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No more faffing about, time to have a chat about... Treasures Spiritual treasures, dao treasures, cultivation tools, they go by many names and yet all are essentially the same. They are treasures either refined by cultivators or formed naturally by the heavens that provide another lifeline any any cultivator able to use them. At their most basic levels, treasures can be as simple as a flaming sword to as complex as a mirror that can read the past, present and future. Treasures can be tools of all kinds, weapons, animal bones, rock or... you guessed it, a piece of a poo poo. There are literally so many different types of treasures that I'm not even going to bother trying to list them all. For the most part dao spiritual treasures are created by cultivators to varying degrees of success, and after a certain level some treasures can gain their own spirit. This spirit, given enough time can also gain sentience, with some treasures so powerful initially the spirit is already sentient (if a bit childlike). Sometimes creating treasures is simply a part of being a cultivator that helps them advance on towards the Dao, sometimes it is an entirely separate Dao of cultivation to pursue with its own drawbacks (usually weaker overall combat power) and benefits (Lodsofemone), and anywhere in between. For now the game appears to fall on the 'every cultivator does it' side of the spectrum with some being more talented at it than others. We shall see out it turns out as the thread continues. Now it bears mentioning, as you might be thinking "Well poo poo, if we find some kind of divine artifact we'll win the game ez!"... you'd be wrong. It is a very, very dangerous to acquire any treasure well above one's level, as it will incite other's greed and bring a disaster upon oneself or one's sect if news get out (it will get out). Not to mention a treasure of a level massively ahead of a cultivator's is more often than not impossible to use, at most a fraction of its power so it is even more pointless to keep it around. Treasures also most certainly lead to intersect wars and are generally one of the driving forces of any conflict while also being a part of them at the same time.
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Mar 10, 2020 22:44
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Bloodly posted:I cannot parse image F. What exactly is it meant to be?
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Mar 10, 2020 23:51
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SaffronKit posted:
Um.... wut 
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Mar 11, 2020 00:48
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Arban posted:Um.... wut I'm guessing you've never played og Killing Floor then? Enjoy this masterpiece then, courtesy Harry Enfield. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULeDlxa3gyc
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Mar 11, 2020 01:20
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Oh my god, I'm caught up and I started reading A Will Eternal thanks to SaffronKit's recommendation, and I am loving this thread and it. Sign me up just as Herp, the lord of punching. Also, definitely voting G. They must sleep in heartattack-bad-feng-shui room.
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Mar 11, 2020 03:09
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SaffronKit posted:No more faffing about, time to have a chat about... So we could end up with a sentient pile of crap? 
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Mar 11, 2020 03:46
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SaffronKit posted:I'm guessing you've never played og Killing Floor then? Enjoy this masterpiece then, courtesy Harry Enfield. And this is why you should never be afraid to ask questions.
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Mar 11, 2020 11:09
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Veloxyll posted:So we could end up with a sentient pile of crap? Theoretically yes! Practically speaking it'll be a while, if the game even has it. Arban posted:
Harry Enfield is a treasure all his own.
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Mar 11, 2020 11:58
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SaffronKit posted:No more faffing about, time to have a chat about... I think Kung-Fu Drugs (aka 'pills') can also fall under the heading of Treasures, right? In Cultivation, winners do a shitton of drugs.
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Mar 11, 2020 12:14
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Veloxyll posted:So we could end up with a sentient pile of crap? Isn't that who's already in charge? 
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Mar 11, 2020 13:03
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This is the content of the next game content update, unless I interpreted it wrong on the update roadmap: Rise of Demon Race Demon Cultivators: All lives in the world can gain sentient, and capable to cultivate towards the path of immortalhood. A carving from the dragon cliff contains an ancient cultivation method and estorica that enables the race of demon to rise up once more. Body Cultivation: Bath ones’ body in spiritual qi and forges it to be strong as steel. At deeper mastery, the body can deflects flying swords. Spiritual Beast Pet: Young spiritual beasts are born with intelligent with varied personality. Raise it with care and strictness into the type of spiritual beast your want. Soul in all things: Mundane object like table, chair, equipment, food, they all can gain sentient and become spirit.
