Schedule Updates:
I'll be running a full session today and Wednesday. Outside of that I'll aim for 2-3 updates a day every day besides Thursday, where I will likely not update at all. Session dates will be announced on twitter and in the thread. Sessions should be at two per week, one on the weekend and one on Monday/Wednesday. An actual story post will be coming in a moment, I just thought this was important to post first.

You suppose there's nothing you can do at this point but wait. You're displeased with his actions, but you guess it makes some sense. Some people are in gambling for the money, and some are in it to prove themselves, or for the thrill of it all. If you substitute gambling for fighting in some tournament it makes more sense to you. ...Not that it doesn't annoy you, as you were under the impression that Zheng Hai was in this for a pay day.
You wait, slightly nervous, as you go about your day. After a few hours you receive a short message telling you that Zheng Hai barely managed to advance into the Top 4, but that the elder couldn't follow everything involved. Naturally the cultivators watching could see any cheating, which you were told was allowed ahead of time as long as the other competitors didn't notice. What they can't see, however, is the thought process behind what's going on.
Some time later, you receive a final message. "Zheng Hai placed 3rd, and has been eliminated." Well, you guess that's a good result given that Zheng Hai told you he was only going to get into the Top 16 or Top 8 at best, but that doesn't help you now- he lost, and now your money is gone. You finish reading the message, which says that Zheng Hai is leaving, and is asking what to do. You...
>tell the elder to let him leave, your business is done now that the tournament is over.
>get him to stop him, contract or no contract you're getting back your money. If he lost normally you wouldn't mind as much, but he was misleading about his plans.
>get the elder to leave some form of communication with Zheng Hai, it'd be useful to be able to contact him.
>get the elder to try and bring Zheng Hai back to the estate, you want to employ him. It's not often that you'd need someone like him around, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to have him on retainer.
>Other

>>3776447
>get the elder to leave some form of communication with Zheng Hai, it'd be useful to be able to contact him.
just let him know he owes us a favor. we might be able to use him in some wacky scheme later

Well, you risked money and lost it, you suppose you can't be too frustrated. At least you might be able to get a contact from the situation. You use a sound-transmission talisman and tell the elder to give Zheng Hai a few sound-transmission talismans so that you can contact each other if needed. Maybe you'll have a need for his services at some point.
You go to bed after taking care of the situation, and return to your normal routine the next day. A couple of days pass without much happening, before you're informed of a small border dispute between Yutian Country and Hiqui Sect. This happens every couple of years so normally you wouldn't care, but this time the area under dispute isn't far from the Liu family. Still, it probably won't turn into anything major, so you just need to remain cautious about any patriots from Hiqui Sect crossing the border and stirring up trouble.
Another week passes after receiving this news, and to your surprise the trouble comes not from Hiqui Sect, but from your countrymen. After news about the dispute spreads an old veteran from the war wanders into the city, trying to gather funds and volunteers to patch up and man an abandoned fortress near the border. He had a decent position during the last war and is at Acupoint Opening, so quite a few people have decided to go along with him, including a couple of the elders' children. You...
>stop them from going, you're not let them go off and risk getting them involved in some battle between the patriots in Hiqui Sect. If they get injured then you don't want to be blamed by the elders working here.
>ignore the situation, if they want to go then they can go. You don't want to get involved in this.
>meet with the veteran and offer him some money to patch up the fortress. If there's not a war you aren't going to participate personally, but you're not eager to see Hiqui Sect try to lay claim to land that's not theirs. Some nationalists coming to the country's defense without an actual war starting is great.
>begin packing your things and prepare to go along with them. There's nothing you have to do here that you can't do there, it's only a day or two away. Even if there's not a war, you should follow in your father's footsteps and defend your country when possible.
>Other

>>3776632
>>begin packing your things and prepare to go along with them. There's nothing you have to do here that you can't do there, it's only a day or two away. Even if there's not a war, you should follow in your father's footsteps and defend your country when possible.

>>3776632
>>begin packing your things and prepare to go along with them. There's nothing you have to do here that you can't do there, it's only a day or two away. Even if there's not a war, you should follow in your father's footsteps and defend your country when possible.
Fuck it. If it's TRUE we may as well go in and do some damage.

