Woo, finally done.
Liao Zhu spun the dagger in his hand and returned it to the sheath, and watched the simulacra rise, smoke like from the corpse of the man and beast at his feet. He hummed to himself as horseman and rider alike wavered shimmered, like a reflection in troubled waters. Focusing his qi across the air between himself and the simulacra, he carefully poured essence stored within his sheathed dagger into the construct, smoothing away warping and granting definition to it's wavering edges.
A moment later, and he allowed himself a nod of satisfaction. Though the constructs eyes were still unfocused and blank, the visage was perfect. Only a cultivator of the fourth realm or higher would be able to tell the difference without close study. With a silent command, he activated the construct, and it suddenly shook its head, looking confused for a moment before tugging the reins of its horse and galloping off, looking for all the world like the man and beast whose lives he had just taken.
I wonder how much this trick has to do with his doppleganger spirit. Spirit Anchored Art?
It'd give the phantasm infiltrator better options than a remote controlled projection.
It had been a stroke of luck that the youngest of the three had split off again, before going further into the Wall than he was willing to follow/ It had given him the opportunity to insert an infiltrator in their midst. The hasty effort would only last a week or so, but it would hopefully allow him to learn more about that strange woman, before the mental suggestion imprinted in the construct sent it off to get killed by some beast or another.
A projection that lasts a week, transfers information automatically, emulates a slain target but can't be remotely controlled?
Reminds me of what Renshu used to frame Ling Qi.
He was grateful to his junior sister for so doggedly searching the barren upper peaks and ferreting out this interesting little gathering.
He shook his head. She really was quite something, but...
But what?
Curious minds want to know!
"We done here?" A gruff voice interrupted his musing, and he glanced to the side, where his spirit Tengjing lay on the rocks, regarding him with great boredom. The spirit ruffled his great feathered wings impatiently. Between those wings, and his powerful, grey furred feline body and scaled draconic head, the Pixiu was certainly a majestic sight.
The Pixiu is a relatively less known beast, one known for luck.
The male one is supposed to be a seeker of treasures though. Odd fit for sempai, but probably highly in demand for new cultivators.
Or he would be, if Liao Zhu was not aware of what a dull bore the creature often was. No patience at all for extravagance at all. "One would imagine that even you would be interested by what we have spied, my churlish friend." He glanced down at the corpse, ignoring with long practice the faint regret that stirred in his breast at another life taken. "Might you clean this up?"
Never let that scrap of regret leave. Thats when you become a monster in truth.
"Clown," the chimeric beast grunted. Tengjing opened his jaw and breathed out, and streak of silver flames shot out, catching the corpse and beginning to burn voraciously, eating flesh and equipment alike without a single wisp of smoke. "I am not sure why a mere difference of coloration bothers you so."
"I wonder," Liao Zhu mused, it was true that spirit blood could create all manner of oddities, but… that was not the Cloud Tribes custom. Yet the woman that those men had gone back to meet, that the eldest of the tribesman was courting. With fair hair, verging on white, and skin as pale as snow, she already looked nothing like any tribesman he had seen. Her face had been strange as well, with oddly shaped eyes and a subtly different structure to her features. The thick and heavy furs were odd as well. Her aura was iron, ice, the brutality of deep winter made manifest. It was not a common mix for the Cloud Tribes. Few bothered to learn the intricacies of barbarian fashions and culture, but he knew that you could learn much from the subtle differences in a tribes dress and cultivation aesthetics.
So interesting confirmation that the Cloud Tribes don't do the spirit crossbreeding thing Imperials tend to. I wonder if it has to do with their form of cultivation(since if you forsake one side of your cultivation entirely while your spirit partner focuses on the other side, having spiritblood could fuck that up).
And thats the Yuki-onna snow people(Metal, Cold, Endings) looking to marry Cloud Tribesmen. Plot Thickens.
Odd that he's never heard of them, where were they placed on the map? No shared border with the Empire?
They sound likely to be coldly logical!
Again, it seemed very foreign to him. His instincts told him that the matter was important, important enough to keep a closer eye on matters. Even if it was only a new tribe, learning of its movements was valuable. Still, there was no immediate danger, just a powerful young warrior on a particularly ambitious marriage hunt with his brothers, if he had picked out the destination of their flight correctly.
He glanced back at the scorch mark where the corpse had been. Brother, now he supposed.
"You have better things to do than mourn enemies," Tengjing grunted. "You're going to die if you stay on that path."
"My good friend and bosom brother, there is a limit to how boorish one should be, you know?" Liao Zhu replied cooly. "If you doubt your brothers competence, then I am open to a challenge at any time."
He met Tengjings fierce gaze, and eventually the pixiu snorted and looked away. "Hmph, it's not your strength I doubt, clown."
A path of understanding coupled to a path of blood is going to be a hard one to walk without breaking in the head.
Liao Zhu regarded his companion silently. "Are we not all jesters in the end? You worry too much my friend," he said with a casual laugh. "In any case, you are right. We should return. Who knows what trouble my cute Junior Sister has embroiled herself in in my absence."
"Whats the worst that could happen?"
What in the world had she gotten herself into, Ling Qi wondered.
An echoing shriek slammed into her ears, a wave of sound so loud that it struck like a physical blow. Below her, the source of the noise thrashed, engulfed in her mists. Two long and sinuous necks emerged from the earth, covered by overlapping plates of bone and rock, the viscous blue slime that held it all together dripped and seeped through, pooling on the ground and mixing with the mud into a sticky clinging morass. At the end of each neck was a blunt horned head that resembled a mix between a tortoise and a dragon, short and blunt with beaked jaws, and empty eye sockets that wept corrupted slime.
