>>5133540

"Though the last of them died seasons ago" She somberly noted

She clacked her mandibles

"But, I realized that if I had changed the others could to, and after some trial and error realized the cause of my ascension was the sap and dew of these mighty flowers!" She explains proudly, clearly thinking that achievement is remarkable in someway "But they only grew in size, not smarts and still only cared about food, protecting me or the eggs. I...was a little discouraged I will admit, and I suppose that is how I fell for that bitches deceit! She was so pathetic when I found her, being bullied by that toad, I couldn't just leave her to die, and she never once thanked me for taking time out of my day to train her. To think I considered her my sister once!"

She stomps her feet around kicking up dust

"But we were for a time, we fought together, ate together, laughed together, but that's all in the past. After how she has betrayed and tried to humiliate me, all I want to do is stomp her face in the dirt!" Tiexingege proclaims angrily "the ungrateful sow! After all I've done for her she spits in my face, I saved her life from the Tyrant Hare you know"

The miasma of her grudges surrounds her like dark mist, but it is not the most potent you have encountered. You could take it into yourself, and swallow it, but that won't do anything for Tiexingege besides briefly sooth her resentful rage.

"Tch, should've let her get squashed" She boasts, holding her head 'What about your, Huanliuxue? How'd you turn from a normal cat into the great monster you are now?"

You turn to her and narrow your eyes, and tell the story of your own second birth. Tiexingege seems close to crying as you detail to her exactly how you lost your first "family" and she outright cheers when you describe your murder of Ling Meng and how you devoured his heart and lesser organs.

"hah! I knew your name was a strong one!" Tiexingege shouts, to hide her lingering sadness of hearing the tragedy of your past life "Tell me, was your revenge as sweet as his meat? That's how our kind should live! By strength and force of will! Take and do what we will, and not care about pointless, dainty things! Like tough and mighty warriors! Not pampered princesses!"

"I've tasted sweeter things than Ling Meng" You admit plainly "Do you find the taste of violence sweeter than honey?"

"Bah, not without a point. Fighting is good, shows whose strong enough to survive and who needs to be whipped into shape. I'm not like the bitch queen who caused this war for no reason but cruelty. It isn't like I'm a sadist or anything" Tiexingege blusters, thinking you might see her in a negative like from her comments "What about you, Half of your name is bloodshed"

"I'm was born from a grudge, as you were born from fearing for you kinsfolk, I am Huanliuxue because I witnessed a bloodbath and had no power to stop it" You explain as you turn your tail and walk away from the Ant Queen
Cont

>>5133543

"But I'd be lying if I claimed to not enjoy killing those who deserve to die, but like you I am not a monstrous sadist who delights in tormenting the weak. Until we next meet Black Iron" You add as you walk down the hill the two of you stood atop

"Heh, I see. I wish it was you I met, rather than the bee, Red Fur!" Tiexingege calls out as you leave her court of busy workers and marching soldiers "Until we meet again"

And with that conversation finished, you calmly stroll to the Jionghuagege's side of the flower forest and find her fretting over a very on edge Ping, a nervous Feiqing and a very demure and polite Lei, as her children surround the three men, carrying globs of Divine Blood Honey and nuzzling closer to the men's legs as they are seated around a crude table of stone.

"Ah! I see you've found my servants! I must express my gratitude for you collecting them and watching over them in my stead!" You shout to make the Bee Queen notice you as you sway towards the table and lay down across from Ping, who looks rather outraged that you've called him your servant.

"Servant" Ping snarled, eyes narrowed to squints. You flash him a smug grin and look back to Jionghuagege as she bumbles through the air towards you

"Oh I was so worried about them" you cackle "Worried they blunder into danger or become lost. Humans are so fragile, you see"

"They are, they are! The fuzzy faced one got bruised just because I nudged him with my head" Jionghuagege exclaims, guilt sneaking into her excited tone "I'd like to apologize again for that, oh noble sir"

"its fine... I already accepted your first three apologies. And see Ping, I told you these bees meant us no harm, They were just trying to show us hospitality" Feiqing mutters, turning to the now red faced Ping

"They're demons all the same, no matter how cutely and maiden like they act" Ping whispers, thinking you can't hear him. Jionghuagege can't. She may cry if she could.

"But your servants have told me of your battle with that terrible toad! I though he died ages ago" Jiongjuagege says, sounding quietly awed by your accomplishments "And you didn't even boast and brag about it, how humble! Truly you are the epitome of what it means to be a well bred lady!"

"Oh you had a history with that wretch? His foul taste is still stuck on my tongue" You say, knowing exactly what her history was with the brute, as her former friend told you enough for you paint a vivid enough picture of her past in her mind.

"Yes! Its part of my dark history! When I was young, after I became smart after realizing how fun it was to fly through flower petals with my sisters I was bullied by that ill mannered thug! He forced me to give him honey!" Jionghuagege wails, her drones noticing her distress and rushing to hug her, clearly a behavior the spritely girl has trained into them
Cont

>>5133544

"And even tried to force me into feeding him my...my children! He was a terrible bully, and though it is rude of me to say, I am glad he got eaten by someone to strong for him to push around. He deserved nothing less, for threatening to swallow me when I was so young!" She rages, buzzing loudly and sharply to enunciate every word she speaks

Ping looks guilty for a moment, as you feel a flicker of black fury grip your heart and suddenly you wish you tortured the dragon eater more than you did.

"Oh how did you get rid of him? And I'm not glad I've eaten him, even if its made me stronger" You say, sticking your tongue out to show your distaste for the deceased's flavor

Jionghuagege goes silent. For a long while, about the time it takes to eat a meal, the only sound around the stone table is buzzing and sound of Feiqing trying to sneakily slurp down a handful of Divine Blood Honey without anyone noticing his gluttony.

"I traded one bully for another. I thought she was nice and kind despite her aggressive character, rough demeanor like yourself, Lady Huanliuxue, She was rude and brash, but she acted like she cared about me. But now I realize she just wanted to brow beat me into her underling! That all she wanted was my honey! Like the Toad before her!" She says bitterly, and impressive venom in her words and the grudges that spills from her is several shades darker than Tiexingege's! "She treated me harshly, even though she called me her sister, and revealed her true colors when she went around boasting about slaying the Tyrant hare when I struck the final blow! Then she had the nerve to steal from me and hurt my children"

You stare blankly behind an expression of fake shock. You cannot believe this. You knew it was a misunderstanding and childish pride that drove these two princess apart, but you didn't realize just how petty the cause of their rivalry and the war it sparked actually was! Neither of them spoke the truth of their hearts to the other, and so have constructed false images of the other in their minds.

Tiexingege, who despite her rough demeanor and thuggish character, believes the strong should protect and guide the weak and because Jionghuagege, who leads a much more carefree life and is gentle by nature didn't realize or understand her harsh treatment was a training regime and now looks back on their relationship as one between bully and victim. Neither of them explained themselves, because, like the children they didn't think their friend thought differently and saw the world through different eyes. They don't realize everyone's three views are different and can be vastly so!
Cont

>>5133546

Both feel they have been lied to and betrayed, because one thinks the other used her as a stepping stone and looks down on her despite her being both her friend and teacher, and the other thinks she was being used and pushed around because she didn't grasp that the "harsh treatment" was her friend trying to toughen her up because was fearful of her safety, when all she wants to do is life a quiet and slow life!

And now both are at eachother's throats because their territorial, bestial children started fighting over food and territory

And you understand exactly why these two girls could have such a disastrous communication error. They're both bugs! They communicate through pheromones! Any subtly is lost on them because they haven't realized the gap left by pheromones and haven't realized the world they now live in is both more complexes and simplistic than they realize.

You almost cough up blood the realization is so striking!

"I to, know the pain of being stabbed in the back by those I thought were my friend" Feiqing says, venturing to place a hand upon Jionghuagege's head. Ping bows his head, brow furrowed and expression grave

What do you decide to do, Huanliuxue?

>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)

>Enraged by the idiocy of your juniors, beat both of them black and blue and forcefully drag them to each other while fending off their soldiers and scold them as is your duty as their elder! (Martial trial DC 65)

>Drug both of them with tampered honey and while they're intoxicated, cast an illusion with Ghost Empress Melody to remind them of their friendship and show them the other's perspective (Mischief Trial. DC 30)

>That they're too set in their ways and stubborn to return to being friends and nothing can be done besides helping one overcome the other

>Write in

>>5133548
>Drug both of them with tampered honey and while they're intoxicated, cast an illusion with Ghost Empress Melody to remind them of their friendship and show them the other's perspective (Mischief Trial. DC 30)
Mostly because I don't trust the dices.

>>5133548
>Drug both of them with tampered honey and while they're intoxicated, cast an illusion with Ghost Empress Melody to remind them of their friendship and show them the other's perspective (Mischief Trial. DC 30)
This one seem the most entertaining.

>>5133548
>>Enraged by the idiocy of your juniors, beat both of them black and blue and forcefully drag them to each other while fending off their soldiers and scold them as is your duty as their elder! (Martial trial DC 65)

>>5133548
>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)

>>5133548
>>Drug both of them with tampered honey and while they're intoxicated, cast an illusion with Ghost Empress Melody to remind them of their friendship and show them the other's perspective (Mischief Trial. DC 30)

>>5133548
>Drug both of them with tampered honey and while they're intoxicated, cast an illusion with Ghost Empress Melody to remind them of their friendship and show them the other's perspective (Mischief Trial. DC 30)

Seems the most in character for us. We're not here to fluff our ego after all, at least not only that anyway.

>>5133548
>>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)
tiexin would hate the drugging/lying, and prefer the beating
jionghua would understand the drugging, and see Huanliuxue as another bully for beating her.
so both of those options are not stable results, because they are only understandable to one of the pair

>>5133548
>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)

>>5133548
>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)

>>5133548
>Write in
>Regale the princessess with fake stories from our past
>One to make them realize what the other felt
>Another to make them long for the companionsfip of a friend
>And the third to give them an example of how to properly take the first step and make peace
They're kids, they need proper parenting.

>>5133548
>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)
They might take offense to being drugged, even if for a good purpose.
And while a beating could be a good correction from elder to junior, the DC is scarring me a little.
Though talking it out peacefully would be a good way to introduce them to the basic tenants of civilized behaviour.

>>5134224
I'll support.

They need to respect our strength as their leader.

>>5133548
>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)

>>5133548
>Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them (Martial Trial. DC 45)
Might as well get some parenting training in early

>>5134008
support, this anon makes sense.

Ending the vote now. Tallying the result.

Drug both of them with tampered honey and while they're intoxicated, cast an illusion with Ghost Empress Melody to remind them of their friendship and show them the other's perspective:4

Enraged by the idiocy of your juniors, beat both of them black and blue and forcefully drag them to each other while fending off their soldiers and scold them as is your duty as their elder!:1

Arrange both of the princesses to meet you outside of their forest home, and keep them from fighting long enough for them to realize their mistakes by parrying their strikes and standing between them:9

So You'll arrange for both of the princesses to meet outside of their territory and when they start fighting, prevent them from hurting eachother by parrying their strikes long enough for them to naturally realize their mistakes.

Update will arrive shortly

Regale the princessess with fake stories from our past, One to make them realize what the other felt, Another to make them long for the companionship of a friend, And the third to give them an example of how to properly take the first step and make peace:1

Your students and Ping speak their sympathy of Jionghuagege's plight and tragic past, though Ping only does so by offering condolences that she had the misfortune of befriending a heartless demon which is perhaps the only way he can show the compassion he so clearly harbors for her without reneging or comprising his belief that magical beasts are cruel and monstrous beings. But while they shower the young princess in affection, openly or not, you sit silently plotting a means to allow her eyes and Tiexingege's eyes to at last see mount tai and remedy their mutual ignorance of the others true affections and intentions. They're both children, so it shouldn't be diffcult for them to forget the bruises they've given each other if you can quench the resentment that grows in their hearts before it takes root and strangles them. You've watched them battle once before as an unseen spirit. They spend the entirety of their matches exchanging insults and cursing the other for their imagined crimes and betrayal until their verbal brawl enrages them so greatly they abandon all caution and sense of reason and knock themselves out by recklessly assaulting eachother. At which point they are carried back to the safety of their homes by their children, who are more concerned with the safety of their mothers and queens than they are the presence of their enemies.

Licking the back of your paw, you watch Feiqing and Lei fawn over the sulking Jionghuagege as she continues mournfully complaining about the harshness of her past, not understanding the true meaning of suffering like you do but she is young and Naïve so you cannot hold her ignorance of the cruelty of life and fate against her. She is carefree and trusting, after all she consider you, who reeks of death and freshly spilt blood, a friend simply because you told her your name! And while you may still be young yourself, you've experienced hardship and tragedy enough to be wiser than other cats your age and thus know that such unwariness could be a death sentence while Jionghuagege does not! Holding your head up, basking in pride, you are struck by a realization that instantly solves the dilemma you were facing!

'I know how to rekindle their friendship!' You nearly gasp outloud, but clench your jaw and take in a sharp breath to mask the shock of finding the answer you sought so suddenly 'how could I not have realize it sooner! The childish ignorance that broke their bond can also repair it'

Jionghuagege is Gullible.
Tiexingege is Daring.

And neither of them are canny enough to suspect duplicity from someone they consider a friend or admire, respectively. In their own way, both remain trusting despite the scorn they hold for eachother for the imagined betrayal of that same trust. They see the world in black and white, they do not realize the multitude of colors and hues that fill the world.
Cont

>>5135073

When they believe something to be good, it is good, and when they believe something in the world to be bad, it is bad. This simple, youthful perception of life is what lead to their strife and it is also what will allow you to end it.

Because Jionghuagege trusts you, she will listen to whatever you say with complete confidence. Leading her away from her watchful and violently protective children will be as easy as telling her there is a game you want to teach her that can only be played somewhere else. And Because Tiexingege admires you for your strength and the battles you have won, she will jump at the opportunity to be your sparring partner and will leave her protective daughters to follow you wherever you lead her!

Thus the two rivals will meet without their armies and away from their homes, doubtlessly with swords drawn and bows bent. And they will not suspect you of any manipulation and may even believe the other to be intending to harm you, their new friend, Which will certainly add oil to the fire. So they'll fight ferociously, exchanging insults more passionately than ever before. But, unlike their prior bouts, you will be there, parrying and redirecting their every blow with your gentle style of feline martial arts, moving like a ghost between them as they expend all of their usual abuse and retorts as they grow more and more enraged. Until their words reveal their perspective of the events that lead to their deadly feud to the other and make them both realize their mistakes. It may take sometime for them to vent all of their contempt and fury towards one another for them to reach the point of emotional exhaustion required for them to do such a thing all the while trying to murder the other, but you'd stake it all on one throw. After all, you're their elder and superior in both cultivation, wits, and martial and magical prowess!

Keeping these two brats from tearing each other apart will be as easy for you as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood.

"Jionghuagege! Your sadness pierces my heart like a hunter's arrow! As your friend, allow me, the humble Huanliuxue to return you to good cheer and bring joy back to your life" You purr, standing as the bee stops sniffling and looks to you excitedly "I know a great place for us to play"

"Oh you do? You do? Where is it? Where is it?" She says happily, buzzing around you as you turn to Lei and narrow your eyes, trying to communicate to him your plan without speaking a word

"Oh its not far from here! Where the jade colored streams meet" You say "My servants can lead you there. I'm feeling tired so I'll take a nap first before I join you there. Wait for me, will you"

"That sounds fun, thank you for offering to take my mind off the past. Just don't take too long, Huanliuxue or we may have all the fun without you!" She says, almost cheering she's so excited.
Cont

>>5135077

Of course you're not tired at all, and instead of sleeping for a few hours, you instead return to Tiexingege's half of the forest of flowers.

As expected, she is still drilling and trying to train her witless daughters, switching from being frustrated with their lack of intelligence and progress to coddling them and fretting that she has hurt feelings they do not have.

"Black Iron, my blood has started boiling we shared our pasts. How about we spar for awhile? So we can both test our mettle" You call out, challenging the princess of ants. Her antenna stand up, straight as shoots of bamboo

"Red Fur! I wasn't expecting you to return so soon! But I was hoping you'd challenge me! Ever since I felt your aura I've been aching for a bout with you!" Tiexingege shouts back, leaving her children without even asking where you intend to hold your friendly duel.

As you expected, setting the board was all too easy. All that remained to do, was to wait for The two rivals to meet and intervene when they inevitably come to blows.

Telling Tiexingege the false location of your spar, you use your specter lightness skill to float through the air like a drifting leaf, surveying the homes of both of the young queens to make certain none of their guards are following after them before heading for the place were you've arranged for both of them to meet. To get their fast, you simply lay atop your Enchanted Guqin as if it were a flying sword, and use both your spiritual sense and Yōulíng-Qīnggōng to control it.

"TIEXINGEGE!" You hear Jionghuagege yell as you approach the site of their fateful second meeting "HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOUR FACE HERE!"

"JIONGHUAGEGE! I SHOULD BE SAYING THE SAME TO YOU!" Tiexingege snarls as you leap from your magic instrument and float on the air, watching the two youngster square off, as Lei holds Feiqing and Ping back from standing beside Jionghuagege "WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE! HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING ME OR SOMETHING! Or did you..."

"HOW DID YOU LEARN I'D BE HERE...did you dare!" Jionghuagege spits back as both her and her rival come to the same conclusion, that the other has attacked you. Tilting your head, you can't help but to snicker as they shout in unison "DID YOU HURT HER"

Feiqing's eyes widen as he realizes your gambit. Ping how, enraged by the sight of the bully of the one magical beast he deems to be pure of heart, steps to join the battle that is about to commence as Jionghuagege and Tiexingege square off against one another, clacking their mandibles and making threatening gestures towards one another. Then he spots you, and almost shouts your name in confusion

BUT LEI! The loyal student that he is, tackles him and muffles his mouth as you decended to the earth just as the two princess charge one another, shouting the same phrase as the clouds of the grudge they hold for one another

"How dare you! I'll never forgive you! She had nothing to do with this!"

Roll 1d100. DC 45. Best out of three

Rolled 80 (1d100)

>>5135082

Rolled 5 (1d100)

>>5135082

Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>5135082

>>5135082
How cute.

But Damn Lei, mah boi, he be doing the work

>>5135100
35 over the dc! Nice! Update will arrive shortly

You land between them as they come within a mere tail's length apart from clashing together. A cloud of dust is thrown up from the force of your impact, a small crater forming where you stand as a shockwave ripples out through the air. Feiqing is knocked from his feet, Lei holds Ping down to keep both of them from being bowelled over by the wave of air created from your arrival. Rearing up to stand on your hind legs, you find a certain inner peace as you breath out and empty your mind of all earthly concerns and fears. Becoming like a ghost in thought, you mimic their ethereal movements as you twist your body so one of your forepaws are facing both of the rivals as they rush to avenge she who stands between them, believing wholeheartedly the other has wounded and humiliated you for only being their friend.

