the Sage Emp was a human who was adopted by a Dragon Mom. "Dragon" has also become synonym/metaphor for the Celestial Empire
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
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- Start date
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the Sage Emp was a human who was adopted by a Dragon Mom. "Dragon" has also become synonym/metaphor for the Celestial Empire
Was he? I was under the impression that he was a literal dragon in human form. All the arrogance with opposable thumbs, dangerous combination
nope, the Sage, as well as the other founders (Yao, Zhi, Tsu, He, Ji) were humans adopted/married/taught by a powerful spirit beat that would go on to become a sublime ancestor
Was searching the discord for some background stuff and came across an interesting Word of Yrs.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
[X] Give her word that whatever she saw in Liling, she would only share it with Ji Rong. (+1 Bond with Ji Rong, deal goes forward smoothly information doesn't pass about this deal, including that the request was made at all. Cai Renxiang only knows you've struck a deal to better handle the Sun, no details)
It's been said the further you go up the ladder the less difference there is between a spirit and cultivator so by the time Sage Emp kicked it I don't think what I said was far off
Coin
"This is unlike you Qingling."
Bao Qian considered his cousin. Here, in her lair-workshop-he did mean workshop, Bao Qingling did have a different air about her. Particularly as she scuttled about at work. Moving about on the cords which criss crossed between the walls of this place, from one workstation to the next. She manipulated tools and furnaces and reagents with the mere twitch of a finger or blink of an eye, sometimes not even that. He could feel the subtle vibrations that traveled through the hair thin, not really physical threads which connected everything in the space.
That was new, Qingling was advancing he could see.
"You provided assistance when I required it. I do not leave favors unpaid," Bao Qingling said. She landed soundlessly on her feet as she dropped down from the ceiling, several score of the little spiders she kept immediately scattering from her boots and gloves to creep back to work around the lab.
"I understand that, you are a Bao after all. Though I'm not sure a few words are worth an entry in your ledgers," Bao Qian said.
He'd not bothered to dress up for this. He still wore his traveling clothes, thick dusty boots, sturdy red and brown garments. His driving hat hung off his back, kept on by a cord around his neck. Most of his kin would probably read that as a subtle snub, but Qingling, if she even noticed what he was wearing, wouldn't care.
"You suggestion was a significant success," Bao Qingling said tightly. Her head twitched to the side, eyeing the shaking furnace, a thread tugged and a bellows puffed raising the temperature of the flame.
There was something different about her here, a frenetic energy where his cousin usually kept cool and unaffected. Stoic to the point of actual insult at times.
It was… jarring. Because his instincts and observations were telling him something that seemed absolutely absurd. "Well it's good that your courtship is going well."
She went still. He wondered who it was. Her story about wanting to wine and dine her client was just too far off. Maybe one of the Bai men who'd been brought in as retainers? But they'd only arrived recently and the signs had been there for longer. Someone martial certainly, given her requirements for the play. Not the Luo scion, and certainly not the Wang.
Bao Qingling went completely still, and though her dim eyes did not fall on him, he certainly felt his attention.
"...I'm hardly going to tell anyone, cousin. Your business is your business. But no one likes playing the dupe, you know?" Bao Qian offered carefully.
"...Hmph, it seems I owe you an apology for my insult," Bao Qingling said. He still felt several hundred eyes on him prickling on his skin.
"I am a bit rough around the edges, but we did attend the same lessons," Bao Qian said.
Really the who of it bothered him. It wasn't his business, but the only one he had seen her spending any great time around was her old Junior Sister and her… client.
Bao Qian blinked, feeling several things click into place. Oh.
Well. That was dangerous.
"We did," she eyed him carefully, peering down through the frosted lenses of her goggles, her arms crossed. "I apologize for underestimating you."
"It's forgiven," Bao Qian said distractedly. "Though… honestly, I hope you know what you are doing cousin."
"I am hardly the first to dabble with my own. The Duchess-"
Bao Qian blinked. "That's not the problem, Qingling."
She stared at him, then her eyebrows crept up. "...Ah, that clan does have a troubling reputation."
It was a bit amusing to dance around something they now both knew.
"Understatement, you've a talent for it," he said, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Honestly, it would be a coup though if you manage to go beyond dalliance. Can you even imagine our cousin's faces?"
Bao Qingling's expression scrunched up, like she'd bitten into something sour. "The fact that this is now a possibility has been pointed out to me. I am not certain how I feel about that."