The creatures necks emerged from the side of a hill, and twisted, bony limbs, halfway between flippers and claws emerged from the base, flopping and tearing at the earth at it dragged itself forward. On the hill, weeping vents opened, stinking of stale air and sulphur, and sparks flickered in the air, threatening to flare up at the barest provocation. The first such explosion had wiped away her hastily erected mist after all.
Aaaa, Evil Zhengui!
Elemental Composition analysis:
-Mud - Earth. Original critter
-Rock - Mountain. Original critter
-Bone - Death. Must be seriously bad infection because its stone is turning into bone
-Natural gas - Death again maybe. Could be using another element by dint of embedded materials.
-Blue slime - Stellar from the Color Out Of Space.
-Dragon - Elemental awesome, so its a dragon!
Net assessment, even without future knowledge, is that this thing is a goner.
Below and behind Ling Qi, her subordinates and Zhengui worked hard, raising barricades of earth and roots to box the beasts flowing emissions in, for the toxic muck seemed to poison and wither everything that it touched. The encirclement was yet incomplete though, because none of them had been expecting this. The day had passed in tense peace, but as they were reaching the end of their survey, the ground beneath their feet had rocked, and the slowly crawling hill that they had been traversing had burst into malignant life.
I wonder how wise using Earth and Wood to barricade the emissions would have been. Remember the contamination affected Earth and Wood(elements known for absorbing energy) particularly badly.
Ling Qi was all too aware that they were currently near the blighted vale which they had burned the night previous. She had been quick enough to react thankfully, shrouding the hill in cloying mist as her companions made distance, but then the heads had burst out, and she had been forced to activate Deepwood Vitality to protect them all from the massive blast that had followed as the stinking vents in the hillside had opened.
She wasn't even certain what she was looking at, it looked like something out of Suyin's workshop, but dripping with filth and emanating an aura that made her skin tingle like it had on the mountain peaks.
Both Stellar qi AND Underworld Taint.
Skavenplot.txt
Wheres the warpstone meteor?
"Yeah that's the toxin trying to melt your skin," Sixiang said, sounding slightly strained. "I can keep purging it, but that's all I'm going to be doing if we fight this thing."
Stellar Poison. You know, up till now it never quite registered to me that Sixiang's dispel was generalized, as long as its a negative effect they can purge it, regardless of Art or Poison.
Ling Qi acknowledged their words with a hum. The only saving grace was that the… thing, whatever it was, seemed aimless in its rampage, as long as they remained out of reach. Indeed, once Mo Lian had raised a wall, and Zhengui had reinforced it with his roots, the spirit had seemed to cease noticing them at all. Ling Qi grimaced as she spun in their air, her cloak flapping as she avoided a jet of brackish blue black qi that had shot from the corrupt spirits right maw.
Not that it had paid much mind to them to begin with. It seemed pretty fixated on her, only lashing out at others through proximity. She suspected that it was because she had the greatest cultivation among those present. She had to wonder if it might even settle down if they just left. However, that would mean that it would continue spilling its toxic blood, or slime, or whatever it was everywhere.
This might have something to do with whats left of its hill spirit nature. They find it difficult to notice things, so even now, with it being hypersensitive...it only notices Ling Qi because she stepped on it and then focuses on her not seeing anything else unless its blocking the way.
...It was still a hill though, she could feel the similarities in the structure and form of its qi to that of the spirit they had spoken to before, but it was threaded through with deathly qi, and corruption of multiple types. There was the slimy, oozing, filthy feeling that pervaded in the deep caverns, but their was also the nauseous emanations which they had so thoroughly burned out of the blighted vale. Despite that it remained a hill, and Ling Qi sensed from it an unsurpassed vitality, compared to the things she had fought. Even with the mastered Frozen Soul Serenade, she wasn't sure that she could kill a terrain feature before running out of qi.
It really looks deliberate. The death qi is one thing, but the other two types shouldn't even be here, much less in the same object.
Hopefully we get informed on what happened in a sidestory at some point.
Ling Qi glanced down at the others, and Cheng He raised a hand, signalling that their current work was complete, and they could move to walling off enough pass. The hill beast wailed and thrashed, turning with ponderous slowness as it tried to follow the arc of her flight. With its eyeless heads.
There was another option though. Even from here, she could sense the spirits anguish, it made no effort to cloak its spirit. The whole of its being was suffused with pain. Frankly, if she could not sense its unwavering well of vitality, she would have thought that it was dying. However, whatever it was, it had been dormant before they had disturbed it with their presence. Perhaps she could try to pacify the creature and lull it back into that state, so that perhaps a more experienced cultivator in the main group could purify the thing.
You know, I think it WAS in fact dying, while being eaten by a spiritual chestburster.
She just wasn't confident that she could kill it with the qi she had left, and there were few enough targets around for her to drain, most spirits and animals having long fled. Nor did she feel comfortable just walling it off. Not only would it prevent them from finishing the last of the survey, but it also meant letting the danger linger for longer still. No, she was going to have to try something unorthodox.
"And here we go," Sixiang chuckled distractedly.
'Don't you start," Ling Qi thought ruefully.
This is after all, what Sixiang is here for. Ling Qi-ness.
She darted in then, feinting toward the beast. It swung its twisted heads toward her and howled, but most importantly, it started trundling in the opposite direction from the others. The moment it fixed its eyes on her, she vanished in a blink of shadow, and reemerged far on its other side. She had to relay her plans to the others.
When appeared in a swirl of shadow just behind the soldiers and Zhengui, they did not even flinch. "I have a plan," she announced.
Batman hi-bye!
They get used to it pretty quickly.
"I would love to hear it ma'am," Mo Lian said distractedly. The youngest man looked like he would be tugging his beard out by the roots if both hands weren't occupied with shaping the stone that he was raising from the earth, piling and fusing it into another wall. Behind him Chun Yan stood, clutching her spear with a white knuckled grip. Ling Qi could feel the tense pattern of the older woman's qi, preparing to defend from a stray attack.