With one paw pressing down on Tiexingege's bladed leg and the other pushing against Jionghuagege's stinger, you twist your self completely around, rotating in place as you begin to fall back to the ground to stand on all four of your feet. Gathering all of the momentum and power the two girls put into their strikes, you transfer the energy through your limbs and back into them, making them throw themselves away from the other as you elegantly return to your natural, quadrupedal stance. The dust filling the air falls, as you bow your head and close your eyes. Tiexingege's iron blade splits a nearby bolder, while Jionghuagege becomes stuck by her stinger in the stalk of a nearby heavens reaching flower. Breathing out, you open your eyes again.

"Huanliuxue?!" Both of them shout, the moment they recover from being thrown threw the air

"What are you doing here, get out of here! This is dangerous! The one I've warned you about has ambushed us!" Jionghuagege cries

"Eh! Why did you throw me as well! has she put a spell on your mind or something!" Tiexingege drawls as the two circle you, clearly trying to get the other to back away from you as you calmly sit between them and clean the dust out of your beautiful fur. It clings to your tongue and makes it feel unpleasantly dry

"Don't talk to her like you know her! Huanliuxue is too refined a lady to ever speak with a brutish thing like you!" Jionghuagege buzzes furiously

"What are you talking about! Has your ego finally burned out what little brains you had! She isn't a fragile flower like you are!" Tiexingege yells back

You glance between them, wondering if either of them will realize your trick. Tension fills the air, the dark clouds of their shared resentment shrouds the valley like morning fog. Lei struggles with Ping, whose still trying to join the fight, fully believing Tiexingege to be a malicious demon. And you remain sitting serenely between the two fighters, waiting to see if one of them will catch onto your deception and ruin your ploy to renew their bond.

"You're trying to trick her!" Both of them shout at eachother "Like you did with me!"
Cont

>>5135370

Its incredible how closely synced their thoughts and feelings remain, despite their falling out. A sign of how strong their friendship was, you suppose. Also a sign of their youthful naivety that they still cannot figure out you've set both of them despite falling from the heavens to block both of their strikes. Its almost amusing how innocent both of them are, but it is certainly impressive that despite all of the darkness they harbor in their hearts, all of that hatred, they still remain pure and trusting of those they consider their allies. Its endearing.

"Filling her head with lies, telling her I'm a mindless brute who delights in bloodshed no doubt!" Tiexinggege hisses angrily, clacking her mandibles "if you didn't just resort to witchcraft!"

"You must've acted like you were the victim, or hit her over the head so she can't think clearly!" Jionghuagege wails sorrowfully as you watch both of them closely as they circle eachother and you, waiting for the first sign of them renewing their attack "Get away from her!"

"I'll free her from your enchantment!" Tiexingege proclaims wrathfully

"You aren't fooling anyone, so stop trying to paint me as the villain" Jionghuagege "When you were the one at fault"

A twitch of the thorax. A flexing over the legs. The battle truly begins. However, you retain the calm of the grave and do not lose your composure. Serenely, you turn your paws, and get ready to deflect the two princess' next exchange of blows.

Pressing your paw against Jionghuagege's brow, you send her flipping through the hair as you stop her diving charge with a gentle push. Catching Tiexingege's slashing blades with your claws you throw her to the ground and send her rolling down the hill. Sitting back down, you place yourself between the two of them and wait for them to come back.

"You scheming bitch!" Tiexingege bellows "You crossed a line"
"You lying brute!" Jionghuagege seethes "Isn't tormenting me alone enough for you!"
"I'll TEAR YOU APART!" The two of them shout as they clash, this time with Qi.

Tiexingege's leg blades grow and crackle with white lightning, as Jionghuagege's antenna brighten as the dust on her fur glows green and falls to the ground, where vines soon erupt out and shoot towards Tiexingege. The ant scythes through the wave of choking roots and thorned veins, helped by the fact you scythe several down, coating your claws in Destructive Yin Qi. Jionghuagege dives with her stinger aimed for Tiexingege's throat.

You catch both of their blows with your Dying Grudge shield, creating two on either side of you. And then before they can reflect their blows you turn them towards eachother. The energy produced by two barriers unleashing the force of the attacks they caught into eachother is stronger than any you have yet encountered, as a single cycle of each collecting, storing and strengthing the "attack" is enough to complete shatter the barrier spells and create a small explosion of Raw Yin Energy.
cont

>>5135372

The crater you sat within has deepened into a pit, that is rapidly filling with the jade waters of the valley's streams. A titanic flower collapses and falls into the large crater You accidentally created.

Tiexingege stands first, emerging from the loamy earth that buried her, still more than willing to fight. Jionghuagege comes to her senses a moment later, having been thrown back through the air from the devastating burst of Qi created through their clash being caught between two dying grudge shields. You can see Ping floating on the waters, knocked unconscious from just being caught by its shock wave. Lei sits upon the head of the broken flower, spear in hand and you can't tell if he's awake or not. Feiqing clings to the edge of the crater, grinding his teeth in fretful anticipation.

You remain where you sit, and continue to parry and redirect their strikes as they shout increasingly colorful insults at eachother as the waters rise around you.

"Arrogant bitch!"
"Mindless animal"
"Pampered idiot!"
"Greedy thug!"
"When was I ever greedy!"
"The nerve! This all began because you stole honey from my children"
"I couldn't care less about your putrid honey! And my daughters were attacked"
"Do you have no shame! Your children invaded my territory first, and hurt my babies, following your orders "
"Hah!? Have you gotten so prideful that its made you blind and dumber than you already were? I never told them to do anything"
"Prideful! You were the one who tried to take all of the glory of defeating the tyrant hare for herself! And you must've why else would they do it!?"
"Hah! You're bringing that up, when you boasted how you saved my life when it was the other way around, trying to humiliate me and make me small! And If I wanted your stupid Honey I'd have taken it myself!"
"But I did save your life! It was my poison that ended that ogre's life before he could step on you! And if that's true then why didn't you? Why did you send your daughters in your place"
"Horseshit! My sting was what killed him! He would've squashed you otherwise! And I didn't, don't claim I'd do something so cowardly! My daughters can back to me battered and bruised!"

You resist the urge to slam both of them in the ground as you redirect their latest charge. Was all of this started because they couldn't figure out that their poisons combined to kill the enemy they both claimed to have slain!? How enraging! But you resist the temptation and instead toss them over your back and under your legs as you jump between the two of them.

"So you'd claim my daughters would attack them for no reason? Yours are violent brutes like your mother!"
"Tch then yours must have inherited your ego, if they claimed they were attacked first! Crying after they threw the first punch!"
"You don't understand anything besides violence! Your head is empty! Your children took my honey!"
Cont

>>5135376

"My head is empty!? Your head is empty! Why would I want Honey when I can have meat! I never told them to take it. Get that through your thick head!"
"That may be true, but they're bullies like they're mother. Ruffians! Like you?"
"Eh? Ruffian? Bully? When have I ever been one! Maybe they just got tired of being looked down upon by smug bees!"
"Oh don't act ignorant! I know you're smarter than that. All you've done is push me around! Like your daughters do to mine!"
"Tch! Trying to play the victim I see! Are you truly so conceited. You've never thanked me for all I've done for you! All of the tears and blood I've shed!"
"What have you ever done for me? Besides saving me from the toad to take his place! You always treated me harshly and tormented me, took advantage of me!"
"Huh?! I was just trying to train you! Toughen you up! You couldn't survive on your own! You were being kicked around by everything and everyone before you met me! I was trying to make you stronger you idiot! You took advantage of me!"
"I never asked to be strong! I just wanted to be your friend and spend my carefree days with you! But you only thought about fighting! Never anything else! You never though about me"
"I just wanted to protect you! Seeing you get pushed around pissed me off! You didn't realize how dangerous the world was! I didn't want to lose you! You only ever cared about having fun and indulging in your carefree life! You never thought about my feelings!"

You hold them both in place, to let their words sink in. They struggle for a bit, fighting against your might as they squirm and try to hit the other. But slowly, they realize what the other said and calm down and slump to the ground.

"You were trying to train me?" Jionghuagege asks quietly "Why didn't you say so? I thought you were just roughhousing and hitting too hard"

"You didn't know?" Tiexingege asks after sucking in a breath of cold air "I thought it was obvious! You thought I was bullying you all this time?"

"What else would I think! You never did anything else and would yell at me for having fun without you!" Jionghuagege says lifting her head beneath your paw, as you were holding both of them down by their heads

"I yelled at you for slacking! You'd wander off all the time and interrupted my training for trivial reasons!" Tiexingege shouts

"I just wanted to play another game!" Jionghuagege yells back. Both of them stare at eachother as they connect the dots and realize all of their reasons for fighting were the results of one, extended misunderstanding

"Oh" They both chirp, sounding both ashamed and humilated

"If you wanted to play you should've just asked" Tiexingege mutters looking away

"You should've told me you wanted to make me stronger" Jionghuagege mutters as she looks in the other direction.

Glancing back into the other's eyes, and then locking gazes they bow their heads and accept they were both in the wrong
Cont

>>5135380

"Sorry for being too harsh with you" Tiexingege pouts "and not explaining myself

"I'm sorry for not understanding your intentions" Jionghuagege "And for trying to force you to be like myself"

You smile proudly, and move your paws from their heads.

Double Vote

What do you say to the two princesses

>"The world is more than just black and white, it is painted in a thousand colors. Remember this lesson, that everyone sees the world and all within it in a different light, or else I'm going to have to scold both of you seriously"

>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."

>"Now thank me for helping you two idiots see the truth! Praise me! Prostrate yourselves and shower me in gratitude! Heh-Heh-Heh"

>"I knew the grudge between you was a weak one. You two princesses are more adjusted to living a carefree life than you are stewing in hatred. Even though you said you wanted to kill eachother, I could tell you still held affection by the taste of your resentment"

>write in

And then what will you do, now that they are friends once more, Huanliuxue

>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

>Offer to take both of them as your pupils, explaining to them your ambitions and dreams and the world outside of their valley

>Leave to the two to reconcile alone, and continue on your quest to find the power the unborn dragon promised you

>Wake up Ping and rub your good deed in his face, mockingly asking him if it was in someway the action of a demon

>Write in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-ue6D4LJFM
Some music to accompany the update

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."
>Offer to take both of them as your pupils, explaining to them your ambitions and dreams and the world outside of their valley
The valley is a place cultivators come to hunt, and Ping is hoing to tatle about the adventure. They and theri children will be safer with us.
Also it's a start of our court and sect.

>>5135382
>"The world is more than just black and white, it is painted in a thousand colors. Remember this lesson, that everyone sees the world and all within it in a different light, or else I'm going to have to scold both of you seriously"
>Offer to take both of them as your pupils, explaining to them your ambitions and dreams and the world outside of their valley
They sound like good vassals.

>>5135382
>Your resentments were faint and dripping in the pain of a lost friend. You two couldnt kill one another save by accident, and the act would have haunted you as my subjects would. I could not permit this tragedy to pass between you and not act, for there are so few of us left that we cannot lose noble beasts over misunderstandings and foolishness. Do you understand my, peers of this woodland realm?

>Delay time to play with them and truly call them friends. And explain our scheme.
>Explain our ambitions and the world outside

I don't want to take them as pupils. Not yet, but I feel it immensely prudent to explain that the world outside is dangerious and the attitude to beasts, as well as our intention to become empress of the magical beasts.

With this understanding, we can extend the paw to them as a leader, mediator and peer.
Ping can be tormented later.

>>5135398
There is not many good places in the human world for pur court to appear unnoticed.
Much better for them to hide here until we are strong enoguh to deter others.

>>5135412
We have an entire mountain to hide in.

>>5135414
For a cat, yeah.

For a swarm of super bees and mega ants, which need to forage and prowl the mega fauna no. They are adapted for this place, not a cold and dank tomb.
Especially not if it involves taking their kids with them.

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."

>Delay time to play with them and truly call them friends. And explain our scheme.
>Explain our ambitions and the world outside

>>5135382

>"I knew the grudge between you was a weak one. You two princesses are more adjusted to living a carefree life than you are stewing in hatred. Even though you said you wanted to kill eachother, I could tell you still held affection by the taste of your resentment"
>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

>>5135382
>>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."
>>"Now thank me for helping you two idiots see the truth! Praise me! Prostrate yourselves and shower me in gratitude! Heh-Heh-Heh"

>Wake up Ping and rub your good deed in his face, mockingly asking him if it was in someway the action of a demon

>>5135408
Supporting.

Besides as long as they're here they're less likely to be attacked by any cultivators. Provided of course we make sure Ping can open his stupid mouth like a fucking idiot.

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."
>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

I would love to take them as apprentices, but I feel its a little early.
Biggest problem being that we have nowhere to hide them. Both the princesses come with colonies attached, and while the ants could maybe hide underground, I don't trust the giant fuck off bees to be discreet. Or to find enough food outside this strange place for that matter.

I'm sure that some time to figure it out on their own will be good for them, and we can always come back for them later. maybe they will figure out how to make their children intelligent enough to hide, after which we could take them with us if they wanted to.
Or we get strong/respected enough that we won't need to hide anymore.

>>5135472
The main issue is the food, in my head.

Strength to deter others can be gained. Issues of training can be taught, issues of Qi can be circumvented but you cannot grow a pine tree in the middle of Antarctica.

So to bring them out of the area, we would need either tools or lots of levanstrum.

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."
>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

>>5135408
+1

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."

>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

>>5135382
>You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."
>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."

>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."
>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

>>5135382
>"You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."
>"Now thank me for helping you two idiots see the truth! Praise me! Prostrate yourselves and shower me in gratitude! Heh-Heh-Heh"

>Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them

Ending the vote now. Tallying the result.

You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life...:10

The world is more than just black and white, it is painted in a thousand colors...:1

Your resentments were faint and dripping in the pain of a lost friend...:3

I knew the grudge between you was a weak one...:1

Now thank me for helping you two idiots see the truth...:1

_

Explain our ambitions and the world outside:6
-Offer to take both as your pupils:2

Delay your journey, to spend some time playing and bonding with them, so you may truly call them your friends. And explain your scheme to them:12

Wake up Ping and rub your good deed in his face, mockingly asking him if it was in someway the action of a demon:1


So you'll tell the two princesses "You're both young. Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart. But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend. We magical beasts...kill one another too often."

And delay your journey to spend time bonding and playing with them, and to reveal your manipulation to them

Update will arrive shortly

Kneeling down to eye level, you set yourself between the two exhausted young queens and smile, tail curled around your side.

"You're both young" You state sternly yet with a gentle and kind tone, your notched ear twitches in the wind as you turn to Jionghuagege and then to Tiexingege, as you gift them with your sagely wisdom and advise them as a elder sister would, rather than a distant teacher "Mistakes like this are a natural part of life, even the closest of friends may drift apart"

Lifting yourself from the ground, you sit on your haunches and bow your head, smiling sadly at the two girls who are still too tired from their ferocious battle where not even a single drop of blood was shed. You close your eyes as you feel them start to fill with tears, not wanting to lose the image of cool and serene beauty your juniors must hold for you as you reflect upon the tragedy that almost transpired between the two of them. And the era of solitude and murderous rivalries that has consumed your people for ten generations. How often creatures who could have, in another life been friends or comrades, slaughtered each other in pursuit of basic, animal necessities such as food or territory. How many hidden prodigies, geniuses and innovators have been lost or wasted their lives living meager, bestial existences. How all of your people have been forced to die like dogs, ignorant of the eminence of their ancestors. Sighing, you release the anger building within you upon your cold breath and smile.

You will end this era of pointless bloodshed and devouring and usher in a new era of prosperity and unity, even if you must war against the heavens to do so you will lead your people back to their rightful stations in the world. Even if you must kill gods to achieve your dream and begin your benevolent reign. You will fulfill your grand destiny. Opening your eyes, you glare towards the sky defiantly.

"But I couldn't stand by and allow two of my juniors to experience a tragedy as painful as killing a friend" Your voice rumbles with the power of your conviction, like a storm rolling in over the valley as you speak "We magical beasts..."

You pause, seeing the innocent sorrow in the eyes of the two youngsters resting before you, they do not fully grasp the severity of your lesson but they understand at least that they were prevented from committing a grave folly and sin. Immediately, you know the words that will allow them to truly comprehend the weight of their actions and the pitiful truth of your degenerated and forlorn people.

Mist rolls over your fangs and past your lips, partly made of the grudges you store within yourself and the Ghostly Qi you cultivate. Shuddering with restrained fury and outrage, you condense all of the hatred, sorrow, pity and humiliation you have felt since you had learned what had been stolen from you before your birth and what has still been denied to not only you, but all heirs of the primordial legacy of beasts living or dead

>>5137187

The emotions you have harbored since you learned of the glorious history and noble legacy of Beasts that was sealed and hidden by the same heavens who commanded the wholesale slaughter of its inheritors rages within you like a thousand hungry ghosts clawing from their graves. And this maelstrom of emotion is refined, boiled away and poured over your tongue where it fills your words with its raw power.

"Kill one another to often" You speak sharply, a strange clarity spreading through the crater as if following the trail of the truth you had spoken, resounding across the valleys and to the skies to burn the ears of the heavens who scorn you with the biting chill of the grave itself. The silence of a tomb settles between you and the two younger princesses laid out beneath you, only broken by the splashing of the jade waters falling to fill the crater you sit within.

"Do you understand?" You ask, dulling your vicious snarl to a gentle whisper as you cast aside the pure and negative emotions that burst forth from your heart

"I do, Lady Huanliuxue" Tiexingege squeaks, intimidated by a mere glimpse of the resentment you hold towards the world that abhors you and denies your rightful place within it "I, realize now just how much of an idiot I was. I was too busy Gnashing my teeth to stop and think about what I was intending to do to my friend"

"Yes. I acted like a brute and never considered the value of my life or hers. I am ashamed of how willing I was to throw either away over such a vain and petty disagreement" Jionghuagege sniffles "I'm...I'm glad we were able to reconcile!"

Tiexingege looks at you, the dimness of her eyes fading away as a spark of realization lights within them. Smiling smugly, you look down at her

"You planned this didn't you? That's why we met here, because you arranged for it" She gasps

"She did?" Jionghuagege asks, completely lost and not seeing the same evidence as her friend turned rival turned friend has

"Of course, I knew you two were both too prideful to listen to me if I told you were fighting for childish reasons, that the other was not at fault and all of it was just a misunderstanding born of youthful miscommunication, Heh-Heh-Heh" You sneer and cackle "The only way either of you would learn to see through the other's eyes was to tell her yourself how you truly felt, which would never happen naturally, considering how evenly matched both of you were and the loyalty of your soldiers. However"

You grin and laugh joyously as you revel in your own cunning.

"I realized that if you could be kept fighting long enough, expend all of that rage and energy that drove you to fight to begin with, that eventually you would realize your mistake and return to being friends" You explain happily as Jionghuagege and Tiexingege listen in terrified awe.
cont

>>5137188

"You're a trickster!" Tiexingege shouts "An incredible, brilliant and selfless trickster! You endangered yourself for our benefit. Just so we would be friends again! You're amazing! Incredible! Cool!"

"You're kind of scary, Huanliuxue, to be able to lie so easily" Jionghuagege says, clearly shaken by your supreme brilliance and the stylishness of your scheme "And to so elegantly defend both of us from our own blind, childish rage! I cannot help but to idolize you! To act and hold yourself so serenely not only in the midst of our battle, but while carrying out your benevolent suggestion is just so"

"JUST SO COOL!" Jionghuagege shouts as she flaps her wings and buzzes around you

Grinning ear to notched ear you laugh

"See? Isn't it better to be friends rather than enemies!" You purr "and there's no need to praise me, but I wouldn't reject such glowing compliments from my adorable juniors!"