The words were said with such a stilted and awkward air, he could almost imagine his cousin screaming internally. His smile slipped and he regarded her more seriously. "Qingling, no contracts of force, remember?"
She breathed out through her nose, and twitched her fingers, in the workshop, glass and metal wear rattled and tinkled, a dozen tasks being performed at once. "A hopelessly useless and vague decree."
"Perhaps, all the same, work out the agreement which brings you the profit you want, the clan can come after," he said.
"Hmph. As if I know what I want," his cousin grumbled, surprisingly candid. "Well, this does make my repayment simpler. "My 'client' is well connected with yours, I am certain I can move her to recommend you."
Bao Qian frowned. "I have my business in hand, cousin, there's no need…"
"You have made no progress at all. I have surpassed you in this," Bao Qingling said flatly.
Bao Qian's expression fell. That hurt. It was rare for Qingling to acknowledge her… deficiencies in social matters, to do so merely to point out his own failures…
He scrubbed a hand over his face. "I have no idea what she wants," he admitted plainly, moving to sit upon one of the workbenches scattered around the room. "I knew she was rumored to be skittish around men, but even the most cautious interest I showed made her act like a maid cornered in a hall by a drunken young master. By the Glittering Depths, I have never been to a dinner so awkwardly disastrous."
Bao Qingling grunted, following at a polite distance, a hundred hundred glittering threads flashing in the air around her. "I have only spoken to her a few times. That is strange. She seems brash to me."
"She is in most things. I rather like it," he grumbled. "I merely wish I could say that without making it vanish. Right now it seems just maintaining our business is the best I can manage. I had some success inviting her out for a bit of work, but with this whole summit madness, there's hardly time for me to try."
Bao Qingling observed him for a long moment as he exhaled, the rush of words having left him. "Is that enough?"
He studied his hands. Was it? This business was lucrative. The fertilizer, the concert tours. It was what he needed to get his own fortune off of the ground, frankly. From a material standpoint, anything closer was merely… nice to have. Especially with the clan taking a more neutral stance on Cai Renxiang until she had shown that she was not overreaching herself.
Ling Qi was strange and flighty and unpredictable. Her spirits and the way she treated them, the way they were confused and discomitted him a little. His own partner was just that. A partner in business. They'd probably part ways in a few decades when their interests diverged.
"No, I don't think it is."
Bao Qian considered his cousin. Here, in her lair-workshop-he did mean workshop, Bao Qingling did have a different air about her. Particularly as she scuttled about at work. Moving about on the cords which criss crossed between the walls of this place, from one workstation to the next. She manipulated tools and furnaces and reagents with the mere twitch of a finger or blink of an eye, sometimes not even that. He could feel the subtle vibrations that traveled through the hair thin, not really physical threads which connected everything in the space.
That was new, Qingling was advancing he could see.
"You provided assistance when I required it. I do not leave favors unpaid," Bao Qingling said. She landed soundlessly on her feet as she dropped down from the ceiling, several score of the little spiders she kept immediately scattering from her boots and gloves to creep back to work around the lab.
"I understand that, you are a Bao after all. Though I'm not sure a few words are worth an entry in your ledgers," Bao Qian said.
He'd not bothered to dress up for this. He still wore his traveling clothes, thick dusty boots, sturdy red and brown garments. His driving hat hung off his back, kept on by a cord around his neck. Most of his kin would probably read that as a subtle snub, but Qingling, if she even noticed what he was wearing, wouldn't care.
"You suggestion was a significant success," Bao Qingling said tightly. Her head twitched to the side, eyeing the shaking furnace, a thread tugged and a bellows puffed raising the temperature of the flame.
There was something different about her here, a frenetic energy where his cousin usually kept cool and unaffected. Stoic to the point of actual insult at times.
It was… jarring. Because his instincts and observations were telling him something that seemed absolutely absurd. "Well it's good that your courtship is going well."
She went still. He wondered who it was. Her story about wanting to wine and dine her client was just too far off. Maybe one of the Bai men who'd been brought in as retainers? But they'd only arrived recently and the signs had been there for longer. Someone martial certainly, given her requirements for the play. Not the Luo scion, and certainly not the Wang.
Bao Qingling went completely still, and though her dim eyes did not fall on him, he certainly felt his attention.
"...I'm hardly going to tell anyone, cousin. Your business is your business. But no one likes playing the dupe, you know?" Bao Qian offered carefully.
