- Location
- Earth
I think you will find that the term in this case is "herbo".
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.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
"Shimbo" sounds so much better tho
I want to talk about Liminal Carver, Ling Qi's formation Trait:
As we (the players) move towards managing territory rather than the relationships with individuals, we need to start thinking about what Ling Qi can provide beyond just a stick to hit things with. For example Zhengui can help with harvests and the growth of various plants, as well as start taking command of the local spirit ecosystem. Hanyi's idol work will be helping by providing Ling Qi contacts and managing the local spirit ecosystem (incidently, based on current trends, Hanyi is essentially going to be patron of local priestesses since the whole negotiate with local spirits for protection is essentially what she's doing), but currently Ling Qi doesn't have much, and while there's nothing wrong with being a warrior, Ling Qi isn't really set up that well for teaching (since the change in system removed the benefits from teaching music she got from Songseeker Ceremony) like Gan is.
That's where Liminal Carver comes in, and not to put to fine a point on it, this formation specialty is kind of crazy in terms of civic engineering. Every culture I've ever heard stories from (which, granted, is not many) have ascribed some power to thresholds, and those stories are why I think this trait is as important as things like Winter's Heart or Dreamwalker. The Bible story of Exodus for example had markings on the threshold of every home act as an IFF for a biblical plague; imagine if a Violet Ling Qi could throw out her strongest attacks in her own city and hit none of her citizens. That's probably a little extreme and would probably require very advanced formationcraft that is very expensive, but I feel the point stands. On a less extravagant note, many cultures have charms that are buried under the threshold provide protection for the family that lives inside. Liminal Carver should logically be able to do the same thing, providing more benefits than just a nebulous "protection". And this is all just one part of the trait, there are also a lot of doorways and borders within cities, and estates, and buildings. A hospital benefits from being segmented in a way that this trait could take a ton of advantage of, surgeries need a specific kind of environment to maximize the chance of the patient surviving the operation, recovery rooms want a specific kind of environment to encourage both mental and physical recovery, and even lobbies could benefit.
I could spend another thousand words just explaining how this trait could improve a city, but that would more than belabor the point, Liminal Carver provides Ling Qi a concrete way to improve the world in some small way, be it something impossibly grand like a hospital that can treat any condition or illness, or something as mundane as a park where people can relax and destress. That alone means it needs to, at least, be something the thread invests in regularly, even if not every turn.
As we (the players) move towards managing territory rather than the relationships with individuals, we need to start thinking about what Ling Qi can provide beyond just a stick to hit things with. For example Zhengui can help with harvests and the growth of various plants, as well as start taking command of the local spirit ecosystem. Hanyi's idol work will be helping by providing Ling Qi contacts and managing the local spirit ecosystem (incidently, based on current trends, Hanyi is essentially going to be patron of local priestesses since the whole negotiate with local spirits for protection is essentially what she's doing), but currently Ling Qi doesn't have much, and while there's nothing wrong with being a warrior, Ling Qi isn't really set up that well for teaching (since the change in system removed the benefits from teaching music she got from Songseeker Ceremony) like Gan is.
That's where Liminal Carver comes in, and not to put to fine a point on it, this formation specialty is kind of crazy in terms of civic engineering. Every culture I've ever heard stories from (which, granted, is not many) have ascribed some power to thresholds, and those stories are why I think this trait is as important as things like Winter's Heart or Dreamwalker. The Bible story of Exodus for example had markings on the threshold of every home act as an IFF for a biblical plague; imagine if a Violet Ling Qi could throw out her strongest attacks in her own city and hit none of her citizens. That's probably a little extreme and would probably require very advanced formationcraft that is very expensive, but I feel the point stands. On a less extravagant note, many cultures have charms that are buried under the threshold provide protection for the family that lives inside. Liminal Carver should logically be able to do the same thing, providing more benefits than just a nebulous "protection". And this is all just one part of the trait, there are also a lot of doorways and borders within cities, and estates, and buildings. A hospital benefits from being segmented in a way that this trait could take a ton of advantage of, surgeries need a specific kind of environment to maximize the chance of the patient surviving the operation, recovery rooms want a specific kind of environment to encourage both mental and physical recovery, and even lobbies could benefit.
I could spend another thousand words just explaining how this trait could improve a city, but that would more than belabor the point, Liminal Carver provides Ling Qi a concrete way to improve the world in some small way, be it something impossibly grand like a hospital that can treat any condition or illness, or something as mundane as a park where people can relax and destress. That alone means it needs to, at least, be something the thread invests in regularly, even if not every turn.
