The Dao That Can Be Taught (A Xianxia Teacher Quest)

Welcome to “The Dao That Can Be Taught,” a xianxia quest where you're not the once-in-an-era destined protag the universe has heaped cheats upon. So if you want that, probably should look elsewhere, sorry.

So if it isn't that, what is this? Basically, it's a Xianxia Teacher Quest, where you are a cultivator whose focus is on taking in and training disciples, and who isn't starting at the very beginning of the journey to immortality, but somewhere in the middle of it.

The reasons why you're a teacher will be explained later through character creation, but suffice to say you'll grow in strength largely by being a good teacher. Think stuff like History's Number 1 Founder or Library of Heaven's Path, only with the above caveat that you aren't going to be face-slapping old monsters several levels ahead of you inside a hundred chapters. Basically, you're not the protagonist who plows through the cultivation world like a bull in a china shop, though this quest may end with you being that guy's teacher depending on how things go, which I'm sure can only go very well for you.

But I'm losing the thread again. Basically, come into this expecting more focus on stuff like character interactions and relationships, exploring the world and the various factions and cultures and kinds of cultivation, the complex politics of cultivator society, etc. Not that there won't be plenty of fighting and training and leveling up by finding and ingesting weird things lying around in dusty tombs, just don't expect the plot to revolve around it most of the time.

So if any of that has your interest, welcome once again!

 

Name: Zhou Yi (周異 Zhōu Yì), nicknamed "Long-Armed Ape"
Stats: Comprehension 10, Constitution 6, Resolve 8, Fortune 6

Spoiler: Four Pillars of Yi

Dragon's Gate Sect
A Daoist sect that places a higher emphasis on celibacy and ritual purity than most Daoist sects, and is most well-known for its extensive rituals of purification and cleansing; these rites are, in fact, spells and spell arrays that are intended to repel and separate impure/unclean influences of all kinds, thus allowing the members of this sect to better purify and strengthen their qi.

Heaven's Rain School
The premier school of Yi in terms of conventional (i.e. Confucian) scholarship, the teachings of the Heaven's Rain School comprise the orthodoxy of the local scholar-gentry from which government officials are usually drawn from, and thus their impact on the political and legal theories dominant in Yi can hardly be questioned. Despite that, like the other Pillars they hold themselves aloof from the affairs of the world, and don't seek to direct influence affairs of state or of lesser sects.

Three Teachings Sword School
A school that teaches swordsmanship as an extension of philosophy. Specifically, it teaches three separate forms of swordsmanship whose core principles and techniques are drawn from the writings of three philosophers of ancient times (Zou Yan, Gao You, and Yang Zhu). These three philosophical teachings and their derived forms of swordsmanship are considered complementary to each other; students begin by learning one foundational form and expand their horizons by slowly incorporating elements of the other two as their understanding increases.

White Lotus Sect
The local branch of a foreign religion from the far west, known in Xia lands as the Ming Jiao (明教 Míng Jiào “religion of light”). The religion was founded shortly after the breakup of Eternal Xia (a time of chaos and upheaval throughout the world), and missionaries first arrived in the kingdom of Yi about a hundred years ago. Suspicion of this foreign religion soon led to persecution, but the foreign missionaries organized their followers and made a show of strength sufficient to convince the major powers involved to not press the issue and accept the new religion as a sanctioned faith, barring a few stipulations, leading to the founding of the White Lotus Sect.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of the sect's method of cultivation is that they manifest a kind of spiritual “double” or “twin” that they claim to be the manifestation of their “Inner Light.” This seems to outsiders to bear some resemblance to the shamanistic practices of summoning and binding spirits practiced by certain barbarian peoples, which is just another reason many are suspicious of them.

Spoiler: Twelve Major Sects of Yi

Black Cat Brotherhood
The only association among the Twelve Major Sects in Yi, the Black Cat Brotherhood are regarded by many as a powerful and dangerous band of criminals, operating as a loose network of thieves and smugglers. In their own estimation, however, they are a brotherhood of like-minded xia who bring justice to the dark corners of Yi by punishing the wicked and corrupt for the good of the people. Either way, the organization's leading figures are considered unmatched in stealth and quickness.