Chang He was the calmest of them, crouched in the branches of a tree behind the growing wall, peering at the rampaging hill beast with narrowed eyes. Zhengui stood at the base of the wall with his stubby claws dug into the earth, while the ground writhed with growing roots that climbed up the wall as it was built, weaving between and through slabs of rock to bind the construct together all the tighter.
I guess Chang He had seen some shit. The two younger hadn't seen anything like this, but he's seen stuff as bad and Ling Qi's conduct so far was worth some trust.
Oh hey, is Zhengui making reinforced concrete there?
"We're going to pacify the beast," Ling Qi continued confidently. Chang He shot her a surprised look, his greying eyebrows climbing his forehead. "I'm going to get closer and try to calm it down. Once I do, I need the three of you to begin a pacification ritual."
"I am not certain my arts will be sufficient for the task," Chang He admitted, giving the thrashing creature a worried look. It's bony heads were beginning to swing wildly about as it searched for her vanished qi.
Ling Qi smiled tightly. "That's why you'll only start if it looks like we're getting somewhere. Zhengui, you'll stay here and make sure to protect them, okay? They need to be able to do their work for me to win."
Hmm, looks like if we barricaded it'd have broken out eventually searching for her?
I'm intensely curious about how the mechanics of pacification looks and how you'd judge difficulty besides eyeballing. Presumably spirit tier applies.
"Yes! I won't let you down Big Sister," Zhengui agreed.
"Sis, leave me here too, I can help," Ling Qi was brought up short as Hanyi spoke. Up to now, the young spirit had remained quiet.
"Are you sure?" Ling Qi asked aloud, drawing some confused looks from her subordinates. "You can stay with me and be safe."
"But then I can't help! Your doofy friend can't protect me too. I'll stay with these guys and help. I remember the songs Momma used to sing to the mountain when it shook," Hanyi replied.
Ling Qi hesitated for a moment. "If you're sure."
"I'm not that fragile," Hanyi grumped as she materialized, looking up at Ling Qi with her hands on her hips. "Just get going big sis."
Oh, Zeqing used to pacify the mountain for the Sect huh?
She could feel the beasts directionless hate and agony, but it gave her very little to work with. If she was going to soothe it, even a little, she would need further understanding of the problem. The moment she had the thought, she felt understanding from Sixiang. Materializing her flute, Ling Qi flew straight backwards as she raised the instrument to her lips and began to play the Spring Breeze Canto.
A moment later, she felt Sixiang's qi bolstering and reinforcing the patterns of qi from the song as they spread like ripples through the tainted air. Ling Qi felt the burning sensation on her skin deepen and spread, but she needed this. Ling Qi felt her senses expand and deepen, the world around her growing sharper and more defined. More than that, her spiritual senses grew sharper, transforming the general haze of 'visible' qi into forms and patterns. She saw the channels in the sky, where water rose and become clouds, she saw the crumbling patterns of rot in the ground, where death transformed into earth, and the patterns in the air that guided the weather.
Cheerful Muse's Accompaniment -> Spring Breeze Canto effect boost.
That sounds a lot closer to the qi perception accuracy that Meizhen had.
I guess in an animistic world, "all listeners" includes literally everything.
Most importantly, she saw the hill, and flows of corruption running through it, like mud smeared across a watercolor. Ling Qi saw the bubbling poison at its core, transforming the dead and rotting detritus in the dirt into twisted life, and the twisted whorls of chaotic eye searing energies that gathered in little nodes throughout its channels, like sharpened gallstones, inflicting never ending pain. It was her own presence that caused them to pulse and throb. She cultivated stellar qi, heavily changed and purified, but all the same, like called to like, however weakly.
And we learned something here:
-There was
undead qi in there, converting normal death into something animate. From context I suspect this is the Tainted stuff from the Underworld. This is applied directly to the core somehow, which I suspect was maliciously done.
-The Stellar qi is just boosting and twisting everything. The hill is ignoring everyone else, it wouldn't have woken up until much later if it didn't somehow run into a Stellar qi cultivator that triggered it. Thats probably why the rest of our party never noticed it despite it being so aggressive.
--The same is true of the whole region in that case, the Stellar qi isn't doing anything on its own outside of the epicenter, but it DOES act as a generalized booster to changing and stuff.
It was too late to simply leave though, she could tell, the reaction she had triggered in the creature was self sustaining as long as it kept thrashing and moving like this, going against its nature as a hill. It's own actions were hurting it now. As the vision faded, and Sixiang's own ephemeral qi washed the burning toxin away, she twisted and darted in the air, avoiding snapping jaws and bursts of poisonous light and ooze, frantically composing.
And Stellar qi apparently triggers as long as you are changing yourself?
As she rose on a spiral of heated air from a plume of fiery gas, she hit upon her theme. As she soared back down, she began to play. It was a slow song, and a sad song, but most of all it was a peaceful song. With her music, she wove a spiritual tapestry, and in her mind's eye, she could see it. A vision of little hills rising from a sea of mist, and a peaceful river valley. A song of stars and sun passing over a landscape largely unchanged for a thousand years. Of rough edges worn smooth by wind, and little hills growing with centuries of sediment, one speck of dust and dirt at a time.
It was a song of mountains and earth, a song of how things should be, and as she suppressed her own qi, leaving only the ripples created by her song, she felt the beast react. It let out a keening double throated wail, full of anguish and grief. The earth shook as the hill itself did, thrashing limbs drumming against the earth as it shook its heads crazily, like an ox bothered by flies. Yet, all the same, while she continued playing, building a new verse even as she finished the first, she felt the warm and cool qi of mountain and earth increasing just a little, and the toxic aura of corruption weaken
Its nice to see how Ling Qi's pan-elemental foundation helps her compose, she understands everything a bit(except Metal).
