Northern Clown: “Do you see that crystal ball on the table? When you’re not busy, just touch it, and see something you would never imagine!”
Uh…. OK man. Whatever you say.
“Your Reputation Score is 5”
Ugh, looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me right now. No doubt kicking some random ass will bring this up.
Anyway, time to feed the clown some fruits! Let’s see what he has to say…
Northern Clown: “Just how substantial is morality? Don’t listen to Southern Worthy, with his mouth all full of morality. Just imagine, if you were unwilling to take precious items from chests in order to avoid lowering your morality score, would you be able to get through difficult situations? There is no such thing as a saint in this world; what is important is that you simply manage to get by in
jiang hu*; “playing” is your goal. So go ahead and crack open some chests; at the very most you’ll just have to do a few good deeds and make up for it.”
I must say, I am starting to like this clown… not only does he advise me to be a bad boy, he’s also quite the meta-gamer!
OK, open wide for some more fruits, clown!
Northern Clown: The most important thing for a person who learns martial arts is “aptitude”. Someone with good aptitude will get twice the results for half the effort, conversely one who’s aptitude is bad will get half the results for twice the effort. So if you learn that your aptitude is no good, I recommend that you not bother to try to survive in martial arts society; you’d be better off dying and reincarnating as soon as possible. (Northern Clown explains that you can get a general idea of your aptitude by comparing what martial arts manuals you and an NPC of like experience level can use)
Northern Clown: “Let me tell you a great secret: There are three hidden treasure caches in martial arts society! The first can be found in Rui Lai inn! “
Well, I’ve had enough chatting with the clown for now. Time to be off for some more exploring!
A little ways off to the north and east I come a cabin on a mountain top…
“Snow Eagle Cliff”
You’ll recall, the guys back at the bar were talking about this “Snow Eagle” guy; supposedly he’s a badass, and a nasty individual too.
No one is at home, so I get to looting. I find some raw medicinasl and some drugs (drugs are everywhere in this game!) and also some rabbit meat. WTF?
Anyway, I don’t find much else in the great white northeast, so I head back west to check out some of the stuff I passed on my way over there. In the desert I come across a cave in some sand dunes!
“Cave”
Hmm, lots of bones piled at the entrance to this one... maybe there’s fun to be had in here.
Gah, that’s a big friggin spider!
Whitey: “Looks like I’ve walked into a nest of spider demons.”
Luckily my man Tian Boguang has got my back for this one. The spiders get hacked up into little spider bits. Tian levels up!
Oh boy, a chest. It looks like a soldier’s footlocker. Anyway, I don’t have a screenshot that tells me what was in it. Probably drugs though!
More spiders die (sorry no SS for some reason)… found more loot…
“You found some Murky Ice Jade Fire Wine” Yeah! Murky Ice Jade Fire Wine! Aweso… uh, what is this stuff for? Never mind, I am sure it will come in handy at some random and totally unexpected point in the game.
Woot, loot!
“You got the Yellow Sand Ten Thousand-League Whip Technique [Manual]!” OK, a Kungfu manual for whip wielders. I can’t use it, neither can Tian. I guess this is meant for an NPC that uses whips… or truncheons. The Chinese word can mean either thing. Need more context…
Feeling kind of weird about finding all of this strange stuff and not knowing what its good for, I decide to head west on the road to the south of here like a normal protagonist. After a little while I come across some tents out in the desert…
“Hui Nationality Tribe”
The Huis are a Chinese Muslim ethnic group. So far we’ve seen Han Chinese, Tibetans (?) (assuming the “lamas” I fought earlier were Tibetan and not Mongols or some other minority), Naughty Opera Clowns, giant spiders and now Hui. Quite the rainbow coalition of Chinese nationalities! Anyway…
So this young lady (yes, that’s a girl, her name is Huo Qingtong) explains that recently the tribe’s antique Koran, which they received from Mecca(! ) was recently stolen from them by the Golden Wheel Dharma Master during her father’s prolonged absence. Apparently the Dharma Master is planning on presenting it to the imperial court so it can be used as collateral to control the Muslims… OK. The tribe has tried a few times to get it back, but the Dharma King is just too powerful for them. Anyway, if I can get their Koran back, they’ll reward me. And a tribesman assures me that Allah will protect me as well.
A little ways to the west, and up a road to the north I find the Golden Wheel Temple!
