Path of martial arts: leaked sneak peaks, and discussing thread

[Gone_Dead]

I think spending that much Qi for a middle grade art as MC having constraints on time, skill and efficiency of using the GS, tbh its impressive to create a middle grade art in one day and also that it might take the next update or even multiple updates to actually see the consequence.

 

[Lazigami]

I wish the author would scrap the dream power-up bs. Instead, make Wu Heir slowly remember the location of those Qi manuals that TW mentioned, setting up some missions, let’s us actively earn our damn power for a change.

 

[Gone_Dead]

I wish the author would scrap the dream power-up bs. Instead, make Wu Heir slowly remember the location of those Qi manuals that TW mentioned, setting up some missions, let’s us actively earn our damn power for a change.

Dream memories are way easier to write. If Niki was to write missions for every power up, then it would need to be fleshed out and very unique to each other. I imagine it would be too much work for him. Im ambivalent about the dreams tho. On one hand im wondering how MC got Qi from the cultivation dream with the Blood King, MC dreams of TW cultivating millions of years ago and reaps its benefits when he wakes up? doesnt make sense but a power up is a power up. Instead, i wish MC dreams consist more of lore exposition. Like we dream of LB and TW and use it against her to manipulate her, dreams can be used to increase the knowledge of MC instead of it being all powerups. Imagine gaining all the knowledge of a dead god that we just spawn another Qilin.

 

[sevyrex]

It doesn't matter how many power ups we got when the fight scene still ends up with you getting ragdolled until QI EXPLOSION appears and barely won you the fight.

 

[justindeed]

Qi Explosion/Die is the post-expedition version of the freaking wolf beating Wu Heir it seems.

Dream memories are way easier to write. If Niki was to write missions for every power up, then it would need to be fleshed out and very unique to each other. I imagine it would be too much work for him. Im ambivalent about the dreams tho. On one hand im wondering how MC got Qi from the cultivation dream with the Blood King, MC dreams of TW cultivating millions of years ago and reaps its benefits when he wakes up? doesnt make sense but a power up is a power up. Instead, i wish MC dreams consist more of lore exposition. Like we dream of LB and TW and use it against her to manipulate her, dreams can be used to increase the knowledge of MC instead of it being all powerups. Imagine gaining all the knowledge of a dead god that we just spawn another Qilin.

Does anyone remember how Qilin and Sages actually work? Can there even be multiple sages and qilin around? Seems to me like OS is the only one, or that there might be only one such guy per world at any rate.

 

[Gone_Dead]

Qi Explosion/Die is the post-expedition version of the freaking wolf beating Wu Heir it seems.

Does anyone remember how Qilin and Sages actually work? Can there even be multiple sages and qilin around? Seems to me like OS is the only one, or that there might be only one such guy per world at any rate.

From what i remember, Qilin just spawn in the world whenever a sage of unsurmountable knowledge is born. Idk if the sage being born is a figure of speech or literal, so i just assumed it to be a figure of speech since the OS only became who he was after finding the pond. As for multiple Qilin's, nothing is mentioned yet so we can assume either.

Speaking of the pond... Doesn't LB train us near a pond? Did OS drink LB's bathwater to gain knowledge?

 

[Sov]

From what i remember, Qilin just spawn in the world whenever a sage of unsurmountable knowledge is born. Idk if the sage being born is a figure of speech or literal, so i just assumed it to be a figure of speech since the OS only became who he was after finding the pond. As for multiple Qilin's, nothing is mentioned yet so we can assume either.

Speaking of the pond... Doesn't LB train us near a pond? Did OS drink LB's bathwater to gain knowledge?

There is a theory/meme that the golden pond is TW pis water lol

 

[Gone_Dead]

Okay i finally understand the purpose of our physique. It enables us to cultivate like a maniac. Like TW said, breathing is essentially cultivating for those with Chaos Origin Physique and our top tier meridians. It also gives unprecedented understanding of Dao. Every art we cast doesnt require concentration but a thought and only Qi, even that in spare amounts compared to other cultivators. TW's GS is of transcendent level meaning all of our arts are of the highest level with respect to our cultivation stage. Currently as a PH, our arts must be the strongest there is most probably even above Ruo's mastery over sword art (He even says so in the pov). Idk if half dao seed counts enough to contribute to his art, and if so i wonder what level it is.

