I guess Elder Su, head of the medicine department, lied then when she told her class that:
If random inner sect students can just make em.week 31 Part 1 said:
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.
I guess Elder Su, head of the medicine department, lied then when she told her class that:
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
She didn't mention many things. She did not talk about the 52 meditain soft cap because most of the people she teaches will never reach it. The inner sect is basically different world then the outer sect.
Well, to be fair, needing a talented inner sect pill maker (a narrower definition than a production specialist) dedicating a month of his time for a single/pair of breakthrough drugs would fit the criteria imho.
Otherwise, Elder Su would not have bothered mentioning such a thing in Outer Sect of all places...
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
I think Inner Sect pill maker is a bit too wide a category to consider this simply. The thing covers at least the whole Green realm which is multiple years of cultivation even for the most talented students. And really the difference of abilities between late yellow Suyin and a hypothetical Green 8 Inner Sect disciple that's been in the inner sect for eleven years and is still selling his pills/services on the Inner Sect market is... just staggering. Difference between Earth and the Heavens...
Heck, i wouldn't be surprised if there's Cyan Inner Sect Disciples.
i really do not believe Suyin could possible make yellow ->green breakthrough pills by herself, not even with a couple more months of study and the exclusive access to chasm resources.
I do however believe she could make enough money to buy a couple such pills from high ranked Inner Sect Disciples on the Market or through her teacher's relations.
Pills either crafted by themselves or that the acquired otherwise.
- Location
- United States of America
While I do agree that Breakthrough drugs are going to be rare and valuable, I do distinctly remember one quest where we would have gathered a plant to help an inner sect production cultivator craft something to assist in his breakthrough.
I just can't find that quest because the quests were updated every so often and we didn't take that quest, and I'm not going to troll through the hundreds of posts to find if we discussed that quest.
With that being said, I can't remember if it was supposed to help with an actual breakthrough or something more along the lines of the bottlenecks that are in Green. If it was for an actual breakthrough, then it is more likely to be for the Green-Cyan jump. I find it hard to believe that a new yellow/bronze cultivator would have the resources to post a request for an outer sect student to do some work, and I find it hard to believe that a yellow/bronze cultivator would have the skill to actually make something that is extremely rare and valuable.
Given Elder Su's description of the breakthrough drugs, I find it more likely that the quest was for something more benign, such as helping to get through a particularly tough green bottleneck.
I just can't find that quest because the quests were updated every so often and we didn't take that quest, and I'm not going to troll through the hundreds of posts to find if we discussed that quest.
With that being said, I can't remember if it was supposed to help with an actual breakthrough or something more along the lines of the bottlenecks that are in Green. If it was for an actual breakthrough, then it is more likely to be for the Green-Cyan jump. I find it hard to believe that a new yellow/bronze cultivator would have the resources to post a request for an outer sect student to do some work, and I find it hard to believe that a yellow/bronze cultivator would have the skill to actually make something that is extremely rare and valuable.
Given Elder Su's description of the breakthrough drugs, I find it more likely that the quest was for something more benign, such as helping to get through a particularly tough green bottleneck.
- Location
- Space
It's worth noting that even if basic breakthrough drugs are easier to make than advanced meridian clearing drugs that doesn't necessarily mean that a resource good for making meridian clearing drugs is also good for making breakthrough drugs.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Well all these counter arguments involving working hard to aquire the money or spending a month + making the pill are interesting it seems like those methods are not easy or simple. These arguments don't really support arkeus statement that making those pills is super easy which I was objecting.
Arkeus is also making a pretty interesting claim about the difficulty of the production track. I would like to know where he got such an in-depth knowledge of the difficulty in the production of very different pills.
Yes the argent web pills Suyin makes are very impressive. Sure some inner sect students likely have some sort of access to breakthrough pills. However where is the quote from YRS that states how diffcult to make one is compared to the other?
Where is the proof that making breakthrough pills is easy mode for Suyin?
To me super easy is something that can be obtained in less than a month with no risk of failure.
Arkeus is also making a pretty interesting claim about the difficulty of the production track. I would like to know where he got such an in-depth knowledge of the difficulty in the production of very different pills.
Yes the argent web pills Suyin makes are very impressive. Sure some inner sect students likely have some sort of access to breakthrough pills. However where is the quote from YRS that states how diffcult to make one is compared to the other?