It may be a waste of time, but it wouldn't hurt to go along with him. Your father served in the army, and here's your chance to help defend the country even without a war. When border conflicts like this happen there's usually a few groups like this on either side, so there will probably be some action.
You go to a small residence on the edge of town with a few others from your clan. Apparently the old veteran is living here, and you see various tents set up nearby which must belong to the people who already decided to go along with him. You knock on the door of the home and enter after you hear someone grunt inside.
Inside the house is an old man with grey hair dressed in a clearly worn military uniform. The red fabric is faded, and you see a badge near the heart. It indicates his rank, but you don't recognize the symbols. That's odd given that you know the current military ranks and symbols, but maybe it's some sort of obscure rank that only a few people have. The old man is sipping a drink while glancing over some sort of map. He turns to your group once you enter, and nods after glancing at all of you for a few seconds.
"You're good enough. Were you all looking to come along?" You nod, and the old man returns to looking over the map. "Get ready then, we're leaving in two days. You can join the people camping outside if you're from out of town, they followed me here. If you can then bring some supplies to help fix up the fort, it hasn't been occupied for the better part of a century. ..Even then it was a shithole, I'd remember." You...
>go home and prepare your things, you're excited for what's to come.
>introduce yourself and ask the man if he met your father. If they served in the same war as officers then there's a good chance they've met.
>gather some supplies and camp with the others until it's time to leave. You may as well get to know them better if you'll be working with them for the time being.
>Other

>>3776866
>>introduce yourself and ask the man if he met your father. If they served in the same war as officers then there's a good chance they've met.

>>3776866
>introduce yourself and ask the man if he met your father. If they served in the same war as officers then there's a good chance

>>3776866
>>introduce yourself and ask the man if he met your father. If they served in the same war as officers then there's a good chance they've met.

Before you leave you want to ask if he met your father. If they served at the same time then it's highly likely, and you'd love to hear a war story about him that you haven't already heard.
"I'm Liu Zhu, son of Liu King. Have you met my father?" Much to your surprise the old man looks at you, confused, and snorts slightly. "Who?" There's a slight pause, and before you can complain he continues. "If you're trying to win brownie points but saying your father was in the military, then it won't work."
Realizing that he has the wrong impression, you quickly try to explain. "No, that's not why I asked. Liu King served in the last war against Hiqui Sect as a general. You seemed like you were an officer and may have served with him, so I was curious." The old man looks confused, and he asks you if your father had a title. "Yes, he did- Demon General Liu King. Does that ring a bell?"
A few moments pass before the old man seems to realize something. "Ah... so he's that general. I've heard about him in passing, but no, I haven't served with him. Certain circumstances came up, so the last war I served in was the one 70 years ago." Well, you suppose that makes sense given his odd uniform. It is hard to tell how old someone at Acupoint Opening is- as far as you know this man could be 60 or 160. Still, he must have been out of the country entirely during the war- your father was quite famous during that time. It's only since his death that his legacy has begun to fade away.
You leave now that your question is answered and...
>go home and prepare your things, you're excited for what's to come.
>gather some supplies and camp with the others until it's time to leave. You may as well get to know them better if you'll be working with them for the time being.
>Other

>>3777112
>>go home and prepare your things, you're excited for what's to come.
We can work with the kids under the elders. And anyone who wants to work under them. We may as well get used to working with them in a friendly nature. And anyone else who would join us.

>>3777112
>>gather some supplies and camp with the others until it's time to leave. You may as well get to know them better if you'll be working with them for the time being.

