[LP CYOA] 傳

[treave]

He doesn't actually have any, she just thinks he does, and wonders what a man that follows his own rules, killing and saving in equal measure, must be thinking. She's still convinced you're a good guy deep down inside. She thinks she might find something from your own self-made skills.

 

[Esquilax]

Also, I realize that I mentioned him in the same breath as Vairya and Zhang Jue, but that's because the ones most approximate to Xuxian's neigong level are dead. From what Jing could gauge, it's quite likely that Xuxian has neigong approaching the level of Wang Zhengchong or pre-timeskip Ahura, though his skills don't come anywhere near close.

Xuxian, a monk who two years ago couldn't even get entered into the tournament that we won, now has a neigong approaching Big Motherfucking Wang. And he doesn't even have the full manual, just part of it! I can't believe that we're postponing the investigation on this manual for the Dragon Palm technique, given how massively powerful it is. Shiny Object Codex has disappointed me greatly here.

Uh, and what is Jing's personal philosophy right now?

The same as it's always been: YOLO.

 

[Kipeci]

He doesn't actually have any, she just thinks he does, and wonders what a man that follows his own rules, killing and saving in equal measure, must be thinking. She's still convinced you're a good guy deep down inside. She thinks she might find something from your own self-made skills.

Couldn't she have just asked her grandfather about that?

 

[treave]

Couldn't she have just asked her grandfather about that?

Uh, it's different from what you do. Yao doesn't go around poking his nose into stuff that doesn't concern him, or abducting good nubile maidens, or sleeping with two girls at once. I was just being a bit poetic.

 

[Kipeci]

Oh, okay. I was just thinking that for the bolded part here:

He doesn't actually have any, she just thinks he does, and wonders what a man that follows his own rules, killing and saving in equal measure, must be thinking

It would seem that her grandfather would have been pretty available to have a discussion on his actual philosophy for the killing physician type stuff, if not the other things so much. Unless seeing that in her grandfather is precisely what makes her wonder at what it is for someone who seems to be starting down a similar path of some sort, I guess.

 

[treave]

The three of them will have discussed philosophy and religion, yes, while Cao'er was busy on Maniac Island diddling your ass.

 

[Baltika9]

The three of them will have discussed philosophy and religion, yes, while Cao'er was busy on Maniac Island diddling your ass.

I hope Jing is at least enjoying it now. What is their opinion on Cao'er's preferences? Especially Miecao's and Yifang's.

 

[Tigranes]

Interesting. So the minute Xuxian gets his hands on our manual, or we get our hands on his fragment, it's going to be hammertime. Neigong superior to most fighters we will ever encounter, therefore making them ripe for the copy learning.

 

[Kipeci]

The three of them will have discussed philosophy and religion, yes, while Cao'er was busy on Maniac Island diddling your ass.

I hope Jing is at least enjoying it now. What is their opinion on Cao'er's preferences? Especially Miecao's and Yifang's.

Do we really want to bring up this topic to her grandparents and sister, ever?

 

[Baltika9]

The three of them will have discussed philosophy and religion, yes, while Cao'er was busy on Maniac Island diddling your ass.

I hope Jing is at least enjoying it now. What is their opinion on Cao'er's preferences? Especially Miecao's and Yifang's.

Do we really want to bring up this topic to her grandparents and sister, ever?

I kinda want to know where she got it from (my money is on Miecao being a kinky old woman) and see if Yifang is open to joining.

 

[Esquilax]

Also, if we join the Ten Swords gathering he could get thrown off the trail since only Emei, Yao, Qi Liuwu, and Zhang Jue know that we have the Yuchang blade, so this revelation will tell him we've been hiding our swordsmanship and get him guessing different things. If we keep giving off signs of Wuxiang Qiankun though then he will certainly suspect it.

I'm pretty sure that everybody knows that Xu Jing possesses the Yuchang Sword. The only reason that only Emei has been coming after us is because the sword has nothing to do with the other Sects. For example, if the Taishan Great Sword was stolen by someone, I don't see why Shaolin or Wudang would send people to find the thief, because a Taishan Great Sword isn't Shaolin/Wudang business. Everybody knows, but it's Emei's problem. And well, we've carried the sword around for around four years, I'm pretty sure people know that we have it.

Anyways, about the part of the Xiaoming Jiuyang manual that remains at Shaolin:

“Yes, we believed that his drastic increase in inner strength was due to that particular manual. In the last struggle for the manuals, Shaolin Temple was rumoured to have kept a copy of the Xiaoming Jiuyang skill, though they have always denied it. They still do. Jiu Mou talked to Xuxian, however, and we can confirm they have at least a copy of the first part, which advances the neigong of the practitioner.”

