It was a little unsettling, Ling Qi found, to be looking at herself from multiple angles. To study and analyze her own appearance and aura with supernatural precision. To see the hairs that were out of place, the imperfections in the subtle applications of her cosmetics, and the unsteadiness and minute errors in the flows of her qi. Things easy to fix in the moment, but difficult to keep fixed.
Yet, turning those lines of visions outward, she couldn't help but feel that it was worth it. The silent broken stones of the dream grove stood all around, and she knew them perfectly. If she had to fight here, she was certain that she could navigate it perfectly, could read the way the flow of natural qi here would affect her techniques, or allow her to hide her own aura in plain sight, completely without thought.
Yeah, this is what I meant. Cool description of Arts and what they are doing. It's a lot better than 'I cast fist' or 'you get +2 to attack'. Not that this quest ever had that kind of problem.
I also like what the Art does. Divination as super-perception and awareness, leading to the usual advantages awareness in fights or everyday situations gives and in the end also to predictions about future developments and actions. Seems very cool, and useful in all kinds of situations to me. I am glad we took the Art, and hopefully, we'll finish it, too.
She understood Xin's words to her better now. This was the basest root of personal divination, a perfect analysis of your immediate surroundings, such that it became obvious what would occur in the moments to come. Of course, she was alone, and so it was easy to feel like she had mastered the skill, though she knew she was far from it.
She could know which leaf would fall next from the tree to her right with decent accuracy, but if she tried to predict the next action of the sparrow perched in its branches… Well, her success rate was still abysmal.
Well, small steps. You just learned 3 levels of this Art at once, so it's totally fine to take it easy! ... Yeah, I don't really like the current system and how we blaze through Arts like this but oh wells. It's not
terrible.
"Big Sister, are you done sitting around playing with lights yet?" One of her points of vision swiveled to see Hanyi sitting atop a crumbling stump of a wall, kicking her legs in irritation. Ling Qi could not help but notice the snarls in her qi, clogging the meridians in her body related to motion and movement. "I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be going to meet that weird guy now."
Like many barely teenaged girls, Hanyi can see the value of meditation, rest and simply being still for a while. She also greatly values esoteric and spiritual experiences. ... Okay, maaaaybe not.
Hanyi continues to appear pretty human, though. A bit bratty or spoiled, and definitely young but I like it. She doesn't seem very alien in her mannerisms, maybe because she got used to Ling Qi.
It shouldn't be her origin, since she does count as a full Spirit. ... Maybe her time with, uhhh... her 'father' also helped humanize her? She did only ever perceive him as being in good health and of sound mind after all.
Ling Qi blinked, and the 'eye' constructs of her new art vanished in glittering light, collapsing her vision back to a single perspective. "Is it that late already?" She asked, squinting up at the cloudy sky.
"It's been hours," Hanyi said with the sort of put upon exasperation that only the young could manage.
I bet Hanyi can also manage a really good 'Are we there yet?'
Ling Qi grimaced, she had only shifted her cultivation plans to prioritize the Curious Diviner's Eye art because of Xuan Shi's invitation in the first place, it would be embarrassing to miss her appointment because of her cultivation. She had been quite surprised a few nights ago to find the odd boy on her doorstep with a request. Still he had helped her enough in the last year that she wasn't going to refuse, even if the thing he wanted assistance with wasn't an apparent challenge site.
Apparent Challenge sites? Those still exist in the Inner Sect or is Ling Qi just making assumptions here?
Anyway, it's good that she can repay Xuan Shi. They were allies last year, but it did feel as if Ling Qi took more than she gave. Equalizing that account is good for any future connection between them, and I don't think there are many people here who'd want to offend Xuan Shi or lose him as a contact.
... I'll write it off as pure fluff that Ling Qi nearly missed an appointment here. That hasn't been an issue before, and I don't think she has become *more* airheaded lately. Much the opposite (sadly...)
"He ate and fell asleep," Hanyi huffed. "See if I sing a bunch of deer to him again," she grumbled darkly as she hopped off the wall to lead the way.
Hanyi's relationship to Zhengui is awesome XD
Also, he really is a doofus! Falling asleep after a cute girl brought him food. Well... teenagers. (And no, I am not trying to ship them here, I am just poking fun at the scene)
... Although I *am* curious about Hanyi meeting Cui, and how Zhengui, especially Zhen, would fare in the middle between them.