Tiebreaker by RNG In 30 minutes.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>3777302

You return back to the Liu estate, planning to stay there until the group leaves. You inform everyone of your departure, get someone to deliver you mail, and begin taking care of other miscellaneous issues.
The day after your visit to the old veteran, Shen Guo, you get a message from Elder Chu and the group sent to Border City. Apparently they arrived yesterday and went through the markets. The price of luxury goods has stayed relatively stable, but there's currently an increase in the cost of weapons for low-level cultivators and various medicines made for healing.
You can take some herbs, balms, powders, and other medicines out of the Liu family's stores, but it will be hard to acquire a large amount in a short time. On the other hand, you do have a chance if you wanted to get weapons. They're easier to purchase in bulk, and you've already recruited a few new refiners as part of your business plan to switch from reselling to producing. You...
>ignore the increase in prices, it will look bad if there's not enough to sell in the city. The profits might be lackluster given the cost of transport and the time it takes to get everything to Border City anyways.
>will have the staff you have on hand work craft what they can and sell whatever you can spare from the shops. This is a good chance to put some extra money into the family's coffers, and even if something happens and the profits are less than expected, it's still a profit.
>spend some money and try to canvas the city for weapons. You'll buy up as many as you can and then have them delivered to Border City while the demand is hopefully still high. It's worth putting forth some effort to get greater profits.
>spend some money and send agents out to buy up the weapons they can from nearby cities. It will be a lot to transport and it will be a sizable investment, but if the price remains stable over the next two or three months then you'll make a good profit. If they drop then you're not sure how it will turn out, but given the conflict there that's doubtful.
>Other

>>3777398
>>will have the staff you have on hand work craft what they can and sell whatever you can spare from the shops. This is a good chance to put some extra money into the family's coffers, and even if something happens and the profits are less than expected, it's still a profit.
>>spend some money and try to canvas the city for weapons. You'll buy up as many as you can and then have them delivered to Border City while the demand is hopefully still high. It's worth putting forth some effort to get greater profits.
>>spend some money and send agents out to buy up the weapons they can from nearby cities. It will be a lot to transport and it will be a sizable investment, but if the price remains stable over the next two or three months then you'll make a good profit. If they drop then you're not sure how it will turn out, but given the conflict there that's doubtful.

>>3777415
I agree. I'm not certain the last one will be a great option. But we can simply store them. We will be buying in bulk and simply transport them. The first two should get there in time. And if the conflict continues we will have supplied the most of it. So it shouldn't have others rushing to fill in those voids.

For the time being you'll put as much towards this opportunity as possible. Even if the profits are worse than you expected you'll still make a profit, right? Even in the worst case you just end up sitting on some weapons for a few years until you can get rid of them.
Now that you've decided what actions to initially take, the only thing left to mull over is transport. You'll have quite a few weapons prepared before you're able to buy up weapons from nearby cities, and you might be able to make more if you sell them before the rest arrive. Still, that will require more expenses in transport and security. You'll...
>have them send the weapons in several shipments, speed is key.
>send the weapons all in one shipment, it costs less overall.
For security you'll...
>just have a transport company take care of it, the roads are safe enough. You don't need to hire much security.
>get some reputable mercenaries to guard the shipment. It will cost a bit, but it means your family can keep their powerful figures in the area in case something happens.
>have an elder go with each shipment. Your family has six not including Zhu Chao, meaning there are five at the estate. It's not a good idea for too to many leave the estate in case something happens, but you could spare a couple.
>Other

>>3777586
>>have them send the weapons in several shipments, speed is key.

>have an elder go with each shipment. Your family has six not including Zhu Chao, meaning there are five at the estate. It's not a good idea for too to many leave the estate in case something happens, but you could spare a couple.

>>3777636
Yeah sounds good.

After deciding on the transport for the business in Border City you're free for the day and cultivate until it's time to leave Vermilion City. The next day you leave around dawn with the others from the Liu family.
When you arrive at the old man's house you're surprised to see several hundred cultivators gathered. Many of them are teenagers or people in their 20s, but you see a handful of older men and women whose cultivation you can't sense.
After a few minutes of waiting Shen Guo makes his appearance, dressed in the same faded military uniform. Everyone begins quieting down upon his appearance, and he speaks after everyone is silent. "I'm Shen Guo, and I served as a Colonel in the War of 520, over 70 years ago. I've come out of retirement because I missed the last two scuffles and I want to get back at those bastards in Hiqui Sect. Now, enough about me- onto the mission."
"We will be leaving Vermilion City, hiking to a friend of mine's today, and then reaching Cerise Fortress the next morning. Cerise Fortress was abandoned in 528, after the war ended, and even then it was a shithole. Still, that means we won't be bothered for using it. One of our first goals will be fixing up the place to make it secure, and then livable. We have materials for doing so thanks to donations from a few families and my savings, but at some point we'll likely have to start harvesting resources from the nearby environment. That brings me to how we'll be broken up."
"The first team will be in charge of fixing up Cerise Fortress- we'll call them the construction team. After that there's the "resource team" which I'll put in charge of hunting and gathering materials to help fix up the place. On the offensive side of things we'll have the lookout team, who are in charge of scouting for the enemy and providing accurate maps. Lastly will be the fortification team, who I'll put in charge of creating traps and barricades at strategic points. I don't know when the enemy will come, but I'm sure as hell not going to let them just stroll onto our land without a few people dying."

