Ave Xia Rem Y Q&A 3 (Patreon)

Took some time, didn’t it? There is still another Q&A left to go, but I figured I’ll start with these questions.

There is one question here that could be considered a spoiler for the people reading the regular release, but as soon as that chapter is posted, I’ll unlock it for everyone like I said I would in a previous note.

Q1: How many people from the end of the great war have been able to step into the Divine Realms? Also, how far along was Old Jiang on the Divine Realms before he got diminished back to the Emperor Realm? Was he further along than Patriarch Feng or the NHSG?

A: If someone survived the war and is still alive today, chances are they are in the Divine Realms. At his peak, Old Jiang was stronger than Patriarch Feng. A fight between NHSG and Old Jiang at their respective peaks would be a good one.

Q2: At what level of cultivation does the storm dragon family unlock the purple lightning? Is it like the Eternal Flame where it starts to manifest in the spirit realm or something like that?

It depends on the person, their affinity towards lightning, and general talent. To use Purple Lightning, a member of the royal family must first have fully mastered lightning. Liu Jin became able to use Blue Lightning after gaining the power of the Spirit Realm, but if he had learned how to use lightning earlier in life, he wouldn’t have needed it.

Q3: Who is the most powerful person we’ve met so far? (Not counting beings like the Storm Dragon and the Nine-Headed Snake God)

Technically, Old Jiang, but we never got to see him at full power. If we remove him from consideration, then the Divine Frozen Palace’s Great Mother.

Q4: Is it possible to obtain two Inheritances?

A: Yes.

Q5: Can we know if the heads of the four sects of the CCE are all in the Divine Realms?

Yes, the heads of the Four Great Sects are all in the Divine Realms, though this is a relatively “recent” development.

Q6: I want to know more about soul fragments. Xiao Nan seemed like he needed to absorb his soul bird to learn its gathered intel. Liu Jin’s snake seemed more intelligent. Was it born with all of Liu Jin’s knowledge? Or was the soul snake and Liu Jin more actively and deeply connected at the time? Is it because cultivators make their soul fragments simple and dumb on purpose? Maybe it’s a security risk? Are the ice constructs used by the Five Fairies’ soul fragments? What about Elder Xue’s butterflies?

A: Okay, let’s see if I can cover it all.

When Liu Jin is first experimenting with soul fragments, you can see he seems to develop some sort of double consciousness. He sees himself looking at himself. When he created the snake fragment, his mind was essentially in two places at once.

This is not ideal. In fact, it is a huge mental burden. A big part of learning how to properly use soul fragments is removing this connection. That’s how you get stuff like Xiao Nan’s bird. It is less intelligent than Liu Jin’s snake, but he can freely use it without any strain. That is why Xiao Nan could do things like leave several soul fragments lying around and forget about them until he needed them.

Some are. And some aren’t. Elder Xue’s butterflies are soul fragments.

Q7: The ghost that took over Su An, is that considered an Inheritance? If so, why aren’t there more Shades trying to live another life?

Daji is something different from an Inheritance.

People who are powerful enough to leave an Inheritance behind are really hard to kill, so when something does actually kill them, leaving an Inheritance is essentially the last thing they can do. It is not them. It is an echo of them.

Daji is not an echo. Daji is just very hard to kill and simply refuses to die. She’s very adept at not dying.

Q8: I imagine this will be explored in future chapters too, but I’m curious just what a Dao is in this story specifically and how finding out your Dao can change a person?

Also, we’ve already seen two people with a Dao that is considered extremely dangerous. What I’m curious about is how can others know your Dao, let alone know it before you’ve figured it out yourself?

Another thing I was curious about is how the Storm Dragon Empire differs from the Crimson Cloud Empire (and how did it get that name?). In the SDE there’s a severely weakened royal family and three warlords vying for power, yet in the CCE the royal family is instead competing for power with 4 premier sects. Why are there no prominent sects in the SDE?

A: Imagine a person who always has his friends telling him, “You’d be a great X.”

And that person will always go, “No, I don’t want to be X. I’m still not sure what to do with my life.” Until one day, many years later, he’s sitting in his room and goes, “Shit, I do want to be X.”

Figuring out someone’s Dao before they do is kind of like that, only with more metaphysical stuff involved. To know your Dao is to know yourself. It just so happens there are people who can notice things about you that you may not have noticed yet.

A Dao is, to quote Meng Yue, “the truest expression of yourself.” The power stems from who you are. However, the more you tap into it, the more you sharpen that aspect of yourself.

Again, to use another mundane example, it’s one thing to notice you’ve got a knack for fighting when you’re a kid. It’s another to start taking boxing lessons, getting your boxing license, and begin to make a living out of professional boxing. When you reach into your Dao, you’re grabbing a piece of yourself and allowing it to be more and to make you more. It’s a double-edged sword in many cases.

Not everyone has the Dao of cookies and crumpets.

The Storm Dragon Empire always had a more militaristic culture than the Crimson Cloud Empire. The existence of the Storm Dragon allowed the royal family to flex its muscles several times throughout its history.

That’s not to say there weren’t powerful factions. It’s just that even if there were people who could rival the Emperor’s power, there was no one who could rival the Storm Dragon in its area of influence. That was the glue that allowed the royal family to unite everything under them.

But then the whole thing with Liu Jianguo happened. There are no prominent sects in the Storm Dragon Empire because Liu Jianguo wiped them out. They’re either gone or a shell of their former selves. The Three Heavenly Generals are people who rose to power after Liu Jianguo left and united the many broken factions under them.

Q9: When are we going to meet Amanda's not-boyfriend? The one teased in the prologue.

Oh! A Nine-to-Five question!

Probably the arc after the current one. I know how I want them to meet. It’s just a matter of lining up the details.