I don't think a lack of choice is actually a good reason to abandon attempts to build bridges. Renxiang isn't the only one who didn't have a choice about this here, anyway. And I think there's also companionship to be found in being at the mercy of circumstances together that the choice insight misses, maybe?
I don't think that's what the currently winning lesson says at all. It advocates the necessity of choosing to care even when there are risks, not that being trapped together means you can never build bridges. Even trapped as they are, Liming and Renxiang have the choice of how much to interact and trust each other.
I have been thinking, the Trust concept isn't only applicable to Renxiang and Liming, but to Renxiang ang Ling Qi as well.
Renxiang believes that family bonds are the root of corruption, as one will always favor those they are closer to. Not entirely wrong, but not entirely right either. After all, there are plenty of people who betray their family and carry out corruption entirely for their own self-interest.
But Renxiang knows very well how important family bonds are for LQ, and she acknowledges the benefits that LQ's way of doing things bring.
Then, that means that Renxiang thinks LQ will inevitably corrupt herself due to those bonds? That the only way to prevent it is to constantly monitore her closely?
That's clearly not the case. Renxiang trust that LQ will not fall to those vices, and chooses to trust her so.
[X] Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal.
The topic at hand is family bonds and corruption.
This feels like the most relevant insight to the topic, even if none of them feel perfectly applicable.
This insight doesn't have much to say about corruption after all.
[X] Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal.
[X] Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal.
It's similar to how it's entirely possible for Shenhua to keep a secret without straining her Way, she just has to refuse to tell anyone what it is without withholding that she knows the secret.
And allow me an example. The recent business with Cai Tienli, and my masters advancement in the realm of artificial spiritual organs, and spirits. For this purpose a deception of silence was perpetrated."
Ling Qi nodded. She had wondered at this, knowing the relentless, pitiless Truth that lay at Cai Shenhua's core. It felt strange to her.
"This damaged my Masters cultivation. Significantly, as much as the overall losses of many of her weak simulcrae during the period of her personal administration of Xiangmen," Shu Yue said. "And if even one person had asked 'Who is this child's other parent' the scheme would have failed. It was only through her connection to Diao Linqin that it was even possible for my Master to consider this action."
That wasn't just keeping a secret, that was lying by omission. It's not like people would ask her who Tienli's father was and she would say "I'll never tell~"; that would've been fine for her cultivation, but would've also immediately tipped off everyone that something fucky was going on with Tienli's parentage.
The issue was that Shenhua knowingly set up a plot by which people would falsely believe Tienli had a normal father until after everyone had a chance to see and evaluate Tienli for themselves, meaning that Shenhua was lying by omission for a full year.
That wasn't just keeping a secret, that was lying by omission. It's not like people would ask her who Tienli's father was and she would say "I'll never tell~"; that would've been fine for her cultivation, but would've also immediately tipped off everyone that something fucky was going on with Tienli's parentage.
The issue was that Shenhua knowingly set up a plot by which people would falsely believe Tienli had a normal father until after everyone had a chance to see and evaluate Tienli for themselves, meaning that Shenhua was lying by omission for a full year.
Honestly, I think the only way Shenhua could even do that much was because it let her get everyone to verbally and publicly agree that Tienli was 'perfectly healthy and normal.' So that once she revealed Tienli's true nature they couldn't walk it back without losing face. Thus making the deception a necessary bit of trickery to bring about a Revolution in reproduction.
Shenhua's big on Truth, but her word is [REVOLUTION]. Truth is a part of that for her, but it's still a subset. So for whatever reason she muzzled Liming, it has to serve REVOLUTION in some way. Enough to let her work against Truth.
[X] Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal.
[X] Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal.
That wasn't just keeping a secret, that was lying by omission. It's not like people would ask her who Tienli's father was and she would say "I'll never tell~"; that would've been fine for her cultivation, but would've also immediately tipped off everyone that something fucky was going on with Tienli's parentage.
The issue was that Shenhua knowingly set up a plot by which people would falsely believe Tienli had a normal father until after everyone had a chance to see and evaluate Tienli for themselves, meaning that Shenhua was lying by omission for a full year.
And yes Shenhua is not required to give away secrets. 'None of your business' or 'No' are perfectly valid true answers. If not her cultivation hack wouldn't be a secret, would it? They can as noted give the game away in some situations.