"That was the meat of what I had to say, but this is the most important- while you're with me, I will be treating all of you as soldiers. In return, I expect you to follow military laws and obey a strict chain of command. The only major exception is desertion- you're free to leave as long as it's not in the middle of a battle. Do you understand?"
Everyone respond that they understand, and Shen Guo makes people repeat that a few times before continuing. "Distribute yourself among the teams now. I'll take things into my own hands if one group has too few or too many people, but for the time being just join the one you prefer. The leaders have already been decided, and they're friends from the war, their children, or their grandchildren. They've all served, and are all at least at Dantian Creation. The chain of command below them will be decided by them."
The team leaders begin identifying themselves and you join the...
>construction team.
>resource team.
>lookout team.
>fortification team.

>>3777927
>>resource team.

>>3777927
>>resource team.

You'll join the resource team. It's just gathering materials, but it's a good opportunity to leverage your strength to your advantage. Maybe you'll even be able to get a position below the team leader if you perform well.
As you make your decision people move towards the person in charge of the group they're interested in. You go towards a burly man who looks like he's in his 40s or 50s who's supposed to be in charge of the Resource Group. As you do so you...
>signal for the others from your clan to follow you, if you have a couple of followers it could help with being appointed some sort of role.
>chat with some of the other people in the group you don't recognize. You know plenty of people since they're from families in Vermilion City, but there are still quite a few people from neighboring cities that you don't recognize.
>size up the others in the group. You need to figure out who will be the most useful to rely on and who will be your competition in competing for some sort of leader role.
>Other
Last update for the night, thanks for voting. Next update whenever I wake up.

>>3778033
>>size up the others in the group. You need to figure out who will be the most useful to rely on and who will be your competition in competing for some sort of leader role.
I appreciate the story and find it laughably inadequate that after so much time between a vote this is what you come back with. If it was the first time I could understand but you've done this time and time again. I hope you become a better writer, and wish you the best.

>>3778033
>chat with some of the other people in the group you don't recognize. You know plenty of people since they're from families in Vermilion City, but there are still quite a few people from neighboring cities that you don't recognize.
>size up the others in the group. You need to figure out who will be the most useful to rely on and who will be your competition in competing for some sort of leader role.
Can these be combined?

>>3778033
>chat with some of the other people in the group you don't recognize. You know plenty of people since they're from families in Vermilion City, but there are still quite a few people from neighboring cities that you don't recognize.

Updating after I eat, I'll take the middle ground since it's a tie.
>>3778053
Yes, but you'll cover less on each action due to time constraints.