Where is the proof that making breakthrough pills is easy mode for Suyin?
- Location
- United States of America
You know what would be cool? If Li Suyin constructed a forward base down in these chasms so that she could be down here for weeks or months at a time.
Set up a permitter that purified the environment in order to provide a safe space to work and an area to dissuade creatures living in the chasms to attack. Then she can store supplies and resources needed to do long excavations and missions into these chasms.
I mean, there seems to be a lot to explore here given that there is another chasm which we can't even see the bottom of. Just imagine how much more work Li Suyin could do if she didn't have to go to the Inner sect territories every night, and could just plop down here.
The problem, of course, is the challenges that Li Suyin needs to do in order to advance in the inner sect and keep her place. So she would need to be at least active enough in the inner sect area to receive and respond to challenges. But I'm sure a system could be set up, or she could just refuse challenges that come her way when she is in the middle of a month-long exploration.
Set up a permitter that purified the environment in order to provide a safe space to work and an area to dissuade creatures living in the chasms to attack. Then she can store supplies and resources needed to do long excavations and missions into these chasms.
I mean, there seems to be a lot to explore here given that there is another chasm which we can't even see the bottom of. Just imagine how much more work Li Suyin could do if she didn't have to go to the Inner sect territories every night, and could just plop down here.
The problem, of course, is the challenges that Li Suyin needs to do in order to advance in the inner sect and keep her place. So she would need to be at least active enough in the inner sect area to receive and respond to challenges. But I'm sure a system could be set up, or she could just refuse challenges that come her way when she is in the middle of a month-long exploration.
Pretty sure the Outer Sect students can't even FIND the site. The Elders made a pretty badass seal over it.
Basically yeah, "fly high or burn up".
They NEED someone who can work with impurity. None of the Elders can, their domains are built around concepts wholly incompatible with impurity cores.
They need someone young, preferably with a Domain concept which is friendly to impurity, not just neutral. This means someone in Yellow, or a Green domain which works well with corruption, the Yellow is better because they can make a choice of core concept which plays well with Impurity.
They need someone with talent, intelligence, drive and support...but not too much support because it'd be a very difficult letter to send to the Xuan that they lost their boy to a cultivation mishap with impurity and now he's calling himself Dread Cthullu.
Uh, we're discussing the same Elders who gave Suyin consent to build her production specialty around a pit of horribly dangerous gribblies caused by a nomad's attempt to destroy the sect with an unholy ritual that made an Exterminatus by an Elder the best way to deal with it right?
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
And that is sort of the point. Inner sect students can't go there because it is in the outer sect and outer sect students can't find it because of the seal.
Well, Inner Sect students could theoretically get in there. But they can't find it because they aren't allowed to go there except on invitation.
So basically nobody can find it.
...debates a base built in the entrance
Turn 3: Arc 1-4
Ling Qi looked out at the pale, thrashing forms swiping and hissing at the phantoms in her mist. She remembered the promises she had made to herself last year, that she wouldn't allow herself to be chained by fear. She remembered too the sobering experiences of learning just how high the mountains rose, and what it meant to have the attention of the truly powerful.
She glanced at her friend, looking down at the tunnels and the beasts with concern. "Li Suyin, keep looking for the nest. I can hold them off," while she had learned that fear couldn't be conquered so easily… she wouldn't let herself become a coward. She wouldn't let herself treat her friends like they were made of glass.
"Oh boy, this is going to be messy isn't it. Damn it, I wish I was ready…" Sixiang whispered.
'Just keep me clear,' Ling Qi thought silently as she raised her flute, preparing to play again. "Just keep a bit of distance from the center Suyin, my other art is less ally friendly than my mist."
Li Suyin glanced at the tunnels, then back at her with an uncertain look, as the echoing sound of many scrabbling feet finally reached them over the dying wails of the burrowers. She then gave a determined nod. "This will not take long. Yi, Er, begin search and excavation," she spoke in a clipped tone, sending the constructs into motion.
Ling Qi smiled, she had to talk to her friend about her naming sense. Zhenli was fine, but calling her guards one and two? That was just dull.
"We'll have a chat with her later," Sixiang laughed. "Better get playing though."
Without further ado, Ling Qi raised her flute to her lips, looking back at the eyeless visages of the rat things that were finally beginning to orient onto the two of them through the mist, there were more than a dozen of them now, and the sand still bulged with more burrowers. Without missing a beat, Ling Qi resumed her song, flowing effortlessly into the echo that had been kept going by her qi. The sound of her flute echoed eerily in the small cavern, turning twitching heads toward her as she strode towards the center.