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Mar 11, 2020 13:35
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What does 'demon' mean in this context? because you mentioned a person can become a demon by being consumed by their own failings/lusts/whatever. But there's also a seperate sub-race? I mean, I know this a 'Run a martial arts monastery with everything that goes with it' but this seems a little confusing.
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Mar 11, 2020 13:48
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Didn't Daoists call some of their laymen Demon-clerks, or Demon-soldiers?
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Mar 11, 2020 13:50
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Bloodly posted:What does 'demon' mean in this context? because you mentioned a person can become a demon by being consumed by their own failings/lusts/whatever. But there's also a seperate sub-race? I mean, I know this a 'Run a martial arts monastery with everything that goes with it' but this seems a little confusing. This is actually perfect for me to discuss about next! Demonic cultivation varies from novel to novel and I was waiting to find out where the devs were going with it for the game. Now I know, so post eventually soon. As an aside, what Nyaa called a heart demon is usually translated as heart devil, to make it easier to tell apart from demonic things. The Lone Badger posted:I think Kung-Fu Drugs (aka 'pills') can also fall under the heading of Treasures, right? In Cultivation, winners do a shitton of drugs. There are pills that can be considered treasures but not usually in the context I was discussing, aka spiritual tools. I'll get around to pills eventually though as they are important to cultivation novels. And as you mentioned, so many pills get popped most aren't really treasures at all.
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Mar 11, 2020 14:07
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Demons in cultivator stories often is a race that is enemies of human cultivators. Humans practicing cultivation methods that figuratively or literally turn them into demons or make them more demon like is also a thing. The term demonic cultivation also often applies to methods that use forbidden elements such as blood sacrifice or necromancy. Heart demons troubling a cultivator's heart can also figuratively or literally turn them into demons, cause them to succumb to their vices, or just ruin their cultivation. Basically there's no consistency because different stories treat those tropes differently. You'll also see references to demonic beasts which might or might not overlap with the demon race.
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Mar 11, 2020 14:13
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Bloodly posted:What does 'demon' mean in this context? 
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Mar 11, 2020 14:13
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Is that a humanoid snake with a sword? Is that where Male Snake is going?
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Mar 11, 2020 14:23
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Blaze Dragon posted:Is that a humanoid snake with a sword? Is that where Male Snake is going? I am pretty sure most of the bs we are doing in this LP is going to become a game mechanic in some way.
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Mar 11, 2020 14:37
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Kaja Rainbow posted:Demons in cultivator stories often is a race that is enemies of human cultivators. Humans practicing cultivation methods that figuratively or literally turn them into demons or make them more demon like is also a thing. The term demonic cultivation also often applies to methods that use forbidden elements such as blood sacrifice or necromancy. I think in the context of the game and what I'll be talking about it's important not to confuse a heretical dao (blood sacrifice, necromancy etc) with what I consider the two major tropes of demonic cultivation. Demonic cultivation can def have heretical dao stuff but isnt human based imo. I think you're def right in that it's all very different from story to story trope wise. Sometimes even in the same story! I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, I'll need to get home from work to do a proper write up.
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Mar 11, 2020 16:43
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I don't care if it makes me an edgy teen, those wolf / boar dudes are bad rear end
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Mar 11, 2020 19:50
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That is actually super cool. With 50 hours into the game I have some quarrels with it (in particular, there are some really sharp "everything's great everything's great everything's dead" cliffs for the unaware), but it's still fun and it looks like there's still a lot of fun stuff the devs are adding in. I was wondering what would happen if I managed to tame a Demon Beast (like that bear in the bottom left corner of our map here), and it sounds like the next big update will be all about that. Looking forward to it.
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Mar 11, 2020 20:00
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Ok, start betting on who's gonna gain sentience first and become a demon cultivator A) OG Male Snake Or B) OG Male Snake's mortal nemesis, The Bad Orery
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Mar 11, 2020 21:23
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Veloxyll posted:So we could end up with a sentient pile of crap? https://youtu.be/YzwgGNPetE4 ? 