You fool, if you remembered that, remember the part where you don't call them out on it, too XD
I'm aware Garden of Mists is the answer, it's why I posted the huge thing about Liminal Carver, I'm trying to build axioms and establish rhetoric as to why people should vote for it, so people vote for Garden of Mists. I mean the entire tactic is pointing out how real world stories use thresholds to create a thematic resonance that I can lean on to exposit how I believe it can be used in this story and why those uses are useful, as well as suggesting at a broader narrative throughline to frame those uses so that people don't have to feel like they're voting on an unknown (even if I'm not 100% correct on the uses or narrative yrsillar would support).
I figured I didn't need to pull a "Vote for Garden of Mists" because we're still early in the turn and that kind of campaigning seems more likely to result in less people voting for it since I'd have to bang on it for weeks and that would get old fast.
I figured I didn't need to pull a "Vote for Garden of Mists" because we're still early in the turn and that kind of campaigning seems more likely to result in less people voting for it since I'd have to bang on it for weeks and that would get old fast.
She's only good at the roleplay stuff when she's awake, though.
"I can make maid, plumbing formations scecialist, postwoman and cute poor dumplings delivery girl!"
Zheng Lei put on a winning smile. Bai Mingzhu stared blankly at her.
"Dumplings what."
"Please mistress lady! I know that dumplings got cold but I really, really need tips, please, I would do anything, anything!"
Bai Mingzhu blushed.
ElizatronicWarfa
Himejoshi Supreme
- Pronouns
- She/They
The term you are looking for is "Herbo". See also: Xena, Warrior Princess.
Also, there is more Lady & Brute to come.
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glyph
completely and utterly fine
Even if they eat meat?
Spoodersnek
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It's still Valentine's Day somewhere. Have some lesbians to celebrate!
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TimEd
Meteor maker
Image is borked for me.
It's still Valentine's Day somewhere. Have some lesbians to celebrate!
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
How about now?
TimEd
Meteor maker
Works perfectly now.
What's with the eye though? It looks like it's ... bulging. Like a ping pong ball with a dent where the iris is. I think it's due to the shadow in the eye ball?
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CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Mostly on purpose. She's cultivating away her eyes so they're probably a bit unsettling to look at.
They're both cute lesbians but also horror movie villains. If they're not at least a little creepy, they aren't them.
Turn 14: Arc 3-8
They impacted the inky black pool with a tremendous splash, scattering droplets of water as black as obsidian. The mud and water was sucking and viscous, it clung to her hands, and stuck to her dress despite the gown's enhancements. It felt freezing cold, even to her. Not one bit of that mattered, or even reached her thoughts as she seized soaked cloth in her hands and pulled.
Su Ling emerged from the water coughing and spitting to slap on the stony shore like a wet rag. Most of her clothing was dark with blood, even after the dunking, and it was easy to see why. Her arms were practically in shreds, dark red wounds oozed blood where her meridians had burst under her skin. If they were still mortal, she'd wonder if her friend would ever use her arms again. Despite that however, one arm was locked in a death grip around the waist of a small, limp frame.
Su Ling's eyes were shut, and she gasped for breath, giving a violent cough to cast water and blood alike from her lungs. Ling Qi hissed in alarm, frantic thoughts still spinning through her head. And it was impossible to ignore the shadow behind them. A horned skull tiled, black petals drifting on the water, a fleshless grin and empty sockets, watching.
"Sixiang?" Ling Qi whispered hoarsely, paying the skeleton no attention regardless. Sixiang!"
"Ugh," Sixiang's voice felt small in her head, like it was echoing up from the bottom of a deep tunnel. "Please don't make me contest something like that again, Ling Qi."
"You shocked her though, I think," Ling Qi said trying to keep calm as she hauled her friend the rest of the way out of the water, with her unbroken arm.
"Wish I'd thought to look at her face. Gonna, gonna need a name for that one," Sixiang muttered, and Ling Qi could feel that their consciousness had slipped away for the moment.
But, even in hibernation she could sense the muse was not in any great danger. The same could not be said for the rest. The pain of shattered bone lancing through muscle was a dull roar in the back of her mind, and she tried to ignore the sharp jabbing feelings in her chest each time she breathed in. She was a cultivator of the third realm, her friend needed help, and she would not let herself be disabled any longer by petty wounds of the flesh. Instead, she focused her breathing into the pattern of the Eight Phase Ceremony, cycling her qi in recovery.
