[LP CYOA] 傳

[Kipeci]

So, you think that we can absolutely take BJ and yet you think that if we used the skill he has hidden neigong reserves he hasn't accessed that he could use to screw us over? Why not use that to crush us?

He already said what his intention was.

“Are you going to try and make me talk?”

“I cannot afford not to. My shimu already suspects a thing or two about you… even if you do not talk now, you are merely postponing the inevitable.”

[...]

You lash out with your fist, but with a twirl he steps away from it, calling out to you, “You are not yet using everything you have, are you?”

[...]

You land a safer distance away from him and sheathe your wodao. Giving him a casual smirk, you ask, “Do you think I need to use everything I have?”

“I will make you use everything you have. You are not leaving this mountain otherwise, Xu Jing,” comes the reply.

If he has that extra neigong hidden somewhere up his ass, he's going to use that to beat Jing down so that he can proceed with interrogation. A2 is a terrible choice; it pisses him off with our continued resistance, we'll almost certainly lose the fight (this definitely doesn't look to be one of those fights where we can scrape by without giving our all, and as to using our fancy Japanese sword techniques of a better skill level... we've tried that, most of it ended up countered because he's probably a full skill level better than even our best sword moves) and get interrogated, and we don't even get to train the Wuxian Qiankun skill for the trouble. This is very important to him, he's not going to be toying with us.

If you don't want him to find out the skill then you should take one of the options to run off; who knows if that'll actually work given how speedy this guy is, but if we're able to stray out of his sight for one moment our stealth will probably give us a decent chance of getting out of here. Staying here to fight is a bad idea unless we're willing to commit all the way.

 

[Smashing Axe]

You guys, BJ does not suspect us of having Wuxiang Qiankun, he suspects us of having that monk exile's technique.

We have a good enough swords skill that if Wuxiang Qiankun works we can potentially kill BJ. It worked against Zhang's guards previously and if nothing else it will allow us to predict BJ's movements, which we're currently struggling with. I sincerely doubt BJ has 8 inner strength, given his investment in other skills, and the normal caps on inner strength related to endurance likely apply to BJ so the technique should work. Additionally, BJ has invested most of his training in mastering technique and form with the sword, both of which we can copy expertly. This makes Wuxiang Qiankun a near perfect encounter.

Also consider that BJ is misinformed about the technique we're capable of, so if he's prepared anything to deal with the monk exile's technique, he has the wrong counter prepared. Furthermore we already know that he suffers from a degree of overconfidence in his own mental prowess/cunning through the game we just played together, if he has a plan for us, it's likely he hasn't considered all the contingencies for unexpected variables.

Some of the other options like B and partially D seem to rely on BJ's sense of honour and we've already clearly seen that most of that is a farce for the public eye. In the case of D he will attempt to strike us when he senses an opportunity, if he will even agree to stopping everything to go bury Zhang.

I didn't vote to attack Zhang Manxing when we first encountered him in the forest, and I was especially against attacking him with Wuxiang Qiankun because I thought it was a frivolous waste. Here we have the perfect candidate to use it on, someone that equals or exceeds most of our abilities, who is trying to kill or capture us. It's the appropriate time to use it. I get the feeling that you guys are voting A2 as a reaction to the outcome of the last time everyone voted to use it. The two events are separate and unique.

 

[Sunnmøring]

Can't we just tell him what happened? There's no need to get bloody about this. If we must fight or flee, though, I'd prefer training up the skill so that we can get broken strength faster.

B1 > A1

 

[Absinthe]

Smashing Axe, no. The monk exile technique is the Wuxiang Qiankun skill.

Because Xuxian didn't steal anything from Wudang, didn't create a new technique, and therefore can't be the monk in the story?

Did you forget that when we read the manual it contained taoist and buddhist teachings?

Bai Jiutian is referring to Wuxiang Qiankun.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

D>A1>B1 - fsr i can't help but think D is the hidden victory option. *sigh* We really should have picked A.

edit: if A1 or B1 wins, we need to say Zhang is the one who taught it to us.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Smashing Axe, no. The monk exile technique is the Wuxiang Qiankun skill.

Because Xuxian didn't steal anything from Wudang, didn't create a new technique, and therefore can't be the monk in the story?

Did you forget that when we read the manual it contained taoist and buddhist teachings?

