This DISCUSS!!! is getting fucking ridiculous. People are interpreting things to suit their own biased understanding of events and we're letting a lot of half-truths inform how we approach this. This was a problem in the previous choice, and I see this worrying trend continuing again. Let's nip that shit in the bud, right fucking now and organize things better.
We can still win a 8 on 1 formation. Jing has a LOT of experience against multiple opponent sword formations, and they have NO experience against our Wuying Leipo Kick or our Ruanhong Zhusuo. We're also better than they are.
Where did you get this from? Look, these guys aren't the chumps that we faced in the Hundred Man Battle. The Taishan might not be much compared to the likes of BJ, but they can still curbstomp any of the dickheads we faced back then. On top of that, they work well together, their entire and they are sure as fuck tougher than any of the mooks we fought on the pirate quest:
“If I’m not mistaken, they specialize in the Qixing Beitou Formation (北斗七星陣,Big Dipper Formation). I’ve not seen it in action before, but I’ve heard that it is intricate and everchanging. Taishan is also famous for the Qixing Luokong (七星落空,Seven Stars Fall Empty), a sword technique that attacks the seven main pressure points of the body with qi,” says Qilin. “I don’t have any further details; I don’t know much about them.”
The truth is that we have no experience against their formation either (we decided to examine Murong Yandi's technique that time instead), so that makes us even. There is no doubt in my mind that any one of these Taishan are leagues better than any of the mooks we fought to defend the Minamoto.
Taishan and Kunlun are really below us so we get no prestige for smacking them down and if they want to BAAAAW about getting csught by surprise on a battlefield, then they can go ahead.
Also, less risk of killing them that way and making Shagguan sad.
I'm voting D but the "no prestige" comment is off the mark. Taking on Su Liaojing and the Taishan Seven and beating them all at once is a badass deed that is probably above and beyond that of fighting a hundred no-name pugilists from schools that nobody gives a fuck about.
treave can confirm whether this is the case or not, but I'm pretty sure it would garner lots of prestige.
However, the crucial distinction is whether this prestige is worth risking another serious injury over. I don't think it is. Our overall goal in all of this is to be recognized as the greatest pugilist of our generation, and by my estimation, I think that the only way to go about this is by defeating Bai Jiutian. Now, a huge victory here raises our stock, certainly (and it might even improve our skills), but I don't think that it will make Xu Jing as highly regarded a martial artist as Bai Jiutian. That right there is the downfall of C, in my opinion.
Even if we win, it seems like a Pyrrhic victory. I found it acceptable among the Minamoto because it really established our "bad motherfucker" credentials, gave us
Reikan, and it was done at the beginning of Zhang's mission, where we had much more time to recover and more room for error. As of now, we have six months, so we had better fucking make the most of it.
Now, a fair fight would have been winnable...
if we had decided to get some experience against the Taishan back at the tournament:
Murong Yandi seems to be in a bad mood as he comes to your side. “Could you let me take them all down, Man Tiger Pig? The two of them were saying some rather rude things to me just now.”
...
A. Insist to go at it alone. You survived the nuns’ six-man formation, a crippled four-man formation shouldn’t be any problem for you, especially since none of the other disciples seem to match you in speed and strength. Beating four of them by yourself would be good bragging rights.
B. Let Murong Yandi handle the formation alone. He seems confident, and this could be a chance to see what he can really do. You might meet him in the elimination stages, and if he wants to show off you can benefit from seeing his techniques.
C. Offer to team up with Murong Yandi for the fight. The formation might be more than either of you are expecting, since none of you have actually experienced it before, and it would be safer this way.
Here, we went with B. If we fought the Taishan earlier, we could have maybe taken advantage of that experience, but instead we're kinda going in blind. So we have to take them out by surprise, let them bitch about it later.
Anyway, with regards to Taishan (and the other sects) you would have to defeat them at their best for them to acknowledge defeat. That would mean taking on the full seven-man formation by yourself since that's what they are known for. Of course, it's a start if you dismantle their four-man formation solo in full view of everyone else. Even if they don't admit defeat yet, you'll begin to sway public opinion towards you being better.
Nevill dug up an interesting quote here Regarding this, as far as my interpretation of it goes, even if D would have a lot of people regarding us as a dirty fighter, taking out the remaining Taishan disciples once they've regrouped
and Su Liaojing at the same time is still a big deal. That'll sway public opinion too, though obviously not to the extent that taking them all on at once would.
If we defeat these eight right here, not only do we prove we're one of the strongest of our generation, but we also preserve rep with their sects, and since we're interested in what they've got, we may as well do it. I think that's worth the risk. And as I said, Jing has had a lot of practice against sword formations. They have no practice against our new techs.
Our goal isn't to be "one of the strongest", it's to be
the strongest, baddest motherfucker in the
jianghu, for LORD ZHANG would accept no less. This is a big risk for little gain, because our entire goal is to be the undisputed #1, and this is a fight that doesn't get us there.