It was fortunate that the fox had not used the more potent energies of the higher realms against them, merely the overwhelming force of an immense well of qi.
By the Moon's eyes they had been lucky, so, so lucky.
But she didn't feel lucky, sitting up her friend against the side of the cave. Su Ling hacked up another mass of bloody water, and her eyes fluttered open. She mumbled something indecipherable. "Pretty sure we're not dead?"
"Somehow," Ling Qi chuckled, swiping soaked hair out of her eyes.
Her friend's eyes widened then and she looked down. "Shit, shit. Xisheng are you okay?"
The child held under arm, did not look okay. Soaked to the bone, covered in Su Ling's blood, the child ghosts features which had settled into an androgynous state, was pasty and pale, their eyes shut, and Ling Qi could see places on their arms where flesh and cloth has dissolved into shimmering smoke, leaving crumbling patches, as if they were a hollow china doll.
…The ghost's feet and lower legs were already gone, crumbled entirely beneath the knee.
One eye cracked open, looking up at them. It cycled between colors, green and blue and brown, settling eventually on eye not much different from Su Ling's. "You cut her."
"Yeah, yeah I did," Su Ling agreed. "See, she ain't so strong, so hang on a bit. You can see me finish the job."
Xisheng laughed. It was a happy, childish sound. "Sister is silly, I was never real in the first place. Thank you for pretending I was."
They sounded strangely peaceful for what was happening. The holes in their body yawned wider, flesh crumbling like old clay. "I like this, I don't feel hungry anymore. Nothing hurts."
"Fucking damn it," Su Ling snarled under her breath.
Ling Qi was silent, exhaustion finally setting in as she fell back on her heels. She was thankful that the old skeleton was silent. She could not deal with that as well right now.
Xisheng breathed out, and part of her cheek caved in, there was no bone or blood, just dust crumbling off to dissolve. "Sister is too nice, her heart is too big. Don't break, okay? There's lots of us, but only one you."
"There won't be," Su Ling said. "I won't let this keep happening. Not if I havta bow and scrape and beg. My pride ain't worth that. No more Xisheng."
"That's good. I think a lot of them would have liked you," the words grew softer and softer, until a final sigh of air came and what remained collapsed inward entirely, leaving no more than fragments of clay, gravedirt and drifting dust on Su Ling's lap.
Ling Qi looked away, clenching her fists.
Still not enough. Despite it all, she'd gotten complacent. She turned her head away, leaving her friend privacy, and looked to the one who had rescued them at the end. Her eyes met empty sockets that sparked and glittered with eerie green.
Why?
BOLD. APPROVAL.
The spirits voice whispered in her mind, the curling caress of dried thorny branches on her thoughts.
She had failed though.
Practice. The Junior oversteps, the Senior steadies and catches. Plan better escapes, you have not the fire and spite for broken treasures to bring satisfaction.
She couldn't deny that. But she still didn't understand why.
Blood.
She didn't believe that. Half the province had his family's blood.
You know of the difference, little junior. You write it in your soul.
She closed her eyes, feeling the desolate qi of this place. Last time she had been panicked, terrified and surprised, but having come from the foxes den, and its illusions. It did not feel quite so bad. Once she had considered ignoring the door that had appeared, avoiding the danger this old, old thing represented.
Isolation. It was the desolation of self. This place dripped it.
"Ling Qi who's the skeleton, why are you staring at it like that?" Su Ling asked. Their voice still cracked, and she knew if she looked the other girl's face her eyes would be read and there would be tracks worn on bloody cheeks.
Ling Qi didn't answer right away, but eventually, she clapped her hands together in front of her and offered a small bow, as one would to an instructor. "Just a kind Uncle who took pity on his junior."
You owe me little thief. But not now. You know the way.
Su Ling looked hard at the horned skeleton on his throne of muck and stone, woven through with brambles and bblack petaled flowers. "...I trust you, Ling Qi," she grunted. "But I'm also pretty sure I'm gonna pass out soon."
Ling Qi blew out a breath, her eyes turning to the shadow of the cavern, where the razor thin line marked the position of the door back to her portal. She wrapped an arm under Su Ling's shoulders and helped her up. "I pay my debts. I'll be back to tell you the story soon."