"I'll be forever in your debt, Elder sister! could you teach me some of those moves you used during the fight! They seemed strong! Take me on as your pupil!" Tiexingege shouts, sounding much more relaxed and happier than she did before

"Your kindness can never be repayed, I only wish you could stay with us longer" Jionghuagege shouts "And I don't think her way of fighting you would fit, it is too graceful and soft and subtle! You need a hard, aggressive style I think Tie-Tie"

"But she looked so cool Jiong-jiong!" Tiexingege whined "And you're not leaving so soon, are you, big sis?"

"Heh-Heh-Heh, I might be convinced to stay awhile longer if you can catch me!" You shout, sprinting away from the two young princesses, clambering up the wall of the crater with your specter lightness style

"Don't think you can beat me so easily!" Tiexingege roars, before laughing merrily as she gave chase after your

"Wait up! Don't leave me behind!" Jionghuagege wailed

"Mrrrn HRRRN!" Lie groaned as he too joined the chase

"I hope Ping wakes up soon" Feiqing muttered nervously to himself "The water is getting rather high and I was never taught how to swim, oh I hope he wakes up soon, I'd rather not be forced to learn how to swim to save a friend"

Laughing, you enjoy the bliss of playing, forgetting for a time about all of your earthly worries and troubles. The simple joy of carefreely playing heals your soul and heart.
_
<Meanwhile elsewhere>

"We are humbled that our friends from the austere, peerless and ever ascendant sect of the Guardians of the celestial sunlight would honor us by sending the five victors of the Five elements tournament to our humble retreat, Elder Xie Xiu spoke highly of your generosity and entertained us all with tales of your sects matchless hospitality and the grandeur of your temple" A bald, mustached man wearing snow white and pale blue robes, exclaimed as he wrung his hands together as he lead his five guests towards the sole temple of the Winter Blossoming Wisdom Sect
Cont

>>5137191

"Hearing that such a high ranked sect would reach out and offer friendship to a low ranking Sect as humble and destitute as ourselves, that they would greet us as fellow daoists brought great pride to even the most junior of our members"

The five young masters that the brown nosing cultivator lead along the mountain path remained silent, their faces hidden by the hoods they wore as they walked beneath the blue light cast by the magic, lotus shaped lanterns that surrounded the temple and its surrounding gardens.

"Why were we not met by the sect master himself?" the leader of the five asked, lifting his head to reveal to his guide a glimpse of his handsome, almost dragon like features, his eyes smoldering with his inner fire "If we are so respected and beloved by your sect, surely he should have honored us by personally leading us to the retreat"

The guide tugged on the ends of his long mustache, acting as if he were grooming a few stray hairs into place with his ringer covered fingers while he was obviously trying to calm himself after being so sternly reprimanded by his honored guest

"Ah...ah Young master, I did not wish to bore you with our internal politics and troubles, but the grandmaster...he is gravely ill and hovering between death and life. Trust me when I tell you he was overjoyed to hear of your visit and as you know signed the edict allowing you to harvest from our orchards pf spirit fruit as if they were your own but...he cannot leave his meditation chambers!" The man said, wringing his hands harder as he spoke fretfully, exposing the weakness of his sect to try and keep from offending his guests and thus cost himself and the temple a greater loss of face "If he ceases his internal reformation for even the span of a breath his remaining life span will be cut in half! He must tirelessly meditate and heal himself or he will be lost to us sooner"

"I was unaware that you, our juniors, were suffering such hardship. If you had asked I am certain our elders would have permitted to lend you our most refined and high quality medicines to heal the grandmaster" One of the five, following behind the other four spoke, revealing herself to be a young woman and from the glimpses of her face the guide could catch, a jade like beauty who could tempt even the most chaste of men to court her in pursuit of her affection

"Oooh ours is a winter without end! The sect master was poisoned by a traitor within our own ranks, who was beguiled and seduced by a fox demon to abandon the dao and live as her thrall forevermore!" The guide wailed mournfully, spitting and cursing as he walked higher along the path, as the five young masters stopped and listened closely "And one of our inner disciples vanished, just before an unnatural blizzard struck our northern most holdings! Several of our disciples have gone missing in search of her, our beloved and most prized student. I fear they may be lost to us"
cont

>>5137193

"Such tragedy" The largest of the five spoke in a deep, growling bear like voice "To think our fellow daoists have suffered so greatly beneath our notice, How have you endured such sorrows"

"Do you believe the cold to have taken them?" The fiery eyed leader asked

"I..do not tell our junior members, but I fear they may have been devoured by a demonic beast" The man, now pale faced as a corpse hissed under his breath "We have heard rumors of a great beast emerging to devour men at night, and some of our students have even reported encountering the terrifying beast, wailing murderously at night"

"Do you know what this beast looks like?" the young master asked sharply

"I have not seen it myself, thank the gods for that small mercy, but all report it appears to be a monsterous, hideous ape thing!" The man spoke hurriedly "Do not tell me you intend to brave the storm in search of it"

The five huddled together, hoods hiding the movements of their lips before their leader broke away and flicked his wrist.

"We may. If you would be so generous as to tell us everything you know of the Demon Huanliuxue!" He roared, casting off his hood to reveal his chestnut colored hair tied into a high bun, sharp and imperial features "Me and my fellows may choose to help lead your sect through the wind and rain that batters it"

The burly man and Jade Beauty also threw back their hoods, revealing a face framed by a wild beard, as thick as a bear's fur and marred by a fresh scar running from his chin to his brow and a soft and unblemished face upon which two blue eyes as clear and pure as Limpid Autumn Water sat like gems. Though it was not obvious, the rugged man and the beauttiful girl were brother and sister, though only the color of their black hair and eyes could reveal their relation. The two other disciples of the Guardians of the celestial sunlight sect, kept their faces hidden behind the shadows cast by their hoods.
_

"Oh what fun! Oh what fun!" You laugh and cheer, as you continue your game of tag with Jionghuagege and Tiexingege, even though the sun has long since set and Lei has collasped...somewhere in the valley, unable to keep up with the stamina and haste of three magical beasts "I've forgotten how fun it was to run, chase and pounce! I'd thought such joys were lost to me, when my playmates were taken from me!"

You try and tackle Jionghuagege to the ground, but get barreled over by a headbutt from Tiexingege

"Run princess! I'll hold the rampaging beast off! Flee and do not look back!" She says, acting like she's sacrificing her own life for her friends, You cackle

"NO! if we must die let us die together!" Jionghuagege says dramatically, getting in on the act with her friend, as they decided to turn the game of tag into a unexpected theatric performance "The red string of fate tied us together from birth, let it bind us in death"
Cont

>>5137194

Sneering, you reveal you fangs and adopt a menacing, villainous posture as you laugh an exaggeratedly threatening and villainous laugh

"WAHHAHAHA! Young heroes! I shall bury you upon this hill and doom the world to eternal night! Your court death, facing me your better! You're a hundred years to early to threaten my evil ambitions! But I, the great demon empress, shall respect your courage and loyalty and grant your wish of a shared death!" You bellow in the same tone "You court death, standing against me! So allow me to deliver it to you!"

"I'll kick your ass and knock you off your throne, empress of darkness! You underestimate the strength of our friendship, motherless cur!" Tiexingege snorts, clacking her mandibles

"Evil can not triumph over the virtuous, the heavens are on our side! We will subjugate you and purify your corrupted soul, so you may be raised better on your next life!" Jionghuagege proclaims. And for mentioning the heavens you do not pull you first punch as much as you would have as you begin play fighting.

You pause when you hear Feiqing smugly chuckle, having pinned Tiexingege with a single paw. You turn and see the ape like man standing upon a hill with Lei and Ping, his arms crossed and an incredibly smug expression on his face. Ping glowers and storms away, and though you can't hear what he's saying, you cannot hear his usual conviction and confidence in his voice.

What do you do, Huanliuxue?

>Finish playing with your younger friends, and continue on your Journey in search of Blood Qi and the power you were promised. The dragon said it lies in the heart of the mountain range in the center of the Primordial Wilderness. Your prize is within your reach!

>Confront Ping and test the strength of his belief in the innate evil nature of magical beasts

>Ask Tiexingege and Jiongege if they would like to join you on the last leg of your adventure and see you complete your quest.

>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)

>Write in

>>5137195
>>Finish playing with your younger friends, and continue on your Journey in search of Blood Qi and the power you were promised. The dragon said it lies in the heart of the mountain range in the center of the Primordial Wilderness. Your prize is within your reach!

>>5137195
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)
We may as well do that.

>>5137195
>>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)
Charge them to act as Huanliuxue their martial teacher did, gathering beasts together under common cause and friendship! And give them the tools to survive in the Wilds, no matter what obstacles they encounter. Who knows what terror would subjugate them otherwise...

>>5137195
>>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)

Can't leave the poor dears undefended in case Ping opens his snitch hole.

>>5137195
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)

>>5137195
>Set them down the path of cultivation

>>5137195
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)
Next time we come through these woods there better be a proper insect kingdom going on here!

>>5137195
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)

>>5137195
This update was extremely adorable.
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)

>>5137195
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)
Gotta give the younglings something to pass the time with.

>>5137195
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)
They will need it, cultivators are foing to come for them.

>>5137195
>Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you (Teaching trial. DC 65)

Ending the vote now. Tallying the results.

Finish playing with your younger friends, and continue on your Journey in search of Blood Qi and the power you were promised. The dragon said it lies in the heart of the mountain range in the center of the Primordial Wilderness. Your prize is within your reach!: 1

Give the two young Princess a parting gift in the form of proper training and tutoring and set them down on the path of their own cultivation, as Monu did for you:11


A near landslide victory for Training Jionghuagege and Tiexingege as a parting gift before continuing on your quest

Update will arrive shortly

But you decide to ignore Ping, as you usually do when he's grumbling to himself or accusing you of plotting the corruption of all that is good in the world. There's more far more important matters to concern yourself with than the paranoid ramblings of a man blinded by lies. Namely retrieving the power you have been promised by the unborn dragon, that will surely bring you one step closer to realizing your grand destiny and imperial ambitions. An empress to be shouldn't worry about the superstitious babbling of the peasantry when upon her back, the fate of her future kingdom and her people rests upon her back. And the embodiments of the future, the heralds of the era you wish to usher in against the edicts and will of the heavens stand before you know, carefree and unaware of the role they may one day play in returning Magical Beasts as a whole to their rightful and honored place in the world. The destiny that was stolen from you by fools in the clouds!

While experiencing their carefree way of life, if for only a day, was revitalizing and soothing beyond any description you can't stay by their side forever nor abandon your quest and cultivation to enjoy their company in the idyllic fields in which they scamper and play. You have an austere purpose to fulfill and your exalted fate to pursue, as a Cultivation prodigy and heir to the legacy of primordial beasts. And you cannot bring them back home with you, as much as you wish you could, as the logistics of moving their hives, feeding them and protecting them from those who surely must be after your head is too great and even your somewhat whimsical nature can't find an argument for risking these two lives so selfishly just to keep them close by your side. It'd be a tragic waste of potential if their blood soaked your fur as well.

You watch them rest by the new pond formed by their clash, staring at their reflections, blissfully unaware of the contempt the heavens and world of cultivation hold for them, and the terror they'd inspire in the mortal realm should they wonder into it.

'its not just that they need to be stronger to survive the cruel world' You reflect in your thoughts, silently watching Jionhuagege and Tiexingege as they marvel at their own reflections, perhaps never having a chance to see themselves before with such clarity. Their innocence is healing and seeing two of your kinsfolk be able to act their age without worrying of survival or their place in the world fills you with such an abundance of joy it makes you want to cry. And you nearly do as your thoughts turn bitter

'and how easily their peaceful life could be snatched away"

Glancing towards the stars in the sky, you imagine you can hear Granny Monu whispering your name on the wind. Idly, you pluck Ghost Empress Melody's strings, playing a song for your teacher as you promised even though you're separated by many leagues.
Cont

>>5138500

In your music and the connection you feel it maintains between you and the toad witch, you find your resolve.

'But I must also become stronger as well, to protect these innocent souls and others who may one day join my court of ghosts and beasts' You think as you play a somber melody that may be played as a eulogy for the dead and lost 'A ruler must be strong, its the law of nature after all but their supporters must also be strong. A kingdom of weaklings will fall if it is only held up by its founder's might'

It is then you decide to leave the two young princesses with a parting gift, if they cannot yet safely accompany you into the wider world, than the least you can do is guide them to become proper daoists and cultivators. Give them an advantage over any beasts who may try to bully or browbeat them, and protect them against any fools who would dare to hunt your friends.

Stalking behind the two of them, you smirk, excited to once again play the role of a teacher. But unlike the indolent students you disciplined before, you'd be much more gentle handed with the two princesses of the flower fields.

"Tiexingege, Jionghuagege, your elder sister has a gift to give to you" You purr, tail flicking back and forth as you stood over the two girls watching the ripples in the water muddle their reflections

roll 1d100. DC 65. Best out of three

Rolled 43 (1d100)

>>5138503
I wish to honour our teacher.

Rolled 75 (1d100)

>>5138503
May the dice gods favor us.

Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>5138503

>>5138521
10 over the DC. Nice. Update will arrive shortly

Though Tiexingege almost seemed to have been injected with chicken blood when she heard you speak the word "Training" to her and Jionghuagege, and was rather disappointed to learn that it would begin with meditation and a lesson of breathing exercises and the groundwork of the cultivation but she along with Jionghuagege listened closely and dutifully as you explained to them the concept of Qi, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and how to cultivate, purify and refine it within their meridians. Lei had volunteered to keep Ping from suffering an aneurysm seeing you breaking laws you do not respect or believe in by teaching other magical beasts how to properly cultivate, and lead him away. Feiqing joined the lesson as well, as it'd be a waste of time and his potential to neglect his development as well.

Sitting upon the flat surface of a rock you split in two with the cutting wind of your enchanted Guqin, you lead your three students through the lesson joyfully

"Qi can be found within all things beneath the heavens, for it is the vital energy that exists in all things. It is within the grass, soil, water, stones and air around you. It is within your flesh and within your breath. It is all around us. Even in this lovely Guqin my own esteemed teacher made for me"

Your meeting with Monu flickers in your Mind's eye, a shadow theater of memories. When you were smaller and wholely ignorant of the Dao and Cultivation.

"Some poets have even gone so far as to name it the "Breath of the universe" You say, repeating Monu's own words to you "but for me, Qi is resplendent of a term for it. Qi is power. Qi is Life. Qi is all things. That was what was said to me when I became a daoist and began my cultivation under my adoptive mother's guidance"

You look over to Jionghuagege as she buzzes to draw your attention, but realizes that speaking and interrupting your lecture would be unforgivably rude. Tiexingege was wilting beside her, clearly struggling to remain patiently listening but not wanting to make a fool out of herself by complaining about her obvious boredom.

"And to answer the question I am certain you are dying to ask, it is called Cultivation because it is centered around the gathering, cultivation and refinement of your internal Qi" You explain with a smile "And through cultivation you refine your own existence, spiritually and physically, and come closer to the dao itself. It is a life long pursuit of power, longevity, and health. Few among men or beast possess the innate talent to cultivate, and all but a handful of cultivators posses the potential to one day achieve immortality or even divinity, if legends are to be believed"

"I myself am a prodigy! Blessed from birth with magnificent spiritual roots" You say, revealing your ghostly aura in demonstration and only because Ping isn't here to spy and learn the truth of your cultivation method
Cont

>>5138963

"Spiritual roots, are the very foundation of one's body and soul. Unfortunately, unlike my respected teacher, I am not knowledgeable or trained in the reading of spiritual roots so I cannot tell the quality or nature of yours. However, I know enough to know that all three of you possess the potential to cultivate"

Feiqing Nods as Tiexingege sighs and Jionghuagege flutters her wings excitedly.

"As I have studied Feiqing veins before, and know that all Magical Beasts posses the inborn talent of cultivation Qi is one of the catalysts for our awakening and evolution from baser creatures" You explain with a nod of your head "So we don't need to perform a test of your worthiness, instead I shall instruct you of the same basic exercises and training techniques I followed to break through into first and least stage of cultivation, that of Qi Condensation"

You stand up and hold your head high and push your chest out proudly.

"And since I am a once in ten generations' genius, you should feel privilege to receive my instruction and follow in my footsteps...at least to begin with! While only true prodigies can pioneer and innovate their own unique Cultivation Law, my methods would most certainly not align with any of your natures, so I'll leave you to discover what elements, concepts and practices align best with you on your own. I will give you the tools to begin your cultivation, but I shall not decide what form it shall take"

After giving your speech explaining the basics of cultivation, you lead the three on the first, clumsy steps of cultivation. The very same steps you took yourself when you began cultivating. You teach them the location and purpose of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Twelve Principles Meridians. You, like Monu before you, focus on the two most important of extraordinary meridians. The Governing and Conception vessels, and how they connect together to form a complete circuit that runs the length of their bodies.

It only takes them two days of tireless meditation and training to be able to perceive the flow of Qi through their key meridians, the first and pettiest bottleneck of cultivation. Your heart once again swells with pride witnessing the progress of your pupils and find yourself Wishing Young Fu could've been a part of this first class. You spend a week and a half methodically guiding the three into mapping out their meridians and opening their gates, which as expected requires more effort and time than you needed to fully awaken your meridians.

Nonetheless they can now perform Qi Circulation to strengthen and train their meridians, purify and refine Qi to add to their cultivation base and of course replenish their stamina. You give a few lessons of how to use Internal energy as well, to appease the increasingly restless Tiexingege, who'd rather be learning martial arts, so you allow her and Jionghuagege some leisure time.
Cont

>>5138965

You excuse your delay and rest at the flower forest to Ping as a simple whimsical desire to laze around in relative comfort for awhile before once more venturing into the dangerous unknown. And all the while you act as though you're slacking, you do continue your own daily exercises and meditations and closely observe the two princesses

As closely bonded as they are, you aren't surprised that they awaken their spiritual sense simultaneously. And its amusing to watch others go through the same clearing, deepening and sharpening of their material senses and perceptions as you did, and only slightly embarrassing to remember that you acted with similar amazement when you found the colors of the world to become more vivid, the scents and tastes on the air more vibrant and discovered you could perceive new textures and sensations with your paws. If a chronicler every records your life, you'll make sure they leave that particular chapter out of it on threat of a grisly death.

You only realize Feiqing has obtained the Divine Sense when he helps Lei and Ping cook their nightly meal and spends a few lingering moments brushing his hand over the pan he was cooking with, feeling not only the iron within it, but beneath his feet.

And with that you take the three aside at the darkest hour of night and ask them what lessons they'd prefer to recieve as the last portion of their gift.