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Mar 11, 2020 22:11
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I'm so excited not even exhaustion can stop me! Demonic Cultivation: Frenemy or just a bunch of assholes? Demonic Cultivation is... hold that thought. I actually dislike labeling anything as demonic because it is an oft used catch-all term for anything nasty and inhuman in xianxia novels. After Kaja Rainbow's post and some thinking, I'll break "Demonic" cultivation into three major tropes with some general details of each. Since it was relevant to the game, I will be starting with... Demonic Beast Cultivation Demonic beasts, not to be confused with Spirit Beasts (most of the time), are animals/plants/inanimate objects that have gained either limited or full sentience (but not typically sapience in initial stages) for whatever reason and can thus start to cultivate towards the Dao. How do they cultivate? Simply, by killing and eating each other and human cultivators! This style of Demonic cultivation is very heavily survival of the fittest based with cultivation typically based around a more primal eat their fill, then sleep to refine and cultivate. This applies mostly to beast type demonic cultivators who heavily value bloodlines, as oftentimes plants just sit there and do plant things while cultivating, and inanimate objects are... weird/inconsistent. I will be talking mostly about the beast types specifically as it is most relevant to the LP. Very stereo-typically demonic beast cultivators cultivate much faster and are much stronger individually than their human counterparts, but have some kind of innate limit of what cultivation realm they can reach based on bloodline, are less clever than humans, and don't reproduce as often (usually). It is typically not probable to break through this bloodline limit barring a miracle of some sort, and is in stark contrast to human cultivators who always have the potential to reach the peak of the Dao regardless of their birth. Certain cultivation realms and bloodlines for demonic beast cultivators usually provide them with sapience and the ability to turn into a human form. Because the human form allows one to become closer to the Dao? Or socialize better with your frenemies? Or... I dunno, not take up so much space? It's certainly one of the more varied parts of the trope. As for their interactions with human cultivators? Generally speaking Demonic Beast cultivators are at odds with human cultivators for varied reasons. For one thing human cultivators provide an easy and nutritious source of food for the lesser demonic beasts, awesome stuff they can't make themselves (pills/treasures), and/or racial hatred because our ancestors killed each other too. The latter point can actually be quite interesting of a dynamic in stories and is certainly one of the reasons I like one of my current favorite novels Heaven's Devourer. Overall Demonic Beast cultivators are my favorite of the three tropes, and have a lot of interesting stuff about them I can't get into without making it an entirely separate post. So without delay... Foreign Demonic Cultivation The second trope is pretty simple and based in xenophobia. What if the demons were totally humans but not cause their bloodlines are totally different I mean look at those weird colored eyes or horns or extra arms or- you get the idea, they aren't human. Typically this type of demonic cultivator is an invade from a foreign world/land and cultivate in a way that is in direct opposition with the orthodox/traditional dao, sometimes literally a foreign dao. This type of cultivation is also usually directly opposite the previous trope in that Foreign Demonic cultivators grow off of bloodshed/suffering/eating babies for pleasure, whatever makes it easy to make them a clear cut enemy of all human cultivators with no exceptions. They come in pursuit of conquest of human lands and commit genocide because their race is the superior race. Utilizing relatively evil arts is a hallmark of Foreign Demonic as corpse puppets/zombies, blood magic, terrible horrible insect/parasites, overwhelming physical power are all usual with many other equally evil arts that would take too long to name. Unsurprisingly, Foreign Demonic cultivators are usually individually stronger 1v1 vs human counterparts of the same level, yes this is a trend. They can be just as cunning as humans and oftentimes are able to make their own types of treasures/pills that are perhaps a bit on the more disgusting/revolting side. To a limited extent their foreign dao can be cultivated by humans for an easy route to being more powerful, usually at some cost such as enslavement or never being able to reach the peak again. Greedy humans fall for this every time of course and almost always are enemies of the MC. A good example in novel form: Sovereign of Three Realms, makes use a foreign invader demon as an overarching pressure for the world as a whole and not just the MC! I'd rate it pretty decent, it has some dragging moments but is overall a very good novel though still incomplete. For the final entry, we have Heretical Demonic Cultivation Dao Initially my post