"...Hmph, it seems I owe you an apology for my insult," Bao Qingling said. He still felt several hundred eyes on him prickling on his skin.
"I am a bit rough around the edges, but we did attend the same lessons," Bao Qian said.
Really the who of it bothered him. It wasn't his business, but the only one he had seen her spending any great time around was her old Junior Sister and her… client.
Bao Qian blinked, feeling several things click into place. Oh.
Well. That was dangerous.
"We did," she eyed him carefully, peering down through the frosted lenses of her goggles, her arms crossed. "I apologize for underestimating you."
"It's forgiven," Bao Qian said distractedly. "Though… honestly, I hope you know what you are doing cousin."
"I am hardly the first to dabble with my own. The Duchess-"
Bao Qian blinked. "That's not the problem, Qingling."
She stared at him, then her eyebrows crept up. "...Ah, that clan does have a troubling reputation."
It was a bit amusing to dance around something they now both knew.
"Understatement, you've a talent for it," he said, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Honestly, it would be a coup though if you manage to go beyond dalliance. Can you even imagine our cousin's faces?"
Bao Qingling's expression scrunched up, like she'd bitten into something sour. "The fact that this is now a possibility has been pointed out to me. I am not certain how I feel about that."
The words were said with such a stilted and awkward air, he could almost imagine his cousin screaming internally. His smile slipped and he regarded her more seriously. "Qingling, no contracts of force, remember?"
She breathed out through her nose, and twitched her fingers, in the workshop, glass and metal wear rattled and tinkled, a dozen tasks being performed at once. "A hopelessly useless and vague decree."
"Perhaps, all the same, work out the agreement which brings you the profit you want, the clan can come after," he said.
"Hmph. As if I know what I want," his cousin grumbled, surprisingly candid. "Well, this does make my repayment simpler. "My 'client' is well connected with yours, I am certain I can move her to recommend you."
Bao Qian frowned. "I have my business in hand, cousin, there's no need…"
"You have made no progress at all. I have surpassed you in this," Bao Qingling said flatly.
Bao Qian's expression fell. That hurt. It was rare for Qingling to acknowledge her… deficiencies in social matters, to do so merely to point out his own failures…
He scrubbed a hand over his face. "I have no idea what she wants," he admitted plainly, moving to sit upon one of the workbenches scattered around the room. "I knew she was rumored to be skittish around men, but even the most cautious interest I showed made her act like a maid cornered in a hall by a drunken young master. By the Glittering Depths, I have never been to a dinner so awkwardly disastrous."
Bao Qingling grunted, following at a polite distance, a hundred hundred glittering threads flashing in the air around her. "I have only spoken to her a few times. That is strange. She seems brash to me."
"She is in most things. I rather like it," he grumbled. "I merely wish I could say that without making it vanish. Right now it seems just maintaining our business is the best I can manage. I had some success inviting her out for a bit of work, but with this whole summit madness, there's hardly time for me to try."
Bao Qingling observed him for a long moment as he exhaled, the rush of words having left him. "Is that enough?"
He studied his hands. Was it? This business was lucrative. The fertilizer, the concert tours. It was what he needed to get his own fortune off of the ground, frankly. From a material standpoint, anything closer was merely… nice to have. Especially with the clan taking a more neutral stance on Cai Renxiang until she had shown that she was not overreaching herself.
Ling Qi was strange and flighty and unpredictable. Her spirits and the way she treated them, the way they were confused and discomitted him a little. His own partner was just that. A partner in business. They'd probably part ways in a few decades when their interests diverged.
"No, I don't think it is."
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Ling Qi: "Truly? I was surprised it went so well."
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Give her word that whatever she saw in Liling, she would only share it with Ji Rong. (+1 Bond with Ji Rong, deal goes forward smoothly information doesn't pass about this deal, including that the request was made at all. Cai Renxiang only knows you've struck a deal to better handle the Sun, no details)
Hello, Ministry of Justice? I'd like to report a murder.
- Location
- Leeds
Now we're just comparing where each party puts the bar.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Bao Qian has not realized the paradigm shift that has occurred (or this conversation occurs before then). He better move fast, otherwise Xuan Shi and Meng Dan are going to get there first.
[x] Give her word that whatever she saw in Liling, she would only share it with Ji Rong. (+1 Bond with Ji Rong, deal goes forward smoothly information doesn't pass about this deal, including that the request was made at all. Cai Renxiang only knows you've struck a deal to better handle the Sun, no details)
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Actually, how much does he know? Like, about the basics of Ling Qi's backstory. Cai Renxiang had a dossier presumably filled with every time she'd picked her nose in the sight of any other living being (spirit or otherwise) in her home city and every act she'd ever done.