"Martial arts! Body strengthen techniques! I may be evolved but I want to become even stronger than before!" Tiexingege demands, so you help her begin developing her own ant style of martial arts and show her how to reinforce her muscles and exoskeleton with Qi

"Sorcery seems like it'd be fun! Its so much more stylish and refined than fighting" Jionghuagege cheerfully told you, so you show her how to perform simple spells, hexes and draw talismans, and teach her how to adjust them to her body's form and replace handsigns with movements of her wings and antenna and alter them with different types of Qi and adjustments to their diagrams as you learned how to

"Forgive me, Lady Huanliuxue, but I don't think you can teach what I desire to learn" Feiqing humbly explained "Perhaps your teacher could help me find the path I am looking for?"

Tiexingege has achieved Qi Condensation stage, Rank 1 (Focus Martial). Jionghuagege has achieved Qi Condensation stage, Rank 1 (Focus Spells), Feiqing has achieved Qi Condensation Stage, Rank 2 (Focus Crafting)

Teaching comes with its own insights. +10 to your next training or cultivation roll

And with that, you have set your adorable juniors and Feiqing on the path of cultivation and can now truly refer to them as such. Though you would never call Feiqing anything approaching Cute, considering his...unfortunate appearance

You leave Jionghuagege and Tiexingege's home, as they say their tearful goodbyes as you depart and gift you with a earthen jar of Divine blood Honey, and a few pieces of shed iron infused Chitin

>>5138971

They watch you leave and as you look back over your shoulder, after hours of walking towards the towering mountains that cast a shadow even into the Mortal Realm, you can see the two of them watching you, shouting you well wishes and thanks.

A warm, fuzzy feeling settles in your heart and you make a promise to yourself to come back to visit the two insect princesses from time to time.

But as you near the mountains that pierce the heavens, your fortune turns and not for the better. A raging storm begins, and black clouds blot out the sun the moment you step beneath its shadow. Howling winds and sleets of rain impede your progres, and a few lightning strikes come uncomfortably close to hitting you as you scale up its side. On the fourth night of your journey through the storm wracked peaks, you find a cave to take shelter in.

And while Feiqing and Lei brave the storm in search of dry wood, Ping confronts you. With light only coming from the bolts of lighting striking outside of the cavern's mouth, he stands before you as you lay on the ground, soaked and miserable.

"Huanliuxue, I had my suspicions before, but now I am certain you have breached divine law and broken the edict of the heavens forbidding the ascension and cultivation of beasts" He says brazenly, a steeled conviction in his voice as he tightly grips his prayer beads and for once, looks almost like a proper cultivator or exorcist "You practice a true cultivation Law do you not? Rather than ambiently gathering power from the world or stealing the spiritual energy from the corpses of your victims, you have committed the most grave sin of all, and aspire to achieve immortality"

you narrow your eyes and glance towards him, not even bothering to lift your head as the now short haired monk looks down at you, legs quaking as he knows if he drew your ire you could end his life with a flick of your wrist. But, he remains firm and clenches his jaw instead of turning away and boldly chooses to continue his accusation

"I had grown suspicious when I had sensed a greater quantity of Qi within Brother Feiqing, but assumed at first it was because of the density of the spiritual energy here. But, after witnessing your interaction with the two Magical beasts, and reflecting upon your capabilities, I became certain that you have discovered an art of Demonic cultivation" He says, fearful tears streaming down his face "Did you believe me to be so blind that I would not have noticed the signs, Cat Devil"

You sigh. Your disdain for the man made you underestimate his wit. Standing, you look into his eyes, shadow falling upon him as the cavern was lit by two bolts of lightning striking the sand outside of the cavern. But you say nothing, and allow your silence to menace ping.

"I realized you are not without morals, by watching how you treated my brothers and the two younger beasts" He says, managing to look you dead in the eye
Cont

>>5138977

"And the outrage you felt when faced by the toad demon, and the words of the Dragon spirit made me consider that, perhaps you were not a threat to humanity despite my conscience telling me otherwise. But, now I am certain, however you have lived, as a demon or saint, you have crossed a barrier that you can step back over."

"What are you getting at?" You ask angrily, flexing your claws

Ping turned away, sweating as he held his prayer beads so tightly it seemed he may tear them from their string.

"You must not return to the mortal realm. If you do, you will be hunted tirelessly by all. While I do not trust or believe you to be benevolent, you clearly are no heartless beast" Ping squeaked "Remain here, in the primordial wilderness, where no man or god wanders. I owe you my life, though admitting such shames me greatly, I was taught to repay kindness in kind. So even though we are, by nature and ideals, enemies, heed my warning and abandon the world of men. You will find hardship and death should you return, for you have committed a crime that cannot be ignored or forgiven. More terrible than even devouring men."

Lighting crashes, and darkness falls once more. A giggle escapes your lips, and it grows into a manic cackle before exploding into a raucous fit of laughter. Your body shakes as you howl and roar with laughter, tears filling your eyes as saliva spatters across Ping's face.

How do you reply, Huanliuxue?

>"Because I have gone against the "natural order of things?" Horseshit! I don't give a damn about the mandates made by foolish gods. Magical beasts naturally cultivate, Men must be taught how to. Tell me Ping, which species is going against the natural order to aspire for immortality?"

>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"

>"Do you think I fear death? Do you think the stagnant world of cultivation could produce my equal? I did not DISCOVER a demonic art, I created my own law! While your KIND follows the teachings of dead men, I have found powers beyond your imagining in heresy"

>"Tch, quit farting at me, you fool. You're in the presence of royalty, so quit speaking nonsense. I have already resolved myself to challenge the heavens and all the gods in them if they get in the way of my ambitions. Trying to threaten me to back down is courting death, Worm"

>Slash his face open with your claws, blinding him

>Write in

>>5138980
>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"
He's annoying but he doesn't really deserve that.

>>5138980
>>"Because I have gone against the "natural order of things?" Horseshit! I don't give a damn about the mandates made by foolish gods. Magical beasts naturally cultivate, Men must be taught how to. Tell me Ping, which species is going against the natural order to aspire for immortality?"

>>5138980
>"Because I have gone against the "natural order of things?" Horseshit! I don't give a damn about the mandates made by foolish gods. Magical beasts naturally cultivate, Men must be taught how to. Tell me Ping, which species is going against the natural order to aspire for immortality?"

>>5138980
>"Because I have gone against the "natural order of things?" Horseshit! I don't give a damn about the mandates made by foolish gods. Magical beasts naturally cultivate, Men must be taught how to. Tell me Ping, which species is going against the natural order to aspire for immortality?"

>>5138980
>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"

>>5138980
>Because I have gone against the natural law of things?
>And if I told you why that is wrong, you would be struck blind.

These two options fit eachother well. We cannot afford to permit him to snitch, killing him really needs to be done before we return to the mortal world.

>>5139110
What he deserves is a slit throat for planning to report us and our adventure to his teachers.

>>5138980
>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"
For what it's worth, Ping has shown to be an alright dude.

I mean, he wholeheartedly believes that we are a demonic beast that in intrinsically evil, knows that we eat people and have no regrets (we confirmed this ourselves) AND just figured out that we committed what he considered a grievous, unforgivable crime of reaching for immortality.
And despite all this, he advises us to hide away, which would effectively save us from getting hunted down like a common beast, which is probably what would be appropriate for a magical beast in his circles.
And he offers us this way out personally, face to face, despite knowing that we could rip him to shreds in a heartbeat if we wanted.
This is a heartfelt, if misguided, attempt at saving us from a fate he does not think we deserve.
He is irritating and not too bright, but he's got courage, and a strong moral compass.

What he needs is someone to open his eyes, not rip them out of his sockets. Preferably before we part ways, since we really don't need cultivators to be on our ass even more then they already are.

>>5138980
>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"

>>5138980
>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"

>>5139462
This anon is right. How we deal with Ping is very much a test of character for how we deal with the world of cultuvation (and maybe humanity) as a whole: burn and kill or try to educate?

>>5138980
>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"

>>5138980
>>"Because I have gone against the "natural order of things?" Horseshit! I don't give a damn about the mandates made by foolish gods. Magical beasts naturally cultivate, Men must be taught how to. Tell me Ping, which species is going against the natural order to aspire for immortality?"

>>5138980
>"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore. If we had been born ten generations prior, you'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, rat"

>>5139462
He is a horrifying threat, but his moral compass is barely worth our respect.

Cutting his throat is however the most prudent action if he cannot keep his gob shut.

>>5138980
>Slash his face open with your claws, blinding him

Ending the vote now. Tallying the result

"And if I told you why that's wrong, you'd be be branded an apostate...":8

"Because I have gone against the "natural order of things?"...:5

Slash his face open with your claws, blinding him:1

So you'll reply by telling Ping if you told him why he's wrong he'd be harshly punished and that ten generations ago he would have revered you.

Update will arrive shortly

Thunder rumbled, Wind wailed as the storm grew in intensity and power, as if the heavens themselves were outraged by your nearness to them. Spears of lightning splintered through the sky, cracking it and filling it with an almost unbearable light as the already black and impenetrable storm clouds grew denser and larger yet. When darkness fell again, as you exhausted yourself with laughter and found yourself silently giggling as the winds whipped and lashed the storm wracked peak you and the fool before you stood alone upon. When darkness returned in the lull of the thunderstorm's fury, you stepped forward and began to circle Ping, as the shadows within the cave grew deeper and blacker than the depths of gods scorned catacombs. With eyes narrowed into slits, you prowled around Ping, as he blindly stared into the abyss that had swallowed the both of you. He could hear your breath, feel the cold radiating from you but remained standing were he had spoken his brazen ultimatum. With tremors in his hands and a quiver in his legs, he stood as as still as a corpse propped up with rods, eyes wide open and prayer beads held by his stark white hands. A drop of blood dripped to his wrist, as the tightness of his grip tore his flesh with his own nails.

When the light returned, heralded by a thunderclap so loud it it carried down to the earth and vibrated through the very stone beneath your feet, Ping found you sitting by his side, staring at the same cavern wall as he had been.

"And if I told you why that's wrong" You purred with admonishing cadence to your voice, eyes still narrowed with a venomous irritation as you flicked your tail and lifted your chin arrogantly "You'd be branded an apostate and have one of your eyes gouged out and have your dreams crushed by the same teachers you adore."

Ping turned towards you, eyes wide not with fright or mortal dread or even offence by surprise, confusion. A recognition of the warning you speak to him, a familiarity of the threat you revealed to him in return for the impulsive warning he spoke unto you. He shudders, coughing and hiding his mouth, looking at his palm and checking it for blood as you show him a relaxed smile and reveal your fangs as your lips part. In the grey light cast by the storms wrath, your resplendent, beautiful coat of fur dyed in blood almost seems to sheen as it had drank and absorbed a fresher coat of lifeblood. Ping struggled to find his breath, as panic took him and his composure crumbled like a tower of dry sand.

He knows the punishment of which you speak and the mere mention of it has inspired within him more fear than you have ever inspired by baring your fangs and brandishing your claws towards him. And you know exactly why he reacted so intensely, he hails from the same sect that brutalized and betrayed Monu.
Cont

>>5140577

Even if he was only a member of its outermost ring, rumors spread like weeds in an unkept garden and it is doubtful that the newer generation of that criminal sect had a change of heart and forbid such extreme and cruel punishment. Though Monu had never spoken the name of her former comrades, from the stories she told and what little Ping had revealed about his school, you recognized similarities too strong to be mere coincidence and so gambled that you were right and that the Winter Blossoming Wisdom Sect were the very same as the nameless traitors that destroyed Monu's life and stole away her daughter and your elder sister. And Ping's terror has proven to you that you were right in your belief.

"How do you know of..." Ping gasps sharply, finally managing to compose himself enough to string together words and not choke on his tongue. You snort dismissively, and look away, turning your face towards the mouth of the cave, watching another spear of lightning splitting a tree whose endured the hardship of the mountain only to be struck down by the fury of the heavens. How fitting, considering the subject of this confrontation.

"If we had been born ten generations prior" You huff, stepping away from ping as he shivers like a runt abandoned by its mother, eyes wide as plates and hands as pale as snow "You'd have worshipped the ground I walk on, Rat"

"How do you know what the elders of my temple did to Jingyu?" Ping spoke through his teeth, jaw so tightly clenched his teeth were threatening to shatter. His chest, exposed from the damage his scholar robes have suffered through the journey, rises and falls as he gulps down air, trying to sooth his frayed nerves and control the conflicting feelings raging within him much like the storm outside of the cave.

He flicked his sleeve, and with prayer beads still in hand, turned his palm toward you

"And what madness of the mind has afflicted you, Huanliuxue! To speak of men venerating beasts! Have you become deranged through the conflict of your few virtues and inherent wickedness?" Ping shouts, loud enough to be heard over the crashing of thunder and lightning against stone and sand "Or is that only your incomparable pride speaking? Or...or have you read forbidden tomes recording a false history, penned by the hands of true devils"

You rock your head back and forth, wearing a smug smirk as you look away from the now outraged Ping.

"Jingwho?" You mockingly answer, sneering as you look back towards Ping "and I already told you what fate would befall you should I tell you what I know, though I doubt you'd listen if I was so cruel to try and lead to such an ignominious punishment as you were raised and taught to hear no evil"

You cackle, eyes glowing in the dark as you approach Ping in a single bound and lean close, bringing to tip of your snout to his nose. He reels back as your breath washes over his face.
Cont

>>5140579

"But I, who was born outside of the rule of the heavens and lead a heretics life, have no such handicap. Unlike you, I am no frog in a well" You proclaim proudly, stepping back as the man nearly falls to his knees, but his legs refuse to give out even when so closely met by a demonic beast "And I have not forgotten what you have never known"

"Enough riddles!" Ping yells, curling his prayer beads around his fingers "Tell me how you..."

And as if by divine intervention, Ping is interrupted. You do not know if he was going to demand how you know of the most serious punishment carried out by the elder's of his temple or to damn himself to the very same out of sense of gnawing curiosity towards your mention of the era of ten generations prior and the history that has been purposefully hidden. As Feiqing stumbles into the cavern, soaked through and with two arrows lodged in his arm and three in his back.

A wound that scarcely seems to affect the ape like man, when it would have felled lesser humans. In fact, judging from the small diameter of the bloodstains in his robes, he has healed himself with internal energy and performed some basic treatment on himself. His beneath his beard, his hideous features are contorted with panic and rage.

"Savages! Savages have kidnapped Lei!" He roars, hollering in a very bestial manner as he leans himself against the mouth of the cave "We were ambushed by men dressed in furs, as we were returning with firewood. They appeared from nowhere! Emerging from the cliffs as if they had been hiding in the rock itself! They overran us! There must've been two dozen of them! Lei fought them off, but they caught him in a net and would've captured me as well had I not remembered your training , Lady Huanliuxue!"

Your eyes widen, as both you and Ping stare at the exhausted, rain and blood soaked Feiqing as he all but collapses against the cave's wall. Immediately, all thoughts of further scolding or tormenting Ping flee from your mind and judging from the harrowed expression on the man's own face, all thoughts of obtaining answers or arguing with you have fled from his.

"We must rescue him! Not even the god knows what those barbarians intend to do with Poor brother Lei!" Feiqing gasps, wincing as he snapped the shafts of one of the arrows protruding from his arm.

What do you do, Huanliuxue? Two actions can be taken

>Brave the storm and immediately rush to Lei's rescue alone in spite of the dangers and risks of doing so while such a ferocious thunderstorm rages

>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life

>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors

>Wait until the storm relents to venture out to search for Lei. It will do him no good if you get struck by lightning while looking for him

>Write in

>>5140580
>>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life
>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors

>>5140580
>>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors
This is a cool narrative beat

>>5140580
>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life
>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors

>>5140580
>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life
>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors

>>5140580
>Brave the storm and immediately rush to Lei's rescue alone in spite of the dangers and risks of doing so while such a ferocious thunderstorm rages

>Leave Ping to tend to Feiquing

>>5140739
This. Afraid of a little rain? Sure we'll be pissed that we get our fur wet, and those assholes will feel our wrath for it.

>>5140584
I will support on the condition we run swift and fast through the rain.
The storm will not harry us.

>>5140580
>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life
>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captor

>>5140580

>Brave the storm and immediately rush to Lei's rescue alone in spite of the dangers and risks of doing so while such a ferocious thunderstorm rages
>Wait until the storm relents to venture out to search for Lei. It will do him no good if you get struck by lightning while looking for him

It just occured to me, does this mean that by teaming up, He has to hitch a ride on our back to keep up?

Because that'd be funny as shit

>>5140580
>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life
>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors

>>5140580
>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life
>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors

>>5140580
>Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life
>Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors

Ending the vote. Tallying the result. Sorry for being late, got caught up watching Record of Ragnarok. The second fight was incredible.

Tend to Feiqing's injuries and compliment him for maintain a cool enough head to heal himself while under attack and fleeing for his life:8

Put aside your mutual contempt with Ping momentarily, and while Feiqing rests, ally with him to save Lei from his captors:9

Brave the storm and immediately rush to Lei's rescue alone in spite of the dangers and risks of doing so while such a ferocious thunderstorm rages:3

Leave Ping to tend to Feiquing: 2

Wait until the storm relents to venture out to search for Lei. It will do him no good if you get struck by lightning while looking for him: 1

So You will tend to Feiqing's wounds and then put aside your and Ping's mutual disdain for one another, allying with him to save Lei from his strange captors while Feiqing rests

Update will arrive shortly

But, as you watch the injured smith drag himself closer to you, stumbling with every step he takes from the weight of his exhaustion and the pain he had endured to deliver this most urgent message unto you, your rage is quelled momentarily as the scent of freshly spilt blood and the sight of the arrows stuck in his back evokes a memory you formed on the day you awoke to the world and gained a true sense of self.

For the briefest of moments, lasting only as long as the cavern is lit by the latest bolt of lighting to fall to the earth, you do not see Feiqing standing before you. You do not even see the cavern. Instead both are replaced, along with the aroma of ozone and wetted stone, with the horrific scene that proceeded your second birth and ascension as a magical beast. The aroma of Blood beneath the stench of smoke, a sickening combination. Clamor, chaos. And a little girl with a pinwheel in her hair, wasting her last breath to reach out to you. The life fading from her eyes as her hand fell upon your white fur, and bloodied it. Tears smuged your vision, and when you blink, Feiqing is once more standing before you, desperation in his black eyes and panic contorting his features. He's place his hand exactly where the sweet pinwheel girl placed her own, when she was murdered before your dim eyes. Seeing Feiqing hurt, has inspired the same powerful and terrible worry the simple cat you were felt when her world was set on fire and noises and sights she couldn't comprehend surrounded her.

Gritting your fangs, the rage you feel for seeing one you consider your underling and friend hurt rises within you, born from the worry that aches within your heart.

"Fool! You are injured! It is admirable to concern yourself with the wellbeing of your comrade before your own, but one cannot return from the dead! Consider your own life as well, Feiqing!" You hiss and snarl, hoping the tears you shed will soak into your fur before either of the men can see them "Sit, rest"

Your force him to the ground, pressing your paw against his stomach and shoving him down, making his legs bow as you stand before him. He narrows his eyes, in agony or outrage, as he grabs hold of another arrow and tries to wiggle it out from the flesh that has caught it. Ping remains stiff as a corpse, his eyes distance as they catch glimpses of Feiqing's injuries in the brief flashes of light accompanying the storm.

