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I totally agree about the language. Thousand Li is more 'faithful' to normal Chinese xianxia (pretty sure the author is Chinese American or something), and the stages are named like: Body Cleansing, Energy Storage, Core Formation, Nascent Soul. With a bunch of numerical levels corresponding to dantians opened, like there's 8 in Energy Storage. Anyway, it just feels clumsy to talk about "there were two Energy Storage cultivators led by a Core Formation elder" compared to Cradle's "there were two Truegolds led by an Underlord". Also, Cradle's version of "enlightenment" with the internal revelations at each Lord stage feel more concrete and spelled out. With Thousand Li, it's kind of hand-wavey, like "and then he sensed...something about the sword, and started to understand. He immediately went into a meditative pose as enlightenment came over him." Not the exact language, but they just kind of gloss over what each person is actually learning, whereas with Cradle, you can see yourself how each revelation ties in with the plot, similarly to Stormlight Archive.
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Oct 10, 2020 01:24
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Cicero posted:Word of Will is that Cradle ends whenever the gang ascends. If they keep doing stuff, that'd be a different series. I think Lindon is still an Underlord? He could stretch the next couple of books out by ascending one small rank at a time, 9=Overlord, 10=Archlord, 11=monarch... huh, yeah, I don't think he's going to get 12 books out of this. Hmm, what if he kills all 4 Dreadgods first? 9= Titan 10=Blood Phoenix 11 = The other two 12 = smacking down all the obstreperous monarchs? ACValiant posted:What's the best of xianxia out there? I haven't read too much of it but I really like Cradle. Forge of Destiny would be my next suggestion. After that, there's two goon cultivation games right now. I'm running one of them Always Be Cultivating is a CYOA. The main character is currently training to be a doctor and has a loveable bear sidekick. Nyaa is doing an LP of a Cultivation game. Everything else is a big step down. I'd probably recommend Cultivation Chat group next. It has all the problems already discussed, but it starts off strong and you can stop whenever you want. I know I stopped a few hundred chapters in. This thread OP has lots of suggestions. Whatever you do, don't read kindle unlimited cultivation stories. I have yet to find one that isn't trash. You might also enjoy the adjacent LitRPG genre. It is also generally terrible, but has more English authors. Threadbare on Royal Road is my personal favorite. Mother of Learning isn't a cultivation story, but it scratches a lot of those some itches so I'd recommend it. Cicero posted:Ah, also forgot Street Cultivation, an urban fantasy cultivation series. That one's pretty alright, got kind of a blue collar feel to it, though again, not nearly as good as Cradle.
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Oct 10, 2020 01:32
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LLSix posted:I think Lindon is still an Underlord? He could stretch the next couple of books out by ascending one small rank at a time, 9=Overlord, 10=Archlord, 11=monarch... huh, yeah, I don't think he's going to get 12 books out of this. Hmm, what if he kills all 4 Dreadgods first? 9= Titan 10=Blood Phoenix 11 = The other two 12 = smacking down all the obstreperous monarchs? And then Yerin and Eithan each advanced twice this book. I think that might be the most number of advancements the main crew has ever had in one book?
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Oct 10, 2020 01:47
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Rather that looking at advancements it's probably better to look at antagonists. Basically, there's nothing left except the dreadgods. Wintersteel killed off or snookered basically every other major power on Cradle that isn't at least notionally friendly to Lindon and crew. The end of the book made it very clear that the next book will be dreadgod-focused. There is nowhere left to go after that except Subject One and then ascension.
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Oct 10, 2020 02:10
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Yeah. I could see two Dreadgod books then a Subject 1/Ascension book which gets you to 10.
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Oct 10, 2020 02:46
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We're already at number eight, so that would bring us to eleven.
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Oct 10, 2020 02:48
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Shut up.
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Oct 10, 2020 16:02
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Thanks for the recommendations goons. I'll probably check out Forge of Destiny as that sounds pretty cool. I hope that there is an Abidan series after he ascends. The monarch fights sound epic and I'd love to read some space battles in this universe.
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Oct 10, 2020 17:15
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Is Azyl academy the one where the intro is the protagonist talking about how he's saving himself for marriage despite being in his 20s and attending the USAF Academy? Because I've met a handful of insanely weird Mormon ringknockers when I was in the Air Force and it made me laugh incredibly hard as I returned it.