Adhoc vote count started by GreenReveal on Feb 23, 2024 at 11:32 AM, finished with 124 posts and 87 votes.
[X] Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal.
How much territory a powerful hermit might take up.
There might be a handful, but they're more likely to be like a single mountain peak or woodland dell, the sort of hermits who are 'acceptable' don't tend to leave a huge footprint. and are probably just someone's clans elders anyway
She makes the rivers and waterways incredibly rich and pure. The sort of disease problems that can crop up in tropical environments are basically nonexsistant, at least as far as waterborne things go. She also generally reinforces the rule of terror over the region and the inclination for the weaker to submit to the stronger... until they reach the shattering point as the Bai found out.
If An and Jiao participated in the fight with Ogodei.
The Hui had managed to force them to come back to the capital and 'explain' themselves' with help from some of An's more corrupt siblings so they spent the time of the last big push playing fuck fuck games in Xiangmen.
but they did have to keep even the support they could give on the downlow for the above reasons though.
How badly the Hui's standing was hurt by their no-show during Ogodei's invasion.
quite a fair bit, and it raised An's catchet with his father a good bit, and made the emperor unfortunately interested in things outside his palace for awhile.
yeah got in one, the MoI
Yeah, it can happen but is very rare, the bloodline typically can;t be reinforced the way beast and spirit lines are though so most obviously inhuman traits fade out by the third or fourth gen
He would have went senile sometime during Qin's rise I think, the dark sun probably did have something to do with it, but it certainly wasn;t the same scheme.
How Liling would have done in the Outer Sect if she hadn't pretended to be a meathead barbarian.
She's still not super strategically advanced and not the most diplomatic but she probably manages to not open outright conflict with crx and suppresses meizhen more effectively
Khem's myths say that Bearer of the Sun, He who raised Khem was born on the southern shore when the sky came down to meet the earth, and his first act was to lift his father back away from his mother, and restore the vault of heaven. so, probably around the time the dragons got wrecked and the world almost got reset cause a pillar of heaven fell.
Generally indigo to low violet but most tribes will only have one or two sovereigns tops most will stop somewhere in cyan to indigo but there are bigger tribes that might have like 3-5
They have some prisms scattered around the tribes in the center of the wall, but they generally only rise there at very old ages and with little to no chance of going further
There wasn't much (involvement in Ogodei's invasion) though they did allow some who fled to shelter and join their tribes
They were unconvinced he could pull it off, though he was close to pulling them in, at the end there
Hm, I think they're not really well known with the most common examples being horrifying jungle dreadnaught behemoths that occasionally come rampaging into the lakes barbarian guided or not. Maybe there might be some more docile breeds employed by the red pythons as companion beasts though.
Cai Renxiang was not wrong, family, community, these things were not without flaws and vices. However, she truly felt that her liege did not understand them well enough. Why would she, given everything. However the systems she loved could not exist in a vacuum, without some fundamental level of community and sense of belonging there was no set of rules which would not be twisted and bypassed. If she could impart but one thing…
"Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal."
She spoke without sound, letting the words imprint themselves on the longing and desire represented in the mist curling so protectively around them both. She was here, because she trusted Renxiang. It had not been that way at first. But they were speaking here now, because of that trust. She could not see into her friend's mind, could not know with absolute certainty that her path of light and gleaming metal would not one day clash with the soft Mist and falling snow.
She couldn't know that. Just as Renxiang could not know that the wind and the dark would never clash with ideals forged in steel.
This too was kinship, was community, and that thing called trust. Their circle was small, but it existed.
But she knew Cai Renxiang had already felt betrayal too. She saw Lin Hai's downcast expression in a whorl of mist, reflected there by the scintillating rays cast by Renxiang's light.
Cai Renxiang's eyes burned with inner light as her steel fingers clenched, metal grinding on metal. Her mouthless smooth mask of liquid light turned down as she lowered her head in acknowledgement.
Cai Renxiang's intent did not need words when they were like this, her thoughts were carried on the light she cast throughout the room. Perfect perception, perfect knowledge of other minds was impossible. Perfect control could not exist so long as other people did. This she understood.
To desire this would be to step beyond even the Tyrant Progress, to become something far more terrible. She had gazed down that path, seen its end, and turned away. It had been the beginning, the first of the Tyrant's lessons she had refused.
But it was painful to acknowledge that this truth extended its roots so far down. To every conversation, every connection, every system, to build something, knowing that it would, not could be twisted in time.