Was this a typo, treave. It seems to me that Xuxian would have already stolen the part of the manual that increases neigong, since he's already on par with Wang and Ahura in that regard. But perhaps I misunderstood; did you mean to say that Xuxian stole the entire manual and that a copy of the first part remains, or did you mean to say that Xuxian stole part of the manual and only the part specified in the quote above remains at the Shaolin Temple?

 

[treave]

He learnt it, he didn't take it. Shaolin might only have a copy of the neigong part but not the technique section is what Qi is guessing, though it could be that Xuxian didn't have time to learn more. Xuxian fleeing from Shaolin was a rather recent event.

 

[Absinthe]

As long as he has had experience with the prior moves that could work, but it might take long enough that he hasn't made much headway the next time you meet. But it would help. Yeah, you could write one.

Cool. Lets do that then.

I'm pretty sure that everybody knows that Xu Jing possesses the Yuchang Sword. The only reason that only Emei has been coming after us is because the sword has nothing to do with the other Sects. For example, if the Taishan Great Sword was stolen by someone, I don't see why Shaolin or Wudang would send people to find the thief, because a Taishan Great Sword isn't Shaolin/Wudang business. Everybody knows, but it's Emei's problem. And well, we've carried the sword around for around four years, I'm pretty sure people know that we have it.

Where is this coming from? I'm pretty sure the Yuchang Sword has been coated in paint ever since the Young Tigers tournament to avoid recognition, and we've been primarily using the wodao since the hundred man battle. As far as I know, nobody has identified us as the bearer of the Yuchang Sword outside of Emei and the folks we know. If it was common knowledge that we have it, then odds are some master thieves would've already tried to take it from us. Treave, could you confirm whether it's common knowledge that we bear the Yuchang Sword?

 

[treave]

Treave, could you confirm whether it's common knowledge that we bear the Yuchang Sword?

It's not. You haven't been waving it about too often. The living people who know you have it are Zhang Jue, Yao, Qi Liuwu, Miecao and the Emei Castration Nun Squad. However, since the Nun Squad visited Songfeng prior to tracking you down, there may be some people who have gotten a clue from that -> Emei nuns visit Songfeng right after Xu Jing takes off with a broken old ancestral blade.

 

[Kipeci]

If it was common knowledge that we have it, then odds are some master thieves would've already tried to take it from us.

Are you sure about that? Taking the sword seems like a pretty dangerous prospect, for starters. Jing and most of his fairly significantly sized party are no slouches on perception, and Qilin at least used to trap up all of her room prior to sleeping... heck, even Cao'er immediately nailed us with some pins to paralyze us when we dropped into her prison for a little while as she was making use of her break to read. If anyone is alerted so that the others wake up, almost everyone with us is competent in fighting or other skills that will really ruin one's day, and since Jing generally keeps the Yuchang Sword concealed on his person you'd have to take it from him within the most dangerous range possible without him noticing.

Once you're through with all that, you need to get the hell away extremely fast and put out word that you have the Yuchang sword to sell to interested parties without the information filtering back to either him or the Emei sect, who would hunt you down with their Castration Squad. Those interested parties know enough about the Yuchang Sword to know that there are some rather dangerous folks searching for it and still be willing to buy it, which narrows down the pool... not to mention, those parties that ignore the danger are probably dangerous on their own to this hypothetical thief.

It seems like a lot of risk for rather little reward, even if Jing's carrying it was common knowledge.

 

[Absinthe]

We're definitely no slouches. Run of the mill thieves are no match against us, but when I say master thieves, I mean the best thieves out there. The Yuchang Sword would draw these masters since it would be worth a lot. If our luck is good (which it isn't), it would be the Shadow Wolf who would happen to indeed be Asahina and spot our amulet and be like "sup bro you have a problem let me help." But odds are it would be some legendary thief fucker with an effective 10+ stealth, traps, sleight and one day we wake up without our legendary sword.

Right now Cao'er has 12 perception on Reikan so even these guys might get detected by her, but back then, we'd be fucked.

 

[Esquilax]

Where is this coming from? I'm pretty sure the Yuchang Sword has been coated in paint ever since the Young Tigers tournament to avoid recognition, and we've been primarily using the wodao since the hundred man battle. As far as I know, nobody has identified us as the bearer of the Yuchang Sword outside of Emei and the folks we know. If it was common knowledge that we have it, then odds are some master thieves would've already tried to take it from us. Treave, could you confirm whether it's common knowledge that we bear the Yuchang Sword?

Ah, good catch! I completely forgot about this.

He learnt it, he didn't take it. Shaolin might only have a copy of the neigong part but not the technique section is what Qi is guessing, though it could be that Xuxian didn't have time to learn more. Xuxian fleeing from Shaolin was a rather recent event.