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Oct 10, 2020 22:46
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Cicero posted:And then Yerin and Eithan each advanced twice this book. I think that might be the most number of advancements the main crew has ever had in one book? Nope, it's on par with earlier books. Blackflame had Lindon going from Iron to Lowgold (2 stages) and he hit Truegold in Ghostwater (2 stages). In Wintersteel Eithan is the only one who advanced twice, thanks to Reigan Shen's sponsorship and the fact that he's been sitting on his Overlord and Archlord revelations for years Technically Yerin didn't advance when she fused with Ruby, so Yerin's only advanced 1 stage every second or third book: Unsouled (Jade to Lowgold), Blackflame (Lowgold to Highgold), Ghostwater (Highgold to Truegold), Underlord (Truegold to Underlord), then Wintersteel (Underlord to Overlord)
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Oct 10, 2020 22:58
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Yerin did advance twice, just in a non-standard way. She's an Overlord Herald, as opposed to the standard Archlord Herald. Can't think of any other books where there's five advancements for the main crew. Ghostwater had three, Blackflame also three I think. Larry Parrish posted:Is Azyl academy the one where the intro is the protagonist talking about how he's saving himself for marriage despite being in his 20s and attending the USAF Academy? Because I've met a handful of insanely weird Mormon ringknockers when I was in the Air Force and it made me laugh incredibly hard as I returned it. Cicero fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Oct 10, 2020 |
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Oct 10, 2020 23:18
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Cicero posted:Yerin did advance twice, just in a non-standard way. She's an Overlord Herald, as opposed to the standard Archlord Herald I'm going on the technicality that she wasn't immediately DQ'd at the end. Suppose she figures out her new Icon before she hits Archlord though, would that make her an Overlord Monarch?  Based on the early chapters, I was honestly expecting her Sage training to involve learning how to fly around using the Hidden Sword, like Adama did. We better get to see that next book!
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Oct 11, 2020 04:34
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Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Herald just means you have merged with your spirit/remnant and Sage means you have connected to The Way (or something?). They're like side grades I believe.
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Oct 11, 2020 05:02
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ACValiant posted:Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Herald just means you have merged with your spirit/remnant and Sage means you have connected to The Way (or something?). They're like side grades I believe. They're both upgrades to archlord/archlady but whereas that is a standard upgrade, herald and sage have difficult requirements and sage's is especially rare. Monarchs mends the split, a herald that becomes a sage or a sage that becomes a herald. They're just usually considered as beyond archlord/archlady because that's when it usually happens. Yerin and Lindon aren't quite at arch level yet but they've basically set up the foundation to advance to herald/sage.
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Oct 11, 2020 05:49
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ACValiant posted:Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Herald just means you have merged with your spirit/remnant and Sage means you have connected to The Way (or something?). They're like side grades I believe. They're more kind of upgrades that don't follow the standard pattern of advancement. They still give you a load of extra power. Considering how powerful Yerin especially was after her herald change, it seems wrong to call it a sidegrade. She wasn't just changed, but indisputably a hell of a lot more powerful
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Oct 11, 2020 08:34
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team overhead smash posted:They're more kind of upgrades that don't follow the standard pattern of advancement. They still give you a load of extra power. Considering how powerful Yerin especially was after her herald change, it seems wrong to call it a sidegrade. She wasn't just changed, but indisputably a hell of a lot more powerful I guess I meant that herald and sage were less about the size/density of your core (standard advancement) but something else. But yeah you guys are probably right.
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Oct 11, 2020 13:39
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Wintersteel: Northstrider and co rules lawyered that Yerin merging with her blood shadow technically wasn't an advancement because she was still an Overlord, and that she technically wasn't a Herald either since only an Archlord and up can take advantage of all the changes that merging with a spirit entails. It was still such a massive upgrade that Saphora went from heavy favorite to certain defeat. But it's still probably more accurate to say she is a Herald than she isn't. Same with Lindon and being a Sage.
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Oct 11, 2020 14:34
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It's basically just due to how loose the definitions are, which the book does bring up as a thing that's changed across time. But in modern times, herald and sage are specifically beyond archlord/archlady, with their specific requirements being their unique methods of breaking through.