To the ticking clockwork heart in her chest, this was a deep pain that would never disappear.
The sound of that heart grew louder, the turning of gears and the motion of mechanisms echoing within Ling Qi's mist as Cai Renxiang raised her head, and brought her own truth to bear.
"An administrator was only as good as the information they received, only as good as the eyes and ears and hands of their subordinates. It was not enough to be a perfect distant figure, high in the sky."
There was a precision in her words that Ling Qi lacked, a sharp edge of logic to the meaning, but Ling Qi received the truth her friend spoke with relief, her shadow billowing stretching long, her mist receiving the carvin light and refracting it into a collage of images of people working in tandem, of cooperation and the well oiled work of people familiar enough to work together without friction.
To hear Cai Renxiang say such a thing brought her relief. Though she might claim to be at odds with Ling Qi's Way in some ways, they were not truly so opposed. What Ling Qi called community, Cai Renxiang might call by the word system.
…No, light thrummed like the strings of an instrument, that was reaching too far. Their Ways id not converge so conveniently. There were differences, fundamental and foundational between those two things.
But they were, perhaps, the place where communication would remain possible, even at the peak of cultivation.
Systems needed people, needed trust, needed attachment and support. And people needed systems, needed rituals, needed traditions, lest every little community and family turn their hands against those outside their smallest circle.
Ling Qi bowed her own head in understanding, tha halo of stars that was her hair twinkling and swirling. She was thankful to her liege for being willing to speak so candidly.
And like a breeze blowing through the mist, their power faded, the light and the stars and shadows and steel fading away, and they were once again two young women sitting at a table over tea. The only sign of their higher communication was a bit of frost clinging to the corners of the room and the suspicious cleanliness of every surface.
Ling Qi let out a breath, glancing around. "I am glad none of the paint was bleached."
"I am not so uncontrolled. You on the other hand, require further training, the dampness which you subjected the wood to could cause a mold, if not properly taken care of," Cai Renxiang replied, drawing a deep sip from her cup.
Ling Qi made a face. "I will take care of it. I'm not so irresponsible, even if we are moving out soon."
"See that you do. Even small matters are important for reputation," Cai Renxiang said. She had a small smile, hidden behind the rim of her cup.
Ling Qi was glad for that much, even if she could still see the turmoil in her qi, and feel Liming's heavy gaze upon her.
"So, May I ask what other plans you have? Knowing you you did not come north just for this visit. That would be inefficient."
"Indeed, there are some deliveries and other logistical concerns which I must raise with the portion of the Sect devoted to business. Supplies and concerns over traffic rights as I continue to keep a high tempo on the goods moving to Snowblossom to accelerate construction. They should all be resolvable without too many troubles…"
Ling Qi settled herself against the back of her chair, letting her lieges words wash over her. She and Renxiang were not the same, but they did not have to be.
You needed more than one vision to make a future.
***
Renxiang departed from them in the evening, and the days rolled on, harvests were pulled in, people worked, warehouses were stocked, White Cloud Town bustled, and her Ling household went on through the days and weeks. Ling Qi spent her time deep in her letters keeping conversations going across the province, letting the little trickles of information flow to her drop by drop. She spent what time she had left with her family, and in mediation, following the instructions of the Sect's medical experts to bit by bit begin to regain what she had temporarily lost.
And she was regaining a little more, each and every day.
"Careful," Mother said quietly. "Take it slowly."
"You've got this Sis!" Hanyi cheered, pumping her fist.
Zhen squirmed anxiously atop Zhengui's shell.
Honestly, Ling Qi thought they were overselling it. She was still a cultivator, the only thing that would be hurt if she fell was her pride.
All the same the short five steps from the garden porch down to the ground had never looked quite so long. She tightened her grip on the silver head of a dark wooden cane in her right hand, steadied herself on it, and took the first step.
It was horrifying, in many ways how exhausting something like just standing and walking could feel. It made her want to scream sometimes, how small and trapped she still felt, even now that she could sometimes leave the tyranny of her wheeled chair.
She felt her knees tremble, grit her teeth, and kept herself one her feet as she descended to the second step, and then the third. She felt the strain traveling through muscles and meridians, and this still aching burning sensation of the flames still flickering in her channels and dantian.
