The grounds of the Meng manor were beautiful, with serene reflective ponds full of water lilies and floating wooden shrines, lit by pale candles and soft blue ghost-lights. The manor itself was a lovely thing of crystal glass and fine wood with no seams or joins, as if the whole thing were grown rather than built. Meng Dan led Ling Qi along winding paths to an outdoor pavilion just outside the manor's eastern wing, a low porch with a roof overlooking the gardens. There were long tables filling the pavilion and lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and It seemed very much like the kind of place where a party would be held.
This is a nice preview of what Meng style architecture would tend to look like.
Lots of emphasis on natural beauty and gentle curves, though I would note that the water feature would actually be a relatively costly expense up here in Xiangmen compared to back in Meng home territory, in which case ghost lights and bottomless ponds come free of charge with a side order of drowning.
"Feel free to let your spirits roam," offered Meng Dan, sitting down at one of the tables. The soft orange glow from the lanterns reflected off the polished wood and gave the whole thing a homey glow, as if the pavilion were an island of warmth drifting on a serene sea of mist. "Though I would ask Sir Zhengui to restrain himself."
Now they're just advertising their traditionalist credentials, where your spirits...if they physically can fit, can participate in the diplomacy.
Not that most spirits would be interested, of course, but its gives them status.
Yinhui appeared across from him with a rustle like pages being flipped, and settled into a chair. Ling Qi gave a small nod of acknowledgement. The mist hissed and swirled as Zhengui materialized just outside the pavilion, his shell only around two meters wide. Hanyi appeared at Ling Qi's side in a shimmering veil of snowflakes, with her hands on her hips.
Fancy spawn in effects...wait, is Hanyi competing on her entrance style?
Because it sure looks like it
Sixiang manifested their physical body in the chair beside Yinhui at that moment, and immediately threw an arm around the other moon spirit's childlike shoulders. "Heya, little cuz. And book boy! You miss us?"
Yinhui[Deadpan]: "Oh no, an extrovert."
"Things have been less exciting, yes," chuckled Meng Dan.
Ling Qi gave Sixiang a look, which the muse responded to with an innocent smile.
"I'm sure you needed the rest," Ling Qi finally said with a sigh.
I think the Ling Qi Adventure
TM is getting famous in certain circles.
"Most assuredly. I am only a frail scholar, after all." Meng Dan said lightly. "Would you care for refreshments, Baroness?"
Ling Qi stared at Meng Dan. Meng Dan's smile widened.
Yes, frail scholar.
Drank an entire army barracks under the table.
Very frail.
"If it's no trouble," responded Ling Qi. "It is one thing to hear of Xiangmen, but it is another to approach it."
"It is a wonder, isn't it?" said Meng Dan. He snapped his fingers, the sound echoing loudly in the mist, and Ling Qi sensed the movement of servants in the manor halls. "There are only a few other places in the Empire that can match it, I think. Shuilan, the Mountains of Flowers and Fruit, The Imperial City, and the Living Isle. I should like to see them all one day."
I'd think Lake Hei would likely have counted as a fifth if it wasn't much less friendly to human life.
"We've located our probable capital."
"The waterfall is huuuuge!" interrupted Hanyi.
"The lake is really nice, and the fires under the earth are good - not like the nasty poison fires," agreed Zhengui, settling on the ground with a thump.
"Has some real goodies tucked away, too," Sixiang chimed in with a grin.
Lake should make for some nice aquaculture too.
And now wondering just how huge the waterfall is, because that sounds impressively large.
"There have been a number of splits and new sects which were called heresies at the time of formation," interjected Yinhui quietly, somehow maintaining her dignity even while Sixiang played with her hair. "More specificity is needed."
Sixiang's gonna make her hair ridiculously fancy by the time the meeting is over. I know it.
Hmm, actually wonder how Zhengui would interpret the Renewal of belief systems.
"Yinhui is not wrong," Meng Dan said. "The largest split occurred under the rule of the Xi, which produced my own family's faith and the Pure Way of the Hui."
"It would be something older than that. Maybe not as far back as pre-imperial, but probably First Dynasty," Ling Qi said.
"Mm, records from then are... less accessible." explained Meng Dan, his smile briefly becoming a thoughtful frown. "I assume you aren't speaking of the Mason War split."