Ling Qi chuckled, of course it was something like that, with a thought she gave Sixiang a mental nudge to stir them from their own cultivation. She got a blurry sort of response, something like 'five more minutes' if translated into words. Ling Qi let out a huff, there were some things she would have rather Sixiang not pick up from her.
That's a cute line but... It sounds all wrong to me? Since when is Ling Qi lazy, or sleeps in? She's a workaholic. She naps every couple of days for an hour or so. ... At least in my book that doesn't count as a lazy sleepyhead. And I bet most other Greens see it the same. I guess it's just Ling Qi having 'unique' ideas about what's appropriate. 'OMG, I slept a whole hour this week. So lazy! Need to Cultivate more! ... Where are my drugs!'
With her spirits gathered up, she soon reached the place where Xuan Shi had asked her to meet him, near a ruined old road that wound a ways into the mountains. When she arrived, she found Xuan Shi leaning against one of the weathered distance markers, paging through a thin volume.
Clearly, notes about the mission and a last minute review of potentially useful Formations. Clearly.
"I hope I did not make you wait long," Ling Qi said politely as she approached. She had chosen to travel on the ground, to preserve qi, and to make it easier for Hanyi to skip off and follow her for awhile when she got tired of bantering with Zhengui in her head.
Ling Qi: "Do you have that problem, too, that you can't use your Flight because your Spirits grow bored of bantering with themselves in your head?" - Xiulan: "There is so much wrong with this statement, I don't even know where to begin. Here, try on this ankle-exposing gown!"
The book snapped shut in his hands, and Xuan Shi straightened up, giving her a nod of greeting. "The baroness did not delay unduly," he replied simply. "This one thanks you for your agreement."
"There is no need to call me that," Ling Qi chided. "And I would hardly refuse a request like this. How did you find this place anyway?"
Xuan Shi glanced to the side, tugging his hat down to cover his eyes. "...Study of a text may reveal many hidden things."
How evasive," Sixiang mused.
... Yeah, I am with Sixiang here. If Xuan Shi had a shell, he would have retreated in it.
Ling Qi narrowed her eyes, thinking back to the many times she had seen Xuan Shi in the Outer Sect archives. "Just what sort of text?" Ling Qi asked lightly. "I might need to start reading more."
"...This one discovered a cipher, within a certain series of novels. The final volume was filed among the shelves of the inner sect.," Xuan Shi replied after a moment.
Good of Ling Qi to probe further. It pays off to know what you are getting yourself into.
Xuan Shi's earlier reluctance doesn't seem reasonable here, finding a cipher leading to a treasure is perfectly valid in Xianxia land. But we'll soon see why Turtle Bro is... turtling.
"Huh, I never would have guessed," she said, bemused. "Do you mean those books I saw you reading in the archive last year? Why would they have a cipher leading to a place here?"
So him reading adventure novels was actually *work* and not simply relaxing a little? Noooo, Turtle Bro, you were so cool!
"In the days before the Great Sects, the author resided here, when not voyaging himself," She could detect a hint of excitement in the boys tone as he began to speak on the subject. "This one sought out the placement in this Sect for that purpose."
"So you figured out the cipher before you ever came here?" She asked curiously. She supposed that he really was a smart guy.
"...Yes, though the goal remained shrouded, the path of course intrigued this one," Xuan Shi agreed, perhaps a bit too quickly.
Moon senses tingling;
someone is being suspicious.
"Your a bad liar mister," Hanyi said, emerging from the trees behind Ling Qi. She then shot Ling Qi a dirty look. "Big Sister is mean, walking so fast on her stupid long legs."
Aaaand Ling Qi caught it. Good job. Actually, Hanyi caught it, too. ... She has Social Perception *E*. How bad a liar are we talking here?
Ling Qi shot her a cheeky grin, which earned her a frustrated huff, but in her head Zhengui responded suspiciously. "Yeah, why is he lying? Big Sister, you should be careful."
Awww, one day Hanyi will grow up too and have long legs. Or unclog her Meridians and get to use her locked Movement Art again. One thing or the other.
Also, Zhengui caught the lie, too. Well, he has Social Perception D, but at least he got two heads. (Two heads are better at catching lies than one, no?) But... yeah. A master spy and paragon of suaveness Turtle Bro is not.
Ling Qi rather doubted it was a dangerous lie, and she really did need to look into why Zhengui always seemed so… snappish around Xuan Shi. However, Hanyi wasn't wrong. She gave Xuan Shi an expectant look all the same.