"I cannot rest idle while my friend and brother is in peril! There's no time to worry about myself, I am underserving of such concern! I am a laborer! Nothing more! Lei's life holds more value to me than my own!" Feiqing rages, as you realize just how strong he is as he tries to fight back against you and resist your own strength to stand back to his feet and march right back into the catastrophic storm outside of your shared shelter!
Cont

"He was the first to see me as a man, rather than a beast! I cannot repay such a debt. I cannot! And I will not abandon him to the savages who took him" he exclaims with tears flowing down his face

"Brother calm yourself" Ping said quietly, kneeling beside you, grabbing hold of Feiqing's shoulders to help hold him down and prevent him from aggravating his wounds "You're in no shape to fight, or even walk unassisted. The arrows are stuck deep in your stubborn hide. If you thrash around, they'll tear more than just skin!"

"We have to rescue him! We can't leave Lei behind! We can't abandon him!" Feiqing wails, sobbing and seething as he gnashed his teeth

"You'll bleed to death if the arrows sink into your organs!" Ping yells back

"Who said anything about abandoning Lei, it is touching that you are willing to speak when his unable to, but he would be heartbroken to learn you killed yourself trying to save him!" You scold, snapping your jaws in the air above Feiqing's head "Allow me to treat your wounds. As much as I abhor to agree with Ping, you're in no condition to fight for Lei's life! Rest and if you must, pray for the gods to be merciful"

Feiqing falls still, shocked by your advise to petition the gods, knowing fully just exactly how deeply and why you disdain the heavens and their inhabitants. He lays back and close his eyes, sniffling and clenching his teeth. Sighing you bow your head.

"And while it makes me want to chew off my own tongue, a lion uses its full strength even when hunting rabbits" You speak solemnly as you turn to Ping "There is much we disagree with, and even more we do not understand or despise of one another, but we share one thing in common, Novice, and that is our closeness with poor Lei, who has been taken from us to be cooked into stew for all we know!"

"I couldn't agree more, though agreeing with a demon is akin to swallowing hot embers and coals" Ping growls, eyes narrowed "But you speak sensibly, you may be powerful but we do not know if among our foes crouch tigers and hide dragons. It may be the first step on the road of damnation, but as a Man I cannot forsake the oath I made that day with Lei and Feiqing! Making us brothers!"

Feiqing grimace softened into a content smile as you and Ping swallowed the bitter pill of setting aside your mutual contempt to ally together for the benefit of the man you both considered your friend.

"Then there's no need to discuss it further, an alliance between a self righteous monk and a demon born of grudges! Hah! How amusing, surely none would believe such a union was struck between such opposing forces and would mock it as the fantasy of a playwright!" You chuckle as you use a claw to dig the arrowheads out of Feiqing's arm and back and struggle with your mouth to open your pouch of medical supplies.

Ping reaches and undoes the pouches string, and holds his hand open for you to give him the healing elixir so he may apply it with his more dexterous and able hands.

>>5142021

Growling, you set the snuff box holding the miracle salve into his palm. He opens it and sucks in a breath of cold air.

"How did you come to own such high quality spirit medicine?" He mutters, as he admires its viscosity and purity as he spreads it to coat his fingers, before rubbing it into Feiqing's open wounds, after you tear his robes open with a flick of your claws

"If you're excusing me of stealing it, you are greatly mistaken. Despite not having thumbs I am knowledgeable and trained in the art of alchemy" You sneer, before placing a paw on his wrist to keep him from taking more of the medicine from the box "That is enough, make bandages out of Feiqing's robes, soak them in this herbal liquor in which viper headed scorpions were fermented and wrap them tightly around his injuries"

"You certainly are, a master of the art must've taught you. Its unlikely you were able to discover the properties of..." Ping begins to theorize before you silence him with a glare

"Focus on healing Feiqing, not on the mysteries surrounding my education" You snap, before turning back to Feiqing "I'll brew you a medicinal tea made from Ginseng and Young Nettles that will help you heal naturally, you've already expended most of your inner energy, relying on it anymore will shorten your life span"

Ping keeps his mouth shut, but the look in his eyes tell you that he wonders how you know such things still.

"I may look the brute, but I can at least make my own tea. Not like I ever had the privilege of being allowed into a teahouse" Feiqing says with an irritated Huff "my injuries are minor compared to the danger Lei faces, Bind my wounds and leave me without delay, the both of you!"

You reel back, feeling as if you had just been slapped across the cheek from hearing the usually demure and submissive Feiqing command. Admiring his audacity, you nod and gather the medicinal herbs where he can reach.

"Then we shall make haste" You answer solemnly, lowering your chin as your notched ear twitches "But don't you dare follow after us, the storm has grown more violent since you've returned and until the medicine takes affect, you're as weak as a newborn kitten"

"I am uncertain even I, uninjured and healthier than I've ever been, will be able to walk through that storm. It is almost as if the god's themselves seek to trap us here!" Ping proclaims, before clenching his hand to a fist and bringing it to his lips "But I shall try, even if I am swept away by the gales"

"Tch, you'd just slow me down if you tried to struggle against the storm, Foolish man!" You bark back, Ping turns to you furiously

"I thought we agree to look beyond our shared hatred to work together, for Lei's benefit!" Ping barks as Feiqing's serene expression once more sours into a grimace
cont

>>5142023

"Who said I was leaving you behind! My body is stronger than yours! And what's more, I am a true cultivator though the mere act a magical beast cultivating is heretical and outlawed by the laws you hold yourself to! However, the power I have accumulated may be the one thing that can allow us to venture out into such hostile weather!" You shout back, offended by Ping's lack of trust, but you turn your back to him nonetheless and swallow your pride and ready yourself to endure the shame you must now inflict upon yourself "So, I must endure this humilation"


"What are you?" Ping asks as lightning illuminates the cave, and you glower and grimace, fighting an internal battle with your pride to resist the strong urge to reconsider the choice you have made to let Ping ride upon your back. But its the only way both of you can make it through the storm! Humans are so sluggish, weak and ungraceful! If he was not thrown off the cliffs, he'd walks so slowly, buffeted by the storm's winds that by time you find Lei, he'd almost certainly be already dead!

"Hop on my back" You speak, growling lowly as you glare back to him "We'll move much faster if I'm the only one who has to fight against the wind"

Ping's jaw drops open.

"You must have cast a spell over me, it is impossible for a demon to be as selfless as you are. Cats are proud creatures by nature, you despise me, and yet, to save our friend you would even endure the humiliation of allowing an enemy to ride upon your back" Ping tearfully exclaims, irritating you enough that your fur would stand on end.

"It is only out of pragmatism I endure such great shame, but you should hurry and get on my back before I change my mind, Ping" You hiss angrily, stamping your paws on the muddy cave floor "Don't think this means I've forgiven your transgressions against me"

"And don't think me accepting this offer means I trust you, Huanliuxue" Ping answers as he sits just behind your shoulders, crossing his arms as he wisely assume gripping your fur would cause him to lose whichever hand he use to grab ahold of your beautiful fur with! "I do this because I have no other choice, even if it may seem like a kindness, Demons are known for their treachery and I shall not lower my guard!"

"You should feel honored, rather than wary, I'm the one bearing the shame of carrying an Fool on my back!" You shout, glancing over your shoulder to look at him as you step towards the cave's exist, acclimating to his weight and finding your balance as you walk "Don't fall off, cause I won't stop to catch you"

"Trust eachother" Feiqing scolds, drawling out his speech as the narcotic effect of the bark you hid beneath the ginseng and nettles you offered him takes effect and lulls him to sleep

"This may be what condemns me to Jingyu's fate. Working with a demon" Ping mutters ruefully, bracing himself against your neck as you step into the storm and are immediately nearly thrown over by the sheer power of the winds.
Cont

>>5142026

Rain pelts you like a hail of arrows, every drop stinging as it hits your hide. You can hear nothing, and see little else through the sheets of rain and the gloom created by the dark clouds in the sky.

"But I cannot forsake my friends!" Ping screams to be heard over the storm "And I..."

The thunderous roar of the storm, the howling of its winds muffles whatever Ping was trying to tell you as you are once more deafened by the cacophony of the unrestrained fury of the heaven. He speaks for sometime, as you push through the winds. You cannot use the Yōulíng-Qīnggōng to lighten your body by rendering it partially ethereal, or else you may be swept up by the winds. However you can use it briefly, in a similar manner to the Phantom Cat Step, utilizing its alerted sphere of time to dodge falling rocks or.

You side step, Ping yelping and digging his hands into your fur as you dodge a bolt of lightning that nearly struck you both.

"Or lighting!" You spit, nearly drowning from the amount of rain that fills your mouth as soon as you open it to speak.

Every step you take is a struggle, but with the size and strength of your ox sized body, you are able to make steady and rapid progress through the storm. Lei's scent is faint, but you were able to pick it up even as it was washed away. He smells like ash and wet soil, the latter note being useless but the first allows you to retrace his and Feiqing's steps, a task which is made easier by the scent of the blacksmith's blood.

Following the path they used by smell alone, the only way you are able to since the rain has long since washed away their footprints, you find the location of the ambushes.

New smells assault your senses, many mingling and fading into the background of aromas, buried completely by the scent of wet clay, stone and burning ozone. But beneath it, even as you lose Lei's scent to the winds, you are able to trace a familiar odor. Acrid, foul, it lingers in the nose and drips slowly to coat the tongue and throat.

It is the sap of a plant that should only be able to grow in the wastelands of hell. You know it, because you harvest bundles of it to create the marvelous medicines you invented with the Divine blood Honey. A mutation of arrowroot, a pest species, that sprouts where demon blood seeps into the soil of the underworld. You know it only by the name of Infernal Arrowroot and it spreads just as rapidly as its mundane cousin. But it also possess a vampiric thirst and seeks out living prey by crawling like a hellish bed of roses.

Buts its sap and seeds can impart a demon's strength, even in their unrefined forms, which is why you used it to create the Ox's strength drug. But its unrefined, uncooked sap and seeds will fever the mind and render any living creature who eats it

The slave of the first demon to shout a command at them.
Cont

>>5142027

Burying the unpleasant thought in the back of your mind, you pick up your pace and sprint through the storm, dodging bolts of lighting that seemed to be aimed directly at you. Rocks shower down on you and ping, as lighting forks and shatters the cliffsides above you. But with the Youling Qinggong, you easily evade the landslide and chase of the scent of Infernal Arrowroot

And soon confirms your fears, as you find a path leading higher into the mountains that is covered and almost swallowed by the blood red stalks of the hell grown weed. Tightly wound in its roots, or grasped in its the black, thorny leaves of the Arrowroot, are bleach bones of its victims, dressed in simple, archaic attire. Some even hold weapons. Stone and Bronze spears and axes that have been burned black in places by the blood that had fell upon them. A true demon's blood.

A chill crawls down your spine as the storm calms momentarily

"What...what are those plants! There's bones beneath them" Ping gasps, sitting up straight as you march up the ramp like path leading straight ahead. Now that the wind has calmed and the storm turned to nothing but a light shower, smoke rises from the plateau ahead and you can see fires light.

Closing your eyes, reaching out with your spiritual sense, you detect well over several dozen humans, many dogs, and one accursed owl! Breathing out, you pick Lei out from the mass of life energy generated by the tribe.

And in the middle of it, sense a familiar presence. A demon. As you expected.

"Ping, do not concern yourself with plants however monstrous they may appear, for something much more terrible waits for us at the end of this path" You whisper harshly, looking over your shoulder "And get off my back. Now!"

Ping obeys and clutches his prayer beads tightly in his fist

"What?" He asks simply

"A true Demon" You say cheerily, causing ping to suck in a breath of cold air "Thankfully Lei yet lives!"

"How is a demon..." Ping nearly hisses as he whispers, as the two of you creep closer to the barbarian's camp

"In The Mortal realm?" You complete his sentence before answering his question in the negative "I do not know. I know its possible for them to emerge from the netherworld, perhaps it was able to do so here because gods and men alike do not turn their gazes in the direction of the wild place. You can run if you'd like, not like I can't think any less of you"

"Lei is in the clutches of a demon" Ping states sternly "And I couldn't care less what you think of me, Beast! I am no coward"

"I know you aren't, its your only admirable quality" You cackle as you peek over the edge of the path where it flattens out and meets the plateau and confirm your suspicions.

The savages are meandering about in a daze, drooling over themselves as they stare out with empty eyes, their wills entirely sealed away by the Sap and seeds of the Infernal Arrowroot, that clings to there lips like fresh blood.
Cont

>>5142029
Their hide and bamboo tents stand disheveled, filth covers the floor of their camp and the dogs they keep have all gotten mange and look half starved. Human bones circle the camp, all bearing teeth and claw marks. Some of the bones are small. Too small.

Ping notices this as well, and notices your righteous indignation upon comprehending what the size of the bones mean. A look of horror flashes across his face before a look of grief or shame replaces it.

"How monstrous" He weeps "To think such evil could be allowed to exist beneath the heavens"

"The heavens do not turn their gaze here, Ping" You reply furiously "You know that, that is why you tried to convince me to stay here the rest of my life"

"Out of gratitude" He whispered

"Out of misguided gratitude" You correct him as you rise to your feet and crane your neck to get a better look.

And spot, in the center of the camp a black sinned ogre wearing a bear's pelt around its waist, and a necklace of skulls over its neck. Its obese and piggish in appearance, perhaps having once been a pig spirit before it was corrupted by its own sin. With yellow, browning nails it scratches it stomach as it gnaws on the roasted leg of a man.

You can see Lei, in a cage, alongside other humans who must have been taken from other tribes. And upon peering closer, you realize the demon is sitting upon a throne, that has been obscured beneath his bulging frame and bent from his prodigious weight. rotten flesh clings to his wiry beard of fur and bones are pushed through his arms like piercings.

Snorting and grunting, the pig reaches out, and plucks one of his slaves prostrating before him, before opening his jaws wide before sticking the docile man into his mouth, wrapping his pink lips around them before stripping them clean of skin and flesh by sucking on them like a stewed chicken's foot, an act that is accompanied by a truly disgusting slurping sound.

"This is what you see me as?" You ask without thinking, turning to Ping, feeling gravely offended. Ping shakes his head, as he remains laid out on the ground, face pale as a ghosts.

What do you do, Huanliuxue?

>Confront the demon directly, and condemn it for eating children, your rage reaching a breaking point as you challenge the Boar devil (Begin combat)

>Knowing that there are poisons that can even harm demons, create one you know, mixing the sap of the Infernal Arrowroot and the blood of a holy man (Ping) together, and the dust of the bones of its victims together hastily (Alchemy Trial. DC 70)

>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)

>Offer the demon a trade, Ping for Lei. (Bad Karma)

>write in

>>5142031
>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)

>>5142031
>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)
Bring burning vengeance upon these fools and see them suffer.

>>5142031
>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)

>>5142031
>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)
As much as I want to crush the child eater, we need to free Lei.

>>5142031
>>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)

>>5142031
>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)

>>5142031
>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)
Save friend first, murder demon later.

Also what is it with all the child eaters lately? Are they tasty or something?
don't answer that

>>5142031
>>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)
>>5142352
Same reason we eat pizza rolls apparently. Not as filling but quicker to munch.

File: 1533439807961.gif (1.12 MB, 484x305)

1.12 MB GIF

>>5142352
>Are they tasty or something?

>>5142031
>Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon (Magic trial. DC 35)

>>5142352
Meat from infant animals is often treated as a delicacy, so maybe it is.
Or maybe they just revel in the evilness of the act, or killing a child is easier.

Ending the vote. Tallying the result.

Rouse the spirits of the dead with ghost empress melody, and use them to create a distraction so Ping may free Lei unnoticed by strengthening their connection to the living world enough for them to attack the boar demon: 9

Unanimous decision!

Update will arrive shortly. Apologies for my lateness, I over indulged in liquor.

"Find that courage of yours again boy" You say after formulating a plan in a matter of seconds "The role you will play in saving Lei from that gluttonous swine is more treacherous than mine. But know I do not give this duty to you out of spite or an effort born of vanity to fashion your grisly demise. There's a lock on that cage, and with these paws of mine I cannot pick it nor do I possess the knowledge how to"

Whistling, you pull Ghost Empress Melody in front of you and sit on the boundary where the path meets the Plateau, just on the border of the Boar Demon's camp of slaves and living meals. Drums begin to be beaten, more fires are lit, and one of the cage's besides Lei is thrown open. An old man with a paunch belly is dragged out, his age and weather worn face struck dumb by the horror of his demise. Ping looks away as his limp body is dragged before the Pig King. You however watch as he is butchered by the enchanted tribesmen, who set upon him with axes as if he were game dragged back after a successful hunt. Seeing any race treat their own as mere prey is so unnatural as to be unsettling. But you maintain your composure, and tally the number of abled tribesmen, those who could threaten the success of your strategy by spotting Ping or noticing Lei is missing from his cell of bamboo before you can flee from this place of unholy gluttony. You count a total of one hundred and twenty seven of them, even the weakest of them are armed with stone axes or clutch arrows tightly to their chests as if they were warming furs. That complicates matter, but you can see their are gaps in their defenses, and their altered state of mind render them number to anything besides their master's command and their prey.

Alone they pose no threat, but together and beneath the command of their black chieftain, they'd be a deadly adversary. If you had a means of prying open that lock, you would have not hesitated to sneak towards it, knowing that you would not be spotted and pass into and out of the camps like a shadow cast by the setting sun. But alas, your claws while deadly are not dexterous. And merely crushing the cage open would draw the attention of the entire camp. And while you could butcher the whole of the tribe, or duel the Demon Boar alone, But while the Fat Bastard is accompanied by his witless lackies the chances of you emerging from such a fight unscathed or even alive are far too slim for you to chance such a confrontation while other options remain open to you.

"And what part will you play, Huanliuxue? Tell me your plan and I shall follow it, for I have been struck with terror so great my mind refuses to think for itself. When I turn my intellect to forming a strategy of my own, my survival instincts drown out all other thoughts, screaming that if I take a single step forward I shall die, and die horrifically" He mutters, hands trembling and sweat beading on his brow as a dark fire burns in his eyes.
Cont

>>5143584

His loyalty to his comrades and his resolve are powerful enough to subjugate even the most powerful and primal of fears. The fear of death. If he was not such an arrogant fool, you might have found yourself admiring the man's courage. Smiling, you bow your head

"This Guqin of mine is quite the treasure. Already you have seen one of its abilities, but it is much more than a weapon. It's melody is so beautiful it can rouse their dead from their eternal repose and give them the strength to avenge themselves upon their killer. A demonic tool to your eyes, no doubt." You say quietly as a third victim is dragged, this one fighting every step of the way, biting, clawing and snarling as she is taken to the Pig god of the savage tribe, and stripped.

"Necromancy?" Ping asks, hostility tinging his voice, as his eyes sharpen

"Do you have any other choice? This is no time to be picky. Besides it is not necromany!, it doesn't control the dead, merely energizes them by reminding them they were once alive" You say, stopping yourself from saying more lest you reveal you secrets to the man who is still your enemy in many ways "Follow my lead, There are only a few cages left besides Lei's!"

"Can we not save them as well?" Ping asks as he creeps forward

You do not answer. Focusing only on playing your enchanted Guqin, you close your eyes and summon the dead from their sun bleach bones picked clean of flesh and skin. And then with another song, you strengthen their hold to the mortal realm so greatly they appear as living men and women.