So the hill calms and the stellar qi does too when it has nothing to react to.
Through her extended senses, she saw Chang He and the others rising on a platform of rock. Mo Lian was crouched in the front, controlling the construct, and Chang He kneeled beside him, with his fingers embedded in the stone. Absently she saw the array forming in the rock, lines carving themselves in stone around a jar of smoking incense sticks, which carried heated purifying qi into the air.
In front of them was Zhengui, forming a bulwark with his sheer bulk, vital qi coursing from the earth up through his stubby legs. Hot ash rolled off of him in waves, hissing as it met and purified poison air. On his back, standing just behind hiss tortoise head was Hanyi, and Ling Qi felt and heard as she raised her own voice in song. Hanyi's melody was colder and more remote but the young spirit followed the rhythm of Ling Qi's song, and with only a small adjustment, the two songs wove together into a seamless duet.
Instant Formations?
Hanyi duet is cute, we need more of that.
The hill was slowing, though keening bone rattling cries still rose from its throatless mouths. Rot still flowed from it, staining the earth around, but its limbs no longer drummed the earth, and the jaw on one of its heads hung loose, dangling as the thing seemed to struggle to hold together as it was reminded of what it was and should be.
But, Ling Qi realized with a grimace, it was not enough. One of the nodes of corruptive qi inside of it throbbed, and a geyser of burning gas erupted from it's back. Another pulsed, and the beast wailed. Pain warred against peace, and despite her best efforts, despite their best efforts, it seemed that pain was slowly winning. Even as Sixiang joined her in song, voice carried on strands of wind, it was only slowing the regression down.
Bolded makes me really suspicious. Based on our qi sensing based assessment once we quieted the Stellar qi, the Death qi should settle back down...I'm guessing the Underworld taint was an element we didn't take sufficiently into account, but the timing is suspect.
Something planted inside to MAKE it go bad?
As Ling Qi began to think furiously, trying to figure out what to do, what she could do, another voice joined them. Not in song, but in something that sounded more like a ritual mantra. Spoken in a tongue that sounded more like the grinding of rocks over eons than the noise made by a man or a beast, it was nonetheless rhythmic and soothing, and Ling Qi's eyes alit on a figure standing at the base of the hill, one hand resting against a flat plane of rock. Liao Zhu met her gaze as the knife in his free hand flashed and carved through stone with no visible effect.
Ling Qi felt the spiritual ripple however, as the spirit was severed from its pain. The corruptive nodes remained, but she could feel that the spirit could no longer perceive them. Without the driving impetus, its heads began to crumble and fall apart, as the song and the ritual soothed the hills anguish and rage. With a wet tearing sound, rotting muck came apart and the first of the heads fell.
The other came soon after, and soon the hill was just a hill, if one surrounded by rot and stinking of earthly gasses. Ling Qi flitted away the moment it became clear that her song was no longer needs, not wanting to start the problem all over again, and rejoined her spirits and subordinates.
And this largely confirms my suspicion.
The spirit was mercy-killed but the nodes are still there and working.
This was externally triggered.
"It looks like I overestimated myself in the end," Ling Qi said ruefully, dipping her head a little. "My apologies for that."
"Big Sister did good," Gui disagreed. "It was a really pretty song! It definitely would have worked if…"
"If I had been a little better," Hanyi huffed, crossing her arms and looking away. "Sorry for being rusty," she added in a mumble.
The humans present shifted uncomfortably at her apologies, but it was only Chang He who spoke. "No need for that Ma'am. I should take fault as well. If I had prepared better materials, perhaps…"
"None of that now," Liao Zhu said lightly, making Ling Qi jump as he clapped a hand on her shoulder. She could not help but shoot him a glare. "Given the situation you handled it as best as could be expected. Polish your skills and improve for the future."
Scorecard is good enough, we just didn't have enough skill to make the ritual shutdown work after we calmed it with music.
Granted, the ritual was running on a Peak Yellow's arts and expertise.
Predicted end scorecard with the three based on what we know now:
-Barricade
--Threat elimination: None, its still there.
--Army disruption: Major. It would probably have chased Ling Qi once they finished barricading, resulting in a containment breach depending on how the wall stands against a hilldragon.
--Regional concerns: It'd have contaminated a lot more as it tried breaking containment, I'm not sure how long the wall could hold against an extended slime production
--Help needed: None urgently, though sempai probably would have killed it anyway.
-Pacify:
--Threat elimination: Limited. It was pacified for a mercy-kill with effectively no more resistance.
--Army disruption: None. Damage was strictly localized.
--Regional concerns: None. Damage was strictly localized.
--Help needed: Some needed to put it down at the end, but we didn't actually need rescueing, just stuck there suppressing it until someone came to finish the job.
-Kill:
--Threat elimination: Total, if successful, if not, then it'd still be weakened significantly by the time we're done.
--Army disruption: Significant. An outright battle would have really mussed up the landscape, depending on how fast we could bring down that wall of health and any defensive techniques(its a hill, its got them unless its too corrupted) it might have
--Regional concerns: Depends on how fast we finished it
--Help needed: Either none, if successful, or significant help needed if we failed to actually kill it and run out of qi while in melee.
So Kill would have likely been worth a higher score, but riskier. Pacify safer, but we merely got a "you did okay". Skill gains from it were boss though, theres plenty of chances to raise combat skills but few for Spirit Ken.
She joined the general chorus of agreement as they hastily moved away from the affected region to avoid setting the slumbering beast off again. "What did you do to it at the end there?" she asked in a low voice as they moved off, hopefully to finish their survey without any MORE surprises.