Ruo also has the best karma and we have the worst since heavens hate our physique and the fact that we are essential TW. If i understand correctly, karma is basically heaven's opinion of you, and if their opinion is high, they help you and if low they scheme against you.

After finally reading again inculding the content i missed (didnt do demon route and mei yet cuz im lazy), the reason why Yichen was so powerful was cuz he formed his own dao seed. Im sure fire element is his dao path. He formed his dao seed after he reached 1000. Apparently it takes 5000 years for good cultivators to sprout a dao seed. LB says he's not aware of it but i doubt it. He did talk with TW long back, maybe he helped him form it, no way he formed it on his own. So based on this, My hypothesis that prime BP MC with GS = TY is wrong since i forgot to consider we need Qi to actually use our GS effectively and we didnt even have dao back then. So yeah niki was right, BP MC with or without GS loses against TY. I dont even know how MC got dao seed without any dao path during the expedition. Im sure its the differentiating factor, dao with GS means easy top level arts but prone to exhaustion quickly due to having no qi. Maybe im wrong about all this but it made sense to me.

So im going to say something shocking now, After reading again i dont really find problems with the powerscaling. Niki is doing a fine job in regards to powering up MC but he has his faults tho. Fights are not creative enough, MC fights like a barbarian with 0 skill. And i still think Niki will adress this. MC does think to themself that they totally forgot about their IE arts after getting dao. Niki needs to flesh out the main characters more. Ruo is a perfect antithesis to Wu heir in some ways yet he barely touches on that. Both of their circumstances surrounding birth were vile and tragic. MC essentially killed the real Wu heir unknowingly, caused the death of their mother, and crippled their father. Ruo was sealed with more than 1000 dragon souls within him, his birth essentially contributed to the genocide of dragons and awakening of SLM. His aunt called him an abomination even before he was born while Wu heir's aunt was basically the opposite. Ruo's uncle is fun and loving while Wu heir's uncle is cold, distant and hateful. Wu heir was given freedom in their upbringing to be whatever type of person we wished but Ruo only had one path forced on him. It seems obvious that Niki intended to parallel MC and Ruo but he cant find the opportunity or maybe even forgot about how important the rival character is to MC.

Niki has clearly thought out MC as a character but kind of started to stumble in certain places after the expedition. Lets hope he got back his footing and writes peak.

 

[O1O]

Okay i finally understand the purpose of our physique. It enables us to cultivate like a maniac. Like TW said, breathing is essentially cultivating for those with Chaos Origin Physique and our top tier meridians. It also gives unprecedented understanding of Dao. Every art we cast doesnt require concentration but a thought and only Qi, even that in spare amounts compared to other cultivators. TW's GS is of transcendent level meaning all of our arts are of the highest level with respect to our cultivation stage. Currently as a PH, our arts must be the strongest there is most probably even above Ruo's mastery over sword art (He even says so in the pov). Idk if half dao seed counts enough to contribute to his art, and if so i wonder what level it is.

Ruo also has the best karma and we have the worst since heavens hate our physique and the fact that we are essential TW. If i understand correctly, karma is basically heaven's opinion of you, and if their opinion is high, they help you and if low they scheme against you.

After finally reading again inculding the content i missed (didnt do demon route and mei yet cuz im lazy), the reason why Yichen was so powerful was cuz he formed his own dao seed. Im sure fire element is his dao path. He formed his dao seed after he reached 1000. Apparently it takes 5000 years for good cultivators to sprout a dao seed. LB says he's not aware of it but i doubt it. He did talk with TW long back, maybe he helped him form it, no way he formed it on his own. So based on this, My hypothesis that prime BP MC with GS = TY is wrong since i forgot to consider we need Qi to actually use our GS effectively and we didnt even have dao back then. So yeah niki was right, BP MC with or without GS loses against TY. I dont even know how MC got dao seed without any dao path during the expedition. Im sure its the differentiating factor, dao with GS means easy top level arts but prone to exhaustion quickly due to having no qi. Maybe im wrong about all this but it made sense to me.