The tribesmen do not respond, for their minds and wills have been completely sealed away by the infernal sap of the Infernal arrowroot. The Demon Boar however, recognizes the threat immediately, and squeals, struggling to rise from his throne as his victims converge

And you play wildly, flourishing as you endeavor to give the ghosts enough strength to harm the Child eating bastard as Ping scurries past the army you have roused from the final rest.

1d100. DC 35. Best out of three

Rolled 59 (1d100)

>>5143585

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>5143585

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>5143585

>>5143600
20 over double the DC, and 61 Over in total!!! Enough to topple mountains and overturn seas! Things aren't looking good for the boar demon

Update will arrive shortly

And what an army they are! Marching from the next life fierce and ready for battle, they surround the boar demon, ignoring the flailing attempts of their enslaved kinsmen to impede or halt their advance. Indeed they walk straight through the still living slaves of the Boar Demon who they ; in their state of mindlessness offer little support too as they try to carry out his order to "Stop them" even though it is utterly impossible to stop the dead! They grab at the air, wrap their arms around nothing, and throw themselves to the ground trying to tackle the vengeful spirits of their evil god's victims. The demon, panicked and stuck firmly into his throne by his girth, squeals and squirms, scratching at his too small seat's arm rests desperately to try and pry it apart to free himself as the hellish apparitions of his past meals circle around them.

Oh how nightmarish their dying grudges have made them! Their eyes have become voids, windows into the abyssal sky of hell itself! You know it well! Tinged red and grey! Their faces distort monstrously, black veins crawling and bulging under their cheeks. Their hair rises as if they were submerged in the bottomless lakes of the underworld. Bite marks appear in their flesh as their appearance becomes pallid and so corpse like they appear to be walking, rotting corpses. Black nails! Black teeth filed into fangs, fog rolls in and shrouds their legs, hanging over them like a heavy winter fog or the miasma of a mass grave. The Boar demon's pin prink eyes, black and glassy glance around as it squeals, crying "Save me! Save me!" with all the desperation of a babe crying swaddled in its crib. The devil is scared of his prey! The monster is frightened by the shades. You play madly! Passionately! The melody becomes disjointed, chaotic as you pour your disgust and disdain for the Boar into every note you strike. Feverish, you feel possessed! Your tongues hangs over your fangs, as your claws and tail move to play the Guqin as if they were controlling themselves and working their own wills upon the mystical refrain you perform for the Glutton King's execution party!

And caught up in the fervor of righteous retribution you begin to sing.

"Let's dance to the corpse march!" You yowl, throwing your head back as the storm returns, rain splashing against your face as the whole world is swallowed by the shadows cast by the inky black storm clouds. Darkness reigns once more but the winds remain calm, quiet as if they were listening to your song with baited breath "Follow its path along to the underworld! Become drunk on lingering malice, guzzling it like wine and blood! Cheerfully the dead invite you onto a wonderous journey! Eagerly I accept! You who wish to die, we invite you to part from the painful and fleeting light! And embrace the bliss and paradise of"

You slouch over, shivering as you're overcome by the powers you've beckoned and reigned.
Cont

>>5143647
"OBLIVION!" You shout, as through the mist a familiar figure steps and charges, screaming his rage to the heavens.

"DEVIL! DEVIL! A DEVIL HAS COME TO EAT ME!" The Boar demon wails, Now struck dumb by fear as he kicks his stubby legs and moves his clawed hands to cover his head "SOMEONE! SAVE ME! I'LL REFORM! BECOME A VEGITARIAN MONK! TURN BUDDHIST! DAOIST! HINDU! JAAAAAIN! ANYTHING! I'LL EVEN LICK THE FEET OF THE GODS AND ROLL OVER LIKE A BITCH IN HEAT! SAVE ME! SAVE ME

"Huh? is that fresh air?" Xiongji asks, scratching his chin as he looks over the camp, eyes widening as he realizes he's been let out of the crypt that has been his prison for centuries. He freezes, before he looks back over his shoulder, and sees the army gathered there of spirits that, while more enraged than any mortal could be, are merry compared to the Rooster General himself. But...but how did he get here!? That should be impossible! The catacombs are warded and sealed! Unless the grudge you took from him counts as a part of his body! And the wrath of the dead and your feverish music, must've created a path for Xiongji to...to escape! He needs to be put back! He may be your ally but he is a madman! Who knows what havoc he'll sow across the mortal realms if he's freed.

"Hey. Little sister. Play the melody again" Xiongji snarls as he raises up his dull axe "Don't know where I am, don't know how I got here, but I can feel that bastard's curse pulling me back already . Obviously you need my help, so allow me to repay your kindness by..."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHK!" The devil shrieks, his throne collapsing as he is completely surrounded by his victims. Like a worm, he crawls away, tears and snot covering his face as he sobs and continues begging to be saved


"FUCKER! I WASN'T DONE SPEAKING! HOW DARE YOU INTERUPT ME! I'LL TEAR YOU APART YOU DOG WHELP!" Xiongji roars as he stomps after the fleeing demon, followed by a legion of monstrous hungry ghosts. You blink, watching the spectacle as the camp is thrown into chaos as the mad general chases after the pig.

Well, at least he'll be pulled back to the tomb before he can cause too much trouble. Figuring its no longer an issue, you begin playing again as the demon's petty court is complete trashed By Xiongji's rampage.

Ping and Lei sprint towards you, narrowly avoiding the General's axe as he hurls it through the air.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Ping yells

"I HAVE NO IDEA!" You laugh blithely as Lei stops to watch the generals pursuit of the boar
cont

>>5143651

What do you do, Huanliuxue?

>Tell Ping "But we should get out of here before the ghost decides you're his enemy as well!" and feign ignorance if he asks you about Xiongji and return to the cave to continue on your journey once Feiqing recovers

>Rush into the fray and help the general gut the pig! (Martial trial DC 55)

>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>Tell Ping "But that ghost is a friend of a mine, so we have nothing to fear. Well I don't at least. He hates almost everything the gods have made, so you may want to run, whelp!". Watch Xiongji rampage

>Write in

>>5143653
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>>5143653
>Free the prisoners and tribesmen [Good Karma]
>"I suggest both of you to get back, He seems quite insane" Cackle

Hehehehehe, Xiongji's here BITCHEEEEEEEEEEEES

>>5143653
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]
We may have gone slightly overboard. But at least the demon is... in good hands. (read: fucked)

>"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"
>"I HAVE NO IDEA!"
My fucking sides

>>5143653
>>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Ping yells
Around these parts we call that a little trollin' my boy.

>>5143653
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]
Karma farming

>>5143653
>>Tell Ping "But that ghost is a friend of a mine, so we have nothing to fear. Well I don't at least. He hates almost everything the gods have made, so you may want to run, whelp!". Watch Xiongji rampage

>>5143653
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>>5143653
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>>5143653
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>>5143653
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>>5143653
>Rush into the fray and help the general gut the pig! (Martial trial DC 55)
>Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen (Agility trial. DC 65) [Good karma]

>>5143653
>Tell Ping "But that ghost is a friend of a mine, so we have nothing to fear. Well I don't at least. He hates almost everything the gods have made, so you may want to run, whelp!". Watch Xiongji rampage
bunch of goody two shoes, can't we have some fun with our boy Xiongji anymore?

>>5143966
Nobody would survive the mad mans fun, save us

Finally got time to sit down and write so, ending the vote and tallying the result. Apologies for the wait

Free the other prisoners and try to save the tribesmen:10

"I suggest both of you to get back, He seems quite insane" Cackle: 1

Tell Ping "But that ghost is a friend of a mine, so we have nothing to fear. Well I don't at least. He hates almost everything the gods have made, so you may want to run, whelp!". Watch Xiongji rampage:2

Rush into the fray and help the general gut the pig!: 1

So You will valiantly try to save the remaining prisoners and the Demon controlled tribesmen, While Xiongji rages around

Update will arrive shortly
>>5143662

https://youtu.be/XpDUPZfqKxI

But the excited smile you wear is all but torn from your face, the general's rampage suddenly seeming a lot less amusing when he is trampling over living bodies rather than bones, or hewing mortal men in half with a single contemptuous swing of his axe by flicking his wrist as if following some all destroying instinct. Something inside of you screams out in offense, even as you tell yourself the death Xiongji is sowing doesn't really matter because the different between a soul still living and a ghost are minor at best. For some reason, watching Xiongji commit his usual, almost habitual acts of extreme violence against living creatures awakens what you can only describe as a new, alien instinct. Something like maternal instinct. It isn't powered by rage, but pity? No! Empathy! concern!. Without even realizing it, before you smile was fully wiped away, you have stepped into the camp. And to your surprise Ping has followed you as well, drawing talismans rapidly with mud he has smeared on his left hand, using his pointed finger like a brush while holding his crude pigment in the palm of his Hand. Lei is there as well

Why have you just rushed into the way of Xiongji's rampage?! Why did you to step into the line of the Ghost General's all consuming rage? The answer is rather simple. It would be the moral thing to do! Though you may be scorned as a demon and maneater, you're not blind to justice! Though you follow no laws written by man or god, you follow what your own heart names as lawful and righteous. The edicts of a beast's heart, the commands of her whims! That is why you have stepped forward into the way of Xiongji's dancing axe! Not for the thrill of it, or to appear more benevolent than you are, but because you can't walk away when innocent victims are being terroized by the mad ghost's rampage alongside the devil who enslaved and meant to devour them! Sure, you may have made a meal out of them if you were hungry enough or they gad slighted you, but that doesn't mean you'll simply stand aside and watch them be slaughtered! Then you'd be no different than the men who encouraged and allowed Ling Meng to Rampage through your village!

They're too weary with hunger or addled by the drugs they have been forced to consume to defend themselves or even attempt to escape from the mayhem Xiongji embodies! And while they may be men, they still live in these wildlands! And as the rightful ruler of all graves and wild things, acting as their guardian is your duty! Certainly not because the guilt of leaving them to their fate would eat away at your mind like a corrosive poison, certainly not! Certainly not.

"Stay here and keep your heads down. That Hungry ghost will as happily behead you as he will that demon" You command, lifting your head high as your tail fluffs up as you march forward
Cont

>>5146116

"Herd the freed captives I lead to you down the path and out of danger, and do the same for the tribes men bewitched by the boar demon, they can still be saved and made whole once more with the proper antidote" You bark the remainder of your orders, looking back towards Ping and Lei as Xiongji leaps over you, the tide of vengeful spirits following after him like the rapids of a flooded river.

Ping opens his mouth, you glare.

"Only a cat is agile enough to avoid being trampled beneath the dead horde's feet, Only I can avoid the bite of their leader's axe" You hiss, instantly cowing the man into silence "I refuse to fail to achieve what I came here to accomplish. I will not endure the shame and humiliation of failure! Obey me, and save those I release or else join the corpses' march yourselves and force me to be humbled. If you try and refuse my command, I will throw you back myself!"

And with that said, you charge headlong into the mountain of blades and the sea of fire. A feeling of bliss and certainty envelops you. Warm and fuzzy, like your birth mother's fur.

Xiongji swings his axe, lifting it just enough to avoid your head and grins.

When the shock passes, you realize he sees this as a game, and has challenged you to test your mettle.

He will rampage and you will try to preserve what he tries to destroy. A deadly game, but not for either of you. Alongside the soothing feeling of acting in benevolence, the lightning sensation of competition shives through you along your spine.

"Then let us dance rooster, the Empress of the dead protecting the living from your wrathful axe" You cackle, sneering as Xiongji lets his tongue fall out of his mouth

"Let us see if the bloodshed can stop the slaughter!" He roars as he sprints after the Pig, and you give chase after him,

roll 1d100. DC 65. Best out of three

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>5146117

Rolled 31 (1d100)

>>5146117

>>5146122
got it in one

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>5146117

>>5146122
24 over DC. Nice

Update will arrive shortly

>>5146137
>Our adorable cat empress' mind: I'm not a good person, I'm not a good person, I'm not a good person, Why am I saving these people?!

>Also our adorable cat emperess: Oh, being a good person is great.

However, for all of Xiongji's strength he lacks subtly and grace. He wields his deadly power like a living man may a hammer, and attacking everything around him indiscriminately. He tantrums and rages, rampages everywhere he goes. And you have spent enough time in his company to understand and anticipate the tempo of his wrath and the destruction it unleashes. He is nothing if not predictable, obviously he is, He spent centuries repeating the same actions, over and over again without once pausing or trying a different approach.

You weave around him easily outmatching his speed, for even as a monstrously powerful ghost he still only has two legs. Overcoming him, you catch him in the radius of your Specter Lightness skill. The altered flow of time surprise him so greatly, you're able to easily snatch away his next victim from beneath his axe. One of the Tribesmen. Xiongji face contorts into a grimace of hellish rage as he watches you flicker and blink and take the target of his rage away like a toy from a disobedient child. Shaking his head as time resumes its natural flow, he rejoins the pursuit of the fleeing demon, which has left a trail of boiling, hissing blood over the rain drenched ground of the barbarians camp.

Your game with Xiongji continues, with similar results. Elegantly, you best him at every turn, batting witless savages out of his way, snatching the captives from the cages he tries to crush beneath his axe before carrying to safety by biting into their clothing and carrying them like kittens. Xiongji's rage is his greatest asset, but it is also his greatest weakness. And you know how to handle and control it masterfully. He can't escape the palm of your open hand, for you hold his collar. The hardest part of winning this fateful game and besting the rooster general's challenges is avoiding being stepped on or caught by his axe's backswing, rather than saving the innocent victims of the boar of his universal wrath. But even that is easy to accomplish when with a breath you can sooth his fury or heighten it to the point he can no longer control himself...well less so than his usual state of unrestrained, murderous fury. Leaping, dodging, weaving, and ducking, you move the uncivilized men out of Xiongji's way, as he splits his focus between trying to chop them to pieces and doing the same with the Boar demon. Whether they be the bewitched servants of the cowardly ball of lard or those they kidnapped, you protect them all and guide them through the chaotic scene of the ghostly hunting party chasing after the wild pig that abused them all the same as you now save them. Trilling and purring, you mock Xiongji playfully as you take the last potential and still surviving victim's out of his axes reach and sit on the boundary of the path, sneering at him as his shoulders fall and he slouches, exhausted and utterly defeated.
Cont

>>5146166

"No fair!" he whines, crossing his arms as he half jokingly pouts; having lodged his axe into the skull of the Boar Demon after it was crippled by the other hungry ghosts ripping its legs off of it in a gruesome game of tug of war "You used techniques and daoist magic to win, little sister!"

"You just said you wanted to play a game, using these people's lives as a wager" You cackle "Don't complain when you didn't state any rules, and don't sulk, its an honor to be beaten by my magnificent, majestic, and resplendently beautiful self!"

"Don't gloat" He snarls, bowing his head as his body is slowly pulled away, piece by piece as he is returned to his prison "it isn't the manner befitting a princess like yourself. It was fun! and though I didn't kill as much as I wanted to, at least I got to remind myself what freshly spilt blood smelled like. I'll just have to remember not to underestimate you again, Huanliuxue, that is why I lost. See you in the catacombs, if its still left standing after I return to it bearing the humiliation of this defeat!"

Gnashing his teeth, the mad general's ghost looks to you and as his head begins to fade away and vanish into the gloom of the storm, as his mouth and chin are all that remains he says, through gritted teeth and half growled, "Goodbye, my princess". And with that he is gone, returned to his cage beneath the earth. And you cannot help but to feel relieved your game didn't damage your relationship with him, nor did it cost anymore lives than those he had already ended before you challenged him to save the innocents caught up in his rampage.

Sighing. You watch the Demon Boar's corpse burn to cinders, the spirits who tore him apart fading away as they return to a less monstrous mien. Frowning, you look at the dismembered and crushed corpses littering the ruined camp site. Split skulls spilling out brains, entrails tossed over the ground between legs severed from torsos. Severed arms and heads sitting in puddles of blood diluted by the rain, mangled beyond belief with a few mauled beyond recognition as human. Some have their eyes popped out, hanging only by the nerves connecting them to their skulls, others are missing their lower jaws or have been cut in half. All of these corpses were made before you intervened.

'Xiongji is scary when his victims leave behind corpses' you idly think to yourself as you walk through the carnage, checking to make sure none of the ones you saved are among the dead. But to your delight and pride, none of them are. It was as you believed, you saved all of those still alive! They owe their lives to your expertise and natural talent. As well as your whimsical act of benevolence. With head held high and a smugly satisfied smirk on your lips, you swagger out of the barbarian's camp as sunlight breaks through the storm clouds.
cont

>>5146168

Almost as if the heavens themselves have realized you're no demon by nature! The thought of the conceited gods realizing their sense compassion is lesser than your own amuses you greatly. Mayhaps they'll decree all cultivators should each offer one limb to you as recompensation for condemning your people, or prostrate and humble themselves before you while declaring themselves fools among fools, perhaps even while you eat the offerings of their lap dogs! Oh Ping would choke on his own tongue if he saw such a sight.

Cackling, you walk down the path, and meet Lei and Ping at the bottom of it, keeping the captives from murdering the defenseless victims of the boar demon. The struggle ends when you appear, and cow the captives with a burning glare. Ping looks away from you, unable to meet your eyes after witnessing your latest good deed.

"Don't hold a grudge against them, you'd be wasting your enmity on your fellow victims. They were bewitched" You spit and snarl at them, shaming the would be killers into dropping the axes and stones they had picked up to butcher their captors. You could've eaten their grudge and grown strong, but you have no patience for such foolishness.

"Divine Cat Goddess of Mercy, forgive us!" One of the older tribesmen cries out, throwing themselves to their knees. Ping covers his mouth, coughing and judging from the scent in the air, coughed up blood into his hands

"We had not known they were unwilling servants of the gluttonous one" He weeps "We almost committed a grave sin upon those who have suffered in silence before you stayed our vengeful hands"

Being complimented and praised in such a manner and so sincerely makes you feel like a giddy drunk.

What do you do Huanliuxue? [two actions can be taken]

>Embrace the gratitude of the tribes whose members you have saved and enjoy their hospitality as you travel deeper into the mountains, in search of your prize

>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]

>Explain to the barbarians you are no goddess, just a cat who decided to on a whim save their lives

>Demand tribute from the tribes and that they worship you instead of their ancestors or whatever spirit they pay homage to forevermore! [Bad karma]

>Write in

>>5146170
>Embrace the gratitude of the tribes whose members you have saved and enjoy their hospitality as you travel deeper into the mountains, in search of your prize

>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]

>>5146175
I'll support.

But while I am not demanding tribute, demanding milk and to have our fur brushed is COMPLETELY acceptable! We are a hero after all, why should we not be pampered? It's not like we enjoyed doing good deeds.

>>5146170
>Embrace the gratitude of the tribes whose members you have saved and enjoy their hospitality as you travel deeper into the mountains, in search of your prize
>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]

>>5146170
>Embrace the gratitude of the tribes whose members you have saved and enjoy their hospitality as you travel deeper into the mountains, in search of your prize
>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]
Bot the first time we have been called a goddess, and it won't be the last.