Bai Jiutian is referring to Wuxiang Qiankun.

I'm sorry, you're wrong. The monk learned Xiaoming Jiuyang Divine Skill.

Edit: Oh my bad. I'm getting Xuxian confused with the monk in BJ's tale.

Although that's certainly one point in favour of not using Wuxiang Qiankun, it pushes me more towards avoiding a direct confrontation. A2 is still reckless.

 

[Absinthe]

Smashing Axe, what on earth? Read the text you're quoting. Treave confirmed he's not talking about Xuxian. Xuxian is the monk with the Xiaoming Jiuyang Divine Skill. Bai Jiutian is talking about the monk who created the Wuxiang Qiankun skill hundreds of years ago and went west. He's trying to make us reveal the Wuxiang Qiankun skill. I really don't think we should give him what he wants.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Smashing Axe, what on earth? Read the text you're quoting. Treave confirmed he's not talking about Xuxian. Xuxian is the monk with the Xiaoming Jiuyang Divine Skill. Bai Jiutian is talking about the monk who created the Wuxiang Qiankun skill hundreds of years ago and went west. He's trying to make us reveal the Wuxiang Qiankun skill. I really don't think we should give him what he wants.

It makes no difference though if we can actually beat him. He won't know the exact capabilities of the technique, only the rumours and it still doesn't change the fact that BJ is overconfident in his own abilities. I'm voting A1 because I want to kill BJ, but I'm open to trying to avoid a confrontation with D or C.

 

[Nevill]

A2 is a terrible choice; it pisses him off with our continued resistance, we'll almost certainly lose the fight (this definitely doesn't look to be one of those fights where we can scrape by without giving our all, and as to using our fancy Japanese sword techniques of a better skill level... we've tried that, most of it ended up countered because he's probably a full skill level better than even our best sword moves) and get interrogated, and we don't even get to train the Wuxian Qiankun skill for the trouble.

Or maybe - maybe - we finally convince him that we don't have the skill.

Though in this case we might have to prove that we are more useful to him alive than dead.

 

[Smashing Axe]

A2 is a terrible choice; it pisses him off with our continued resistance, we'll almost certainly lose the fight (this definitely doesn't look to be one of those fights where we can scrape by without giving our all, and as to using our fancy Japanese sword techniques of a better skill level... we've tried that, most of it ended up countered because he's probably a full skill level better than even our best sword moves) and get interrogated, and we don't even get to train the Wuxian Qiankun skill for the trouble.

Or maybe - maybe - we finally convince him that we don't have the skill.

Though in this case we might have to prove that we are more useful to him alive than dead.

Difficult to do given that he's been wanting to slay us for a while now for being a thorn in his mistresses' side.

 

[Absinthe]

We've been training against Zhang Jue for years. We have a rank 8 sword technique. Bai Jiutian may be good, but we have raw stats and huge variety of powerful unarmed moves, and we have much more experience with ridiculously lethal fights than he does.

If we do A2, we can both get him to think we really don't have the Wuxiang Qiankun and we can most likely get a +1 to swords.

Difficult to do given that he's been wanting to slay us for a while now for being a thorn in his mistresses' side.

Right now Bai Jiutian can no longer inherit Huashan and the Zhang family hates him. If he sides with us, he could take over Huashan by helping us expose their dirty dealings and he could pursue the Xiaoming Jiuyang Divine Skill. Considering how bad his relations with the Zhang family are (and he just killed Zhang Manxing), there is no way the Zhang family would willingly let him see the manual. This means he has very strong incentives to disobey Huashan.

However, if we confirm for him that we have Wuxiang Qiankun, Bai Jiutian would probably decide that we're the easier target for a manual.

A2 is the option that convinces him we probably don't have the technique and opens up the possibility of an alliance.

I'm voting A1 because I want to kill BJ, but I'm open to trying to avoid a confrontation with D or C.

We're not the only one who can run away. My guess is that if we really have such a powerful upper hand, Bai Jiutian would just run for it and yell for his master's help.

 

[Nevill]

Difficult to do given that he's been wanting to slay us for a while now for being a thorn in his mistresses' side.

He also wants to become independent from her. And we did share with him the information about the Xiaoming Jiuyang manual, something that she withheld from him.

The thing is, I don't think we can best him, given his superior stats. He is also in a possession of some ultimate technique that he does not use freely, as shown in the update where he fought Vahista. He has reserves to fall back on.