So im going to say something shocking now, After reading again i dont really find problems with the powerscaling. Niki is doing a fine job in regards to powering up MC but he has his faults tho. Fights are not creative enough, MC fights like a barbarian with 0 skill. And i still think Niki will adress this. MC does think to themself that they totally forgot about their IE arts after getting dao. Niki needs to flesh out the main characters more. Ruo is a perfect antithesis to Wu heir in some ways yet he barely touches on that. Both of their circumstances surrounding birth were vile and tragic. MC essentially killed the real Wu heir unknowingly, caused the death of their mother, and crippled their father. Ruo was sealed with more than 1000 dragon souls within him, his birth essentially contributed to the genocide of dragons and awakening of SLM. His aunt called him an abomination even before he was born while Wu heir's aunt was basically the opposite. Ruo's uncle is fun and loving while Wu heir's uncle is cold, distant and hateful. Wu heir was given freedom in their upbringing to be whatever type of person we wished but Ruo only had one path forced on him. It seems obvious that Niki intended to parallel MC and Ruo but he cant find the opportunity or maybe even forgot about how important the rival character is to MC.

Niki has clearly thought out MC as a character but kind of started to stumble in certain places after the expedition. Lets hope he got back his footing and writes peak.

You're too reasonable

remember this!



But being seriously rn Nicky really REALLY needs to show up how powerful the MC can be against actual relevant characters...otherwise people are just going to continue seriously or jokingly calling the Wu heir a fraud(rightfully)

Sometimes it really feels like brother Nicky and the POMA fans for that matter seems to be really idk scared? that POMA may turn into a "power fantasy" or smth i don't know....

And you're spot on about the need to flesh out characters more and GS MC's fights not being creative enough...see IE MC's fights and you will notice a clear difference atleast imo

Nicky has all the tools in the world to cook up something good but it seems like he refuses to do it lmao

Still my favorite IF author tho

 

[Gone_Dead]

You're too reasonable

remember this!

View attachment 25520

But being seriously rn Nicky really REALLY needs to show up how powerful the MC can be against actual relevant characters...otherwise people are just going to continue seriously or jokingly calling the Wu heir a fraud(rightfully)

Sometimes it really feels like brother Nicky and the POMA fans for that matter seems to be really idk scared? that POMA may turn into a "power fantasy" or smth i don't know....

And you're spot on about the need to flesh out characters more and GS MC's fights not being creative enough...see IE MC's fights and you will notice a clear difference atleast imo

Nicky has all the tools in the world to cook up something good but it seems like he refuses to do it lmao

Still my favorite IF author tho

Idk about how the poma discord is but Niki at the very least deserves credit. He has been pumping out content for years now without scamming others and not to mention making good content at that. He pulled me into his work and poma is arguably my favorite IF, if not favorite.

 

[O1O]

Idk about how the poma discord is but Niki at the very least deserves credit. He has been pumping out content for years now without scamming others and not to mention making good content at that. He pulled me into his work and poma is arguably my favorite IF, if not favorite.

He really does.

He's been doing this with very few breaks since 2022.

I still remember when he first posted Poma on the COG forum with a Saitama profile picture. Not gonna lie, I thought it was going to be another project that the author would abandon after a few months. Imagine my shock when I came back to the COG forums in mid-2023? and he was still going

 

[God]

Okay i finally understand the purpose of our physique. It enables us to cultivate like a maniac. Like TW said, breathing is essentially cultivating for those with Chaos Origin Physique and our top tier meridians. It also gives unprecedented understanding of Dao. Every art we cast doesnt require concentration but a thought and only Qi, even that in spare amounts compared to other cultivators. TW's GS is of transcendent level meaning all of our arts are of the highest level with respect to our cultivation stage. Currently as a PH, our arts must be the strongest there is most probably even above Ruo's mastery over sword art (He even says so in the pov). Idk if half dao seed counts enough to contribute to his art, and if so i wonder what level it is.