This is very interesting, though. What's up with Turtle Bro that Turtle Sneks don't like him? Is there another reason that he doesn't have a Xuan Wu besides them being rare and him being of a Branch House? ... How much Branch are we talking here? He was once described as a 'salty thing'. ... Room for a lot of speculation. Maybe it's nothing, maybe he doesn't have a Xuan Wu because those are indeed rare. Maybe Zhengui dislikes him because of Water Arts. But Ling Qi has quite some Water Meridians, too, so... Well, hopefully we'll find out!
He sighed. "This one merely wished to read the final two volumes, which were archived within the Sect alone."
And just like that, Turtle Bro is cool again! Neeeeeerd.
Travelling all across the Empire, and joining a Sect for two or more years to read two books. I hope these books are *really* good.
Well, I suppose it wasn't his only reason. More like an opportunity he grabbed when he was already here, and then he stumbled over the cipher. Maybe.
Well that was kind of silly, but it was hardly the worst thing ever. Even if it was weird to imagine caring so much about a book as to travel all the way across the empire to get at it.
When was the last time you have been reading a book, young lady? No, law books or Cultivation Manuals don't count.
"We had better get going then," She said instead of voicing her thoughts
"Indeed," he said, seeming relieved. "Adventure awaits."
The odd boys barely concealed eagerness was kind of infectious.
I'll see the nerd from earlier, and raise you a dork. Turtle Bro going strong!
It's pretty nice, though, and a good contrast to the more intense Cultivators Ling Qi often is around. Xiulan, Meizhen, Liling and most certainly Renxiang could all learn a bit from this and take things a little easier. It would probably be a lot more healthy for them.
The path was not a long one. Ling Qi followed Xuan Shi down the winding remains of the ruined road, down into a tiny vale between two large peaks. The road soon came to run beside a tiny stream, which bore the signs of having been a greater flow in the past. At the bottom of the vale, the road reached its end in a crumbling structure of stone. At first glance, Ling Qi had been unimpressed thinking the old ruin to be their destination, but it quickly became clear that it wasn't. Old but well maintained flows of qi radiated through earth and stone, forming the shapes of a complex array that once she noticed , she could not fail to see running through the entire vale.
Are there many old ruins around that seeing one is just so everyday Ling Qi usually doesn't bother to check them out?
And the Formation covers the enire vale? That sounds pretty high tier, actually.
"So, what's the trick?" Ling Qi asked quietly as they strode into a crumbling hall, the faint light of afternoon streaming through the holes in the rooftop. Xuan SHi still seemed confident and showed no sign of needing aid, so she restrained herself from using techniques for now, but she was curious as to what this huge array could be for.
My thoughts exactly!
"The appearance of destitution deflects avarice, but the ruin is merely the door," Xuan Shi replied, words punctuated by the tapping of his staff on stone. As they reached the end of the hall, he swept the staff out and tapped a handful of stones in sequence, and the wall faded away before her eyes, the thick qi of earth and stone dispersing and transforming into the qi of air and wind. Beyond lay a flight of stairs that, if the building was as it appeared, would have lead up into open air.
Makes sense. Xuan Shi handling things competently, as expected. Walls outright dematerializing is more magic... sorry, Qi-manipulation... than I'd have expected; what about just a sliding door? Guess whoever made this wasn't really concerned about keeping the power low.
Mounting the stairs, they came instead to a high ceilinged room, though a great skylight in its center allowed in light. Here, the floor was paved with incongruously well maintained tiling, the jade gleaming as if it had been newly placed. For all their polish though the tiles were arranged chaotically, without any thought for aesthetics. However… Ling Qi narrowed her eyes, reading the lingering qi in the stone.
"It's a big puzzle," Ling Qi said, bemused. The floor was grooved, such that the tiles could be slid around into new positions, using two empty tiles, but what was the goal?
Puzzling, indeed! ... Yeah, I am seeing myself out.
Jade floor tiles. Well, Cultivators live in style. The rest of it... seems like a standard puzzle mechanic. Thankfully, we have a nerd at hand.
"One which this one knows the solution to, and has completed before," Xuan Shi agreed. "The colors present are those of the voyaging heroes' ship. The way does not remain open however, Miss Ling, this one will have to ask that you follow instruction."
As expected. Xuan Shi *is* competent.
"I think I like whoever built this place," Sixiang said amused.
Oh? Why's that? Since when is Sixiang a puzzle fan? Does he just like the connection to the cipher, the story, and the puzzle? Maybe. But...
