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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
So it doesn't have a mechanical impact on opening meridians or learning arts?

It does, though other factors can make interfere.

Projects are the core of the new system. In the planning phase for an arc or arc set, you will be given a menu of projects in cultivation which Ling Qi can pursue, from which you will be able to choose a certain number based on the length of the arcs in question. Progress in a Cultivation progress is typically fixed, when taking a project you receive one success plus any bonuses you may have from Cultivation Traits, Medicines or Sites. Some projects may have a chance of failure, which is determined by a single d100 roll with a target number. The base target number before modifiers will be your Talent Valuex10, or 60% for Ling Qi. Actions and other factors then modify that number.
 
It does, though other factors can make interfere.
Aah, fascinating.
Just found out that Ji Rong is talent 7. Explains how he was able to keep up so well even though he had shit luck often during the first year.
And now I'm wondering what a talent 9 monster would be like. Would a talent 9 Ling Qi have been able to advance enough in one year to stand a genuine chance of beating Sun Liling in their match?
 
Aah, fascinating.
Just found out that Ji Rong is talent 7. Explains how he was able to keep up so well even though he had shit luck often during the first year.
And now I'm wondering what a talent 9 monster would be like. Would a talent 9 Ling Qi have been able to advance enough in one year to stand a genuine chance of beating Sun Liling in their match?

Talent 9 is someone like Cai Shenhua, I think. I doubt anyone else Ling Qi has met personally would qualify.
 
It's worth noting that Talent can change. That's what Gu Xiulan did when she almost killed herself, and it's reasonable to say that that's what Cai Shenhua did when she started using forbidden arts.
 
It's worth noting that Talent can change. That's what Gu Xiulan did when she almost killed herself, and it's reasonable to say that that's what Cai Shenhua did when she started using forbidden arts.

I think that we have explicit statements that Xiulan actually didn't change her Talent, though that's nitpicking as Yrsillar has definitely explicitly stated it can indeed change and I agree that Cai Shenua's likely did increase when she did...whatever the heck she did.
 
Yeah I don't think that was Xiulan's talent changing, more she got a bonus for heaven arts specifically. Which probably has similar effects but isn't the same or as comprehensive (eg likely doesn't effect breakthrough chance, even if it majorly saves on cultivation time).

My thought process has always been a natural born talent 9 is probably more like the Sage Emperor, though iirc pretty much every White has raised their talent to 9 somehow, or at least nearly that high.

I think that's partly because talent also effects your breakthrough chance and breakthroughs in higher realms are so difficult it's literally impossible to do so without such a high talent level, not to mention the simple cultivation speed versus lifespan maths. This is me trying to remember a conversation from a long time ago though, even if I've got it right the relevant WOG might have changed.
 
Aah, fascinating.
Just found out that Ji Rong is talent 7. Explains how he was able to keep up so well even though he had shit luck often during the first year.
And now I'm wondering what a talent 9 monster would be like. Would a talent 9 Ling Qi have been able to advance enough in one year to stand a genuine chance of beating Sun Liling in their match?

It's important to note that everyone who reaches White eventually gets Talent 9. They usually go through talent-increasing tribulations like Xiulan at some point during their lives/cultivation to get it.
 
I expect the Nightmare Dreamwalking 10 adventure will be a talent increasing tribulation for dream and moon type stuff.

The FSS successor might trigger a talent bumping tribulation during the adventure parts.

Uncle Skelly will eventually tribulate us, and we will steal his horns, his dignity, and a rank in talent. And then Uncle Skelly will laugh and tell us to come back and spin a yarn.
 
It's important to note that everyone who reaches White eventually gets Talent 9. They usually go through talent-increasing tribulations like Xiulan at some point during their lives/cultivation to get it.
Has Yrs actually said that? I'm reasonably sure he has also said that people's Talent starts to degrade somewhere in their twenties... Well, I suppose it's possible that the highflyers can upgrade their Talent faster than it degrades as they age.
 
Turn 16: Arc 2-4
"Lets introduce ourselves as good guests should," Ling Qi said thoughtfully. "Seeking hospitality is better than wandering freely here, I think."

"There are discoveries to be made in both the wilderness and hearth," Xuan Shi acknowledged.

"Just gonna stick your head in the tigers mouth again?" Kongyou chuckled.

"Hey if it keeps working why not?" Sixiang said flippantly.

"There are tigers and tigers," Ling Qi said. She glanced back to Zhengui who had been silent awhile. "Are you alright, little brother."

Zhen flicked his tongue, the volcanic heat making the cold air shimmer. "I Zhen, have no idea how we did that."

