treave, if we accept a duel in A1/B1, is it lethal like it was with Rong Zhiyu?
Let's put that 7 Cha and 5 Speech to use, we should be able to convince the crowd that fighting should be kept in the ring.
I think that most of us can agree that A1 is bad: the Grand Taoist warned us earlier that the entire plot of these conspirators is to provoke us into doing something foolish, which is what accepting this fight as Zhang Jue's apprentice would entail. It's a bad idea. However, let me tentatively propose an alternative just to get some discussion going. I want to see what you guys think.
The Brazilian Slaughter Jester asxetos Zero Credibility TOME ScubaV ERYFKRAD
The situation as presented now is this with A2: a vengeful son challenges the confessed disciple of the brutal savage that killed his father to a duel, to which the disciple refuses. But if we go with B1, we have the chance to turn the tables against our conspirators. By accepting the duel and denying our identity, we suddenly reframe the situation into Man Tiger Pig taking on a duel in order to defend himself from a pack of slanderous lies - we're an even bigger hero in the eyes of the public.
"I'm Zhang's apprentice? How dare you?! Zhang killed my family! I demand satisfaction, good sir!" Their entire plan hinges on scapegoating Master Zhang, so if this Yu Gan character gets himself into a duel with someone who denies that he's Zhang's apprentice in the first place, that puts the committee into
extremely deep shit, because they've suddenly been caught looking the other way while a fight went on during the tournament.
Even if we end up maiming Yu Gan - he threw down the gauntlet against a man he had no proof against, we were slandered, and we ended up beating him bloody in retribution for the insult. The best part is, since we denied being Zhang's apprentice in the first place, the blame will fall squarely on the committee that allowed the fight to happen, and on Yu Gan, who initiated the fight:
There will be no fighting outside the tournament allowed in the city for the duration of the competition, as decreed by the Eight Major Sects. This is to prevent butthurt losers from getting their sect buddies and starting a street fight, which has happened before to their eternal shame. The Eight police this rule rather strictly, and any orthodox member caught in a fight will be severely punished, if not expelled.
Now, I understand that people don't want to stop our progress, but we have a great opportunity to really fuck up the WiB's plans here. Cao'er is with Emei and we'll be picking her up in three months from there, so we can simply fight Yifang and Yiling once we arrive there to pick her up again. Nie Mudan was a pushover, and we already have the tools to defeat Guo Fu again with our improved skills.
As for how we'll win this fight, not having to worry about Zhang being a scapegoat means that we will have no fear of holding back. In addition to that, we've already become somewhat familiar with the Huashan style thanks to Nie Mudan and Rong Zhiyu before that. And the best part is, even if we lose, we still win. We're the brave fighter who takes on anyone, anytime, anywhere, even completely broken and bloody. And since we just denied being Zhang's apprentice right now, what the fuck are these guys going to do? Kill us while everyone's watching? B1 turns the tables on our enemies completely and it'll put them on the defensive.
The duel in A1 is what I think of as
lose/lose. If we win the duel, we play into the committee's hands, so we lose there. But if we lose the duel, we look like a wimp because the Southern Maniac's disciple is supposed to be better than that. B1 however, is
win/win. In this set of circumstances, they can't justify hurting us badly, we have the moral high ground, and we make the committee and Yu Gan look like the villains here. It will alter people's perceptions completely.