was only going to be the first two and this was going to get its own post, but frankly it does kind of fall within the overall trope. This type can go by many names, from Demonic to Ghostly but for this post I'll call it Heretical. This specific demonic cultivation type is invented and cultivated by humans in an attempt to take shortcuts on the path to the Dao. Unfortunately for them there are no shortcuts to reach the Dao, especially when it involves murder, rape (both spiritual and literal), and flagrantly ignore the taboo of not touching mortals or their kingdoms. The Heavenly Daos shun them along with the rest of the cultivation world but power is power and with enough of it, no one can stop them. It's also easy attracting new recruits to the Heretical Dao from the ranks of the lazy, greedy and desperate. This Heretical demonic cultivation is what most people typically associate with blood magic, soul manipulation, necromancy and the like. Extremely insidious and cultivated on the down low until one is strong enough or find a large enough group of similar cultivators to take over an area. They provide cheap and easy villains for most novels while still scaling well with the MC. Frankly there isn't much else interesting to say, other than this is oft times what most people associate with the words "Demonic Cultivation". My least favorite and least interesting version of Demonic Cultivation, Nine Star Hedgemon Body Art does a pretty respectable job of making their Corrupt Path more interesting and relate-able than usual. Also one of my top novels right now, though not complete. That just about wraps it up for Demonic Cultivation, wow that is way more words than I thought I would type. Once again feel free to ask any questions for clarity if needed, or add your own thoughts!
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Mar 12, 2020 00:57
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This game is fascinating and I hope Male Snake leads us to victory. Sign me up as DPU please.
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Mar 12, 2020 01:55
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 Sect Master was in a really bad mood after failing to refine the poo poo. No one dares to interrupts his sleep after he gave Blaze Dragon the slashy-slashy look.  Moreover, this man is merely a mortal troublemaker who is evidently too senile to realize what he is up against.  An hour passed by… the old man is still hiding out there, thinking no one have spotted him this whole time.  Arcanuse, the master of multiplayer games stood up to declares that it is time to teach that senile, weak, and semi-disable old man a lesson. Four-on-one.  Everyone pretended to not heard the dishonorable thing that Arcanuse has said, so Slaan have to redeem her husband’s honor. It’s time for this big sister to F that old man up!  Bow to bow, for fairness! Clearly, Arcanuse has taught her the etiquette of FPS.  DIE! You goddamn camper!  Slaan fires the first shot right in front of the old man.  Surprisingly, the old man swiftly dashes out of the camp spot to dodge the arrow.  However, he did not expect that to be a ricochet shot up his behind!  The old man tries to fights back while enduring the staggering pain in his nether region, which caused him to draws the arrow backwards!  After fumbling a bit with his terribly aged eyesight, the old man managed to fires the arrow while Slaan etiquettely waits for hers turn.  Slaan feels bad for him, so she pretends to be hit by it.  For all three arrows.   This would have been anticlimactic if we didn’t see it coming from miles away.   Slaan is a kind woman, so she stops at four arrows.  Her brave and selfless acts inspires everyone to train harder, so they too can protect their loves one. Arcanuse is more driven than others, and practices his strike in sync with Master Snake.  Everyone agrees it’s time to get rid of the orrery fence. We all know this nice snake is hell-bent on cracking our bad luck than to harm anyone.  Oh dear, those spirit woods from the fence is not going well with the orrery. We will pick it up as soon as bedtime is over.  Actually, we should use these mostly-blessed spirit wood to build our Ancestral Memorial Table!  All disciples will come to pay their respect to our ancestor at this holy site.  However, we run into an issue with symmetry, and that would be very disrespectful to our ancestor!  Let’s put two pedestals here for now. We can put some treasure here in the future.  Our orrery returns to harmony with the absent of spirit woods.  Everyone praises the ancestor for being wise and dead. Hats’ mental state have become stable after thinking about him becoming the glorious ancestor someday.  Speaking of honoring the dead, we all pray for a good harvest this year.  Along with good progress for our cultivation. Hats can feel his mind and body have returned to unity. Blaze Dragon is safe.  Amazing! Our ancestor is going all out to help us!  Good. One more great and powerful being to solves our food problem.  Heaven judge him to be handsome(?) enough to be half compatible for Sunflower Manual.  