He clearly doesn't have that much, but the rumors about having a "whore mother" or other such absolutely shitty things to say surely would have filtered into his ears at some point. Unless he's been unfortunately/fortunate not to hear any of that slander... which it seems like he might have been?
He clearly doesn't have that much, but the rumors about having a "whore mother" or other such absolutely shitty things to say surely would have filtered into his ears at some point. Unless he's been unfortunately/fortunate not to hear any of that slander... which it seems like he might have been?
[X] Give her word that whatever she saw in Liling, she would only share it with Ji Rong. (+1 Bond with Ji Rong, deal goes forward smoothly information doesn't pass about this deal, including that the request was made at all. Cai Renxiang only knows you've struck a deal to better handle the Sun, no details)
- Location
- France
I forget if it was him or Xiulan's relative who said that they deliberately didn't do this kind of research before attempting a courtship, out of politeness ?
He has the general details. Prostitute mother, ran away and lived on the street, some snapshots via Ling Qi's thankfully brief interactions with Tonghou's legal system. Lacks the context to really fully grok the details and make fully accurate inferences though, too far outside his experience.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hmm, you know what he should do? He should try to bond with Ling Qi over the fact that both of them have a friend/sister known for being terrible at love, romance, and interacting with other human beings... who has surpassed them in this realm and found love.
With each other.
With each other.
I would imagine that a lot of female cultivators, especially the ones from stronger families, wouldn't get it either.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
I wanna know what love is 🎶
I want you to show meee 🎶
The one where they discussed music grandmasters and Ling Qi found out cultivators chefs were a thing?
That wasn't so disastrous, was it? Maybe I'm misremembering things, but after a few initial bumps the dinner went pretty well and they kinda bonded talking about enjoying things without them being cultivation aids.
All in all, it went as smoothly as it could have gone.
In which chapter did it happen again, btw?
I wonder if he is going to suffer a backlash when he meets Ling Qi again. He is going to psych himself up, gather courage to be assertive and get out of the business-partner zone, preparing for the worst possible outcome... and then Ling Qi is going to be chill about it.
As if the poor guy wasn't confused enough.
Hey, at least we'll most likely choose his Personal Action next turn... unless some really juicy new Action pops up.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Like, ideally Ling Qi could get a few years to figure shit out, she's not even quite seventeen and it's likely she'll enter 4th Realm by her early twenties barring disaster. She has a lot on her plate, and there's not even any real reason for it all to be a rush for her to settle down, except to the extent that higher-realm Cultivator women apparently do sometimes have problems having children.
But, like, she in theory should have all the time in the world to figure shit out herself... but at the same time that's not really how it works.
But, like, she in theory should have all the time in the world to figure shit out herself... but at the same time that's not really how it works.
Got me smiling stupidly to myself out in public while I'm reading this.
We know the actual engagements will probably take decades. We aren't even close to deciding but it's about time that Qi actually starts to test the waters and see what she'd eventually wants. I'm not even certain that we've seen all the candidates yet but it's about time that they start trying and Qi engages with them to see what she wants. She's got all the time in the world to decide but she might as well give them the opportunity to make their case, and perhaps date a bit.
On one hand, it's true that Ling Qi is still quite young and very talented. Unless something goes terribly wrong, her "worth" in a prospective political marriage is only going to grow as she advances in her cultivation, gains political prowess and influence and her material fortune grows.
On the other hand, her options can't get much better than the scions from the main braches of the Count clans of her province and the scion of a Ducal clan the Cai are allied with. At least if we are talking about the political and material benefits political marriages are typically decided on. So "there is no reason to wait", some would say.
They all seem to genuinely like her as well! That's already much better than many noble younglings get. Just look at Xiulan.
Speaking of Xiulan, she was "engaged" much sooner than usual (which is done precisely to avoid unexpected low talent incidents), but hers is still the usual procedure.
Courtship can last for several years, or even a couple decades for talented cultivators that reach higher realms young, before the engagement is actually formalized. This is usually so because the terms of the agreement can change from favouring one side to the other depending in the couple's advancement in cultivation.
In Ling Qi's case, it would be so she can get to know her suitors better and decide what is what she wants out of that kind of relationship.