +1 XP)
I'm voting for this mainly because this part of the Shadows of Xiangmen I
O heavenly King of the North, most precious of all, The Lover. Whose tears have brought a nation to its knees, who lives in every heart and cries out for every loss, O lady of vengeance and wrath, who will break all the world for the vision of her One!
Both being a Killer and a Matriarch are the roles she had/has to take in order to be Shenhua's wife, in order to fulfill her vision. They are not the core of her cultivation, they are subordinate to being a Wife.
Regardless, the information we got about the Diao clan is really juicy. There are 2 main divisions as far as I can tell.
There is an Imperial Conservative faction that was born from the Hui's oppression and then self-reinforced over the generations. This is the group that disdains our project, in particular, our claim of common ancestry.
Then there is a group of Weilu Reformists, the ones that approached Ling Qi, Li Suyin and Su Ling. Like the Meng faction, they want to revitalize the old ways and keep them relevant in nowadays more imperial-aligned Emerald Sea. Getting spirit blood with innate powers similar to their old foregone speciality into their clan certainly contributes to that.
The other fracture line is their actitude toward the Cai clan's future. Many see all the prosperity that Shenhua has brought to the Emerald Sea and the power that the Diao in particular hold. They would prefer to keep it that way instead of devolving into a civil war again. So they want to support Renxiang and Tienli, helping them, and thus the Cai as whole, become stronger and more stable.
But it's not like the other group
want a civil war. They just wouldn't mind if Shenhua's descendants all failed to accomplish much or ascend to higher realms of cultivation. Then they could become the de facto dukes of the Emerald Sea, a position that they already kind of already hold due to the lack of blood related members of the Cai.
What I'm really curious about is how much these 2 different divisions intersect with one another, as I doubt that they are simply 2 separate circles.
Specially now that Renxiang is surrounding herself with elements of the old ways and the whole ice diplomacy endeavour.