"...I don't think so," Ling Qi said after a moment. "Well, it's something I've only touched the edges of myself. Maybe next time we meet I'll be the one who can dispense some history."
Meng Dan put a hand over his heart. "Miss Ling, you must not court my heart so brazenly."
Ling Qi chuckled politely, ignoring Sixiang and their waggling eyebrows.
...I think if we produce detailed first hand accounts from Skelly Uncle he might legit propose.
He's a dedicated historian and history in that time period is an utter mess, with most surviving accounts likely blatantly biased or from outside perspectives.
Qi: "Yeah he can't be serious."
Sixiang: "I cannot believe this girl."
"Being serious though, Meng Dan - what is the Dreaming Way? What great spirit does it revere?"
Meng Dan's smile faded a touch. "It has none. There are a handful of ascended, thought of as teachers and torchbearers showing the way, but reverence isn't really the point."
"Well, what's the purpose then?" Ling Qi asked. "If it's not interceding for the favor of a god?"
"It's…" he trailed off thoughtfully. "Forgive me, Miss Ling, but I am not a monk or a teacher. It is difficult for one of middling devotion to explain properly."
"Ah, I'm sorry for putting you in a difficult position," apologised Ling Qi.
"No, no," he dismissed. "Let us see, I do not want to misrepresent us, but... in the eyes of the Dreaming Way, the material world is merely another layer of the liminal - a dream more solid and difficult to awake from. It is flawed and broken, corrupted from the intent of the Nameless. The Dreaming Way is a path to finding a true awakening - enlightenment, if you prefer. If enough people achieve this the Nameless may be reinvigorated, and their Great Dream made right."
Ling Qi frowned, considering his words. That sounded strange, but not particularly bad, though she supposed that depended on what you saw enlightenment as being.
"Isn't that like, stupid hard though?" Hanyi said. "Most humans are like, super weak, you'll never get enough to ascend."
"The truth of the Way and the truth of an individual cultivator are different things. Supposedly even a mortal can find enlightenment if they live a proper life under the strain my kin follow, but you are right that it is a distant dream at best," Meng Dan chuckled. "As I said, I am not personally devout. Perhaps you may request to speak with one more knowledgeable than I?"
Big infos here!
Ling Qi is having some trouble grasping transcendental faith over transactional faith, but I can extrapolate and speculate on a few things here, note, this is extrapolating from extremely few datapoints, not to be relied upon:
Pre Mason's War beliefs
-Unknown
The Yin/Yang symbol, Tsu establishing agriculture and the cycle of seasons suggest that a core element should be harmony of disparate elements.
Mason's War
-Yin branch
-Yang branch
The Mason's War now has a BIT more philosophical detail at what lies at the root of their divide. Rather than a simple Progressive vs Isolationist/Traditionalist, theres also a religious element.
The Progressives may have been linked with the Materialist side of their beliefs, with stone cities drawn from Celestial Peaks and metal tools drawn from the Thousand Lakes.
The Traditionalists may have considered the whole business as distracting and distancing from the pursuit of enlightenment, with backing from the Spiritualists.
End result is a bloody draw, the Materialist side 'lost' by default, since their goal was to promote change, and change didn't happen.
Imperial Conquest/Weilu Reign/Horned Lord vanishes/Weilu Vanishes
This whole stretch is a great big mystery, but its possible that they HAD achieved mass enlightenment and vanished, with the Horned Lord going first and leaving instructions on how to follow.
This
also cored out the old faith, the most pious all basically got Raptured, the rest only knew they were onto something when they were all gone. Theres a total gap of records here, and Skellyuncle seems to date to this era.
Xi Era
-Meng Dreaming Way
-Hui Pure Way
-??? Weird Statue?
We have the Meng beliefs, which center around reaching enlightenment to penetrate through the material world and prod the Nameless into issuing patches for this buggy reality, as opposed to White ascension imposing a new Law top down as a Great Spirit. This may have some relation to the Moon Spirits' belief that they should discourage humans from becoming spirits, since it seems that you could enlighten without that.
This...does not sound like it'd be popular with the Imperial center, because no empire wants lots of people refusing to engage with material reality in favor of seeking enlightenment, though this is to be discouraged more than rooted out since its at least fairly passive.