Gui looked a little disgruntled. "Gui did not think he could make fire like that."

"I, Zhen do not think slow Gui can," his other half said dubiously.

Ling Qi pondered that. "It's easier to experiment here," Ling Qi offered. "But if you can do it here, I don't think it's out of reach in the waking world."

"This one might offer some small insights?" Xuan Shi said carefully.

Zhen looked dubious, but Gui snapped his jaws once. "Gui does not think he could have shaped the flames right without the Carver making his ship. If he wants to talk, Gui will listen."

"When we return then," Xuan Shi nodded, looking unaffected, but Kongyou sighed in disgust.

That was the thing about the liminal she found, for all its dangers, it was unmatched in allowing one to push their limits. Ling Qi idly took hold of the wind, it was so easy now, to call up the mantle of the wind thief, to speed along on the currents, to dissolve and become them.

+1 to Sable Grace

Sable Grace 9(12)
Where the wind ends and you begin, few can say. Master of breezes and squalls, of shadow and night alike, few beneath the wielders of Law may contest you.


They stepped down from the peak onto a fractal platform of ice, like a snowflake writ large that bloomed under their feet, the air crackling with the formation of the crystals. They began to descend like that, drifting loosely on the wind as the bottom of the valley approached. It was very barren, the rocky soil growing only small tufts of scrub grass and very scraggly trees.

As they floated to the earth, the hut came into greater focus. It was a tiny little thing, only big enough for one or two people, made of smoothed stones fitted together without mortar or doubt, roofed with a shallow cone of straw, a small hole at the top letting off little wisps of wood smoke. The worn old fence behind it extended out across the entrance to the greater valley and curved forward, surrounding a cluttered yard. There was a little patch of garden, growing some strange root plant Ling Qi didn't recognize, a washing line, over which hung a much patched and nubby blanket. An empty bucked with ice crystals lining its interior lay by the door, and on the right was a rusty old axe, buried in a gnarled stump that sat beside the wood pile. A single highly scrawny chicken, with ancient graying feathers pecked and clawed at the ground, clucking aimlessly.

It was by all appearances, a very humble hovel.

"But we all know what appearances are worth, eh," Sixiang said.

"They hold some value, informing that which one desires others to see," Xuan Shi said

There is that," Ling Qi agreed. What was it then that the master of this place wished them to see?

Harmlessness, almost comical harmlessness, or perhaps… mundanity.

Ling Qi stepped up to the fencepost which marked the beginning of the property. She recalled some bits of etiquette she had picked up in idle conversation with the foreigners of the south lands, and what she had learned of their tongue.

"We tired travelers have come from far lands, through cold and danger. May we rest ourselves beside your fire, and partake of your bread?" She asked, stumbling over some of the harsher sounds in the foreign tongue

Common guest right, no aspersions of power or nobility. If this spirit or god wished to play this role, she'd not try to peer behind the stage. Silence answered her for a long while, though the chicken stopped its clucking, looking at them with vacant black eyes. Ling Qi kept a wary eye on the little beast.

The silence went on and on, until finally Ling Qi sighed and turned away."I'm sorry Xuan Shi, I'll have to find another place to show you something of the White Sky from.

"Oh," Xuan Shi asked, tilting his head.

"You give up so easy," Kongyou laughed.

"Guests shouldn't be too pushy," Ling Qi said simply.

But she caught the faint creak of unoiled hinges and the scrape of wood on stone. Perhaps it had been a test, perhaps the spirit was simply slow to rouse. Ling Qi wouldn't question it. She did however, pause when she saw Xuan Shi's wide eyes, looking over her shoulder. It struck her qi senses first, it was a cold stillness, absolute and total, like the deepest darkness within her master Zeqing's old manor. It was like her call of ending, but simply there, looming and present rather than a swiftly passing shadow.

She turned, and saw a hand large enough to grasp her full around the waist on the doorframe, iron nails clacked on the wood, the skin was black and deep ugly purple, the color of bruises and frostbite, wrinkled and cracked so deeply that she could see flexing muscle and iron bone peeking through. It connected to a thick arm, wrapped in roughspun linen, that reached back into the darkness of the interior. Darkness that Ling Qi could not see into.

"Don't mind my deafness, children," the voice coming from inside the hut. The voice was a rasping crackle, like fast forming frost and the squeal of deforming metal. "If you would like fire, you'll have to bring in the wood."

Ling Qi swallowed once. Even she knew there were many ways this story could go, a hundred hundred scraps of folktale and spirit knowledge. "We would be happy to bring you your firewood grandmother," she called back. "If you offer the guarantee of your hospitality."

