Sirrocco
Pedantic
There are herbs that can do it as well (and even better in pill form), and there are cultivation arts that will give out freebies. Now, it's not as fast if you're not sucking down the spirit stones, but that's not to say that it can't be done.
...and one of the reasons to break away from the Emerald Empire is that Tyrant Mother is a literally enlightened despot, and is forging her successor to follow. If all goes well, they will be highly successful, and we'll eventually get to the point where the Celestial Peaks are Particularly Unhappy about their growing power and influence. (I mean, they already are, but it's going to get worse.) Also, at a fundamental level, she's a creature of Revolution. Eventually there's going to be some sort of major societal upheaval of that sort because that's what Cai Shenhua is.
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Now let's talk husbando wars for a moment. I notice a thing.
I notice that what Bao Qian is setting up to be right now is the support husbando. He's not going to be able to follow Ling Qi all the way to the end of the road. Well, that can still be okay. Shenhua's wife is only Violet, after all, and it's clearly working for them. What he is going to be able to do, and what he's going to do naturally and instinctively as part of what he is, is to provide the infrastructure and support for her to dance on. She's big into community. He builds the kind of structures that community gathers inside. He's the econ husbando too - not in the CRX way of just handing her resources, but by helping her more efficiently leverage the resources she already has. He sells the ash that Zhengui sneezes out and takes Hanyi on singing tours. He'll be setting up trade routes and ensuring that her mines are long-term sustainable. His Way literally folds in under hers. She wants to create more perfect communication, and he's trying to figure out ways to more perfectly preserve, transport, and replay it. He won't give her links outside of the Emerald Seas, but he will give her even more solid support within it, and will probably be able to assist from time to time on those internal diplomacy numbers. After all, if the Emerald Seas Nationalists start getting certain preferable trade deals while the less desirable segments are getting frozen out... well, people can wind up shifting factions for a lot of reasons.
Turtle Boi...? He might make it all the way. He's making the kind of out-there moves that can let you keep bootstrapping up the crazy ladder. In some ways, of the various options, he is the most similar to Ling Qi. He also might not. Very few people make it all the way to white, and at least thus far, what we've seen of his desires and ambitions aren't really grand enough. Maybe he'll make that leap. Maybe he won't. We'll have to see. Regardless, he's more in a position to be doing the "Peer standing beside you" thing... until maybe one day he isn't anymore. Bao Qian will, in the end, be behind us... but it's a position he's well-suited to, and he'll be behind us helping us push forward.
...and, of course, there's one other thing about Turtle Boi. The thing that Xuan Shi wants is companionship. He's apparently a bit picky about who he gets it from, but I feel like he's here because he wants someone, and Ling Qi is the someone who currently has his attention. By contrast, Bao Qian wants Ling Qi specifically. He was selected by Bao matchmaking arts to be an appealing choice for her and somewhere along the way something in him snapped out and said "I want that one." and he's been following it ever since. Xuan Shi could be just as happy with someone else, if he found the right someone else. Bao Qian... couldn't. Not in the same way. Not without going back and rebuilding himself a fair bit.
As far as Xuan Shi is concerned, I like him. I wish him well. I want him to be with someone who can make him happy. I want to remain good friends. I also feel like we owe him a pretty significant debt of gratitude - first for his help with the safe room and then for offering up his gauntlets when we desperately needed them, and I'd like to find a way to pay that back. I don't really want him for Ling Qi, though. I want him to be happy with someone else. Bao Qian is the kind of guy I want for Ling Qi in a selfish way. I think he'll be good for her.
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