Liao Zhu glanced her way briefly. "I mentioned that my father is a physician, have I not? A good doctor must know when it is time to simply end the pain and allow nature to take its course."
Ling Qi nodded slowly. She could read between the lines. Whoever came here to deal with the problem was going to do so in a more permanent fashion. Having looked upon what was left of the creatures core, she could not imagine a better scenario.
Looks like the core was too fucked up to use anyway. Damn
Over the course of the next few days, things went peacefully enough as she returned to the main force, and joined the detachments dealing with the issues she had helped map out. Soon enough they were on their way back to the Sect and she had been commended for performing her duties well. It irked her a little to just 'do well', but… standing out was hardly the point in an exercise like this.
She would just have to be satisfied with that.
Getting a little prideful there from a string of successes huh?
It was a little nostalgic, Ling Qi thought, sitting beside her mother in the house's small study, learning to read. Though the roles were reversed, and the surrounding more luxurious. "Do you feel an affinity for any of the exercises?"
Ling Qingge was silent, her aged features scrunched with effort as she painstakingly read through the contents of the jade stick on the table. The slab given Ling Qi by the Cai was a wondrous thing, able to detach segments of varying size which contained some portion of the total library.
Hmm, probably designed for portability as a long term archive. A single slab is easier to transport for a high level cultivator than hundreds of books, and being divisible gives it ease of use, as such an archive spans many types of arts which are meant for different users.
The piece her mother held in her hands contained the entry level cultivation arts. At last, Ling Qingge sighed and set the jade down, reaching up to knead her temples. "It is difficult to know. Some seem like little more than exercise manuals, while others seem wholly detached from any material concern. I am not certain I am fit to judge."
"It's fine if we have to guess a little, I think," Ling Qi said with a small smile. "You've already taken the first step, Mother, and that means the rest is just a matter of time. Just go with your first impulse for now. If it doesn't work out, we can try another."
Qi: "My first impulse tended to work out for me!"
The older woman met her eyes for a moment, and then nodded, seemingly buoyed by her confidence. She picked up the jade stick again, and her closed eyes fluttered as she began reviewing them again. It was something Ling Qi was happy to see, with her Mothers achievement in cultivation, some of the wear which recent years had piled upon her seemed to have fallen away. She was still a quiet and reticent woman, prone to melancholy, but Ling Qi felt like she could see something of firm and decisive woman who had once corralled her wild self into sitting down and learning her letters and numbers, despite the physical and mental exhaustion of degrading work.
Still, Ling Qi was glad when her mother finally opened her eyes again, sitting still for so long without cultivating left her feeling a bit jittery if she was honest. "Blooming Earth Meditations," her mother said slowly. "To me, it seems the most grounded of these… arts. I believe I could practice it."
Ling Qi hummed, briefly reaching out to touch the Jade stick and pull the information on the art into her thoughts. Wood and Earth in the old style, a three step art which focused on slower paced and contemplative exercises and breathing techniques. It encouraged its user to contemplate themes of growth and cycles. She could see why her mother might lean toward something like this. It was not something that she could cultivate, given her own inclinations, but it was a good beginner step.
Elements of growth, and acceptance of good and will as natural cycles. Fits her well enough.
Probably would be maddening to teach a teen though
"Very well, I will trust you on this matter," Ling Qingge said after some thought. "However, I expect you to be the one to give her a bath afterwards," she added.
"My what will the household think, having the Lady of the house perform such a task," Ling Qi replied with false pomp, resting her hand on her cheek. "Mother, you make the most untoward demands."
They shared a look, and Ling Qi snorted inelegantly and her Mother looked away, hiding the hint of a smile with her hand. Things were getting better, Ling Qi thought. If that meant putting up with some sneering at parties, it was worth it.
The best measure of mutual trust is to be able to make otherwise hideously offensive jokes.
When the next day came, Ling Qi rode with a laughing Biyu into the lightly wooded foothills, perched on Zhengui's back. She made sure not to release him until they had gone beyond the fields and wards, but it created a mild spectacle all the same among the field laborers anyway. She simply made sure to sit up straight and hold an imperious expression despite the excited child in her lap, who was still mystified and excited by the shimmering green glow protecting her from Zhengui's natural heat.
Its always fun to see side characters react to Giant Turtle Deployment.
Also hmm, didn't realize that Zhengui's natural heat was already at the point of being passively dangerous to mortals.
He needs to learn the trick to shield others from his own heat, then Ashfall would be much better.
Their destination was not too far away though. In preparation for this, Ling Qi had put some of her surveying skills to work and found what she was looking for. A spiritually rich little gully with a small stream that flowed through it. It was a beautiful place, rich and green, with clear waters that gurgled and bubbled musically over the smooth river rocks. However, it was more than that. The leaves bent swayed under the weight and movement of glittering spirits of wind, little more than whorls of air in the vague shape of birds and insects. Glittering fairies like crystal sculptures danced atop the bubbling water Among the flowers and grass, some plants moved and swayed of their own volition, and curious eyes peered down between the shadows of leaves
It was a place where the little spirits of the world were born and gathered, rich with free flowing qi. A good cultivation site to be sure, but that was not what she was here for, and besides it was in the Outer Sect.
This place sounds absolutely gorgeous.
In her arms, Biyu peered around with wide eyes as fluttering spirits took flight at their passage, a brilliantly colored flock of insect like fairies spiralling up into the sky as they fled Ling Qi's passage.
[Silent Fairy Screaming in terror]
Meanwhile Biyu enacts the invention of Audacious Fairy's Lark
She knew that among the inhabitants of the gully were plenty of the sorts of spirits that whispered and tricked and cajoled mortals who could hear, drawing them out of safety, but Ling Qi was not a confused mortal any longer, there was nothing to fear here. Even restrained from human senses, her presence had weight and power, and she could feel the spirits brushing against the edge of her awareness.