Ruo also has the best karma and we have the worst since heavens hate our physique and the fact that we are essential TW. If i understand correctly, karma is basically heaven's opinion of you, and if their opinion is high, they help you and if low they scheme against you.

After finally reading again inculding the content i missed (didnt do demon route and mei yet cuz im lazy), the reason why Yichen was so powerful was cuz he formed his own dao seed. Im sure fire element is his dao path. He formed his dao seed after he reached 1000. Apparently it takes 5000 years for good cultivators to sprout a dao seed. LB says he's not aware of it but i doubt it. He did talk with TW long back, maybe he helped him form it, no way he formed it on his own. So based on this, My hypothesis that prime BP MC with GS = TY is wrong since i forgot to consider we need Qi to actually use our GS effectively and we didnt even have dao back then. So yeah niki was right, BP MC with or without GS loses against TY. I dont even know how MC got dao seed without any dao path during the expedition. Im sure its the differentiating factor, dao with GS means easy top level arts but prone to exhaustion quickly due to having no qi. Maybe im wrong about all this but it made sense to me.

So im going to say something shocking now, After reading again i dont really find problems with the powerscaling. Niki is doing a fine job in regards to powering up MC but he has his faults tho. Fights are not creative enough, MC fights like a barbarian with 0 skill. And i still think Niki will adress this. MC does think to themself that they totally forgot about their IE arts after getting dao. Niki needs to flesh out the main characters more. Ruo is a perfect antithesis to Wu heir in some ways yet he barely touches on that. Both of their circumstances surrounding birth were vile and tragic. MC essentially killed the real Wu heir unknowingly, caused the death of their mother, and crippled their father. Ruo was sealed with more than 1000 dragon souls within him, his birth essentially contributed to the genocide of dragons and awakening of SLM. His aunt called him an abomination even before he was born while Wu heir's aunt was basically the opposite. Ruo's uncle is fun and loving while Wu heir's uncle is cold, distant and hateful. Wu heir was given freedom in their upbringing to be whatever type of person we wished but Ruo only had one path forced on him. It seems obvious that Niki intended to parallel MC and Ruo but he cant find the opportunity or maybe even forgot about how important the rival character is to MC.

Niki has clearly thought out MC as a character but kind of started to stumble in certain places after the expedition. Lets hope he got back his footing and writes peak.

Great points, but for some reason towards the end you started to lose me

 

[Gone_Dead]

Great points, but for some reason towards the end you started to lose me

The Ruo MC comparisons?

 

[Arlonb]

Great points, but for some reason towards the end you started to lose me

Just a moment... Let me use my telepathic powers...

Could it be because at a certain point he started talking about Ruo, in a certain way, positively?

 

[Gone_Dead]

Just a moment... Let me use my telepathic powers...
View attachment 25521
Could it be because at a certain point he started talking about Ruo, in a certain way, positively?

Damn. Somehow I didn't catch @God hate game for Ruo resurfaced. I genuinely thought I said something stupid towards the end lol.

 

[Harwoof]

Okay i finally understand the purpose of our physique. It enables us to cultivate like a maniac. Like TW said, breathing is essentially cultivating for those with Chaos Origin Physique and our top tier meridians. It also gives unprecedented understanding of Dao. Every art we cast doesnt require concentration but a thought and only Qi, even that in spare amounts compared to other cultivators. TW's GS is of transcendent level meaning all of our arts are of the highest level with respect to our cultivation stage. Currently as a PH, our arts must be the strongest there is most probably even above Ruo's mastery over sword art (He even says so in the pov). Idk if half dao seed counts enough to contribute to his art, and if so i wonder what level it is.

Ruo also has the best karma and we have the worst since heavens hate our physique and the fact that we are essential TW. If i understand correctly, karma is basically heaven's opinion of you, and if their opinion is high, they help you and if low they scheme against you.