That said, I am warming up to D as an alternative to the fight. I don't know what it would result in, and that is what attracts me. Maybe we can cheat here somehow.

Flopping to D.

 

[Baltika9]

Killing BJ right now is the worst thing we can do: with his and not-a-manxing's corpses out here and traces of our qi all over the place, we're going to be found out. And since I'm not sure what his angle here is (one moment we're talking alliances and saving his skin, the next he's assaulting us with Huehueshan swordplay), letting him see our WQS is extremely risky: BJ already decided that we have learned it in Tufan.

and we can most likely get a +1 to swords.

Not this shit again.

 

[Absinthe]

He has superior sword skills. I don't think he has superior stats.

Baltika9, if we go with A2 we're facing off against Bai Jiutian with his 9 swords skill in what is primarily a sword fight. I'm pretty sure that is the kind of experience that would boost our sword skill. Hell, lets just ask treave instead of speculating.

 

[Kipeci]

We've been training against Zhang Jue for years. We have a rank 8 sword technique. Bai Jiutian may be good, but we have raw stats and huge variety of powerful unarmed moves, and we have much more experience with ridiculously lethal fights than he does.

Did you not notice that we did use some of our fancy Japanese sword techniques and they were all blocked for our troubles?

He is fast, definitely faster than you are; in his little scuffle with Zhang Manxing he was not moving anywhere as fast as he is now. His footwork is swift and predatory, constantly circling towards your flanks. His sword is moving at such a way that it weaves silver arcs through the air, creating the impression of multiple blades in motion. The speed of his steel, however, is deceptive to the eye: you find that out first hand when you block the first slash with your scabbard and suffer shallow cuts to your shoulder and knee not a second later.

You lash out with your fist, but with a twirl he steps away from it, calling out to you, “You are not yet using everything you have, are you?”

Bai Jiutian raises his sword and comes at you again; you realize that if you want to survive his next onslaught you would have to focus. You concentrate, drawing apart yin and yang. Bai’s sword streaks through the air, almost invisible, the slashes coming in wild and fast in a sword dance that is at once dazzling and primal. The qi behind his attacks is forceful enough that the pressure from his attacks slice into the ground around you, tearing up soil and cutting down bushes.

Yet, you meet his attack head on.

Leaping forward in the form of the Vermillion Phoenix, you attempt to interrupt his attack. Bai adapts, however, expertly deflecting your powerful slashes and countering with swift jabs of his sword.

Our unarmed moves don't matter too greatly when the presence of his powerful sword excludes us from sword range, he knows that and he's not about to forsake the use of it. Similarly, our raw stats (which actually aren't that high since we didn't bother to keep raising them) aren't going to be put to much use because, well, we can't get close enough to make use of the strength aside from at the tip of our sword which is something he's just better at, and he's certainly faster than us so so much for relying on better agility. Treave said of the 100 man match that Bai Jiutian had engaged in much more impressive battles, so I wouldn't presume to say anything about which us us has better experience in dangerous battles. At any rate, it is his intent to go all out and we certainly won't beat him by holding back given the uncertainty about whether or not he is stronger than us.

If we do A2, we can both get him to think we really don't have the Wuxiang Qiankun and we can most likely get a +1 to swords.

We'll get our ass beat and then Jing will be interrogated, with no rescue forthcoming since we didn't put our ladies into position... and we won't even improve that skill. We're going to be doing a fair amount of swordfighting anyway in A1 (the idea behind using our broken move is that we copy his broken sword techniques to use against him to get into a proper range) so I don't see why A2 would offer it while A1 wouldn't.

 

[Tribute]

What is wrong with BJ? We just helped hiim get rid of a thorn in his side and he immediately decides to try to kill us?

D>C>Ax

 

[Smashing Axe]

BJ has trained longer, harder and more diligently than us, being a product of the Orthodox school. While our array of techniques is impressive, given BJ's resources and study, there is no reason to think he is not at the very least equal. In the past our advantage has been relatively high physical stats, which here BJ apparently meets or exceeds. (I've not heard treave talk about how strong he is, so that's an unknown factor).