"That all you got to trade? Stories?" Su Ling's voice slurred a little as she leaned into Ling Qi. "Fuck, how do you always get the best deals."
A horn crowned skull tilted towards her, and Ling Qi limped for the door.
She couldn't wait to catch a real nap.
Bai Meizhen had really refined her technique.
And she didn't even know Li Suyin could yell like that.
The only saving grace, if you wanted to look at it like that, was that Lady Cai had put herself in the medical hall as well, while they'd been out. She didn't know what the heiress had done yet, but apparently she'd had to be hauled from her meditation room with blood running from her eyes, ears and nose, and burns all over her body. Almost certainly a tribulation, or so the sect gossip mill whispered. Was it successful or not? No one yet knew.
Ling Qi sat on the edge of the bed in the medical hall, still dressed in the white robe she'd been lent. She'd kept her dress on a chair by the bed, so she could lay her hand on it whenever the silk started rippling and twitching anxiously. Her arm was held in a sling, but her breathing was easier now, her ribs no longer being halfway into her lungs.
Ling Qi chuckled to herself but it died as her eyes fell on the table beside her bed. On its surface were a handful of wood and metal splinters that had been surgically removed from her upper chest and face, all that remained of her flute.
It… hurt. It hadn't simply been snapped this time. There was barely any of it left. She had taken its presence for granted. That it was fine, that the reinforced shell could survive anything. But, the durability of a third realm was hardly a guarantee anymore was it.
…She should have gotten a new one ages ago. She had the spirit stones, she had the time and peace. Instead, she'd clung to it until it shattered.
She really was a hypocrite wasn't she?
A pillow hit her in the side of the head.
"Oi, no brooding allowed in the recovery room," grumbled at her in a surly voice. She lay in the narrow medicine hall bed, propped up on a small mountain of pillows. Her chest was wrapped in bandages, and so were her arms. Her arms were absolutely swathed in them in fact to the extend that her hands could not be seen.
"Did you throw that pillow with your tail?" Ling Qi asked incredulously.
Su Ling glared flatly, one dark furred tail curling at the side of her bed. "So what if I did. You were brooding again."
"I can brood if I want," Ling Qi sniffed.
"You should rest," Su Ling accused, jabbing the tip of the tail at her."...and M'sorry. I know that thing meant a lot."
Ling Qi smiled, it was a little stiff."You don't get to apologize for my harebrained idea."
"Admitting some thing was reckless, has this young miss achieved a new stage?" Sixiang drawled sarcastically.
"Su Ling you need to figure out how to whap a dream spirit with a pillow, Sixiang is sassing me," Ling Qi complained. She pulled her eyes away from the splinters. Later, there was time for that later.
"Blat them yourself," Su Ling said.
Ling Qi shot the open air a huffy look, and Sixiang snickered. Yes, they were all alive. Even SU Ling would recover, though the scarring on her arms would be severe.
…She would never be able to use those meridians for anything else though, it was as if she had assimilated a domain weapon early.
But they were fine, they were fine. And that was worth more than some happy memories.
"Hey Ling Qi you'll get that message to that Diao woman, right, or go around her if need be? I know it's a big favor but…"
"It will be done," Ling Qi said. She was not Su Ling, but she had no desire to see that monstrosity continue. If there was anything else to spend favors on, this was a start. A sweep for any children with fox blood, and a request for closer monitoring.
And if it couldn't be resolved. There was a member of the Ministry of Integrity right here, wasn't there.
Su Ling sighed."I-"
There was a boom, and the earth shook, and then a crash,drawing their eyes to the door.The water set on the tables edge rippled with pounding footsteps.
The doors burst open with a bang, and there stood Gan Guangli with a frazzled young disciple hanging off his arm like a scarf.
"...Sir visiting hours are over," the dizzy disciple groaned.
"Miss Su, my deepest apologies! I was out among the wilderness and had not heard of your plight!" he announced head scraping the rafters as he thudded in, ignoring the aide in a startling display of rudeness for her fellow retainer. "Are you-"
A pillow struck him, dead center in the face.
"Up. Shut. Now, Volume down," Su Ling said, looking as if she wished to sink entirely into her mountain of pillows.
Ling Qi smiled at her friend, bright and friendly.
Su Ling shivered.