Radio Free Kobold can’t hold back his excitement during meal, and decided to cultivate right here, right now! Kidz gets front-row seats to the show.  She wishes Arcanuse is here to watch this together.  But Arcanuse already ran out of the dining room after he sensed a need to repair this orrery asap. Could it be a sign from the ancestor?  Radio Free Kobold succeed.  ... and need to get the hell out while we prepares his new room.  He recalls that time where he wanted to woo that nice old lady at Five Lotus Mountain.  He don’t know what the sect master of Rosy Cloud Grotto likes. What does old ladies likes?  This is an official greeting between sect. An imperative occasion of first contact with a gift bearing our intentions.  Radio Free Kobold had put some nice or excess things he can think of on the trading zone, but is there something else he can bring as a gift? Nyaa fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Mar 12, 2020 |
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Mar 12, 2020 02:30
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I'm curious, can you only pick one of 5 randomly picked starter laws for your sect to cultivate?
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Mar 12, 2020 02:48
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SaffronKit posted:I'm so excited not even exhaustion can stop me!
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Mar 12, 2020 02:56
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SaffronKit posted:I'm curious, can you only pick one of 5 randomly picked starter laws for your sect to cultivate? We can find all of them eventually. Hopefully with Radio Free Kobold's max luck.
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Mar 12, 2020 02:56
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SaffronKit posted:I'm curious, can you only pick one of 5 randomly picked starter laws for your sect to cultivate? If you don't pick any starter laws in character creation, you get one of the five "basic" supreme laws randomly. You can also spend trait points to pick one of those five or one of five "secret" supreme laws.
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Mar 12, 2020 02:57
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Scalding Coffee posted:Can you use the bog standard "Demi-Human" in place of Demons, when describing the "bad guys", or are they too different for that? No, because they're ultimately Not Human. Some stories do use human crossbreeds (only humans can crossbreed with other species to steal their bloodlines, cause human horny) but they are not demonic cultivators. Now if the bad guys are human, might as well. edit: thanks for the mechanics answer! Evil Kit fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Mar 12, 2020 |
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Mar 12, 2020 03:03
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Bring some of that spirit wood as a gift. Ladies love spirited wood after all
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Mar 12, 2020 03:57
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I can think of no better way to honor the Cult of Bullshit by trading The Holy poo poo
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Mar 12, 2020 05:44
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This amazing game + your commentary has been absolutely hilarious, Nyaa.
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Mar 12, 2020 07:00
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Mar 12, 2020 10:26
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Wait, does this mean that Radio Free Cobold is on the path to become weak-boned, Qi-strong ancestor maiden as well?
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Mar 12, 2020 12:41
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JcDent posted:Wait, does this mean that Radio Free Cobold is on the path to become weak-boned, Qi-strong ancestor maiden as well?
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Mar 12, 2020 12:49
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Kreia? Hmm.
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Mar 12, 2020 13:59
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That is a horrible butchery of a majestic tapir nose.
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Mar 12, 2020 14:37
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SaffronKit posted:Greeting dao brothers and sisters. Daoist SaffronKit here to share this one's insights and thoughts into the Dao of Cultivation Novels with those initiates mostly unfamiliar with the concept. As for those already familiar with this particular dao, pardon this little one for displaying my slight skill in front of an expert. Feel free to add any additional insights to the subject of these posts, as the dao is vast and impossible for one person to fully explore even one single path. This one has but walked this path for a short 3 years with a limited, singular view point and hope it can provide some insight into Cultivation novels. I love everything about this. You nailed the way so many cultivation novels sound.
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Mar 12, 2020 22:31
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