>>5146170
>>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]
Demand tribute from the tribes and that they worship you instead of their ancestors or whatever spirit they pay homage to forevermore! [Bad karma]

>>5146170
>Embrace the gratitude of the tribes whose members you have saved and enjoy their hospitality as you travel deeper into the mountains, in search of your prize
>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]

>>5146170
>>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]
>>Explain to the barbarians you are no goddess, just a cat who decided to on a whim save their lives
Huanliuxue is no Goddess, she is better. and accepting that Gods and Goddesses should be praised would be hypocritical, given that she has rejected the rule of the heavens and their laws

>>5146170
>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]
>Explain to the barbarians you are no goddess, just a cat who decided to on a whim save their lives

>>5146170
>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]
>Explain to the barbarians you are no goddess, just a cat who decided to on a whim save their lives

>>5146700
I disagree on that. We hate these 'gods' which sent our race into a nise dive out of a sense of self rightious infallibility and would see us dead if they noticed us.

The actual concept of godhood and being praised arent anathema to us, on the contrary they are our direct goals. It is the endpoint of cultivation.

>>5146170
>>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]
>>Demand tribute from the tribes and that they worship you instead of their ancestors or whatever spirit they pay homage to forevermore! [Bad karma]

We can afford to do some naughty things since we banked on a lot of good karma

I think that accepting the gratitude of the tribals is fine, we let the villagers revere us but we didn't really claim to be a god.
Asking them to worship us, and instead of their gods even would be pure hubris though.

>>5146170
>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]

>Demand tribute from the tribes and that they worship you instead of their ancestors or whatever spirit they pay homage to forevermore! [Bad karma]

>>5146700
It's Xianxia, gods, demons and powerful cultivators of are all the samething, but calles by different name, and sometimes not even that. Huan is going to become a goddess eventually in the cultivation powercreep.
Only the Dao or the Heavens themselves can really be considered separate, eternal, divine entities and they are more like the law and will of the universe rather than actual beings.

>>5146170
>produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for [Alchemy trial. DC 50]

Ending the vote, and tallying the result.

Embrace the gratitude of the tribes whose members you have saved and enjoy their hospitality as you travel deeper into the mountains, in search of your prize:5

produce the antidote to free the tribesmen from their bewitchment, which luckily you already have all the ingredients for :12

Explain to the barbarians you are no goddess, just a cat who decided to on a whim save their lives:3

Demand tribute from the tribes and that they worship you instead of their ancestors or whatever spirit they pay homage to forevermore!: 3

So You will produce the antidote for the tribesmen immediately, and as it is one vote under half of both the total and winning vote, you'll take the second action of embracing the hospitality of the tribes while you travel deeper into the mountains in search of your prize, the source of pure, uncorrupted blood Qi

Update will arrive shortly

However, basking in the praises of the grateful and worshipping can wait. The bewitched tribe will be unlikely to survive even a night longer if they are not cured immediately. The Boar Demon may be dead, but if he could enter into the mortal realm, others of his kind could surely do the same. And devils that have escaped the underworld are not the only threats, natural predators and man eating monsters surely populate this mountain as well. So, after enjoying the praise of the still thinking and free willed tribesmen for a few minutes longer, you depart with Lei and Ping back to the cavern where you took shelter from the storm and Left Feiqing but not before first learning of the location of the main camps of the supremely thankfully and truly gracious barbarians who promise their kinsmen will meet you with open arms and larders. Ping remains as silent as a stone, clearly sickened by the sight of you being referred to as a goddess and met with compliments, praise and reverence. Clearly your words earlier in the cave are haunting him, but he does not pester you or try to force you to condemn him with the knowledge you hold of the past. But he also does not accuse you of misguiding or cast a bewitching hex upon the men and women you saved or having a ulterior and sinister motive behind saving them from the fate of being a pig's meal. Instead he busy himself helping Lei keeping the witless humans from wandering off, falling from the cliffside trails or stumbling into the territory of dangerous animals or plants. But it is clear he is in deep, almost meditative contemplation. Though what of, if it concerns your nature or his beliefs, you do not know.

Corralling the Pig's pawns into the cavern, you find Feiqing still asleep in the embrace of the sedatives you tricked him into drinking. Lei pokes the bewitched savages with the blunt end of his spear, crowding them together like livestock in the back of the cave. At once you busy yourself creating the antidote for the spiritual poison they had been forced to swallow. Luckily all of its ingredients, while unheard of amongst orthodox Alchemists, were among the Netherworld herbs you gathered for your experiments with the miraculous Divine Blood Honey. Of which you add but three drops of to the dented pot that will have to suffice as you cauldron, to hopefully increase the antidote spirit drug's potency. Then, pressing the thick blood like sap from a handful of stems of freshly cut Infernal Arrowroot that you gathered before you left the demon haunted camp, you begin the process of brewing the antidote. Crushing the seeds of the Hellish Kuzu, mingling it with the sap and a drop of purest mercury before adding the shells and wings of corpse beetles, powdered cinnabar, Sulphur, Dried Lotus blossoms and an extract of aged Ginseng flowers to the pot as well.
cont

>>5147445

Lighting the fire, you hurriedly stir and scrape the side of the pots, to keep the more fragile ingredients from scorching and sticking to it. You'd need to turn the mixture into a fine paste before it could be formed into pills The tribesmen would wither without a master, and caring the entire clan would slow your journey to a halt and would be all but impossible.

Roll 1d100. DC 50. Best out of three

Rolled 88 (1d100)

>>5147448

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>5147448
We got this.

Rolled 99 (1d100)

>>5147448

>>5147467
What an auspicious roll. 40 over the dc, nearly over 50 and double the dc!

Update will arrive shortly

Fortunately for them, they're being treated by the student of the Toad witch herself! And in all of your mercy and generosity, you have chosen to save them despite the Sins they committed while under the thrall of the boar demon! They should be even more grateful than the tribesmen they took captive while under the spell of devil's witchcraft and be honored to be given a cure made by your paws. The process would be a challenge for any novice alchemist, producing a bulk medicinal pills with dangerous materials that need to be raised to a precise temperature or else they'll retain their "poisonous" attributes or else burn and become entirely useless. And all of this using a pot Feiqing had found abandoned in a gutter in his travels in place of a true cauldron or proper pill furnace. It has an uneven bottom, so you have to move and rotate it constantly to prevent it from overheating in small patches while heating slower in others. Not to mention your fuel, rather than being high quality charcoal or mystical fires produced from the feathers of phoenixes or Celestial Embers or other more exotic materials, is instead water logged wood that snaps and sparks constantly.

But these hurdles mean nothing to you, who has already overcome the great obstacle of lacking fingers or thumbs entirely. They are mere annoyances, rather than a true challenge or obstacle. Working without rest, you form and shape the medicinal pills while Ping meditates, Lei watches the flock of witless thralls and Feiqing rouses and watches you work, not daring to speak or break your concentration by offering his help or interfering in your alchemy.

Using ash as a binder, the pills you produce are a dark, greyish red color possessing a rough texture and a sour, sweet aroma like rotten milk. With little tools or means to refine them you simply roll them around the now cooled pot to smooth them into faultless spheres and to give them a slight sheen while allowing the various materials to fully soak and combine together. The Divine Blood Honey alone will remove the need to further purify and temper the pills. Breathing out, you collapse to your side, panting as the heat and smoke that had clouded burdened for the hours you labored gradually dissipates and is replaced with the pleasant coolness of the cavern. The stench of burnt wood and ashes remain, but they are drowned by the scent of the medicine which tickles the noses and burns the throat.

"It's finished" You proudly proclaim as you rest and cool down on the stone floor of the cavern "Give each of the bewitched half a pill, split and diluted in warmed water. This medicine is meant for the refined and strengthened bodies of cultivators, if it is given to them at its full strength it could have unforeseen side effects"

Your three companions follow your instructions exactly, stirring the medicine into boiled rain water inside of the unglazed clay cups and bowls they drink and eat out of.
Cont

>>5147543

With their dirtied, callused hands, they bring the elixir to the pale lips of the first tribesmen, Ping holding the saucer, Lei pinching his nose, and Feiqing massaging his throat to force him to drink it down. You can all but see the medicine surge down his throat and settle in his starved belly, as the man's unhealthy parlor vanishes away as the elixir travels to its final destination. The man's dull and distant eyes slowly fill with new light and life as an expression of great shame and horror appears on the man's scarred face. Tears fill his eyes and he grips his head with both hands, holding it as he screams, his voice hoarse and weak from disuse and malnutrition.

"I was trapped in my own head! A prisoner of my body! forced to watch helplessly as I offered my own son to that monster! As I murdered and kill men like wild game!" He screams, on the verge of madness as he collapses into Lei's ready arms, weeping and crying "You should've killed me, Crimson Cat Goddess, so I could have atoned with my death! My hands are sullied! They will never be cleansed of the sins they have committed, the blood they have shed will never be washed away! The monstrousness of what I have done will haunt me to my death"

"I am aware, but it was not you who committed those crimes, it was not you who offered your child to the Boar demon" You sharply reprimand, trying to sooth the man's lunatic self loathing and despair with a light scolding so he'll see the foolishness of hating oneself for actions they were forced to commit against their will "Your hands may have performed such villainous things, and your body may have killed for and served a monstrous will, but it was not your own. There's nothing for you to atone for, the vengeful ghosts of your kin were wise enough, even consumed by their enmity, to not blame you for what you were made to do. Hold your head high, those your hands have betrayed would prefer to see you live a good life rather than end it in a wayward attempt to appease their spirits! Even if it is painful, Even if it is hard, live in the stead of those who have died"

The man, shamed by your words but realizing their wisdom, does little more than sob and weep into his hands, overwhelmed with grief and guilt. At least he has been kept from killing himself, but it is likely he will never recover from the mental damage of what he has done. It is unlikely any of them will.

As the rest of the tribe's survivors are cured, they react similarly but do not speak their desire to end themselves to redeem themselves. For even while bewitched, they heard your words. Those with powerful wills, who are not completely consumed by their sorrow and guilt, thank you by swearing oaths and promising to thank you for your mercy and heroism by immortalizing it in their legends and adding you to their totem of divine guardians.
Cont

>>5147546

One young woman goes so far as to wipe the faded war paint on her face and replace it with blotches of red clay and charcoal that mimics the patterns of your own fur to declare the debt she owes to you and admiration she feels towards you for saving not only her but the whole of her people from a fate far worse than any death. Several more, her peers in age or station, soon follow her example and replace the assumedly traditional and symbolic painted masks they wore with ones that mimic the colors and appearance of your resplendent coat of blood red fur.

And you soon recognize an unexpected side effect of the medicinal pills you made. Despite having been mistreated and abused, denied food and water and rest, the tribesmen you have treated are healthier and stronger than they were before!

They offer to give you what little they have left, but you refuse since you do not want stinking furs and hides and whatever dried rations they had squirreled and hid away from their former master. They take this as an act of further generosity, and all fall to their knees to prostrate themselves before you and shout praises even greater than those they have already spoken.

Resisting the urge to roll your eyes, you sit before them to hear their second offer, since they refuse to part without showing their gratitude through gifts even though they have already shown it through adopting you as one of their primitive gods and revering you with song and the paint they wear on their faces.

"Perhaps then, Noble spirit, we can escort you and your adherents to your destination. You are strong, we mean no offense and do not offer protection but rather guidance" Their new elder, a man around the age of Feiqing swears earnestly and humbly.

And that offer is far more pleasing than being given an unneeded and unwanted gift of filthy leather and unpalatable food.

This has an unforeseen consequence, as your destination is in the heart of the mountains and you must pass through the territory of other wild clans and tribes, the very same whose members you had saved and prevented from enacting misplaced vengeance upon the tribe that now leads you through their lands. Somehow, with all of these savages seeing you not only as their savior, but as a guardian and merciful goddess, they begin to unify as those who were not captured or present your act of benevolence hear the story of how you came leading the souls of the slain and how you cured those made the devil's thrall with but a touch of your paw. This mutation of the actual events, acts as a pillar that ties these similar but separate tribes to come together and replace their various patron spirits and deities with crude idols of you made out of mud, wood and hides painted red.

Of course, despite being caught off guard by this development, you do not refuse their hospitality and gratitude and instead enjoy it as fully as you're able to.
Cont

>>5147548

Being met with festivals and celebrations at every camp you rest at, as more and more tribes convert to the worship of Huanliuxue and hearing you're traveling, decide to do all they can to make the journey comfortable for you and your "divine servants". Though you refuse some of their more extreme shows of thanks and appreciation, such as the tribe of the White antlers, who offer to sacrifice their aging chief to you, or the Clans of the Butterfly maidens who offer you and your companions wives, husbands and concubines. Or the gift of liquor another tribe produces by chewing and spitting out berries and nuts into a pot washed with the wastes of a certain species of bear.

Feiqing enjoys being treated respectfully and kindly, being driven to tears every time you are welcomed into a new village or camp. Lei you are certain is also touched by the many shows of gratitude despite hiding his reactions behind that mask of his. Ping however, seems to progressively wither with every party thrown and feast held in your honor that he is forced to attend, and several times you have caught him starring mutely at the idols of you the tribes build and surround with offerings. But, he doesn't raise his voice or reprimand the barbarians for worshipping you. In fact, he hasn't called you demon since you saved the Tribals from the Boar Demon's belly now that you think about it.

Odd.

But, all good things come to an end and eventually you cross over a boundary where even the boldest tribal warrior refuses to crosses. The Spiritual energy of heaven and earth is thicker, denser and purer than the rest of the primordial wilderness and the ambient Qi is so potent and rich that it can be physically felt in the air, which it charges like static or heat.

Its almost oppressive just walking through lands of the heart of the true wilderness, and just from your first day traveling through the heart of the mountain, you can tell it is home to several powerful Magical Beasts and Monsters! You have even seen Dragons flying freely through the air and phoenixes gathered like common sparrows! Instead of deer, there are herds of Qilin! Feiqing and Lei are brought to tears at the beautiful sight of this seemingly heavenly paradise upon earth, but you are more warry.

Something about this place feels wrong, like you are walking over countless graves and intruding into the inner most shrine of a temple. That you have entered into the domain of the gods and ancient heroes. Ping and Feiqing notice it as well, as the sunsets. You decide to ask them to describe how this beautiful landscape feels wrong as you rest by a lake of water so pure it is almost invisible to the naked eye.

A dragon turtle basks on a rock nearby as Ping and Feiqing contemplate their answers.
Cont

>>5147551

"It feels as though, despite its beauty, this place is a temple of evil gods" Ping hisses "but, many of the inhabitants are clearly divine beasts and creatures! Servants and companions of the gods! Good omens! I do not understand why my spiritual sense screams to me that this place is in someway....wrong"

"It feels like those abandoned battlefields I stumbled upon while fleeing from the capital. Like this is more of a tomb than a garden. Something terrible happened here, of that I am certain" Feiqing explains, before being splashed seconds later as Lei tries to spear fish on the shore, seemingly unconcerned by the sense of foreboding that has afflicted you and the two other men

"Gah!" Feiqing gasps after his impromptu bath "But as i was saying, lady Huanliuxue, I am also overwhelmed by my sixth sense, The spiritual energy here is so potent it is almost blinding"

"Think of the treasures to be found" Ping sighs, scratching at his cheek "Even a handful of dirt from here could make my sect wealthy and respect. Everything here is a divine treasure! From the stones of the shore, to the sticks on the ground, to the spider webs between them! It is incredible!"

What do you, Huanliuxue?

>Continue on through the heavenly paradise, not camping or resting out of fear of what it may be hiding, and search for your prize!

>Once more unfortunately agreeing with Ping, realize the wealth of this place and take its treasures to serve as cultivation and alchemical materials

>Something about this place feels oddly familiar...(Instinct/ Knowledge trial. DC 80)

>Ping calls it an evil temple, Feiqing a battlefield and tomb, you feel it is a holy place, relying entirely on your sense of smell and sense of Consciousness, follow the smell of old graves and blood (Perception trial. DC 65)

>Write in

>>5147556
>>Ping calls it an evil temple, Feiqing a battlefield and tomb, you feel it is a holy place, relying entirely on your sense of smell and sense of Consciousness, follow the smell of old graves and blood (Perception trial. DC 65)
Perhaps this is where the demon king fell, or some such? The site of the final battle

>>5147556
>Ping calls it an evil temple, Feiqing a battlefield and tomb, you feel it is a holy place, relying entirely on your sense of smell and sense of Consciousness, follow the smell of old graves and blood (Perception trial. DC 65)
Better to be careful than to stumble into some horrible fate.

>>5147556
>Something about this place feels oddly familiar...(Instinct/ Knowledge trial. DC 80)

>>5147556
>Ping calls it an evil temple, Feiqing a battlefield and tomb, you feel it is a holy place, relying entirely on your sense of smell and sense of Consciousness, follow the smell of old graves and blood (Perception trial. DC 65)
I'm scared of the high DCs, but too curious to pass up.

>>5147556
>Something about this place feels oddly familiar...(Instinct/ Knowledge trial. DC 80)

>>5147556
>Something about this place feels oddly familiar...(Instinct/ Knowledge trial. DC 80)
If this place is truly as nefarious as it feels, it would not be wise to just keep going in blindly.

>>5147556
>Ping calls it an evil temple, Feiqing a battlefield and tomb, you feel it is a holy place, relying entirely on your sense of smell and sense of Consciousness, follow the smell of old graves and blood (Perception trial. DC 65)
More likely to work than the other one.

>>5147556
>Ping calls it evil

This is what we wanted. Bloodshed, carnage. A source of heavenly Blood Qi. The sort found in battlefields.

>>5147556
>Something about this place feels oddly familiar...(Instinct/ Knowledge trial. DC 80)

>>5147556
>Something about this place feels oddly familiar...(Instinct/ Knowledge trial. DC 80)

>>5147556
>Something about this place feels oddly familiar...(Instinct/ Knowledge trial. DC 80)

>>5147551
>No big titty tribal gf

>>5149259
Fenqinq must have extreme discipline for him to decline an amazon wife who would think he is holy, after he spent all his life searching for companionship because he was born ugly.

>>5149351
He's dedicated to the glory of his teacher, no two words about it.

>>5149358
Besides, nothing says he can't come back after all this and grab a harem of whatever flavor of booty catches his fancy. To quote Vegeta "First the immortality, then the bitches."

>>5147556
>Ping calls it an evil temple, Feiqing a battlefield and tomb, you feel it is a holy place, relying entirely on your sense of smell and sense of Consciousness, follow the smell of old graves and blood (Perception trial. DC 65)

Ending the vote now.

Ping calls it an evil temple, Feiqing a battlefield and tomb, you feel it is a holy place, relying entirely on your sense of smell and sense of Consciousness, follow the smell of old graves and blood: 6

Something about this place feels oddly familiar...: 6

So we have a perfect tie. Rather than tie breaking since I feel that would be unfair in this circumstance
Both will win, since they can be easily combined, as one of them is just Huanliuxue shifting through her memory/instinct

So you will try and pin down why this place feels so oddly familiar and then will rely on your Spiritual sense and sense of smell to follow the scent of blood and old graves,


Update will arrive shortly, and the first intermediate one will end calling for the Instinct Trial roll, and the second will call for the Perception trial roll.