-Arc End-
Su Ling Bond Increased to 4
Su Ling emerged from the water coughing and spitting to slap on the stony shore like a wet rag. Most of her clothing was dark with blood, even after the dunking, and it was easy to see why. Her arms were practically in shreds, dark red wounds oozed blood where her meridians had burst under her skin. If they were still mortal, she'd wonder if her friend would ever use her arms again. Despite that however, one arm was locked in a death grip around the waist of a small, limp frame.
Su Ling's eyes were shut, and she gasped for breath, giving a violent cough to cast water and blood alike from her lungs. Ling Qi hissed in alarm, frantic thoughts still spinning through her head. And it was impossible to ignore the shadow behind them. A horned skull tiled, black petals drifting on the water, a fleshless grin and empty sockets, watching.
"Sixiang?" Ling Qi whispered hoarsely, paying the skeleton no attention regardless. Sixiang!"
"Ugh," Sixiang's voice felt small in her head, like it was echoing up from the bottom of a deep tunnel. "Please don't make me contest something like that again, Ling Qi."
"You shocked her though, I think," Ling Qi said trying to keep calm as she hauled her friend the rest of the way out of the water, with her unbroken arm.
"Wish I'd thought to look at her face. Gonna, gonna need a name for that one," Sixiang muttered, and Ling Qi could feel that their consciousness had slipped away for the moment.
Dawn Dissolution: G8
Type: Dispel, Finisher
Duration: Stunt
All the world is but a dream and stage, when curtain falls when dawn sun rises, they must vanish as the morning dew, for they are fleeting things, and all shows must end. Dispels a single effect targeting Ling Qi and her bound spirits. Usable once per scene. Disabled Sixiang for remainder of Scene.
Type: Dispel, Finisher
Duration: Stunt
All the world is but a dream and stage, when curtain falls when dawn sun rises, they must vanish as the morning dew, for they are fleeting things, and all shows must end. Dispels a single effect targeting Ling Qi and her bound spirits. Usable once per scene. Disabled Sixiang for remainder of Scene.
But, even in hibernation she could sense the muse was not in any great danger. The same could not be said for the rest. The pain of shattered bone lancing through muscle was a dull roar in the back of her mind, and she tried to ignore the sharp jabbing feelings in her chest each time she breathed in. She was a cultivator of the third realm, her friend needed help, and she would not let herself be disabled any longer by petty wounds of the flesh. Instead, she focused her breathing into the pattern of the Eight Phase Ceremony, cycling her qi in recovery.
It was fortunate that the fox had not used the more potent energies of the higher realms against them, merely the overwhelming force of an immense well of qi.
By the Moon's eyes they had been lucky, so, so lucky.
But she didn't feel lucky, sitting up her friend against the side of the cave. Su Ling hacked up another mass of bloody water, and her eyes fluttered open. She mumbled something indecipherable. "Pretty sure we're not dead?"
"Somehow," Ling Qi chuckled, swiping soaked hair out of her eyes.
Her friend's eyes widened then and she looked down. "Shit, shit. Xisheng are you okay?"
The child held under arm, did not look okay. Soaked to the bone, covered in Su Ling's blood, the child ghosts features which had settled into an androgynous state, was pasty and pale, their eyes shut, and Ling Qi could see places on their arms where flesh and cloth has dissolved into shimmering smoke, leaving crumbling patches, as if they were a hollow china doll.
…The ghost's feet and lower legs were already gone, crumbled entirely beneath the knee.
One eye cracked open, looking up at them. It cycled between colors, green and blue and brown, settling eventually on eye not much different from Su Ling's. "You cut her."
"Yeah, yeah I did," Su Ling agreed. "See, she ain't so strong, so hang on a bit. You can see me finish the job."
Xisheng laughed. It was a happy, childish sound. "Sister is silly, I was never real in the first place. Thank you for pretending I was."
They sounded strangely peaceful for what was happening. The holes in their body yawned wider, flesh crumbling like old clay. "I like this, I don't feel hungry anymore. Nothing hurts."
"Fucking damn it," Su Ling snarled under her breath.
Ling Qi was silent, exhaustion finally setting in as she fell back on her heels. She was thankful that the old skeleton was silent. She could not deal with that as well right now.
Xisheng breathed out, and part of her cheek caved in, there was no bone or blood, just dust crumbling off to dissolve. "Sister is too nice, her heart is too big. Don't break, okay? There's lots of us, but only one you."
"There won't be," Su Ling said. "I won't let this keep happening. Not if I havta bow and scrape and beg. My pride ain't worth that. No more Xisheng."