Ling Qi smiled as she set her sister down and rested a hand on her head. In the realm of the immaterial, her spirit pulsed, and cold swept through the observing spirits. It touched lightly upon Biyu's head, and the little girl giggled and grabbed at the snowflakes that crystallize in the air around her. To everyone else though, the meaning was unmistakable. 'Mine' her spirit said, and it was both declaration and threat, absolute in conviction, colored by the mastered lessons of the Thousand Ring Fortress art.
It occurs to me this is probably how Hanyi could run around a mountain with Third Realm wolves and rabbits untouched.
"Can we swim?" Biyu asked with wide eyes as Ling Qi lead her down to the stream. Behind her, she could feel Hanyi's gaze on her back, from where the young spirit sat on Zhengui's shell as her little brother laid down for a nap.
"If you want little sister," Ling Qi replied with a grin. "That goes for you too," she called back, startling Hanyi. "We're here to have some fun after all."
Hanyi huffed and looked away, puffing out her cheeks. "I don't need to play baby games."
Ling Qi rolled her eyes at the spirit's pique. "If you'd rather your Big Sister give you a dunking, just say so," she said sweetly.
"You wouldn't" Hanyi said, narrowing her eyes.
"I would," Ling Qi replied, in a voice of steel.
"I'll freeze the water," Hanyi threatened
"Not if I don't let you," Ling Qi challenged.
"I'll help," Sixiang laughed, their wicked grin audible in their voice.
"There's no need to be stubborn," Ling Qi added more gently. She knew Hanyi still had… issues, with her human family.
Biyu had wandered a bit while they argued crouching at the shore to watch glasslike 'fish' made wholly of water dart and vanish among the rocks and reeds. "Hanyi play too?" She asked innocently, looking up.
At last Hanyi rolled her eyes and slipped down from Zhengui's shell. "...Fine, if Big Sister wants to play so much, I guess I can."
Biyu Used Cute Charm: Its Super Effective!
Hanyi's stuck between envy, moping, and pride I think.
Like many kids she wants to be seen as adult and mature, so she just...sulks to the side trying to be mature and aloof. Doesn't help that it seems Zeqing pretty much just has aloof mode.
Meanwhile Zhengui is the guy who drives everyone to the beach, takes a nice chair and then sleeps until its time to go back
Wouldn't be surprised if he was figuring out cultivating too in his sleep. We know his breakthroughs are basi
So without hesitation, she happily spent the morning playing in the stream with her little sister and Hanyi. They swam and ran and laughed, and keeping her more fragile sister shrouded in protective qi, she worked to include Hanyi in their play. When they stopped to rest and weave flowers, it was Hanyi who transformed the fleeting constructions into crowns of unmelting ice that glistened beautifully in the sun, their colorful petals preserved forever in the ice. When Ling Qi sat at the riverside and sang an idle and playful song she had made up on the spot, the both of them listened closely with grins on their faces.
:3
Totally worth the AP.
Also those flower crowns would be pretty rad in summer.
Unruffled Stygian Reflection: C
Becoming as the surface of the water, the user absorbs the effects of a damaging technique or attack that is C rank or lower(this includes techniques that hit multiple times). If the technique is an area of effect, the user absorbs the technique's effects within Near range, protecting allies nearby.
This should do a nice number on using AoE counters to the mists rather than dispelling them.
Primal War Calling: C
Duration: Long
A heavy suspense and pressure building melody, this piece calls to mind the muster of beasts from across the province of emerald seas, called together for the final march. In an area out to far range from the user, the shades of long dead beasts coalesce from the shadows, red of eye and fang. The beasts howl and roar, filling the air with a savage cacophony. While this technique is active enemies within range are attacked viciously by the shades, who use the musicians hit and penetration in combat. The shades attacks deal a base C rank in damage, and the technique as a whole counts as two combatants for the purpose of multi attacker bonuses and penalties. In addition enemies which attempt to dispel this technique or another of the users music techniques while within it suffer an additional two attacks from the beasts.
Anyone knows if the Shades can deliver Coldstar Blade marks as Allies or if we need to mod the art first?
Eagle God's Defiance: C
Duration: Immediate
The fastest of the beast kings, the Eagle God, lord of those who flew and preyed on the world below was an impetuous beast, and dove into battle before all the others. If this technique is activated without Primal War Calling, that technique activates freely the next time the user takes an action. On activation, the user plays an ear splitting high note and the Eagle God flies again, if only for a moment. The initial cry is a spiritual attack against all enemies within Close Range, dealing C rank damage and reducing enemy physical avoid significantly on hit for a short time. The newly formed phantom then dives at a single target, dealing B ranked damage and carries them in a straight line in any direction, depositing them within a close distance from their previous position.
This would probably drive people insane, with all our zoning, forced movement is incredibly annoying
Grinding Glacial Melody: C
Duration: Short
Requires Implacable Advance to be active. The user advances toward their foe, playing the slow, steady notes of the march, whipping up a storm of snow and ice in their immediate vicinity and bringing down a crushing cold and pressure on their target, driving them before the user. This technique is a spiritual cold attack, with a small bonus to hit and a large bonus to penetration dealing C rank damage, if damage is dealt, the target is forced to move directly away from the user at one half their speed. Once activated this technique repeats each time the user moves toward the target(minimum half speed) for the duration of the technique.
Bumper cars!