Another flock of lamas is at the gate. Anyway I march right on in and have a word with Mr. Dharma King. Harsh words must have been exchanged, because before I know what’s happening, I’m fighting another gang of lamas, led by the King himself!
Piece of cake! These lamas fall over like bowling pins to Tian’s Raging Wind Sabre Technique. (Actually, Raging Wind Sabre is a pretty sucky technique, but I only come to realize this much later on… anyway, it’s good enough for these losers.) Looks like another cake walk for the dynamic duo.
Wait! LOOK OUT WHITEY, BEHIND YOU! THE OLD MAN!
The old bastard nuked us! 5x5 area of affect for ~300 damage each! WTF?
“2010/3/11
Somewhere on earth, the number of local missing people increases by one…”
This is a missing persons’ report for Whitey, who must have been kidnapped by SoftWorld since his parents didn’t find his corpse next to his computer.
*snort* *yawn* Whuh? I must have fallen asleep outside this temple. God, what a horrible dream! Maybe I’d better stay away from this place for now… the dream must be a warning of some kind.
A bit more random wandering brings me to a large land mass cut off from the north and the south (where I started out) by two large rivers. As I head south into this large area, I come across this cheerful looking place in the middle of a forest.
It turns out this is the headquarters of the Qingcheng sect! These are the people who wiped out Lin Pingzhi’s family and kidnapped his father. For whatever reason, Whitey decides to give them a hard time about this, and calls them out!
A handful of these suckers is no match for me and Tian! Whitey also levels up his “Iron Palm” skill a bit.
After a few more levels I realize that this is another trash style of kungfu that isn’t worth learning. Oh well, I guess there’s always baseball fist!
Whitey: “Well to me the ‘Dashing heroes, the four excellencies of Qingcheng’ that everyone in
jianghu talks about look more like ‘Cowardly black bears and wild pigs, the four beasts of Qingcheng!’”
OOOohhhh…. Tsssst! Burn!!!! You tell those bitches, Whitey!
Qingcheng Wuss: “Just you wait and see how our master deals with you!”
Right-o. Time to head into the main hall and beat down some more dorks with stupid hats.
Hmm, this guy doesn’t have a stupid hat. Maybe we should take him more seriously?
Whitey: “Hurry up release Mr. Lin Zhennan, or I’ll beat you ‘til your head is covered in knots. Spit it out, where is he?”
Turns out the sect leader already killed him after he refused to reveal the location of the “Evil Vanquishing
Jian Manual”
Evil sect leader dude: “If you miss him so much, I’ll send you to go see him.”
Some fighting happens… [sorry, I didn’t get good screen shots, unfortunately. :blush:] One thing I have noticed by this point is that people who use straight sword techniques have the ability to attack through more than one enemy in a straight line from a distance. You can sort of see this guy zipping around in these screenshots. But not really. Anyway, sorry for the crappy screenies. :p
Evil sect leader dude: “Hmmph! Enough of your inane chatter! Kill me or maim me, as you wish!”
Whitey: Does it look like I’m someone who randomly kills people? [Why not dammit!?!! Kill! -MS] I’ll let Lin Pingzhi himself decide how to deal with you!”
And sadly, I leave without talking to everyone in the compound. Most of the green hat wearing guys have nothing to say to me, but according to a strategy guide, if I had spoken to one person in the courtyard he would have given me the “Vanquishing Evil
Jian Manual”. What a bunch of bullshit.
When I go back to talk to Lin Pingzhi, he tells me something to the effect that no such manual even exists, that it is an oral kungfu tradition. Then later on you can talk to him and he will join your party. But if you take him to the Qingcheng sect, he has to fight the leader and five other guys all at once… a first level character with <50 hp!
Well, I’ll be damned if I grind this guy until he can actually win that battle. Forget it. I wonder if the quest line was broken here somehow, and crudely patched before release or something. Anyway, I’m sure some other badass kungfu will turn up.
Heading out from Lin’s place, I stumble across another residence. I wonder who lives here?
Looks like another boring house. I wonder if there is anything to loot in here…?
Whitey: That’s odd… why does my head feel so heavy…? Could I…
WHITEY! NOoooooo!!
And that ends today’s update. I’ll be sure to keep them coming faster, now that I have the hang of this LP business. Anyway, check in next time to find out just what happened to poor Whitey!