You look around, both to find someone to speak to and in order to scope out who the most able people here are. In the Resource Group there are a handful of people in their 20s who you'll likely have to compete with, most of them in Meridian Opening. There's also one person who looks to be 18 or 19, who's also at Meridian Opening. It's not exceptional, but it's better than most of the people here.
Overall the combat strength of the Resource Team is lower than you expected, giving you a better chance of getting some sort of leadership role. Luckily it seems that most of the oldest people went for the Fortification Team or Lookout Team, since they have the highest chance of combat. Following the same logic, most of the younger people who still wanted to help joined the Resource Team.
You approach one of older people and strike up a conversation. Apparently they're Hao Chun, a member of a relatively large family who control part of a city a few days away. His reason for coming here doesn't seem to be particularly patriotic, and he's, in his own words, "looking for a chance to practice real combat". Well, you guess the military attracts several types of people... although this admittedly isn't the actual military.
After chatting for a couple of minutes the leader of your group, Zi Shun, stands up. "I think that's all then? Out of roughly 250 people there are about... 80 of you here? We'll probably want to increase that number a bit, but it's fine for now. Your job will be pretty straightforward. Cutting down trees, bringing back rocks or mining stone, helping gather food or hunt. Things like that. You'll never really run out of work since there's a lot of stuff to fix up at Cerise Fortress and for every problem there's a price in materials."
Zi Shun goes more in depth into what's expected of everyone, and after about five minutes shifts the topic. "Anyways, onto leadership. Under me I'll need five to seven squads, with one leader for each. One in charge of gathering wood, one for gathering food, one or two for gathering stone, and two or three for hunting. I'll decide that within he next few weeks, but it depends on both cultivation and leadership abilities- if you're a dumbass, don't expect me to give you any responsibility even if you're at Qi Refinement."

His speech ends shortly after that, and everyone begins hiking through the woods towards the border. Cerise Fortress is located in a small range of wooded mountains, but luckily the way there is mostly flat. As you hike you're put to work immediately, looking for anything that could be useful. You hand a few logs and stones that are large enough over to someone dragging a cart behind them. You also keep an eye out for food or animals, and manage to get a surprisingly large amount of edible plants that other people overlooked. You may not know the flora in this area by heart, but you've read about enough plants that you can vaguely recognize a few of the edible ones here.
The day goes by quickly, and you mostly keep to yourself as you work. Around sun down the trees thin out and you see several large homes located on a nearby hill. The group stops upon seeing them, and you're told to set up camp while Shen Guo visits whoever is there.
You put up your tent and do a couple of chores before...
>figuring out exactly who from Vermilion City is on the Resource Team. The Liu family is the largest family in Vermilion City, so most of them should be on amiable terms with you and willing to help you out if the need arises.
>trying to get along with the older members of the Resource Team. You'll probably have a better chance of getting some sort of position if you're seen with the other potential candidates.
>helping cook dinner, you should make yourself useful. Maybe you're not good at it, but you can help with something without ruining the food, right?
>Other

>>3779024
>trying to get along with the older members of the Resource Team. You'll probably have a better chance of getting some sort of position if you're seen with the other potential candidates.

You should try and speak to the others you're working with who might get a decent position. Whenever Zi Shun chooses who to put in charge of squads, he'll probably be biased towards who get along with the other candidates.
You wander around the small camp, and find that most of the older and more powerful cultivators are gathered into two distinct groups. One of them is located near the campfire, while another is near the team leaders' tents.
First you approach the group near the leader's tents. There are five of them. Most of them are from Vermilion City, but you don't recognize two of them. You sit down and the introduce yourself to the ones who don't know you before making some small talk. After about a minute of this a few of them stop speaking before switching the topic of conversation.
"So, do you want to join our group?" The person you're most familiar with suddenly says this as the conversation quiets down. Confused, you ask what he means. "We weren't originally intending on it, but some of us split into two groups." Well, you suppose that explains why they were sitting separately. "And why'd you do that?"
After you ask your question the atmosphere turns awkward, but after a few seconds someone answers you question. "As we said, we weren't originally intending on this, but Hao Chun is... unpleasant to say the least. He also brought a few friends, and they formed their own clique, causing us to band together in our mutual dislike of him."
Hao Chun? You spoke to him a bit earlier, but nothing stood out to you. You...
>tell them you won't be joining either side, you're impressed how quickly they've formed factions that dislike each other, but you don't want to be involved.
>may as well join them, you know most of the people here. The worst that happens will probably be petty insults being thrown around anyways.
>go to speak to Hao Chun, how did he manage to annoy this many people in one day of hiking?
>Other

It might be a bit premature to say this, but it seems like this is going to die far sooner than I expected and I may as well tear off the band-aid instead of slowly trying to drag this on with one vote at a time. I have a large post with future plot points I had if anyone is interested. I'm not a fan of dropping this without a decent ending, and would even have been fine with doing so after the Yutian Martial Conference in 1-3 threads, but I really didn't see this coming.
Besides the future plot/arcs I had in mind, if anyone has questions about things I didn't have time to explain in the setting then feel free to ask, I may as well do this if I don't have time to reveal them organically.