Then she began the Starlight Elegy, and the cloying mist grew colder and heavier still. She watched dispassionately as a particularly quick rat thing that had thus far avoided the claws of her phantoms faltered and slowed, it's limbs growing sluggish until a phantasmal beast tore out its throat with hungry fangs. The scene was repeated all across the cavern, again and again, beasts emerging just to die, most before they could even react.
These things were not normal, Ling Qi could tell, beasts, even spirit beasts did not charge headlong into certain death like this, not without good reason. Well, she supposed that she would find out those reasons eventually. A rat thing loped and skittered toward her, letting out a chittering shriek though blood frothed jaws, and she watched as it veered away from her to crash into the wall, torn by phantasmal claws. Beasts like this… they couldn't even find her in the mist.
She began the final stanza of the Melody then, the Travelers End, and the image of a misty vale under the dark moon seemed to impose itself, for an instant over the sandy cavern. The echoing cries of her phantoms joined the melody as her qi lent them greater solidity. No more just disembodied claws, fangs, and hungry eyes, but stalking shadows in the shapes of beasts.
As she laid down the technique, the first loping forms became visible in the tunnels. Bulkier than their burrowing counterparts, with rubbery grey skin and visages that were more canine than rodent, the twisted beasts howled and gibberede, claws scratching and tearing at the stone. In response, Ling Qi's twisted blade shot out from the mist, letting loose a discordant wail as it soared down the nearer tunnel, sending the beasts within shying back, brackish black blood leaking from their ears.
Yet there were two tunnels, and the ugly beasts were only stymied, not stopped. They poured into the caverns, first in pairs and trios, and then in growing numbers. The claws of her phantoms met resistance in their rubbery hide, though it could not stop them entirely. Larger beasts, less like twisted men and more like great apes in size and stature stalked among their lesser kin, and their jeering howls hardened hides and and sharpened fangs. Other's had backs bristling with bony growths, tumorous and twisted, but poking from diseased flesh with menacing points. Her phantoms were not enough against the growing pack any longer. Their attention was still on her, but Ling Qi was all too aware of her friend behind her, searching the walls of the cavern.
So Ling Qi ensured that their attention would remain on her. With the Travelers End complete, the Forgotten Vale Melody would sustain itself, and so she began her second song. Ice crept over sand, and a handful of rat things that had found their way close through coincidence, pushed by the growing crush of bodies chittered in pain as frost spread across flesh and blood began to freeze. Ling Qi grimaced as she felt the things oily qi draining into her even as she easily sidestepped around clumsy lunges and snapping teeth. Most of it washed against her skin, leaving her feeling oddly dirty, but a trickle of qi flowed back into her reserves, restoring some of what she had spent.
She had lost count of the beasts pouring into the cavern, and although the whistling wail of her sword lashed the bodies coming up the tunnels, and her continued to do its work, they were reaching her through the mazes of mist through raw crush of bodies. The cacophony of hisses and growls almost drowned out the echo of her melody. Yet she couldn't afford to step back, and so Ling Qi made room another way.
The third technique of the Frozen Soul Serenade was not one she had used often in active combat, it lashed out at everything nearby regardless of whether they were friend or foe. Li Suyin was well behind her though, and she felt no need to hold back. The shrieks of the beasts and the haunting melody alike were drowned out momentarily as for possibly the first time, the frigid howl deepest winter rang out through the caverns. The beasts nearest Ling Qi did not even scream, the sound lost in their throat as flesh and blood alike froze solid. Those further back jibbered and yowled, partially shielded by their nearer comrades, and yet still great swathes of their rubbery hides froze and sloughed off, or cracked and wept viscous slushy fluid.
The fight was only just beginning though, they still numbered beyond easy count, and even the4 snarling storm of snowflakes that had sprung up around her, in the mist, frozen moisture turning to short lived snow, failed to deter the beasts. She felt the qi armoring the beasts growing thicker, as more and more of the beasts reinforced each other, their filthy feeling qi roiling and flowing together. Most still wandered off course, getting turned around and running into their bretheren, but still Ling Qi had to duck and twist and dodge, avoiding a half dozen snatching claws and bony projectiles.