Her response was a creaking laugh like wood splintering in extreme cold, and the faint jingle of the bracelet wrapped around the wrist of its arm withdrew. She saw it more clearly the dangling bangle, not of carved wood or stone, but bones, little skulls and carved ribs. "How forgetful I am. No harm shall be brought to you or your man, the dream scraps or even that morsel of a tortoise, so long as you make no violation of guest right. Now come along, I want to hear what such brave children are doing here."

Zhengui, both of his heads, looked at her with some alarm, and she patted Gui's head. The spirit had given her word, she was already more reasonable if far more terrifying than Bleak Skies Yearning.

Ling Qi held up an arm then stopping anyone from stepping forward. "This one apologies for the delay honored grandmother, but I am from a far away land. May I ask what things might violate guest right by your understanding?"

There was a sound of scraping wood, and in the darkness, Ling Qi briefly spotted the flash of a large, milky eye, squinting out. "A careful little poppet, aren't you."

"You would be the first to say so, Honored Grandmother," Ling Qi said.

A creaky, rasping laugh, and the clack of metal teeth. "Harming your host. Damaging their property. Refusal to pay the favor owed for hospitality.."

There was the catch, Ling Qi supposed.

"What manner be such a favor?" Xuan Shi asked.

"Small things, small favors. A gift, a service. A quest perhaps for young heroes, yes," Crackled the voice of the spirit, but we can discuss things over the fire, can we not, oh yes."

Ling Qi shared a look with Xuan Shi, who very slowly shook his head. She had to agree.

"Wouldn't even be a tragedy, walking into that," Kongyou harrumphed, alighting fairylike upon Xuan Shi's shoulder.

"Grandmother, in this ones land, it is polite to seal all contracts clear and true, for the warmth of thy hearth, perhaps this one can offer a gift. An art, or curio that might catch Grandmothers eye?" Xuan Shi said.

"Polite lad, so polite, but such stiff youngsters. So stiff," the giant thing in the hut mused.

Ling Qi stared into its darkness, into the void of ending which resided in that hut. A devouring cold that would snuff life. It was powerful yes, but there was all the same… too much to it, too much humanity stretched like a skin over the absolute ice. A different sort of humanity than her master, but a humanity all the same. Something like Xin, rather than the Hidden Moon.

"We only wish to be sure not to give offense," Ling Qi said calmly. We visitors, we will be speaking much with your people Honored Grandmother, it is only wise that we learn to speak well."

"Ah, Children of Jade, Dragonkin, that is what old Grydja smells," their was a deep inhalation of air, pulling at Ling's hair and dress like a sudden breeze.

"You are not the Crone then," Ling Qi breathed.

Hacking laughter. "Nay, nay, just a shard, a nail, a flake, poppet, you should know the true End is not so chatty aye?"

Xuan Shi glanced to her. Ling Qi didn't quite catch his eye. Once while cultivating the Frozen Soul Serenade she had asked her Master about the deeper concept embedded in the art. Ending. The dissolution of all things, the night which awaited when the sun and moon had died and all things faded to dust. It was not something she dwelled upon. Meaningless really, to human like her, a distraction from the smaller but far more relevant endings which made up life. Not something to dwell on.

"If that is what she is, I suppose not. But, Grandmother, my friend asked if you would accept a gift."

"I suppose so, I suppose so," whispered the hag, the milky eye peering through the doorway twitched to Xuan Shi, who grimaced at the pressure, the cold that formed ice on his robes and turned his breath to steam. "What can you offer, little carver, what pretty things can you offer an old woman."

Xuan Shi was silent for a long moment, considering. Kongyou scratched the side of their nose disinterestedly, but Ling Qi saw that their attention never wandered from Xuan Shi's face. Eventually, he turned over his hand and there was a faint pop as something materialized in his palm displacing air. "A fine little trinket, a work of the heart, this one thinks it will satisfy more than any armament or finery. Such is the way of this tale, no?"

It was a jade figurine, cut from a block of dark green that was nearly black. A stone jutting from the carved surf, with three figures set on the rocks, a man and child in Xuan garb, and a third incomplete figure vaguely feminine in figure with long wavy hair, sat beside them.

"DONE."

Ling Qi did not get to look any further as the frost bitten claw reached out of the door in an eyeblink, snatching the relatively tiny carving from Xuan Shi's hand with uncanny dexterity. He staggered as it pulled away, his hand flying to his chest as Ling Qi felt heat and qi rip out as well.

She caught his shoulder as he stumbled. "Xuan Shi, what was-"

"My hearth is bought little ones, on word and bond, your safe and owe nothing. Now come, come and bring the firewood dearies."

