Q&A 11 (Patreon)

I said 12 questions, but I accidentally ended up answering one more, so you get 13.

1) How valuable are gifts compared to Dao? Can a certain amount make a cultivator able to overcome a stronger Dao, or are they just useless for high level cultivators?

The answer is that it depends, but also, Dao almost always wins out in the end. 

At lower levels, things like Inheritances are stronger. Put a user of the Eternal Flame against someone who just started tapping into his Dao, and the Eternal Flame wins out every time. But give that person more practice with their Dao, and then things begin to change. 

Other things never really become useless, but your Dao always has the highest growth potential of all your weapons, because it’s you. It scales with you. Fire from the Heavens is cool, but you’re supposed to overcome the Heavens, so get grinding. 

2) If a Divinity kills another Divinity, are they also able to destroy the other Divinity’s shadow? If so, is it common for them to do so?

It is possible, but it is difficult. And also, extremely rude. The thing about Shadows is that they don’t instantly materialize upon death. It takes some time for them to form, so if you want to destroy the Shadow, you have to wait.

Essentially, you have to spawn camp them.

And sure, you could do that, but what sort of petty asshole does that?

It happens more than it should is what I’m saying. The war between humans and demons just happened to create circumstances where that just wasn’t possible because of how much was going on. 

3) How strong is the average sect elder or sect master? We see the Four Great Sects with multiple Emperors and their respective Divinities, but we haven't really seen what a normal or decently strong sect looks like apart from the Sect that Lu Mei is from, but most sects don't have an Emperor at all, right?

Right. There are only around a hundred Emperors in the Crimson Cloud Empire, and the Four Great Sects control about half. That means only about fifty other Sects in the CCE have Emperors at all. 

A Top 50 Sect is going to have a leader in the Emperor Realm and Elders in the Heaven Realm, possibly in the Ninth Level of the Heaven Realm. Maybe they have a Renegade they don’t talk about that’s totally someday going to become an Emperor. Any day now. For sure.

If you go below that, Sect Leaders are going to be Heaven Realm, Level Nine people, or (occasionally) Renegades. The latter is not normal, but it does happen, which was the case with the Yun Sect. As an aside, when your leadership is only in the Heaven Realm, it’s easier for there to be friction between the Elders and the Sect Master because the Elders are likely also going to be in the Heaven Realm. Without the absolute power disparity of the Emperor Realm, leadership becomes more…fluid.

4) For the branches of large sects, how are they compared to their main branch? Like we saw that the standards for core disciples of the Xiao Sect in New Moon Town were barely above the Outer Disciples in Eastern Port City, so how do the Great Sects’ branches measure up to their main branches?

It depends on the location. You know how some supermarkets have fancier items in nicer neighborhoods even if they are the same chain? It’s like that. The better the place, the more effort you put in.

Imperial Cloud City is important, so the four main Sects try to have at least one Emperor there at all times. The level of the disciples there is similar to the main branch, though the disciples will be a little older. Some of them are disciples who have essentially “retired” to the capital.

Now, if we are talking about less important places, then you are not going to see an Emperor. You’ll have a Branch Master in the Heaven Realm, Elders in the low Heaven Realm and even Earth Realm, Core Disciples in the Spirit Realm, and so on. They’ll be strong relative to the place where they are, but no more than that. This can create some interesting situations where you can have a Top Sect in the area with an Emperor as its leader and a branch master of the Four Great Sects that’s only in the Heaven Realm because they couldn’t spare an Emperor for that location. It creates interesting dynamics. 

As an aside, Eternal Flame Clan branch masters are almost always Fengs, Chens for the Infinite Mountain Sect, and Ruans and Dings for the Endlessly Raging Valley. 

The Divine Frozen Palace doesn’t have a ruling family in the same way, and also, they really don’t have many branches. Like, you can count them on one hand. The bulk of their members are spread over the One Hundred Frozen Peaks.

5) What does the Death Fashioning Scripture do with the core of the humans they use for their creatures? Do they still follow the taboo despite being willing to use the rest of the body?

The Death Fashioning Scripture are good and honorable people who absolutely wouldn’t turn people into pills, and how dare you assume otherwise! What? You think just because they get into the habit of seeing people as potential corpses for their arts, they would dehumanize their fellow humans enough that they would take the most valuable part of their being and eat it?

Rude.

6) Would Murong Bang have followed Jin in a way similar to Nie Dan had he not been killed? What would those interactions have been like between the 3 of them, and would his character have been changed at all?

While not impossible, this would have been very improbable. Murong Bang is essentially a wild animal, and Liu Jin would have had to get some very high charisma rolls to make it work. Not just to get Murong Bang to agree, but also to get literally everyone else to accept it.

It would have caused Murong Bang to change, gradually, but he’d still be Murong Bang at his core. Liu Jin would pretty much have to use him as an attack dog. As for their interactions:

Liu Jin: Poses a problem.

Nie Dan: Suggests smart, rational action.

Murong Bang: Suggests war crimes. Gets sulky when war crimes are not chosen. Keeps suggesting war crimes. Eventually, war crimes will be the answer, and he will use this as justification to keep suggesting war crimes. 

7) Are there any Emperors from the four great sects who could have been friends with Black Dragon-era Jianguo had they met? What did the sects think of his actions in the SDE?

