cutsleeve | Open Post

Yes, ah, lots!

[ He pauses for a moment, then tentatively sits beside Shen Qingqiu. ]

I know I asked before, but I'd really like to hear more about your Cang Qiong Mountain. I... I've only known Koi Tower, and I haven't been to visit any other sects that aren't affiliated with ours. So I don't know what it might look like at other places. What the nature is like, or what sort of temperament disciples have... oh, or even what sorts of robes your disciples wear.

Whites, blues, and light greens. Light, and easy to move in.

[At least for Qing Jing Peak.]

Temperament...? I suppose on my peak everyone is....

[Weepy? Easy to weep?]

Even-tempered. We are a family, and they are all good students. As a scholarly focus, of course, they are studious as well.

[ Mo Xuanyu listens eagerly, every word sinking in. ]

Ah, I suppose all of them must be very smart. Do you also train in combat?

[Were they? Maybe? He wasn't sure how to judge. It was true that Ning Yingying had definitely improved since she was younger, at least in regards to being annoying and thoughtless. They were obedient and did their studies properly and their training so... perhaps they were?]

We do also practice in the martial arts, of course not to the extent that a more military-focused peak might, but we are still sword cultivators so that is a given. Training involves half study and half martial training.

[And a lot of goofing off because he was a bit terrible at actually keeping things on track most the time.]

Half and half, hmm...

[ He thinks on it for several seconds, considering. ]

Do peaks choose their disciples, or do disciples choose their peaks?

Peaks choose their disciples. To a point. When the test is happening a peak lord can choose, of course prospective disciples might have a specific peak they are going for, and that will be considered when assessing. Some may end up places they weren't going for however. There is one they just all have to fight constantly to self improve.... I'm not sure how he picks his disciples....

[really he did not understand Bai Zhan Peak or Liu Qingge's methods at all. But maybe it was because he wasn't a muscle head?]

[Really,

Fight constantly? [ He considers for a moment, then, ] Ah, I'd be in big trouble there. This place really isn't bad at all, compared to that.

Master Shen, what do you look for in disciples?

[Innocent and obedient children that will do chores and be cute, honest and moe.]

I would also be bad over there....

[But then, wouldn't he be bad everywhere? He was getting by through cheats as it was.]

As for what I look for... I suppose those who try earnestly.

[He hadn't actually gone to any of the recruitments... he was dead for the last one and not around for the one before....]

Try... earnestly?

Is there any other way to try?

Ah, or do you mean like the Yiling Patriarch using the demonic path to become powerful without putting in the effort?

[Who? He didn't want to think of demons. He wasn't quite sure about that but, it sounded wrong. He shook his head and waved his fan in time.]

No, effort is important, but, it's alright to simply do what you can. Trying to find shortcuts never ends well.

[Those people were always killed down the line either through their own haste, or hey ended up a villain and were killed. Of course, minor antagonists and examples also died that way. Yes, never cheat like that. Just, try your best and do what you can.]

Right, yes, I understand now.

[ Like before, like many other things, Mo Xuanyu pushes down his feelings. His admiration for the Yiling Patriarch is dangerous, and he knows it. It's easiest to just pretend he hates him like everyone else does. Like other things he's also pretending. ]

If disciples are chosen, what titles are passed down by lineage?

Lineage? None.

[He really didn't understand these blood relations sects. A sect was already a family. Why make them related ontop of that? It took away from the fantasy as well. How did you have a story about some poor orphan who joins a sect and rises to the top?]

Head disciples will be chosen based on merit and how much their master feels they fit their peak, and then when all current peak lords are gone, the new generation will take on their roles with a new generation name. Qing is our current generation and our names were given to us by our masters.

[ ??? WHAT ]

... Oh.

[ There's a long moment while Mo Xuanyu stares in shock. He could understand--possibly--that peak lords were chosen out of a selection of candidates not related by blood. But not even passing along the little of Sect Leader? Weren't bloodlines the best indicator of strength? How did a sect have alliances, if not built up by their founding clan? ]

I... I can't even imagine that. But... surely, the same families give birth to the strongest disciples anyway, right? The same families must become peak lords each time.

Not at all. Where some families will be talented, sometimes those from the same family will be accepted, it isn't a rule. If you limit by family, how would you ever find that one in a million special talent orphaned out in the wild?