Looking over the writhing mass of flesh as they poured forward, the sheer weight shattering their frozen comrades, Ling Qi spied something new. Their crouched on the lip of the further tunnel was another creature, smaller than most of them, the others slid around it, never once approaching. Resembled the creatures of the second wave the most. An eyeless thing with rubbery gray skin and a canine visage. Yet unlike the others, it crouched their like a man rather than a beast, and around its neck she saw a necklace of glowing purple stones, carved into strange shapes. And in its right forelimbs, it loosely held a strange stone knife
The thing let out a few barking yips that had the cadence of speech and then drove the knife into the sand. Even in the chaos of the scrum, Ling Qi felt the ripple of qi that washed over the horde. That one had taken the first steps into the third realm, she could feel. Ling Qi did not have much time to think of that, because suddenly, far fewer of the beasts were stumbling around, snarling at their fellows, hopelessly lost in their effort to reach her.
Faced with the snarling swarm now finally pressing down on her position in more than dribs and drabs, Ling Qi stepped forward. Dark qi flooded through her limbs, and she flowed through the the storm of attacks like a wraith. Ling Qi had no time for thought, only reaction. Claws and slavering maws reached for her, and bony spines screeched through the air. She moved perfectly, flowing around strike after strike, while others passed through her form in puffs of dark mist.
All the while she moved forward, every step carrying her further into her enemies reach. In seconds, she was surrounded utterly. Then winter sang, and beasts died, claws that reached for her flash froze and exploded into pinkish mist, frozen blood swelling in suddenly rigid veins like the spa of a tree in the deepest depths of winter. And, the entire time, she kept her eyes fixed on the third realm beast that was her goal. With a mental tug, she pulled back on her flying sword, recalling her blade from where it stymied the flow of beasts in the other tunnel.
For its part, the beast that was her target seemed all too aware of its situation. It let out an alarmed bark as she began to advance, scrambling backward even as it raised its knife defensively. Another pulse of filthy qi rippled out, and the beasts around her let loose with blood curdling howls, from the pores and jaws, a crimson mist began to emerge in thin streamers, mingling with the cloying fog of her melody.
The claws of her phantoms, which had thus far still been tearing bloody lines in exposed flanks, of dozens of beasts still, began to deflect off of suddenly stony hides, and claws and fangs gained a metallic sheen, that shone in the dull red light cast by the mist leaking from opened jaws.
At the same time, through her connection to her sword, she felt two other third realm presences, even as she felt the influx of lesser beasts finally beginning to taper off. Sh felt something soft and viscous strike her Singing Sword then, and quite suddenly, it could not move, stuck to the wall by something clinging and jelly like.
She couldn't allow herself to be distracted though. From every side came attacks, their ferocity nd power greater than before, plumes of sand were kicked up in their wake, choking the already flooded battlefield further. In that moment, all thought fled Ling Qi. There was only the cavern dark and the weapons of her foes.
Viridian light gleamed dully beneath her robes as a facsimile of centennial bark spread across her skin, and yet still, she knew it would not be enough if she simply weathered the blows. And so, as she was attacked from every side, Ling Qi stilled.
Ling Qi twitched her head to the right, avoiding a lashing claw that would have taken her eye by a mere millimeter. She stepped, and her body flowed a meter to her right, reforming from darkness and leaving a volley of crimson spines to strike the sand where she had been. Ling Qi, moved and her enemies found themselves striking at phantoms. There was no wasted movement, she avoided claws by a hair's breadth, grew immaterial to gnashing fangs, and let those few that she could not avoid skate off of viridian bark and rustling cloth, nothing more than glancing blows.
In that moment, Ling Qi felt like she had finally understood the lesson of Sable Crescent's Grace, of motion without motion and presence without presence. She found the moment of understanding fading quickly, and yet some knowledge remained. She leaned barely to the side, avoiding the flung corpse of a rat thing with hardly a thought, and her flute sang again of winter. Even through their armor and bolstering qi, a dozen beasts died.
Behind her, she heard a sound like shattering pottery, and saw Li Suyin standing by a hole broken in the stone wall. In the cavity beyond, slowly pulsating, fleshy eggs glowed with faint luminescence. At her back, her guardians stood in a shield wall, and in front of them was a metallic cone atop a stake driven into the ground, hissing faintly as it discharged something into the air.