Shimmering Azure Ribbon: C
Duration: Long
The user generates a long and wide strip of shimmering water that wraps and coils around their torso, rippling and flowing endlessly so long as the technique is maintained. The strip surges and weaves with sudden motion whenever foes grow near, and the user moves with greater grace and alacrity, improving their physical and spiritual avoid. Those who strike the user in melee are lashed pressurized sprays water. These counter attacks can occur up to three times between the users actions and use (Dex/Wits+[ Primary dodge skill] for Hit and Str/Int+ [Primary dodge skill] for penetration) and deal D rank base damage
A hula hoop?
Laughing Flight of the Wind Thief (Requires Bronze Foundation to Cultivate)
In this world there are a million tales long forgotten, great and small. In a time before the rule of men, before the arrogance of dragons, there were only beasts that called themselves gods. Yet strength breeds arrogance, and arrogance breeds complacency, and so long ago a cunning young girl plotted and planned and stole the Sovereignty of Wind from the gods. She flew beyond their reach, and mocked them with every league, the wind carrying her laughter across the land. In this art are the seeds of the way she forged, refined for the modern day, to inspire a disciples own flight. In mastering the dual powers of darkness and wind, that they might never be caught unwillingly again.
...huh, is it just me or does it pretty much come out and say that its going to be a Domain Inspiration which grants domain-based flight?
Ling Qi peered into the distance at the smoking crater in the ground, the glassy glimmer of the melted dirt and the shattered stone around. Then she shook her head. "Sorry little brother, you still missed."
"Ugh, stupid Zhen," Gui grumbled. The giant tortoise lowered his head and swallowed another massive mouthful of dirt, stones and plant matter from the miniature mountain of 'ammunition' they had prepared.
"Silence, foolish Gui," Zhen hissed as the air around him rippled with heat. "I Zhen, merely need a little more practice!"
Ling Qi watched with a critical eye, flickers of silver marking the use of her arts as she examined the processes of the technique Zhengui was trying to develop. He was not actually very good at taking in earth qi, so for now they were using this crude method, but once he had mastered the more mundane aspects, they would have to work on the internal ones. Perhaps she could ask Xuan Shi? He had much more experience with earth arts.
Oh Earth techs next.
Glass missiles make sense, fire is pretty much crap for range without more magic, because fire tends to cling to the air and then disperse there. You need something with BULK to fly far.
"You ready with the target Sixiang?" She asked absently, resting her hand on Gui's scaly head as he swallowed the 'fuel'. Dribbling lines of molten glass dripped from the corners of his mouth, it was cute in a way.
Messy eater.
That said I suspect a giant turtle head dripping molten glass is one of those faces only a mother would love
"Got ya covered boss," Sixiang said, and in the distance, Ling Qi saw the spinning clay target, a simple unadorned disc, spinning and floating in midair. The wind coiled around the disc, preparing to fling it into the distance. Sixiang was getting better at manipulating the wind, though so far they had not really come up with anything that could be called a technique.
I *think* this is leading into Sixiang acquiring their own attack mode? Because if you can toss a frisbee you can toss a dagger. And Ling Qi could show up with a cloud of whirling blades, especially if she practiced to use her domain to condense expendable ice shards for hurling by Six.
"Alright, fire when ready," Ling Qi said with a grin. Zhen's throat bulged as the missile formed and traveled up toward his mouth gathering fiery qi along the way and the disc flew out, spinning wildly. A moment later, he rose to his full height and spat, and a burning mass of molten earth and ash erupted. The missile was the size roughly a meter across and arced high through the air trailing ash and rippling heat. It arced down a hundred meters distant, and the qi contained within churned. In a flash of fiery light and molten shrapnel it exploded.
"Give the boy a prize!" Sixiang announced cheerfully and Ling Qi grinned as well, the disc was gone, blasted into burnt fragments.
"Ha! It is done!" Zhen crowed proudly.
"Hmph, Zhen should not be so proud, Sixiang is taking it easy." Gui grumbled, even as he eyed the pile of dirt and stones with distaste.
"It's a good first step," Ling Qi soothed as Zhen turned outraged eyes on his other half. "We'll work on consistency, and then we can move onto harder targets."
Wait so.
1) Gui eats a bunch of dirt.
2) Processes it in his stomach into molten glass
3) Zhen
shitsspits it at high velocity at a target
We have advanced to peak civilization: Flinging flaming poop.
However, before they could continue, Ling Qi found her attention drawn away. She turned to look to her right as she felt Hanyi's qi approaching. Even from here, she could feel the spirits anger and embarrassment, long before she spotted her trudging up the hill where Zhengui practiced his techniques. Hanyi was soaked to the bone, her dress hung heavy from her shoulders, stiff and covered in frost and ice. Icicles dangled from the hems, clinking musically as she walked, and her hair was muddy and full of water weeds.
Assessment, mostly pissed off and shamed into action, not actually hurt, and looking like a hypothermia victim.
Getting her clean is going to be a chore.
Ling Qi was at her side in the blink of an eye, crossing the intervening distance as little more than a blur. "Hanyi, what happened?" Ling Qi asked, crouching down to look at her. Ling Qi could see the fading remains of bruises and scrapes on the young spirit's arms and legs.
"I was just playing and this stupid jerk knocked me off the side of the waterfall, and then this spirit got mad cause I froze his dumb pond," Hanyi sniffled. "Then I had to walk all the way out here cause I can't get into the cave without you.
Factually truthful and yet misleading.
Ling Qi moving at instant speed at her
daughtersister being bullied.
Also I wonder if we'd meet the one that got mad from the freezing.
Ling Qi grimaced. "Sorry about that," she apologized. The locks on the disciples homes were not something she could modify. "But who knocked you off a cliff, and why?"
"I dunno," Hanyi pouted. "I was just playing and singing by the stream and they got mad at me for making noise and kicked me off the cliffside."
Ling Qi frowned, she sensed something a little evasive in Hanyi's tone, but…
Yeet status::
-Zhengui - Yeeted
-Hanyi - Yeeted
-Sixiang - Currently not possible to yeet.