So, instead, merit is based on skill by everyone. And the peak lords will choose their successors as the best representation of their virtues.

Or... in the case of one whoever defeats them. A sect is not the same as a clan.

[And that was sort of the entire point of escapist Xianxia. Wuxia was more about clans and family blood. Though, if he thought about it, a lot of protagonists in those didn't have a clan and usually went around breaking a few of them along their way....]

But... don't the same families produce the strongest disciples? Since talent is hereditary, anyone from a strong family would have an advantage over others, as long as they apply themselves. That's why the major sects have been run by the same clans for generations...

[This really was a confusing way to go about it. Perhaps Airplane Bro wasn't the worst cultivation novelist, because this world was probably even more backwards than his!]

Blood does not necessarily mean the base potential or affinity is there. Also, who has time to raise children and have families? When the entire point of cultivating is to be immortal and potentially ascend?

Sect Leader--

[ But Mo Xuanyu catches himself just in time. If this person doesn't know about Sect Leader Jin's reputation, about his tendency to wander from woman to woman, leaving children that he forgets more often than not... about the fact that only a single son is favored above the rest, because only he came from two cultivators and thus has more strength than the rest of them...

It's not for Mo Xuanyu to reveal.

Even if he would like to talk to this person, who has no connection to anyone in the Lanling Jin Sect, about his problems... his problems are too tied to the sect itself.

He bites his bottom lip for a moment, his gaze falling to his own lap. ]

But... are you not raising your disciples? You called them your family. What is the difference to you, between blood and non-blood relations?

[He has to think about it a moment. Traditionally there was no difference. A sect was a family, which was why everyone was referred to as brother or sister. But it wasn't anything he had ever thought too much about. That was just... how it was. It was a given. Sects would be bound together like a family, those who weren't would fall apart, and it was usually caused by one shady individual, and that individual was probably the villain and would die.]

Well... yes....

[And how would he raise a family and disciples!?]

But I am also a teacher. It would be hard to raise a baby in that sort of environment. A disciple ideally will come when they are around twelve to start cultivating. When you become a disciple you sort of say goodbye to your blood relatives. Though it is common to still get benefits from your family, and your family will give gifts to the sect for taking you in. Since... it is prestigious to be able to become a cultivator.

But, since you are on the path to immortality, eventually you will have to say goodbye.

[Or something.]

So... it really is about them being children? It wouldn't be strange, then, for a cultivator who has a child to leave that child, and only come back for hi--for them, when they come of age to train?

I feel as if a cultivator who has a child will probably put things on hold, retire, or not be part of a sect.

[He really wasn't sure. Of course there were stories where cultivators had children and they too were raised among the disciples, or the stories of a couple breaking off on their own. But... raising families weren't exactly part of the fantasy.]

But, I suppose if someone had a child within a section then that child would also be a child of the sect. It's not as if we are celibate so... I suppose potential children is always a possible outcome. And, there are no rules you can't get married....

[ At the first statement, Mo Xuanyu stares at Shen Qingqiu as if he's grown two heads. The following sentences don't make things any better. ]

But what a-about... alliance marriages? And... and passing along leadership of the sect, and--

[ Just how far away is your sect that none of these things happen? It's like a completely different world! ]

Leadership of the sect will go to the sect leaders' head disciple. Alliances are... formed more with similar ideologies or debts. Most of the big sects act independently, relations are made more through trade and knowledge in what can be shared.

[Which was quite normal for cultivation stories. Sure you might have people who were once in one sect in another or other pasts where people were connected, but... it was far stranger to set up connections through blood as a primary source.]

I still don't... understand.

[ But his gaze falls to his own lap, his expression betraying that something about the conversation is weighing heavily on him.

If it were possible to structure sects such that they don't rely on clans to sustain them, why is that the way things are? Why do cultivators have children? Why are so many things decided for those children the moment they're born?

Why did Jin Guangshan father him, or any of his other children, at all? ]

... Do you not want children of your own?

[He was about to ask what was on the boys mind when he suddenly sputtered at the question. He quickly covered his face with his fan trying to regain composure and pretend he did not just do a spit take.

Don't ask him that! He was still young! And... well, he already had his disciples. They were already close enough to children.]

Ah... I've never really thought about it....

I don't really know any sisters...

And....

[This topic was too terrifying!]

... If you had a child, would you not want to take care of them?

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