What do you hope to actually accomplish with A2? Full on defeat of BJ? I find that outcome very, very doubtful under A2 given BJ's capabilities, and if we were to win with A2, we'd definitely win with A1, in which case, unless we're planning to do something foolish like letting BJ go, nothing is lost. What if it's a tie? It doesn't change the fact BJ views us as a threat to be extinguished. We temporarily waylay his suspicions, and make our escape. Whoopty-do, we could have done that easier with D or C.

And what do we lose if BJ wins? Our lives, possibly. Our freedom or health. We know the depravities of the upper echelons of Huashan. I don't doubt they will resort to torture to try and pry our secrets away. Even if BJ thinks we're not capable of Wuxing, we're still one of his best leads. Cue horrific maiming before the girls rescue us.

What is wrong with BJ? We just helped hiim get rid of a thorn in his side and he immediately decides to try to kill us?

D>C>Ax

He's practical.

 

[Nevill]

What if it's a tie? It doesn't change the fact BJ views us as a threat to be extinguished. We temporarily waylay his suspicions, and make our escape. Whoopty-do, we could have done that easier with D or C.

Well, D and C do not concentrate on a fight, and are thus no less prone to failure.

But yes, A2 is likely to result in defeat. The actual question is whether you think it is worse than giving away the information.

And what do we lose if BJ wins? Our lives, possibly. Our freedom or health. We know the depravities of the upper echelons of Huashan. I don't doubt they will resort to torture to try and pry our secrets away. Even if BJ thinks we're not capable of Wuxing, we're still one of his best leads. Cue horrific maiming before the girls rescue us.

Juitian does not belong to the upper echelons of Huashan, and manxing disgusts him. How far is he willing to go, especially if we do not confirm his suspicions, is yet unknown.

From what I've seen of his character, he is more likely to kill us than to torture us.

He's practical.

But I expected hugs!

 

[Absinthe]

Did you not notice that we did use some of our fancy Japanese sword techniques and they were all blocked for our troubles?

Now that we switched to order mode though, we boosted our first two styles and final move, plus we can now see through his deceptive swordplay.

Our unarmed moves don't matter too greatly when the presence of his powerful sword excludes us from sword range, he knows that and he's not about to forsake the use of it.

That's not his decision. We've already gotten to use the Xianglong 18 Palms and Wuying Leipo Kick on him. If we go at it seriously I'm pretty sure we can land some unarmed moves.

Similarly, our raw stats (which actually aren't that high since we didn't bother to keep raising them) aren't going to be put to much use because, well, we can't get close enough to make use of the strength aside from at the tip of our sword which is something he's just better at, and he's certainly faster than us so so much for relying on better agility.

Lets just ask treave. What are Bai Jiutian's stats relative to Jing's right now?

Treave said of the 100 man match that Bai Jiutian had engaged in much more impressive battles, so I wouldn't presume to say anything about which us us has better experience in dangerous battles.

We train against Zhang Jue on a daily basis. I don't think Bai Jiutian can top that kind of ridiculously dangerous experience.

At any rate, it is his intent to go all out and we certainly won't beat him by holding back given the uncertainty about whether or not he is stronger than us.

That's just your speculation. From what I can tell his priority is to make us reveal our moves.

We'll get our ass beat and then Jing will be interrogated, with no rescue forthcoming since we didn't put our ladies into position... and we won't even improve that skill. We're going to be doing a fair amount of swordfighting anyway in A1 (the idea behind using our broken move is that we copy his broken sword techniques to use against him to get into a proper range) so I don't see why A2 would offer it while A1 wouldn't.

A1 isn't a test of our sword skill as much as it's a test of our Wuxiang Qiankun technique. And even if we lose with A2, we would give Bai Jiutian reason to believe we don't have the Wuxiang Qiankun skill, so he'd decide that it's better to side with us to inherit Huashan and obtain the Xiaoming Jiuyang manual instead of turning us in for brownie points with his shimu.

 

[Baltika9]

Smashing Axe, A2's purpose is to fight him at our best and convince him that we don't have the WQS. I can understand the reasoning, and it's a solid plan, and part of me does want to see how we actually measure up against the best orthodox pugilist of our generation (our fight so far was pretty even), but I just think that this isn't the time or place to go all out with him on Huehueshan teritorry.

 

[Absinthe]

Well I think if we use A1 we can expect all the masters of Huehueshan to come down on us (Nie Wuxing + his two daughters I guess).

A2 is much more likely to remain a 1v1 bout.