In front of her, two loping figures emerged from the second tunnel. Like the other third realm beast, they were smaller than the rest and carrying tools, unlike that one these wore bandoleers of some pale leather across their chests, hung with pouches, and were even now unholstering spears from their backs, as cackling high pitched laughter spilled from their snaggle toothed maws.
Yet, very few beasts were emerging now from the tunnels. The cavern was still filled with the press of flesh, despite the culling Ling Qi had dealt out.
It looked like the real fight was about to begin
--End part 1--
AN: Sorry guys, things continue to be rough, heres the first half. Gonna try to finish the second tomorrow
She glanced at her friend, looking down at the tunnels and the beasts with concern. "Li Suyin, keep looking for the nest. I can hold them off," while she had learned that fear couldn't be conquered so easily… she wouldn't let herself become a coward. She wouldn't let herself treat her friends like they were made of glass.
"Oh boy, this is going to be messy isn't it. Damn it, I wish I was ready…" Sixiang whispered.
'Just keep me clear,' Ling Qi thought silently as she raised her flute, preparing to play again. "Just keep a bit of distance from the center Suyin, my other art is less ally friendly than my mist."
Li Suyin glanced at the tunnels, then back at her with an uncertain look, as the echoing sound of many scrabbling feet finally reached them over the dying wails of the burrowers. She then gave a determined nod. "This will not take long. Yi, Er, begin search and excavation," she spoke in a clipped tone, sending the constructs into motion.
Ling Qi smiled, she had to talk to her friend about her naming sense. Zhenli was fine, but calling her guards one and two? That was just dull.
"We'll have a chat with her later," Sixiang laughed. "Better get playing though."
Without further ado, Ling Qi raised her flute to her lips, looking back at the eyeless visages of the rat things that were finally beginning to orient onto the two of them through the mist, there were more than a dozen of them now, and the sand still bulged with more burrowers. Without missing a beat, Ling Qi resumed her song, flowing effortlessly into the echo that had been kept going by her qi. The sound of her flute echoed eerily in the small cavern, turning twitching heads toward her as she strode towards the center.
Then she began the Starlight Elegy, and the cloying mist grew colder and heavier still. She watched dispassionately as a particularly quick rat thing that had thus far avoided the claws of her phantoms faltered and slowed, it's limbs growing sluggish until a phantasmal beast tore out its throat with hungry fangs. The scene was repeated all across the cavern, again and again, beasts emerging just to die, most before they could even react.
These things were not normal, Ling Qi could tell, beasts, even spirit beasts did not charge headlong into certain death like this, not without good reason. Well, she supposed that she would find out those reasons eventually. A rat thing loped and skittered toward her, letting out a chittering shriek though blood frothed jaws, and she watched as it veered away from her to crash into the wall, torn by phantasmal claws. Beasts like this… they couldn't even find her in the mist.
She began the final stanza of the Melody then, the Travelers End, and the image of a misty vale under the dark moon seemed to impose itself, for an instant over the sandy cavern. The echoing cries of her phantoms joined the melody as her qi lent them greater solidity. No more just disembodied claws, fangs, and hungry eyes, but stalking shadows in the shapes of beasts.
As she laid down the technique, the first loping forms became visible in the tunnels. Bulkier than their burrowing counterparts, with rubbery grey skin and visages that were more canine than rodent, the twisted beasts howled and gibberede, claws scratching and tearing at the stone. In response, Ling Qi's twisted blade shot out from the mist, letting loose a discordant wail as it soared down the nearer tunnel, sending the beasts within shying back, brackish black blood leaking from their ears.
Yet there were two tunnels, and the ugly beasts were only stymied, not stopped. They poured into the caverns, first in pairs and trios, and then in growing numbers. The claws of her phantoms met resistance in their rubbery hide, though it could not stop them entirely. Larger beasts, less like twisted men and more like great apes in size and stature stalked among their lesser kin, and their jeering howls hardened hides and and sharpened fangs. Other's had backs bristling with bony growths, tumorous and twisted, but poking from diseased flesh with menacing points. Her phantoms were not enough against the growing pack any longer. Their attention was still on her, but Ling Qi was all too aware of her friend behind her, searching the walls of the cavern.