Yet the more and deeper you ponder the oddly unnerving ambience of this place of divine beasts and wise ancients; and how it seems to adapt to almost attack each individual by taking on an unnatural air personalized and uniquely crafted to unsettle them, the more it feels to be wholly artifical. Ping feels it is a place of potent evil despite its thus far benign and unhostile inhabitants and sublime natural beauty, Feiqing despite being seduced by the same sublime beauty of unaltered wilderness, believes he is walking upon fresh graves a site of atrocity when he is not blinded by the sheer amount of Natural, primordial Spiritual Energy that fills this inner most valley of the forgotten wilds. And you, when you sample the Heavenly Qi and sights around you, cannot help but to think you are trespassing in the domain of the very same heavens that seek to unravel you imperial destiny and end your life brutally. It is almost as if this ambient dread, that takes on a different form for each who possess an active and open spiritual sense, is a façade of a sorts. A mask. And that connection allows you to realize that beneath the fear of being struck by a bolt of divine retribution or squashed beneath the heel of a great stone idol or simply burned from this earth beneath a ray of radiant sunlight, that this paradise feels familiar to you.

But not in one way, like a half forgotten memory of childhood or similar form of vague familiarity and unreachable recollection. Sitting down, the dragon turtle resting in the sun turns its tired eyes towards you as Lei continues to splash water on Feiqing and the shore as he tries to spear that fat carp swimming in the crystal waters of the lake. Meditating on the strange sensation of familiarity that now dominates your mind you look upon your reflection and the ripples on the waters surface, and the jade scaled carp darting beneath it out of the path of Lei's spear. Soon your ruminations bear fruit, as you come to understand the forms of this odd sense of recollection takes and that there are two different reasons why this place of serene, unrivaled and heavenly beauty seems as familiar to you as your own tail.

Inborn instinct and a memory of a song you once heard when you were a dull minded kitten.

Frowning, you furrow your brow and deepen your meditation to try and reveal the mysteries your animal instincts hide and has faded from your memory. A burning, dull pain echoes from the center of your brow as the grueling mental excursion of chasing fleeting and long buried memories begins to wear upon you. The pain sharpens and spreads, heated nails driven through the flesh and bone of your head. The effort is exhausting, but you continue the painful contemplation nonetheless

roll 1d100. DC 80. Best out of three. First roll of two trials

Rolled 84 (1d100)

>>5149741

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>5149741

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>5149741

>>5149745
>>5149747
Man, our luck in rolls has really turned around, huh?

>>5149750
Yeah, I was scared when I rolled, I was expecting a 1 to ruin everything.

>>5149747
Ten over DC exactly!

Update will arrive shortly.

>>5149750
Its kind of spooky, since it started happening around the time you performed your 5th [Good Karma] action

>>5149752
>Huanliuxue loses her focus cause Lei splashes her

The deep sea of your memory reaches towards an endless, blood red horizon. Sitting in the theater of your mind, surround by every thought you ever had, you shift through and consider each of them, measuring their worth and relevancy to the answers you seek like a master teamaker picking through countless leaves and buds in search of the best material to age, preserve and one day refine into a treasure. Every moment of your life, appearing as paintings floating in the bloody waters of memory, float by you, stained with the emotions that cemented each and preserved them in your mind. The petty and forgettable echoes of your past are mere doodles, looking more like your handiwork than the pieces of a master painter as your more treasured and stronger memories appear. Eventually, your attempts are forcing recollection leads you to a shore of skulls and unmarked grave markers. Though Nine of them, upon the crest of the single hill of the island of bones, are the same nine piles of stone you placed over the graves of the nine children who cared for you in your first life, with wooden plaques carved with the names you knew them by.

Pinwheel girl, Wart nose, The fat one, Too clingy, little soldier, The swimmer, Toy maker, Terrible singer and Ear puller. Pinwheel girl's pinwheel sits, turning in the grave winds of your mind that also lift little soldier's scarf into the air. Bowing your head to pay respects to your deceased caretakers, you step over the hill and enter the portion of your mind devoted to the simplistic, animal thoughts and half understood insights of your existence as a mere, stupid animal.

The painted memories in this grey, half formed plane are plain. Cruder than any in your intelligent mind, even the most faded of thoughts and unremembered experiences. Most of them are easily understood, even though you have long since risen above such simplicity. The ones concerning the trauma and grudge that awakened your sense of self and awakened you to the world, its cruelties, injustices and mysteries sit upon the hill of bones, so for awhile you're able to reminisce of the happy, carefree days of your youth. Of playing by the river's edge, lazing upon porches and laps, being fed fatty pieces of fish, chicken and pork, chasing mice and sparrows and countless other mundane, daily experiences that then felt like the height of existence and bliss. But even while your white furred self's daily life and its petty fears and joys seem pointless and droll to you now, they remain treasured memories. Just seeing the nine childrens' and the other villagers faces again is euphoric.

But you cannot linger in the memories of the trouble free past, and so deeper you search until at last you find a memory, depicting you as a kitten seeking shelter under a house and hearing a song. The very same song that you remember, and now that you can understand it, you realize why it was one of the two reasons the serene valley seemed oh so familiar to you.

Cont

>>5149799
It was a fairytale story in verse, meant to lull children to sleep with a heroic tale so they would dream of virtuous sword saints and valiant warriors of the heavens rather than suffer nightmares. Specifically a bowdlerized variation of the story of the final battle of the demon lord Zhìzūn-Móxīn and the Five Colors Celestial Emperor referred to in this song; sanitized of all the more unpleasant truths of the reign of Zhizun Moxin, the harsh realities of war and combat, and any mention of Magical beasts besides as "Wild Demons", as simply Five Colors.

How they met atop a peak that grew from the depths of Hell and Reached to pierce through the heavens, and as their swords clashed to create thunder and lighting as their movements whipped the winds into a storm and the maidens of heaven wept and prayed for Five colors victory, all of the creatures and men of the world watched the battle with baited breath. How the sun rose to encourage five colors as he was thrown to the ground, how he fought with the strength of a thousand, how felt pity for his bested foe as he severed his head and for the damage their duel caused to the world which has been rendered into little more than a wasteland of sand and barren rock, chose to renew it with his own flesh and blood, starting upon the very peak where that world shattering duel took place, and spread the five colors across the land.

You are nearly driven from your rumination as you realize why all of your feel unsettled by this place for a different reason. It is a place of evil, it is a graveyard and it is a holy temple! For this is where The Demon Lord ruled, where he and his armies fell and were buried alongside countless virtuous immortals and even more mortal heroes. Xianxia and Wuxia buried alongside demons and devils alike! The temple of purest evil, the mass grave of heroes and villains alike, and the most holy site of all! This sensation is no ward or hex to scare away trespassers, it is an instinctual reaction that is perhaps why Gods and Men avoid this place to begin with! and why perhaps, besides the sheer density of Qi which is incredible even in the borderlands of this primordial wilderness, Magical Beasts are so common place and why the few tribes of primitive men who live here do not fear or abhor them as vile demons!

And that, allows you to step beyond the line separating the memory of the moment of your birth, into the innate knowledge of your sole.

And you realize why you see the heavenly valley in the light you do. Because it was here were your people were betrayed, and a genetic memory of dread arose to try and, as the survivors of the war did, flee into the wilds and hide away from those who now hunted and scorned them! And you realize the reason such a memory exists within you.
cont

>>5149800

Because, one of the first to be cut down by the same cultivators who once called them comrade, friend and family, used their last breath to cast a spell upon every animal to awaken after the edict was made.

And you can see them now, in the furthest reaches of your memory, alongside your most basic and primal of instincts. They appear as a shadow so vague you cannot tell what species they were originally or even if they were a man or woman, all you can tell is they had taken a human form like the first Ascended beast, Niú Bingwen, the founder of the Mountain Shattering Hammer Law! The Stone Bull!.

They reach out to you, as a spear tasseled with stars pierces their noble heart and burns away their very soul. And you recognize the spear itself, for it is a legend of its own. The Celestial Lance of the Five Colored stars! The personal artifact, treasure and weapon of the Five Colors Celestial Emperor. But it is not his hands that plunged it into the Magical beast who sacrificed themselves to protect the future generations, to protect you and preserve the legacy of Primordial beasts by casting a dim light of hope into the future with the last of their energy! The shadow flickers, and then fades away, leaving you alone in the darkness of primal instinct.

Opening your eyes, the pain inflicted by the sheer mental labor of remembering what you had long forgotten and knew by instinct alone vanishes immediately.

"Thank you" You utter to the wind, hoping vainly it will one day reach the ears of the destroyed spirit of the martyr who gave their lives to try and protect the rest of their race, even those who truly had become demons in nature as well as name.

Standing up, tall and proud with new found respect and renewed sense of responsibility , you take this new found comprehension, understanding and the new insight you have revealed of the legacy you carry, and expand your consciousness while shutting off your sense of hearing, sight, touch and taste to empower both your spiritual sense and sense of smell beyond their natural limits.

Roll 1d100+25. DC 65. Best out of three

Rolled 33 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>5149803
Lets go

Rolled 11 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>5149803

>>5149804
>>5149815
We literally need a 40. Fuck sake, who jinxed us. Was it ping? That asshole.

Rolled 44 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>5149803

>>5149824

SUCCESS!
44, how fitting considering Huanliuxue's connection to ghosts and death. Not so fitting is that the result is 69, but eh.

Update will arrive shortly

>>5149804
33
>>5149815
11
>>5149824
44. . .

What in tarnation

To the three men who followed the Demon Cat Huanliuxue far beyond the reach of civilization, mankind and even the gods, the red furred, ox sized house cat suddenly rose, rather solemnly to her feet and closed her eyes. Lei, quickly ignore the strange action of his master, and turned once more to the delicious looking fish swimming just below the surface of the clear, jade pure waters of the lake they were resting at, while Feiqing grew concerned and Ping grew curious. The former rushed to her side, asked her if something was wrong or if she had reached a new insight concerning the Dao while Ping remained silent. When Huanliuxue did not react to being soaked with water, and continues to step slowly north in the direction of the very center of the primordial wilderness they had been exploring and journeying through, Feiqing grew more worried while Ping grew more curious. Trusting that Lei could defend himself, as he was the only of the three with a weapon and fighting experience, the ape faced smith and the disciple of winter's wisdom, followed behind the apparently bewitched Huanliuxue, who had seemingly been possessed by some desire or comprehension neither man could understand nor realize themselves.

Blind and deaf, the Cat Demon wandered far from the lake, guided as if by a leash away from dangers such as furious flood dragons wailing about lost loves or the temptations offered by strange men, who though they appeared human were so unsettling in manner and speech that they could be nothing else than demons in disguise. Ping chanted mantras, hands trembling as he held his prayer beads which themselves were wrapped and pasted with mystical and holy talismans, Feiqing merely shouted and called out to Huanliuxue as she traversed further and into more dangerous and frightening places. Such as charred fields lit only by ever burning flames, or canyons that were populated by monstrously large serpents, scorpions and pale hands of ethereal hands. This was where Ping and Feiqing turned away and left Huanliuxue, knowing that they could not survive the journey she now undertook in a meditative trance.

Further, yet further, The Happy Bloodshed walked, wandering and lead by the vaguest of senses, following a trail that had been left behind ten generations prior.

Through an open courtyard of gemstones, coins and treasures beyond mortal imagining, across a field of beautiful flowers and more beautiful yet, through a manor where a feast of heavenly delicacies was prepared and left to be claimed, a tournament ground soaked with blood, a field of flowers lit by every warming sunlight where the winds sang whispered lullabies, and past a palace where a statue of herself stood before its opened gates. Huanliuxue passed through chambers representing all one hundred and forty five sins daoism and then passed through twenty two more representing Sins only to those who sought to pursue the highest and most primordial Dao.
Cont

>>5149867

By shutting off her senses completely, and not being tempted by the smells that would tempt even the most austere daoist because cats delight and are attracted to other scents than men are, Huanliuxue bested the trials without ever knowing she had walked into a vast temple empty save for the one hundred sixty seven trials that were placed within it, which shall not be described for they are unimportant to Huanliuxue's Journey to the center of the True Wilderness. For, surrounded by the vast gold and marble temple as if ringed nine times, sat a peak of black stone shorn and shattered to be a mere fraction of its former height.

its guardians, puppets made purely of the five elements, did not assail her as she passed them by, for they sensed no earthly desire or ambition within her empty mind. For she did not know to where she wandered or what awaited her. By trusting her Spiritual sense completely and emptying her mind of all thought to keep herself from reconsidering her choice out of caution or paranoia, Huanliuxue accidentally passed the final test of a travelers morality by sheer coincidence, as she did all trials before.

Perhaps it is true that the humble housecat is an incarnation of good fortune, for Huanliuxue's good luck was at this moment peerless beneath the heavens and could only in theory be surpassed by true divine intervention and providence! Marching up the stepped path carved from the black stone spire, Huanliuxue walked up to the lowest reaches of the heavens without realizing it.

Walking past pools of golden water and jade grass, she passed by two lanterns lit with seeds of the Celestial sun and moon, and passed over a bridge made from the broken blades of heroes whose names had been forgotten and legends that had passed from myth and into the subconscious mind of all of mankind.

And, a lonely and old god, who had lived the isolated and austere life of a ascetic hermit away from all three realms for ten generation, glanced up as he sensed her approach and then saw her.

Sitting down beneath a peach tree, he set his cane down and smile, pulling a Gong Fu Tea Ceremony set from the pocket dimension he kept in his Spatial robes.

"Hoh!" He huffed, to draw his guest from her trance
_

You open your eyes to find yourself in a divine garden of beautiful flowers, with living jade carved into its grass and gold light flowing through its dainty streams feeding towering trees with marble white bark bearing fruits that glowed like stars. It felt as though you were in the most pleasant dream, one you wished you could experience forever .But, you were drawn from your reverie admiring the garden immediately, by a sight that was so out of place it immediatly shook you from it.

An ordinary old human, sitting beneath a tree in dingy brown robes patched with straw and patches of cotton fabric that did not match the robe's color or the other squares of cotton!
Cont

>>5149869

He had a bald head and a long white beard that coiled around him like a constricting snake.

"Hoh-hoh" He chuckled as he bid you to come closer, with a bamboo table in front of him, set with cups and a small silver tea pot "I was not expecting a visitor so soon after I retired to this humble temple, let alone one so young! My my! You must be a prodigy without equal to have arrived here at the foundation establishment stage! And the first Rank at that! Or the most lucky of all children born since I washed my hands in the golden basin! Come, sit and have tea with me, child, we have much to discuss!"

"Eh?" You grunt, tilting your head as the old man produces a fan made of phoenix and Luan bird tail feathers

"What's the matter child? You must have come here with a purpose? Come and share a cup of tea with me while we discuss what that is. You must be weary after traveling so far to arrive here, so lay your weary legs to rest and tell me what brings you to my retreat" He says, as it slowly dawns on you the smell of blood and old graves is centered upon this old man and you realize that he isn't an ordinary senior. He is a god.

And he doesn't hate you. There is no aggression is his mannerism, expression or tone. But still, you take an involuntary step backwards

"Are you afraid of me?" He asks sadly, pouting as he poured tea into the pitcher and then into the two cups upon the board, all of which had been carved from mutton fat jade "I assure you, I am nothing to be afraid of. I have not raised a spear in ten generations, nor have I left this garden or felt a single violent thought"

You can't say a word, and merely look at him in silent disbelief as a breeze pass through the garden, rustling the branches of the celestial trees and causing the jade grass to sway before it parts through your fur.

"Why do you distrust me so child? Have you passed through the wilds, the battleground and the temple? Surely you must have known what waited for you at the end of your journey!" He laughs before suddenly falling deathly silent, before raising his voice far sterner than before "Something...someone has scared you, abused you, I can sense it in the turmoil of your soul. What's happened outside of these walls"

He sighed and recomposed himself

"Sit, child, your reward takes precedence over the happenings of the three realms and the worlds I have left behind" He said softly, gently, like a doting grandparent.

A tone no cat can resist! No matter how far they have risen beyond being a pampered pet!

Begrudgingly, you accept the old garden god's hospitality, and take a seat opposite of him, sitting on your haunches

"Now, drink your tea before it gets cold, it is Big Red Robe oolong! Grown in the the plantation of the fair harvest sister goddesses! A treasure of tea!" He said merrily, nodding his head, and motioning with an upturned, open hand towards the cup. He blinked thrice, looking at you expectingly for a moment longer
Cont

>>5149871

"Has no one taught you how to take a human form? are you an orphaned Divine beast? Or has your parent forsaken you?" He asked sadly, almost pityingly, with unshed tears shimmering in his eyes.

that is when you fully comprehend he is entirely ignorant of the events of the last ten generations.

"Forgive me, I've become distracted again child, your circumstances do not matter, besides that you have traveled far and succeeded where many of your betters would fail. What matters is the prize your fortune or virtue has awarded you" He mutters, angry at himself "Allow me to, accommodate you better"

glancing down, you found the cup replaced with a saucer, and in shocked looked back to the old man to find him meekly scratching his head, with an embarrassed smile beneath his snow white beard.

"So, tell me child, what have you come here seeking?" He asks, pressing you as he pulls a meatbun from his sleeve and bites into it.

How do you answer the Grandfatherly God's question, Huanliuxue?

>"Power! That is what I seek! Power! I need more power!"

>"Uncorrupted Blood Qi. Insight into the Dao of blood! That is what I seek to possess "

>"My destiny! I am heir to the primordial beasts! Give me my crown, Old man!"

>"To further my personal development and the development of my self taught law!"

>"Hmm, I suppose I came seeking something to help me right the injustices of the world and protect those unloved by the heavens" [Unlocked through having 5+ good Karma]

>Write in

well now, should we go to the GK vote?

>>5149875

>>5149875
>>"Hmm, I suppose I came seeking something to help me right the injustices of the world and protect those unloved by the heavens" [Unlocked through having 5+ good Karma]

>>5149875
>The truth? I have come here to find a source of pure Blood Qi, so I could meditate upon it a learn more, and hopefully attain more power. Power and knowledge that I need to be able to be a worthy ruler, teacher, daughter and student. And if I can right wrongs on the way, specially those forsaken by the heavens as my kind was, then it's all the better.
I think this touches on our goal, our reason and our karma

>>5149875
>"Hmm, I suppose I came seeking something to help me right the injustices of the world and protect those unloved by the heavens" [Unlocked through having 5+ good Karma]
If we unlocked something then that's probably better than the others.

>>5149894
Maybe replace the second power to strength, to make it a duality of needing both strength and knoweldge to be a good cultivator.

Hope our boys are okay or at least had the good sense to turn back. I don't think they could have survived this otherwise.

>>5149894
Supporting

>>5149894
I'll back this.

>>5149875
I don't like long write-ins that try to combine options, so I'll go with the default option that makes the most sense
>>"Hmm, I suppose I came seeking something to help me right the injustices of the world and protect those unloved by the heavens" [Unlocked through having 5+ good Karma]
ultimately that's what the Blood qi was for, after all. our MC wanted it, but it wasn't her actual goal of itself, she just needed to be stronger than any other cultivator in order to survive long enough to found her sect to right the natural order of the world