-Ling Qi - Did anyone throw her like a DBZ character yet?
"What?! Big Sister, we need to go beat them up!" Zhengui announced, apparently having caught her words as he trundled over. "We can't just let people mess with family."
"Doofus," Hanyi muttered under her breath, looking away briefly. She quickly brightened up though, looking pleadingly up at Ling Qi. "Yeah, you should beat them up Big Sister!"
Zhengui :3
Hanyi isn't good at showing affection still.
Funny thing is that this is pretty much what started Sun Shao's rebellion isn't it?
Ling Qi did not know what she had expected, but it was not this. Standing before the perpetrator, she looked into Yu Nuan's eyes and saw stubborn determination mixed with fear. The girl looked much the same as she had when Ling Qi had challenged her last. She had a new set of piercings in her right ear, and some of the others had been changed for studs of other colors, but that was the extent of her physical changes.
"What is this I hear about you knocking my spirit off this cliff?" LIng Qi asked cooly, gesturing to her right, where the clear waters tumbled over the cliffside, churning up the pond below. Chunks of slow melting ice still floated on its weedy surface. Hanyi peered out from behind her, and Ling Qi did not miss the way she pulled a face and stuck out her tongue at the other disciple.
Talismans switched but not identifiable what.
Still, I dare say nobody expected her.
"I lost my temper," Yu Nuan replied defensively. "But that little… your spirit has been bugging me all month, interrupting my practice and trying to challenge me, and when she scared off the spirit I was trying to bind..."
Left unsaid was what Ling Qi read between the lines. Yu Nuan had assumed Ling Qi was trying to mess with her, and was now preparing herself for the consequences of rising to the bait. Ling QI shot a frown at Hanyi, who huffed.
"Like that's a good excuse for attacking me like a big jerk. You knocked me off a cliff!"
Yu Nuan's pierced eyebrow twitched violently. "We're all third realm here," she growled. "Don't pretend you're made of glass." She crossed her arms and looked defiantly at Ling Qi. "I'm not gonna apologize."
Hanyi was at fault for being annoying and not telling her
parent family what she was up to.
Yu Nuan was at fault for disproportionate reaction to the brat being annoying.
Ling Qi was at fault for not keeping track of what her spirits are doing when they wander off on their own. Free range children policy has its woes.
Also I just had a brief imagine spot of Fifth Realm horsing about.
Ling Qi frowned, she had her suspicions but… "Hanyi, why have you been following her around and challenging her?"
The young spirit looked briefly furtive, but a hard look from Ling Qi made her darting eyes still. "...I wanted to beat her, everyone says Big Sister crushed her so easily, so I thought I should be able to win too." She scuffed her foot in the dirt. "I kept losing."
There was another violent eye twitch from Yu Nuan, Ling Qi felt bad for the other girl. On the other hand, Hanyi had actually caused the both of them some trouble. If, or rather when it got around that Ling Qi had allowed one of her spirits to get attacked by a lower ranked disciple it would give her detractors even more ammunition if she didn't do anything about it. Ling Qi rubbed her forehead in frustration before she caught herself.
Straightening up, she looked the other girl in the eye, and measured her wary stance. "I will need an apology," she said, causing the other girls shoulders to stiffen. "However, Hanyi you need to stop…"
Both Hanyi and Zhengui have a devil of a time with an inferiority complex, but thats really just Ling Qi being a crazy overachiever.
That said Hanyi still hadn't actually come out and said why she was doing that, and I don't think she'd have found it sufficient even if she somehow won.
"No!" Hanyi replied stubbornly, stamping her foot. "I'm gonna beat her. She's a cheater, and she made fun of Momma's song."
"I said you're bad at it you little snot," Yu Nuan shot back. "If you're just copying someone else, of course you're bad."
Hanyi puffed her cheeks out angrily, and Ling Qi grimaced internally.
And this shows Yu Nuan in a better light.
She
accepted the challenge from a random spirit kid, and then criticized it for being a knockoff. Because one of her principles is that your music must be true to yourself.
Also some of the discord conversation reminded me, this is how we met her, Hanyi just randomly challenges people like shes a Pokemon NPC. Then she plays, and has fun while she's winning(which puts the other party in distress). Then she gets mad and cries foul about cheating for losing(despite being the one cheating first), and now her mom has to show up to lay down the law.
"You can just make her stop," Sixiang pointed out.
'I could,' Ling Qi thought. 'But it's my fault for not paying attention to what she was doing in the first place. I'm supposed to be her guardian'. It was a weird and unwelcome thought, but not one Ling Qi could avoid having. "Yu Nuan, I will repeat. I will need an apology, but I am willing to give you some recompense for lost time and trouble," she held up a hand to quiet Hanyi. "If you want to challenge someone, ask me and I'll help you arrange it."
"Then I wanna challenge her now, she's a cheater," Hanyi said pointing to Yu Nuan.
"And why should I accept?" The other Disciple replied, crossing her arms. "I've already lost enough time on this."
"...If you win, I'll add on helping you wrangle a spirit," Ling Qi said after a moment. "Since you're having some trouble on that front."
The other girl stared her down, only briefly looking at Hanyi, which seemed to infuriate the young spirit even more. "...I'm guessing the deal is only good if it comes with that apology, huh?" She asked.
"Yes," Ling Qi replied bluntly.
"Fine," Yu Nuan replied. "You got a deal. What's the time frame?"
Thats a good deal. Ling Qi is about as good a spirit wrangler as could be reasonable to find. And from the implication, she wasn't having any success even before Hanyi scared the spirit off.
I wonder what kind of spirit Yu Nuan, a Fire cultivator, is looking for at a riverside though.