So Ling Qi ensured that their attention would remain on her. With the Travelers End complete, the Forgotten Vale Melody would sustain itself, and so she began her second song. Ice crept over sand, and a handful of rat things that had found their way close through coincidence, pushed by the growing crush of bodies chittered in pain as frost spread across flesh and blood began to freeze. Ling Qi grimaced as she felt the things oily qi draining into her even as she easily sidestepped around clumsy lunges and snapping teeth. Most of it washed against her skin, leaving her feeling oddly dirty, but a trickle of qi flowed back into her reserves, restoring some of what she had spent.
She had lost count of the beasts pouring into the cavern, and although the whistling wail of her sword lashed the bodies coming up the tunnels, and her continued to do its work, they were reaching her through the mazes of mist through raw crush of bodies. The cacophony of hisses and growls almost drowned out the echo of her melody. Yet she couldn't afford to step back, and so Ling Qi made room another way.
The third technique of the Frozen Soul Serenade was not one she had used often in active combat, it lashed out at everything nearby regardless of whether they were friend or foe. Li Suyin was well behind her though, and she felt no need to hold back. The shrieks of the beasts and the haunting melody alike were drowned out momentarily as for possibly the first time, the frigid howl deepest winter rang out through the caverns. The beasts nearest Ling Qi did not even scream, the sound lost in their throat as flesh and blood alike froze solid. Those further back jibbered and yowled, partially shielded by their nearer comrades, and yet still great swathes of their rubbery hides froze and sloughed off, or cracked and wept viscous slushy fluid.
The fight was only just beginning though, they still numbered beyond easy count, and even the4 snarling storm of snowflakes that had sprung up around her, in the mist, frozen moisture turning to short lived snow, failed to deter the beasts. She felt the qi armoring the beasts growing thicker, as more and more of the beasts reinforced each other, their filthy feeling qi roiling and flowing together. Most still wandered off course, getting turned around and running into their bretheren, but still Ling Qi had to duck and twist and dodge, avoiding a half dozen snatching claws and bony projectiles.
Looking over the writhing mass of flesh as they poured forward, the sheer weight shattering their frozen comrades, Ling Qi spied something new. Their crouched on the lip of the further tunnel was another creature, smaller than most of them, the others slid around it, never once approaching. Resembled the creatures of the second wave the most. An eyeless thing with rubbery gray skin and a canine visage. Yet unlike the others, it crouched their like a man rather than a beast, and around its neck she saw a necklace of glowing purple stones, carved into strange shapes. And in its right forelimbs, it loosely held a strange stone knife
The thing let out a few barking yips that had the cadence of speech and then drove the knife into the sand. Even in the chaos of the scrum, Ling Qi felt the ripple of qi that washed over the horde. That one had taken the first steps into the third realm, she could feel. Ling Qi did not have much time to think of that, because suddenly, far fewer of the beasts were stumbling around, snarling at their fellows, hopelessly lost in their effort to reach her.
Faced with the snarling swarm now finally pressing down on her position in more than dribs and drabs, Ling Qi stepped forward. Dark qi flooded through her limbs, and she flowed through the the storm of attacks like a wraith. Ling Qi had no time for thought, only reaction. Claws and slavering maws reached for her, and bony spines screeched through the air. She moved perfectly, flowing around strike after strike, while others passed through her form in puffs of dark mist.
All the while she moved forward, every step carrying her further into her enemies reach. In seconds, she was surrounded utterly. Then winter sang, and beasts died, claws that reached for her flash froze and exploded into pinkish mist, frozen blood swelling in suddenly rigid veins like the spa of a tree in the deepest depths of winter. And, the entire time, she kept her eyes fixed on the third realm beast that was her goal. With a mental tug, she pulled back on her flying sword, recalling her blade from where it stymied the flow of beasts in the other tunnel.
For its part, the beast that was her target seemed all too aware of its situation. It let out an alarmed bark as she began to advance, scrambling backward even as it raised its knife defensively. Another pulse of filthy qi rippled out, and the beasts around her let loose with blood curdling howls, from the pores and jaws, a crimson mist began to emerge in thin streamers, mingling with the cloying fog of her melody.
The claws of her phantoms, which had thus far still been tearing bloody lines in exposed flanks, of dozens of beasts still, began to deflect off of suddenly stony hides, and claws and fangs gained a metallic sheen, that shone in the dull red light cast by the mist leaking from opened jaws.
At the same time, through her connection to her sword, she felt two other third realm presences, even as she felt the influx of lesser beasts finally beginning to taper off. Sh felt something soft and viscous strike her Singing Sword then, and quite suddenly, it could not move, stuck to the wall by something clinging and jelly like.
