You've been invited to join
Divine Intercessory Serendipitous Cultivators Overseeing Realms Divided
Accept Invite?
Getting invited to join a Discord server is an uncommon experience for me. I got invited to the Discord server of my main friend group, of course. But beyond that, the other servers I'm part of are ones where I sought out the invite links myself, mostly servers dedicated to some niche games with less than reliable guides to be found online.
The ostentatious title, and the keyword 'Cultivators', pretty much tells me what this server is for, but one can never be sure when it comes to the Internet.
Click.
Humans are like isolated islands, floating in the sea of fate. Be welcome among your juniors and sisters, @RinKaihou
Well now, that's a bit of effort for a welcome screen. On the other hand, there was only one channel beyond the welcoming one.
#general
TrueNameAlchemist: The mismatched ratio of Heavenly Spring Water to Extracted Jade Essence is a key contributor to your failures.
FlyingFateWeaver: Senior Brother @TrueNameAlchemist, not many are fortunate enough to have unfettered access to a pool of Heavenly Spring Water. Us mere disciples in Core Formation, especially those without the support of a sect, have to contend with the scraps that fall from your peaks.
Oh. Ohhhh. It's that kind of server. I couldn't stop the small smile that formed on my lips. It's been a while since I last joined a dedicated online roleplaying group. The last time was the Ravenclaw RP group, back in the peak of Pottermore.
Cultivation novels aren't really my thing, especially since most translations are iffy on a good day. Cultivation video games on the other hand, I am a pretty deft hand at.
First, I need to know what kind of setting the roleplay is. Wuxia versus Xianxia is a very big difference when it comes to themes, settings and characters. Next, I need to come up with a fitting in-universe username. Or Dao name, as I suspect it would be called here. Finally, I need a good introductory comment that would cement my character's, well, character.
FlyingFateWeaver: Beg pardon, Senior @TrueNameAlchemist, but an overt amount of gingko bark would have consequences to my cultivation of Flowing Reverse Mountain.
VioletSpiritualist: Oho! A new cultivation law? Are you willing to tell us more about this Flowing Reverse Mountain Method @FlyingFateWeaver?
TrueNameAlchemist: Ignore the old fool. He'll pick your pockets for every technique you know if you let him.
VanishingPurpleButterfly: Mayhaps Senior Sister @SeventhDaughter can help? I believe she is a master in the art of Primordial Alchemy.
TrueNameAlchemist: You question my instructions because you are not fortunate enough to have access to the most basic of ingredients but you'd turn to someone with deeper pockets than I?
SeventhDaughter: Oh my, it's not often that you, of all people, would give me face, dear @TrueNameAlchemist.
RIght, that was informative. The topic of today is apparently alchemy. FlyingFateWeaver is trying to make a pill or elixir of some sort but is too low level to get decent ingredients for what he needs. TrueNameAlchemist and SeventhDaughter are Alchemy bigshots. VioletSpiritualist is a knowledge hoarder and VanishingPurpleButterfly is just there.
SeventhDaughter: There are many ways to temporarily boost your ability to absorb Qi and aid your formation of a Golden Core, but like @TrueNameAlchemist so rudely implied, the ones that will not negatively affect your cultivation are a bit out of your reach @FlyingFateWeaver.
Stolen story; please report.
FlyingFateWeaver: Is there truly no possible alternative to gingko bark? I have already collected the necessary amounts of gray stone and even spent my savings on some jade.
I blinked. These guys sure are dedicated xianxia roleplayers. Hours of research into Feng Shui at the very least. Definitely more than bedrooms south, workshops east, kitchens west.
It seems like the FlyingFateWeaver character is trying to break through out of Core Formation and wants to make a Qi Absorption Pill to give him the last push. However, the cheapest method he knows of requires gingko bark, which is a Wood element ingredient. As roots break down the soil, the Wood element breaks down the Earth element, which is the element of FlyingFateWeaver's cultivation method, the Flowing Reverse Mountain. The so-called Alchemy specialists even have a good reason for their characters not coming to the right solution because most of the ingredients are either too rich for FlyingFateWeaver or below their notice as, I assume, cultivators on or above the Nascent Soul level.
Begin Operation: These Turnips Are Courting Death
QuestionableQuester: @FlyingFateWeaver, a half portion of Ganoderma or ten portions of Lingzhi. Add water to dilute the overflow of Earth element Qi.
There we go. Mysterious Wandering Mentor character established.
----------------------------------------
Xiao Qin was not blessed by the heavens. His destiny as a nameless rice farmer was thwarted only by the arrival of his grandfather, crippled during the assault of the Spirit Slaughtering Sect against the Holy Kingdom-By-The-Sea.
Despite his destroyed cultivation, Xiao Qin's grandfather tried to teach Qin their family's art, the Flowing Reverse Mountain. It was a low level cultivation style in all honesty, devised in a prototype state by his great grandfather.
Still, Qin promised his grandfather that he would bring this style to new heights, a promise that put a smile on the old man's face before he finally succumbed to his utterly obliterated meridians.
Qin could have approached an established sect but he was afraid that they would force him to use their already established cultivation techniques rather than his own.
Quite frankly, it was a miracle, and a testament of Qin's dogged determination, that he even got past the Qi Gathering and Qi Shaping phase, straight into Core Formation.
Unfortunately, he was stuck and no amount of meditation nor physical training let him progress. And it wasn't just him.
All the cultivators in the realm was practically crippled. According to some wandering cultivators he exchanged pointers with, whatever the Spirit Slaughtering Sect did damaged the flow of qi so badly that cultivators can barely absorb enough qi to keep their cultivation stable, let alone progress further.
This lack of Qi in the world also meant that plants, animals and minerals that passively gather qi started disappearing so that not even the most accomplished Alchemists could do much of anything.
It was to this utterly defeated Xiao Qin that the mysterious DISCORD appeared. It took him a while to decipher its mysteries but in the end, he figured out that it was a way to communicate with cultivators from other realms.
Realms which aren't dying from lack of Qi. Realms with different cultivation styles and practitioners who might be able to help him reach Golden Core.
TrueNameAlchemist: Give up. You are a frog in a dying well. Make the most of your mortal life.
Those were the first words of TrueNameAlchemist, someone who supposedly reached Nascent Soul purely from his mastery of Alchemy and Spellcrafting.
It was this problem that Qin kept pestering the other cultivators on DISCORD for, to the point that only the most patient, or the most spiteful, ever entertained his questions once he got going.
Thank the heavens for the fairy that is VanishingPurpleButterfly, otherwise he might have been angry enough to breach one of the DISCORD's few rules.
Still, he was very close to giving up hope. So close to accepting his fate as a Core Formation cultivator in a world where everyone is stuck at the level they were at before the Calamity.
QuestionableQuester: @FlyingFateWeaver, a half portion of Ganoderma or ten portions of Lingzhi. Add water to dilute the overflow of Earth element Qi.
Hope was like a meteor falling from the heavens, leaving a sacred artifact behind. Hope was the hours Qin spent digging in the dirt with his bare fingers for lowly mushrooms. Hope was a reddish-brown pill that was barely a dot on his palm.
FlyingFateWeaver: Honored Elder @QuestionableQuester, this