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Oct 11, 2020 18:42
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Does anyone have a read on what Lindon did with Dross/Northstrider in the beginning of the book? Lindon was focusing on the link between himself and Dross, so at first I interpreted Northstrider taking interest in Lindon because he sensed a change with Lindon's connection to Dross. But the change in the link coincided with the portal opening, and other people have read it as Lindon opening the portal himself. That certainly would be impressive and foreshadowing for what he could do later, but he could barely open an old portal on his own once he actually manifested the Icon, so it seems like kind of a stretch to me.
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Oct 11, 2020 19:04
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Dr Subterfuge posted:Does anyone have a read on what Lindon did with Dross/Northstrider in the beginning of the book? Lindon was focusing on the link between himself and Dross, so at first I interpreted Northstrider taking interest in Lindon because he sensed a change with Lindon's connection to Dross. But the change in the link coincided with the portal opening, and other people have read it as Lindon opening the portal himself. That certainly would be impressive and foreshadowing for what he could do later, but he could barely open an old portal on his own once he actually manifested the Icon, so it seems like kind of a stretch to me. Given the climax, my read was that it's supposed to be Lindon exercising that Sage-tier willpower he's been cultivating, Northstrider clocking that, going "oh hey this kid's going places", and reopening the portal himself. There's nothing to suggest that Lindon does it- almost the opposite. There's a great deal of description given to the effort Lindon is making, but the reopening of the portal is completely without fanfare- "Dross' presence filled his mind again", "His eyes snapped open to see that the portal had opened again". Similarly, nothing Lindon does has any effect on the connection- it remains "hair-thin" until the portal reopens.
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Oct 11, 2020 21:18
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Dr Subterfuge posted:Does anyone have a read on what Lindon did with Dross/Northstrider in the beginning of the book? Lindon was focusing on the link between himself and Dross, so at first I interpreted Northstrider taking interest in Lindon because he sensed a change with Lindon's connection to Dross. But the change in the link coincided with the portal opening, and other people have read it as Lindon opening the portal himself. That certainly would be impressive and foreshadowing for what he could do later, but he could barely open an old portal on his own once he actually manifested the Icon, so it seems like kind of a stretch to me. In retrospect I think that is what happened. It's worth noting that as was mentioned to Yerin a lot, Lindon shouldn't be able to do poo poo with icons as an Underlord anyway and it seems some icons find different things like portals much harder than others. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sage of The End has a hard time creating anything such as a portal but an easy time with destructive uses of his powers.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:40
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team overhead smash posted:I wouldn't be surprised if the Sage of The End has a hard time creating anything such as a portal but an easy time with destructive uses of his powers. Waiting for Chapter 1 of Bloodline where Lindon gives the command: "Destroy" and annihilates all of Abyssal Palace or something in the middle of Sacred Valley, while Kelsa's all  who are you and what did you do to my little brother?
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Oct 12, 2020 11:17
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Cicero posted:Lindon only advanced once, but between all the power he stole and his Sage revelation, he's probably ready to advance to Overlord as soon as he throws down some natural treasures. Pretty sure that Lindon is an archlord at the moment, he didn't trigger just overlord and summoned an icon. Plus tie in the whole wintersteel badge thing from the start with Tim & we know he's a sage. He also went through two redmoon hall overlords and most of sophara before he advanced & there was also a quote in underlord I think that mentioned that sages we're all peak archlord.
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Oct 12, 2020 11:58
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Aargh posted:Pretty sure that Lindon is an archlord at the moment, he didn't trigger just overlord and summoned an icon. Plus tie in the whole wintersteel badge thing from the start with Tim & we know he's a sage. He also went through two redmoon hall overlords and most of sophara before he advanced & there was also a quote in underlord I think that mentioned that sages we're all peak archlord. Nah, he's not Archlord. He's an Underlord Sage. Dross saying he didn't advance to Overlord isn't saying that he double-advanced to Archlord, it's saying he didn't advance to Overlord and so is still an Underlord but is also a Sage. As Malice and Eithen talk about, Sage didn't used to be something that someone specifically had to be Archlord to be - people used to be able to become Sages at lower levels but don't nowadays and this hasn't happened for a while (Hence the former reference to Sages usually being peak Archlords). Lindon is a peak Underlord Sage, Yerin is an Overlord Herald, Mercy is an Underlord with her temporary buffs letting her become Overlord when she needs and Eithan is an Archlord.