We have patchwork views of Hui beliefs from people who hate them, and also the rants of one insane corpse immortal. Their Pure Way seeks to be as far from reality as possible, pursuing enlightenment through eliminating connection from reality.
This is a harmless philosophy for monks or ascetics.
This is a terrible philosophy for a ruler, because their response to the material world intruding is to get it to stop by the most expedient means possible. And also whoever in this belief system is involved in the material world would also tend to be the most morally deficient.
And then we got that statue heresy thing. Which we know had been rooted out at times. Need a refresher to speak with any confidence.
"A statement has been prepared," Yinhui said, sliding her a folded sheaf of paper from across the table.
Ling Qi picked it up gingerly, and felt her eyebrows rise at the number of spirit stones listed there. It was enough to make her personal cultivation expenses irrelevant for years, if focused on just that. But she had peeked into Cai Renxiang's planning, and knew that the costs of building and running early settlements far exceeded those expenses. Even considering that, it was a princely sum.
That is a lot of money, a good jumpstart. Infrastructure is expensive, and I have no doubt that Shenhua would want Renxiang to miss the opportunity to juggle long term viability against needing immediate cashflow and sustainability.
A lot of settlements are horribly planned simply because you need a wall right now, to protect your structures, and lack of budget means you get slums improvised outside that protection, before expansion has to deal with either removing them(costly, efficient long term, inhumane), improving them(very costly, efficient long term, humane), or just putting up another ring of walls around them and filling in the gaps(cheap, but horribly inefficient).
More money means we can get further ahead on the curve.
More expertise means we can change the shape of the curve by getting more for less.
"First, we offer a number of exclusive texts and melodies from the tradition of Grandmistress Lei. Not her works themselves, unfortunately, but those of musicians in the direct line of her descent - one of which you seemed to have acquired on your own." began Meng Dan.
The Forgotten Vale Melody, long since made a part of her, fueling the Mist of her domain. Ling Qi could think of nothing else that he could be referring to. "I'm surprised at such an offer, given what I know of your clan."
"Oh it was a bit of a fight," Meng Dan said lightly, brushing over it. "Nonetheless, we guarantee no reprisals. There are no complete arts among the offer, but a cultivator of your talent and stage will no doubt find insights among them."
Reading between the lines, these were probably the copied physical notes of other musicians and cultivators from which she could create or modify arts with relative ease. This was likely to give the more consrvative elements of the Meng clan some face in retaining their secrets. She was going to have to work on turning her arts into something wholly her own, though.
You know, this suggests that there might have been some grumpiness from the Meng about us knowing Forgotten Vale Melody.
The isolationists must be frothing at the mouth, this really adds oomph to the progressive faction.
These notes are guide and references to arts similar to FVM in quality, and it is very good in that respect.
Man, I wonder how bad they'd freak if we took Grandmistress Lei's works back at Hui Peng.
"Second, we offer the services of a Meng Geomancer for a period of ten years, fully paid for his time," Meng Dan continued. "He will offer aid in constructing settlements and shaping your land. He will also be authorized to share the same level of our knowledge which is granted to our own barons and viscounts, and will tutor up to six individuals in this knowledge."
That was a good offer - without the last part, she might worry that the Meng were intending to make Lady Cai dependent on them for maintenance and expansion. That they would explicitly not be sharing their full knowledge made her trust it more. Zhengui perked up a little at the mention of tutoring too.
Terraforming to viscount grade is precisely what we need, I dare say most sources would have put us on the hook to someone for maintenance regardless.
That and it'd be an
interesting synergy with Zhengui's Garden project and Ling Qi's own Liminal Carver.
To elaborate on this a bit, you can think of each household as a cell, extending from Feng Shui principles.
-It takes in qi, with the flow of the wind and water, along with the light of the sun.
-It releases qi, washing out accumulated spiritual detritus to dissipate.
-Activities, people, spirits and formations of the household would each draw differently and vent differently. You want the right kinds and levels of energy in the right places, too much energy in the bedroom would give restless sleep, while too little in the study would make learning exhausting.