After finally reading again inculding the content i missed (didnt do demon route and mei yet cuz im lazy), the reason why Yichen was so powerful was cuz he formed his own dao seed. Im sure fire element is his dao path. He formed his dao seed after he reached 1000. Apparently it takes 5000 years for good cultivators to sprout a dao seed. LB says he's not aware of it but i doubt it. He did talk with TW long back, maybe he helped him form it, no way he formed it on his own. So based on this, My hypothesis that prime BP MC with GS = TY is wrong since i forgot to consider we need Qi to actually use our GS effectively and we didnt even have dao back then. So yeah niki was right, BP MC with or without GS loses against TY. I dont even know how MC got dao seed without any dao path during the expedition. Im sure its the differentiating factor, dao with GS means easy top level arts but prone to exhaustion quickly due to having no qi. Maybe im wrong about all this but it made sense to me.

So im going to say something shocking now, After reading again i dont really find problems with the powerscaling. Niki is doing a fine job in regards to powering up MC but he has his faults tho. Fights are not creative enough, MC fights like a barbarian with 0 skill. And i still think Niki will adress this. MC does think to themself that they totally forgot about their IE arts after getting dao. Niki needs to flesh out the main characters more. Ruo is a perfect antithesis to Wu heir in some ways yet he barely touches on that. Both of their circumstances surrounding birth were vile and tragic. MC essentially killed the real Wu heir unknowingly, caused the death of their mother, and crippled their father. Ruo was sealed with more than 1000 dragon souls within him, his birth essentially contributed to the genocide of dragons and awakening of SLM. His aunt called him an abomination even before he was born while Wu heir's aunt was basically the opposite. Ruo's uncle is fun and loving while Wu heir's uncle is cold, distant and hateful. Wu heir was given freedom in their upbringing to be whatever type of person we wished but Ruo only had one path forced on him. It seems obvious that Niki intended to parallel MC and Ruo but he cant find the opportunity or maybe even forgot about how important the rival character is to MC.

Niki has clearly thought out MC as a character but kind of started to stumble in certain places after the expedition. Lets hope he got back his footing and writes peak.

I genuinely think that Nicky didn't think of it or atleast forgot to highlight these points, this is a great explanation if Nicky is reading your comment I genuinely wish she can start to write more with this summary as a base and claim it was all her plan.
Seriously if what you have summarized is properly shown and told in the story this same premise become much MUCH interesting.
I also agree girl is one of the few big patreon author subscribing to whom is somewhat justified.


Nonetheless current wu is fraud! And ruo can go to hell!

 

[Arlonb]

Okay i finally understand the purpose of our physique. It enables us to cultivate like a maniac. Like TW said, breathing is essentially cultivating for those with Chaos Origin Physique and our top tier meridians. It also gives unprecedented understanding of Dao. Every art we cast doesnt require concentration but a thought and only Qi, even that in spare amounts compared to other cultivators. TW's GS is of transcendent level meaning all of our arts are of the highest level with respect to our cultivation stage. Currently as a PH, our arts must be the strongest there is most probably even above Ruo's mastery over sword art (He even says so in the pov). Idk if half dao seed counts enough to contribute to his art, and if so i wonder what level it is.

Ruo also has the best karma and we have the worst since heavens hate our physique and the fact that we are essential TW. If i understand correctly, karma is basically heaven's opinion of you, and if their opinion is high, they help you and if low they scheme against you.

After finally reading again inculding the content i missed (didnt do demon route and mei yet cuz im lazy), the reason why Yichen was so powerful was cuz he formed his own dao seed. Im sure fire element is his dao path. He formed his dao seed after he reached 1000. Apparently it takes 5000 years for good cultivators to sprout a dao seed. LB says he's not aware of it but i doubt it. He did talk with TW long back, maybe he helped him form it, no way he formed it on his own. So based on this, My hypothesis that prime BP MC with GS = TY is wrong since i forgot to consider we need Qi to actually use our GS effectively and we didnt even have dao back then. So yeah niki was right, BP MC with or without GS loses against TY. I dont even know how MC got dao seed without any dao path during the expedition. Im sure its the differentiating factor, dao with GS means easy top level arts but prone to exhaustion quickly due to having no qi. Maybe im wrong about all this but it made sense to me.

