The kids went to the side and started playing back the fight they just had, noting what they did right and what they did wrong and how they could have fought better, and a million other things, I imagine. Their excitement was palpable, but mine was a bit faded.
I was once again in need of new arts and, as every other time, they were perfectly vague and nonchalant in their requests. As I have the image of a sagacious master to maintain (I think?), I didn't inquire any further, but that meant the bulk of actually making the damn thing was left up to me.
Plus, with the new points limit of gracious 1,000, even my healthy reserves of points resting in tens of thousands aren't immune to being drained.
"Are you conferring with your coffers, Master?" Long Tao interrupted my thoughts with a cheeky smile, prompting me to sigh.
"What do you want?"
"... my heart," he said. "I feel like I'm close to lessening the curse."
"Oh. That's good." wait, did we ever directly talk about his heart being cursed? I... I don't think so?
"Not really," he shook his head. "Whoever cursed me at my birth, no doubt due to my extensive family," ah, there it is. "Also left behind an imprint. And, despite the extensive knowledge my family left behind for me, I do not know how to hide the curse being slowly cured."
"... so, if your condition becomes better, whoever cursed you at birth will immediately know?"
"Probably," he nodded. Right. That actually is a bitch. But there's a small caveat that is lost in our deluded discussions--whoever cursed him... knows he was reborn. So, there's at least one person somewhere out there that knows Long Tao is alive.
It's actually kind of a hint; anyone who truly loathed him and wanted him dead would have immediately come over and killed him once they realized he'd reincarnated. However, seeing as he was quite healthy (otherwise) and very much alive, it meant that whoever cursed him just wants him to suffer. And since it's a curse of heart...
"If they hated your family so much," I probed gently. "Why did they let you live?" the look in his eyes shifted a bit as he likely picked up on it, lips stretching out into a bitter smile.
"There are kinds of hate, Master," he said. "And from what little I was told, this wasn't the loathing sort."
Yup. Definitely some lover or such, no doubt. Just what the fuck did you do for her to curse you with something even you can't dispel? Sheesh.
"So, you do need an art."
"If there's anyone who has it, it's the Master's coffers, no doubt."
"... alright. I'll see about it. Now shoo. I was meditating."
"Of course."
Haah.
Troubles never cease.
But I actually have my doubts over this; if he knew this was a risk, he would not have practice the Heart-Stitching Art or Harmonized Heart Sutra to the extent that he did. So, it was likely that either he was just straight-up lying to me, or that he already had the means of keeping it at bay, as it were, but was perhaps looking to see if I had a more 'permanent' solution.
The issue is, though, that I don't even know where to begin with this. Despite having memorized a good chunk of the options in the creator's window, none are screaming at me as a solution to his problem.
... so, kick the can down the road. It's future me problem. A tested method dating back to the ancient peoples, and it has never, not once, come back to bite anyone in the ass.
Especially me.
Nope.
Anyway, circling back to the easiest: it's probably Xiu'er's. All she wants is an attacking art, and I can just build off of her momentum-building movement art. No, wait, she already does that passively; in a way, she was explicit about what she wanted: a powerful attack art. Even though, in my head at least, it doesn't quite suit her, who cares? She asked for it, and she'll get it.
I opened the creator's window and fiddled around for a bit; when it comes to offensive arts, their entire structure alters depending on the core few parameters. And considering Xiu'er's unique physique as well as her, uh, average comprehensive abilities, something relatively simple but explosive is probably the way to go.
There was something I had to be extremely careful of before my physique evolved: I couldn't create arts that would have the kids relying on me constantly being around to gain the passive Qi recovery rate. However, now that it was global, I could let loose and have every art use inordinate amount of Qi, since they'd recover it quickly enough.
Xiu'er is probably the best guinea pig--I mean test--I mean she's the perfect one to utilize an art created with a simple philosophy: blow everything up, no bars held. Or something like that.
As such, I made it simple, sticking to just two forms: ready and go, pretty much, and only upgrading up to the Standard logic cohesion. I didn't add any special kinds of Qi or energies, saving all my points for just a few places. For starters, I added minor infusion of Destruction Law, costing me a whopping 300 points. I wept, almost, as not too long ago that was the total amount I could have used.
I did want to add an infusion of some of the Origin Concepts, but even the cheapest was 800, so that wasn't gonna happen.
The next spending bulk came in the specific effects: I stacked as many as I could. There was a concept called 'Extended Melee' which should, in theory, allow her to extend the arch of her attacks by a few inches. I think. Probably.
Beyond that, I added all sorts of debuffs, as it were, to whoever took on the art: they'd be slowed, their Qi flow would be disrupted, their perception would be dampened, their energy would be drained, there'd be a great chance of lingering damage, and the property to tear through the Qi barriers and even physical armors. In total, all of it stacked up to 455 points, leaving me with just around 200 to finish off.
There wasn't much I could add, ironically, that would alter the art too much, but there was one particular Unique Property that fit just right, costing me 170 points.
'Proportional Output'.
Per its name, vague though it kind of was, it will allow her to expend Qi beyond the art's innate capacity to increase the sheer output of the strike. How much and how useful this will be? I've no idea. Honestly, I'm hoping that the next system upgrade comes with a mental simulator or something, where I can clearly see how these arts are played out before I commit to them.
Oh well.
A boy can dream.
I quickly clicked 'Create', excited to see what will come of it--haaah. Again. It's happened again.
[--Congratulations, Host, on creating an offensive art, 'World-Sundering Fist'][...][World-Sundering Fist][Type: Offensive Art][Rank: peak-Myth][Host Comprehension: Minor (Host should not use the art in question; it demands and extremely sturdy physique and a Qi output beyond Host's means)][...][Fist Arts, since the dawn of time, focused on precision and repeated blows to exercise utmost damage, occasionally shifting into the territory of one-kill strikes. As philosophies of fighting began to change and evolve over time, so did the approach toward all fighting schools, especially so Fist Arts; most of the practitioners were slowly funneled into defensive schools, where the priority was to endure and wear down the opponent. World-Sundering Fist, however, utterly rejects the approach and goes in a complete opposite direction. It is designed to force the martial artist to be on perpetual offensive, to strike repeatedly and strike fast, and to have nigh-inexhaustible amount of Qi to truly utilize the art to its utmost. However, if properly executed, its sheer force almost matches that of a sword. Though simple to learn and even execute, the major drawback is that it demands battle instincts beyond ordinary; an ability to quickly and precisely coalesce Qi at the point of impact in the heat of the battle is seldom found, especially paired with a physique that can sustain the expenditure of Qi required][...][Creation Points Value: 965/1,000][Comprehension Difficulty: Easy][...][Creation Bonus: Dragon-Scale Greaves (Legendary)]