With Xuan Shi already knowing the solution, it didn't take too long to move the tiles, making them form, instead of a chaotic mess a striped pattern with an eight pointed white star its center. The moment the last tile clicked into place however, a flash of qi ran through the puzzle and mist boiled up from the star in a roiling column, only to quickly slow and flow into a coherent shape. Stairs formed of cloud and mist now rose in the center of the room, rising up to the skylight.
See, eight pointed star. Eight Moon phases/aspects. Sixiang liking where this is going. It *is* a bit of a stretch, but it sounds as if this place and the writer have a connection to the Moon. Specifically, the Dreaming Moon, whom Sixiang hails from.
Cloud and mist staircases give this all a very otherworldly feel. Someone made a connection to FVM earlier, but I don't think this is mist like that. It has a less dreary quality, I bet it is more ... well, dreamlike.
"Is there any reason why we couldn't have just flown up there?" Ling Qi asked.
Xuan Shi gave her a mildly aggrieved look. "Without the stair, you would only exit the ruin."
And someone soooo isn't reading the mood. Or knows how to value a thematic setup.
"Tch, how annoying," Hanyi grumbled in her head.
Make that two someone's. Sheesh. Aren't you supposed to be artists? Musicians? I guess it's not Art for you without a bodycount ~~
[
Quote]"Big Sister, We won't be able to help you in the sky," Zhengui added worriedly.[/Quote]
Wood turtle doesn't like the sky. Seems plausible. Although that's not where things are really going, of course.
If need be, she could always ride Zhengui back to earth, she thought, which seemed to mollify him as she began to mount the stairs beside Xuan Shi. The cloud felt odd, it was as solid as stone, but also slightly springy and smooth as silk. As they passed through the skylight, Ling Qi found herself in a brightly lit room seemingly carved from cloud as welll. Before them was stone gate, and in its center, rather than a latch or a lock, was the symbol of Yin and Yang, with circular arrays the size of a hand where the small circles of color would normally be.
On a scale from 1 to 'I told you so', how similar would you rate this weird cloud stuff to Sixiang's pillow fort?
"This is why you invited me huh?" Ling Qi asked.
"The way will open only for a man and a woman together," Xuan Shi agreed, stepping toward the gate. "This one does not understand the purpose of such a lock, but perhaps it will be explained beyond."
Really? You don't get the purpose of this lock? Reeeeally?
Turtle Bro, you are a dork but I don't think you are socially blind. There were also the two Twin Admirals who had a 'talk' with you about coming a bit out of your shell and making contact with a certain someone who is bonded to a unique Xuan Wu. Together with his bad 'lying' earlier... Look, I don't actually mind, and I don't want to be paranoid but I am really, really doubtful about the coincidences here or Xuan Shi having no idea where all this is leading. Or the symbolism.
But again, I don't really mind. It's a bit manipulative and dishonest but so far he hasn't done anything bad. Besides, it amuses me to think how he racked his brain for months how to find an opener to talk to Ling Qi or get closer to her, and all he could come up with was to find some kind of love-nest Trial and invite her along while playing totally innocent. That sure won't make anything awkward, ever! ... Dork.
Ling Qi eyed the symbol, briefly scanning it for any hostile seeming characters, but it seemed a fairly standard locking formation with a kind of weird key condition. She saw no connecting characters that might set off some other effect, and she was fairly sure Xuan Shi would have already checked more carefully than she could after all.
Yeah, the day we spot a Formation that Xuan Shi missed is the day he gets to eat his staff. It's still good practice to keep your head in the game and not just coast along. Very professional. I like that of Ling Qi.
Stepping forward, Ling Qi raised her hand and placed it in the array on the Yang side of the formation, while Xuan Shi did the same with the Yin side. The Arrays lit up as they both laid their palms flat against the gate and then, with a grinding groan, the gates opened inward revealing…
[] A corridor seemingly composed wholly of roses and thorny vines, that split and twisted into the distance, forming a great labyrinth
[] A softly lit temple, with sparking qi barriers blocking the way toward its rear. Behind them, you can see the looming shadow of a great statue of some forgotten great spirit.
[] A pier and a little boat tied to it, floating on a river that flows into the yawning mouth of an ominous cave.
Well, the vote is already over so I won't try to come up with any theories here. This review is too long anyway as it is XD
Still, a little sad that we don't get the rose garden maze. I'd have voted for letting Zhengui try to eat his way through it!