"That's good. I think a lot of them would have liked you," the words grew softer and softer, until a final sigh of air came and what remained collapsed inward entirely, leaving no more than fragments of clay, gravedirt and drifting dust on Su Ling's lap.
Ling Qi looked away, clenching her fists.
Still not enough. Despite it all, she'd gotten complacent. She turned her head away, leaving her friend privacy, and looked to the one who had rescued them at the end. Her eyes met empty sockets that sparked and glittered with eerie green.
Why?
BOLD. APPROVAL.
The spirits voice whispered in her mind, the curling caress of dried thorny branches on her thoughts.
She had failed though.
Practice. The Junior oversteps, the Senior steadies and catches. Plan better escapes, you have not the fire and spite for broken treasures to bring satisfaction.
She couldn't deny that. But she still didn't understand why.
Blood.
She didn't believe that. Half the province had his family's blood.
You know of the difference, little junior. You write it in your soul.
She closed her eyes, feeling the desolate qi of this place. Last time she had been panicked, terrified and surprised, but having come from the foxes den, and its illusions. It did not feel quite so bad. Once she had considered ignoring the door that had appeared, avoiding the danger this old, old thing represented.
Isolation. It was the desolation of self. This place dripped it.
"Ling Qi who's the skeleton, why are you staring at it like that?" Su Ling asked. Their voice still cracked, and she knew if she looked the other girl's face her eyes would be read and there would be tracks worn on bloody cheeks.
Ling Qi didn't answer right away, but eventually, she clapped her hands together in front of her and offered a small bow, as one would to an instructor. "Just a kind Uncle who took pity on his junior."
You owe me little thief. But not now. You know the way.
Su Ling looked hard at the horned skeleton on his throne of muck and stone, woven through with brambles and bblack petaled flowers. "...I trust you, Ling Qi," she grunted. "But I'm also pretty sure I'm gonna pass out soon."
Ling Qi blew out a breath, her eyes turning to the shadow of the cavern, where the razor thin line marked the position of the door back to her portal. She wrapped an arm under Su Ling's shoulders and helped her up. "I pay my debts. I'll be back to tell you the story soon."
"That all you got to trade? Stories?" Su Ling's voice slurred a little as she leaned into Ling Qi. "Fuck, how do you always get the best deals."
A horn crowned skull tilted towards her, and Ling Qi limped for the door.
She couldn't wait to catch a real nap.
***
To say her friends and acquaintances were less than pleased with their condition was something of an understatement. To be under the baleful gaze of an unhappy Bai for the better part of an hour reminded her of the spiritual resistance training she had asked in her first year.Bai Meizhen had really refined her technique.
And she didn't even know Li Suyin could yell like that.
The only saving grace, if you wanted to look at it like that, was that Lady Cai had put herself in the medical hall as well, while they'd been out. She didn't know what the heiress had done yet, but apparently she'd had to be hauled from her meditation room with blood running from her eyes, ears and nose, and burns all over her body. Almost certainly a tribulation, or so the sect gossip mill whispered. Was it successful or not? No one yet knew.
Ling Qi sat on the edge of the bed in the medical hall, still dressed in the white robe she'd been lent. She'd kept her dress on a chair by the bed, so she could lay her hand on it whenever the silk started rippling and twitching anxiously. Her arm was held in a sling, but her breathing was easier now, her ribs no longer being halfway into her lungs.
Ling Qi chuckled to herself but it died as her eyes fell on the table beside her bed. On its surface were a handful of wood and metal splinters that had been surgically removed from her upper chest and face, all that remained of her flute.
It… hurt. It hadn't simply been snapped this time. There was barely any of it left. She had taken its presence for granted. That it was fine, that the reinforced shell could survive anything. But, the durability of a third realm was hardly a guarantee anymore was it.
…She should have gotten a new one ages ago. She had the spirit stones, she had the time and peace. Instead, she'd clung to it until it shattered.
She really was a hypocrite wasn't she?
A pillow hit her in the side of the head.
"Oi, no brooding allowed in the recovery room," grumbled at her in a surly voice. She lay in the narrow medicine hall bed, propped up on a small mountain of pillows. Her chest was wrapped in bandages, and so were her arms. Her arms were absolutely swathed in them in fact to the extend that her hands could not be seen.
"Did you throw that pillow with your tail?" Ling Qi asked incredulously.