One one hand, reducing the suppressant medication made it possible for her to begin cycling her qi and repairing the lingering damage to her meridians. One the other, it made her much more aware of the quite literal burning fires only slowly being banked and extinguished in her very organs and spirit.
Fourth Step. Fifth.
Mother reached out for her as she foot fell on the cobbles and she wobbled like a frail sapling in the wind. She caught herself on her cane, but smiled thankfully to Mother, looping her free arm around the small womans shoulder for support. "Thank you," she said quietly.
"It is nothing," Mother said, just as quietly.
Zhengui lumbered forward and the air grew hot, little flakes of ash raining down, soothing the sore ache in her atrophied muscles, and the burning in her chest. Hanyi hopped down the steps beside her and patted her on the arm. They began to walk, slowly and without urgency, down the path through the garden. Three of them along the stone path, Zhengui through the flowers, the pants and soil flowing around his heavy footsteps and forming back into their original configuration in his wake.
"Please do not hesitate if you require a moment to be still or sit," mother said.
"I won't," Ling Qi said, the tip of her cane tapping on the ground. One foot in front of the other, circulate qi through the charred and ash choked meridians threaded through the muscle. Feel the impurity and unwanted qi begin to loosen and crumble, dissolving one mote at a time. Wind and ice and darkness flowing back into the correct place. "Do you think everyone will be ready, when the time for the move comes?"
"Everyone has prepared themselves. There were a few resignations… those who have found someone here in White Cloud town," Ling Qingge replied. "But there is no trouble drawing things down. The safe room should be movable within a month or two."
"Good," Ling Qi said. "I… do miss Snowblossom. Seeing something grow from the seeds I've sown… I want to see how its changed, how it is changing. But I want you there too."
"Yes! It will be good to show everyone all of Gui's hard work!" Her little brother chirped.
"Hmph, I'm gonna have to make sure there's nobody lurking around thinking they're the boss of the snows," Hanyi sniffed.
…White Cloud Town really was too small these days, wasn't it. LIng Qi swayed on her feet as they passed the garden pond and grimaced, leaning more heavily on her Mother's shoulder as a sharp stab of pain traveled up her leg. "Please, let's take a moment."
"Of course," Mother said, helping her over to the stone bench beside the path. Ling Qi sat down heavily, and reached down massaging her own calf under her hands. She needed much more practice and exercise.
But she was still getting there, still advancing, she could begin to feel the qi in her dantian again, begin to feel a full cycle through her charred meridians. She wasn't far now, she thought from beginning to cultivate again. Her path had only stalled for a few short months, a cost that made her wince, but one she would gladly pay again for what she had bought with it.
"You intend to travel with the caravan next week then?" Mother asked.
"I do," Ling Qi agreed. "Cai Renxiang will be returning as well, with my little brother and sister, traveling through the sect lands, it will be as safe as it can be."
"Then I will wish you a good journey."
"Mm, I'm sure things will be ready for grandmother and littlest sister soon!" Zhengui said.
"I do look forward to seeing what you have all been speaking about," Mother said fondly. "Our newest member did seem excited to go south."
"I do wonder about the sheep she recommended," Ling Qi mused.
"What did you say was being worked on right now?"
"Ah, that was…"
AN: Time for a fief Vote. Divining the Earth and Palisade are both complete, the effects of which will be seen in the next arc. Please vote on a new set of Fief projects
[ ] Fief Plan
-[ ]Project 1
-[ ] Project 2
Crucible Charred: (G) 6->5
Crucible Charred: (G) 6->5
The after effect of carrying the Sovereign of Steel and Flame into the dream to do battle. Flames rage in your organs, spiritual and physical, you are charred deep and thorough, but the feeling is returning, motion is returning, the wind cannot remain shackled long. Though it tires you swiftly, you may walk with support for a time and need little special care. Only time and circulation of qi.
[X] Plan: Cai Mountain Ski Lodge
-[X] Hamlet Upgrade Project
-[X] Call on Cai Clan Wealth (Rush)
We got all the basic upgrades, and Ling Qi is going to Snowblossom soon, it's time to get out of Outpost to learn about all the projects on the other side of the upgrade wall.
"An administrator was only as good as the information they received, only as good as the eyes and ears and hands of their subordinates. It was not enough to be a perfect distant figure, high in the sky."
I wonder if this is an advanced insight she got at the battle against the nightmares in the summit, or a regular one from mastering that administration art.