They didn't really have time to form much of an opinion because the events happened extremely quickly from a cultivator standpoint. First, the Emperor and Empress die. Within a year, the middle child is declared the culprit and runs away. Decades later, weird shit starts happening in the Storm Dragon Empire: skirmishes that turn into full-blown conflicts for no good reason, people dying to “sickness”, and a weirdly efficient group of mercenaries.

This lasts for like another decade, but again, that’s not long by cultivator standards. Then finally, Liu Jianguo takes over, and people do notice, but it’s happening in another country. Also, they don’t get time to make up their minds. Liu Jianguo’s reign does not end up being that long. A couple of years at best. However, a lot of that first year is spent executing people, so that makes an impression.

Now, the Black Dragon was not really a friends guy. He had fanatically devoted followers, enemies, and not a lot of room in between. I think Feng Gui would be willing to entertain the notion, but only outwardly.

By the way, since I vaguely remember this being talked about before, yes, the above means that Liu Jianguo was several decades older than Liu Jin’s mom, who was in her early twenties. But he looked hot and young, so it never really mattered much.

8) Do you have any scenes in mind for the story that you want to write in, but feel you've missed the opportunity for or otherwise can't include, and if yes, which is your favorite?

There are a few. Whole arcs, even. For example, Liu Jin was supposed to visit the Five Blessings Group and meet the five ruling clans. A few would have tried to kill him because he was boosting Song Daiyu far too much. It would have been a whole thing, but I didn’t have time for it.   

9) How much of the current lore and plot developments have been planned out since the start of the story?  And which ones, if any, were fairly spontaneous?

Most of the big plot points and arcs were largely planned from the start. It’s the small things that are spontaneous. For example, Fan Bingbing and Pan Qiu are characters that did not really exist in the outline stage and just popped into the chapter when I needed them. I liked using them, so they kept coming back.

10) Is there any character(s) that you were disappointed in how much impact they had on the story? Too much or too little, not particular, just curious on intent and outcome.

I am not sure if disappointed is the word, but there are characters I had plans for that just ended up not working out. For example, Xiao Heng from the New Moon Town arc was supposed to have a bigger role upon returning to the plot. Same for the students of the Seven Leaves School. However, the Crimson Cloud Tournament was already so full that I couldn’t work them in.

Also, Huang Shing was originally supposed to become a villain. Yeah. It was supposed to be a switcheroo. Lu Mei and Bei Hong start out being antagonistic but become allies, while Huang Shing starts as an ally but becomes a villain as his issues grow.

But friendship won out in that one.

11) How long since the Eternal Flame separated?

I’m going to fuse a couple of your questions on this one. The Eternal Flame separated from the Crimson Cloud roughly four thousand years ago during the war between humans and demons. The Eternal Flame is then going to be found by a guy a few years after the barrier has gone up. He’s going to be our First Feng, and he eventually forms what will be known as the Eternal Flame Clan.

The Crimson Cloud is found around the same time, but is far more useless until Old Jiang and his master deliver Granny Zhao to the first Xiang. She acts as an interpreter for the Cloud, and the two make a city, which will become Imperial Cloud City, and the Crimson Cloud Empire grows from there.

As this happens, the Eternal Flame Clan continues growing, going through many generations and eventually giving us Feng Gui and Feng Shang roughly seven hundred to five hundred years ago. I haven’t made up my mind on this fully, but I like seven more than five.

The Eternal Flame Clan does not enter a period of civil war with their birth. It takes time—centuries—for that to happen, because there are checks and balances to them. Even when they become Emperors, there are still Elders stronger than them. People are taking sides, but at this point, it’s still a “friendly” competition. Like a handshake that goes too long because you’re trying really hard to squeeze the other guy’s hand.

Things start becoming serious when they both become stronger than everyone, and Patriarch Feng takes a step back to focus on being a divinity. Put this roughly a hundred years ago. But then things really heat up when they start having kids, which adds another layer to the competition.

Feng Shang really did wait until he was centuries old to start having kids. Feng Gui did not. He has several illegitimate children, some of which are centuries old. Some already died of old age and had kids of their own. For the purposes of the story, they don’t really matter because they are not strong enough to meet his approval, but they lead generally good lives in Sects subordinate to the Eternal Flame Clan.

12) If one was to be reincarnated in the world of AXRY, which major sect would be the best pick to grow into a proper strong cultivator?

Of the Four Great Sects, the Infinite Mountain Sect.

The Eternal Flame Clan is very successful in raising strong cultivators, but it is also very dangerous. They like things that go boom, not just physically but personality-wise. You’re very likely to meet dangerous people there.

The Endlessly Raging Valley is an eternal pissing contest between Ruans and Dings.  The Divine Frozen Palace is chill, but their narrow focus means some talents cannot flourish there.

That said, the real easy mode would be to be reborn as one of Feng Gui’s bastards before the main events of the story happen.

13) As you work on the book version of the story, are you considering any changes to the plot? 

​As of now, the only changes are things that I think people won’t notice unless they have both versions side by side. Words not said in a few scenes that maybe change the meaning slightly due to their absence. Or places where extra things are said to clear things up.

There is one event I change the timing of, but I’m still not sold on it. I have to be careful when it comes to changes. Even small changes can snowball into big ones, so I have to consider them carefully.

The main focus of the book right now is largely trying to phrase things better. I’ll go over the comments and see what people got from a scene and what they didn’t, and try to work on improving that.