-You want to shape it such that the intake is gentle and buffered, rather than the full force of the outside world stampeding through your home and rendering you vulnerable to the elements.
-You want to shape it such that there is a stable flow, and no stagnancy where malign influences can become trapped or tangled within.
Not too complicated on an individual level, but now you have thousands of households all drawing in qi and venting it.
You need your spiritual sewage channels so they can vent the collective malice of a city to somewhere they can be dispersed - and just dumping it outside the wards is probably going to be feeding a mondo spirit to attack some day.
You need your power lines and aqueducts to feed your industries and formations.
You need to account for chunks being taken out and added in.
Whoever we pick to learn is going to be influential...and incredibly busy.
Preferably pick people in our household, and we definitely need to know enough to look over the work ourselves.
Its, incidentally a permanent, living promotional to Meng style geomancy, especially if trade picks up.
"Perhaps a little less personally exciting, we have a trade agreement," Meng Dan said, tapping one of the remaining contracts with his finger. "Under this agreement, all goods originating in your land will be tarif-free for a period of one hundred years, and receive preferential rates on all other tolls and taxes."
"It will probably be quite some time before we are producing anything worth trading." Ling Qi said dubiously.
"Ah, but as far as imperial law is concerned, goods from external polities originate with their first imperial 'buyer', being written with war plunder in mind," Meng Dan said. "A loophole likely to be closed in the future, if things go our way, but for now, useful, no?"
Ling Qi didn't exactly have a head for economics, but yes, she supposed she could see how that could be useful. It would encourage more traders at least, by cutting the costs of importing goods to the bone. It might make any efforts to open up Black Lotus pass again less useful, though, hurting her effort in the central valley. She waved him on.
This offer seems a little basic, even disregarding Black Lotus pass. Barrier free trade is actually
more risky to us, Meng products would cheaply swamp local production in short order once it gets going, would make us a lot of money, but it'd also take more work to lift off production industries.
Trade won't start in significant volume for a time, we lack the infrastructure to carry much, and an influx of traders at an early juncture is going to take careful juggling because of the effect on local culture and wealth structures.
...and also we know Renxiang. She's going to file a form to close that loophole in all likelihood as soon as she notices.
He pursed his lips but gave a small nod. "Well, the Meng clan has a tradition of musicians, as you know. My Grandmother can offer the services of a master craftsmen, one of my great-uncles, who is a sixth realm specialized in instruments. You would need to provide the materials for this, though - Uncle is... eccentric and demands such from all his clients."
"Understandable," What upper realm didn't have eccentricities? She still wasn't sure what she was going to do about her flute, but she supposed this was an option. She had no idea yet what she would do about materials.
"Might be something for our trips," murmured Sixiang in her head.
"Um, maybe something from Momma?" Hanyi offered uncertainly.
On the surface, very appealing to have a 6th realm Instrument specialist do it, it'd probably be pretty close to the pre-threaded Caidress, though a lot of the advanced features likely just don't work until we catch up to it.
But as Sixiang and Hanyi raised - we don't have any plan for this at all. We'd be just winging it on materials, and I don't think we're going to be getting our hands on anything higher than fourth realm materials on short notice?
His skill would be wasted on us, much as it'd be a great advertisement to those with eyes to see.
"The last one?" Ling Qi said, not visibly acknowledging either. She glanced at the page, and gave a double take, it was largely blank.
"The last is simply a favor from the Meng clan, not one that is wholly unlimited, but you will have the promise that my Grandmother will work to bring the clan around to support you in an endeavor that requires political weight, so long as it is not directly contrary to our interests," Meng Dan said.
Ling Qi looked hard at the blank page, bearing only the seal and heraldry of the Meng clan. Such an open-ended offer could be very powerful… or ineffectual. It all depended on the situation in which she chose to use it. She almost smiled as she imagined accepting and then immediately calling it in for support against the Duchess.
That certainly fell outside the limits of a favor, but perhaps it could be useful on the matter of Black Lotus Pass, or if some difficulty came up during negotiations in the south.
Open favors are powerful things for the established.
But its more of a catch-all, they REALLY want the deal, so I suspect its there more as a show of sincerity than anything else.
Because we're too new a clan, with no foundation, theres no demand we CAN make which would truly strain such a favor.
