Yan Xingqi's sword can only barely be called a sword, in the exact opposite way that Nie Huaisang's saber can only barely be called a saber.
It is, technically, a jian. It's double-edged and straight, at least, though the construction of the crossguard looks more Nie than it does Lotus Pier. It wouldn't surprise you if the Nie smiths had a hand in its making, though, because the weapon is to a scale with Baxia itself - narrower than Chifeng-zun's famous blade, but just a bit longer, and with a longer, heavier hilt than you're used to seeing on any blade, presumably to keep the balance in order.
Rather than carrying it the way that most cultivators do, Yan Xingqi keeps it belted at his hip, the scabbard attached to a leather harness that hangs from his belt which keeps it firmly in place. You can appreciate that; if you'd had one of those, perhaps you would have at least carried your sword even if you didn't draw it. You need both your hands free to play flute, after all.
Under the first layer of his outer robes, which are richly embroidered on the torso but practically bare on the sleeves, he wears a similar set of bracers to the kind you're so familiar with Jiang Cheng favoring. The key difference is that Jiang Cheng's are entirely to keep his sleeves in check in battle, so that they don't get tangled with Zidian. Yan Xingqi's bracers have metal plating across the back of the forearm, going as far up as you can see beneath his sleeves, and that metal isn't clean. It's scratched and nicked, the armor of it having seen its share of use. You'd bet the sleeves of the outer robe are plain so that they can be removed from the garment and easily replaced, rather than throwing the whole robe away.
Everything about it is utterly sensible, in a way that runs counter to so many of the traditions of the cultivation world. Such, you suppose, must be the leeway granted to a foreigner under the protection of one of the Great Sects. None of it is technically unorthodox, after all. There is no resentful energy involved in how one wears their sleeves or carries their sword.
None of the juniors seem to consider it remarkable, or at least no more remarkable than they do anything else about having Jiang Cheng's second in command appear basically out of nowhere to protect them. And when all is said and done, none of them even seem to find it surprising when Jin Ling asks if he needs a ride back to Lotus Pier.
While Yan Xingqi is heckling your nephew with an amused, "Think you're strong enough to carry a passenger, now?" you glance around panicked until you realize that Lan Zhan is already beside you to whisper to.
"He doesn't fly on the sword?" you ask as quietly as you can. No one seems to find this remarkable, so you assume that it is something Mo Xuanyu should already know, but you have to ask.
"He cannot," Lan Zhan replies. "It is not a part of his cultivation path. His sword is not even a spiritual weapon."
You look at the sword again, and then back at Lan Zhan. "It isn't?"
"His cultivation method, which is called the Seven Note Path in our tongue, cultivates the body directly," Lan Zhan replies. "It uses neither golden core nor spiritual tools, but instead strengthens the meridians directly."
"He doesn't have a golden core?" you hiss, and Lan Zhan responds with a simple, affirmative Mn.
That opens so many questions into your mind that you will have to sit down later and put them in order, but the thought that cuts you to the quick is So Jiang Cheng is doomed to have a second with no golden core, huh?
And so of all the questions that roar to the forefront of your mind, the one that leaves you mouth is, "Can it be taught?"
"Mn," Lan Zhan replies, but then crushes your hopes by elaborating, "but he will not teach it outside the Jiang, and one must start very young, younger than any other cultivation method. And there is some other requirement, but what method is used to determine one's ability is a secret of the cultivation path in itself."
You weather your disappointment with a smile, and say, "So he's really something special then. I'm glad. Yumeng lost so much to the Wen that I don't think we could ever replace all of it."
And you mean it, truly you do. But you get the feeling that Lan Zhan can see right through you, because his only response is a shorter, more cut-off, "Mn."
more wwx part
It is, technically, a jian. It's double-edged and straight, at least, though the construction of the crossguard looks more Nie than it does Lotus Pier. It wouldn't surprise you if the Nie smiths had a hand in its making, though, because the weapon is to a scale with Baxia itself - narrower than Chifeng-zun's famous blade, but just a bit longer, and with a longer, heavier hilt than you're used to seeing on any blade, presumably to keep the balance in order.
Rather than carrying it the way that most cultivators do, Yan Xingqi keeps it belted at his hip, the scabbard attached to a leather harness that hangs from his belt which keeps it firmly in place. You can appreciate that; if you'd had one of those, perhaps you would have at least carried your sword even if you didn't draw it. You need both your hands free to play flute, after all.
Under the first layer of his outer robes, which are richly embroidered on the torso but practically bare on the sleeves, he wears a similar set of bracers to the kind you're so familiar with Jiang Cheng favoring. The key difference is that Jiang Cheng's are entirely to keep his sleeves in check in battle, so that they don't get tangled with Zidian. Yan Xingqi's bracers have metal plating across the back of the forearm, going as far up as you can see beneath his sleeves, and that metal isn't clean. It's scratched and nicked, the armor of it having seen its share of use. You'd bet the sleeves of the outer robe are plain so that they can be removed from the garment and easily replaced, rather than throwing the whole robe away.
Everything about it is utterly sensible, in a way that runs counter to so many of the traditions of the cultivation world. Such, you suppose, must be the leeway granted to a foreigner under the protection of one of the Great Sects. None of it is technically unorthodox, after all. There is no resentful energy involved in how one wears their sleeves or carries their sword.
None of the juniors seem to consider it remarkable, or at least no more remarkable than they do anything else about having Jiang Cheng's second in command appear basically out of nowhere to protect them. And when all is said and done, none of them even seem to find it surprising when Jin Ling asks if he needs a ride back to Lotus Pier.
While Yan Xingqi is heckling your nephew with an amused, "Think you're strong enough to carry a passenger, now?" you glance around panicked until you realize that Lan Zhan is already beside you to whisper to.
"He doesn't fly on the sword?" you ask as quietly as you can. No one seems to find this remarkable, so you assume that it is something Mo Xuanyu should already know, but you have to ask.
"He cannot," Lan Zhan replies. "It is not a part of his cultivation path. His sword is not even a spiritual weapon."
You look at the sword again, and then back at Lan Zhan. "It isn't?"
"His cultivation method, which is called the Seven Note Path in our tongue, cultivates the body directly," Lan Zhan replies. "It uses neither golden core nor spiritual tools, but instead strengthens the meridians directly."
"He doesn't have a golden core?" you hiss, and Lan Zhan responds with a simple, affirmative Mn.
That opens so many questions into your mind that you will have to sit down later and put them in order, but the thought that cuts you to the quick is So Jiang Cheng is doomed to have a second with no golden core, huh?
And so of all the questions that roar to the forefront of your mind, the one that leaves you mouth is, "Can it be taught?"
"Mn," Lan Zhan replies, but then crushes your hopes by elaborating, "but he will not teach it outside the Jiang, and one must start very young, younger than any other cultivation method. And there is some other requirement, but what method is used to determine one's ability is a secret of the cultivation path in itself."
You weather your disappointment with a smile, and say, "So he's really something special then. I'm glad. Yumeng lost so much to the Wen that I don't think we could ever replace all of it."
And you mean it, truly you do. But you get the feeling that Lan Zhan can see right through you, because his only response is a shorter, more cut-off, "Mn."