She couldn't allow herself to be distracted though. From every side came attacks, their ferocity nd power greater than before, plumes of sand were kicked up in their wake, choking the already flooded battlefield further. In that moment, all thought fled Ling Qi. There was only the cavern dark and the weapons of her foes.
Viridian light gleamed dully beneath her robes as a facsimile of centennial bark spread across her skin, and yet still, she knew it would not be enough if she simply weathered the blows. And so, as she was attacked from every side, Ling Qi stilled.
Dodge: C evolves, becomes Sable Grace: B
Ling Qi twitched her head to the right, avoiding a lashing claw that would have taken her eye by a mere millimeter. She stepped, and her body flowed a meter to her right, reforming from darkness and leaving a volley of crimson spines to strike the sand where she had been. Ling Qi, moved and her enemies found themselves striking at phantoms. There was no wasted movement, she avoided claws by a hair's breadth, grew immaterial to gnashing fangs, and let those few that she could not avoid skate off of viridian bark and rustling cloth, nothing more than glancing blows.
In that moment, Ling Qi felt like she had finally understood the lesson of Sable Crescent's Grace, of motion without motion and presence without presence. She found the moment of understanding fading quickly, and yet some knowledge remained. She leaned barely to the side, avoiding the flung corpse of a rat thing with hardly a thought, and her flute sang again of winter. Even through their armor and bolstering qi, a dozen beasts died.
Behind her, she heard a sound like shattering pottery, and saw Li Suyin standing by a hole broken in the stone wall. In the cavity beyond, slowly pulsating, fleshy eggs glowed with faint luminescence. At her back, her guardians stood in a shield wall, and in front of them was a metallic cone atop a stake driven into the ground, hissing faintly as it discharged something into the air.
In front of her, two loping figures emerged from the second tunnel. Like the other third realm beast, they were smaller than the rest and carrying tools, unlike that one these wore bandoleers of some pale leather across their chests, hung with pouches, and were even now unholstering spears from their backs, as cackling high pitched laughter spilled from their snaggle toothed maws.
Yet, very few beasts were emerging now from the tunnels. The cavern was still filled with the press of flesh, despite the culling Ling Qi had dealt out.
It looked like the real fight was about to begin
--End part 1--
AN: Sorry guys, things continue to be rough, heres the first half. Gonna try to finish the second tomorrow
- Location
- Staring into the void
Dodge tank best tank 
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
So there's the true Gnawing Ones.
Looks like our early aggression though fucked their strategy, there's no beast tide left for them to turn into actual relevant combatants, and we seemed to carve through the tide more-or-less intact, especially with achieving our Dodge Evolution.
I'm guessing Sable Grace allows for effective evasion even when there's nowhere to dodge to by selectively dematerializing in response to incoming attacks?
Looks like our early aggression though fucked their strategy, there's no beast tide left for them to turn into actual relevant combatants, and we seemed to carve through the tide more-or-less intact, especially with achieving our Dodge Evolution.
I'm guessing Sable Grace allows for effective evasion even when there's nowhere to dodge to by selectively dematerializing in response to incoming attacks?
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- Location
- United States of America
I hope things get better. Thanks for the update though, it is fantastic!
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
You are important. I am sorry that things have been rough. I hope that things start going your way soon. Please take care of yourself.
Fucking Kobolds man lmao
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Very different tatics then I expected. I thought that Ling would set up more arts.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
I think I like that Winter's end Cadanza now has no IFF. It makes perfect sense given Zeqing's own indiscriminate Ending theme.
Anyway, I am just hoping Ling Qi remembers Despair of the Lost. while there are more than one third realm, it seems one specialise in buffing more than the others:
Anyway, I am just hoping Ling Qi remembers Despair of the Lost. while there are more than one third realm, it seems one specialise in buffing more than the others:
WHatevers going on Yrs, i hope it goes well for you my man
Oh that was so satisfying. This is LQ when she is at her best. Wonderful update!
I spy that Suyin found those eggs also. So priority mission should soon be done if we need to retreat.
I spy that Suyin found those eggs also. So priority mission should soon be done if we need to retreat.
- Location
- Canada
Now that was a Xianxia moment! Gaining a power upgrade from external pressure; textbook Xianxia.
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