Here's the short version of what I had planned, 1/2
This one. Some minor infighting and such before squabbles with people from Hiqui Sect and an eventual Battle of Vermilion City, where your family would be forced to fight to protect its territory. After the battle the governments of Hiqui Sect and Yutian Country would step in, outcome would depend on some decisions and extraneous factors. ----> Yutian Martial Conference. You would've hit Late Blood and Viscera Tempering by this point, and would do pretty well. Had some cool fights planned, possible reappearance of your brother using another family's slot to participate while disguised. ----> Not an arc, but I did have plans for half of Border City to be destroyed in a fight between a kind of insane main villain and a 'Judge', who's part of a massive organization that maintains order across the land. He was dispatched to kill said villain, who had been causing quite a bit of chaos and wanton destruction in order to 'maintain order'. There's a lot more behind this, but those are the surface details. You'd have the choice to have Feng Jun evacuate Horned Island at this point, and if you didn't then he'd end up permanently injured in the psuedo-annihilation of Horned Island by said main villain. Your fiance would luckily survive but become depressed and some trouble would crop with Duan Jin returning and trying to take control of Horned Island after most of the elders died trying to fight the main villain off (and failing, horribly. His cultivation is just 'past Soul Cleansing' in my notes). What happens at this point depends a lot on your choices and it's hard to guess what would happen. ---> Zhu Chao leaves, kills the crown prince of the country for revenge for his dead wife. He was going to do this whenever he left your family, and the time limit for your family raising a suitable successor was because he wanted to kill the crown prince before he ascended to the throne. A public execution is set up for him, and you choose whether or not to come to his aid and attempt to fight the government. If you chose yes then things would go more in depth, if not then he would have died because the Hi family, who he was acquainted with, wasn't able to stall for enough time for his uncle to arrive. Yutian Country would then begin to decline as Zhu Chao's uncle, a member of a massive family clan past the desert murdered the entire royal family of Yutian Country in revenge. If you did come to Zhu Chao's aid and were helpful then you would be able to hold out until his uncle arrived or possibly even freeing him yourself if you managed to get the support of one of the Five Families, or maybe all of the Four God In this scenario Yutian Country's royal family is harshly warned by Zhu Chao's uncle, but left alive. ---->

War arc between Yutian Country and Hiqui Sect. Whether the royal family is still alive affects this greatly. You would (likely) enlist in the army and I had some stuff planned out for that, but if you didn't then there'd likely be some sort of choice about whether to move your assets out of the country or not. If you don't then you'll have to deal with managing a family living in what's almost a war zone, and if you do then you'll have to decide where to relocate. If you saved Zhu Chao then there would be an option to go to a much more powerful land past the deserts where there were Soul Cleansing cultivators and a massive academy/country run by Hi Empire, the same country that prints your currency. ----> Last arc I had planned if things continued past that was the danger zone your father died in suddenly turning into an odd, even more dangerous oasis in the desert. You would (probably) decide to go there once I told you about it, and you come across his corpse and the source of the new developments in the danger zone- the same power up your originally got at the start of the game, blood from a legendary wood elemental beast. After your power up and finding your dead father you'd have the choice to settle down and manage the Liu family, or leave it be for the time being and venture towards the largest clans past the deserts in an effort to grow stronger.
Anyways, thanks for playing. Hope someone got some enjoyment out of this, maybe I'll rewrite it into a shitty Xianxia web novel for my own entertainment. Whoever rec'd me Way of Choices, I'll get around to it eventually, I didn't forget.

>>3781374
Good luck on your next Quest anon!

>>3781374
Thanks for the tldr. Seemed like it would have been a fun story to play. Good luck on your next quest.

>>3781374
This is saddening but understandable. Good luck on your next quest.
I'll read your novel if you actually post it somewhere, I really enjoyed your writing.