Clear Wind Sect
A sect that specializes in techniques drawing on the (Material) Element of Wind. They are most renowned for their skills in unarmed combat, which focus on developing incredible speed and momentum to impart great power into strikes (primarily kicks). And, if all else fails, their rivals say, nobody is as swift at running away!

Eight Virtues School
A school of body cultivation. The name is derived from their foundational body cultivation method, which itself is named after the eight key virtues of Confucianism. Fittingly for the scholarly character of Yi, the Eight Virtues School takes as one of its core principles that “a sound mind resides in a sound body,” and seeks to develop the mind and moral character of its students at the same time it develops their muscles.

Hundred Herbs School
The premier school of alchemy and medicine in Yi. As might be imagined, the services of those trained here are in high demand, and convincing one to serve as a personal physician is a sign of prestige among the rich and powerful. The royal family's medical staff are comprised almost entirely of doctors and alchemists trained at this school.

Peach Blossom Sword Sect
A sect based out of a great complex at the peak of Peach Blossom Mountain, this sect was founded by a disciple of the distant and powerful Nine Flower Sword Sect, which in the distant past was one of the most powerful sects in all of Eternal Xia. Its namesake Peach Blossom Sword Scripture, though incomplete, is nonetheless regarded as one of the three greatest sword styles in all of Yi.

River Snake Clan
Three major rivers run through the lands of Yi, along with many smaller tributaries, streams, and lakes (including the famous Lake Jiao, home of the “Three Silver Treasures”). These waterways are the linchpin of the kingdom's food and economy. The River Snake Clan began as an association of assorted fishers, boatmen, dockworkers, etc. that became dominated by an extended family who purportedly developed secret cultivation techniques derived from their experiences and observations regarding the waterways of Yi. Now, the River Snake Clan is a major economic powerhouse in Yi as well as a powerful clan of cultivators. They don't outright control the rivers and lakes of Yi and the flow of goods and services through it, but their power in that sphere can hardly be denied.

Seven Star Sword School
Named after the seven stars of the Big Dipper constellation [traditionally known in China as the “Right Wall” of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure], teaches a signature style of swordsmanship in seven forms derived from astrological principles of divination. This creates a style of swordsmanship that's very hard to read unless one has trained in it themselves.

Southern Immortal Star School
A school of body cultivation. Its founder claimed to have learned his methods from an immortal who descended from the stars onto a mountaintop. Whatever the truth of this claim, the body cultivation methods of this school incorporate a mix of strict dietary and sexual practices alongside meditative exercises, all with the goal of cultivating an energy called “Immortal Star Qi” that one builds within the body to enhance one's vital energy and lifespan, which can also, if the need is critical, be “ignited” for short bursts of incredible power at the cost of dire consequences to one's body and longevity.

Spring and Autumn Scripture School
One of the premier schools of divination in Yi. The Spring and Autumn Scripture School specializes in consulting the distant past to divine the future; the school's complex is also a vast repository of ancient data on the movements of Heaven and Earth, which are consulted and correlated to try to determine the path of the future.

Thunderbird Clan
This is the hereditary ruling clan of the Yangyu Tribe, a small, semi-autonomous vassal state in the southeastern part of the kingdom of Yi. The Yu people once reigned over much of the southeast until Eternal Xia expanded into the area, after which they survived only in scattered, isolated enclaves in the mountains and hills. The fall of Eternal Xia and its breakup into many warring kingdoms has allowed some groups, like the Yangyu under the leadership of the Thunderbird Clan, to begin to regain some measure of autonomy and prominence.

The Yu people are divided into totemic clans that revere great beasts as ancestors. Clans descended from birds (or rather, “feathered beasts”) comprise a caste of chieftains and priests, and the Thunderbird Clan are by far the most prestigious and powerful among the Yangyu (and the Yu in general), hence their preeminence and status as one of the Two Major Clans of Yi. Their descent from the legendary Thunderbird is evidenced by their hereditary affinity for Lightning, one of the rarest of the Eight (Material) Elements due to the unique dangers of channeling its power.

Twin Dragon Sect
A secretive and mysterious sect of geomancers; even information as minor as the reason for their name is unknown.

Water Mirror School
One of the premier schools of divination in Yi. The Water Mirror School specializes in more “immediate” forms of divination, seeking to determine the characteristics of the present rather than the past or the future. Their students are especially renowned as unsurpassed judges of character and evaluators of truth