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Oct 12, 2020 12:43
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team overhead smash posted:it seems some icons find different things like portals much harder than others. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sage of The End has a hard time creating anything such as a portal but an easy time with destructive uses of his powers. Yeah Lindon is going to be great at those obliteration power words. I wouldn't be surprised if he's actually really good at spacial manipulation too, though. He struggles with it now because he's an Underlord, but that he can do it at all is basically unheard of among his contemporaries, so to me that expresses an affinity. Those portals are more like tears in space rather than creations, anyway. See: the Sword Sage's affinity for spacial manipulation. Plus I imagine they don't call them void keys for nothing. Also, Sage names seem to go <Icon> Sage or Sage of the <Path> so that would make Lindon the Void Sage or the Sage of the Twin Stars, respectively.
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Oct 12, 2020 15:11
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Oh neat, the sequel to The City and the Dungeon is out. The War Throughout the Dungeon by Matthew Schmidt. I liked the first one, which was a dungeon crawly litrpg heavily inspired by Mordor, that ancient shareware RPG. I may have liked it mostly because of that inspiration? But it was readable and fun. Got me back into that game for a while. One day I'll finish it.
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Oct 12, 2020 15:49
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My personal theory for future advancements in Cradle I think Lindon is going to make a conjoined set of armor for Yerin and him to wear that will work like the Eight Man Empire’s, combining their pseudo-Sage and pseudo-Herald natures into a pseudo-Monarch (or maybe not pseudo, if it happens in a few more advancements). Making a working version of that armor with only 2 participants was specifically called out as impossible in the text, which makes me even more confident that Lindon will work on it. We already saw in that one fight that he is making some incredible progress on armor development, and a shortcut to power like that feels right up his alley.
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Oct 12, 2020 18:02
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Oh snap, I think you're right. Wasn't the issue that a single sage and herald couldn't handle the power? Meanwhile Lindon and Yerin both have the ability and willpower to handle things a couple stages ahead. Now I'm hype for armored Lindon/Yerin taking on Shen. That would also fill in the hole left by no more Yerin/Ruby combo fights
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Oct 12, 2020 18:17
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team overhead smash posted:Nah, he's not Archlord. He's an Underlord Sage. Dross saying he didn't advance to Overlord isn't saying that he double-advanced to Archlord, it's saying he didn't advance to Overlord and so is still an Underlord but is also a Sage. As Malice and Eithen talk about, Sage didn't used to be something that someone specifically had to be Archlord to be - people used to be able to become Sages at lower levels but don't nowadays and this hasn't happened for a while (Hence the former reference to Sages usually being peak Archlords). Lindon is a peak Underlord Sage, Yerin is an Overlord Herald, Mercy is an Underlord with her temporary buffs letting her become Overlord when she needs and Eithan is an Archlord. He's at least Overlord Sage as he triggered his overlord revelation in the fight with Sophara "I am the End"
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Oct 12, 2020 20:51
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Aargh posted:He's at least Overlord Sage as he triggered his overlord revelation in the fight with Sophara "I am the End" He was trying to trigger Overlord but found an Icon instead.
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Oct 12, 2020 21:04
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Dr Subterfuge posted:He was trying to trigger Overlord but found an Icon instead. Yea, like two sentences later it says “He’d triggered something, but it wasn’t Overlord.”
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Oct 12, 2020 21:13
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So just to clarify, you're all saying Lindon trained with the akuras before the tournament presumably getting a fair few treasures and elixirs along the way and advancing to a pretty high level of underlord, learnt throughout the tournament, making it to the top 16, lost to yerin after an epic battle where he had to put all his training to use. Then he perfects Northstriders Consume technique, harvests dreadbeasts and bests too level underlords from abyssal palace before getting the diamond veins and killing wo uncrowned underlords, two overlords and one uncrowned overlord and triggered something to advance to sage, a rank that has previously only been available to archlords, except in antiquity, but is still an underlord
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Oct 12, 2020 23:17
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It’s messy and unless you can find the part where his body is remade in soul fire to advance to overlord, we’re saying we don’t see that advancement moment either. I agree the teams power level is kinda hard to gauge at the moment.