Ling Qi shot the open door a look. "We should have negotiated more."

"There would be no gain without loss," Xuan Shi chuckled. "Ah, it was but an idle fancy and moon granted dream. There will be other divinations."

Kongyou stared at him and didn't say a word.

"Heh, not so nice from the other side, eh Qi," Sixiang said, bumping her with an elbow.

"If Mr. Carver wants to pay, we should go," Gui said, crossing the threshold

Ling Qi took her hand off Xuan Shi's shoulder where she had caught him. "Alright, it was your choice," she said. "Let's go see what we can learn."


AN: Alrighty got a two parter here, this one just needed more space.
 
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Zhen flicked his tongue, the volcanic heat making the cold air shimmer. "I zhen, have no idea how we did that."

Gui looked a little disgruntled. "Gui did not think he could make fire like that."

"I, Zhen do not think slow Gui can," his other half said dubiously.

Ling Qi pondered that. "It's easier to experiment here," Ling Qi offered. "But if you can do it here, I don't think it's out of reach in the waking world."

"This one might offer some small insights?" Xuan Shi said carefully.

Zhen looked dubious, but Gui snapped his jaws once. "Gui does not think he could have shaped the flames right without the Carver making his ship. If he wants to talk, Gui will listen."
Zhengui has been the Toboggan for Hanyi.
Zhengui has been the Meteoric Impact for Chu Song.
Zhengui has been yeeted by Guan Zhi.
Zhengui has experienced Self Propelled Speed with Xuan Shi.
Zhengui wants to Know More.

Someone is going to be really surprised at Zhengui's Movement Technique down the road.
 
"I, Zhen do not think slow Gui can," his other half said dubiously.

Ling Qi pondered that. "It's easier to experiment here," Ling Qi offered. "But if you can do it here, I don't think it's out of reach in the waking world."

"This one might offer some small insights?" Xuan Shi said carefully.

Zhen looked dubious, but Gui snapped his jaws once. "Gui does not think he could have shaped the flames right without the Carver making his ship. If he wants to talk, Gui will listen."

Xuan Shi nodded, looking unaffected, but Kongyou sighed in disgust.

That was the thing about the liminal she found, for all its dangers, it was unmatched in allowing one to push their limits. Ling Qi idly took hold of the wind, it was so easy now, to call up the mantle of the wind thief, to speed along on the currents, to dissolve and become them.

+1 to Sable Grace

Sable Grace 9(12)
Where the wind ends and you begin, few can say. Master of breezes and squalls, of shadow and night alike, few beneath the wielders of Law may contest you.


They stepped down from the peak onto a fractal platform of ice, like a snowflake writ large that bloomed under their feet, the air crackling with the formation of the crystals. They began to descend like that, drifting loosely on the wind as the bottom of the valley approached. It was very barren, the rocky soil growing only small tufts of scrub grass and very scraggly trees.
...The story just moves on after Xuan Shi offers to give ZG some advice and Gui accepts. Like, rather than either hearing the advice or saying that they would talk about it later, everyone just moves on as if the topic was never brought up...not a good transition, in terms of writing. Its possible I'm nitpicking but...
 
It was a jade figurine, cut from a block of dark green that was nearly black. A stone jutting from the carved surf, with three figures set on the rocks, a man and child in Xuan garb, and a third incomplete figure vaguely feminine in figure with long wavy hair, sat beside them.

Hmm, dreaming of a family. But is he the child, or is he dreaming of doing better than his own family?
 
There's nothing to say that Xuan Shi is the child in the jade figurine. It could also be his hopes for the future.

(Especially with the explicit shipbait in the chapter.)

Edit: race conditions :/.
 
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...The story just moves on after Xuan Shi offers to give ZG some advice and Gui accepts. Like, rather than either hearing the advice or saying that they would talk about it later, everyone just moves on as if the topic was never brought up...not a good transition, in terms of writing. Its possible I'm nitpicking but...

I think that it's meant to be an offer to talk to Zhengui about this when they're in the real world and practicing The Flight of Gamera Art rather than right here and now.
 
Xuan Shi glanced to her. Ling Qi didn't quite catch his eye. Once while cultivating the Frozen Soul Serenade she had asked her Master about the deeper concept embedded in the art. Ending. The dissolution of all things, the night which awaited when the sun and moon had died and all things faded to dust. It was not something she dwelled upon. Meaningless really, to human like her, a distraction from the smaller but far more relevant endings which made up life. Not something to dwell on.

Now... counterpoint... maybe we should consider it? It sounds so fun!
 
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