Su Ling glared flatly, one dark furred tail curling at the side of her bed. "So what if I did. You were brooding again."
"I can brood if I want," Ling Qi sniffed.
"You should rest," Su Ling accused, jabbing the tip of the tail at her."...and M'sorry. I know that thing meant a lot."
Ling Qi smiled, it was a little stiff."You don't get to apologize for my harebrained idea."
"Admitting some thing was reckless, has this young miss achieved a new stage?" Sixiang drawled sarcastically.
"Su Ling you need to figure out how to whap a dream spirit with a pillow, Sixiang is sassing me," Ling Qi complained. She pulled her eyes away from the splinters. Later, there was time for that later.
"Blat them yourself," Su Ling said.
Ling Qi shot the open air a huffy look, and Sixiang snickered. Yes, they were all alive. Even SU Ling would recover, though the scarring on her arms would be severe.
…She would never be able to use those meridians for anything else though, it was as if she had assimilated a domain weapon early.
But they were fine, they were fine. And that was worth more than some happy memories.
"Hey Ling Qi you'll get that message to that Diao woman, right, or go around her if need be? I know it's a big favor but…"
"It will be done," Ling Qi said. She was not Su Ling, but she had no desire to see that monstrosity continue. If there was anything else to spend favors on, this was a start. A sweep for any children with fox blood, and a request for closer monitoring.
And if it couldn't be resolved. There was a member of the Ministry of Integrity right here, wasn't there.
Su Ling sighed."I-"
There was a boom, and the earth shook, and then a crash,drawing their eyes to the door.The water set on the tables edge rippled with pounding footsteps.
The doors burst open with a bang, and there stood Gan Guangli with a frazzled young disciple hanging off his arm like a scarf.
"...Sir visiting hours are over," the dizzy disciple groaned.
"Miss Su, my deepest apologies! I was out among the wilderness and had not heard of your plight!" he announced head scraping the rafters as he thudded in, ignoring the aide in a startling display of rudeness for her fellow retainer. "Are you-"
A pillow struck him, dead center in the face.
"Up. Shut. Now, Volume down," Su Ling said, looking as if she wished to sink entirely into her mountain of pillows.
Ling Qi smiled at her friend, bright and friendly.
Su Ling shivered.
-Arc End-
Su Ling Bond Increased to 4
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- Location
- France
Great chapter! I'll let other people react to the end of our adventure. I wonder what Lady Cai tried to do? This sounds like some sort of failed forced breakthrough, or an attempt at spiritual self-surgery (without being White). Or did she try to fight a Heart Demon directly somehow?
Does someone who knows more about Xianxia tropes want to chime in with likely possibilities?
Does someone who knows more about Xianxia tropes want to chime in with likely possibilities?
- Location
- United States of America
- Location
- USA
Ra ra/ Baron Gan, he's Su Ling's man/ he did it so no one [else] can!
Get some Baron Gan. Woo that fox woman! Woo!
Gan x Su and Ling x Xuan are the second best pairings behind Bao x Bai and I will die on that hill.
Get some Baron Gan. Woo that fox woman! Woo!
Gan x Su and Ling x Xuan are the second best pairings behind Bao x Bai and I will die on that hill.
Ughhh so good
wishing for a Su Ling POV sidestory/omake now. just for the purple prose of it
wishing for a Su Ling POV sidestory/omake now. just for the purple prose of it
Meizhen: "Oh no its contagious"
- Location
- United States of America
Ling Qi: Meizhen, you know how you warned me about how dangerous going to moon parties could be?
Meizhen: What. Did. You. Do?
Ling Qi: So I figured I would steal a spiritual sacrificial child from their hungry mother, you know, to get a feel for those dangerous situations.
Meizhen: Why are you like this?
Ling Qi: Didn't work, I mean rescuing the child part, the getting a feel for dangerous situations certainly worked though!
Meizhen: What. Did. You. Do?
Ling Qi: So I figured I would steal a spiritual sacrificial child from their hungry mother, you know, to get a feel for those dangerous situations.
Meizhen: Why are you like this?
Ling Qi: Didn't work, I mean rescuing the child part, the getting a feel for dangerous situations certainly worked though!
- Location
- E
I still prefer Spirit Aunties but I have to admit, Bone Uncle is pretty cool.
It seems like his Truth has a bit of nuance to it, with simultaneous focus on family and isolation.
It seems like his Truth has a bit of nuance to it, with simultaneous focus on family and isolation.