So im going to say something shocking now, After reading again i dont really find problems with the powerscaling. Niki is doing a fine job in regards to powering up MC but he has his faults tho. Fights are not creative enough, MC fights like a barbarian with 0 skill. And i still think Niki will adress this. MC does think to themself that they totally forgot about their IE arts after getting dao. Niki needs to flesh out the main characters more. Ruo is a perfect antithesis to Wu heir in some ways yet he barely touches on that. Both of their circumstances surrounding birth were vile and tragic. MC essentially killed the real Wu heir unknowingly, caused the death of their mother, and crippled their father. Ruo was sealed with more than 1000 dragon souls within him, his birth essentially contributed to the genocide of dragons and awakening of SLM. His aunt called him an abomination even before he was born while Wu heir's aunt was basically the opposite. Ruo's uncle is fun and loving while Wu heir's uncle is cold, distant and hateful. Wu heir was given freedom in their upbringing to be whatever type of person we wished but Ruo only had one path forced on him. It seems obvious that Niki intended to parallel MC and Ruo but he cant find the opportunity or maybe even forgot about how important the rival character is to MC.

Niki has clearly thought out MC as a character but kind of started to stumble in certain places after the expedition. Lets hope he got back his footing and writes peak.

As for myself, I agree with much of your post. I'm not sure about the Yichen thing, but there aren't enough facts to have a good discussion, so for now, each to their own.

Surprisingly, I agree with what you said about Ruo, although I still hate Nicky's attitude towards him.

The only thing I definitely disagree with is power scaling. No matter what anyone says, for me, if it's in the game and you don't have to cheat to get it, then it should be considered relevant to the story. (Not to say that this makes a game bad, I've never seen a perfect one, but in POMA it's so terrible and silly that it bothers me somewhat)

 

[God]

I genuinely think that Nicky didn't think of it or atleast forgot to highlight these points, this is a great explanation if Nicky is reading your comment I genuinely wish she can start to write more with this summary as a base and claim it was all her plan.
Seriously if what you have summarized is properly shown and told in the story this same premise become much MUCH interesting.
I also agree girl is one of the few big patreon author subscribing to whom is somewhat justified.


Nonetheless current wu is fraud! And ruo can go to hell!

Umm she??

 

[Harwoof]

Umm she??

He? I swear I saw someone mentioning Nicky as a she in discord and have been confused every since!

 

[Gone_Dead]

As for myself, I agree with much of your post. I'm not sure about the Yichen thing, but there aren't enough facts to have a good discussion, so for now, each to their own.

Surprisingly, I agree with what you said about Ruo, although I still hate Nicky's attitude towards him.

The only thing I definitely disagree with is power scaling. No matter what anyone says, for me, if it's in the game and you don't have to cheat to get it, then it should be considered relevant to the story. (Not to say that this makes a game bad, I've never seen a perfect one, but in POMA it's so terrible and silly that it bothers me somewhat)

Yichen is just me using the facts to make sense of what Niki said. The more I thought the more BP MC actually seemed weak compared to Yichen. That's why I said in the end that I might be wrong but it made sense to me.

Ruo can be a good character. People are annoyed by his arrogant *** and constant demeaning of MC and rightly so but it's clear as day he values MC's strength and our impact on him. Everytime we come across him with a third party or in POV's, the third party outs him of thinking highly of MC and him actually valuing the MC as a rival. My take is he subconsciously yearns for a connection and this is the most valid way for him to chase it. He even admits during the rogue hunt that the concubines are essentially just for face and he's never even met them. Man is lonely af. Id love a path where we can break his brainwashing but sadly its not gonna happen.

I meant powerscaling lore wise not gameplay wise. Gameplay is a mess and doesn't really have impact on the narrative apart from stat checks. Niki already said on Tumblr that he will work on in second book and it's difficult to adjust it now.