 

[Nevill]

And Madam Nie, too.

A1 is just as likely to stay between us, if only because BJ does not like sharing that sort of information with anyone.

 

[Fangshi]

Ah, voting D.

If we can get to that bag and hit BJ with it that would be ideal. I am not too sure about our chances to win in a proper fight.

 

[Absinthe]

Here's the problem, Nevill.

• A1: Bai Jiutian learns we have Wuxiang Qiankun. If he cannot beat us alone he is going to need help, so he'd stick with Huashan.
• A2: Bai Jiutian learns we probably don't have Wuxiang Qiankun. If he wants martial arts, he's better off helping us against the Zhang family to obtain the Xiaoming Jiuyang manual plus if he exposes the relations between Huashan and the Zhang family he would probably become the new leader of Huashan.

Fangshi, regarding D and the bag, we don't have any throwing skill. It's zero. Otherwise we could just use our Five Poisons Powder right now.

 

[Kipeci]

Now that we switched to order mode though, we boosted our first two styles and final move, plus we can now see through his deceptive swordplay.

Jing had already gone into order mode when he launched the Vermillion Phoenix move, and that didn't exactly pan out well. BJ is just a better swordsman than Jing is, a little perception boost wasn't about to make a massive difference in the fight and it didn't as was demonstrated immediately afterwards, except for that at least Jing didn't get outright wounded for his efforts.

That's not his decision. We've already gotten to use the Xianglong 18 Palms and Wuying Leipo Kick on him. If we go at it seriously I'm pretty sure we can land some unarmed moves.

Yeah, we've landed a couple of attacks in at high risk to ourselves... the former he dodged and the latter he easily blocked, and that latter was more of a way to give us distance outside of the oppressive reach of his sword. He definitely outclasses us in the sword part of the match (who knows for the unarmed) and that's what the majority of the match will be unless we somehow manage to get rid of his sword, which I doubt is likely.

Lets just ask treave. What are Bai Jiutian's stats relative to Jing's right now?

You don't need to ask about the agility at least.

He is fast, definitely faster than you are; in his little scuffle with Zhang Manxing he was not moving anywhere as fast as he is now. His footwork is swift and predatory, constantly circling towards your flanks. His sword is moving at such a way that it weaves silver arcs through the air, creating the impression of multiple blades in motion. The speed of his steel, however, is deceptive to the eye: you find that out first hand when you block the first slash with your scabbard and suffer shallow cuts to your shoulder and knee not a second later.

He was also able to easily block a stray Wuying Leipo Kick with ease as well as to dodge that palm technique. He has good stats and good technique, and we aren't getting past that sword of his very often or inflicting much damage when we do.

We train against Zhang Jue on a daily basis. I don't think Bai Jiutian can top that kind of ridiculously dangerous experience.

Regardless of what you think or not, here he is. I don't know what his training regimen is or what all he's done to make him such a legendary figure in the pugilist world despite his young age, but it's certainly good enough to at least match Jing.

That's just your speculation. From what I can tell his priority is to make us reveal our moves.

That's exactly what I'm saying. He's going all out to make us reveal our moves, if we don't reveal them he's going to vanquish us and start up some interrogation. He's already pretty sure we know the move, he intends to confirm it one way or another.

A1 isn't a test of our sword skill as much as it's a test of our Wuxiang Qiankun technique. And even if we do lose, if we give Bai Jiutian reason to believe we don't have the Wuxiang Qiankun skill, he would decide that it's better to side with us to inherit Huashan and obtain the Xiaoming Jiuyang manual instead of turning us in for brownie points with his shimu.

At using that skill to copy his sword technique, yeah. Treave said it would be better at advancing our knowledge in these things, and I don't want to lose this fight for the sake of a +1 swords boost that very well might not exist. We also have no idea what BJ is going to do one way or another in deciding whether or not to ally with us if he does know that we have the move, but we do know that he intends to keep this information more to himself:

“If you cared for Nie Wuxing’s approval, why did you ask to meet me in private then, away from Huashan? You could just have easily shouted out for help last night.”

“I could, and if you had not agreed to meet me here I would have. I needed to confirm one matter in private though, something that my shifu or shimu must not find out.” The encirclement of your black pieces by his white is solidifying by the moment, as Bai Jiutian deftly plays out his strategy.