Well, from this, I think that Tigranes has a point that from a pure pragmatism, LET'S GET THE MANUAL NOW standpoint, if you want to train with Qi Liuwu, going to Shaolin with the intention of swiping the manual from their Library is probably your best bet. The difference of four or five days there is probably not going to be a big deal in this situation, because the prospect of raiding the Shaolin Temple and successfully stealing their uber-powerful manual is absolutely insane, so the status quo should remain for the next little while.

Anyways, treave, Qi Liuwu was already passing by Yao and Miecao when he told them about the manual getting stolen, how long ago was that? I just would like a timeframe on when the murder occurred, though I suppose we'll get one now that we're almost certainly going to be seeing the constables.

That being said, I want to mend things with Shaolin, so stealing is completely off the table for me. However, they'd probably be desperate to find the manual, so maybe they would be willing to enlist us to hunt Xuxian down and bring him back to Mount Song? It seems like one way to fix our rep.

On the other hand, the group that killed the constables seems way more fucking dangerous than the lone Xuxian. The men-in-black had ties to people who knew where the manual would be hidden, and they were all skilled enough to slaughter the constables. They definitely seem like bad news, while Xuxian is more of a lone fugitive on the run - he could become a huge problem later, of course, but right now that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[Baltika9]

That being said, I want to mend things with Shaolin, so stealing is completely off the table for me. However, they'd probably be desperate to find the manual, so maybe they would be willing to enlist us to hunt Xuxian down and bring him back to Mount Song? It seems like one way to fix our rep.

I'm down with bounty hunting for Xuxian, seems like a job we would be able to do with the talent we have. However, I wouldn't expect the Shaolin to share the secret technique with us even under those circumstances.

 

[Esquilax]

I'm down with bounty hunting for Xuxian, seems like a job we would be able to do with the talent we have. However, I wouldn't expect the Shaolin to share the secret technique with us even under those circumstances.

No, they certainly won't. But fighting him and bringing him in will improve our rep. We might also figure out bits and pieces of his knowledge by fighting him. Not as good as having the Xiaoming Jiuyang Divine Skill manual in our hands, but it's something.

 

[Kipeci]

We're definitely no slouches. Run of the mill thieves are no match against us, but when I say master thieves, I mean the best thieves out there. The Yuchang Sword would draw these masters since it would be worth a lot. If our luck is good (which it isn't), it would be the Shadow Wolf who would happen to indeed be Asahina and spot our amulet and be like "sup bro you have a problem let me help." But odds are it would be some legendary thief fucker with an effective 10+ stealth, traps, sleight and one day we wake up without our legendary sword.

Right now Cao'er has 11 perception on Reikan so even these guys might get detected by her, but back then, we'd be fucked.

We still have one person in our party with definitely more than a 10 in perception, I don't think you should knock Cao'er's chances at noticing even a figure with stats as ridiculous as that.

Besides, as I said earlier, the problem with the Yuchang sword is that you can't really sell it for its full worth since someone who knows what it is will know that it's probably a bad idea to hold onto it. There are much more safely valuable things to steal that won't carry the risk of getting punched in half by Jing after being discovered trying to cut your way through his clothes to pick up the sword.

 

[treave]

It would have happened a few days after Tufan, in a remote safehouse near the border.

 

[Absinthe]

That's the problem, Esquilax: If we go Shaolin we either try to steal it which is going to be stupidly dangerous and problematic or we play a lengthy "Lets get in their really good graces and maybe they'll share their most powerful secret legendary manual" game. If we do the former we're going to alienate the shit out of Song Lingshu and hurt our eight sects reputation even more in addition to risking life and limb. If we do the latter we might not have enough months before the ten swords summit. Risk of failure is high either way, and we still don't know if they even have the entire manual to begin with.

I'd rather go for the constabulary now and see if we can get that manual. We'd get +rep for helping constables and whoever we take out is probably okay to take out.

 

[Baltika9]

I'm down with bounty hunting for Xuxian, seems like a job we would be able to do with the talent we have. However, I wouldn't expect the Shaolin to share the secret technique with us even under those circumstances.

No, they certainly won't. But fighting him and bringing him in will improve our rep. We might also figure out bits and pieces of his knowledge by fighting him.

I'd honestly rather hunt for the whole Yang manual that was stolen from the constables, than just get a part of it from Xuxian (which we don't even know if we'll be able to do). I understand the need to build friendships for the future, but the way things seem right, personal power will be much more important for us and the Cult's welfare in the immediate future.

 

[Baltika9]

Wait, treave, was the manual stolen from the Constables the original Yang manual, or just a copy? If it's a copy, did it contain only the neiggong part or the techniques?

 

[treave]

You don't know for sure.