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Oct 12, 2020 23:20
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It's not messy and there's no reference to any of the other characters being remade in soulfire when it happens either. Eithan did it in a broom closet in the blink of an eye and went out to get a snack after.
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Oct 12, 2020 23:26
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I dunno what’s so confusing, it specifically says that he doesn’t advance. It’s black and white.
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Oct 12, 2020 23:28
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Aargh posted:So just to clarify, you're all saying Lindon trained with the akuras before the tournament presumably getting a fair few treasures and elixirs along the way and advancing to a pretty high level of underlord, learnt throughout the tournament, making it to the top 16, lost to yerin after an epic battle where he had to put all his training to use. Then he perfects Northstriders Consume technique, harvests dreadbeasts and bests too level underlords from abyssal palace before getting the diamond veins and killing wo uncrowned underlords, two overlords and one uncrowned overlord and triggered something to advance to sage, a rank that has previously only been available to archlords, except in antiquity, but is still an underlord Yep. Lindon has been punching way above his weight since Ghostwater, and even before he feasted on so many people during the skirmishes, Dross was pretty sure he could have defeated most of the remaining uncrowned competitors. Then he trained relentlessly against all of them in simulations, incorporated Little Blue's madra negation into his pure core, and topped out his Underlord core. He's a goddamn monster.
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Oct 12, 2020 23:45
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Silynt posted:I dunno what’s so confusing, it specifically says that he doesn’t advance. It’s black and white. Except where he had his revelation as did everyone else in the book. And then you know, advanced like everyone else, just with an added extra from all the super special techniques Eithan had been training him with "as a surprise".
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Oct 12, 2020 23:50
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Aargh posted:It's not messy and there's no reference to any of the other characters being remade in soulfire when it happens either. quote:He happened to know that Cladia’s Overlord revelation had been very similar. He thought about that as his chosen treasures evaporated and Overlord soulfire passed through him in a breath, refining and strengthening him. quote:She connected herself to the unity of aura, focusing on her new form. A dragon’s transformation was often slower than a human’s advancement, but she still had the Gate of Heaven elixir inside her. quote:Though she felt numb, Yerin followed instructions. She sat down in the center of natural treasures she’d felt earlier, sensing the unity of aura around her, creating a bridge between the soulfire inside her and the artifacts all around her.
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Oct 13, 2020 00:09
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At the beginning of Wintersteel, Lindon is already as strong as an average Uncrowned, he just had a stronger than average opponent in the Ro16 that got him knocked out (barely). Then, over the course of the book, he gets several boosts to his fighting effectiveness: * Consume technique with his hunger arm to a) steal permanent power for himself, and b) nullify certain opponents (mostly thinking of Crusher here) * Diamond veins elixir * Pact with Little Blue * Hollow Domain to nullify madra-based attacks * Sage authority (is this why he finds it easier to switch cores?) * Dross dropping surprise illusions to stun people Combined, these radically improve his overall combat ability. And then on top of that, when fighting the enemy Uncrowned specifically, he has a huge advantage in that they've each fought him either zero times or only once, while he's fought models of them dozens of times. They're coming in relatively blind, whereas he's very familiar with what they can do, and experienced with countering it.
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Oct 13, 2020 00:17
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Aargh posted:Except where he had his revelation as did everyone else in the book. And then you know, advanced like everyone else, just with an added extra from all the super special techniques Eithan had been training him with "as a surprise". When someone advances to Overlord, the aura around them trembles from their connection to it. After his revelation, something different, explicitly not the aura, trembles. To make it more clear, the book says "He triggered something, but it wasn't Overlord." After he manifests the Icon, Dross even says "Lindon... you're not an Overlord." So uh, straight from the text, multiple times, Lindon isn't an Overlord. It might even be that he could sit down near some natural treasures and progress to Overload with the exact same revelation, who knows! But he isn't Overlord yet.
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Oct 13, 2020 00:19
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